WOW....is the only word we can title this entry

We had our annual Back to School night 2 weeks ago. During the session with Miss Terrific Teacher, she mentioned that we should take a stab at potty training with little man. She had mentioned this in the spring, but husband and I were amazed that she thought he was ready. But you don't earn that title easily so we knew we would give it a try sometime in the near future. He had an occassional morning when he was completely dry and he seemed to have a few patterns of 2 hours dry during the day.

So......

The next morning I got out the potty insert that I've been holding on to for my dear son. Not knowing if he would someday be too big for it when he was ready or perhaps never be potty trained as this is the case for some special needs adults. But I held on to it from the days of potty training princess with a prayerful and hopeful heart. I place little man on the potty, sit down myself and within about 10 seconds of sitting down I hear a water-like sound. What? I look inside the little protector cup and sure enough, he's going potty. WOW. I'm inshock and he's looking at me like what is your deal and then I break into my old potty song and he laughs hysterically. I really wasn't expecting this so I didn't have anything prepared for rewards. Realizing that my song might be close to enough I sang it again and he clapped. In the bathroom we keep this goofy but endearing singing duck. My grandparents like to send the kids those singing animals that you press the button and they light up and sing one of those songs you can't get out of your head for days. They frequent Cracker Barrell and apparently there are a plethora of them there. We usually play it for him when he's in the bathtub, because this one sings "Splish Splash I was taking a bath" in a strange adult like voice. However we stopped because he tends to get overexcited with this toy. So I looked at it and thought, there's a huge reinforcer that he'll love. Let him press the button and he was in heaven. DONE - forget the M&M's and the sticker chart - I have my reinfocer.


So we get ready for school that morning and I proudly write in Jimmo's daily school journal of his success. Around 10:30 I'm sitting in my morning bible study and I see I have a missed call. Because of last year's fall, I jump to the phone very quickly when I see it's from school. Miss Terrific Teacher called to say - "He did it again!". WOW. Could this be true? I never imagined that we would potty train a special needs child this early and it would start so easily. I flutter back into the study and try to listen to my Beth Moore study but I'm just giddy with excitement. Before I pick him up from school, I run into Target to buy some pull up's as the teacher requested. WOW I think to myself. Now we know this is about 80% just dumb luck with timing, but it's still a WOW for us.


I quickly read up on the process suggested by Miss Terrific Teacher since Jimmo is her 20th special needs student she's potty trained. Clearly much experience in this area. The short and skinny is that we'll start with pure schedule training which is set by my watch timer. The objective is to teach the child to wait until he is taken to the potty. This hopefully paves the way towards independent training, where the child understands they have to go and initiates to go to the potty. This whole process could take 6 months to a year - who knows. But we knew we would brace ourselves for a longer potty training.


So for the past two weeks he's gone successfully on the potty about an average of 2/3 times per day between home and school. And then there was the last 24 hours - WOW. He went first thing in the AM before school, which is becoming routine and then went 3 other times at school both #1 and 2 (sorry to be graphic).He then came home and went again and again. Essentially he stayed dry ALL DAY LONG. Seriously - this is unheard of. Miss Terrific Teacher is in shock as well as us. We're so proud and trying to stay focused that this could still be a long process....but WOW. Little man turns 4 years old next Thursday and we would make the guess he's at an overall cognitive level of about 20 months (minus speech since that skews the charts for us). 20 months - WOW.

Sorry to give a "throne" picture, but we thought this one was clean.

Notice our reinfocer looming behind little man!

O.K. Guest appearance from Hubby. I don't have my own blog to rant on, so I thought I would share my experience from the first day of kindergarten.

I call Princess around 3:30 to ask how her day was and here is how the conversation went:

Me: How was your first day princess?

G: Pretty good

Me: Tell me about your day, were you a good girl all day?

G: Well, I was pretty good but I had one problem

Me: Oh really? What happened pumpkin?

G: Well they made us watch this show and there was a bad word in the show, so I cried because I wanted to go home and see mama

Me: Whoa, whoa, slow down. What show did you watch? You watched TV at school today!

G: It was a show about the President

Me (realizing she watched President Obama's speech to school children) And he said a bad word? What did he say?

G: Um...you sure, can I say it?

Me: Yes sweety, go ahead, you can tell daddy

G: (In a whisper so as not to get in trouble she says) Stupid, he said stupid daddy

Well, most everyone knows my background in politics, so I am naturally already skeptical about our President. However, when all the controversy broke surrounding his speech, I thought, this is silly, he is the President and he just wants to tell kids to study hard and never give up. I figured it was a nice idea and thought those being critical were being way too partisan.

Now I am wondering why they showed his speech to a kindergarten class and why he had to use bad words! Everyone has a first day of school story that stays with them forever and mine has to be about the President of the United States using the word "stupid" in a speech to my daughters kindergarten class. I have a few new ideas for a better use of the word stupid:

* Running up $9 trillion in debt that my kids will have to pay back is stupid
* Having the same people who brought us the postal service and the department of motor vehicles take over our health care system is stupid
* Taking God out of the public schools and treating it like a crime to mention the name Jesus Christ in schools is stupid
* Using the word stupid in a speech that 5 year olds will see is VERY STUPID

What I don't understand is why the President had to teach that word to my daughter's kindergarten class!

Wheels on the bus go round and round

Big day at our home today. Little man started his second year of preschool and Princess started Kindergarten. It's been so busy to get them ready, that I haven't had much time to be sad. And honestly, they were both so excited for school this morning, that it made the process a whole lot easier for an emotional Momma.

Let's start with the Little Man....


Like I said, this is his second year of preschool in the PAC (Preschool Autism Class) program. Is all I have to do is say "Jimmo goes to school today" and I get my 30 tooth grin instantly. God continues to protect me on these days of going back to school. It never fails, but the day before he goes back to school he has a rough day at home. Whether it's a spring break, summer break, Christmas break it's always the same. I'm convinced this is His way of wrapping His arms around me to reassure that we're doing the right thing. So as expected, yestereday he was a bit ugly and today he slept well and woke up happy as a clam.

So here is Little Man before leaving for school today.

And here he is so happy to see Miss Terrific Teacher.

I always ask him for a kiss at the kiss and ride line and today I got a very big wet one!

And then for Princess....

So because she's afternoon kindergarten, it gives us time in the morning together. This makes me very happy and I feel like I get the best of both worlds. She was very anxious this morning to get dressed in her first day of school outfit. We had a lot of fun picking it out this summer and it's been hanging on her closet door for about 2 weeks now...can we say DIVA? She must get this from her father.

So here is our traditional front door picture.

This is at the bus stop that she rides ONLY with Kindergartners.

She was extremely excited about this part.

And here is a new friend we met at the bus stop and there was another little guy but he was not keen on a picture with 2 girls. And if you're wondering, her backpack is so large because of school supplies so hopefully it won't be this big again this year.

And she's on the bus...

Then overprotective Momma drove to school to beat the bus to see her get off.

Here is her lined up with her classmates.

Appears to be doing just fine don't you think?

After the last picture, she starts walking away from the line and walks into the school. I stopped her and asked where she was going and she said - I'm going to find Jimmo. Oh boy. Good luck teachers with our social butterfly! I am now spending my short free time making cookies to have when they get home. And part selfishly because baking is a good thing for me to do on my first day home alone. Happy Back to School everyone!

Take me out to the ball game....

We kicked off August with a quick road trip to my hometown. It was during the week so it was just me and the kids. One of my high school friends who lives in CA was home to visit, so a bunch of us got together and lounged at the pool. Of course if "lounge" means chasing after little one's all day. The adult to child ratio was 5:11 so we were clearly outnumbered.

One is going up the stairs on the slide and three are sleeping.

Fully protected on our first jump off the diving board.

Husband had a weekend with some college buddies fishing, so I took the kids to visit my mom and Auntie D for a few days. As soon as we walked into Nana's house, Jimmo immediately went to this chair. He did it every time we entered the house and random times throughout the day. He wasn't asking for food, I just think he took a liking to the bright room and a chair he could climb up on by himself. I'm not sure who that crazy woman is behind him in this picture. He He

We had lots of treats including Marshmallow ice cream with gummy bears. Ick! But she enjoyed it. The organic momma in me cringed but I have to let a few slide. Why would marshmallow ice cream be fluorescent yellow???

We visited with some of my college friends at their home and pool, but I forgot my camera - sorry ladies! We also went to Strasburg Railroad with Nana and Auntie D for the day. We took a 45 minute train ride thru Lancaster. Jimmo was a bit hot on the ride, and didn't enjoy it as much as I had anticipated he would. But what I do anticipate is we'll have PLENTY of years that he will enjoy it.

When I can't get a smile, tickling is the next best thing.

Waiting for the train ride to begin with an enormous bag of kettle corn.

Again....not into pictures on this day.

Nana and Georgia catching a hug

Funny random Jimmo story. I took him for a bike ride the other weekend while Daddy and Princess had a lunch date. About 20 minutes into the ride, I kept feeling him hit my back. He often does that when I'm riding so it didn't alarm me. I'm riding around a lake on a rather bumpy trail and as I'm passing people that kept smiling and giving me the "awe" look. I turn around to see this.

I was about 40 minutes from home, and he slept the entire way back until we tried to slowly get him out of the seat.

We did some back to school shopping earlier this week. Haircuts, shoes, and a few last minute items. We were walking out to the car and Princess spotted the ride on vehicles at Sears. Unfortunately her picture on the 4 wheeler didn't turn out too good, but little man got a good shot on a motorcycle. After hubby saw this, I saw Christmas light up in his eyes - oh goodness! I'm thinking we should master a tricycle first...but you never know.

Last night we decided to be a little daring and take the kids to their first Yankees game. They were playing in Baltimore and because we don't get many opportunities to see them, we decided to give it a shot. We purchased inexpensive tickets so it wouldn't be a big loss if we had to leave. The night before we said if we made it thru 3 innings, it would be success. Well we made it to the top of the 4th, so that equals success - right? Of course it took Jimmo 3 innings to eat his dinner, so that gives credit to most of his success. You never know with an event like a ball game, it could go fine or really bad for little man. Between the noise, the loud music, the crowds and the time of the game, odds are not completely in our favor but we're glad we gave it a try. Princess was very excited and yelled with the MANY Yankee fans in the stadium. The hot dog and popcorn also were quite exciting. Although we didn't get to actually watch much baseball, we look forward to more games with the kids.........some day.

Baseball thru Jimmo's eyes - more rice cakes please.....

Princess enjoying time with Daddy.

Not necessarily the Christmas picture, but a family photo of some sort.

This was our first indication that he had enough - can you tell?

Leaving the ball park

That's our girl...Jeter fan.

She begged for this picture.

Sad to say I'm not even sure whose number this is...just that my girl was excited she's five!
It's great to be five!

June and July....oh my!

Ok so this time I have an excuse for my long break with blogging. Well sort of. We had a camera problem, which I'll get to later. And let's face it folks, my writing is not that intriguing....pictures ARE REQUIRED! But here we are in August and we're up and running again with some new pics, stories and adventures.

OK so the end of June.....

We headed up to Gran Gran and Papa's in upstate NY. They graciously offered to watch the little people so I could go with Husband to a "business meeting" in Mont Tremblant, Canada. Because Jimmo is too big for his pack n play and we don't think he's really ready for a big boy bed just yet, we needed to find another alternative for sleeping while traveling. After much research, I was thrilled with our find, and so was he! This contraption is called the peapod, and it's basically a tent with a child size air mattress in it. It folds up and can fit in your luggage. It claims it fits children up to age 6 years old. Of course you have to be an engineer to get it back in the bag, but it does go in eventually. Well we decided to try it at home for two nights to see if he likes it. And he LOVED it. Both kids did great with Gran Gran and Papa and we had a fabulous 2 nights and 3 days at a beautiful resort. One of the extracurricular activities at the meeting was an afternoon in the trees on a Acrobranche course. Basically about 30 feet up in the trees, we followed a 2 hour long obstacle of going from tree to tree using logs, barrels, trapezes and zip lines. It was a great workout and a blast. Before we got on the course, husband saidto me...."I don't think we should bring the camera". Now the stubborn mule that I am, I pleaded that it would make great memories and we really needed to bring it. Well you can just guess where this was going. We took some great shots of each other....

This last picture was called the Spider man leap. We hooked our carabiners to a rope and swung into this net. Then unhooked the rope and scaled across the net to the next tree platform. Very cool! It was about after this area that we hit a multitude of zip lines. At first I was a bit straight forward with my zipping and then as I got comfortable I decided to get a little adventurous and twist around. Husband was standing at the platform in front of me and I saw him pointing at me and then pointing down to the ground. I was just finishing up one of my gymnastic tricks as I could hear him say.....THE CAMERA...THE CAMERA. So this was a bit of a downer. But if I can take a little break from the story and draw a parallel to my friend R, who just had a similar experience in Hawaii which involved crocodile tears. Oh there were crocodile tears alright. And just like R, Husband tried to make me feel better even though in my case it was COMPLETELY MY FAULT and I should have listened to my dear Husband. He saw where it fell and said he would try and find it - oh he loves me so much! We called over the Acrobranche ranger who was about 3 obstacles over on the ground and yelled to him what happened. He said he would meet us at the bottom. Well I zipped thru those zip lines as fast as I could. We raced to the Acrobranche ranger as he was shaking his head. Of course it was in an area with boulders and small streams. Husband and Mr. Ranger were searching for about 20 minutes and husband yells - FOUND IT - I think. Ahh thank you Jesus - thank you thank you thank you. Is all I cared about was the SD card. He found the battery first and then the beaten up camera. My hero! But R and S....I'm so sorry for your loss and please know that we shared the same tears!

We also rode the alpine luge several times down the mountain side. We might have taken a beverage stop in between at one point. Amazing views. Since most of the vacationers and staff spoke French, it felt like a little bit of a European vacation but with Canadian flags?

This is at the top of the luge trail.

So we have a little break in pictures after this trip as the camera was sent back to Canon to be fixed. I couldn't believe it but it was repaired and good as new in about 2 weeks. LOVE THEM!!! And the moral of this story....listen to your husband. I'll catch on to that some day.

And then there was July......

Our next adventure was to see Pappy and Rhonda's new place in Stone Harbor. Uncle Muscles and Auntie D came along as well. We had a great time at the beach and thankfully Jimmo continues to LOVE the beach. The beach hits all 5 senses and for a sensory seeking child, this is just heaven on earth. He really enjoyed himself and of course princess had a blast. I took a few pictures on my phone so we have a few memories at least!

But Pappy still wears that silly red cap - doesn't he know that all caps should be blue?

We spent the 4th with our Bible Study and the D's house. Wonderful time and a state of the art fireworks show. It just gets better every year! No pics - oops.

Jimmo made a major accomplishment with feeding himself. I finally found a food that motivated him to try and feed himself. It's all about the motivator for him. A new yogurt came out that is coconut milk based and GCFC. Good news - he loves it. Bad news - it's $2.25 for 6 oz. But as you'll see in this video...worth every penny and he can have one every day if he learns to feed himself. We're still working on actually putting yogurt on the spoon but he gets an "A" for effort.

(Turn down the music at the bottom of the page)

Whenever we have a daytime thunderstorm, princess enjoys to watch it on the front porch. We started this when she was a wee little one so she wouldn't be afraid of storms. Well in July we actually had a rainfall without thunder and lightening in the middle of the day. This is quite unusual and I decided - carpe diem! I asked Princess if she wanted to go out and play in the rain. She looked at me like my head was on backwards - "no momma, that's silly" was her actual response. Note to self....loosen up momma. So out we all went and they had so much fun. We played in the driveway for about an hour and then went straight up to a warm bath. Little man had a blast and loves the water on his face. He's a crazy man in the pool and bathtub with submerging his head....again our sensory seeker.

And we ended July with our family beach vacation. We went back to Corolla Light, a family favorite, and had a blast with Husbands entire extended family. Everyone came down from Upstate New York and Connecticut. We played lots of games, played on the beach, played at the pool, did crafts, looked for seashells and ate and ate and ate some more.

Once again, Dad gets a little competitive on this ride!

Lil - a girl after my own heart! Our favorite summer time snack!


The fire extinguisher - is no joke

Moops and Bean making drip castles

Some fireworks left over from the 4th

Chillin princess

Kisses after barbecue

OK you're all probably blogged out by now - August will be coming soon. Enjoy these last few weeks of summer.

County fairs and End of Year School Party

If any of you are familiar with Boz, you might know the episode where Boz goes to the fair and has Cherry Pie and Lemonade. Well he actually doesn't get to go to the fair because he helps Grandma, but that's besides the point for this entry. So since Princess was probably 3 years old, she has enjoyed this Boz episode and associates cherry pie and lemonade with every visible carousel. Needless to say, fairs have definitely changed a bit. There is no cherry pie, you have to pay just to enter, rides cost anywhere from $4 - $6 per child per ride, there are plenty of lemonade stands for $8 a glass and it includes about a cup of sugar per glass and you can't win your child a stuffed animal without laying down at least $10 no matter how good you are at darts. Well at least that's how our county fairs are, maybe some mid-westerners have more of the experience I remember growing up as a kid? Anyone? Regardless of these changes, we did go to the fair last weekend as Princess has been asking since last August, and had a great time. Little man rode a few rides as well. He was a little uncertain, but it definitely was a better experience than previous times.

This was our first ride and it was one of those mini-roller coasters. Princess wanted to ride it herself. We were so impressed, she did great. I am a roller coaster nut, thanks to my mom, so this was a milestone for me too!

This might have been a bit risky on mom and dad's part, but the "big" swing ride was Jimmo's first ride. He was a bit hesitant at first, and then he enjoyed himself. It didn't help that Momma hit his head with the bar when trying to strap him in - ugh.

This ride was rated 2nd favorite for princess

As much as I love rides, I cannot stomach the pirate ship, so Daddy conquered this one for the team.

This was the preferred ride of the fair - she had a blast!

Friday was Jimmo's end of year school party. Miss Terrific Teacher planned a water day for the parents to come and enjoy. We started in the classroom eating popsicles and then went outside to the pool and water table. Jimmo loves the water, so this was a big treat to do this at school. Not all the kids felt the same about baby pools, so I unfortunately couldn't get a group shot but here are a couple.

Here is the Little Man with one of his buddies. (code name - Dora). Dora is a great asset to the class and especially Jimmo because she is verbal and has been helpful for Jimmo with peer play. Jimmo is often paired up with her for activities.

Here he's starting to get too excited. But he certainly did have a great time.

Husband and I realized this year, that only by a few hours, does Jimmo make the cut off for 3 years of preschool rather than only two. Our states cut off is September 30th and he was born on the morning of October 1st. It's always amazing to see how God was working in your life when you had no idea. Even the smallest things have such a big impact. The day Little Man was born, the house we picked when I was pregnant with him, the street we live on, the school we're assigned to - all things we prayed about and we had no idea how great His answers were.

Our school ends this Wednesday and then Jimmo will participate in summer school for 7 weeks starting on July 7th for four hours a day, five days a week. Because he's in the PAC classroom (Preschool Autism Class) they have most success with having less breaks for Autistic children and more of a routine. Although breaks don't necessarily effect Jimmo just yet, we're glad to have more ABA therapy this summer and school lets out at noon which is perfect to go right to the pool! Ahhhh summertime - finally!