Saturday, July 20, 2013

The rodeo 2013

I love traditions. These two weeks in August are always so much fun, Horses and Hitches Parade, Special Kids rodeo, the Pioneer Rodeo, and the 24th of July parade...*sigh* I love it.

This year we had Christina and her friend, Gavin, Trevor, and Shaylin come with us to the rodeo. It was great because Gavin and Trevor haven't been to the rodeo in a few years and Shay hasn't been to one in like...20 years. So it was great sharing it with them. I love the pre rodeo show. Who doesn't like kids riding sheep, amateurs trying to milk wild cows, the rescue race with people leaping onto the backs of horses and bouncing off the horses flanks as they race to the end...it's awesome. Boiling hot, sweat dripping down your back in the beginning, cool and nice later but your butt feels like it is going to be flat forever. Josh wanted to sit on my lap almost the whole time. I plan on allowing it until he is so big he makes my legs go to sleep immediately or he doesn't want to. I am not ready for that to happen though. I love my cuddly little monster.

Hitches and Horses Parade

Josh has been in this parade before but not without me riding with him. This year I watched the parade and he rode with the other Freedom Riders volunteers and kids (his horse therapy group). He got to ride up front in the wagon. Mom and I waited for him near the announcer. When he came by he didn't see us; the crowd was loud, there were a lot of people, he just couldn't pick me out. We didn't want him to think that we didn't watch him in the parade so we jumped in the car and drove to the end of the parade. I ran out into the road to take the last pictures and make sure he saw me. He is such a big boy.

Pioneer week begins with Special Kids Rodeo 2013

So by Pioneer week, I really means 2 weeks of Pioneer Days fun and excitement! First this week was the Special Kids Rodeo. This year like every year was an awesome experience. They had the usual riding horses, Sundance the dancing horse, stick horse barrel racing, face painting, roping, "wild bronco" riding, and rodeo clown barrel rolls.
Josh came in style looking very grown up. :)

Josh got to brush Sundance's teeth. He still loves Sundance. It does make me sad that he can't remember how much Sundance used to mean to him. He doesn't remember the year that Ron Gardener and Sundance were his summer. He adored that horse and Ron was so good to him. I will never forget though, they both have a special place in my heart.

He roped a straw bull with a little help from a cowboy.

Oh, and that's right! Olivia came with us!

Josh was riding in circles. Olivia just stood there pointing and yelling, "There's my Josh!" "That's MY Josh!" "My Josh!" over and over and waving when he came near. It was so darn cute. I tried to tell her he was my Josh but she would have none of it.

They both got to ride the "bucking bronco". It is always a big hit and Josh even managed to ride with one hand in the air for a couple of seconds.

They ended the day playing in the park together and Josh pushed Olivia on the swings for a bit. Oh yeah, then he did what he does best. He stood awkwardly close to strangers and stared at them. For a good 5-10 mintues. Just stood and stared. He has done this since he was little. You can tell he is just analyzing the crap out of them. It feels like he is trying to figure people out.

Wednesday, July 17, 2013

Communication St. (not a one way)

So since most of you who read my blog are not around Josh on a regular basis but may want to communicate with him when you do see him here is a heads up: Josh, much to my frustration, does not want to use the ipad for regular communication. Instead he has been learning quite a bit of sign language. Don't get all excited, he still only uses one word of sign at a time so there is still quite a bit of guessing. Besides, I don't really like the fact that the only person he can talk to is me and deaf people. Not that I have anything against deaf people but my son won't understand them well enough and they him to have the guessing part work out. So yet again, I am the only one to understand it. SOOOOOO, I am encouraging any of you who will want to communicate with my son to learn sign language. He currently has gotten most of his signs from watching "Signing Time" which is a TV show on most local public broadcast channels (think PBS). Also, you can usually get the DVDs from the library. You could buy them but they are expensive so I wouldn't recommend it. If you live close enough you can borrow them from us. However you do it, try to at least recognize the signs when you see them and be ready for them to be a little off (his motor control isn't great). Josh has it in his head that I am the only one that understands him and can decipher what he is saying. Let's prove him wrong. Let's show him that as a family we can rally around him, he is important enough to know without an interpreter.

Saturday, July 6, 2013

Livey's Birthday at the Zoo!



Isn't she beautiful? Isn't she just the cutest thing you have ever seen?! Yeah. Pretty much


Fourth of July 2013

The night of the third I charged the battery to my camera. Did I take one picture all day on the fourth? No. No, I didn't.
The fourth of July began with going to a parade. Josh loves parades. And like any kid, if they throw candy in the parade, things have gone from fun to a party. Now it has been about 2-3 years since Stacy or Bekkie have come to a candy throwing parade with Josh and me. And I don't know when it happened, but kids getting candy at a parade has become a selfish contact sport. Add in Josh: he has trouble concentrating with large crowds/noise, he has visual perceptual problems and can't find things easily (i.e. candy on the ground, the towel hanging behind him, a toy in a drawer, etc), plus he moves slowly and clumsily compared to other kids. You may think that this would create a recipe for disaster, and it would except for the fact that I have the best little boy in the world.

So people in the parade are throwing candy and the kids are scrambling. Josh has to take a moment to find and hone in on a piece and then clumsily run toward it, stop fully, then bend to pick it up. More often than not, the only piece of candy that hasn't been grabbed first by other kids is a tootsie roll. He brings it back to me smiling and cheering for himself. He puts it in the bag and turns back around. I show him another one on the ground and he goes to get it only to have a kid next to us see him going towards it and as he is bending down they snatch it from under him. Pretty often we skip the first steps and go straight to the other kids grabbing the candy that he is obviously trying to pick up. Other kids will pick up 3-5 pieces from one throw/float, arguing and pushing. If my son manages to get a piece, he bounces back to me grinning and giggling, shouting "Yes!" and pumping his fist. If he doesn't get a piece that time he still comes back to me grinning excited to have been a part of the action. Now I am used to this. But Stacy and Bekkie were not. They slowly got more and more upset. Bekkie even gave Trevor the job of kid control/blocker for Josh. Let me also state that the real problem children were not the cousins but the kids next to us. Anyway, I had to calm them down and remind them of what I keep telling myself, Josh is happy. He doesn't need handfuls of candy to be happy, he just needs to be a part of the fun. And when you start getting upset with the other children, he may notice that there is a reason to be upset. And really what does that say to him? I don't need him holding that candy in as high a regard as those other kids do. It is not something to fight over, it isn't something to get angry about. It is a gift from the people on the float and if you get one you should be happy. So I continued cheering over each small tootsie roll and he kept smiling. One float threw out candy by the handfuls...literally. All the other kids were coming back with literal handfuls of candy then going back to get another handful or two. Josh brought me back 3 pieces. This is the most he has ever gotten at one time. He spent so much time celebrating he didn't have time to get any more than that. I was so proud of him.

We came home and had a BBQ with friends and Chantelle and her girls. The kids played in kiddy pools we set up. They play so well together. Anything Josh did Livey had to copy. It was adorable. Josh came up to me and pointed to Casey (our neighbor with Down Syndrome) and signed "friend". It is the first time he has signed that and I was happy for my good memory and that I took ASL in high school. He is pulling out new signs all the time now.

Cul De Sac of Fire is my neighborhood firework show where everyone brings fireworks to set off in the middle of the cul de sac and a treat to share. It is great fun and usually mildly terrifying because someone manages to tip over a large shoot up in the air firework and since we are literally all sitting in a circle around the fireworks, one or more people get shot. Last year that was me and I have to say, it was pretty darn painful. No burns because the thing is expected to shoot at least 100-200 feet into the air (total guess-timate) and it only traveled about 30 before bouncing off my well cushioned hip while I squealed like a stuck pig. It must have exploded somewhere after it bounced off but I was too busy writhing in pain while my husband laughed (it's okay, I would have laughed if it was him too). Usually there is a live band but this year there was karaoke. Josh keeps watching the karaoke people (mostly teenage girls) but when I ask he says he doesn't want to do it. About halfway through I hear a familiar wail....no make that two familiar wails floating over the crowd. Josh and Casey (my neighbor, remember) are singing to the Gorillaz "Feel Good". I jumped up and ran over. I screamed like any adoring fan, held up my "rock hands" and even gave him a couple of good head bangs. I got a couple of looks, some people commented later that I am "such a good mom". Odd, don't you people support your children? It was his first public show, of course I would be there cheering him on. He would have karaoked all night and honestly, who kicks the CP kid and the Downs kid off the karaoke machine? They would have gone all night but I made them take turns with the girls. It was a blast like always, and there weren't even any casualties.

I am the luckiest mom. My boy sees excitement and opportunity where other children see competition and public embarrassment. He loves life, he loves people. Why do people not see how lucky I am to have that? I love this kid.