1/4/09

Happy New Year All! Our plans for this holiday season seemed to somewhat fall through. There were illnesses, remodeling, sick friends, etc. that just seemed to keep throwing a wrench in our holiday plans. We decided to take the boys to a water park over break to get out of the house and do something fun since our other plans didn't' work out. I think they were about 20 months last time we took them to a water park and it was very difficult. This time was much easier, although still couldn't have been accomplished without two parents. Ben isn't nearly as interested in the water as Tyler is. This particular park didn't' really have a pool to swim in just a little kids area, a lazy river and then a big activity center full of slides and water spouts. Tyler loved the water slides, hopefully you can see his huge smile in the picture. Ben seemed to splash a round a bit here and there but over all was bored and kept telling me so. He was however really excited that he got to sleep in a bunk bed on top, that was pretty cool to him. We also played in the arcade. All and all Tyler did great. There were a few moments of uh oh what do we do, like when eh wouldn't eat his cereal for breakfast and it's the only breakfast food I brought for him. Luckily the buffet at the hotel had sausage he could eat so I just filled him full of sausage. Everywhere we go we have to make sure we have food for Tyler. This hotel was great because it had a fridge and a microwave so we could make all his food and store it in our room. Oh, and he discovered Steve's blackberry while we were there and he thought that was pretty cool too! Ps as you can see in the pic, the boys aren't happy which they rarely seem to be when we try to take their pic together, Tyler was not so fond of his wrist band for the water park in hindsight, I should have put it on his ankle. oh well.

It's weird how boys do not play together, I don't think anyone understands it unless you see it, most people assume not only brothers, but twins, hey they must have a ball. My kids don't really like each other much. But Tyler for some reason really wants to play with Ben in the bathtub and I think it weirds Ben out a little so while we were at the water park and I had no bath toys I was trying to come up with a Way o get both boys involved in a game. So we played games such as simon says, however I'd just say "do this" much easier for Tyler to understand and tap my head or something or make an "llll" sound. WE are also trying to help Tyler be aware of his facial features and where they are, he has trouble with self awareness of his face. So I'd ask them to touch their nose, touch their ears, etc. Both boys were really excited to play this game and it was great cause Steve witnessed it so it's something he can do when he does bath time as well. Boys are playing together, Tyler is learning, it's a win - win!

I think I've mentioned before that Tyler can spell his name and tries to write it. The other day I was coloring with Ben and Tyler brought his foam letters to the table and all on his own put them together to show his name.. I looked over and then q quickly got a camera to capture it. He also is really liking his floor puzzle. He has an alphabet floor puzzle and he knows where all the pieces go, however he struggles with eh fine motor skills to actually get it to fit perfectly so we are helping to show him how to shimmy it in place. We are also using the puzzle to help him learn the sign language letters of the alphabet as well as making sure has a good understanding of the colors, animals, etc. that are shown on the puzzle. We want to make sure he knows for example that a zebra on that puzzle is the same thing as a zebra at the zoo which is the same as his model zebra that make noise, etc. he's doing great, sometimes he knows animals that I don't even know he knows. I'll say, where is the worm, and he points to the worm. He's really doing great in terms of his receptive language.

So anyway, back to reality, back to work, school, daycare, etc. and a new year which will hopefully bring a lot of health and happiness to my family and yours.