obsessed with bowling

So, we mentioned previously that when we attended the Center for Courageous Kids autism weekend, both boys really enjoyed bowling. Since then it has gotten out of control at our house. We have worked on Wii bowling with Lewis, and he is quite good! The boys also enjoy playing with a couple of toy bowling sets we have.

Lewis sets it up just like Wii bowling. He imitates the characters holding one hand behind their backs and the ball in the other hand.

He also likes to put out a "scoreboard" like on the Wii with a small image of the players. Since Lewis was playing by himself in these pictures, you can see to the side, his Little People version of himself on a blue rectangle. They are always set up in the order that people are supposed to take turns. Very odd, but it kind of makes sense!

The other night, Justin and Lewis were neck in neck playing a game, and Lewis pulled out the win. Lewis plays all on his own now. We used to help him here and there, but he does great when he wants to, and if he wants to throw a bunch of gutter balls, well, he doesn't do so good. He gets amazing spares too, splits and everything.

It is a little crazy to have both boys take turns playing. Owen is happy to hold a "trigger" when Lewis plays Wii bowling, but when we play with a set of pins it can get ugly. Its good they have an interest though!

Beth found this interesting article about autistic kids running a coffee shop at school. They used the proceeds to bowl, oddly enough! It combines two of our current passions so it seemed pertinent to post it.

singing, hanging out & incubating

It's been an exhausting few weeks! Forgive the long silence. Things are generally going well. There's been snow, warmth and now cold rainy weather to keep life interesting. A couple of weeks ago, Hopscotch's Playplace had a discount day, so we took the boys to get out some energy on cold, snowy morning. Here are the highlights:

Owen's black eye is healing! It's almost completely gone now (this is an old photo though so it doesn't look that great).

Owen tried on a fireman's hat, and then fought with Lewis and several other children who wanted a turn wearing it.

Lewis enjoyed bouncing.

And hanging from these bars.

At school they are using this visual prompt to help Lewis with the morning routine. We were late one day, so I watched him read it and follow the steps. It was pretty sweet!

I had my 28-week appointment on Thursday, and everything seems to be going well. Dr. Gass says I'm an easy patient because I have no real complaints or issues when I go to see him. He actually told me about some of his recent problems which cracked me up. So glad to have a doctor who is real and understanding! He said I'm measuring at about 30 weeks which is fine, especially since I have delivered at 38 weeks with both prior pregnancies. We are expecting Phoebe to come mid-April, but of course, time will tell!

I got my Rhogam shot for rh incompatibility and I was on my way. Now I get to go every two weeks! It's going by pretty quickly, which is great because I'm exhausted, going to the bathroom way too often and having trouble doing things like picking up stuff off the floor etc. Nothing major, but things are starting to get harder and it will just get worse. But really, I feel great and have had few issues so I can't complain.

Owen even got to feel her move the other night when we were reading books. Then she stopped and he said, "Where'd baby Phoebe go?" We decided she must've been sleeping or something. :)

I'll leave you with a clip of Owen singing "Doe a deer" from The Sound of Music. He sings this a ton, along with Jingle Bells and a few other favorites.