Museum of Nature and Science

Since Nathan is on preschool break we've been trying to do lots of fun things. And it just so happened that the Museum of Nature and Science offered a free day during his break!

They had a whole section on space and Nathan was so excited!  He liked seeing the rockets, space shuttles, stars, and Mars rover.  They even had an astronaut suit just like the one Nathan will be wearing for Halloween.  He thought that was pretty cool.

They also had a whole exhibit with lots of dinosaurs.  Nathan didn't care for them too much, which I was pretty surprised at since he loves dinosaurs.  He thought this moving one was a lot more fun.  I think he though the dinosaur was being mean (granted, the dinosaur was trying to nibble on people's heads) so Nathan went over and stepped on his toes.  Also, when the dinosaur was looking to take a bited Nathan put out his hand just like we do with his pop-up dinosaur book.

And the view of downtown was bad either.  This was one of the coolest science museums I've ever been to and we only got to see maybe 1/2 of it.  We're definitely going back again!

Flat Acre Farms

Nathan's preschool class went on a field trip to a farm.  They had so much going on!  There was a petting zoo, pumpkin patch, corn bins, rubber ducky racing, bounce house, swings, and hayrides.  Nate had the time of his life.

Nate's teacher Miss Melissa is so wonderful with him!

Nathan's favorite activity of the day: duck racing!  He was freezing cold, but he didn't want to leave.

Nathan was not sure about the bounce house, but Nathan's friend, Odin, convinced him it was pretty fun.

There was a bunny that was being held so the kids could pet it, but Nathan just wanted to see this bunny.  He kept going back over and over to see him.

Now that we're on fall break for 2 weeks, Nathan is missing preschool.  He keeps wanting to put his shoes on and go to preschool.  He's even asked for Odin a few times.  But we're enjoying our break and being able to go do fun things together!

Evelyn at 8 Months

- Evy is most happy first thing in the morning.  She gives the biggest grins and starts bouncing in her crib when she sees me come in to get her.
- She's still taking two naps a day.
- Loves bath time so much she'll crawl into the bathroom to look into the bathtub.

- She knows were the shoes live.  She'll even pull out the boxes so she can chew on the shoes.
- She also has teeny tiny feet.  I went to buy some shoes for some family photos and the 0-3 month size are still big on her.
- Her favorite place to play is in Nathan's room.

- Such a little sweetheart.  She will crawl over so she can be snuggled which I happily oblige.
- Likes to be in the stroller.  She'll even pull herself up to be able to see everything.
- Nate loved applesauce as a baby so I thought Evy would too.  Nope.  She made sour faces every time.

- Crawling up on her knees.  She was fast before and now she's even faster.
- Evy wants to be able to drink out of Nate's straw cups.
- Getting more into books.  Especially if there are pictures of babies.  She LOVES looking at babies.

- Evy is standing up against things.  She likes it, but Nate's not too happy about it. Suddenly all the stuff he's kept out of her reach she can now play with.  He's getting better at tolerating her playing with his stuff.
- Got her flu shot and only cried for about 10 seconds.

- She wants to eat everything on the floor including the little fuzzies that keep shedding from our new carpet.
- Starting to dislike her carseat.  I think she just wants to be able to sit up and see everything.

- Giggles so much at big brother.  She loves playing with him.  It makes me so happy to see the two of them giggling at each other and playing along.  I sure love those two.

Wheels on the Bus

This little boy rides the bus to school and he loves it!  I was a little worried about sending my little three year old off on his own, but they do a great job taking care of him.  They have built in carseats for the preschoolers so he's safe while he's riding.  He gets so happy waiting for the bus every morning. I'm so happy he loves the bus and preschool.

Forney Transportation Museum

We took advantage of free museum day through the Smithsonian again this year and went to the Forney Transportation Museum.  They had cars, buses, tractors, motorcycles, coaches, bikes, trolleys, and TRAINS. Nathan didn't want to move on after he saw the trains. The trains were massive.  The wheels were as tall of me!  They had the world's largest steam engine  The giant red thing went on the front of a train as a snow plow. There was also a model train set that you could control and Nathan could have played with that all day.  It was the perfect museum for a little boy!

Evelyn at 7 Months

- Squeals and giggles all day long.
- Evy is so tolerant of her brother.  Not sure why, but he thinks he can sit on her while she's crawling. And she is happy to let him.

- She can sit up on her own.  She does it so gracefully too.
- Evy's favorite chew toy: shoes.  I feel like I am constantly putting away shoes.  Otherwise, I find her chomping on them like a little puppy.  Soooooo gross!
- I'm the new beehive advisor and Evy is such a hit with the young women.  Luckily she doesn't have stranger wariness with them.

- Evy will crawl over to our sliding glass door to look outside.  She loves going outside to play.
- In between the 3 years old who throws his food on the floor and a little Evy who wants to eat everything, I am constantly sweeping the floor.  She's pretty good at her pincer grasp though!

- She thinks she is big enough to climb the stairs.  She hasn't gotten farther than the first step, but she keeps going over there to try.
- She's got a pretty good nap schedule, but I wish she would take a 3rd nap.  She's soooo ready for bed when it's bedtime.

- She loves to play with Nathan.  She follows him around and plays with his toys.
- We've tried oats, wheat, chicken, turkey, beef, yams, butternut squash, carrots, but her absolute favorite is yams.
- Evy never used to spit up, but now that we've started solids she's started to.

- Evy loves to see herself in the mirror.
- Her hair is getting so long and it's covering all the bald spots now.
- Since Evy is doing so well with sitting up I've started to let her take baths with her brother.  Nathan thinks its great and Evy is so happy to splash her brother and play with all the bath toys.

- Even though she is driving me a little crazy getting into everything, I do love having her crawl over to see me and give me a huge smile.  She's seriously the cutest little baby.

Preschool

I can hardly believe Nathan is old enough to go to preschool.  I wish he could still get at-home therapy, but it's how the system works to get him therapy.  The thing that helps me be ok with it is that he needs to be around his peers and that he loves it so much!

The best of first day pictures

His class has a unusual set up, but it works great. Nathan is in a small class of 6 students who are all autistic.  They have a special ed teacher, occupational therapist, speech therapist, and psychologist to work with Nathan individually on his goals.  Nathan's class is paired with another class of 10 typically developing kids.  Nathan's class joins them at least for snack and recess, but as Nathan is able to he will join in with the typical classroom for more activities. They have several para-professionals in the typical classroom to help out the special needs kids if they need a little extra support.  In total, there are 9 professionals working in the 2 classrooms.  I'm really happy with the classroom Nathan is in.  From all the research I've done on the effectiveness of preschool classrooms, the ones that mix autistic kids and typically developing kids have the best outcomes.

Preschool open house

They did a great job getting the kids ready for preschool.  First, Nathan's teacher, occupational therapist, and speech therapist all came to our house to meet Nathan and so we could talk about Nathan.  Nathan was so happy meet all of them and was very friendly.  They also had a preschool open house so mom and Nathan could go see the classroom and meet all the staff before preschool actually started.  Nathan was so eager to go see everything.  He colored his snack mat, stood for pictures, and explored the classrooms.  Of course he found the trains right away!

On his first day, Nathan did great.  When I was driving him to preschool, I was talking to him about preschool and he said, "Preschool.  Bus."  I was so happy with him for  making the connection!  He will get to ride the bus to preschool very soon.  Once we got in the building he couldn't wait for me to sign in so he could go into class.  He went right in and didn't even care if I was there.  I said goodbye and had to get him to stop playing for him to say goodbye back.  It was so weird being at home without him.  I really started to miss my little buddy.  But Nathan's preschool teacher, knowing it was probably going to be hard sending him to preschool, sent me some cute pictures and let me know he was having lots of fun at singing time and reading time.

Nathan was happy to see me at pick up.  He would not stop talking about "preschool teacher" afterwards.  He can say all of his teachers names except for his actual preschool teacher, Miss Melissa, but calls her "Aunt Alissa".

He is absolutely loving it! His teachers tell me all the time that he loves singing time.  And he's even made a little friend in his class.  There is another boy in Nathan's class that we see before they open the building to let the kids in.  I've been helping Nathan to go up and say hi to his friend Odin and Odin says hi back.  Well, this last Thursday Nathan ran up to a boy that looked like his friend and said, "Hi Odin," all on his own.

And to be completely honest, mommy is loving preschool too.  Evy gets a completely undisturbed nap and I get so much done.  And Nathan gets in a lot of therapy at preschool.  It's a win-win-win for everyone.