Wordless Wednesday

The Summer in Review...a Picture Parade

Since I have been so remiss in posting this summer, I thought I would provide a recap of our very busy summer using pictures I have of the different events.

First up, after finishing kindergarten, Henry teamed up with a couple of girls from our congregation to host a "Let's Get this Summer Started" swim party. A fun time was had by both the old and the young in attendance. We really had perfect weather and enjoyed the company of our dear friends from Austin. Here is Henry with his co-hostesses in front of the fabulous cake the other mom made.

In the month of June, while we had an extremely busy month, I don't have a lot of pictures to show for it. Here is a picture of the "girls" from the girls only trip I went on to Disney World. We're missing Tammy, as she was taking the picture.

Here are some pictures of Henry from our District Convention. Henry did great. Someone had sent me a kids version of a notebook for the program and Henry enjoyed following along. Of course, the highlight for him was the drama on Sunday. (A funny side story here: When I reminded Henry on Sunday morning that the drama would be that afternoon, he declared: "There's two kinds of drama. First, the one that is like a play like we will see today, and then there is the drama that I create when I am in a crabby mood." Yep, buddy, you got that right!)

Before Henry and I took off for our month in Chicago, Leslie wanted a special day for her and Henry. She arranged to take him to a special dinosaur exhibit. She knows a way to a boys heart. They had a great time.

So Henry and I headed off to Chicago for the month of July. The very first weekend we were there we realized our timing would coincide with another JW family that I have corresponded with via email. Another single mom with a great little boy from Kaz was going to be in the Chicago area and we were able to coordinate our schedules to enjoy dinner together at the Rainforest Cafe. And thus, another great friendship was born. Amanda, it was great to meet you and your mom and your wonderful little Bo. We sure enjoyed our evening with you and hated when it had to end. Here's a photo of the new friends:

We also got to spend the day with a friend of mine that I had lost touch with a couple of decades ago. It was wonderful to spend a day with her and her husband while visiting the Lincoln Park Zoo. We had a surprise encounter while we were there with Ms. Lori from PBS Kids.

After we got home from Chicago, we had three more weeks until school started. So Henry attended a summer camp hosted by the park district in the town that we live. He got to do a lot of fun things while he was here, like go to the movies, go to the Museum, go to the Kemah Boardwalk, swimming, and a lot of just hanging out and playing with other kids. Here he is headed off for his first day:

He also got to attend Jack's "First Day of School Party" at Jumpin Jacks. This is a big room filled with an inflatable jumpie, a HUGE inflatable slide, and an inflatable bungie race track. Again, a great time was had by all. Here is Henry, along with the Host with the Most, Jack!

Henry also managed to lose two more teeth, both on the bottom, this summer. Here is a shot with a nice goofy grin that highlights those new holes in his head:

And finally, to celebrate the end of summer and the start of school, we had a small gathering at Chuck E. Cheese with Henry's best friend, Jack and family. In case you hadn't noticed, we celebrate at the drop of a hat!!

Look for "First Day of School" pictures coming soon....

Wordless Wednesday

Spring Break II

So, it's Spring Break and we tried to think of cool and different things to do. Since we are members at the Zoo and haven't been in a million years, we decided to check it out on Wednesday. So we headed out after lunch.

Not sure what I was thinking, but we got caught in construction traffic in the Medical Center. What should have been a 5 minute drive took well over 40 minutes. Add to that the fact that the police had closed off all of the turn lanes we needed to aid in traffic flow, and let's just say that we were very glad to get out of the car.

Nana had joined us, and we all agreed to head straight to the giraffes to check out the new baby. The Zoo was as crowded as I had ever seen it, but Henry was really enjoying himself.

We had some great peeks at the giraffes, elephants, lions and tiger and bears (oh my!), as well as the cheetahs, jaguars and lesser-known elands. In between, we also managed an little snack (root beer floats for Nana and Mama, and a cherry icee for the boy) and a ride on the carousel.

Fortunately, we were all content with the abbreviated trip and headed home for a wonderful crock pot meal with Nana and Papa.

So on Thursday, we decided to head to Brenham to tour the Blue Bell Ice Cream factory. I had looked it up online, so I knew they had made special arrangements for Spring Break. But I had never taken Henry for the tour and Papa seemed excited about it too. So we decided to head out right after breakfast

En route, we ran across several large patches of Texas Blue Bonnets. Anyone from Texas knows it is tradition to take pictures of the kiddos with the Blue Bonnets...it's just something you gotta do. Here are the ones we snapped this year;

After we passed this patch, we passed several more that were even larger. But we decided that we had our shots and we pressed on. We heard ice cream calling our name.

We arrived in Brenham shortly after 11 a.m. All of our jaws dropped to the ground when we drove passed the Blue Bell factory. The lawn in front of the plant was covered with a snaking line of people. There were tents up, and even bouncies that looked like gallon tubs of ice cream.

There were men at each of the parking lot entrances holding signs that read "Lot Full", but at last, we were waved in to take the place of a car that was pulling out. Whew. We piled out of the car and headed to the end of the snaking line. After we had been in line for about 10-15 minutes, we reached the "check-in" point. We were advised that if we remained in line, we could expect to be called for our tour at 1:40 p.m. Yikes...it was now 11:30 a.m. That meant waiting in line for more than 2 hours. We hadn't planned for this and hadn't eaten lunch or even packed a snack. But, we'd driven this far, we decided to tough it out.

These folks knew how to manage a crowd. As we waited, employees walked around and passed out ice cream hats.

Even better, they handed out free ice cream sandwiches. Granted, they were the miniature bars. But since we were at the factory itself, it was the freshest ice cream sandwich I had ever eaten. They also had strategically placed coolers filled with ice cold water that they provided on a complimentary basis.

They also were scooping ice cream for the nominal fee of $1 a bowl. Shortly after we got in line, Nana, Papa and Henry headed off for their first scoop of ice cream. After they returned to hold our place in line, it was my turn to go and get a scoop. Yum Yum, ice cream before lunch!

It was amazing how quickly those two hours passed. And before we knew it, we were being led into the factory to take our turn. It was very interesting to see the process of how the ice cream gets made. Henry even seemed a bit fascinated by it all and focused mostly on the production line that was making the vanilla. At the end of the tour, we were all given ANOTHER scoop of ice cream...yep, that makes two scoops of ice cream BEFORE lunch.

After the tour, we were hungry for food, so we headed to Chapel Hill and ate at the Bever's Kitchen, where we all ordered chicken fried chicken...some of the best we've had. And then, it was the long drive home.

For Friday, I decided to let Henry pick the activity of the day. I suggested we lunch at Rainforest Cafe, but then left it wide open as far as what he wanted to do. It took only a few moments for him to decide that he wanted to bowl. So that is what we did. We got to play three games...Henry won the first, I beat him for the other two. But he was a good sport about it and announced that he had fun.

We are planning on going to the Rodeo on Saturday. Stay tuned for that recap...

Wordless Wednesday

Yes, he understands you....

The rest of our weekend was absolutely lovely. On Saturday night, we helped celebrate Leslie's parents' anniversary. This had originally been scheduled to occur the weekend that Ike hit. At long last, we were able to coordinate schedules. A grand time was had by all. Henry had fun playing with his buddy Jack and cooing with baby David. He LOVES shrimp, so I ordered a combo that included grilled shrimp and he was quite the happy camper.

On Sunday, we went to Benihana's for lunch...always a favorite of ours. Henry enjoys it as long as I confirm with the chef that he will not make fire at our table. Of course, he again ordered shrimp. So it was a shrimp kind of weekend for him.

Afterward, we decided to do a spot of shopping since we were right there at the mall. Hmmm, you know how they say you should never go food shopping on an empty stomach. I think it should be added that you should never go clothes shopping for adorable little boys on a content stomach. I went a little crazy. I can't wait to post some pictures of the cute outfits we picked up.

The rest of the day was spent at home. I wish we could say were were lounging, or watching football. But there is currently a TV ban in the house (at least for everyone 5 and under). So instead, Henry spent some time practicing his piano (we started lessons again last week). I like his new teacher, at least so far. The most important feature: he's 2 minutes from home. I also think that Henry will benefit from having a male teacher.

Me, I was working on a "project". Henry did great keeping himself occupied while I work. After piano practice, he played in the backyard with his sand and water table. He's really been enjoying that. He usually will blame his invisible "co-worker" for getting all wet and sandy while playing. Too funny. Afterwards, he got some of his cars and just zoomed them around...never too far from me.

And sweet Leslie ran off to do our grocery shopping. Fortunately, it was a short list for our short week and she wasn't gone long. The most important item she brought home was the fly swatter. Ever since Hurricane Ike, we've had two obnoxious houseflies that we just could NOT get rid of. They're both gone now. Yippeeee!

So, now, to the title of the post. As mentioned earlier, there is a one-week TV ban in process here. Apparently, Henry has made some choices at school to not listen to the instructions he has been given by his teachers. This has resulted in discpline while in school and even gotten to the point that phone calls and notes home have been involved.

I was beginning to wonder if this was strictly a behavioral issue or if there was something more at play. Since I stay involved in the adoption community, I am aware that there are cetain things that are prevalant among "post-institutionalized" children, including sensory issues, high-functioning autism, attachment disorders, etc. I try to be vigilant in looking for signs that he might need help. After all of these issues at school, I thought maybe he was having some auditory processing issues (failure to understand what was being asked of him).

The timing worked out that a speech therapist was doing a screening at Henry's school last Friday. One of the things you could request screening for was auditory processing. I figured it wouldn't hurt to have him checked out since the opportunity to do so pretty much fell in my lap. So I left a note requesting what I wanted checked and granting permission for the therapist to also speak to his teachers. I got the results when I picked him up this evening.

Basically, he is in the 98th percentile for his age group in his auditory processing skills. So yes, he understands (well) what is being asked of him, he's just excercising his free will to choose not to comply. :-) Looks like there may be more TV bans in my future. (On a good note, I got word from two of his teachers today about the awesome day he had!)

And just for your visual enjoyment, I'll include a couple of pictures. The first is Henry while eating dinner last night. He's got the wink down pat.

And this is a picture of Henry's bean plant that he brought home from Zoo Camp (in August). We were excited when it sprouted and grew, and since then, it's just gone gangbusters. If you'll look, you'll see a beanpod (or whatever they're called) that is about the size of my pinky. There are two more blooms that will turn into beanpods, too. I doubt we'll be able to make a meal out of the produce we reap, but it's been a fun little project that Henry has enjoyed. Besdies, we don't even know what kind of beans they are.

Zoo Camp - Henry's Artwork

Here is Henry's artwork from Zoo Camp this week:

Zoo Camp - Adventures in the Rainforest

Henry spent this week at the Houston Zoo attending zoo camp. He was a little worried at the start of the week, knowing that he wouldn't know anyone there. But I assured him that he would have so much fun.

As it turns out, it has rained every day. Maybe it won't rain today, but the jury is still out. Regardless, the camp was prepared and the kids had ponchos that they wore when it was raining (as long as it wasn't thundering and lightening).

Seems like Henry has enjoyed himself and has shared all kinds of little tidbits he's learned throughout the week. He was excited that he got to touch a turtle. They are planning on riding the carousel today.

A couple of cute stories from the week: He had an "incident" with one of the other students yesterday...all very innocent. But Henry decided that he might have hurt his back and needed an ice pack. I mentioned to the teacher that Henry can be quite dramatic about things, and she conceded that they had already noticed that.

Also, on the first day of camp, Henry reported that he had been separated from the group twice. The next morning, he further embellished his separation stories to tell me that he had spent too long in the bathroom and the group had moved on without him. Well, I must say I was wondering what kind of camp this was that was allowing my 5 year old to get left behind in the bathroom. On Tuesday morning, I spoke with the head teacher, who reported that Henry had never gotten separated from the group. Turns out that Henry was just very concerned about getting separated and wanted to make sure I talked to the teacher "in case" he got separated. I think he just needed the reassurance that it wouldn't happen.

Car Dancing

Henry decided that we should dance in the car on the way to Zoo Camp this morning. It was an excellent idea and we had a great selection of music thanks to KidStuff (on Sirius Satellite Radio). It really got me going and I think it woke us both up to have a great day.

We started off doing a freeze dance to "Where's the Music?" by Medeski Martin and Wood. The music stops and starts, so it's perfect for freezes.

Next, what could be better than doing the "Hokey Pokey", sung by Dan Zanes? We had fun, especially in the "shake it all about" sections. Henry suggested that the tongue should be added as one of the body parts.

Finally, our friend Sebastian sang "Under the Sea". Henry decided this was a good song to practice his speed dancing. He announced whether he was dancing Adagio, Moderato, Allegro, or Presto. Presto was his favorite as it was very fast and crazy. (Many of you will recognize these terms from Little Einsteins.)