Barry’s Daily Web News

Sean Practices His Social Skills

I took Sean to a make-up gym class tonight, and to mix things up, we went early, then stopped at McDonalds afterwards for dinner.

While at McDonalds, Sean talked to virtually everyone there. He was very chatty with the person taking our order. Later, he asked each one of the kids in the play area if they would play with him. He even talked to some of the adults. He asked one person what he was eating. The answer was “ice cream”. Of course Sean really wanted ice cream himself, but since he did not eat a full dinner, he did not get it. That made for a tough situation when it was time to leave, but I stuck to my guns, and eventually got Sean home and to bed.

Pizza (Story) Night

The theme for story time at the library tonight was pizza. Sean kept saying how he liked crunchy pizza, although I have never seen him eat pizza and like it. Ethan kept alternating between “yum, yum” and “yucky”. I don’t think he recognizes the dichotomy of these two choices. Sean and Ethan were both well behaved, and Ethan sat patiently through the stories, so it was relaxing time for me.

We had a new storyteller tonight, whom I think is just the day shift person. She was surprised at Sean and Ethan’s enthusiasm in singing the “Happy and You Know It” song. Sean and Ethan alone were enough to fill the room with sound while shouting “hooray”. This was a good thing, since story time wasn’t very crowded tonight.

A Windy Day

We had lots of wind today, which is a bit unusual for us. Other than the weather, today was a good day for me. A good day at work, Cortney fixed dinner with a new recipe (it was excellent, by the way), a fun game of Uno with Cortney and Sean, and gym class with Sean.

One of Sean’s favorite activities, jumping into the pit, was a bit different today. They refilled the pit with new foam cubes, so Sean had trouble getting out.

Oh, and Ethan likes his new sandals.

Ethan Gets New Shoes

Ethan has been wearing an old pair of sandals for what seems like forever. His toes are even with the front of the shoes, and the sandals are just plain falling apart. So our gameplan for today was to go to the outlet mall just after lunch, giving me time for to do yardwork in the morning.

At the shoe store, Ethan let me try on one pair of shoes before he became uncooperative. His first reaction was “too big”, which he has said the last few times we have tried to buy shoes for him. Since he would not give us a preference, we ended up buying the first pair of sandals he tried on, plus a pair of tennis shoes that are the same style that Sean has. Sean also gave us his approval of the sandals, so I think we made the best decision under the circumstances.

After dinner, I took the kids to the park. I put on my sandals, had Sean put on his sandals, and told Ethan he needed his new sandals to match Daddy and Sean. Well that didn’t work, and Ethan sat down on the floor and cried. I ended up picking up Ethan and carried him outside, where he at least walked to the park.

We had fun at the park, and Ethan did not complain about his shoes. After we came back, I asked Ethan if he liked his sandals, and he said yes. A good thing too, as I had already thrown his old sandals in the trash. I hope we over this issue.

Sean’s First Lego Project

Sean built his first Lego model this morning, an airplane. I don’t think he could have built it without my help, but he put at least 75% of it together, picking up the pieces and putting them together. Sean even made his own custom design modification, making an alternate tail section for the aircraft.

Sean wanted to keep on the Lego theme, so I opened up the Deep-
Sea Predators box, and made a shark, a squid, and an ugly deep-sea fish. Sean was fascinated with the Lego’s, watching me put together every piece. When I was done, he wanted me to help him carry the models up to his room, in order to display them next to the dinosaurs we worked on last weekend.

Cortney was out most of the day at her MOMS club luncheon, so I fed Sean and Ethan lunch, then took them to the park. It was a nice day, but a little hot in the sun. Neither Sean nor Ethan played as much as I expected, probably because it was too warm for them.

We finished the day with dinner out and a brief shopping trip to round out the evening.

Friday Night Fun

Cortney joined us for our trip for Sean’s swim lessons and then Burger King afterwards. Other than watching Ethan while Sean swims, I like this order of activities, since Sean and Ethan are nice and tired by bedtime.

Unfortunately, I’m tired myself. I taught a class at work for most of the week, and while teaching was fun, I found it to be draining. I want to get a good night’s sleep in order to fully enjoy the warm weather this weekend.

Gym Night

No trip to the park tonight, because we did not have time with Sean’s gym class. We did have time for a few games of Uno, and Cortney joined us as well.

Sean had another large gym class, with five students total. I was proud that Sean behaved when it wasn’t his turn, while the other students were all over the place. At the end of the class, the instructor had the kids run back and forth on the run to the vault, and it was chaos for a while as they kept running into each other. Sean, through no fault of his own, knocked some of the other kids down, just because he is heavier. At any rate, I happy that Sean still enjoys his gym class.

Back to the Park

We had really nice weather, with high’s in the 80’s today. I missed dinner with the family, but I took Sean and Ethan to the nearby park, which we call the dinosaur park, because of the purple dinosaur on the playground. We haven’t been to the park for over a month and a half, mainly due to the heavy rains we have had this winter.

Not only did Sean and Ethan play on the playground, but the played with a soccer ball another father brought to the park, and they played with a puppy as well.

We came back from the park in time to play a few hands of Uno before Sean’s bedtime.

Ethan Learns to Argue

Ethan has now learned to argue. I asked him what color his toy school bus was, and he said “orange”. I told him that it wasn’t orange, that it was yellow. He replied “not yellow”. This went on and on until I grew tired of it. At least Ethan has the negation thing down pat.

Mondays are Tough

I find Mondays to be the hardest days to write. Particularly every other Monday, like this one, where we have to straighten the house for the cleaners.

I’m teaching a class this week, and I thought I would have to work late, but the class ended early and I came home at the normal time. That left me time for dinner before taking Sean to gym class, but after the house cleaning, I’m beat. Hopefully more will be forthcoming tomorrow.

Time, the Most Valuable Commodity

Now that the weather is getting nicer, it has become more difficult to decide what to do with my time.

We were supposed to get more rain today, but even though we had a shower last night, it did not rain until late this afternoon. That allowed me to sneak out and get some yardwork done. Sean and Ethan came outside with me, and they actually played without getting into to much trouble and interfering with my work.

But back to my thesis. This afternoon, I starting thinking about the best way to spend the rest of the day. Should I spend more time outside doing yardwork, should I take the kids to the park, should I work on the taxes, should I spend more time indoors with the kids, should, should I read the growing pile of newspapers, should I work on home improvement projects, should I get ahead of some stuff I need to do for work, or should I just do nothing? Tough choices to make.

I settled for doing the laundry, taking a brief nap, skimming the newspaper, playing with Sean and Ethan indoors, and preparing for the training session I have to give at work tomorrow. Maybe not the best choice, but it will have to do.

I can see why people give up on a full night’s sleep, but if I do that, then I don’t have fun doing anything. I guess I can always look forward to retirement in twenty years, where I don’t have to worry about working for a living.

A Mixture of Activities

I managed to do many different things today. Shopping, play time at the mall, cooking, yardwork, building a Lego dinosaur for Sean, and Uno with Sean. All of the activities were fun, but I think I need a little more time for relaxing and resting.

A New Friday Routine

Sean has recently moved to the Goldfish class, the highest level class taught at the facility were Sean has his swim lessons. The Friday morning class was no longer available, so he now has a class at 4:30 PM. So, I came home from work early, took Sean and Ethan to Sean’s swim class, then went for dinner and play time at Burger King. This is quite a workout for Sean, but I think it is good for him. My only trouble is controlling Ethan during Sean’s swim lessons.

Sean’s Kindergarten Evaluation

Cortney and I went to Sean’s Kindergarten evaluation, while one of Cortney’s friends watched Sean and Ethan. I am pleased to report that Sean is now age appropriate in all categories, and above average academically. I was a little surprised to see it written this way, but Sean is no longer eligible for special services. Of course, Sean is allowed to finish the school year for preschool.

Sean has really come a long way since he started the services. My desire has always been for Sean to attend Kindergarten without any encumbrances, and now this has come to pass. Sean will still face challenges, but nothing that we won’t be able to over come in a normal environment. No one will be teasing my boy about riding the short bus to school - just kidding.

A Normal Day

Everything is back to normal. We thought Ethan might have an ear infection, since he has had some spontaneous crying, which isn’t like him at all. The doctor checked him over, but couldn’t find anything wrong with him.

I feel much better today after a full night’s sleep. I was able to be fully productive at work, and still come home and play Uno with Sean. The next time we plan a vacation like this, I will either drive back in the morning, or take off the next day at work. I guess a mini-vacation to recover from the vacation.