Easter Eggs

We ended up at CiCi's house on the weekend before Easter and CiCi had a surprise for Zander. She had boiled eggs and asked him to help her dye them. They turned out really cute. The funny thing was what Zander said. Children with Asperger's are quite blunt and often blurt out things without thinking about it first. I overheard Zander say, "CiCi, I quite enjoyed dyeing eggs with you. I would like to do it again next year if you are not dead." I tried to explain AGAIN, that while that was a true statement, it was not very nice. Thank goodness CiCi understands and was not offended.
On Easter Sunday, I decided to pass down a tradition. When I was growing up, on Easter Sunday Granny always had Easter eggs for lunch. My uncles thought it was alot of fun to hit me in the head with the egg to crack it. It really hurt sometimes, but it happened every year. I told Zander about this and PaPa was the first to crack his egg on Zander's head. Zander thought this was hysterical of course and needless to say, he cracked several of the eggs on PaPa's head. Thinking of you Uncle Steve!

Spring Fling

Get the cookie into your mouth without touching it

Put the noodles on the spaghetti noodle without using your hands

Toss the ball into the basket

Zander's school has a fundraiser each year called Spring Fling. The children buy tickets to play the games in each room and get a prize. Alot of the games this year were the "Minute to win it" variety. It was so much fun to watch Zander try to figure out how to accomplish this. He finished all of the games and a great time was had by all.

Kid's Fest

The students at our local college put together a special event each year for children with special needs and their familes. It is called Kids's Fest. They have games, refreshments, a petting zoo and bouncing houses. This was the first time that we were able to attend. However, the weather forecast was bleak at best. It was overcast and looked like the bottom was going to drop out at any minute. Zander never asks to go anywhere, so when he showed interest, we decided to take him.
When we arrived, there was no where even close to park. We found a spot and headed to the event. We signed in Zander headed straight for the bounce house. Once he gets into one of these, it is almost impossible to get him out. After about 10 minutes I realized that it was going to start storming so I convinced him to get out and pet the animals because that really is his favorite thing to do. Ever since he saw his first little goat, he has always wanted one. Just look at that face. Now, the thunder starts and I have one very upset little boy. To top it off, he is not a fan of lightening or thunder, so we make the mad dash back to the car and make the 30 minutes drive home in the storm. Maybe next year we can stay for the whole event. Kudos to the students for an excellent event that means so much to the children.

Hair cut

Many of you know that Zander likes Justin Beiber. He enjoys his music and for his last haircut, he wanted the Beiber cut. It really grew on me and I was beginning to like the longer hair. It was time for a trim and when I asked Zander how he wanted his hair cut this time, he said that the kids at school were calling him Justin Beiber and he didn't want his hair anymore. He said that he would like a mohawk. I explained to him that was not a choice, so he opted for the short cut. Mrs. Stephanie was nice enough to let him leave with a mohawk.

 By the way, he announced to everyone that Mrs. Stephanie and Mrs. Misty were the only ones that he trusted to cut his hair. The ladies at Great Clips tried to cut his hair but they really stink at it. All of the ladies were laughing and thought he was so adorable.

Leaping Leprechaun's

I had to work last night, so I didn't get home until 9:00.  When I walked through the dining room, this is part of what I saw. The strings went all the way over an end table, his art desk and to the wall. What is it you might ask? I asked the same thing. Zander came out of the bedroom and informed me that this was his leprechaun trap. He informed me that he was going to catch a leprechaun. 

 When we got home today, this is what we found at the trap. A note, bags of gold chocolate candy and a pair of green sunglasses. The note said, " Your trap snared 3 of my leprechauns. I took them back to Ireland, but I left you some gold."
The King Leprechaun

These are the tiny leprechaun footprints that lead from the window to the trap. 

He was so excited and can't wait to show his note to everyone at school. 

March (Tarheel) Madness

Zander and Woody D. He signed his Hansbrough jersey and hat.

 With March madness upon us, it reminded me of Zander's excitement when I took him to watch the Tarheels practice and when we waited in line in the freezing temperatures for hours to get tickets in 2007. He was only 2 yrs old and loved the Tarheels. I enjoyed reading the old posts. Hope you do to. Here are the links.
http://friendsmiling.blogspot.com/2007/03/march-madness.html
http://friendsmiling.blogspot.com/2007/03/madness-continues.html
http://friendsmiling.blogspot.com/2007/03/unc-vs-michigan-state.html

Star Wars Night

This weekend was Star Wars night at the children's museum. Zander was so excited. I have never seen so many little Jedi's. When we arrived, he had pizza and then went to the art room to make a mask and a light saber. He chose yoda.

Next we went down stairs for Jedi training I know this picture is blurry but, if you look closely you can see that his eyes are closed and he is using the force to catch a ball that the Jedi threw to him. Then we were off to the Jedi training obstacle course.

He tackled all kinds of obstacles in space and then had to raise this ball up and down this wall using only the force. You can see he is really concentrating. After that he defeated the Death Star and received his Master Jedi medallion. Over all it was a fun night and the force was with us.

SLeeping

Zander does not like his room. In fact he is terrified at the thought of sleeping there. Every once in a while he will play in there during the daytime. So, that means he sleeps with us. Even though we have a king size bed, there is not enough room. Zander does not stop moving during his sleep. He also needs to feel pressure so he is constantly trying to bury at least his arms under me. That means that he is pulling my hair, hitting and kicking me all night. I realized a couple of weeks ago how tired I was and that I couldn't remember the last time that I slept through the night and Summers was spending alot of nights on the couch. I didn't want to traumatize him by putting him in his room, so I put his mattress and some of his animals in the corner beside of our bed. He was still scared to death. We are on week 2 and as long as I am close by he is doing a little better.
How cute is that picture? A boy and his dog.