Week 54 - Happy Easter

I want to start off with a funny story... Ryan is obsessed with playing games on Phil's Ipad.  So obsessed that we've had to hide it from him some days and tell him that Phil left it at work.  Well the other day Ryan wanted to play with it and the following conversation occurred:

Ryan: Mommy, I want to play with something.

Me: What do you want to play with? 

Ryan: It starts with a "D".

Me (puzzled because I really thought he was trying to butter me up to play with the Ipad): A "D"? Do you want to play with your doggie? Do you want to dance?

Ryan: No, it's something else.

Me: Well what is it?  I don't know what else starts with a "D".

Ryan: You know mom, "DaIpad".

I had such a laugh! I gave up trying to explain to him that it is "an Ipad" or "THE Ipad" not all one word scrunched together as "DaIpad".  Of course I just had to let him play after that! 


So this video taken Easter morning is mostly about Julia, but I just had to share it.  If you've seen the movie "Hop" you may recognize where Julia is getting her words from!  Kids... so innocent, funny, (and gullible!)

Some pictures of the kids celebrating Easter...

Opening Easter gifts from our neighbor, Carol.

Ryan happy to see that the Easter Bunny left him a new spring coat and his favorite Angry Bird!

The kids with papa

Easter egg hunt

All 60 plastic eggs retrieved.  A job well done!

Ryan spent about 20 minutes practicing his numbers!  We were surprised, yet pleased, with his focus and willingness.

  

This last picture reminds me of a video I watched this week.  Check out this clip about how a little cholesterol helped a little girl with autism.  Thanks to Jess and Kerry for bringing it to our attention.  Can a little cholesterol help?

On the food front, Ryan has been so good about trying out new foods.  He ate raw onion on his sandwich (YUCK!).  That was all my dad's doing!  His breath stunk so bad the rest of the day!  This week he also tried different vegetables out of my salad, and he ate some corn.  We're starting to incorporate a new supplement called Glutomine Plus Powder.  It's primary focus is gastrointestinal support and we're hoping it will help him better digest food and possibly help with skin rashes.  I do have to say, even before we begin this new supplement, Ryan's skin seems to be on the mend.  For the most part his cheeks aren't red unless he's running around playing, his legs are still really rough but the scabs are almost gone, and he hasn't been scratching his skin as much.

 Lately Ryan has to be racing with Julia for EVERYTHING!  He is obsessed with winning and everything has to be a race.  Who is first upstairs, washing their hands, to the door, to turn the TV off, to the front door when the door bell rings, who gets their shoes on or off first, gets their pj's on, this is getting a bit much.  "Losing" one of these situations turns Ryan from a happy kid into a social mess.  It often takes a lot of TLC and coaxing just to get him back to a "happy place" so that we can continue on with the day.  I'm sure many of the parents out there are thinking, well kids are like that and these are age appropriate situations.  Yes, true, but the intensity and the frequency of these situations is not what we deem normal sibling rivalry.  In just one evening we can encounter dozens of these fighting matches and I find myself walking on eggshells, hoping not to say something to trigger an argument. 

I hope that they turn this competitiveness into something productive like first in school work or first in an athletic competition.  However, they really do not seem to want to be the first to clean up so we are not too hopeful!  Here's a video of something that started off fun and ended in the kids arguing.  Luckily Ryan was at the top of the slide or the situation most likely would have turned into a physical match with Phil and I prying them apart.  And I say "Phil and I" because Ryan has become too strong for me to restrain him when he's angry.  This kind of behavior has escalated over the past month and for the first time in a long time we're seeing Ryan's mood swings creep back up.

Today we had a birthday party for a set of seven year old twins, one boy and one girl.  It was at a place called game pad in Pawling, NY.  It was an arcade place in a strip mall and it was packed!  The moment we walked in I thought we were going to have a problem with the amount of noise and people in the place.  However, he did fantastic.  He tried almost every game and really like a game where you rode a motorcycle in a video race.  He pretended that he was a green motorcycle when we left and were in the parking lot.   He had no issue when it came time for cake.  We brought a few of his cupcakes with us and he was content to have just one with everyone else.  He was even fine with Julia eating her cake in the car on the ride home.  When it comes to birthday parties, he has come such a long way.

Ryan had fun playing outdoors this weekend.

Fun with cousins!

Time with Amelia!

Ryan really does like to wear these pajamas!!!

DC