The Great Update - April & May

*WaRnInG* - This is a super long post.
I thought about spacing some of it out over the next week, but the days are getting warmer & warmer, which means I'm spending less & less time on the computer...so I'll just get this over with in one giant post:

LOGAN
(A.K.A. Mr. Mischief)

From Great Update Photos

Logan is our little tornado. He basically goes from one destructive act to the next all day long. He slams cupboards and doors, pulls out all the toys, makes messes with his food, torments his brother and yet still has us all wrapped around his little finger. He doesn't do anything half-way...he's a very stubborn and outgoing little stink and we all love him dearly.

One of my favorite captured Logan moments:

(The look on his face explains it all. He is so proud of himself & finds himself extrememly funny)

Logan is staring to talk like crazy. He can say "juice", "yeah", "nap", "shoes", "jump", "cheese", "thank you", "all done", "stinky" and "diaper". He loves to wave bye bye, although he doesn't actually say goodbye, but instead says, "see ater".

Oh yeah, and he can say, "boo!"

Logan has two things that he absolutely loves -
First, he loves cars & trucks, well, anything with wheels really. He makes all the vroom vroom noises, pushes them all over the house, down the stairs, through our backyard and on every bit of furniture we own. The boy LOVES his vehicles.

Second, he loves to stick things in his nose. Unlike his first love, which we think is adorable, this second love is one habit we would like to break him of.
This is the latest item I had to tweezer out of his little nostril:

(He gets sooo upset when he can't get it OUT of his nose, but for some reason the getting it IN his nose is hilarious)

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KORBEN
(A.K.A Sweet Funny Boy)

Korben has always been and continues to be a Daddy's boy. I know he loves me, but his Daddy is his favorite for sure. I love seeing them together because not only do they look so much alike, but Korben has his Daddy's silly personality, and between the two of them I laugh most of the day.

Some of my favorite Korben moments:

(Korben loves to play computer, but lately has taken his playing to a whole new level - literally, from the chair, to the the desk)

(I guess Korb does have a little hint of mischief in him. Look at that cheesy, I'm-not-going-to-get-in-trouble-am-I? look)

Korben is continuing to progress with his speech. He is constantly saying funny things that keep us smiling. One funny in particular happened just yesterday. He wanted some cookies, and when he wants something, he can only get it by asking for it with a full sentence. So here was our conversation:

K: Cookies!
Me: How do you ask for something?
K: I want cookies please.
Me: Okay, you can have two cookies. Now what do you say? (We are working on thank you's)
K: I want cookies please.
Me: No, I already gave you cookies, so NOW what do you say?
>Insert Pause<
K: I want MORE cookies please... :D

Two of Korben's favorite things to do:

(The boy LOVES to paint. Thank heavens for washable paints!)

(He also LOVES to play with water, and water guns are his new favorite toy. So I'm able to kill two birds with one stone by having him use his water gun to water our plants...hehe)

Korben's final funny has to do with his sleeping habits. He's kind of an insomniac, which means that he often falls asleep in the most random places and positions. It's hard to send him to bed when we can get pictures like this:

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MIKE & KATE

In my last post (forever ago) I mentioned that Mike & I had been "rock-climbing" at the rec center. These aren't the best pictures, but they are the only ones I had so...

(It's kind of embarrassing to have your bottom all accentuated by the harness, but worth it for the fun)

Our only other item of note was participating in the 5K "Fun Run" last Saturday. We decided to dress up this year for a little added fun, which resulted in a lot of extra sweat and nearly dying of heat stroke, but we still had a blast. Since the run goes along the parade route, there were nearly 150 thousand spectators watching us run. It was fun to be dressed up as a doctor because kids and adults alike would call out "doctor" or "dentist" or "surgeon", or (my personal favorite) "nurses are hott!" :D The kids would stand on the sidelines with their arms out to get high-fives, and I got to feel pretty cool for a bit since they were so happy to get a high-five from a "real" doctor. ;0) Here we are all dressed up for the run:

From Great Update Photos

If you want to see some pics of the race & crazy costumes you can visit http://www.backprint.com/view_event_photos.asp?PID=bp%18%7EA&EVENTID=48632&PWD=&START=181&SHOW=60&CAT=0&SUB=0 (I think there are around 5000 pics, but some of them are really great)

These are the 2 pics out of 5000 that they got of us:
http://www.backprint.com/view_user_event.asp?PID=bp%18%7EA&EVENTID=48632&BIB=722&S=230&PWD=

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THE GARDEN

Our garden is doing really well. Other than the cucumbers and onions that seem to be taking a lot longer than the others, our plants our growing like crazy. It's amazing what a little sunshine & water can do eh?

And finally, here are the first "fruits of our labor" that we are going to enjoy tonight:

So there you have it. We are having lots of fun, playing hard, working hard, and just living life like everybody else. Here's hoping the next blog won't be so long!

Swimming

Last week, I found out about a center near our home that has swimming and a rock climbing wall. We decided to try it out as a family and are excited to have found a wonderful new hangout spot. I don't know how we have lived here for over 2 years and haven't heard of this place! It really is a shame, because in the past when we wanted to swim, we drove across town, paid twice as much, didn't have the climbing wall, it wasn't as kid friendly, was overcrowded, and the water was cold. (Makes you wonder why we kept going!) Luckily, those days are over and we have found a place close to our home, that the kids love, has warm water, isn't overcrowded, and only costs us $7.50 for the entire family.

Here are the pics from our last trip:

Logan loved the freedom that he had to walk around. The pool has a really big area of shallow water, so we were able to keep an eye on him, but let him feel independent. It was also nice for Mike & I to not have to hold him the whole time.

From Swim

Korben loved the slides. There was a small one that he could go down all by himself...

From Swim

...and a bigger one Mommy & Daddy had the pleasure of going on over and over again. :D

From Swim

The pool is complete with large buckets that fill up and dump water on participants willing to sit under them. Poor Logan got the brunt of this particular bucketful.

From Swim

I love finding places that we can enjoy as a whole family. Even better are cheap places that we can enjoy as a whole family. Those places = genuine smiles all around. :D

From Swim

From Swim

Finally, we can't have a family outing without Mike giving us some kind of after-outing entertainment...hehehe

From Swim

Mary, Mary Quite Contrary...

Way back in March, Mike gave me some seeds for my birthday. He knew how much I
wanted to try square foot gardening and this was
his way of telling me he would help.

So two weeks ago, right before he left for another trip, he put the boxes together for me. The following day I mixed the soil, and the next day, Korben and I planted our seeds. It was really fun to do with Korben, especially when he said,
"Goodbye beans, see you later".

Some things to know when making your own:
*Mixing the 3 way soil mixture is
easiest if you do it by hand.
*Those boxes can hold A LOT of water, so go crazy with the hose in the beginning.
*This is by far the easiest way to plant seeds by hand.
Poke a hole with your finger, drop a seed in,
cover it...so simple!

Since planting the boxes, I have learned that I do not have much patience and that checking the boxes multiple times every day does not, in fact, make the seeds grow faster. I about lost it waiting for the first few seeds to sprout because I was sure I had messed something up. After 2 very long weeks, we can FINALLY see some radish sprouts, and I am a little more at ease. And here I thought gardening was supposed to be relaxing...

Our Two Square Foot Gardens

From gardening

Playing With Bubbles After Watering Our Plants

From gardening

Our First Sprouts

From gardening

I am excited for the fruits of our labor...I just wish those fruits would hurry up and get here! :D

A Realistic Goal

As you know, Mike has had to travel a little bit over the past few months. I decided that I was going to use the nights that he was gone to try and get some scrap booking done. Whenever I make the decision to scrapbook again, I get overwhelmed with how much there is to do since I am so far behind. However, I am in a good groove and, thanks to Picasa collages,
making the pages is much more efficient.

In the past, I have had aspirations to one day be caught up and only have to scrapbook the current events in our lives. However, I have never really made a specific goal of how to do it. I realize now, that if I make a longer term goal rather than stressing about being done immediately, it is much more likely that I will actually get caught up. I have separated all my pictures into folders and if I complete 10 folders a month (a folder might = more than one page), as well as keep current, I can be all caught up in six months. So taking breaks and simple old laziness into account, my goal is to be completely caught up by Christmas. I am much less stressed now that I have a realistic goal to work towards. Wish me luck!

Here is the latest batch of pages - 33 total:
(View the rest in my web album by clicking on link below picture)

From New Scrapbook Pages

Up To No Good...

This morning, I gave Logan some of his favorite cereal and a juice box. I knew that I had about 10 minutes to check blogs and my e-mail before he was done. However, just a few minutes after I had settled into my morning dose of computer time, I heard some suspicious giggling coming from the kitchen. Suspicious, because if Logan is giggling it usually means he is up to no good...

I checked in to see what the giggling was all about, and sure enough, Logan was squeezing the juice box in one hand making a pretty fountain to the floor - and at the same time had his opposing pointer finger stuck far up into his nostril. The juice I wasn't surprised about...the fact that he was stuffing cereal up to the nether reaches of his nose did take me back a bit. Logan was apparently very satisfied with his success of the morning as the peals of laughter continued while I cleaned up the mess and took his finger out of his nose.

I'll spare you the picture of the chocolaty, soggy, rice mess that he sneezed out later (accompanied by more giggles), but here is a picture of the source of such laughter:

From May 2009

School Zoo Trip

Last Friday was Korben's School Zoo Day. I almost didn't go because we all had colds, and I was a little intimidated to take the boys alone, but at the last minute I decided just to go and make the most of it since the tickets were free. I thought maybe we would stay there for an hour or so and then be done. Boy was I wrong! We ended up staying for 5 HOURS!

I had thought that taking the boys by myself would be too hard, but it was just the opposite. It was so nice to be able to go at Korben's pace (he stayed at the hippos for over half an hour), and not feel like I was holding anyone up. Mike is gone, so it wasn't like we had to be home for anything either, so as long as the boys weren't throwing tantrums,
I was fine with staying.

We did see Korben's teacher, and some of his schoolmates, but other than that it was just a day with Mommy. I couldn't have asked for better weather, or better boys, or a better zoo day.
It was wonderful!

Here's some pics of our afternoon:

From School Zoo Trip

Korben was so excited that he was dancing for the camera (top right)

From School Zoo Trip

Logan loved all the animals and was a trooper to sit in the stroller for such a long time.

From School Zoo Trip

What would a picture of Logan be without his funny point? I love that picture because he is standing on his tiptoes in the stroller to get a better view of the fish. :0)

From School Zoo Trip

I really liked this picture of Korben because of the joy on his face and how he is looking directly at the camera. I was looking at our last trip to the zoo and I think there is only one picture of him where he is looking at me. He has come such a long way since then.

From School Zoo Trip

As you can see, Korben was all smiles and loved the whole experience. You can also see that the day was beautiful; which made the animals happy so they were all out in the open and easy to see.

From School Zoo Trip

The night before we went to the zoo, I told Korben we would get to see zebra's and he informed me that we would not be seeing zebra's, but giraffe's at the zoo. He kept repeating "giraffe at the zoo" over and over again, but when we got to the giraffe, he was much more interested in the binocular thingy than he was in the animal. I did get him to leave it alone long enough to smile for me though.

From School Zoo Trip

This was probably my favorite moment of the whole day. The boys got to go into the goat petting zoo and loved it. Korben brushed down the goats, was counting them, chasing them etc - he was very hands on. However, Logan didn't want to have anything to do with touching the goats, but walked right up and started talking to one. I was laughing so hard that I almost missed the moment (which is also why it is a little out of focus).

From School Zoo Trip

The only snag in our trip was the train ride. Korben was so excited and absolutely loved it, but Logan was furious that I wouldn't let him stand up by the window while the train was moving - I'm such a mean mommy. As you can see, he got back at me by throwing himself on the floor and bawling...the train wasn't full, so I just let him have a good cry.

From School Zoo Trip

After such a long day at the zoo, Logan was definitely ready to go, but Korben still wanted to stay and was crying "zoo, zoo" even after I put him in his seat. It didn't take long for them to crash though...I was just barely off of the zoo grounds when I took the pictures of them sleeping (Korben couldn't even finish his banana)

From School Zoo Trip

We had such a fun time that I'm considering getting a zoo pass so that we can go more often.

Reading

A few months ago, Mike and I decided to buy a program called "Your Baby Can Read". We hoped that if Korben could learn to read, he would better understand conversation etc. We have not been disappointed. Korben has learned the words taught in the program very quickly - which is exactly what we were hoping for because, like most autistic children, he has great memorization skills.

Since he was doing so well learning the words, his speech therapist thought she could apply the same structure of flash cards and use of written words to help him learn to say 4 word phrases. She had tried in vain for weeks with all the typical ways to teach him this skill. However, when she wrote the words out on cards Korben was able to say the sentences every time. We have continued to use this learning style at home and he has finally started talking in sentences. Apparently, he is a visual learner, and once he could visualize how a sentence worked, he understood that he could say words grouped together. Add that to his ability to memorize so many words, and we already had a basic group of words to practice with him.

I finally got a video of him practicing his flash cards so that I could show what he has learned. At first, I thought he had just memorized the cards based on color or text etc, but they can be in any order, any color, hand-written, or in a sentence in a book, and he can still identify them. He even sounds out the words and is trying to sound out new words based on the words he has already memorized. Needless to say, I am a HUGE supporter of this program. Not only has it helped Korben with his speech, but he seems to have gained confidence, knowing that he excels at his "words". He still has a hard time conversing, but he is headed in the right direction.