Toy Story 3

Today we took the boys to see their first movie in the movie theater! We were all excited about going to see Buzz and Woody in Toy Story 3. We got to the theater around 10:30am, bought our tickets and then walked around for a bit. We got our snacks and headed in to find seats around 11:20am. The boys had trouble with preventing the seats from folding up on them, but once we convinced them to share a chair they were fine. The previews seemed to go on forever, but Ben and I did see a few things we want to see once they come out! The movie finally started at noon and we were out of there around 1:45pm. The boys did so good. They had no issues just sitting eating popcorn and watching the movie. However, Zak did throw a fit when the movie was over and we had to leave. He did not want to leave that theater!

On a side note, today at the movie theater I saw that Arundel Mills is doing a special showing of Twilight and New Moon then the midnight showing of Eclipse on Tuesday. I did not get to see the first 2 in the theater and I am dying to see Eclipse so this was an awesome idea to me. I am happy to say that I just bought my ticket! The boys will have a sleepover with Nanny (Laura) so that I can go which will make them happy as well.

Fun Day with LOTS of pictures!

On Thursday evening Rich & Laura came over to watch the boys while Ben and I went to the HOA monthly meeting. When they got here the boys had fallen asleep in their chairs...

On Friday the boys and I went to Annapolis for the day. We started at Colleen's house and then went to the playground in downtown Annapolis. The boys had lots of fun playing with Joey, Jay, and Maddie! Madelyn looks so grown up now...

After we played at the playground for a while we were all ready to get something to eat. We decided to go to the food court at the mall since it had lots of choices for food and it didn't matter if our kids were loud or not.

Zak perfecting his "arms crossed attitude" pose

After we finished eating the boys and I went over the Chelley's apartment so I could tighten Madelyn's new car seat in Chelley's car. Then the boys and I headed home. We had left around 9:15am and got home around 5pm so it was a long day, but we had lots of fun.

Ben had left for work around 5:30am so we thought he would be off early, but that was not the case. He didn't get home until around 11pm!

Father's Day

On Sunday we left the house around 10:45am to go to Rich & Laura's house for a while. After we dropped the truck off we had lunch at IHOP and then went back to their house to go swimming. Laura had to work from 12-4pm, but called to say she was bringing crabs home from work. So we stayed for dinner and ate lots of crabs! The boys had fun playing with Haleigh in the pool all day and they enjoyed some crab meat as well.

Monday we didn't do too much. The boys and I went to the grocery store and the dollar store. I had a coupon for $5 off a $20 purchase at the dollar store so I started stocking up on preschool workbooks for Zak and I to do next year while Ryder is in school. At the grocery store we got some WIC stuff along with deli meat for lunches this week. For dinner the four of us ate more crabs that we brought home from our crab feast on Father's Day.

Today the boys and I went to WalMart on our way to Ryder's class. When we parked Zak told me he was tired and needed to go to sleep in the cart. This is big because he usually fights me and won't even sit in a cart while shopping. The whole time in WalMart Zak laid down in the cart just like he said he needed to!

This week's class had more kids in it than usual since this was the first week of the summer schedule. There were about 10 kids in the class today and possibly 3 more will be coming other weeks over the summer. Ryder was overwhelmed with the amount of kids, but I am hoping he will get used to all of the new kids and do better as the summer continues. Zak loved having all of the kids in the class, but he did not behave as well as he did last week. He took advantage of the fact that most of the kids in the class are shy, quiet, and passive. He was constantly jumping up and answering for others, yelling out answers, pushing kids over to get their toys, as well as a few other things. The other parents and teacher were all really nice about how Zak was acting, but hopefully he will start to show better behavior throughout the summer!

I wanted to post another picture from Saturday when Tracy, Dave & Kyle were over. I took this on my cell phone so the quality is not great, but I think it is so cute!

Tomorrow Ryder's speech therapist is coming to the house for her session with him. I am still waiting to hear back from the OT to schedule our next appointment. She only works part-time and I think over the summer her schedule is crazy since she has two kids that will be out of school. If the scheduling gets really complicated I might ask to see the full-time therapist. She only comes twice a month and Ryder will no longer get in-home therapy once he turns 3 so we may not get to see the OT much this summer since we only have about 6 weeks until his birthday. Ben and I are thinking about taking the boys to see Toy Story 3 in the movie theater this weekend so I will update once we make our final decision.

Busy Day

First, here are a few pictures from the last few days...

Zak loves stickers!

Aftermath of the boys eating Spaghetti-Os for dinner

Zak was hiding and "coloring"

on himself with a pen

Thursday I was still stressed about my purse being stolen and it only got worse when I got the call from Ben. He had to go to VA for the night and would be back late Friday. This sent me off the deep end because I would be stuck at home with no driver's license and no access to money since I have no credit card or bank card. The boys and I did survive of course and Ben made it home on Friday before the boys went to bed.

This morning I left the house around 7:45am to get to the MVA and stand in line. I got there about 15 minutes before they opened and there was already about 30 people in front of me in line outside. Once we made it inside I stood in line again for a bit and then received my number only to sit and wait again. Luckily, since I was only getting a duplicate license (not renewing) my wait was much shorter than others so I was out of there around 9:10am. I then went to Kohls to buy a new wallet and I was happy to find out all of their wallets were 50% off this weekend. Then I stopped at WalMart to get some more swim diapers for the boys. Once I got home Ben and I cleaned the house a bit. We then all got on our bathing suits and went to a local pool for the neighbor's birthday party which the boys had a blast at! We came home around 2:30pm. The boys laid down to watch a movie while Ben cut the grass and I cleaned some more.

Around 5pm Tracy, Dave and baby Kyle came over for dinner and to hang out for a while. The boys turned into crazy maniacs and acted goofy for a while showing off their skills in running, jumping, and screaming. I got to hold, feed, and cuddle the baby for most of the time which made my day! We ate dinner and then the boys got in the pool while we sat out side. Then we had ice cream cake to celebrate Father's Day.

Kyle getting his bathing suit on

The boys wanted to know why Kyle was crying

Kyle was not sure about the pool

All done with the pool

Tracy cuddling with Kyle

Kyle fell asleep while I burped him

Father's Day cake

The boys enjoyed ice cream cake

Hoping it doesn't upset their tummy too much

Cuddling with a sleeping baby

They headed home a little after 9pm and Ben and I came inside to watch some more episodes of Bones. Tomorrow we are going to Rich & Laura's house to take back their truck and go swimming for a bit.

Stressed

Monday Zak came to Ryder's therapy class with us. The daycare provider he has been going to has decided not to do daycare over the summer so she can do some activities with her daughter. I completely understand, but had to figure out plans for Zak. After talking to Ryder's teachers I decided to bring Zak with us to see if he would behave and if Ryder would still get the most out of the class. I was definitely pleasantly surprised at how well Zak did in the class. So the decision has been made that Zak will be going to class with us on Tuesday over the summer. As for the stressful portion of this day, I woke up at 3am to find that our power had gone out. It got pretty warm quickly which made sleeping not easy. The power did come back on for about 5 minutes around 8am, but then went back out. It was still out when we left the house around 9:45am for the class, but was on when we got home at 1pm.

On Tuesday the boys and I didn't have any plans other than for me to get some laundry done. This is the day I realized we are having some financial issues, but I don't want to get into details. Some of our bills have recently increased and Ben's paychecks have slightly decreased due to the economy issues, but we are going to sit down and do some meal planning and bill planning to hopefully get into a better situation. Just as I was making this realization our power went out again (around 9:30am)! Needless to say, I was not very happy. Luckily, there was a breeze outside and the temperatures were not too bad so I opened the windows and let the boys play outside for a bit. Zak ended up not listening to me and hitting me in the head with his plastic baseball bat so I put him in time out inside. I went back outside to get Ryder who I found in the baby pool even after being told no several times. Once I got him dried off and we came inside I found Zak covered in chocolate! He had gotten off the steps, gotten into my chair and gotten into the Hershey Kisses. I fed them lunch and then put them in their room. They cried for a while, but finally did fall asleep. Around 1:30pm or so the power came back on which was good because it had started to get warm in the house. While we were waiting for dinner to finish cooking Zak was playing in the kitchen with the magnets on the fridge. We noticed he got quiet so Ben went in to check on him and this is what we found....

Zak had gotten into the fridge, pulled out 7 things of yogurt (were all connected), opened 5 of them, put the lids back in the fridge. Then laid under the table and started to lick them with his tongue! He was very proud of himself when we found him. We let him and Ryder eat the 5 opened things of yogurt for dinner.

And now on to today. Ryder's special educator came to the house this morning for a session. We played memory, sorted colors and a few other games that the boys love. It rained pretty much all day so we stayed inside. When Ben got home from work he walked inside holding our diaper bag which was soaking wet. He said he found it sitting in the grass at the end of our court with everything all over the place. As soon as I realized the diaper bag was in the car I ran out to the car and my purse was gone! The car was not damaged at all. Our car is falling apart horribly and one of the issues with it is that when you lock the car the back trunk door doesn't always lock (or unlock). We think that is what happened the last time we locked the car, it must have not locked so somebody could get in that way. Nothing else was missing from the car other than my purse. We called and cancelled all of the credit cards and bank cards. The police came to make a report. Now I have to replace my driver's license and figure out what else was in my purse. I know some of my camera memory cards were in there, some cash, health insurance cards, library card, various other store savings cards, and who knows what else. I just hate this feeling of not knowing exactly what I had in my purse and am now missing!

This has just pushed me further over the edge.

Hot Weekend

Wednesday morning Ryder's speech therapist came to the house for a session. We are now working on getting Ryder to use 3 word phrases, answer yes/no questions, and start to ask for needs & wants. The therapist told me she thinks his expressive language has really improved recently (other than asking for wants & needs), but that his receptive language is lagging once again. She is very happy with the goals on his IEP and that he will get speech twice a week.

On Thursday morning I took the boys to the lab so we could get Ryder's blood work done. I am hoping to hear good news from the Immunologist, but I will update once I find out the results. Hopefully the extra Prevnar booster last month did its job and he now has antibodies against pneumonia.

On Friday we had planned to go swimming at Rich & Laura's once Ben got home from work, but he got home later than expected so we didn't get to go. Here are a few pictures of the animals from the last few days...

Saturday we did get to go over to Rich & Laura's for some swimming so that was fun. The boys love the swimming pool and it was much needed since it was so hot outside this weekend. Ben and I went to BJ's real quick while the boys stayed in the pool with Rich & Laura and each got a new pair of shoes. Around 4:30pm the boys and I headed home because Ben was going to the Oriole's game with his mom last night. Ben drove home Rich's white truck after the game so later this week we will take a trip to their house to drop it off and hopefully go swimming.

Today is was really hot and humid outside! There is an air quality alert all day today and tomorrow so I wanted to keep the boys inside as much as possible. Around 11am today Ben filled up the baby pool and we let the boys have some fun it in. Robin decided to join in on the pool fun!

The boys wouldn't nap today yet they had an incredible amount of energy tonight. So tonight around 8pm it had cooled off a tiny bit and there was a slight breeze so we went for a walk around the community. The boys love doing that so we will try to do it as often as possible. When we got home the boys fought us trying to put them to bed, but they are now asleep.

Tomorrow I am going to take Zak with us to Ryder's therapy class to see how he will behave. I am hoping it goes well because this summer Zak won't be able to go to the daycare he has been attending because she is taking the summer off (she only has 1 other child who would come when school is out so she is probably taking this summer off). The teachers told me they figure other siblings might end up coming over the summer so it would be fine to bring Zak. I am just worried about how he will behave and if Ryder will get as much out of the class with Zak there or not. The class is going to move to Tuesdays, but I am not sure what time yet. Ryder also has his special educator session on Wednesday and the OT on Thursday to work on feeding. Saturday Tracy, Dave & Kyle are coming over.

IEP Meeting

Today Rich came to the house to play with the boys while I went to Ryder's IEP meeting at the elementary school. I went in not really knowing what to expect, but it went well. I was shocked to see the 25 page IEP sitting on the table when I got there, but we went through it page by page so by the end it all made sense to me. At the meeting was myself, Ryder's current OT, preschool OT, preschool Speech Therapist, preschool teacher, and educational liaison. We went over all of the recent evals and the the teacher and therapists asked me if Ryder was doing anything new as well as talking about certain skills he has lost recently. As we went through the goals they had prepared we added some, refined some, and changed some of them to reflect all of the new skills he is working on or needs to work on. I was really happy with how involved I was able to be while writing out the goals for him. Ryder will be attending the preschool 3 days a week during the morning session (9-11:30am). During that time he will have individual OT twice a month, individual speech therapy once a week, and group speech therapy once a week.

After the meeting was over I came home to pick up Ryder and Rich took Zak to his house. Ryder and I met his therapy class teacher back at the school to do a trial-run with the special education preschool. This way Ryder would get to see the classroom and meet the teacher he will have starting in September. I was very happy with how well he did for the 1 hour 15 minutes we spent there. He was his normal self with being shy with the other kids, but took right to the teacher and followed her around the room. He sat at circle time with the other kids, but didn't talk much at all. He did get to go outside with the kids and play at the water table and he did get a little vocal during that playtime which was nice to see. We left about half way through the class because it became obvious he was getting a little overwhelmed, but I was so happy with how he did. I think he will do fine in school! Now I just have to convince myself he will be fine riding the school bus....

Once Ben got home from work the three of us went over the Rich & Laura's and got in the pool for a bit. They ate dinner there while I went out to dinner with Rose, Stella and Traci (another Maine Coon cat breeder from VA). We went to a sushi place in Linthicum which was very good. I really enjoyed getting out for dinner with some friends!

Cat Show

First, I have to start out by talking about our very eventful and stressful Friday afternoon. It all started when the boys and I were heading outside to wait for Ben to get home from work. I had opened the inside front door and then turned around to pick up my cell phone. I heard Zak say "Come on Bat Bat" and before I had the time to react he had opened the door and let Batman outside! I left the boys in the house while I went out to get Batman. He has gotten out before since our old fence had holes and normally he would run a few laps around the townhouses then come back to our backyard. I watched him run around as I went to open out backyard gate, but then he did something very out of character. He took off sprinting down the main road barely being missed by a car, turned the corner and headed out of the community. I was in tears at this point, but had to go back to the house with the boys. Ben drove around looking for him and then we all walked around, but with no luck. It then began to get windy and dark. The skies opened up on us with hail, sideways rain from the 60+ mph winds and we had to go back inside. Finally once the storm stopped Ben took Robin for a walk to look for Batman again. I then got a call from Ben saying he found Batman running around by the playground in our community so I took the car there and followed him around for a bit, but was finally able to get him to jump in the car. He was drenched from the storm and covered in mud, but otherwise fine. Then once we got home we discovered our power had gone out! This led to some more stressful events, but eventually our power came back on late that night.

Saturday morning I woke up bright and early ready to go to a cat show in Baltimore. I am a member of the Maine Street Cat Club so I went to the show to help out since the club was hosting it. I have been looking forward to this show for a while now. I got to the show and helped out with what I could, but I loved being around friends and having adult conversations. I was so happy when Rose and Stella let me help show their cats who were entered in the show. It really got me energized to try and attend more shows. I already have plans to go to a show in NJ with Rose & Stella in July which I am counting down the days for! I am also very excited to see what Marie produces in her next litter which is due in July because I am hoping she will have a nice kitty for me to show in Premiership (cats that are spayed/neutered) to help get Marie the title of DM. Here are a few pictures I took at the show....

Benny

(Rose & Stella's boy)

Nice Red Tabby boy in the show

Big boy in Premiership

Desi being judged

(He is one of Marie's sons, 1 year 1 month old)

Benny being judged

Benny scratching the post

Nice Silver Tabby & White boy being judged

Dancer

(One of Stella's girls)

On Sunday I was able to take the boys to the show in the morning so my friends at the cat show could meet my boys. Rose and Stella have met them a few times, but many of the other people I used to be with on weekends had not seen the boys yet. The boys behaved so good and loved seeing all of the cats. Also on Sunday we went to Rich & Laura's house to see them since they had been away for the previous week.