Spring Break

Well hello there again. I trust everyone is having a great week. We are on Spring Break this week! I prefer it to begin following Easter rather than end with Easter. It just feels so wrong to go back on Easter Monday, but the powers that be in the School System didn't ask my oppinion on the subject, so off this week and back on Easter Monday. We started the weeks with a trip to the beach. It was Bear, my mom and dad and me. It was so nice to disconnect from the world for a couple of days. The funny thing is Bear wants to go back, but not because of all the cool things there or the ocean or anything. He just likes the hotel room. He didn't care if we went out or stayed in while we were there. We didn't really go out to the ocean as it was cool and he had a cold, I think. It may have been allergies, but considering the fact that I now have a raging bad cold, I think it was a cold. Anyways, his nose ran nonstop all the time, even with allergy meds. He said at one point when it had stopped running for a few minutes, that it was finally relaxing for a little while. LOL
God bless that little boy's imagination. He can take any toy and make it whatever he wants it to be. I had to inflate an air mattress for him with a pump. Last time we did it, he hid. This time, he said if he could help, turn the pump on, he would be okay. I let him and he did great. The funny part was that then his extra electric toothbrush that has been a weed eater, mixer, etc, then became an air pump. He would put it up to the mattress and turn it on and then mimic everything I did and said while the mattress was inflating. Too funny!!
The whole ride home, he and my mom read the book "Llaama Llaama Mad at Mama". Once we got home, that night, he said to me. "I am Little Llaama and I am mad at you,Momma." I said, "You are, why?" He said, "Because I went to an egg hunt and only got one egg." I said ," I wasn't even there. Why are you mad at me about that?" He said he wouldn't be mad forever and sure enough later, he said "I'm not mad at you anymore mommy. I am nice now." I said I thought that was great. After that, he played "The Three Little Wolves and the Big Bad Pig" I kept thinking someone was at the door, because he would knock on the door and then a few mins later say "Little Wolf, Little Wolf, let me in."
He is truly fun sometimes, but boy does he talk. Someone asked me once if he woke up talking. I said, "No. He talks in his sleep too." And that is so true. Last year, there was concern at his IEP meeting that he wasn't asking enough questions. This year's IEP partially focused on "why does he ask questions all the time." I had to laugh at the irony. It is good that he asks questons, but trying to get him to understand that questions are for eliciting information that isn't known, is hard. He wants to ask about things he already knows or things that are totally irrelevant to what is going on at the time. So, I have started giving him 3 questions a day that he can ask that are questions he already knows the answer to or that are irrelevant and after that, I don't answer. He is getting better about it, but whenthis protocol isn't followed by others who are with him, it makes it tough to get much headway.I also don't want him to lose curiosity. He needs to have a curiosity about what is around him so he will be encouraged to explore the world around him, but I just have to help learn to use questioning right.
One things that starts to concern me this time of year are the wasps. They like to hang around my front door. I am vigilant about watching for nests and trying to get rid of them, but still random wasps appear and sometimes get in the house. I don't want to breed a sense of fear in him about them, but at the same time, how do I help him to not get stung? I know all kids will be stung, but I would still llike to prevent it if possible. He has to touch sometimes to find his way, so how do I make sure he isn't going to be stung by a wasp. We also get Cowkillers sometimes.They are in the wasp family, but they crawl rather than fly- more likely he could touch a crawling one. I would appreciate any insight other parents could provide regarding this dilemma.
Well, at holiday time, I start thinking about how the holiday can be incorporated into something he can appreciate and enjoy with his other senses. Easter, or Resurection Sunday, is no different. I was looking for ways to incorporate the resurection in a way that kids can easily understand, and I found a really cool cookie recipe posted on a site I subscribe to called Angie's Gluten Free. This is the URL. Hopefully, it will work http://www.glutenfreeclub.com/Recipe.aspx?nid=522&utm_nooverride=1.
It should take you there. If I get the chance to, I want to do them with Bear.I also was looking for a way to do decorating eggs. His VI wanted us to boil some eggs and this is the perfect time, but what would be the point in dying them for Easter? He wouldn't see the difference. So, I started looking for tactile decorating ideas and came across a fabulous website for tactile decorating. Here that URL is http://www.wonderbaby.org/articles/tactile-easter-crafts.html I am not sure if it is a BLOG or a website, but it is definitely something I am going to look at better. Hope you will be able to enjoy it too. *(You will need to copy and paste these URLs into your browser. I did not link them.)I am thinking about decorating the eggs with the cookie sprinkles and such. I think Bear would like that.
Well, good luck with whatever you do this weekend, whether it is church, time with family or just some special time for yourself. Be blessed.

Blessings,
BEARZ Mom