Crafting, Playdating, and Swimming

Our "Cool Summer Days" activities are in full-force.  We have been busy bees with all these crazy crafts.  Caleb loves finding out what the activity is for that day. Here is what we have been up to the last few days.

Monday: Make a Grass Head

I bought some clay pots and then sprayed them with primer, that way the boys could decorate them using crayons, markers, or paint.

For some reason this butterfly was very attracted to the white pots.

Both boys worked hard on painting their pots.

Benjamin decided to paint the inside of this bird house he got several weeks ago.  I love how he has his little pinkie finger sticking out.

Still decorating.

While our pots dried, we went outside to make our "head".  I bought some really cheap knee high stockings at the dollar store.  We put a couple of tablespoons of grass seed in the stockings first and then filled the rest up with potting soil.  This was a bit messy and somehow my leg ended up covered in soil.

We added some googly eyes, a nose and mouth to our "heads"

(Daddy still has to decorate his)

Hopefully our heads will begin to grow some hair soon.  The boys check several times a day to see if anything has started sprouting yet.

Tuesday: Make Bird Feeders

This was so easy.  You just need bird seed and gelatin.  Heat up an envelope of gelatin with 1/4 cup of water, add about a cup of bird seed and fill up some cookie cutters.  I got a huge bag of birdseed so we will be able to make these feeders all summer long.  Caleb really enjoyed it.

Where is Benjamin while Bubba is working hard on bird feeders?

He thought it would be more fun to take a ball of tinfoil and rocket it through the air using my kitchen scale. Silly boy.

(is it just me or does he look really grown up in this picture?)

Our finished feeders.  

We let them dry and harden overnight before we hung them outside.

Wednesday: Playdate at Bryce's!

Caleb got to hang out with is buddies Bryce, Landry, and Nathan.

Benjamin was in love with this flexible racetrack.

On an unrelated note, Caleb started swim lessons this week.  I learned about an Adaptive P.E. teacher that does one-on-one swim lessons in her pool.  I thought it would be a great way for Caleb to become more confident in the water and also offer him a little bit of therapy at the same time.  Caleb has always loved being in the water but the child hates for water to get in his eyes, ears, or nose.  Well in swim lessons he has been forced encouraged to put his head under water.  As you can imagine, he has been less than thrilled with  that.

I guess while I am here I might as well give a quick update on Caleb's recovery.  It is definitely slow progress, so slow in fact that it is hard to tell if there is any progress at all.  While he is still unable to stand or walk, Caleb has discovered some new tricks since his surgery.  Last week he was sitting on his bed and he had his knee up with his foot on the bed and he started tapping his foot.  Purposefully.  With a huge smile on his face. I have NEVER seen him isolate movement in his foot.  Never.  AND he can now swing his legs out from the knee, isolating that movement from the knee down.  I have never seen him do that.  Never.  It's so strange to me how he still can't stand up but he has these other brand new movements.  Those spinal nerves are very tricky.  Oh, and he hasn't had a single headache since the surgery. Completely headache free for the last 9 weeks.  He started having regular headaches (2-3 a week) last May, we took him to the ER multiple times convinced it was his shunt.  It would appear that the tethered cord was causing the headaches all along.  Who knew?

Randomness (not sure that is even a word)

I have some random pictures that were taken over the last few days...I decided to just lump it all together into one blog post.

Caleb is still taking swim lessons every Saturday morning.  This past Saturday Grandpa Joel went with Caleb to his class, Glenn and Benjamin went too...leaving me all by myself for about 5 hours.  Awesome.  Anyway, Glenn took several pictures..

Caleb and Grandpa Joel swimming.  We bought these floaties called "Puddle Jumpers" and they are awesome.  Love them!

This is the face you get when you tell Benjamin, "Smile!"

After swim class the boys went to Cabela's (a HUGE hunting, fishing, camping store) to look around.

  The boys had so much fun at Cabela's.  They have all kinds of things to look at, I'm sorry I missed it because Caleb and Benjamin loved it.  Although I did enjoy having the morning all to myself.  That was a nice treat.

A friend of ours is having a baby girl in just a couple of weeks and I made this keepsake can and photo book for her.  I can be crafty on occasion!

Grandpa Al gave Caleb a magazine all about the F 111 (Grandpa Al knows a lot about airplanes, especially military ones).  Caleb has looked at the magazine every night before bed.  I just love the things that he is interested in.  He absolutely loves cars and can name almost every car on the road and he will ask "Is that car fast mom?" and then he'll ask "But is it faster than a Corvette."  He compares every car to a Corvette, cracks me up.  Now I see him being interested in Airplanes and I know NOTHING about that, so Grandpa Al will have to be the one to educate Caleb when it comes to planes.

I took this picture of Caleb before school this morning. All I could get was a silly face out of the boy!  His first week of Kindergarten went well last week.  I so wish I could be a little fly on the wall at his school so that I can watch him throughout the day.  It is almost impossible to get details about school from this kid!  I get little bits and pieces from him about his day but that is about it.  He has mentioned some kids by name that are in his class, and I know that he sang "I'm proud to be an American" in music class yesterday, and that he had a relay race in the gym last week.  That's about all I know!  It's absolute torture not knowing more about his day.  I wonder if he is making friends, is he having fun, is he feeling included or left out, is he participating????  It's maddening!

He did tell me that a girl at school asked him if his legs were broken.  My heart hurt a little when he told me that (although he didn't seem upset at all).  So I talked to him about how his legs are not broken and that his legs are SO strong.  I told him that it is ok to tell kids that his legs are strong, he just needs the braces, the walker, and the wheelchair to help him go faster.  I tried to give him the words to say that would express something very positive.  I don't want him to feel like there is something wrong with him or that his legs are broken in some way.  He's perfect, and his legs are perfect.  I just want him to feel comfortable in his body and feel confident in his abilities.  I know he is going to have bad days and will one day question why God made him this way.  I just pray that Glenn and I have the right words to encourage him.  It's tough.

Caleb seems to be adjusting well to Kindergarten.  He is in a good mood when I pick him up and has been going into the building all by himself in the mornings.  He is definitely tired though, going to bed around 7:45 at night!  Kindergarten must be hard work :)

Swimming in the garage

It's like 400 degrees in Texas right now...and that's not factoring in the 99% humidity, so it actually feels even hotter.  Our poor air conditioner is struggling to cool the house.  Glenn decided to cool the boys off by letting them swim in the frog pool.  He put it in the garage so that the boiling sun wouldn't fry their sweet baby skin.  Caleb loves the little pool...

...Benjamin, not so much.  The water was pretty chilly and he just wasn't having any fun.  

A brief moment when Benjamin wasn't screaming.  

We are doing another fundraiser for the Spina Bifida Association and we would love to have all the support we can get.  There is a link on the right that you can click on to go to Caleb's donation page.  Please consider making a donation to the "Walk-n-Roll for Spina Bifida".

Swim Class

Caleb has been going to swim class for several weeks now and he really seems to enjoy it.  Glenn takes him to class every Saturday morning, I usually stay home with Benjamin.  Swim class is something that Caleb and daddy do together, a little father-son bonding time. This morning Benjamin and I went to class with Caleb and then headed to Gammy and Grandpa Al's afterward.  I managed to take 52 pictures of Caleb during his swim class and here are a few...

Caleb is not a fan of floating on his back.  He is so worried that water is going to get in his ears that he has a very hard time relaxing.  Glenn is trying to get Caleb to just rest his head back...but Caleb is quite resistant.

Swim class definitely takes Caleb out of his comfort zone a little bit but he absolutely loves it.  He is so excited every Saturday morning because he knows he gets to go swimming. 

First swim class

Caleb has his first swim class this morning.  He absolutely loved it!  The boy was smiling the entire time.  He has lessons every Saturday morning for the next few months.  It was hard to get good pictures but here are a couple.

Caleb has always enjoyed swimming but he absolutely hates when water gets anywhere near his eyes or ears.  I'm hoping that this class will help him overcome that fear.  He had a great time today so that is certainly a good start. The were about 11 kids in the class this morning, all around Caleb's age.

This was the first and the last time I will be taking Benjamin to Caleb's swim class.  It was near impossible to keep that kid entertained.  He wanted in that water so badly.  If I had let him, he would have gone head first into the pool.  So, Glenn and I are just going to take turns taking Caleb to class so that one of us can just stay home with Benjamin. 

Lake Outing

The local Spina Bifida Association hosted a family outing at the lake today. We took the boys out there to have some fun in the sun and to eat lunch. It's a really neat place, it is a spring fed lake but it has the features of a pool (slides, diving boards, etc). Plus it has lots of shade and sand. Caleb absolutely loved it and threw and enormous fit when it was time to go. Benjamin on the other hand was not too sure about being in the water, as you can see from the picture of him screaming! He finally began to tolerate being in the water later on. We had a lot of fun. By the time we got home Caleb was so tired that he was saying "Please let me go to sleep." He is now sleeping soundly as are Benjamin and daddy.

Afternoon at the waterpark

We took Caleb to the local waterpark today. The park was only open to city employees and their families, the admission and food was super cheap...the three of us got into the park AND ate dinner for less than it would normally cost for just one of us to go! Caleb had an absolute blast, his favorite was going down the lazy river and crawling around in the wave pool. Glenn did take him down a couple of small water slides but Caleb didn't care too much for those. Caleb was most upset when it was time to leave, he cried the whole way to the car.

Swimming at Aunt Debbie's

We went swimming this afternoon at Aunt Debbie's house. Caleb got to see a lot of family; Grandma was there and so were Caleb's cousins. He had a great time in the water and really enjoyed watching all of the kiddos play and jump off the diving board. Grandma even jumped off the diving board! He loved riding on the body board while Daddy pushed him around and he enjoyed relaxing on the raft as well. It was a very busy day for all of us and we are worn out!

Swimming again

We took our boys swimming again today. I learned my lesson from last week when Caleb tore up his toes and knees, I bought him swimming shoes and sweat bands that I pulled up over his knees. So his knees and toes looked great today, no new scrapes! I also got him a swim shirt to keep his chest and back from getting sunburned. All the boys had a good time swimming today. Caleb was very tired by the time we got home and he took a nice long nap.