Air Bud

Waiting for our turn to talk to a Mac Genius ... James has deep-sixed the security settings on his iPad.

NYE Countdown: 7PM

Dinner time is over! You are still eating the same thing for dinner: about 7 chicken nuggets (not too hot), pretzels or bread or tortilla chips, and apple slices (red apples only). After dinner, you are staying up longer. You used to go to bed by 7:30. Now it's between 8 and 8:30 (well, 8:30 on weekends).

You are still getting me up way too early in the mornings, but at we at least have our system. Before 6am -- lie quietly in bed, with Mommy hoping and praying you fall back to sleep. 6:00-7:ishAM - you can turn on the light in your room and play QUIETLY (with your door shut)  until 7(ish).Breakfast for you is normally 2 toasted blueberry waffles, with nothing on them. You get milk with a bit of Miralax, to keep things moving on through.

Here are some new things about you this year:

You started to write .. and even tried a bit of drawing.

You liked writing your name. This is how you started. Now you can write it on a lone on your homework sheet.

You started to dress up and play. You have a fantastically zany sense of style!

You also got so much better at dressing yourself. You're even better than your big sister at this.

You started wanting to take pictures, and became much more thoughtful about the ones you took.

You started understanding that you can type letters and words in computers to make things happen.

Merry Christmas. Every one.

Christmas morning came early. Mornings usually do where James is concerned. I was able to safely corral him in his room until just after 7, when he emerged and announced "Hi, Mommy. I going to RElax with you!" Once on the sofa with me, he said "I going to kiss you!" And he did, right after he fell on me with loving glee.  Oof!! At over 60 pounds, he's getting big.

Then his real purpose became clear; "I play Caillou on your white computer, okay? Okay" Kiss-kiss-kiss. Giggle, giggle, dancing over to my laptop.

Around 7:40, his Daddy and sister emerged, ready to start their Christmas morning. It dawned on James that Christmas was actually really and truly here. Oh the openings! The talking! The exclamations of "Oh! I love it!! Do you love it, Mommy?/Daddy?" The iPad sucked him in. Already he's managed to take off Angry Birds, a slew of apps, and mess up PhotoBooth. He also figured out the volume and screen controls before I could even think about them.

Then he played with his other toys. His Leapster spelling cards, the megaphone from Grandpa (who's going to get a voicemail of thanks, in the loud Robot voice), and his toy train washdown (carwash for trains). He was ecstatic that Percy came with it. He play acted a play date between Percy and Thomas in 3 different rooms, ending up with himself draped over his new shark bean bag chair. Oh my heart, what a happy Spirit of Christmas present. It's done me a lot of good.

This has been a year with lots of heartache in it. Things are going to be tough for a while yet. I look at our children, especially James this morning, and find some of the brightest spots of hope for the future.

Special Exposure / Wordless Weds: Free Choice

Monday was Halloween, and both kids had class parties and parades at their respective schools. I ran a craft project in James' classroom and took some pics.

What really amused me were his free time pick ...

... in between not one but two Super Marios!

(James was Willie Wonka, BTW,  in a completely home-made costume that he loved to wear).

For more great images or to join in the fun, visit
Special Exposure Wednesday at 5 Minutes for Special Needs.
                                        and ... Wordless Wednesday

PhotoBooth Fun

James adores playing with PhotoBooth on his Nana's iMac. Seriously. He can literally play with it for an hour or more. He found all the features we couldn't find and loves the playback for the videos. Don't even get him started on the rollercoaster one.

So this weekend we cuddled for a bit in the ginormous purple armchair and played with PhotoBooth on Mommy's MacBook Pro. Good times. It was just that kind of weekend.

Horns of a Dilemma

James is currently fixated on playing as much of his Caillou game CD ROM as possible. I know that bad things happen to his temper if he's allowed to play it for too long. On the other hand, he sings along, talks more, and runs to me and gives me kisses before announcing "I need help!"

It's kind of hard for me, sometimes, to cut the cute short. Especially when he occasionally breaks up a playing session to dance around and sing about butterflies, or matching socks ...

Go Pictures

"Go pictures?" is James' way of asking if he can use the computer. Both he and his sister love to play games on a laptop:



In addition to the Curious George games, he also loves Clifford, Blues Clues YoGabbaGabba and Ni Hao, Kai-Lan. He will purposely do things the wrong way if he likes the sound effect. It's all about the fun. And pushing buttons. And silliness. And being able to do something with Big Sister.

James knows how to use bookmarks, and that they are different on Daddy's and Mommy's laptops. He navigates with ease. The one thing he hasn't been able to do (yet) is Click/drag/drop. Oh, but I am sure that is just around the corner.

See Spot. Sit, Spot!

James is a bit afraid of dogs. First, they can be big, loud, unpredictable, and bumpy. Second, his grandparents had an Airedale puppy, whose antics put him further on alert. His sister, meanwhile, adores dogs and puppies.

His teacher has a companion dog, who is helping James become more confident around dogs. This is great because he used to scream and panic whenever he saw a dog. Now he is unhappy but tries "SIT, doggie!!! No touch!" before panicking and then screeching. The great thing is, the words work a lot!

Recently, we've found something else that can help. Our local library has a new (this Fall) "Read to a Dog" program. His sister is just about its biggest fan and recenly I started bringing James along.

I finally brought my camera this week and here's what we did: We had two new dogs to read to yesterday! A Pomeranian/chihuahua mix and a chihuahua. My daughter was in heaven. She was so good with the dogs, who adored her.

The library program is such a neat idea. You follow the dog paw prints from the entry to a reading sofa:


And you read to the dogs. Alvin is on the left. Jalapena is on the right, and was sporting a Christmas holiday dress to help keep her warm. First we say hello:


Then we read (when it's our turn):



And what was James doing? Well, he found he computers with games loaded on them:





We love our library!