Brave

Dexter mostly holds himself together at school.  He has a TSS there helping him, and a lovely teacher and special ed teacher, and lots of supports in place for him.  He has a quiet spot under his teacher's desk, a pair of headphones to block out noise when things get too overwhelming, and a break card he can hand his teacher any time he just needs to get away.  His TSS takes him for walks in the hallway to jump and push the wall.  When things are the same at school, he does fine.

But when things change, life gets a little bit harder.  When his teacher is sick, things fall apart a bit.  And when the last day of school before the winter break calls for a whole school holiday sing-along, pajama wearing all day, and a movie in the classroom...  well, that takes a bit of preparation.

We had a plan.  You don't have to go to the sing-along.  Or you can go and sit close to the door and wear your headphones and leave whenever you want.  You don't have to stay in your class to watch the Polar Express movie.  I know you've seen it before and it scares you.  You can go to the special ed room.

I got updates throughout the morning from his TSS.  He went to the sing-along!  He would not go anywhere near the classroom when the movie was playing.  He cried a little bit because the movie was so very long and he wanted to go back, but the movie was still playing.  He excitedly showed his teacher his pajamas stashed neatly in his backpack.  But no, he did not want to put them on.

All in all, his day was a success.  The movie thing was a battle just not worth having.  Pajamas?  Meh, no big deal.  Going to the sing-along?  So proud of you, big guy.  So, so proud.

I don't really know what it's like to live in Dexter's head.  To see the world through his eyes.  But from the little glimpses I get inside every now and then, I know that kid is super brave.  It's not easy being him, and the world can be a big scary place.  Brave.

Go forth and be awesome, Dex.  Keep being brave.

ROAR

Kid-Decorated Trees

The only problem with kid-decorated trees is that the ornaments tend to be placed in one centralized location.  At the bottom front of the tree.  In Erin's case, all ornaments needed to be placed "next to Pooh."  And also on the same branch as every other ornament.  Which is why we have ended up with a tree that only has red balls on the bottom half, and has three red balls on one branch.  Next to Pooh, of course.  I adore the fact that they were excited about decorating, so I have not moved any ornaments.  Except for one red ball, today, that was hanging on to its branch by one single needle.  And when I moved it, Dexter asked me "Why are you moving that ball, Mama?"

Behold, some photos of tree decorating:

Dex got things rolling with his ornament from Grandma

And Erin added hers to the same branch

Kids' ornaments from Grandma

Erin was more excited about decorating than Dex.  But she was also healthy, while Dex was sick and pretty content to sit on the couch and watch the train go around the tree.

Yep, this spot next to Pooh looks perfect

Where shall I put this one?  I know!  Next to Pooh!

Dex is a little better at spreading the wealth

The snowman dudes had to go away for a while, as the children were using them as flashlights

Check out Erin, branching out.  Ha.  See what I did there?

Yeah.  We REALLY need a pony.

Did I tell you about the fire truck?  It was at the MOMS holiday party.  The kids cared not at all about Santa (Erin only cared about not looking at him), but they were happy to sit in the truck.

The Polar Express. Times Two.

Dexter was home sick from school on Wednesday and Thursday last week.  Which actually kind of worked out ok, because we got our Christmas tree on Tuesday and he was VERY VERY excited to get the big Polar Express train set up.  So I shipped him off to an extra long rest time on Wednesday, put a billion lights on the tree (but not enough.  There's never enough lights), and when he came down we put together the train around the tree.  Both kids were delighted to play with the train all afternoon, as well as most of the day on Thursday.

When Dexter is not around, a derailed train remains derailed.  He's the pro.

Erin mostly uses the remote as a phone.  To call Santa.

Rare moment of kid-harmony

She was delighted.  This is her "I'm delighted" pose.  No idea why.

Then I remember (because Grandma reminded me) there was a present that was meant to be opened before Christmas.  And that is how we now have TWO Polar Express trains gracing the living room floor.  Let's hope nobody needs to walk through that room any time soon.

This is Erin's "Hooray, train!" pose

Dex came home from our MOMS Club holiday party and went directly to the new train

More kid-harmony.  This one may well have taken some threatening to achieve.

Erin showing off her pretty Christmas dress.

Santa!

Santa made his annual trek from the North Pole to John's work this morning, and the kids, along with Nonna and Grandpa, went down to have some breakfast with him.  Erin talked a big game the day before, about how much she loved Santa and how she was going to ask Santa to bring her a present.  But fear got the best of her, and she was grumpy and shy from the instant her feet hit the parking lot at Daddy's work.  She was NOT impressed to see the Big Guy.  Dexter, however, was calm and collected, hopped right on Santa's lap and had a very nice conversation with him, checked out his snow globes, and came over to try to encourage his sister to say hi to Santa as well.  It was a lovely morning, and as long as Erin could not see Santa, she was cool.  She happily ate candy canes and Hershey kisses and peeled the backs off eighty seven billion stickers.  Dexter was delighted to visit Daddy's office twice and the bathroom once.  I saw some old friends I only see at Santa and Easter Bunny breakfasts, and drank a cup of coffee.  It was a lovely morning.

Thankful

We were talking about Thanksgiving this morning at breakfast (chocolate chip pancakes, YUM!), and about what we were thankful for.  Dexter stated that he was thankful for toy trains, because he likes playing with them.  And for yummy food.  And for Daddy.

And then as an afterthought he said he was also thankful for Mama, and only a little bit for Erin.  Because she is always telling him what to do.

Erin declared she is thankful for olives.  Me, too, kiddo.  Me, too.

I personally am thankful right now for the fact that there are two children playing in the basement while I am typing this post, and John is sorting cranberries before cooking cranberry sauce that only he will eat.  I am thankful that they are playing nicely together (or at least not yelling at each other), and that they are doing so without me supervising.  This older kid thing is kind of liberating.

I just found and posted on Facebook this little gem:

I am thankful for my big sister, who was often a pain in my butt but has become my closest friend.  And also for my mom and dad, who are always there for me and are wonderful grandparents.  Sorry we can't be there to eat turkey with you today.  We shall be eating dinner with our very own turkey.

PS - the quiet in the basement was short-lived.  Now Dex and Daddy are flying helicopters in the basement, while Erin is building a choo-choo out of cups in the kitchen.  Wish we had some toys for that kid...

Pitter Patter

Yesterday during lunch we were talking about what the pitter-pattering of little feet means.  I thought it best to demonstrate.  So I demonstrated pitter-patter.  And then I demonstrated how Dexter stomps around.  The children thought it was hilarious, and have been doing their own random demonstrations since.  Behold, Erin's Pitter-Patter vs Dexter, whilst wearing her new penguin hat from Aunt Maria.

CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE VIDEO

This morning Aunt Maria and Dexter helped while Erin got her picture taken at Portrait Innovations.  Erin does not like strangers, but after ten minutes or so she would actually look at the photographer, so things didn't go too terribly.  We got some cute shots, but I always have a goal of bringing home only one picture.  I did not manage to do so today - I needed a cute shot of both the kids, as well.

Erin's two-year old portrait

Erin hugging Dexter, just moments before her tackling hug knocked him down to the ground...

And then we went to Trader Joe's, and WHOOOBOY am I ever glad we don't live closer to THAT store.  Cuz that could get bad.  Really really bad.

Macaroni

Before bed tonight I was reading Erin Panda Bear Panda Bear What Do You See?  I read it a couple times before telling her this was the last time I could read it, and then because she is super sneaky she said it was HER turn to read it to me.  So she "read" to me, pretty admirably.  Sometimes she had to ask what the animal was, but she mostly remembered.  And then she got to the macaroni penguin.  And read, "Macaroni cheese, macaroni cheese, what do you see?"  HA!  HAAAAAA!

Grandma has been here for the past couple days, watching swimming lessons and hanging out with Erin while Dexter went to TheraPlay, and hanging out with Erin while I went to volunteer at school to help kids in Dexter's class trace their hand and cut out the tracing.  It's big, important stuff, man.  The kids have been delighted to have her here and shall be sad to see her leave tomorrow.

It was the last nice day before the Polar Vortex moves in tonight.  The leaves on our maple trees have FINALLY changed colors and are starting to fall.  I figured we'd better take advantage and grab some photos with fall foliage, before the fall foliage gets blown away, or snowed on, or frozen.  So this is what we did after Dex got off the bus at 11:30.  Until some grumpy kid decided she needed something to eat, and asked for a chocolate star for lunch.

"Dexter, hold mine hand."  I love it when this happens.

Leaf throwing

You can't really see Dex holding Erin's hand, helping her climb the well cap.

The best picture of the day.  I love it.  I love it when Dexter's idea of climbing the tree (he needed my help, but once I got him up there he did great) turns in to awesomeness.

One last little bit of cuteness, from Monday.  He rides so gently and carefully when she is on the back.  It warms my heart.

QOD

Today's Quote of the Day comes from Erin, while reviewing body parts.

Me:  What's this, in your mouth?
Erin:  Tongue

Me:  What are these?
Erin:  Teeth

Me:  What's this?
Erin:  Arm

Me:  What are you going to use to go up the stairs to bed?
Erin:  MAMA!

John almost fell down the stairs laughing.

In other news, we went to tag our Christmas tree this afternoon.  It's gonna be WAY too tall.

Dex picked this tree and could not be persuaded to look any further.  So, this tree it is.

Waaaaaaay too tall.

I think Grumpy Pants here got poked by a tree branch early on and held a grudge the entire time we were out there.

Also she wanted Mama to please stop taking her picture, already.

Perhaps my favorite family tree picture to date.  :-)

After spending five whole minutes picking a tree, we spent a good hour playing.

Erin LOVES Santa.  And Dexter is waaaaaay too tall.

Hooray trees!