Snooker brings his work up for me to check... and after being blown away by his breath I naturally have to ask if he did in fact brush his teeth this morning after breakfast.
His response (I wish I were kidding): Yes, but I didn't do a very good job!
True... please go try again!
I can't believe it, my little Snooker is 8 years old (yesterday). I'm sure all moms say this, or feel this way... but when I look at him I still see my little two year old... my baby of the trio. Sigh... he's no baby, though... nope, he's a big (well, big for our guys), tall, lanky boy. I'm not sure he will ever grow out of the baby giraffe movement... that just seems to be the way he handles his body... but my oh my how he's grown!
Since it was his birthday, it was birthday adventure day. Daddio took the day off, and we had the day jam packed with fun. We started off with a family run... which turned into a Daddy and boy run, while Mommy tried not to die at least a lap behind them (thanks to a migraine the day before, and all the meds... ughhh, but I digress). Next up was a yummy bacon and egg breakfast... a Daddio special! Then we were off. Snooker decided he wanted to hit the Lego store where he could browse and pick out his gift (yeah we're cool like that). Then out to lunch... and off to the surprise adventure...
Adventure Landing in Dallas is super cool... and empty during the week when school is in session... SWEET! Thursdays are $10 per person for all you can play mini golf, and laser tag, and then a handful of tokens for the arcades. We started with golf. Now, anything that the kids think would be way fun to do usually turns into a frustration for them. They are convinced that they know what they are doing, so when things aren't working the way they thought... well, little fits occur (bowling was one of these... they hated it during the event, but couldn't stop talking about how great it was later). The golfing experience finally came to a close... I would love to tell you won, but no score was kept... I managed 3 holes in one, Daddio had a few, and so did Bubba... Daddio's memory is probably better than mine so he might remember if the other two managed to get one as well.
Next up, video games. Yeah we went through those 50 tokens QUICK!
Then... LASER TAG! Oh yeah. Okay, yesterday morning I put in about 2.5 miles, the boys did a little more... somewhere in the neighborhood of 3.5 miles. Then we walked the Lego Store at the mall a number of times to find JUST THE RIGHT THING, then walking around the mini golf 18 holes... by the time we got to the laser tag my legs were feelin' a little rubbery (and the little slip on flats I was wearing certainly weren't helping the issue)... but hey it is laser tag (or Star Wars shooting if you ask the boys)... and there was plenty of running, and crouching (which I wouldn't recommend to those who would wear a knee length skirt and attempt to be modest with a black light not doing you any favors... just wear shorts, you will thank me... I learned the hard way).
And if the laser tag wasn't cool enough... oh yes, we as parents got even cooler... GO KARTS (the Jr. karts they could each drive). I know... just send the 'Parents of the Year' award now... no need to wait til January to tabulate the results!
Snooker cracked us up! Well, it was an educational experience all around. From watching them drive go karts, here's what I've learned: Bobcat will be allowed to take Drivers Ed and get a license. He was cautious, and stayed in his lane (although he will not be allowed to have a cell phone, he was constantly yelling over the noise trying to talk to his brothers... no conversatin' while you're tryin' to drive). Bubba will not be allowed behind the wheel of any motorized vehicle. The kid hit EVERYTHING the whole time! And Snooker, sweet sweet Snooker, is a speed demon. He figured out that if hung back a little and got some space in a particular portion of the track, then he could hit the gas and sling shot around the bend. Oh yes... no driving for that one until he can afford his own insurance and pay his own speeding tickets!
We hit another round of laser tag then headed off to pick up the dessert that Snooker has wanted since, who knows when (his brothers got to go with Daddio... so he's only heard of this place)... the Chocolate Factory. Yes, it is as wonderful as it sounds. They have huge apples dipped in all sorts of caramel, chocolate, toffee, cookies... then the truffles (I had a champagne truffle myself that was... AMAZING)... yeah, that took a while for little Mr. Indecisive... but he finally decided on an apple that had caramel, white chocolate, then dipped in crumbled oreo's, and a few gummy worms on top (dirt and worms).
Finally we arrived home... a long day nearly behind us... just one more thing... one more birthday gift from us.
Keva Planks! We first saw these at our local museum. He loved them (I loved them)... and every time we stop into that museum, he always asks if he can build with them... so on our last trip there Daddio slipped away to the gift shop and bought the biggest box of them they had! Needless to say, he was overjoyed when he opened it.
After some building time... we were all off to bed...
And this morning... RUBBER LEGS, lots of building, and one happy boy!
On the way home from lunch with Daddio, Snookie exclaims that "that's where you can go for anniversaries!" Looking around, I have no idea what he is talking about, then I see he is pointing to a cemetery. Hmmmmmm... I still have no idea why he thinks that is where one would celebrate an anniversary.
Later, same car ride...
"Mommy have you decided if we can see the new Shrek movie?"
Boy, that kid knows that drill... We haven't decided if that is a movie you will see, is a standard answer around here... so instead of asking to see the movie he jumped over to include our normal response! Not his first rodeo :-).
Ha ha ha... I just looked over at Bobcat's notebook where he has drawn a picture and printed the character's name under... Guardfeld... Not quite the right spelling!
for Snookie!
"Mommy, I have a sore throat right here on my chin!" (that was this morning while pointing to the front of his chin!) I'm not really sure what you do for a sore throat on your chin... if you have any guesses feel free to leave a comment :-).
"Mommy, (pointing to something in the dishwasher) you can use that in punge."
Now that last one took me a few minutes to figure out... turns out he was pointing to a ladle, and the word he so badly butchered should have been PUNCH! That kid...
At the dinner table at night everyone goes around (in no particular order) and tells their best, funniest, worst event of the day, and something they learned. It usually takes most of dinner for everyone to get all of their choices in... today was no exception... but Snookie's are usually quite interesting!
Today his something you learned:
"Um I learned today, (pause), um the last thing I learned, (pause), um I don't remember what I learned!"
And a non-Snookieism... a Bubba funny...
On the way to meet Daddio for a picnic lunch I hear this in the back of the car...
Bobcat: "Blah, blah, blah (I wasn't listening to the actual conversation... I just know there were words), right?! Right, Bubba?! RIGHT!?!"
Bubba: turning to face Bobcat "Sorry I didn't hear a word you said, I was too busy listening to the music!"
"Mommy, those cars are synonyms!"
Um... I scratch my head, really confused. Did I just hear him right, granted I do have a blaring headache, but I swear I just heard him say that two objects were synonyms...
"Snooker, what did you just say?"
He repeats slightly exasperated that he is being asked again, "Mommy, look at them... those two cars, they are synonyms."
Okay... what he is pointing out are two cars that are the same make, model and color... only differences... the wheels.
Alright, can anyone guess what his Language Lessons have been on lately... clearly we need to have another talk about what exactly a synonym is and what things are actually just SIMILAR!
This morning at the dentist each boy got to leave with a prize... they each picked a knock off magnadoodle thingy to keep in the car. Now it's been a few years since we had a set of these in the car... so it was big fun that everyone got one today even though only Snookie was there to have any work done!
Okay that's the set up... now for the story...
We're headed to our next destination when this conversation occurs!
Snookie (holding up the drawing tool and showing it to his brothers in the back): Hey guys, what's this look like?
Boys (responding together): I don't know?
Snookie (a little frustrated): No guys, seriously, what does it look like to you?!
Boys (annoyed): We don't know, what is it?
Snookie: That is what I'm asking you, I don't know what it is... I want you to tell me what it looks like.
SERIOUSLY... Snookie drew... something... not sure what it was and wanted someone else to interpret his work. I wish I could say that this is the first time a conversation (including a drawing) has gone like this.
That is the law at the moment for my sweet and very frustrated Snookie.
I'm not a structural engineer and neither is Snookie :-).
One thing our boys are into is MODIFICATION. They produce, write, and perform in their own version of Pimp My Ride... known around here as Pimp My Legos! It doesn't matter what the item is that we've worked on, following all the instructions provided in the books... the moment they stand up from the coffee table and head back to their room with it... they are making slight modifications. Once in their room it becomes a complete overhaul! Personally I think it is sort of frustrating, but it is what they like to do and they are being creative in their own way so who am I to judge!
That brings me back to Snookie and my structural engineer comment. Once Snookie starts making changes to his creations they don't always stay together or work the way they should. Even worse are the times that the image in his head can't be translated into the creation due to his skill level or lacking the right sort of blocks (not to mention the kid won't use WORDS when he is trying to explain what he wants, instead opting for a much less effect set of hand motions that I was not taught in Mommy School, this leaves us both nearing the teary eyed mark).
Fortunately with the other two, even if things aren't working quite right the world doesn't come to an end for them. They either move on to something else or continue to try different things until they are satisfied. Snooker once again goes for the less traveled road (oh but it is traveled by him DAILY) of throwing it across the room (legos will remove paint from a wall), yelling at the poor little plastic pieces, full on crying with the begging of the legos to just do what he wants them to do, and then the earth shattering throw down temper tantrum that two year olds' have perfected at WalMart. Did I mention the part where this happens DAILY!?!
After he finishes school in the morning, I remind him about his temper with the legos... and every day we go through the frustration of the legos, then the doom of having to take some time away from the legos (which, dude if you get so angry with them, you would think a little break may help your situation... but no). So today, I told him... "Honey, what am I going to say about your temper and the legos?"
"Don't get frustrated with them, ask for help if I can't do it, or put them away and play with something else or read!"
CHECK!
"Now my sweet little Snooker (yes I actually call him that... always have), I will have to take the legos away until SATURDAY if you can't control yourself, do you understand?"
"Yes..."
Great!
We've had a few close calls already today... thankfully one of the other brothers stepped in to remind him "about [his] temper"...
For those who know the boys... this was the same type of problem we had with wooden train tracks until he was like 4! Fine motor skills are not his bag!
I mentioned in my last post that I sewed a weighted blanket for Snookie, here's a little bit of the back story on that whole thing... blanket information at the bottom!
A few weeks ago we attended a seminar at a local adoption conference on Sensory Integration Processing Disorders.
We've felt for sometime that Snookie is wired just a little different. All three show a few symptoms that fall into the Sensory Integration set of issues... but Snookie most of all. In the seminar they passed out a set of question that would help us understand how these issues most frequently manifest themselves:
Ever Wonder Why Your Child Does The Things He/She Does?
•Do you wonder why they are excessive risk takers - jumping and crashing into anything they can ?
•Why they can’t do puzzles - write well - or find the coordination for riding a bike or hitting a ball?
•Why they cry or cover their ears with every loud sound - even vacuums, toilets or hairdryers ?
•Why they don’t like to be touched or can’t be touched enough?
•Why they will only eat macaroni and cheese and pizza?
•Why they will only wear certain clothes or need you to cut the tags out of their shirts?
•Ever wonder why you can’t seem to calm them down or get them to sleep?
•Why they won’t put their hands in anything messy or use glue, Play Doh, or play with mud?
•Why they fear playground equipment or being tipped upside down?
•Why crowded stores bother them so much leading to major meltdowns in public places?
So what exactly is sensory processing disorder, here's the definition we were given: Difficulty in the way the brain takes in, organizes, and uses sensory information. Information, causing a person to have problems interacting effectively in the everyday world. What's happening: The child's central nervous system may not receive or detect sensory information. The brain may not integrate, modulate, organize, and discriminate sensory messages effectively. The disorganized brain may send out inaccurate messages to direct the child's actions.
Within the world of sensory input world, there are three systems that can be affected... normally they are working together in harmony, but a person have problems with one, two, or all three systems and that can lead to some real stress! So what are the systems?
-Vestibular Sense: Provides us with information about our bodies in relation to our environment. It affects our balance, movement, and hearing. This is where our Fight/Flight/Freeze response comes from. It includes reflex maturation, and inner ear. Stimulation (or over stimulation) comes from the environment.
-Proprioceptive Sense: Provides information about our body parts. Affects praxis, calibration, and arousal modulation. Works in conjunction with Vestibular and Tactile Senses. Skin and muscles are its stimulation (or over stimulation) issue. Soothing and calming can come from stretching of deep muscle movement.
-Tactile Sense: Affects learning, body awareness, calibration, attachment, and social skills.
Alright, back to the blanket (sorry that turned out as long as it did... but I wanted you to have a little snippet of understanding as to how it all works inside you ;-)... one of the recommendations to help calm a child and sooth his sensory system is to use a weighted blanket at night. When we got home from the conference I pretty much went right to the computer to find out more about these things. The website we were given at the conference was: www.weightedblankets.net. After looking at their selection and price, I decided that I wanted to see if I could give it a go on my own! We have several of those fleece blankets around, and it just so happens I have three of exactly the same thing... I thought to myself "Myself, I could use those two blankets as the outer shell... now how would I build it?!" That's when I came across a website (that I can't seem to find) that had an easy pattern for making your own (if anyone is interested in the PDF, leave a comment and I can email a copy to you).
Anyway, since I already had the material... all I needed was the filler. I wanted something washable (there are patterns out that utilize pockets so that the filler can be removed for washing purposes... that's not the direction I went). I went to my local craft store and was able to buy doll filler. This worked out pretty well... as far as getting the right weight (there's a formula for finding the right weight for the person... 10% of body weight plus 1 pound... so Snookie's blanket needed to be 5 pounds).
I completed the project Saturday afternoon, and he has been sleeping with it since Saturday night. Have I seen a difference? Um, I'm not sure. Does he like it? HE LOVES IT. He loves that it stays in it's place (this was one of his biggest problems at night... constantly getting up to try and readjust the blanket so that it was just so). He loves being tucked in tight and not even a sheet around him would stay because he would kick around at night. So far every morning and after nap time he is in the same place he was when I left when he went down, and so is the blanket! So I call it a success!
"Mommy, do you know what I want to be when I grow-up?"
"No, Snookie, what?"
"Someone who does really cool tricks!"
Another car thought...Mommy, when I blow on my hand like this (pursed lips and a quick blow), I can feel the air!
When it's dark outside, you can't see the sun... but when you are in space you can see the sun.And this has been Deep Thoughts with Snookie!
"Oh, so Mommy is your middle name?"
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