Me: "I love you, dude"
Cy: "I not dude, I Cyrus"
27 April 2011
20 April 2011
Gymnastics
Today, Rejeanne did this:
I think Rejeanne is amazing. I really do. I've been wanting to get her to try gymnastics because it is a way she can be up high and doing wild stuff without getting in trouble. She has incredible balance, too! Unfortunately, with any endeavor, there is the autism in the way of immediate satisfaction. It usually requires a few sessions of her curled into a ball howling before she's willing to even take a look at what you want her to do. With this grand gymnastics experiment, I thought if I could try to prep her with YouTube videos of gymnasts doing awesome stuff, it might make her more willing to participate when she saw the equipment.
I don't know if it was the prep, the actual full night's sleep she had last night, or just purely the grace of God, but Rejeanne actually warmed up and participated at her FIRST gymnastics class!!! She rolled the ball, went into the ball pit, spent a TON of time on the balance beam, got on the tramp, and was SO FLIPPIN' HAPPY!! She was chattering the whole time. She let a stranger pick her up out of the ball pit. She said she had fun. She was so excited. I seriously almost started crying. I can't remember the last time she was so happy, talkative and engaged. I'm so thankful for the upper elementary principal/gym coach, the gymnastics student and the parks dept who all had a hand in giving Rejeanne a chance to do this.
I wish I had thought to get a video of it. Maybe I will try to sneak one next time!
I think Rejeanne is amazing. I really do. I've been wanting to get her to try gymnastics because it is a way she can be up high and doing wild stuff without getting in trouble. She has incredible balance, too! Unfortunately, with any endeavor, there is the autism in the way of immediate satisfaction. It usually requires a few sessions of her curled into a ball howling before she's willing to even take a look at what you want her to do. With this grand gymnastics experiment, I thought if I could try to prep her with YouTube videos of gymnasts doing awesome stuff, it might make her more willing to participate when she saw the equipment.
I don't know if it was the prep, the actual full night's sleep she had last night, or just purely the grace of God, but Rejeanne actually warmed up and participated at her FIRST gymnastics class!!! She rolled the ball, went into the ball pit, spent a TON of time on the balance beam, got on the tramp, and was SO FLIPPIN' HAPPY!! She was chattering the whole time. She let a stranger pick her up out of the ball pit. She said she had fun. She was so excited. I seriously almost started crying. I can't remember the last time she was so happy, talkative and engaged. I'm so thankful for the upper elementary principal/gym coach, the gymnastics student and the parks dept who all had a hand in giving Rejeanne a chance to do this.
I wish I had thought to get a video of it. Maybe I will try to sneak one next time!
14 April 2011
04 April 2011
New Year Neglect
Well, I'm sure I've lost my 3 readers by now. If not, then you all are a hardy bunch! Life has had a lot of twists and turns since the new year, the end result being that I get to focus on the kids and my health and let Lee handle the rest. For me, this is a huge leap of faith. I trust in baby steps. The longer we are together, the more steps I make. Anyways, I guess I don't feel much like explaining this other than to say that I feel like things are finally the way they should be. It's like working on a Rubik's Cube for years on end and then all the sudden looking down and realizing you FINALLY solved it, but have no clue how. I'm not sure which one of us was trying to solve the puzzle, but it seems good now.
Speaking of puzzles, Cyrus LOVES them. He could do puzzles all day long. He's also very good at puzzles. Hopefully tomorrow I will have a few minutes to post a video of his first attempt at the 50 States puzzle. I really thought it would be way too hard for him, but he did it really well for the first try. Of course, his almost 3-year-old attention span kicked in so it is more like the 15 States puzzle, but his mad puzzle skillz are evident. Cyrus is an awesome little guy. He's totally my little buddy. He always likes to show me everything he sees and is always asking me what things are called or why things are a certain way. I love it!! I never got to have the "why" phase with my girls. I know this particular phase drives most parents to the brink of insanity, but I LOVE the incessant questions. It's like watching their little brains functioning in high gear.
Crimson is doing great. She's been having fun with her friends and doing good in school. She's been very diligent in reminding me to read scriptures with her. I'm really thankful for that because I tend to forget until the house is quiet (i.e., everyone but me is sleeping).
Rejeanne has decided that pouring water on top of Crimson's footlocker, then scootching her naked butt around in it to make splashy noises is the BEST.HOBBY.EVER. so if anyone has some advice on how to get her to find a new hobby, I'm all ears. (We've already tried letting her become semi-amphibious by spending hours on end in the tub. It didn't work.)
Crimson is not a fan of the aforementioned hobby of Rejeanne. The footlocker is really Crimson's only true personal space. It is being rather rudely violated several times a day. *sigh*
So, my life is mostly chaos-filled, but I feel like it is slowly coming back under control. Things are good and happy. I like good and happy.
Speaking of puzzles, Cyrus LOVES them. He could do puzzles all day long. He's also very good at puzzles. Hopefully tomorrow I will have a few minutes to post a video of his first attempt at the 50 States puzzle. I really thought it would be way too hard for him, but he did it really well for the first try. Of course, his almost 3-year-old attention span kicked in so it is more like the 15 States puzzle, but his mad puzzle skillz are evident. Cyrus is an awesome little guy. He's totally my little buddy. He always likes to show me everything he sees and is always asking me what things are called or why things are a certain way. I love it!! I never got to have the "why" phase with my girls. I know this particular phase drives most parents to the brink of insanity, but I LOVE the incessant questions. It's like watching their little brains functioning in high gear.
Crimson is doing great. She's been having fun with her friends and doing good in school. She's been very diligent in reminding me to read scriptures with her. I'm really thankful for that because I tend to forget until the house is quiet (i.e., everyone but me is sleeping).
Rejeanne has decided that pouring water on top of Crimson's footlocker, then scootching her naked butt around in it to make splashy noises is the BEST.HOBBY.EVER. so if anyone has some advice on how to get her to find a new hobby, I'm all ears. (We've already tried letting her become semi-amphibious by spending hours on end in the tub. It didn't work.)
Crimson is not a fan of the aforementioned hobby of Rejeanne. The footlocker is really Crimson's only true personal space. It is being rather rudely violated several times a day. *sigh*
So, my life is mostly chaos-filled, but I feel like it is slowly coming back under control. Things are good and happy. I like good and happy.
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