It's days like this that I waited for

Yesterday was GREAT! Buddy was in the greatest mood. No attitude, no crying, just happy laughs. Potty training was great. No accidents. Karate was great. He went on the mat and was loud and did everything asked of him. He even earned 2 elastics. He acted up with Colin (the older 3 year old there). It was pretty funny to see them playing together and getting into trouble together. He's never reached out to the other kids before. We got there early and he went on the mat with Mr. Lovely alone for about 15 minutes. He then even waited on the mat for class to start. I'm not sure if this is what helped or if it was the vanilla ice cream with extra chocolate sauce to keep him awake because he hadn't napped. His father showed up 1/2 way through and was amazed and how well he was doing.

I'm not sure what happened last night though. About 1:30 he woke up. When I went in he was upset about shadows in his room. He kept asking to come sleep in my bed with me. I kept explaining to him that he needed to sleep in his room and tried to get rid of all the shadows. I finally crawled back in bed about 4:45. Uuuuggghhh.... I'm dragging bum today.

A little accident or 2

3 pee's in his pants and a poop as Pepere was asking him if he needed to go :(. We made a new rule. If you go in your pants, you put a car back into the bucket. The afternoon he did great and so far so good today.

OMG... Maybe just a fluke?

Today, he went all day in just his underwear. NO ACCIDENTS :). He even made a poop on the potty. His first time. When he got up he started crying and was yelling at Pepere to "get it out". Pepere was the wonderful man he is and explained that it's ok and what to do with it. Crisis averted. I am just so amazed at how well he is doing with it.

Karate. We are at our wits end. I don't get it. I don't get why it was ok and now it's not. I don't get why he won't go out on the darn mat. I DON'T GET IT. Jimmie is so frustrated. He spent yesterday yelling and Ryan spent the day crying. Yep. Great progress. Maybe he is just too young. I worry that if we don't stick this out, we are setting ourselves up for failure in many things to come. I feel that we need to do this for him. We will try again on Wednesday. Mr. Lovely said we could come in a 1/2 hour early to work alone with him. That would be great except it takes an act of congress just to get him there for class, nevermind earlier. Part of the problem yesterday is that he was awoke from his nap to go. Lately, his naps are not consistant and are getting later. I'm not sure if he's trying to give them up but he is a bear when he skips them so I feel like he still needs them. I think this is part of our Karate problem. He is either overtired come 5 o'clock because he hasn't slept or he was awoken from his nap and is a bear. I will try to get him there a little early on Wednesday to see if it will help at all. Stay tuned...

Mommy.... I went pee pee!!!!

A couple of weeks ago, I went shopping and bought a boadload of Matchbox cars and Hotwheels. I put them into a basket and called it the pee pee bucket. I explained to him that eash time he went potty, he would be able to pick a car. It was really sporadic for a couple of weeks. He would only go when prompted. On Thursday, Mackenzie came over in her big girl panties. She was doing great going on the potty. This must have intrigued my little wonder. He wore big boy underwear all weekend and did great! He would tell me when he needed to pee and ran over to the potty. I am so proud of him. I knew he would do it when he was ready. It looks like now may be the time.

No karate on Saturday. There was a match out of town. Today is Monday. Let's see what tonight brings.

I am so happy. Ryan had PT this morning. He hadn't been in 3 weeks because of scheduling conflicts. New Jen put him through a small test and he has already met quite a few of his goals. He was asking he to do the hard stuff and she is jsut amazed by him. His abs are still weak so we will keep working on those. I am so proud of my little buddy.

Karate....

On Saturday morning, before we left for camp, I took Ryan to Karate while Jimmie slept. He did GREAT :). It really doesn't matter that he was the only kid there does it?

Monday night was Belt Ceremony. Of course, Ryan wouldn't be getting a new belt but he would be getting his patches for his uniform. The place was packed with people. And guess what... Ryan did GREAT. He was on the mat and did everything asked and even went up and got his stuff. I think I've figured it out though. I think he felt safer on the mat than he did on the floor because there were so many people sitting on the floor. Kind of ironic how it worked out.


Wedensday was just me and him at Karate. Yep, it stunk again :(. He wouldn't go on the mat so I made sure he understood that he needed to sit and watch and that if he was too tired to go on, then we needed to go home and go to bed. When they took a break, I finally got him on. He wouldn't go to his point tough and was jsut playing in the mirrors. Ms Lovely said it was great that he was just on the mat and it was ok. When he tried to run past her, she held him on a point for 2 minutes. He screamed bloody murder. But once it was done, I held him and calmed him down and got him right back on the mat. At that point class was done but he seemed fine so we will see how he reacts on Saturday. This is becoming almost fun. Ms Lovely did say that it took one of the other kids 1 1/2 months to even step on the mats. That was a little encourgement.

I just wanted to update on his new meltdowns. They have slowed down greatly and we have been able to manage them much better. I think we are over that little bump in the road. Let's see what is next on the horizon.

On Saturday, we left to spend a couple of days at a camp on Sebago Lake with Jimmie's family. They rent a huge camp and everyone stays over. The weather wasn't the greatest, but we had a good time. Ryan slept with us in a king size bed and did wonderful. He LOVED playing in the sand on the beach. We really need to get working on building his sandbox before he turns 18. We left early Monday afternoon to head back because there was a belt ceremony for Karate that night that we didn't want him to miss. We really wish we had been able to spend more time with the family and let him play with his cousins longer. He really idolizes Jack. It's amazing how much he looks up to the little man. The kids all play so great together. We are going to try to get together with all the kids in August. I need to make that a Must do.

Karate.... it's killing me. Ryan started Karated 3 weeks ago. His first 3 sessions were wonderful. He had a great time and participated fully. Nothing happened to change this. However, since then, he sits on the bench and looks scared. He won't join in. This is the whole reason we decided to enroll him. He is socially handicapped. He is scared of other children. I know this is our fault but we are trying to correct it. He has not had many playdates with children his own age and when we take him to the playground he is beyond cautious and it limits his ability to have fun. Living where we do, the opportunity just isn't great to get out and be with a group of other children frequently. Mr & Mrs Lovely at Karate are wonderful. They have dealt with this many times are trying to help us to help him to work through it. Their patience is amazing. On Saturday, we will have another go at it, just Ryan and I. Wish us luck :). I would like him to be a whole lot more comfortable around kids before he starts pre-school in September.

Does every kid like a Hooker as mush as mine? Does every kid run around the house looking for his Hooker? You know, tow trucks or cars with a little hook on the back to pull other cars. What were you thinking???

On July 4th, I decided to sleep in a little bit. When I got up, Ryan was in his room playing with his "B" (pacifier) in his mouth. I had been prepping him for a couple of weeks that it was almost time to throw them away and that he didn't need them anymore. He had been really good about using it mostly just for bedtime and naptime. When I saw it in his mouth, I got annoyed and said "Oh, is it no more B day?" He jumped up from playing, gathered up the 3 that were in his room, walked over to the trash and threw them in. He then said that he needed to go get Memere's. We went to Memere's where he found all of their B's and walked to the trash and threw them away. We then went back home to his naptime cup and he dumped those into the trash. I wasn't sure what was going on and if this was going to be for real so I went behind him and pulled a couple back out and washed them and then hid them. That day when it was nap time, he asked for his B and I reminded him that he threw them away and it was a no more B day. That was the end of it. At bedtime, he again nonchalanty asked for his B and I reminded him where they were. Last week was really rough. He didn't ask for them but I hadn't realized what a crutch they had been for him to wind down when he was upset and for bedtime. When he would be upset, he would take a break on the couch with one. I had no idea it would affect him they way it did. We spent the week with a little tazmanian devil who was lost. We tried to teach him that when you need some time to calm down, you just go sit down someplace quiet and take a couple of minutes to yourself. This seems to have made a world of difference. This week he is only 1/2 a tazmanian devil.

We spent this past Saturday in North Conway, NH. They were hosting "A Day Out With Thomas". If you know anything about Ryan, you know that he is obssessed with Thomas the Train. It overflows our living room and plays in the van when we drive. If you ever get the chance to do this, DO IT. It was wonderful! He smiled from the minute we got out of the van until he fell asleep on the way home. We took a small train ride that was simply perfect. He was so excited. It was well organized and a great time. He is still talking about it.

Last night, we went to the top of the hill in the back yard to pick blueberries. It seems kind of early this year but there were plenty of them ready. We picked just a handful or so and walked back down and sat on the swing. Then he got his little bucket and went back to pick some more. When he returned, he had 3 blueberries LOL. He ate them and then went back for more, again and again. I think some people may think this is some form of child abuse but I look at it as great exercise :). When he got tired of eating them he fed the rest to the dogs. Boy do they love him.

Just trying to set this thing up :)