Cabin 2013

Each year I am surprised how much Josh has changed from the last year. He gets more adventurous and capable in such obvious and measurable ways that surprise me because I have seen him change so slowly that I don't realize until an annual event comes up and I can compare him to the year before. This year, we got up to the cabin just as Carrie, Gary, Thor, and friends were leaving. Josh and Thor got to play on the deck together for almost an hour. It was both wonderful and a little sad to see them play. Josh followed Thor's lead laughing and excited for the new, head strong playmate. When Thor got on top of the bench and jumped, Josh did too. I loved seeing them play together, I think that they could be great friends. It is just a little sad that Thor was quite obviously the more capable and fearless of the two and certainly the leader. Normally this wouldn't bother me but Thor is 2 and Josh is almost 7. Of course, Thor is Carrie's son so head strong, fearless, leader comes pretty naturally, and Thor is especially gifted physically so I suppose this shouldn't come as a surprise. I hope that they can continue to have fun with each other as they grow older. It was so great to see Carrie and her family, I only wish we got to spend more time with them.

The first day was pretty chill but we did go on a little hike that would be easy for the kids. First thing on this hike we heard a strange noise. As I gently pawed through the grass we saw a frog clutching at grass with his front legs as he was dragged backwards deeper into the grass by one leg by a snake. The frog was letting out little screams which was the noise we had heard. It was terrible and would be terrifying if for some reason I was 4 inches tall or so. From that moment on, Josh has not forgiven the snakes for their diet. Throughout the trip he would say, "Ssssss!" then shake his head "no" then sign frog and sometimes even a thumbs down was added. For a kid without many words he sure does make it work.

On this walk I found our first horned toad. They are my favorite. I can't get enough of their grumpy little faces and I always can hear (was it Amber?) say that they are "horned toads" not "horny toads" the only horny toads on the mountain are Allan and (our cousin) Nate. Josh wasn't sure about him at first.

But as I told him about the horned toad he soon wanted to hold him. Olivia too.

In that last one Olivia is "smiling". As we continued our walk, Olivia couldn't cope with the bright sun (she has very sensitive eyes) and this is the solution that Chantelle came up with.

I know, I know, I am laughing too. Olivia actually liked this solution quite a bit. The only problem was that she didn't want to hold a hand while she walked so we resorted to talking to her and having her follow our voices. Whether it was muffled under there or perhaps it is because she is only two, I died laughing and snapping pictures as Chantelle was yelling directions to her little blanket Cousin It as this happened:

What a cute family

Josh and I enjoyed throwing rocks into the water from the dam (Josh's former favorite past time).

The night time fashion show:

Please disreguard how dirty my hair appears to be in like...every picture. Anyway, this was Josh's favorite thing to do in his down time: beat the tree to death while yelling.

And of course we made smores. We actually made smores every night I think but the sad thing is that the kids don't like to eat them. Josh likes to cook the marshmallows and Olivia doesn't want to do anything with them. I call it adult smore time.

Just look at Olivia's "what am I supposed to do with this thing now?" face. Then we went on an evening walk while Jeremy fished, we frogged.

Olivia didn't want to walk and Josh mostly cared about the flashlight.

Josh is scared of the dark so, if you have been to the cabin, you know this is a problem because it is pitch dark there at night. I came up with a pretty good distraction: glow in the dark nail polish. It is clear during the day but Josh couldn't wait to see it glow when it got dark. Between that and sleeping in the same bed with him, we didn't have any real troubles (other than him kicking me in the ribs all night).

While we were at the cabin, we decided that we would hike each morning and evening and stay at the cabin to play/read/sleep during the hottest parts of the day. For years Josh has whined and complained during our hikes, scaring away all wildlife and driving me crazy. This year he only asked me to carry him a couple of times when he fell and hurt his knees. He and Olivia both walked all the way to the trailer on the cliff by way of the road and most of the way back. I was so impressed with them! And with us honestly. It did take all three of the adults with distractions and encouragement, singing and trickery, to get those kids all the way up there themselves. Here we are waiting for Chantelle and Jeremy before the hike. Chantelle greatly enhanced the design of the blanket on Olivia's head.

And the cutest set of photos you have ever seen:

And of Chan's family:

And we found more horned toads. Chantelle found the little one and while chasing it down she almost stepped on the big one. Isn't the little one so cute!!??

They just have such good camouflage! Both of those pictures have both lizards in them. If I knew how to draw the little circles on like Abby I would. The little one is hiding under the stick with only his tail and but out but you can barely see it. We had a great view from the top, like always.

On the way back down, Josh found another horned toad on the road all by himself! I caught it for him.

In that last picture, the hands are Josh's so you know that thing is tiny. I am not sure how a child who can't find an item on a counter or a pink towel hanging behind him, or the light switch on the wall, can find this little guy scurrying on a road the exact same color as his skin. The mysteries of life and children eh? When we got home it was time for baths. This is way more calm looking than it was. Olivia loved it as you can tell. She just sat and soaked long after she was done being washed. Josh on the other hand was a crazy man. I think he still liked it but his bath involved me holding him by one arm as he struggled to get away as I washed him with my free hand. As he got more wet and slippery this got more interesting. He laughed and struggled to escape the whole time. The pictures of this are completely unfit for the internet and scary. Just imagine a starving looking child dancing around in the nude and laughing. A little like a fun "for 50 cents a day, you can change this child's life" ad. Ribs, lots of ribs and hip bones.

Now because I don't want to lose this I am going to publish this before I am finished.

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.

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.

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.