Legoland

We had an amazing time at Legoland in California. Josh had never been to an amusement park before and we wanted to break him in before we took him to Disneyland. Legoland was awesome. It was chilly and drizzled off and on but the lines we super short (we barely waited for any ride). The rides were directed more for children and none of them were very scary. Josh loved it, we loved it, it was the perfect day. You would not believe the amazing things they made out of Legos. Honestly, the pictures do not do them justice. We could have spent the entire day just checking out all of the amazing creations.


The "Mini land" exhibit was one of our favorites and we spent forever checking it out. I will probably post too many of these pictures but I love all of them.


Oh yeah, those last two were taken from a galaxy far far away. Here are some of the guys we met while we were there!




And not only did they have cool things to look at and cool rides to go on, they had awesome things to do! Like make your own race car and race them against each other.



Just goes to show you that beauty doesn't always win!

We should have taken more pictures of the rides but we were all riding them. Josh was such a trooper. He had never been on any rides before that day and he went on everything without a complaint. He loved the little kid roller coasters the best. He did ask to go on the Beetle Bounce which is like those kid rides that take you up and drop you but just a little, over and over. Each time it dropped he grimaced and then laughed. It was hilarious! Drop,grimace, giggle, drop, grimace, giggle, over and over. He was so happy the whole time. We allowed him $15 to spend however he wanted. He chose a rock band Lego set. Three guys (one hip hop singer, one 80s hair band guitarist, and one green mohawked punk rock drummer), drum set, guitar, and speakers. He was obsessed with it. We told him we would buy it on the way out but he couldn't go more than a few minutes without asking for it so we broke down after a few hours.

Legoland also has a pretty good aquarium.



I thought that we took more pictures of the aquarium but I guess we were having too much fun.

All in all, despite the weather, we loved Legoland. Josh actually says that he liked it more than Disneyland. Only kid in America I am sure but the boy knows what he likes. Happiest place on earth didn't win out over the most creative place on earth. The only problem with Legoland is that they closed at 5pm. 5pm! What is that? We didn't know this so we didn't get to spend as much time as we would have liked. Still, if our biggest complaint is lack of time to explore, it must have been pretty good.

A little behind on pictures

Now now, don't get too excited. Although you may have thought by the title that you would be seeing pictures of little butts, that is not the case. I just have pictures from January to now that are cute/interesting but I have not posted.

In February, I was so stressed out from school already that my sweet husband bought me an hour long massage (it was HEAVENLY) and he took Josh to the Monster Truck show in SLC. Here are some of the pictures they took. Josh took all of the pictures of the monster trucks himself. His favorite truck was the one with the Mohawk.



He had to use rifle ear protection because it was so loud. He loved it and can't wait for his daddy to take him again.

This winter I have had a hard time with, well I think it is Raynaud's but I have not been to the doctor so who knows. My toes go bright white and completely numb. This happens in the cold but it also happens the first half of zumba. It seems to be related to my bad circulation because it is as if I have no blood in my toes. There is no capillary refill when I pinch my toes when this is happening. It is mostly annoying and somewhat painful, although during zumba it can be more of a pain because I can't feel what my toes and the balls of my feet are doing.

Excuse the bad nail polish. It is hard to get a good picture of it. Anyway, now that I showed you pictures of my feet (gross) I will show you a cute picture of my son when he fell asleep.



Yes, he is kind of standing. Now I have a bunch of pictures from Easter:


And here is my son trying to eat Ramen with the biggest spoon in the house.

And last but not least, a family portrait that Josh drew. I labeled it but if you can't read it it goes from left to right: Tyler, Sharon, Josh, me. He was sad because he forgot Turtle. I am not sure what a psychologist would say about this. Tyler and Sharon have a lot of scribbles and are red. Me and Josh are plain, and Josh is tiny. I recognized Tyler right away because of the beard. I love the face Josh has, he is the only one with any kind of face.

My son, the actor

Josh and I went on a field trip with the first graders to the TreeHouse Museum. I didn't realize until the day before that by signing the permission slip, I was agreeing to come along. You see, if you have a first grader, they just ASK you if you want to. If you have one of the "inclusion kids" than if you want your kid to go you must go as well. Luckily, I don't go to school on Friday and I am only really busy with homework this week, not a slobbering wreck because of homework like the last two weeks. So I went and boy was I glad that I did.

I let Josh take the bus and I met him there later. He was so happy to see me. When we were called to the bus, he was so excited that I was going too. He held my hand the whole way down the hall to the bus. On the bus, it was as if he didn't even see the other kids. He just pulled me to a seat and made me sit with him. He was ecstatic to have me ride with him. He laughed, hugged me, kissed me, shouted "YEAH!" while punching the air. The bus driver got into the spirit and turned on the Black Eyed Peas song blaring, "Tonight's gonna be a good night!" We danced in our seats and sang. There was not a trace of embarrassment, not a speck of worry about what peers thought.

When we got to the TreeHouse Museum, everyone got split up into 3 groups to do 3 activities. The first activity was a shield making craft. Everyone sat down really quickly leaving the three inclusion kids to sit at their own table. No way! I squeezed Josh onto a table with other kids (this is inclusion people! Not exclude the inclusion kids time).

Next they put on a play, The Princess and The Pea. Josh volunteered to be an actor. When they asked who wanted to be king out of all the actors Josh was the only one to raise his hand. If you have never been to one of these plays, here is the general gist. The narrator (adult) tells the story including what the actors (kids) say and the kids are expected to repeat the narrator when he says their lines. Now here I am in a predicament. Do I risk embarrassing Josh and tell the narrator? Then the focus becomes what he CAN'T do. Hmm...Nope! I don't think I'll tell him. Let's just see how this plays out.

When it gets to Josh's first line, the narrator tells him to repeat it. Silence. "Come on, it's not that hard". Silence, but Josh is smiling. "It will serve you better in the future if you learn to speak up now" Silence (except for maybe my own snickering). The kids have all become quiet and are shifting uncomfortably looking at each other. They know, I know, Josh knows, but this narrator has no clue. Each time he gets to one of Josh's lines he goes through the song and dance, telling him he needs to say it and it isn't hard, he can do it, etc. All of which I find highly amusing because the man couldn't be more wrong. Josh never falters. His smile remains firmly in place. He does all the actions he is told, he shows plenty of kingly emotions but all completely silent.

About halfway through the narrator gives him another line and this time, for whatever reason, Josh is comfortable enough to say something. "A-loah-blough-nhew-blana!"

Now silence from the other end as the narrator realizes his blunder. He blinks once, twice, at my son. Then, with a flourish he turns to the audience and says, "And the townspeople helped the King say,__________". And we did. No prompting needed for the rest of the play, us townspeople took care of our King and said his lines. The King smiled and acted his little heart out. It worked well. I was so proud.

The next station had a play as well. Josh volunteered as was chosen as "The evil knight". This part suited him, not that he is evil, but that he has the bad guy scowl and fold arms down perfectly. This narrator figured it out much faster. Josh again acted the part. The scowl, the tapping chin thinking face, the you beat me sulk. Beautiful. Bravo! I was overflowing with pride.

I saw a mom that I knew while I was there. She saw my son and asked me if he has a diagnosis. I told her and she gasped. I just smiled and said, "I am the luckiest mom here. My son is not bound by the normal peer worries of these other kids. He is fearless to get up in front of this crowd and act in a play, even when he knows full well he can't speak. He has held my hand in the hall, the bus, and inbetween every station. He has hugged and kissed me and wanted me to sit next to him and share every moment. He isn't embarrassed to be seen with me or by what I do (not even when we were dancing and singing on the bus). I get this childhood innocence longer than anyone else here. Why should you be sorry?"

On the way home he laid his head in my lap. I was incredibly happy that I have my son the way he is. Sometimes it is hard and honestly I have had a hard time with everything that we have lost (past, present, and future), but usually I feel like all the rest of you are missing out. What? You have a normal child? GASP! Shake head. I am so sorry.

My melodramatic, sweet, tenderhearted boy

My son is so sweet. I told him I was sick with a cold and he made a sad crying face then clutched his hands together and brought them to his forehead like a prayer and began babbling. When he was done, "Are you praying for me?". He nods, lets out a fake cry and does it again. Thanks honey.

Later this weekend, he wanted to watch The Fox and the Hound. I was doing my homework and he was eating lunch at the table. It was at the part when the old woman has to take Tod to the forest and let him go. The song is about letting go and keeping the person in your heart. Suddenly I hear sobbing. I look up and see Josh not just sobbing but he keeps putting his face in one hand and pounding his fist on the table with the other. Then wiping the tears from his face, sniffing loudly and then doing it again.