1st Day of School: 2011

Today was Cruise's first day of Autism Preschool at the public school. Last year he was in just the special ed preschool since he didn't have an official diagnosis, but this year he gets to go to the autism preschool which is AWESOME! The best part is he gets the same teacher and same room as last year, so that really eased my preparation. Technically the class runs Monday-Friday, 8am-2:15pm, but since he has his private school on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, he goes MWF all day and TTh until noon, which then I pick him up and take him to Bridges at Kids On the Move.

I was a little frustrated that it was going to be all day everyday, but after his first day, I am feeling a lot better. That, and I found out that including Cruise, there are only 3 kids in his class. 3 aides and 3 kids...talk about one-on-one!

I read him his social story last night about going to school and getting on the bus, which made him pretty excited. When the alarm went off at 7:15 this morning, I woke him up and said, "You get to go to school today!" He once again was excited.

I got out of bed and heated up a waffle and made him some scrambled eggs with a side of grape juice, but the poor kid was just too excited to eat. He had a few bites, but definitely not as much as he usually consumes in the morning. I read him his social story again, and then got him dressed and gelled.

Gotta take "first day" pictures!

Cruise overcome by excitement as the bus pulls up.

He got onto the bus without any problem and with a big smile! I missed him all day. I kept looking at the clock counting down the hours and had my phone glued to me just in case something happened at school.

When he got off the bus, there he was with a great big smile! I asked how his day was, and as usual I got non-sensical speech with a few words thrown in. So all I knew about his day was..."fun...potty...playdough...bus". So there you have it: Cruise's day. 

After a little snack, Cruise asked for a banana. I handed him a peeled banana and called him monkey, with which he went to the other room, removed his shirt and shoes & socks, and ran outside to climb the tree. Just so you know, Cruise is part monkey and likes to return to his natural habitat after having to conform at school for six hours.

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I later called his teacher and asked her how things went and she responded with a surprising tone of, "He did...great actually." 

He's really excited to go again tomorrow. : )

Lots to Catch Up On

Payson Lakes
About a week and a half ago, Dave's cousin got married and so while some of the family was in town, we all went up to Payson Lakes. It was beautiful out and no one was there since school had started for most of the state.

Just like last time, Cruise and Dave spent most of the time jumping off the dock while I followed Jett around making sure he lives to see another day. However, Jett did jump off the dock with Dave a couple of times and despite inhaling a little water, Jett enjoyed it.

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Visiting Mike

On Mike's anniversary of his passing, we went and visited his grave. We picked some roses from our yard and Cruise proudly placed them on Mike's headstone. We cleaned the headstone up a bit and the boys ran around for a little while. We sure miss you Mike!

Cruise's 4 Year Pictures

I picked up Cruise's pictures and since there were so many adorable ones of him and his space shuttle, I hit up Michaels and bought some clearance frames to make this:

Last Day of Swimming

If there is anything about summer the boys love most, it is swimming at the Scera Pool. We used up our last punches this last Friday and the boys had a blast! Jett was even more daring than ever, and even refused the floaties the last half hour. They had so much fun jumping off the side of the pool, and even Cruise was doing front and back flips off the side. I had gotten a video but accidentally deleted it (WHY?!!!!) until the Lifeguards told us he couldn't do that. Bummer, man. Cruise went on the big slide over and over again since there was no line, so Dave and I took turns going down with him.

Jett is so good at holding his breath under water and Cruise is just a fish...actually, they are both fishies. The cutest fishies in all history (yes, they even out-cute Nemo). Check it out:

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And Now For Your Enjoyment:

This was the evening I caught Cruise making his own PB Sandwich...McDonalds style.

You can never be too safe in the tub.

Hiding under a hamper.

A common lounging place for Jett.

The two most adorable children in the world.

"Flying" off the bench.

Jett is 21 Months!

It's weird to think in just 3 more months I'll have a 2 year old...it's so sad to see time fly by like that, but it's also so much fun to see him grow.

Jett, as usual, is my cheeky little guy who thinks everything is just so funny. Which can be good...and bad. But he sure keeps us laughing and giggling behind our hands.

Jett has just barely started jumping into the pool without help. Once he mastered that, he decided to expand his "jumping off of things" skills and decided to jump off the couch, chairs, Dad, etc. He is getting really good and usually lands perfectly. I'm starting to think that I have a little gymnast on my hands. I guess he figures he has to catch up with his big brother. Speaking of jumping, he now can jump with both feet off the ground. It's so cute to see him do it because he gets this huge smile and his fine, blonde hair lifts off of his head and makes him look even more airborne. It's adorable. But then again, he usually is no matter what he's doing.

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Jett's language is ever increasing, and yes, it still amazes us. It's so weird to us to know that with normal development, language just comes! You don't have to spend hours upon hours trying to teach them the meaning, significance, and how to say just one little word. It's incredible! Jett's favorite words are: "no", "oh no!" and "poo". We were at the store the other day and I had to get a box of diapers. When he saw the box as I lifted it into the cart, he pointed to it and said, "Poo!" He also can say 'Cruise' now. It sounds like 'Cooth', but it's still pretty adorable that he can say his brother's name.

Jett's mastering his body parts. He'll point to his nose and head...but is still working on his mouth, eyes and ears. He loves to be read to and especially loves Dr. Seuss' 'The Foot Book'. He also likes to hit, which mean's I've mastered driving with one hand on the wheel and the other holding someone's hand from the backseat to keep them from hitting each other. Oh, and he's also picked up spitting. That's a little more difficult to contain on the road.
Jett really enjoys nursery in church but isn't a huge fan of Sacrament meeting. However, he is slowly learning and enjoys the sensory breaks I give the boys every 8-10 minutes.

Jett is so good at playing solo. He really is so cooperative and is just happy to know that someone cares about the toy he is showing them. He loves to give kisses and is adorable when he waves and says 'goodbye'. He's a great eater and I can always count on him to eat his dinner. However, Jett is not one to love messy hands, clothes, etc. He is always concerned if something is messy or dirty and makes sure we know about it. He will annoy us to no end until the mess has been taken care of. He also has to make sure we know that there is a bug around. Even if it's just one little ant, he'll come and grab our hand, walk us to some other part of the house or yard, and point to the bug yelling, "BU! BU! BU!" Then we have to kill it. Otherwise we haven't done our job.

He has gotten better at not throwing such a huge fit when Daddy leaves. He's starting to catch on that Daddy always comes back.

He usually plays pretty well with Cruise, at least outside. Indoors, things can get a bit grabby and they end up teasing each other and getting into smacking fights. Jett a lot of times will take Cruise's toy just to get a rise out of him and I don't understand why he does this, knowing it will always end up with him getting hit, chased, or clobbered by Cruise. But then again, I did similar things to my siblings when I was younger. He just might be bored.

Let's see, what else? Oh yes, when it's Jett's nap or bedtime (bedtime especially), he will see us getting his toothbrush or bottle ready and he'll book it to the basement to hide behind the La-Z-Boy. He's so silly because he'll hide but once he's caught, he never fights it. He goes right down. Silly kiddo.

Cruise's Bike

Dave put the training wheels on Cruise's bike and let him have a go at it. He really loves it, especially because now he can ride bikes with his friends Jackie and Diana. Check it out:

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I just LOVE this picture.

We Like. We Like to Party.

The Big One
This was the first year I decided to throw Cruise a real birthday party, friends and all. I had been preparing for a couple of months and was so excited to watch Cruise enjoy it.

The theme was Spongebob, so I made the invitations instead of buying, since finding great pictures on-line was pretty easy. I made sure they specified "No gifts" since he really didn't need a bunch of gifts.

The night before, Cruise helped me make the cupcakes for his friends, and then after he went to bed, I made his big cake:

 The cake was a bit harder to do than I thought it would be, but it turned out okay. If you can't figure out what it is, it's a pirate hat surrounded by "sand" (ground up Nilla wafers) and chocolate gold coins.

Saturday morning, we spent all our time setting up the yard and finishing putting the snacks together. I had made little signs with Spongebob on them, laminated them, and posted them onto wooden stakes to put into the ground for each activity.

1. "Catch and Release Fishing": This was a rubber raft filled with water and contained laminated pictures of Spongebob characters with paperclips on them. I made two fishing poles out of wooden dowels, ribbon, and magnets. This would've gone better had Cruise not collected all the characters (that I had worked on for 2 hours) and hidden them inside the house before the party got started. I ended up having to take some of Cruise's rubber snakes and frogs and wrapping paperclips around them so the kids would have something to fish. But we eventually found the Spongebob characters...five minutes before the party ended.

2. "Sponge Bath Pond": This was a kiddie pool filled with water and sponges that I had drawn Spongebob characters on with fabric markers. Worked out great. We had the little slide going into the pool for all the smaller kids.

3. "Bubble Stand": I set up a little area with large bubble wands and a gallon of bubble solution.

4. "Gary's Shell Shocked Sandbox": For those of you who don't know, Gary is Spongebob's pet snail. We set up the sand table and filled it with sand and all sorts of shells that I found at Savers. Surprisingly this wasn't as big of a hit as I thought it would be.

5. "Bikini Bottom Public Pool": This was the area where the treehouse is. We had both slides from the treehouse attached to pools at the bottom for waterslide fun. These were the biggest hits of the afternoon.

6. "Build a Patrick": For those of you who don't know who Patrick is, Patrick is Spongebob's best friend who is a Starfish. So I bought some already cut out stars made of that foam stuff, supplied Elmer's glue and googly eyes. I had the kids put glue on their stars, cover them in sand, and stick the eyes on...and voila! A starfish.

7. "Snacks from the Krusty Krab": The Krusty Krab in the show is a restraunt that is the home of the Krabby Patty (which is what we now call everything between two pieces of bread so Cruise will eat them.) But I threw out the lunch idea that would've included Krabby Patties, and instead did snacks. We had...
-Blue jello with Sweedish Fish in them and whip cream on top (this pretty much failed miserably as I came to find out that the Sweedish Fish started to disintegrate in the jello).
-Gummy sharks
-Pasta salad with sea shell pasta
-a vegetable platter
-fishy crackers
-mini graham crackers that had Spongebob characters on them
-Pirates Booty
-little cheese and pepperonis stacked with sword toothpicks

Before the party started, I ran over to Zurchers and picked up some balloons, one of them being a giant Spongebob that Cruise luckily waited until the party was over to destroy. About 8 kids showed and it was a blast!

After we were sure all the kids ate something, we brought out the cake and cupcakes. Cruise was so excited to see his pirate cake and to be sung to. Since we had fewer kids than I had anticipated, we ate the cupcakes and saved the cake for Sunday dinner with the Greers. 

As everyone was leaving, I gave each kid a Spongebob bag filled with little party favors:

-Spongebob fruit snacks

-a parachuting army man

-a little water gun

-a gummy Krabby Patty

-a colored shell

-bubbles

The kids had a blast, Cruise had a blast, it was a success. But man was I tired after!

This next segment is entitled...A Sicky Birthday

So just to give you some history on this...On Friday, after Cruise's 4 year pictures at JCPenney, Cruise got a very bad stomach ache. So bad that I thought maybe he had appendicitis. But on the way to the hospital, Cruise stopped crying and said, "All better". So we didn't end up going. But that evening after going to the pool with Dave, he came home and slept for 3 hours, which was really weird since he doesn't nap. When he woke up he seemed to be fine, but was surprisingly well behaved and not bouncing off the walls as usual. Which concerned me. I know, right?

Saturday he seemed to be just fine, no problems, but then his behavior declined dramatically in the evening and it worried me. That night, he woke up at 4am with a stomach ache again and then eventually threw up nothing. I really didn't think it was stomach flu and once again was worried that it was appendicitis. I took him to the InstaCare when they opened at 8am and felt so bad that he was so miserable on his birthday.

While we waited, he just laid there on the couch, motionless. A sure sign that Cruise isn't feeling well. They called his name and we got him checked. We first got an x-ray to be sure he wasn't just super constipated and gassy. The X-ray showed he was a little constipated but didn't have gas, so that made the doctor decide to get his blood checked to rule out apendicitis. They did the bloodwork and it showed he was normal, except that he was probably fighting a virus. They gave him some anti-nausea medicine and sent us home with nothing. 

When we got home, Cruise took a shower and then slept for a few hours. He woke up with a super high fever which we gave him Tylenol for. My feeling was that he was fighting somekind of virus in his gut. Maybe something he had put in his mouth. We still ended up going to the Greer's for his little family party. When we got there, he just laid in their bed and watched Toy Story while the rest of us ate dinner, which was personal made pizzas. He wasn't interested in food.

After dinner, we sang him "Happy Birthday" and had him blow out his candle again, which he was super happy about. He all of a sudden felt great when it was time to eat the cake and open presents. Go figure.

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For his birthday, he got some great gifts! Grandma and Grandpa Greer had given him a great space shuttle toy that I don't have a picture of right now...here's on from online:

Super cool and Cruise LOVES it so much he sometimes sleeps with it and had it in all his 4 year pictures with him. 

He got a Razor Scooter from his Grandma and Grandpa Ybarra, which he thinks is pretty awesome too. He started riding it around the house.

Aunt Mary, Uncle Joseph, and Cousin Aliyah had given Cruise a cute shirt the day before, that says, "Eco Warrior".

Uncle Casey and Aunt Abby got him a baseball glove and ball so he can play catch with Dave and I.

Jett got him training wheels for this bike we've been holding on to for years. Dave had saved it from the dump and it is in pretty good shape. (Post soon to come about the bike).

And Dave and I got him a Dr. Seuss book called, "There's No Place Like Space". We actually gave him the book before he fell asleep after the doctor. He opened it, smiled, and gave it a kiss. I think he liked it.

Cruise kissing his book.

And we also got him a rocket toy called a Stomp Rocket. It has these Nerf-like rockets that attach onto a tube that's connected to an airbox that you stomp on. It shoots the rockets up pretty high...Cruise wasn't the only one who loved it. The rest of the family had a lot of fun shooting it around the house at different angles.

 It was so weird because the next day he was all better. But I was happy to see his energy and smile return. Happy Birthday, Cruiser! I'm glad you still got to enjoy your birthday.

Oh, and as usual, he are his stats:
Height: 39 inches
Weight: 42 pounds