It's Like Living With a Six-Year-Old

Doug used to always say "It's like living with a six-year-old" whenever someone would do something "childish".  Now I am excited that we get to say it all the time since we actually do now live with a six-year-old.  I love the idea of interviewing your child on their birthday each year, but it wouldn't really work with James since he wouldn't actually answer any questions.  So as I was thinking back on the past year with James I realized we have had a TON of obsessions.  The thing with James' obsessions is they come and go fairly quickly but while they are there they are EXTREMELY intense.  Everything he does is somehow related to whatever his current obsession is.  Some are fun, some are annoying and some we try so hard to get him to move on from.  So I thought it would be fun to go back and remember all the things we had to put up with this past year.

Scout

Scout was the obsession right around the time of his birthday last year.  I think it was actually on it's way out. He did everything with Scout.  Then one day Scout was gone.  We couldn't find him anywhere.  Oddly enough James didn't seem super upset about it.  His uncles gave him a new scout for his birthday.  Then a short time later James was playing in the car, got in the back and opened a little door in the side of the car and pulled Scout out like he knew he was there the entire time.  

Balloons

Balloons was also around the time of James' birthday.  He had a balloon themed birthday party.  His balloon obsession included buying huge packages of balloons at the dollar store every time we went, filling each one up with water and popping them in the backyard.  Also buying the big punch balloons and hooking them to the hose and filling them up to jump on them and pop them.  We filled up balloons with air too.  Also he loved to get the plastic balloons that you put the goo on the straw and blow it up.  And every other kind of balloon available. 

Water Scooters

All summer it was everything water.  It started with some blow up water scooters Mikey got for their little pool out back.  Then he NEEDED a row boat, which he earned by pooping on the toilet.   Then water skiing so Grandpa's boat was a big hit last summer.  We did force him to actually try water skiing while we were visiting last summer, he was not a big fan.  He mostly liked to pretend. 

Water Marbles

This may be one of my least favorite obsessions yet.  If you don't know what a water marble is, look on youtube, there are tons of videos.  Basically you have to drop nail polish into water then dip your fingernail in the water and the polish sticks to your nail.  Some of them look really cool.  The reason I hated this one so much is because first of all we could never get it to work.  And second he was constantly getting into nail polish, and getting it everywhere.  Every time we went in public and he saw someone with painted nails he had to stop and look.  The lady in the grocery store we go to has probably 2 inch nails and he loved to stop and look at them.  The first time he met his teacher she had some polish on her nails and that is all he would talk about the entire time.  The nail polish lead to makeup so that had to go away also because he started getting my mascara all over everything.  We were really glad to see this one go.  

Wipeout

We have had this one before, and it is always a fun one.  This includes, taking all the couch cushions off the couch so they can be the "big red balls", having Dad swing a pool noodle around for the sweeper arm, and being overly dangerous every time we are in the bathtub.  I think it was during this obsession that he really started drawing.  Here he was drawing the wipeout course, and now all of his work comes home from school with very elaborate drawings of his favorite things on the back.  This is pretty neat because writing has always been somewhat of a struggle for James, and he never really liked to color.  So this is a major improvement. 

Apple Trees/Seasons

This one started around the beginning of the school year.  They had a unit on seasons and used trees to show the different seasons.  Since then everything was about apple trees.  He constantly drew apple trees, talked about apple trees, and made apple trees with whatever he could.  One day he came home with a picture he had drawn of the trees and their seasons.  I asked him about it and he told me it was "Leaving up (Spring/Summer), Falling down (Fall), and winter."

Cooking

Cooking is another repeat obsession, however this time around it was much less controllable, and way more intense. He wanted to cook constantly, and pretend cooking was not enough this time, he wanted the real stuff.  Which was fine if I was able to help him, but if I was busy with something else he would often just help himself.  We had a lot of messes.  In this picture he was making a cake.  I think there was some water, flour, salt, cream of tartar, some other spices and probably an egg in the bowl.  One time Doug was putting up Christmas lights and I got stuck outside talking to the neighbor for probably 15-30 minutes.  When I came back in there was spaghetti sauce all over the floor (which he had tried to clean up but mostly used about 10 towels to spread it all over the kitchen), a frozen pizza in the oven and a smiling boy telling me happily that he was making Pizza.  Another time I was shopping and Doug texted me that we needed more eggs.  I replied that there were a dozen in the fridge already, to which he responded, "not anymore."  Another time there were 6 or 7 eggs cracked all over the floor.  This was a pretty messy obsession.  Also for Christmas he bought himself a cake pop pan.  He was so excited.  During one primary activity we were cooking breakfast for all the kids.  James came in the kitchen to help (we cooked 10 dozen eggs that day).  He was cracking eggs and cooking them and just talking and talking.  The primary president commented to me that it was so neat to see James like this, "It was like getting to see just James without his Autism."
Cooking also led to a bunch of fun one-liners from James"
"Oh, I break it so bad" This you say when you crack an egg and get some shell into the bowl
"Don't let the yolk fall in the bowl." this you say when you are trying to get egg whites only and he is pretty good at it.
"Now it's time for cooking with Chef James."
"I make it rain, I make it rain" This is said when you sprinkle sprinkles on cupcakes 

Restrooms 

 This is probably the oddest obsession he has ever had, and we can't really link it to anything like the other ones, but at the same time one of the best since he essentially became potty trained as a result of it.  For some reason he became very obsessed with restrooms.  Every single time we went to a store he had to use the restroom.  If the store had multiple restrooms he had to use them all.  If we went to multiple stores in one trip we still had to use all the restrooms.  When he came to visit me in the hospital he had to go look at all the restrooms.  Every day when I picked him up from school I had to wait while he used the restroom.  He drew bathrooms, he drew signs for our bathrooms.  Everyday.  We constantly had a new sign on the bathroom.  One day he decided our restrooms were now handicap accessible and drew the handicap signs to go on the doors.    One day he drew this lovely picture of a boy using the urinal.

 Pacman

This is probably my least favorite obsession.  He learned a lot of bad things from this one, and I was kind of sad to see the cooking go.  Pacman included lots and lots of drawing.  Running away from his class in school, building guns at school so he could shoot his classmates who were the ghosts, telling me and his teacher to "shut-up", and my personal favorite (sarcasm) saying "What the @#$!".  There were a few fun things.  He found this bag that the "jump" goes in and decided it was the perfect ghost costume.  He even wore it to the store several times.  Dad made this awesome pacman board on the kitchen floor and he often asked us to play with him.  Also I started making him Pacman sandwiches to take to school everyday.  I really wish I could have been there the first time he opened that lunch box.

Wreck It Ralph

Wreck it Ralph is our current obsession and it is a fun one.  About a week before his birthday he switched from a pacman cake to a Wreck It Ralph cake.  I really had a lot o fun doing this for him because he gets so much joy out of it.  I like Wreck It Ralph because it includes a lot of pretend play and playing with his brothers.  So for his birthday Mikey picked out this action figure (he actually picked the one in the Medal of Heros suit and we go this one to go on his cake, then he got another from his uncle so he had a total of 3 Ralphs.  We told him we could take one back, but he wanted them all and spent all night playing with his Ralphs and his cake.  He also got a battery for his Power Wheels he got for Christmas 3 years ago and has not cared about until recently when he discovered it would be the perfect racing car to pretend he was in the movie.  

It has been a pretty fun year with this kid.  We love him so much and cant wait to see what the next year has in store for us!  I know one day he will settle on one thing and know everything there is to know about that one thing, but for now we are really enjoying his creativity and excitement over each new thing.

Birthday/Easter Weekend

Easter weekend was a big one for us.  My birthday was on Friday and Saturday and Sunday we celebrated Easter.  I have to say my family SPOILED me for my birthday.  But you do only turn 30 once right!  On Thursday night when I got home from a Relief Society activity Doug got the two older boys out of bed (they were nowhere close to asleep) to go to the store to (as Michael put it) "buy Mom a present.  Mom likes candy!"  So that is what I was expecting from my guys.  On Friday morning I woke up to Michael climbing in bed with us.  Doug asked him what the day was and he excitedly said "Easter!" when Doug asked what else it was he said "Mom's birthday!"  I was impressed he remembered.  Once James and Billy joined us they decided to give me the presents they picked out, and wrapped for me.  

I opened James' first, it was a little package of orange beads.  Then Michael give me his.  He had picked out these awesome (fake) yellow roses. He even had me smell them.

I look terrible in this picture but Michael's face is priceless!

Doug told me when he took the boys to the store they were allowed to pick anything out as long as they thought Mom would like it.  The first thing Michael picked was a sprinkler.  When Doug asked if it was something Mom would like he said no and put it back without a fight.  There were no more selfish choices after that.  I have to say this was the best part of the entire day.  How excited the boys were to make me happy!

Birthday kiss for Mom!

After a lazy morning we packed everyone up and ran some errands. Lastly stopping at my favorite sandwich place for lunch.  Once we got home my present from Doug (also using the money his parents and Granny and Grandpa sent) was waiting on the door step.  I was so excited I opened it right away.  A new sewing machine.  I didn't realize how much I really did need a new machine.  My old one worked, but didn't have any fancy options.  I can't even describe how much better this one works.  

I spent the rest of the afternoon figuring out my new machine and having fun with it.  After naps we had cake, the boys made a delicious cake for me, and I love listening to them sing to me.  Once they had dinner and went to bed Doug fixed me some dinner and we tried (unsuccessfully) to watch Lincoln.  Doug went and picked up Sushi from our favorite restaurant. And we had some crab legs which are my favorite.  Overall it was a great birthday!

Notice my nice necklace.  Thanks James!

On Saturday we woke up early and headed over to the city's Easter egg hunt.  James was so excited.  They had it at some baseball fields so each field was a different age group.  Billy got to go first.  He really gets this kind of stuff.  James and Michael never have until this year, they would always just pick up one egg and eat the candy then find another, but they would be just fine if they only got one or two.  Billy went and picked up eggs as fast as he could putting them in his basket.  He ended up with 17 eggs.  James and Michael were in the next group.  Parents were not supposed to go, but parents never follow the rules, it always ruins stuff like this for me.  Just let the kids do it.  James ran out so fast picking up eggs as fast as he could he ended up with over 20 I never got to count because Michael only got 4 (which he was really excited for) and James happily shared his with him.  

On Sunday morning the Easter Bunny came.  James and Michael were really excited to find their Easter Baskets, but Billy was still into the whole egg hunt thing.  He looked at his basket but was much more excited about finding the eggs. 

Brooke got all dressed up for Easter.  She looked so pretty in her new dress.  We were going to have a nice Easter dinner too but our stove decided we didn't really need it.  Part way through cooking the ham and just when we were going to put the potatoes in the oven one of the elements on the stove broke, blowing the breaker and burning up the switch and wires on the stove.  Every time we tried to turn the breaker back on there were sparks and a loud pop and the breaker was blown again.  So we decided the only possible solution would be to finish the dinner on the grill.  Never baked on a grill before so it was kind of interesting.  Turned out OK but the potatoes were a little crunchy.  

Happy Easter from Brooke!

Dad and Brooke enjoying a Sunday nap!