Da Boys

Da Boys of Summer!

Stephen pitching

Ryan (during our visit to Safety Town at Trevor's "graduation")

Trevor with his "graduation ribbon" at Safety Town

Some pictures

lazy days of summer

Trevor at the park on the last day of school
Mike and the boys at the Kane County Cougars game

Ryan and Toadie!

Close up of Toady - quite impressive!

Stephen sliding into home (after a triple he hit!)

IT"S SUMMER!

It already seems that the summer is half over and yet it is only June 17th. The kids got out on May 28th (rather early), so maybe that is why I feel the summer is half over!

We haven't done many big adventures, but everyday we are busy! Stephen has gone camping - canoing in Michigan! Stephen and Ryan are enrolled in a tennis camp. Stephen likes it, Ryan my "I hate sports" guy isn't so enthusiastic about it. Stephen is in baseball and he is a star player (it makes me so proud to see how well he does and how well liked he is and how much the team/coaches seem to really think he is very good! He pitches, catches and has also played short and 1st. He loves pitching and catching best. He is so much better at bat this year, the improvement is so amazing to me! He is also starting to really grow. last summer a size 2 in shoes, he is now a size 5!

Ryan is loving searching and digging for bugs and rocks! We have "wormie" our beetle that the 2nd graders each brought home. Next came Taddy - the tad pole we bought at the pet store. He passed on, guess he didn't like the food (we really took good care of him:( ) Then there was Toady - a big huge toad Ryan caught on his communion day. (I took that as a sign of good luck). After 3 days, we let him go. We didn't want him to go to Toady heaven and he didn't seem to be eating much in the terrarium. Then came Mr. Froggy. On a rainy day, we went on a hike with the Pack 215 hiking club (Cub Scouts). There were tons of itty bitty and not so itty bitty frogs. He caught a little tiny thing and that was Mr. Froggy. We weren't sure what to feed him, so we put in a food pelet we had from Taddy. Today after 4 days, we let him go (we didn't want him to die from not having the right food). And, on the way to tennis camp, we caught a butterfly in the car, but he then got away!

Now as for Trevor, well he plays with his buddy next door Harrison here and there and is my little man as we seem to go almost everywhere together. We are having a battle of wills right now as I am determined to have him potty trained before he is 4 and with a summer birthday, it means getting down to business (yes, pun intended!). He likes reading and playing parking lot with his cars and he loves watering the plants outside.

Next week Ryan starts summer school. Stephen will continue with Tennis camp Mon - Thurs as well as baseball in the evenings. We hopet o get to go to the pool, but haven't been yet (how can that be!!).

As far as healthwise, Trevor goes for another eye apt end of the month. His eye still turns in a lot without the glasses, so I'm sure he will continue wit the glasses. He will go to the endocrinologist again in Sept, but he is still tiny and not eating great. We are still supplementing his food. ryan is also very low on the charts - 2% for wieght. He is underweight about as much as Trevor is. His appetite had never been great, but since we upped his meds, its decreased even more. He doesn't care for meat much. He would eat fruits and veggies every day if I let him. He does like a hamburger from McDonalds now and again. We need to take him for another apt with his ADD doctor. I know they will want to change his medicine, so I've been putting it off. He really had a hard time the last weeks of school and I am just glad lgad the school year is finished.

Trevor will get speech again next year, but I think he will not need speech after that. He is really talking and alot of it is now understandable! I have on my list of things I want to do is spending 10 mins a day with Trevor practicing his letters, but so far we've only done it a couple of times! We always seem to be off to pick up Stephen or Ryan or at the grocery store!

As for me, I am trying to get some house projects done- mostly re-organizing and all kinds of things I put off the past couple of months. I'd been so busy this school year that I didn't get to things like cleaning out closets and getting music on my MP3 player and all that stuff. I did however manage to paint most of the 1st floor rooms. We had painters for the foyer and master, but I painted in the living room, front room, bathroom and kitchen accent wall.

I want to see about taking Stephen to a sox game this year. My friend gave me some "kids club vouchers" and stephen loves the sox! We don't have big vacation plans this year. Between the money spent for my root canal, crown, car work, new washer and dryer (aargh) and we still need to buy a new vaccum, we will probably do a "stacation" type of vaction (day trips!). We did get to the Kane County Cougars game and most of us enjoyed it (not sure about Ryan and trevor).

So far we are enjoying the "lazy days of Summer"!

The past month is a bit of a blur . . . . . Here's a small run down of what we've been doing the past month:

The start of baseball season for Stephen ( Stephen is doing well and a pretty good pitcher!)
Several happenings at school –

Umbrellas’ for Peace Project, - (awesome project with the artist Matt Lamb to promote world peace – I got to help the kids with their painting of the umbrellas )

4th grade state Fair – (Stephen did North Dakota – the kids are so talented and creative!)

Field Days – (didn’t see much of this one because it was changed days because of poss rain)
1st grade beach party – I didn’t get a chance to see this, but this was a very traumatic day for me and not Ryan – I’ll be blogging about that one for sure! I was not picked to be a room mom for the event, then come to find out the head room mom didn’t even come and I could have stepped in – maddening!!

Last Full day of school and School assembly (June 5th)

Stephen leaving after the last WHOLE day (friday)
Ryan at the year end assembly
In the car for our last time Going for the last hour on Monday as a first grader and 4th grader!

It's over, let summer begin (stephen doesn't look so excited, does he?)

Stephen and some friends - now we will smile for the camera!

Ryan and his friend Aden

and last day of School June 8th (to celebrate we went with friends to Steak and Shake and got shakes and burgers – yummy!)

Several family happenings
Sean’s christening (my nephew was christened in May – such a sweet looking baby)

Jimmy’s bday party (our nephew is now 12 and is taller than me!)

My mom’s visit – (she didn’t spend much time at our house, but we did have a nice time at the christening, at a restaurant to see the brothers and sis in laws and babies, and saw my aunt lil who’s 93 now and still driving)

My mom and all 5 of the grandkids (my 3 and the babies Annabelle with my mom and Sean with my sister in law Donna)

And other things happenings:

Memorial day bar b que – Thanks Kathy –we invited ourselves and forced them to have a Memorial Day bar b que (well it was your turn, I Think!) – good food!

Smores time!!


Me and Kathy - BFF's (umm, maybe I need to ask her if thats ok)

Dr. appts (another neurologist visit for Ryan– tomorrow opthamologist for Trevor’s turned in eye)

Ryan waiting for Dr. Ikramudin - Ryan is doing awesome with being on meds, but we'll take the summer off - hopefully ryan will gain some weight being off the meds

Pre school evaluation and follow up (what a disappointment to learn Trevor will only get speech) No OT, he is not developmentally delayed despite his major speech delay so no extra services besides speech once a week for an hour)

Friends birthday parties (happy birthday to Samuel, Aden, and Ben – Kelly you rock with the Survivor theme, it looked so awesome – and you are brave to have 29 kids at your house and looking like it might rain all day!)

This is at the Survivor party that Ryan's friend Ben invited him to


Ryan and one of the birthday boys - Ben

It was neat seeing all the kids in their different colored survivor t-shirts

Shop Crop and Craft for a Cure Event – I was a vendor there – anybody want to buys some Tupperware and help a great cause??

Sensory Processing Disorder Seminar – this was a great seminar! How I wish Trevor could continue in Early Intervention for a while longer so I can learn more about this

Landscaping project - Having 4 bushes/trees taken out of the front landscaping

Before with the tree by the garage door and the junipers flanking the porch

After pic - no more trees by the garage or junipers!

And the usual:

Nutritionist meetings (back off the growth chart in weight), OT, and Speech –Cub scout Meetings and events

PTA meetings and stuff

I’ll have to pick a couple of events to blog about! I hope to get some time to do some blogging about so much of these memorable events!

A Wet and Wild, fun in the sun weekend! Great America, Pool party and a day at haunted trails

Being that it is summer, we are trying to pack as much fun things into it as we can before the kids go back to school. We had a trip to Great America, a pool party and a Company picnic at Huanted Trails all this past Friday, Sat and Sunday!

We had free tickets for Stephen and Ryan to Great America for the reading they did through the school year, so as time was running out to use the tickets we made plans to go Friday. It was the first time the boys had gone to Great America and they were super excited. We had Mike's mom come and watch Trevor all day. I was a little anxius about this. I had never left Trevor with anyone for a whole day (9:00 till 10:00) before and I wondered how he would do. I worried he wouldn't eat well and would be fussy. Plus we would not be doing his OT that day as I didn't want to add another item to my MIL's list of to do's for the day. He ate a ton for grandma and he took a 3 hour nap for her. He had a great day without us.
Leading up to the trip, I have to admit that Mike and I were not quite as enthusiastic about the trip to Great America as the thrill of roller coasters is not what it was for us. Worrying about Trevor being upset we were gone all day and worrying about how Ryan would do with the noise and the rides, plus worrying that Stephen would not be very patient if Ryan wanted to do the tamer rides and he had to wait all weighed on me and made me wonder if any of us would enjoy the trip. But I think its good to try new things and for the kids to have new experiences so we continue to try the outings. Sometimes they are great experiences and other times we wish we hadn't lef tthe house that day! We wondered how Ryan would do as it would be noisy and loud and he does get bored so easily that staying in lines for rides would be a challenge for him. Plus I wondered if he would be too scared (and too small) to get on any of the rides besides the kiddie rides. Ryan suprised us all and was a real trooper. He covered his ears in the big screen theatre and on various rides, but overall he dealt with the noise really well and was more tolerant of the waiting than I expected. He even went on 2 roller coasters. I'm not sure that he enjoyed the roller coasters exactly (he told me he didn't want to go on them again), but he seemed to be proud that he went on. He never cried or complained, but he was relieved when these rides were over. He did enjoy the train and some of the other rides. Stephen of course was so set on riding all the coasters and was disappointed he wasn't tall enough for all of them. After the Demon and the Whizzer, he lost his enthusiasm for some of the other coasters. We did get to the water park, but was only in the water park for 12 minutes as I didn't realize they closed that part of Great America a couple of hours before the rest of the park. We had a lot of food a lot of fun, a lot of sun. It turned out to be a great day.
Saterday we were all pretty tired out from all the walking the night before. We had been invited to a pool party and of course the kids love swimming now and are always wanting to practice their new swimming skills. It was just this summer that I got Ryan back to trying swim lessons. He has been terrified of floating and putting his face in the water. He liked the pool but until this year was very tentative about getting in past wasit high, hated having his face wet (or splashed) and did not trust others or even floaties to help him float. So this has been a great year watching him grow and overcome his fear of the the water. They kids pretty much swam the whole eveing from about 5:30 till 9:00. They only came out for food and ice cream. Unfortunately Trevor was pretty off the whole day not wanting to eat and being rather crabby most of the day and needing to be constantly held. He did well with grandma on Friday, but we were feeling the effects of him being out of his routine the day before while we were at this pool party. We got to socialize with friends and Ryan and Stephen got to spend hours in a pool with some other kids so it was a nice evening out for all.

Sunday we had Mike's company work picnic. It's something we look forward to every year (this is our third year going). It's a great family event. They have planned activities all through out the day. Good food, games for the kids, rides for the kids (go carts, scrambler and inside there was the Frogger and the teacups along with all kind of arcade games). They had a DJ playing music, someone doing face paintings, an inflatable bouncer for kids they even had pony rides though we didn't get to see the ponies. It was hot that day so we spent a good portion of the day in the arcade and indoor games area. The kids get so excited over getting thier tickets fromt hje arcade machines and spend what seems like forever trying to pick out just the right prize.
The big surprise of the day was seeing Trevor on the spinning tea cups. Ryan wanted to go on and daddy was leaving to go with Ryan for the ride. Trevor started crying when daddy left us to and I thought he was just wanting to be with daddy. He does get upset if one of us parents leaves even if it is just into the next room. He still has seperation issues at times. But he just was watching the ride so intently that I began to wonder wonder if maybe he wanted to go onthe ride so I got in line and waited our turn. He just loved the teacups. The spinning and whirling around did not bother him at all. I was also impressed with both of my sensory kids as the noise and flashing lights didn't seem to be much of a bother to them at all this day!
Other highlights of the day was when Stephen won the "cover all" kids bingo game (got 25.00). Mike got an employee gift - a $50.00 gift card for Walmart (they pick several names out of all employees in attendance and give various gifts - so you always have a decent chance to get a gift). We had ice cream, the kids went in the inflatable bouncer (TREVOR LOVED IT), we played bingo, the kids went on the go carts, had ice cream. It was a tiring but fun family day!

What a weekend of fun in the sun, fun in the water, spinning on coasters and rides and lots of food! It just goes to show me that my kids are very well adjusted and have good coping skills for their sensory issues.

Lazy Days of Summer

I have often heard the phrase lazy days of summer. I always look forward to summer (I am not a cold temperature lover and don’t have any wishes to have snow during the winter). But besides the warmer weather, why do I look so forward to summer? I thin part of it is that I always (every year) have the misguided notion that things will slow down and I will get to a zillion things that stay on my to do list for months (and years). Yes, I don’t have to drive the kids to school, but I still have to get up early (earlier actually than the school year) to get Ryan up and ready for summer school. I find myself racing against the clock most days to get this done before the bus comes to pick up in the morning, get that done before the bus drops off in the afternoon, get other things done before Trevor naps (can’t vaccum or do laundry during nap time) and so on. Since it was summer and I thought we would have more time for fun stuff, I let each of the older boys pick an activity and then they also get swim lessons. Between the swim lessons, baseball, gymnastics, therapies/Dr appointments (Trevor has speech, OT, food therapy and a nutritionist); I am busier than ever. Plus throw in a Tupperware party here and there and I wonder who was in charge of my date book! Still I do love the summer if only for the break from mandatory homework (yes I still make the kids do some homework type things, but not everyday and not the amount they would have from school). So in the past 2 weeks, I have taken the boys to 5 swimming lessons, 2 dr visits for stitch removal (Trevor had 10 stitches in his knee from a June 10th injury), 2 friend’s birthday parties, 2 birthday parties for Stephen, 2 visits from the OT (Occupational Therapist), 2 visits from the food therapist, 2 visits from the nutritionist, 2 trips to the Eola Center for gymnastics, 2 trips to the Vaughn center for baseball, 1 Tupperware party, 1 trip for the “Meet N Greet” for Ryan’s summer school program, 1 book club meeting and another appt that I actually missed (I missed our gastroenterologist appt because I wrote down the wrong day).
My calendar is a bunch of pencil scribbles everywhere – I need one that has twice as much space for each day to get all that I need written in.
So if you see me or talk to me (or email me) and I seem a bit clueless (or worse frazzled and stressed) take pity on me and understand I’m busy as the CEO of the Linden household jumping from task to task. As I sit there writing this, I am thinking about all the things I should be doing, but we all need a break here and there, right?
Summer is a fun time; walks outdoors, trips to the park, or even just swinging on the glider outside – I guess I need to write those kind of appointments in my datebook – they are just as important! I am planning on taking the kids to the pool later for some fun in the sun, and a lazy day of summer fun in the water!