Halloween Party at Preschool

It was Daddy Parent Help Day and the Halloween Party at Preschool for the boys today. They had such a fun day. Ryan is spider-man and Ian is Super Why! Ryan was originally dressed as a ninja and he looked so cute, but the costume was too big and after 5 minutes he wanted to take it off. Good thing we bought a back up. Greg said they had a fun day at school and at lunch bunch.

What's Happening

So I am doing this new thing on email called OhLife (it is a daily private email diary) so I have been writing things there instead of posting to the blog. It is pretty cool, some days I just write one or two sentences. They send you an email everyday asking "how was your day". Kind of a fun way to document life without having to post a whole story.

We are doing good. Looking forward to Halloween. Ian has decided to be Super Why and Ryan wants to be a Ninja. We'll see how the whole thing works out. Bill and Sandy are going to be here this weekend which will be great. It has been forever since I have spent any time with them. Greg, his Mom and Jeff have a cooking class on Sunday afternoon, so we should be eating good the next week!!

Lately, I have been getting together with some girlfriends from High School and their kids once a week. It has been awesome to catch up with them.

Preschool is going okay for the boys, Ian is still doing very well although we would like to see him using more words and communicating better. Ryan is still struggling from day to day, but the drop offs have been much easier. He basically knows the schedule now so that helps. The teachers mentioned he tends to just keep his head down and play by himself. He doesn't communicate at all with the teachers or the other kids. Tracy from NWRESD has been going into his class every other week to help him with that. I am also looking into Play Connections as a possible way to get him some more help. Ideally, I would like to find another autism specific class I can drop him off at once a week for a few hours for intensive work. I called there today and am anxiously awaiting a call back.

The weather is getting COLD and the heat has kicked on a few times. I have really been enjoying the sunshine in the afternoon, but I know that won't last too much longer. I am taking advantage of it as much as possible.

I volunteered at the Children's Relief Nursery for four hours last Saturday and it was so great. I was exhausted, painting and cleaning is hard work but it was so incredibly rewarding.

Pumpkin Patch

The boys and I decided to hit the pumpkin patch on Monday mid morning and take advantage of the sunny weather. They had a great time climbing on the hay bales, going through the tunnel and playing in the pumpkin patch. They each picked out a pumpkin to bring home. We had a wonderful day.

Costume's Galore

I can't seem to get the boys to settle on something for halloween costumes. Ryan wants to either be Super Why or a Ninja and Ian wants to either be Super Why or Spiderman. I only have one Super Why costume so it looks like I better get another one real quick! Ryan has had a tough day, but yesterday he was great. I am hoping he is starting to get into the routine of school, although I am parent helping tomorrow and he usual has harder days when I am there. I may be starting a new job with my old company. More to come on that. I might just be a couple of days a week for a few months to see how it goes. I am so torn, part of me wants to work and part of me wants to stay with the boys until they start full time school. I am not sure which way to go on this one. We have decided to discontinue Ryan's Monday class with the ESD because he is going to be receiving help from them directly at Small Friends and they can only do one or the other. Because of that I would like to start him in another type of "specialized" class once a week. Now that we have new insurance we may be able to go to the ArtzCenter.

Greg and I had a wonderful overnight in Corvallis on Saturday night. The weather was beautiful and the Beavers actually won so it was GREAT. I have missed that fun little town.