What all we've been up to

Wow! The last couple of weeks have just been jam-packed with activity! Stephen continues to do really well with swimming, and Erik and I have been taking him to the pool on Sundays to practice his moves - and it has been paying off! Our biggest challenge continues to be getting him to close his mouth in the pool. He is just so excited and happy, that the big grin is constantly plastered to his face when he's in the water - the perfect size for letting in a good bit of pool water! He has been doing really well with his kicking and paddling, though, and just this weekend, we were able to convince him to relax enough to get in to the floating position. While my parents were here, we built a train table for Stephen. I'd seen many online and in stores, but none were quite the right size for Stephen's train set. He will also be able to use this for Legos, cars... whatever he wants! The really big and exciting thing that we have been working on lately has been communication with the iPad. We started out using one program for about 2 weeks, but it became to difficult to program, so we switched to a program called Proloquo2go. Here's what the screen he uses looks like:

He is doing very well with it, but is better so far at tapping than swiping, so I have to make sure he has the correct options available whenever we are using it to talk to each other. Today, in fact, he did a little bit of spontaneous "talking" with it. He hadn't wanted to eat the oatmeal I made him for breakfast, so I asked him if he watned something else, and he used the iPad to say "I want something to eat." I asked him if he wanted a Nutrigrain bar, and he answered, "yes, yes, yes." We are primarily using it so that he can answer questions right now, and he's really starting to get the hang of it!

Stephen continues to be more and more independent. He has taken to going to the pantry when he wants something to eat (usually Teddy Grahams or Vanilla Wafers). He opens the doors, gets what he wants, closes the doors, and brings me his "prize."

Last Friday, we went to the zoo with some new friends to see the new Elephant exhibit. I'll get pictures of that next time, but it was QUITE impressive!

Stephen was very engaged with the animals during this visit. Usually, he'll go see them for a few seconds, and then he's ready to move on. This time, however, he really wanted to watch the animals - especially his favorites, the gorillas!

His new friend is a little girl named Audrey. If you can believe it, she is actually THREE, but she is very tiny. I'm not used to seeing Stephen tower over another child to that extent...

I loved this picture, because both kids were so focused on their drinks, and completely oblivious to the otter doing water acrobatics next to them! Stephen and Audrey really hit it off, and Stephen even tried holding her hand a couple of times.

So it's been a fun, and busy couple of weeks around here! I don't anticipate it being any less busy any time soon, but I'll try to be better about updating.

Being a big boy

Lately, Stephen has been doing some big boy things. I haven't yet gotten a picture of the funniest thing that he does as a "big boy" - he likes to go to the pantry and pick out his own snack. He opens the doors, and roots around until he finds something he wants (usually Teddy Grahams or Vanilla Wafers...), gets it out, closes the door, and brings the box to either Mom or Dad. Hysterical!

Stephen's grandparents are visiting from Tucson, and one day, Grandma needed to move the car in the driveway, so Stephen went for a ride (don't worry, they didn't even go on to the street!).



Now that the weather has gotten nicer again, we've been able to go back to the park. And when we go to the playground, Stephen RUNS everywhere! He especially loves the tube slide still...

This time, Stephen hightailed it to the "big" swing. We asked him several times if he was sure he wanted to try it, as in the past he has been less than successful at balancing himself and holding on well, but he insisted. He did really well with it! He really enjoyed the big swing, and didn't fall off once! Next up, we'll have to work on pumping his legs.

Since this week was spring break, there were no swim lessons, but at his last lesson last week, his dad reported that he actually blew a bubble in the pool. Only one, but it was better than his regular behavior of DRINKING the pool water! Since we didn't have lessons this week, we've been taking him to open swim time at the YMCA for practice. Stephen has already come a long way when it comes to jumping in!

Daddy

Stephen was pretending to be Daddy by wearing his sunglasses...

He also likes to sneak upstairs to his office and sit in the desk chair. The boy loves his daddy for sure!

Well, THAT was unexpected!!

Did you know that some 4 year olds get loose teeth? I thought it was a little early, but, there is is! He didn't fall, or bang his mouth on anything... but a loose tooth certainly explains his strange eating behavior over the past few days.

And as you can see, it really doesn't bother him, although I've noticed him investigating with his tongue quite a bit... I guess the Tooth Fairy will be making a stop here tonight!

We had some beautiful weather over the weekend, and on Sunday, we decided to hit the zoo. Stephen was mostly just excited to be outside, and happy that he didn't have to watch out for icy patches on the ground when he walked. He was excited about going to see the primates, of course, but was disillusioned by the giraffes. We have a new book that is about a giraffe named Gerald who dances, and Stephen was disappointed that the giraffes at our zoo were just standing around.

Stephen hit a MAJOR milestone today - he FINALLY jumped. He had a little support from his dad, but he did it on his own. Better late than never!

Swimming!!!

Last week, Stephen started SWIM LESSONS!!!! I didn't take my camera the first time, but I did the second. He is going to lessons 2 evenings a week, and there are 4 other little boys in his class.

Here he was, waiting very patiently for class to begin. I just asked him to sit down with me, and he did, and didn't even try to leave until class was ready to begin.

The teacher takes each student around to practice either kicking or paddling (or both). For the first 2 classes, he wouldn't do either consistently, but today, he was kicking and paddling at the same time!

He is very good about waiting his turn...

He really enjoyed swimming with the noodle, and seemed more comfortable doing that than when the teacher was holding on to him.


At the end of the lesson, all of the kids jump to the teacher, and do a quick dunk. Stephen very frequently gets excited and opens his mouth, instead of closing when he goes under... we're working on that!

Stephen has really been enjoying himself swimming! He is very comfortable in the water, and really loves everything he's doing. We are hoping that he will be able to swim using his floaties by the time we go to Tucson again. He was comfortable floating in them, and trying to move around a little bit, but we want him to be able to paddle, and kick, and hopefully blow some bubbles. It seems promising so far!

Snowpocalypse 2011

Last Monday night (January 31), the freezing rain began to fall, and by the end of the day Tuesday, we had received over 12" of snow at our house. We knew the storm was coming for over a week beforehand, so the Friday before that, Stephen and I decided to take advantage of the 70* weather, and head out to the zoo.

Stephen had been climbing the bench, and I believe this hand gesture was in response to my request that we go and actually see some ANIMALS at the zoo. I believe what he was trying to tell me was that we'd go in "this much" time.


It was good that we enjoyed that weather when we did, because by Tuesday at lunchtime, this is what we saw out the dining room window.

Erik wanted to get a preliminary round of shoveling in because he didn't want it to be even harder to get rid of the next day. He was outside doing this during 50mph wind gusts, and the snow was still falling...



Even the outside toys got covered!

Stephen enjoyed a screening of Fantasia 2000. He particularly enjoyed the segment featuring Beethoven's 5th Symphony!

The sun came out on Wednesday, but with wind chills well below 0, we stayed inside again.

But don't worry - we found things to do to stay busy! Of course, we did a lot more than this... we played with stickers, worked with the peg board, spelled words, played piano, played train, trucks, cars, read books, and used the Tag Reader.

Finally, on Saturday, we went out to play in the snow! Stephen didn't have any snow boots this year, since he outgrew last year's pair, but we made do with a pair of rain boots.

Here, Stephen was attempting to roll a big snowball like his Dad.

It worked better with some help...
So, that's how we spent the first Blizzard of 2011. We are expecting another snow storm beginning tomorrow, with 7-12" of snow forecasted, and wind chills below 0 again, so tomorrow will likely be Stephen's last day of school for the week. Hopefully, though, he'll still get to go for his FIRST SWIM LESSON tomorrow night!!