He Walks!

After waiting for what seems like forever Michael finally started walking this week!  It has definitely been different teaching Mikey how to walk then it was with James. James just started walking one day.  No wobbly steps and falling down every few steps, just walked across the room, turned around and came back.  Mikey has been learning at a very cautious, slow pace.  He wouldn't even let us only hold one hand while he was learning, it had to be both or he would sit right down on the floor and refuse to stand up!  So last week he took a few steps back and forth from Mom to Dad.  That was exciting progress for us.  A few days later I took my night off to go see a movie with Jordyn.  During the movie I got a text from Doug saying Mikey had walked across the floor on his own!  No parent around to force him.  I can't believe I missed it.  Over the next few days he started practicing more and more, and now I would say he walks most of the time.  Still pretty wobbly, but he is so proud of himself. 

Another fun thing with this new walking stuff is how much better friends James and Mikey are.  James love to make his brother laugh, and they really seem to be close to the same level socially.  So I got the tunnel out the other day and the boys just had a blast playing in it and making each other laugh.  I love days like this!

3rd, 4th and 5th of July

We had such a fun holiday weekend. On Friday Jordyn and I drove the scooter to Doug's job and he finally gave me a tour of the site. It was pretty amazing. I had a picture in my mind but it was way bigger then I imagined.

When we got home we found this surprise in the mail box. And we have to say a big thank you to Grandma Allen for sending it. No more naked James in the morning! Whoever thought of pajamas that zip in the back was a genius!

Friday night we went to the sand dunes and roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. Mikey ate the entire time, and James didn't eat at all. James loves the sand dunes and it is a good place for him to get tons of energy out.

Saturday morning we went to the Rexburg parade. This year we went to the beginning of the parade and it was way less crowded and we got way more candy. James really enjoyed sitting next to mom.

Mikey got to sit with Uncle Shabadoo. He was really into the whole parade, and candy of course.

I think James was getting a little tired.

At the end one of the floats was giving out American Flags. The boys loved them more then all the candy.

James decided that was all he needed and went and sat on his chair and waved his flag for the rest of the parade.

And this picture is just because my boys are so funny when they eat corn. James wont pick it up and Mikey eats it from the end!

We had a fun barbecue with Doug's brothers and cousin. It was a lot of fun, then we did a few sparklers. Surprisingly James really liked it so then we felt bad we didn't get some more fireworks.

Once the kids were in bed we went on the roof and watched the city fireworks. They lasted about 5 minutes and weren't that exciting. I am realizing that I don't really remember what we did what days. It all kind of blends together in my mind so this may not be that accurate of a time line of what we did, but at least you get the idea.

Splash Park

I feel like I have so much to blog about that I don't know where to start. Now that we have James' blog that helps so I can blog about everything and not overload this blog. Last Friday we finally got James' child locator. I will probably do a post about that on the other blog. So we decided to try it out. Fridays are always difficult days for me because they seem to take forever so after Michael woke up from his nap I loaded the boys up in the bike trailer and we headed to the park. The ride was much easier this time, maybe because I knew Doug would meet us at the park after work and I would make him bike home while I drove.

First the boys wanted to play on the playground. Mikey loves this playground because he climbs the stairs, crawls across the bridge, climbs some more stairs then finally goes down the slide (with mom).

When Dad got there we headed over to the splash park (swimsuits were in the car). Both boys loved it. It took them awhile to warm up to the idea of being wet.
James and Mikey both love to go watch the Merry Go Round. I did finally take Mikey on and he didn't seem to like it too much. James just wanted to watch.

Then the boys finally got brave enough to play in the water. Mikey loved to stand at the end of the slide and splash in the water.

James finally got up his courage to go down the slide. He wasn't afraid of going down the slide, just having the water falling on his head, which I don't understand because he loves showers. Once he figured it out, we couldn't get him off of it.

Now that James has figured out that Mom can ride bikes too, he asks every day for a "Blue bike ride" (My bike is blue). First thing in the morning he is trying to get out the door for a bike ride, I guess I am going to be in shape this summer!

Team James

We have decided to start a new blog to share experiences with James' autism. I figured that everyone is not interested in the day to day details and stories and my venting, but some people are. So if you are interested then you can join Team James and read about our progress, setbacks and stories.

Crazy Mikey

Mikey has learned a ton lately! He loves to crawl around on his hands and feet and looks really funny doing it. He loves to be outside and whenever the door is open he "runs" to it. He has learned to climb stairs, but he doesn't know how to go down. We are working on that right now he just tries to go head first and I have to go get him before he falls down. The biggest reason he doesn't really get the stair thing yet is because the only stairs we have are the two steps in from the garage, the two steps in from the back yard and the three steps in to the front door. Not a lot of practice.

Mikey also has learned to stand up on his own. He loves to just stand up in the middle of the room and gets so proud of himself. Yesterday he was just standing in the middle of the room and I thought "What a great time to get a picture."After I took the picture Mikey started being really silly. It was so cute. Usually he can stand for quite a while and is pretty stable, but I think he saw the camera on and decided to ham it up!

The funniest part was when I showed the video to everyone last night. James thought it was hilarious and started acting it out. Mikey thought it was the funniest thing he has ever seen and was just laughing and laughing at himself. These two boys are sure a lot of fun!

P.S. I almost forgot to put our big news on here! Mikey took his first steps yesterday! He took one step to me. Then a few minutes later he took two more. Yea, maybe he will learn to walk after all!

Blake's Birthday

Monday was Blake's 25th birthday. He came over and we had steak and potatoes, presents and cake! It was a lot of fun. We even set up a scavenger hunt because 1. he already knew what all his presents were, and 2. he used to always do scavenger hunts for our Mom and Dad. It was a really fun evening.

Summer Time! (At least some days)

Summer has finally come to Rexburg...some days. We have really nice weather followed by really bad weather. So we have been having a lot of fun outside when we can. Both of the boys love to be outside, and so do I.

James loves to play in this hole that Doug and Tim dug for a sand trap. He likes to "climb a hill" and if I can't find him, this is usually where he ends up.
Mikes loves to climb stairs. I put him out back and he immediately crawls to the stairs and climbs them (there are only 2). Then he can't get back down so I have to get him down. It gets pretty old getting him down the stairs every 30 seconds so I do everything I can to slow him down, put him in the sand box, on the other side of the yard, or in James' lawn chair...
The other day it was really nice so I loaded up the boys in the bike trailer and rode to the park. Doug and I do this a lot, but he is usually the one pulling the boys. I never realized how hard it is. The park is about 2 1/2 or 3 miles away from our house so needless to say I was exhausted. Then we got to the park and I changed the boys into their swim clothes to play in the splash park and James took off to the playground. So this is what we did instead...
I love when the weather gets warm enough to play outside.

On a side note, we found out today that James was approved for the Katie Beckett program which means we can get some therapies going for him. He already started speech (which we now wont have to pay for) and hopefully tomorrow I can get him signed up for occupational therapy.