Fathers & Sons Campout '12

I haven't been able to get Dave to write a post about the Fathers and Sons campout that happened a few weeks ago, so I'll just post video and pictures.

I was surprised Dave was willing to take both the boys, especially since Jett still isn't potty trained. But he was really excited to take them camping. While they were away, I was able to get  a few things done that I just can't do with the kids hanging around, so it was really helpful to have Dave take both of them.

A family in the ward owns a big ranch in the west desert, so although the drive was about an hour or so, it was very spacious and allowed for some fun activities. The boys had a blast and luckily they are outdoorsy, so there weren't any meltdowns or major problems.

Cookin' dinner

Riding bikes

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Update On My 2 Little Monkeys

I haven't done an update on the boys lately. I feel so behind! 

CRUISE:

Cruise has loved living in the new house and loves the neighborhood. Everyone is so nice and probably knows Cruise better than they know me. One day he's Super Spy Cruise, the next he's Super Hero Cruise or Cowboy Cruise. He keeps everyone smiling. 

Posing

Something so admirable about Cruise is his concern for other people. A few weeks back, his friend Aiden fell off of his scooter. Cruise came running into the house in a panic and said, "Mommy! Aiden fall! Aiden get hurt! Hurry Mommy!!!" So I ran out there and Cruise was so attentive and wanted to make sure his friend was okay. Needless to say, Aiden was just fine. But it was adorable seeing him so concerned. 

One day, Dave and I took the boys to the park. While they were playing, Dave and I were across the playground just talking. We heard Jett whining and asking to swing. We took a little too long to respond, so Cruise picked him up and put him in the swing all by himself, and then proceeded to push him. It was adorable. 

Those of you who follow us on Facebook probably know some of Cruise's little phrases and things he's said, but I'm going to share a few that I loved:

Me: Cruise, is Miss Tina nice? 
Cruise: Yes.
Me: Is Miss Rani nice?
Cruise: No.
Me: Is Miss Teresa nice?
Cruise: No.
Me: Are they mean?
Cruise: No.
Me: What are they then?
Cruise: Ummm....Ummmm....BORING!

Me: Hi Cruise!
Cruise: No, not Cruise. I'm DUDE!

Cruise sticks his finger in his ear, looks at his finger, smells his finger and says, "Mommy, there's poop in my ear!"

"Mommy smells like Angel."

"Oh dear, not again!"

Cruise has chosen his favorite hat out of my entire MLB hat collection: the Oriole's. It's because it has a bird on it. So he calls it his bird hat. He wears it every day, even to school, but he has learned there are times and places that we don't wear hats and he has done a great job at following the rules. The hat now is frayed, sun bleached and well loved, but he still wears it. I was super proud of him the other day when we couldn't find it, so he said, "Okay, I wear blue hat," put on his Dodgers hat and walked out the door. It was awesome. 

Cruise's "bird" hat

I recently had Cruise's placement meeting with his teacher, the school psychologist and the speech therapist. They went over his scoring and we were all so excited about all the progress he has made over the past year. It is astounding! But we all agreed that the best place for him next year is the Autism Kindergarten. I am so grateful for these programs with the public school. I feel so grateful to witness miracles every day.

A few weeks ago, we had a hard time getting Cruise to go to school. When he showed up to his class, he took his shoe off and threw it at his teacher's head. Luckily she's got super cat-like reflexes and caught it. But we realized he didn't think he should go to school because the sun wasn't out. It was raining. So with the help of Cruise's Autism Specialist, Laurie, we decided maybe a calendar that addresses the weather and even something he can put appropriate clothes on as well would help him. So I got a great calendar, weather chart and frog with all the clothes from a teacher website. I got them all laminated and so every morning we do the "froggy". Since then, Cruise has been happy to go to school, despite the changes in weather.

Cruise has still been struggling with church. He recently was assigned an aide: Bro. Watson, who is a police officer. But one week he was gone, his wife subbed and he behaved so well for her! So now we know he responds better to females. But along with his aide, I've made a little folder (about 1/4 the size of a regular filing folder) that has all the PECS for church in the inside. On the front are four spots to be rotated for his visual schedule. On the back is a picture of what he is working towards (ie. soda, candy bar, picnic, visit to the park) and three spots in front of it to put stars. Each hour he completes at church, he gets a star and a candy. If he completes 3 hours at church, he gets the big reward. Last week it was a picnic and it was so much fun! I think he really likes it and he loves having something fun to look forward to after church. 

JETT:

Jett is in his Superhero stage. He MUST wear super hero shirts every.single.day. Sometimes he goes through two or three shirts a day just because he changes his super hero persona. Needless to say, I have many shirts going unused in his dresser. But the kid knows what he wants and I figure it's just not a battle I need to fight.  

There was one day last month when he just refused to get dressed. It was cold out and Dave and I were going to go get some lunch. We kept trying to get him dressed, he'd run away, throw his fit, and if we managed to get something on him, he'd tear it off. He would only wear his shoes. So I said, "Fine! Go naked!" We set him in his car seat padded with a diaper, and left for lunch. Not long after, he started whining because he was cold and uncomfortable. We drove through and got our lunch, went home, and right away he wanted to get dressed. Since then we don't have many battles about wearing clothing.

Jett has been talking more and more and more! Since his tonsillectomy, Jett has not only started talking more, but he has gained about 8 pounds. He finally doesn't look emaciated anymore. And just recently he has finally been trying harder to say all the sounds in a word. We've been working with him with Early Intervention to help him start saying complete words rather than just parts. For example, he says, "Ma" instead of "Mom", "Da" instead of "Dad", "hel" instead of "help", etc. So he has been making a lot more progress lately and we are so excited! 

I say this a lot, but it's the truth: Jett is EXCELLENT at being two. He has got it down to a science! If you could get a degree in an age, he would have a Doctorate in 2; he is that good. He is so good at pushing his parents' buttons, testing his boundaries, and questioning authority. The other day, we took the boys out to dinner at Thanksgiving Point deli. Jett kept climbing all over the chairs and irritating the customers behind us. I warned him to get down and eat his dinner. He obviously disobeyed me because he looked at me just as he climbed over again. So I picked him up and sat him next to me. He began wailing and wailing so loud! So I picked him up and took him outside for a time -out. I sat him on the bench, told him he was in time-out for two minutes, and stood a couple feet away, counting down the time. As I did that, he proceed to scream to passing strangers, "HELP!!! HELP!!!" I couldn't believe the nerve of that kid! I was in shock! Luckily no one thought I was some child snatcher with parenting skills.

Jett has found a new interest this past month which are jigsaw puzzles. He doesn't really like the wood puzzles you have to fit the pictures into. He likes the cardboard ones and would do them all day if he could. Right now he has five small superhero ones, a Curious George, and a giant puzzle of animals. He will do them over and over again. He needs a little help, but overall is amazing, especially putting faces together. Looks like I'm going to have to invest in more puzzles!

Finally, Jett has two cute little friends in the neighborhood that he just loves to go play with every day while Cruise is at school. He is such a social little guy and loves having friends to play with. His little girlfriend across the street comes over every now and then and it's hilarious to watch them play Hide-and-Go-Seek (Cruise & Jett's favorite game). It's so nice to have kids in the neighborhood that are so sweet and are good friends to my boys.

Teacher Appreciation Week

Last week was Spring Break. It was a long week. Too long. By Tuesday I was ready for my regular days back. But the boys enjoyed playing endlessly until mean old Mommy made them come in and bathe. We did a lot of activities, and even had Grandma Greer do some science experiments with them (Cruise was really into it...Jett, not so much). Friday rolled around and I was thinking about how grateful I am for Cruise's teacher. Of course that reminded me that it was Teacher Appreciation week this week. So I hit up Pinterest (I seriously do at least one thing a week from there) and found the cutest idea. It was relatively inexpensive as well, which was a huge bonus.

I bought two giant packs of crayons from the dollar store ($2), bought the unfinished frame from Hobby Lobby ($6), a little wooden flower from Hobby Lobby that Cruise picked out ("Miss Tina likes yellow!") ($1), wood block letters ($3) and printed out the letter T from my computer. I cut the crayons and Cruise helped me line them up. Hot gluing had to be more of my job since I didn't want Cruise to burn himself. Then I had him pick out a color to paint the frame. He picked pink: "Miss Tina likes pink!" I don't know if that was true or not, but he seemed pretty sure of himself. I had him paint it and I helped spread the paint around so it wasn't clumped. Then he helped me dry it with my hair dryer. He glued on the flower and the letters and voila! Ms. Tina's present.

For the aides, we bought them each a candy bar and I printed out wrapping on cardstock that said, "Best Aide, Bar None!" and tied them with cute yellow picnic pattern ribbon that Cruise picked out. Unfortunately I forgot to get a picture of them.

Easter Weekend

We had an awesome Easter weekend. I didn't get to do everything I had planned on with the kids. But things were a little crazy (well, certain little boys were a little crazy).

Saturday was an absolutely beautiful day. The Friday before it had snowed, so we were happy it was nice out for Easter! When Dave got home from work, we had the boys do a little Easter egg hunt in the back yard. Jett had just woken up and was grumpy, so he refused to look for Easter eggs. Luckily the boys' little friend was there to help him out. Cruise was really into it and had been waiting all day to hunt for candy-filled eggs!

After the hunt, we dyed eggs with Kool-Aid (thank you Pinterest). They didn't come out super beautiful, but it definitely smelled better than vinegar. Because of Jett's olfactory sensitivities, I think it was much better to do the Kool-Aid. The boys loved it. While we waited for the eggs to color, we had a few games of Hide and Go Seek (which is hilarious with two boys who 1. hide in the same place over and over, and 2. don't realize sound travels).

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That evening, we just hung out, the boys worked on the lawn mower with Daddy, drove the RC car, and enjoyed the beautiful weather.

I brought them inside for baths while Dave ran to the store to get a few things to work on the lawn mower. Cruise was the first to get out of the bath. I dried him of and he ran off to do who knows what. As I got Jett out about 5 minutes later, I realized I hadn't heard Cruise in a bit. I knew he hadn't left the house (thanks to our awesome kid locks) so I went looking for him. I opened the door to the master bathroom to find him with scissors in hand, hair all over the floor, and Cruise telling me, "Look Mommy! Cruise cut hair!" It seemed like ten minutes before I said anything. All I could do was stare wide-eyed and jaw dropped. Finally I said, "Okay Cruise, let's go." I grabbed the clippers and headed to the kitchen where I had to do what I never wanted to do: buzz the boy's hair. It was sad. But honestly, as sad as I was, Cruise was even more broken up about it once he saw his reflection. He was so upset, he wore a bini to bed that night.

I was able to get his mind off of it when I told him about the Easter Bunny coming. So without a fuss, he went to bed. The next morning he woke up, wandered around the house, and woke me saying, "Mommy, where'd the chocolate bunny go?" I got up, grabbed my camera and helped him look for his Easter basket, sitting in the living room.

We bought the boys each a Dove chocolate bunny, a book, a frame with pictures of Christ and the Salt Lake Temple (or "castle" as Cruise calls them). And they each got an apple Chapstick since they always have dry lips, the poor kids. We were able to get the boys to eat real food before they attacked the chocolate bunnies, and then we all got ready for church.

Because of Cruise's self-barber experience, I was so relieved to remember that I bought the boys special Easter hats. I just couldn't pass them up and I am glad that I didn't. Otherwise, Cruise would've worn his "bird hat" to church (the "bird hat" is the Baltimore Orioles baseball cap he wears all day, every day). The boys were so adorable, even Dave wore Easter colors (even though he thought I was nuts to buy the boys Easter outfits). Cruise was not excited about going to church. He wanted to stay home and he also wanted to go to the "castle" aka temple. So we used that to get him through all three hours of church. It was torturous, but he did it and he and Dave went to the Timanogos temple after church while Jett and I went home and got our Easter dinner assignment done: loaded sweet potatoes. Always my specialty. 

We met up and headed to my parents' house and had a wonderful Easter feast of honey ham, loaded sweet potatoes, asparagus, and an amazing spinach and strawberry salad. My sister made an excellent apple crisp for dessert that we ate with ice cream. And of course, my parents got us each a chocolate Easter egg from Sees. It was an awesome dinner. 

Jett wasn't interested in eating dinner. He wanted his chocolate bunny (yes, another chocolate bunny from the Grandparents). So we told him if he ate his dinner, he could have his bunny. He spent the next four hours saying "NO!" and we stuck to our guns and refused to let him have the chocolate. Meanwhile, Cruise wandered around with a big smile on his face, as he devoured his chocolate bunny (because he ate his dinner). Jett was not happy. Finally, my mom was able to get Jett to eat a hot dog and voila! He got his chocolate bunny. Unfortunately, he is sure to continue the barrage of "NO"s in order to get his way...probably for the next year or so. Maybe one day he'll figure it out, but I don't think that day was today.