Incentive

One of my friends has a kind of reward system going with her kids, they do enough school they get a reward, Mark and I talked about this and decided it would be a good thing both for John and for me. We all need a little incentive some days. Anyway, what we decided on was after 20 days of school, the chart is on the wall for stickers for each day that school was actually done, it will be time to go to another big movie. We went to Toy Story 3 last night and John had so much fun, during the credits he was shopping for what other movies he wanted to see at the 'big movie'. We enjoyed watching the movie and we enjoyed watching John watch the movie. When we went to see How to Train Your Dragon a few months back he was in and out of the theater and looking at stuff and probably saw half the movie each of the two times that we went. He can't tell us, but I think he probably didn't realize that when it was over it was over. You see John is a dvd, and roku remote master, which while it might be annoying in another kid for John it is the way that he can show me what he likes and and 'talk' about the movie. He will often play a part over and over and skip around and play just the parts that he likes and will even at times play the parts of the movie backwards and end with the beginning credits and then be done. But at the 'big movie' there is no control over the screen, for Toy Story 3 he fidgeted a bit until the previews came on and then he was riveted to the screen, he never asked to get out of his chair, he sat in a booster seat in a theater seat, and he never got distracted or turned away from it the whole time until the cute part of the ending credits was over. In fact he was in tune with the movie enough that he nor we noticed that the only other people in the theater were actually members of Mark's country congregation until the lights came up. At any rate Toy Story 3 was a good movie, I can't wait to see John 'talk' about it when the dvd comes out and 'big movie' is a BIG incentive for both John and mommy too.

Frogs on My Plate

Figuring out a way to teach John something is often much more difficult than his actually learning of it when you get there. We have counted things with John forever, both he points to it and we count out loud and we point to it and he signs and we count out loud. I have wondered for a while if he was really getting it or just fantastic at compensating and showing me what he thinks I want. Well okay I admit he is fantastic at that but still I needed to know before we tackled bigger math things.







So for today I wrote out the numerals 0 through 10 on paper plates and Mark, dad's day off today, had John put the appropriate number of frogs on the plates. My plan is to continue doing this activity in various ways until he can come out here to the plates on the table in random order with the wrong number of frogs on them and fix them without help or supervision. Sounds like a pretty tall order I know, but I think it is one he is capable of given time and incentive.

Encore Encore

Any performance that good deserves an encore, so of course he brought me back for more.







He pulled the bear back out, both to show it inside the hole that it was going and to make sure that Mark and I saw the whole act.





At this point Mellon went on the other side of the room and laid on the floor with a different stuffed animal, she kept watching what was going on and I'm not sure if she was protecting that stuffed animal or consoling it on it's future.















At this point we explained to him that while this was all good and funny, it really is, that he was not to put underwear, clothing of any kind, books, school supplies or any of mom or dad's stuff in this hole. He was good with that. Then we told him that he also was not to attempt to put the dog in this hole and of course...



... realized that the hole wasn't big enough for the dog so showed us that he could pick at it and make it bigger. One wicked little grin at the dog and she vacated the room. I've checked, he's seemingly lost interest in the hole for the moment, but who knows when it shall come back and thankfully the dog is getting bigger by the day!

A Hole in the Wall

What oh what is a little boy to do with a hole punched in his drywall from the door knob, oh I don't know, the possibilities are endless.

VBS 1st night

John was excited to go to VBS, especially since his friend from Sunday School got to ride along. He did great at crafts and stories and even enjoyed music and while he had a good time outside for games the poor kid has never played tag or hide and seek before and so was clueless, but still he enjoyed watching the kids run hither and yon!

Painting With Friends

John just loved it that Tiffany spent time painting with him each day while she visited.

Time Thief

Have you ever felt like there just wasn't enough time in your day, lol, well now you know why...it's been stolen...



...and eaten by the dog!

They Just Keep Growing

John's plants have been doing great, of course he's excited to go out to work with them each day and I'm not sure if it is boy enthusiasm or water that is working, but one or the other we actually had to pinch the flower and a few buds off his pumpkin plants that are growing under the bench today cause they were setting on way way too soon.

Intent on Fun

Well it was the dead refrigerator that had to be replaced that caused us to stay home from vacation, right after vacation was over the washer died, the dryer died over a year ago and we have been waiting to replace it until we could figure out what kind of washer that we wanted and for that one to die. Die it did, replaced it has been, and of course the best part was that there was bubble wrap. What you see John doing in the picture is very intentionally making sure that his wheels go over the bubble wrap blob so get the best noise factor.









This was also a good opportunity to show off the paint job. We spent the majority of vacation, a few hours a day at a relaxed vacation-like rate, stripping the wallpaper out of the dining room and kitchen, puttying walls, and priming and painting. We learned some very important lessons along the way

Boys are attracted to anything wet - there are a few places where we finally just gave up and painted cause we'd tried to fix the drywall so many times and John kept coming to touch it just before it was set.

Silly dogs like to lick paint - well at least ours does, she was mildly interested in the drywall compound, totally uninterested in the primer, but orange paint, holy cow, now that must be some good stuff because we had to keep her on her leash tied to the drywall compound bucket far enough away from all walls or she'd lick the paint off almost as fast as we could put it on.

TV doesn't lie - well okay it does, but not so much when it comes to those DIY shows that say that it takes twice as much money and time to do home improvements as amateurs think it will, yep, sure does, and we have no qualms about admitting we are amateurs.

We have a lot to learn - about the whole process, but at this point we are one room down and several more to go and most importantly we learned...

...that we love doing this! It's not something we would attempt to do for others, or professionally or anything crazy like that, nope, but to just make these decisions together and then spend the hours that it takes standing in the same room peeling wallpaper, chasing the dog down to get our tools back, stopping for an UNO game with a silly boy and trying to get him to stop helping with the wet sponges and sprayers, well all of that is so much fun that we'll enjoy doing the rest of our house and when we get to the last room will probably have to come up with some other project to do together. For now this room still has some stuff to be done, shelves, chalkboards, etc, flooring (we have crazy ideas for that, I'll show pics when we're done of course) and then at some point we'll be on to the next room. After 15 years together, 6 of them with John, it's often still like a camp over with your best friends!

Jump Jump Jump

John loves to jump, on the bed, on our bed, off the potty in public restrooms where the handicapped rail is close enough, next to anything he's holding onto and well just anywhere. Now every afternoon when he gets free of his TPN bag he gets to jump, jump, jump on his little trampoline in the living room. So far we have seen a little progress each day and were really surprised the day that we came around the corner and he was off the trampoline standing by the couch, then he showed us that he could sit back down on the trampoline, scoot across it, hold onto the handle and bounce some more while up on his knees. We love to watch him progress and grow, and am thankful that we can provide tools to help.

Bushy Head

Last summer John would not touch grass, leaves or anything that was living and came from outside, I've never been sure exactly why so we just kept handing him things. This summer he can't get enough of the front bushes. While dad was building ramps and gardening bench John was busy pulling little branches off the bush and decorating things with them. It was quite entertaining and got even better when I asked him if he was going to wear them like a hat.



Of course it was even better when he decided to just stick his head in the bush :)

Gardening John Style

Mark and I have been racking our brains trying to figure more ways for John to enjoy nature, outdoors and all those good kid things like playing in dirt. On the same day that Mark built John's ramps he also put up his first gardening bench. We have had a great time going out each day and seeing the progress that the plants have made and playing in the dirt and water. John and I are so very blessed to have this great guy who builds things just for us, just because he loves us!

New Ramps

When John first got his chair on the day before Thanksgiving 2008 we had less than an hours notice that the chair would be arriving and in our excitement realized that we had no ramps and it couldn't come in the house. Our sidewalk has 3 little places that need ramps and so Mark hurriedly put together ramps with the wood that he had in the basement and the chair was able to come in and be played with as soon as it arrived and John got to do a few driveway test drives.

Mark is amazing at putting together things that can outlast any and all expectations. Fast forward to June 2010 and it was time for new ramps, well at least new tops, as you can see they are awesome and more importantly receive boy approval!

We're Baaackkkk!

Well okay we didn't really go anywhere other than up to Omaha for John's appointment last Tuesday, but still today is the day of back to real life. Staying home for vacation was cool and interesting and although we greatly missed getting to see Shorty, my sister's youngest, graduate from high school and visiting with family and friends this has been the most relaxing vacation we've ever had. I have some pictures and news to share, John had a great appointment, Mark built ramps and a planter bench and we stripped wallpaper and painted our kitchen and dining room. I'll get to those over the next couple days, but for now real life calls, the laundry needs to be switched, bread for hamburger buns needs to be started and since I've taken 2 weeks off from cleaning house it seems like I should do that too ;)

Assigned Seating

We're not sure how or even why this has come about, but it's really cool and we love it. When John is sitting on the potty and Mellon comes in to see him, she has her assigned place to lay, when she comes in he points to the spot and she goes and lays down there. If she leaves and comes back she returns to her spot. If I'm in the bathroom with him she is in that spot, if I'm not, same spot. She can even leave and return with toys to play with but she is right back in her spot with them. Of course this does not stop her from stealing his pants and underwear before she settles into her spot, but hey she's only 17 weeks old tomorrow and her fearless leader is 6!

Strawberries of Contentment

Two friends wisdom has helped me start to find contentment where we live. The first friend told me several years ago, jokingly, but it was too close to true that I never went outside, just stuck my arm out for the mail. When she said that I knew it was true and I knew why, there are no mountains to look at, no elk or herds of deer, no perfect blue days, no being able to see 100 miles off and watch the storms roll across the prairie, no mountain streams, no snow on the mountains, did you get it there are no mountains here!

My other friend moved to the mountains several years back, she posted pictures of her new home and I cried and cried, in part for joy for my friend because she got to live in such a gorgeous place but mostly just out of selfishness because I didn't. Recently I was complaining again about the lack of scenery here, it's just boring mid-west stuff, corn, more corn, soybeans and trees, oh what I would give for wide stretches of sage brush, yards with no grass and only a tree here or there but not this tree tree everywhere of here. That same day the lady that delivers our milk came, she brought asparagus, fresh spinach and we got to order more chickens, all grown locally, all organic or as close as possible, all scrumptiously delicious and all affordable. That's when my friend told me 'you can't feed your family scenery.' Wise friends are irreplaceable.

I am learning to be content, I am learning that content is a choice, I have known this all my life, my parents were wise teachers of this, and yet again I find that I am a child in the lessons of life and again I am learning them. My husband has a good call to two little churches who need him and who he delights to serve, my son has things both for his health and his education within reach here, I have a good doctor who is actually helping me get healthier and while there may not be mountains the strawberries are delicious, the milk lady will be back each week and I'm even finding that the more I go outside the more I find that I like here. There may not be mountains, but the clouds are beautiful, the trees are amazing to watch when I look at them as individuals and not as a mass of scenery blocking green, and each day that passes I find that I grow more content, thanks be to God, both for the place that I live and the wise friends who help me to really see.

Pryomania is Environmental

John is signing fire!



John is signing more fire!



John's dad is telling me that he put more gas on the fire than he intended but oh well. I love these guys, there is never a dull day or a small fire.