OCTOBER POST #2: Family Pictures, 27 on the 27th & Halloween!

Family Pictures
My generous Uncle Dodd is a great photographer and was so awesome to do our family pictures this year! The colors of the leaves were just gorgeous and I think it was the first family picture session we've ever had that didn't end in crying, whining, meltdowns, or feelings of complete frustration and exhaustion. They turned out so good!

27 on the 27th
Yep! That's right! I celebrated my Golden Birthday this year! Dave had been prepping the boys for about a week or two by writing and putting together a special social story. It was about me and what they were going to do on my birthday. It was pretty awesome. So Dave had taken the boys out and given them money to buy their old mom a birthday gift. I kind of knew what to expect considering I know how the boys get when being set free in the middle of Target.

Since Dave works Saturdays, it was just me and the boys for the morning and early afternoon. My awesome parents called me up unexpectantly and invited me to lunch at Olive Garden. It was so much fun and they gave me some money to spend on myself. Money is always good. : ) Thanks Mom & Dad!

Dave came home from work that evening and had the boys give me their gifts. Jett was up first. He gave me a box of Berries Cap'n Crunch and some rubber spatulas (definitely knew Dave helped with that last one). Cruise then handed me his gift which was a small astronaut Lego set (just what he I always wanted!), some gloves and a package of Hostess cupcakes. And of course, I got an ADORABLE card.

I love Cruise's tongue as he makes a yummy slurp sound as he looks at the cupcakes.

Dave had made me a birthday cake the night before, so we pulled that out and the boys sang happy birthday to me. 

Around dinner time, my awesome sister Abby came to watch the kids while Dave took me out. Since we were still full of cake, we decided to do a little shopping. I could've decided on going to a movie, but I felt like getting out and doing something I don't normally do. So we went to IKEA and wandered around the maze leaving with a .99 cent item: funnels. Then we went to the mall where Dave picked out and bought me a new church outfit. I was pretty impressed! He did a great job! By this time, we decided we were finally hungry, so I chose a restaurant I've never been to before: Mikado. It is a Japanese restaurant in Sandy and it was really good! I got the salmon teriyaki with rice, miso soup, 2 California rolls, and vegetable tempura. It was A LOT of food and had to take about half of it home. 

After that, we ran some errands and made our way home. It was such a great birthday and I feel so blessed to have such a sweet husband and little boys. 

The Sunday after, my sweet in-laws had a little party for me and was given some wonderful gifts as well. Thank you family!

Halloween

I love Halloween, mostly because the boys love it. Cruise has been asking for a whole month when Halloween will be. The night before Halloween, I had the boys paint their pumpkins and then we carved a little one just so they could experience pulling all the guts out. They weren't really into that. Dave had carved his earlier in the day and it was pretty much awesome. 

Halloween morning, Cruise got all ready for school, which included his costume. Of course, Jett had to put on his astronaut costume as well.

Some early morning reading.

Stitching Jett's Batman costume.

Good morning Daddy!

I volunteered to help in Cruise's class for the Halloween party. I was in charge of the paper craft and the food craft. For the paper craft I had the kids make ghosts out of paper plates and white streamers. For the food craft, I had the kids make witches hats and witches brooms. Two other moms did the games and the snacks. After the party, we had the kids practice trick-or-treating in the classroom. The whole thing turned out awesome and the kids had a blast! 

Cruise last week asked Dave & I what we were going to be for Halloween. I hadn't planned on dressing up, so I asked him, "What do you think I should be?" He said a vampire. So I had to make that work out. I bought the cheapest costume I could find and bought some fake vampire teeth. It took me two hours and a trip to Walgreens to get denture adhesive to get those things to stick. But I finally got them to work!

In the evening, my parents came over with a jack-o-lantern pizza and we all had dinner. Then they hung out and passed out candy while Dave and I took the kids trick-or-treating. They both had difficulty understanding the concept of ONLY ONE CANDY. So they ended up with a surprising amount of candy so after two blocks they decided they had enough and ran home. After a bath and a movie, they passed out. It was a great Halloween!

Vampire, Dr. Doofenschmirtz, Astronaut & Batman

Oh yeah, and let's not forget this little gem. Our neighbor texted this picture to us last week:

OCTOBER POST #1: Pickin' Pumpkins, School Carnival & Cruise's Class Fieldtrip

I love October. Not necessarily because it's my birthday month, but because the colors of the leaves change, the air is crisp and cool, the warmer clothes look better on me, and there are so many fun things to do. I wish I had enough time and money to do everything that is going on, but we still had a blast this past month.

Pickin' Pumpkins
Earlier in the month we ventured out to find a pumpkin patch. I don't know about you, but just picking up a pumpkin from the grocery store is just not fun for me. I love the "pick your own" type. So we  ended up finding this hidden landscaping/nursery business in the middle of Pleasant Grove and let the boys pick their own pumpkins. They had a hard time deciding, but they finally were able to pick JUST ONE to take home.

School Carnival

Cruise's school had a Fall Harvest Carnival and so I thought, what the heck, let's give it a try! At first it started out with Jett incessantly whining, but after a little bit he started to enjoy himself. And amazingly enough, they both decided that the bounce houses weren't so bad! They had a lot of fun getting their faces painted, playing games, eating pizza for dinner, and their free balloon swords. We actually had a lot fun! 

Cruise's Class Field Trip

I was so excited to go with Cruise on his field trip to Cornbelly's last week, however, it was FREEZING outside! I mean, winter coats, gloves, hats, the whole thing. It had snowed earlier that morning as well. Jett can attest to that:

But I think Cruise was just elated that I was able to go with him, and I was super excited as well. We had a lot of fun with the little time we had, and he even talked me into buying him a $6 movie called The Square Pumpkin. I may spoil him, but shoot, who wouldn't? He's adorable!

Jett: Superheroes, Words, Woofs, Potty Training & Da Bones

Superheroes
Jett is in that awesome stage where his whole world revolves around being a superhero. He is always dressed wearing a superhero shirt, cape, mask or all of the above. To top it off, he's got some awesome light up Spiderman shoes his super cool mom gave him. Because of my new hobby/business, I go to Hobby Lobby a lot, like, a whole lot, and they always remember him there because he's the kid with the cape. There is something about little kids dressing up that makes me smile. Because they don't do it just the week of Halloween, they do it all year round and only that age group can get away with it. And to top it off, they just don't care what anyone else thinks. It always makes me smile.

Words
Since Jett got his tonsils out 4 months ago, his speech has blown us away! He is talking more and more every day and is tailing Cruise as far as expressive language. His receptive language is amazing, so Dave and I have to watch what we say in front of him. We've actually started speaking in Spanish so they won't know what we're talking about. It's helpful. It is so much fun to listen to the two boys talk to each other. They both know what the other one is saying and they have conversations and play together so well! It is absolutely incredible!

Woofs
Jett calls all dogs "Woof"s. He loves Lucy and all other doggies. He has to have her sleep in his room now days. He sings to her every night and it is adorable: "Baby woof. Baby woof. Baby woof."

Lucy wearing Jett's tie.

This poor dog puts up with so much.

Potty Training
I have tried potty training this kid one too many times that I think I've given up. I'm just gonna wait until he decides he's going to go potty on his own. I tried the technique I used with Cruise, but Jett would just keep a little bit of pee in so he could pee every minute to get another candy. Then I did stickers and that worked for a day, and then he didn't care any more. I swear, that kid is so hard to motivate! But the good news is, is that lately he's been wanting to wear his underwear, so I'm just going to do the hands-off approach (since he obviously knows HOW to go potty in the toilet) and just let him work it out. Yep. I'm done.

Da Bones
Jett has a slightly unhealthy obsession with the dinosaur museum at Thanksgiving Point. We literally go at least twice a week. He will even ask to call "Papa" if I tell him we can't go that day:
Jett: "Caw Papa?"
Me: You want to call grandpa?
Jett: Uh huh!
Me: Ok. (dials and calls Papa)
Jett: Hi Papa! Wanna see da bones?

He really doesn't spend that much time actually looking at the dinosaurs, but he really loves it. Then we always have to go to the Farm Country afterwards and ride the pony and the wagon ride. Cruise's routine there is pretend to make the milk, buy a carton of milk, ride a pony, ride the wagon ride, go home. So Jett has adopted this routine as well.

Jett is such a joy to have around. He's my little buddy during the day when Cruise is gone. He is so easy going and loves to give loves and kisses. There's just nobody like my Jett-man!

Cruise: ER Visit #2, Kindergarten, & Gymnastics

I've been a real blog slacker. I'm going to break all the posts up, but this first one is about Cruise.

ER Visit #2
On August 13th, Cruise had a terrible accident that landed him in the ER. I was making dinner and Cruise was standing on a chair behind me watching. After cooking the noodles, I turned off the burner and went to drain them in the sink when Cruise started jumping up and down on the chair, lost his balance, and used the burner to catch his fall. I turned around instantly and put his hand under some cold water, but his hand was already blistering and just looked awful. He was screaming and I knew he was is more pain than I could alleviate myself. I grabbed the first thing I could find in the freezer (frozen cooked meatballs) and stuck his hand in it. I grabbed both the boys, my keys, purse and insurance card and put them in the car as fast as I could.

As I drove, I had to decide if I was going to take him to the ER or to the Instacare, but my personal experience with the Instacare has proven to me that it is not "Insta", so I got on the freeway and booked it to American Fork Hospital. Cruise cried and screamed the whole way there, in the waiting room and while the doctors looked at him. It wasn't until the Lortab that they gave him kicked in and he finally calmed down. This whole time, Jett was so good and just did what he was told. Such a good little boy.

Cruise writing with a chicken feather and paint.

The nurses wrapped his fingers and we were instructed to take him to the burn center in SLC the next day. The burn center nurses looked at his fingers and said that he had sustained 2nd degree burns but that luckily he wouldn't need physical therapy and should heal without any problems. They taught me how to change his bandages and care for the burns until they healed. It took about 3 weeks for them to completely heal; there is still scarring but luckily they healed up nicely. Now he is always telling Jett not to go near the stove because he can get burned. So glad he learned! But now I'm paranoid about keeping the boys away while I cook.

Kindergarten!
Cruise is in Kindergarten this year! That blows my mind. I can't have a Kindergartener! I still remember Kindergarten! Where has the time gone?! The week before school started, I decided to take Cruise school shopping for the first time since he won't wear what I pick out. Old Navy was having a back to school sale, so I took him over and let him at it. I guided him to the boys section where he proceeded to grab every green or yellow shirt in sight. and not just one of each, but like entire stacks. After helping him find his sizes and put the rest back, he was ready to make the purchase. I kid you not, he was in and out in 15 minutes. Now THAT'S a shopper!

The next day was the open house for his school. He started a new school this year because of the move and the Autism program. He got to visit his new school and his new teacher, Mrs. Bair. On the ride there, we were telling him his teacher's name and of course he was thinking "BEAR", so he gave himself the name of "Cruise Snake". So when he introduced himself, he told his teacher that his name was Cruise Snake. He was so excited that he actually thought he was going to be able to stay for school, but after explaining to him that we were just visiting and that school would start the next week, he was even more upset. The kid really loves school. We had to go back the next day for assessments and I overheard Cruise answer these questions:

Mrs. Bair: What's your first name?
Cruise: Cruise
Mrs. Bair: What's your last name?
Cruise: Snake!
Mrs. Bair: How old are you?
Cruise: Ummmm....snake!

I was sitting there slapping my forehead and laughing at the same time.

Cruise & Mrs. Bair

Over the next week I got Cruise ready with his social story, but I didn't really feel like he needed it, he was already so excited!

The first day of school came and the bus situation didn't pan out, again. So I ended up driving him, but it didn't make much of a difference; he was just happy to be back at school!

Jett wanted to go to school too.

Cruise's first day was good, however he came home with band-aids on his face. Apparently he had gotten upset with another student and knowing he shouldn't hurt them, he scratched up his face instead. But since then I've only heard good reports: he has been participating and having great days! I love that he loves school!

Gymnastics

I wanted to sign Cruise up for some sort of sport. After all, the kid never stops moving and really needs that sensory input. I decided to stay away from contact sports and signed him up for gymnastics at the local recreation center. The first day he was border-line meltdown until I took him inside the gym. After that, he was so comfortable and didn't need me at all! He followed the directions to the best of his ability and interacted just fine with the other boys. I was floored seeing him do things that should be difficult, like holding yourself up on the rings and pointing your legs straight out in front of you. The second week he learned a double bars exercise like a pro. He just loves gymnastics and I am so glad he can participate in something that is mainstreamed. I will have to get pictures one of these days. Parents have to sit above the gym to watch, so I just haven't gotten around to getting a good picture of him in action! 

Cruise has been doing so awesome lately and I am just so proud of him! The other day he drew his first family portrait. I'm the one without shoes on. He pays attention. 

From left to right: Cruise, Mommy, Daddy, Jett (and the sun in the upper lefthand corner).

He makes us laugh all the time and we just don't know what we would do without him!