At the end of May, we celebrated Grandpa's birthday. We headed out to Aunt Jeanne's country house to play and pick strawberries, broccoli etc. It was a fun and hot day! We didn't realize at the time that it would stay so hot, but it has not let up since. When we got there, we attempted a picture of Lewis and Grandpa and the tractor.
Owen enjoyed picking strawberries right off the bushes and eating them. We did most of the picking ourselves, but he was quick to ask if he was ready for more. He had a great time eating homemade ice cream and helping Grandpa open his presents.
Before we left, we had another attempt at a Grandpa & Lewis picture. Lewis loved riding around on the 4-wheeler, but didn't want to look at the camera. It was a fun day!
We are long overdue for an update on Owen's life. He'll be turning 2 in just a week! It's so hard to believe, and yet he's definitely in that phase. It's been about a month ago, but he finally got the swing of a regular sippy cup. He'd been drinking out of straw cups and finally started showing interest in Lewis' cups so we gave it another try and he got it. Now he loves drinking and uses a variety of cups with much better leak protection. :)
See how proud he is of himself. Owen also decided he loves Playdoh. He asks for it regularly, and makes us do most of the work. He tells us what he wants "Ball, ok!" and then counts all the objects.
We still take walks around the block, and on the most special days, we get to see a train go by. Here's Lewis super excited while Owen watches in the distance. They both love seeing the trains.
Owen likes to take breaks on these steps when we walk around. Otherwise, he's been mostly jogging. He runs like a mad man and I have to keep up, but it's good exercise.
Our friend, Mandy, brought over her family's basketball goal, and Owen has taken a special interest in it. He needs help getting the ball in, but he's a magnet for that thing.
Just a couple more inches and he'll have it!
Of course, he still loves reading. Here's a daddy & Owen moment. Currently Owen is sleeping with 2 Snoopy dogs, a fluffy sheep, a small Elmo doll and a book. He always asks for one at bedtime and sometimes ends up reading it in the morning when the light shines through his window.
Other random facts: He loves pizza, and anything round gets that name. Other favorite foods are corn, rice & pasta. He loves balloons and has a special love for "Aunt Beth" (probably partly because she is the source of most balloons in his world). In fact, the tears he cries yelling her name when she leaves are some of the worst. It's rather touching! One final funny fact: Owen can't quite say "Lewis" so he calls his big brother "Reeses" like a peanut butter cup. So silly!
This is just a brief update. He is a crazy boy, and we love him. Life would be so much different without him.
Currently the garden looks something like the photo above. Our tomato plants have itty bitty tomatoes growing, and the squash/zucchini look like they might produce something soon. This is actually a couple weeks ago, so the plants are even bigger now.
We also had an uninvited guest, but he turned out to be dead. We are guessing that when the guys mowed the empty lot next door with their heavy duty mower, they lethally harmed a few snakes (we found two) which did not live long after traveling into our yard.
Hopefully, we will have pictures of vegetables to post soon.
All of this fun got me thinking that with all the interventions that Lewis gets, a lot of people get to spend more time with him than I do. So the last few weeks, I have scheduled in some time with Lewis to go do some fun things. It has been great!
Due to his current Elmo addiction, Lewis has developed an interest in pets, mail, and a few random other things. It seemed like a trip to the pet store would be fun. Lewis did really like looking at real fish, and a few other animals. He did not like the dogs people brought to the store with them, but he survived.
This little white mouse was running like crazy on his wheel. Lewis got very excited about it.
We also went to the toy store one day. I was really surprised that Lewis latched hold of these Buzz Lightyear and Woody toys. He put them down eventually, but was not happy about it.
He got to sit on a bike with training wheels too. His feet wouldn't reach the pedals.
Finally, we went to ride the carousel at the mall. We had to wait a while for the attendant to come off his break (which was difficult to explain!) but we survived and Lewis had a blast. The ride ended way too fast.
Justin and I took Lewis out for a special post pre-school awards night dinner at Chick-fil-A, where he was able to eat a whole kids meal (didn't like the lemonade) and then played in the play area before heading home.
Lewis mostly loved the funny mirrors and spinners, but he did agree to go down the slide a couple of times.
We took our first trip over to the fountain at Circus Square a few weeks ago. It took the boys a few minutes to warm up to the idea of being wet. And actually, it was super hot that day, but when we got there the sun was going down and it was rather cool, so they did really well under the circumstances. They are awfully cute in their swim trunks. Though these pictures don't show it, they were both drenched by the time we left. You'll just have to trust me.
This one couldn't wait. We went to Lewis' preschool for awards night and graduation this evening. Lewis isn't graduating, but he did receive a participation certificate for attending this year.
Lewis managed to sit well during the ceremony with occasional pointing at Justin and I and some waving or clapping enthusiastically. The funniest part of the evening, by far, was the following performance with his class. They sang a couple of songs with hand movements. At the beginning, Lewis was staring at the lights and not really participating. If you can hang in there until the 1:30 mark, it gets very interesting! He's quite the performer. Anyway, hope it brightens your day!
Happy Mother's Day, everyone! I always miss my mom on Mother's Day, but feel especially blessed to be a mommy to two cute boys who love each other so much.
Our friend, Mandy shared this video and it absolutely made me laugh and cry, maybe because it is Mother's Day and my child on the spectrum has been so emotional lately. Anyway, this is a conversation between a mom and her son with Asperger's (high functioning autism). We hope that Lewis has this kind of understanding someday, but it gives insight into the way many of these kids feel (and how their parents feel in response) when they become more aware of being different. If you have a few minutes it is worth a watch (listen).
It has been nice having my sister, Beth, living in Bowling Green. One of the carrots we dangled before she decided to come was that we could grow a garden when she arrived and live off the land. We don't have much land in downtown Bowling Green, but we managed to get a good 7.5' by 10.5' square carved out to plant stuff in the sunniest corner of our yard. It has been quite therapeutic to plant seeds and watch the sprouts come. It is tiny bits of life that are uniquely hopeful, and surprisingly so. If I'm having a bad day and walk by our planters, I am immediately encouraged if there has been some change. Anyway, here are some photos of the process.Out front we planted some daisies next to our roses that seemed to dead, but are producing new branches.We bought 4 tomato plants at the farmer's market from the nice Amish man with a long beard. He is so kind and always has great tomatoes. We also planted yellow squash, zucchini, green peppers and mixed bell peppers from seeds in these planters.
The spot we picked for the garden. BEFORE:
After a couple of weeks, our squash started to sprout.
We started to shovel the sod off our garden spot. Owen helped. Actually, Beth did almost all of it by herself. She took out some frustration there doing the tough physical labor of shoveling the hard ground. I helped a bit, but would never have finished by myself! Beth was determined, thankfully.
The spot after it the sod was gone.
We rented a tiller and Justin tilled the ground up.
We added fertilizer rich soil and Justin tilled some more.
Priscilla, our good friend, came and helped us plant seeds in the garden. We planted cucumbers, snow peas, pole beans, green onions, pumpkins and Asian cabbage. We have started to see sprouts of the peas and cabbage so far. We have yet to transplant the rest of the the sprouting plants we have been keeping mostly indoors. I'm finding myself to be an overprotective parent, afraid to put them out there in the elements. After the current round of storms have gone through, we will have to transplant them because our squash are running out of room in their little planters, and some are dying.The good news is that after nothing for weeks, our peppers have started to sprout too! Priscilla encouraged us to keep them inside and they needed that warmer environment to sprout. They are doing great now!
Once we have transplanted we will have a little fence out there to keep out rabbits, squirrels and the little Shepherds from tearing up the garden. We are excited and hope to reap a large harvest this summer!
This is our zuchinni, squash and pepper plants....still inside due to the weird weather.
Here's a close up of the pepper sprouts.
We bought a cilantro plant at the Farmer's Market. It is delicious!
At the end of May, we celebrated Grandpa's birthday. We headed out to Aunt Jeanne's country house to play and pick strawberries, broccoli etc. It was a fun and hot day! We didn't realize at the time that it would stay so hot, but it has not let up since. When we got there, we attempted a picture of Lewis and Grandpa and the tractor. 
Before we left, we had another attempt at a Grandpa & Lewis picture. Lewis loved riding around on the 4-wheeler, but didn't want to look at the camera. It was a fun day!
