And, now I am getting ready to pack for Christmas?? What happened? Time SLOW down!
I truly can't believe this year has gone by so quickly. The holidays go by so fast now that they smoosh them all together. We saw Christmas stuff out at halloween?? Are you kidding? Well, regardless, it's here, isn't it. We have had a harder time this year keeping the toy count down. Nick is so into imaginative play with figures and accessories. I love the imaginext toys as does he. His other obsession of late is star wars figures. He has not seen the movie yet but boy does he like the action "figgers" as Nick would say. Nick has been a little crazy over what to get for Christmas....keeps changing his mind. So I just told him that mom and dad know what he likes so he will be surprised and like it! We have been also working on the " oh, thank you for this gift face" vs " why did you get me this stupid gift face"....he is getting pretty good at it! ;)
I am so ready to bring in some new toys and donate or sell the old that I have been a little less "grinch" this year and am allowing some extra toy purchases because I think they will last us a few more years with only a few accessory purchases maybe. We continue to get leapster 2 accessories as this is our Car toy of the century. We love it. He loves it. We have talked much about the reason for Christmas and he totally gets it so we are already starting to leave Santa out of the equation. I just don't feel there is that big of a need to get him all wrapped up in well, a lie, when he doesn't necessarily believe it anyway since he has only been here for half of his years so far. I want him to believe in the love and spirit of the season and just see Santa as one of the parts of the holiday like he does the easter bunny, etc. He has been so cute trying to explain to Amigo, our really old shepherd mix, the story of Jesus' birth and the reason for Christmas. Migs is such a willing listener even if he is hard of hearing! :)
Nick had his first Christmas performance at the elementary level and it was cute. My camera was totally not working and couldn't get the picture right no matter what....kept making the pictures dark. I am sure it was the operator but I couldn't for the life of me figure out what I was doing wrong......supposed to be a point and shoot?? not so sure.
It is funny how different things affect me since we have adopted. For example, when I could tell Nick was looking for me from his place on stage and then he found me and waved. All I could think was he's "attached" and it made me so happy....even almost 3 years later....it made me so happy.
He was really singing and performing this year. In times past, he was a silent performer with occasional movement but he was really interacting this time.
As I said before we are going to try and phase Santa out as the main center piece of the holiday but we have started the tradition of going to the Kentucky Horse park for their light show and train exhibit and well, Santa was there so why not. I don't think he really told him what he wanted because he kept telling us that he wanted to be "Naughty!" Yes, son ,but you have never needed Santa's help for that! :) But, I digress, we thought we were going to have to leave because they made the Santa line right next to this obnoxious booth of scented Rocks (think Yankee candle store) and Nick was hilarious. He thought they smelled so bad (they did) and strong that he wouldn't stand there. He seems to be very sensitive to smells and really could not focus......so we moved away and left daddy in line. Great daddy! We got an awesome pic with this not very good Santa.....his other facial hair is totally showing?? hello?! beard that fits please!
I just think Nick is so darn handsome and boy does he look like a big boy now. Just precious still!
We are currently taking Flat Stanley from my Niece Lyndsay all around with us and he visited the horse park with us that night because next year the 2010 world equestrian games will be here...it's like the Olympics of horse stuff and we are one if not the only places (not European) to hold the event. Very big stuff for our little big city.
I really need to catch this blog/journal up on some developmental stuff so be patient as I list them for myself and Nick in the future.
. His handwriting is totally knocking my socks of these last few weeks. He has come so far since September when he was just scribbling. Below is his last spelling test which he got all right and the words were so neat. We were so proud!
. he is reading almost all of his sight words that have been given so far and can find most of them in books and read parts of books with us. So exciting to this family of readers!!
. he is (OF HIS OWN ACCORD) starting to make his bed, clean up his toys, and clean the table off! I love this boy! His Daddy has been the most awesome example for him in these areas!
. he has this incredible ability to remember stories and re-tell them. We love to hear bible stories and stories of his own creation....its amazing. He also has started telling us what his memory verses are after Sunday school. He is such a sponge.
. he has started asking us about bad words and what they mean. I suppose this has to do with school and things we have already told him to watch for like "stupid", "hate", "butt" and of course all the big ones. I didn't realize how hard it would be to explain about words that we shouldn't use because some of them aren't necessarily bad in some contexts, and, I NEVER realized how much Lucy in Charlie Brown holiday movies says Stupid....my goodness...kind of sad now that I see it thru parents eyes! Anyway, we decided to teach him about attitude instead so one day I tried to explain to him that most words are not "bad", it is usually the attitude or heart behind how you say it that is bad. So I verbally gave him some examples. For some reason it totally clicked with him and it is hilarious to hear him go around and explain it. He is so funny the way he changes his voice and attitude. I need to get it on Video....it's funnier that way.
. he is very slowly but surely starting to get the concepts of sports. He talks about his favorite team the Packers and he will stop and watch and listen to his dad talk about the game and explain it. He is soooo competitive that I can't decide if it will help or be a nightmare to put him in a league. We almost avoid playing board games with him because he pouts and has so much drama if he is not in the lead. The only one he does pretty well with is Trouble, the game not the state of being...he's good at that one too though! ;)
. he is 45.5 inches and almost 48 lbs....75th percentile in both ht and wt. He has grown now 8 1/2 inches since coming home. He wears 6 size pants and anywhere from 5-7 in shirts. His shoe size is about a 12 1/2.
. we had his OT full assessment and it was very interesting. I will write more on it later once we get one of the last tests done. He did well and had a few cautionary areas in motor planning and visual sensory processing. He may do some group therapy for several months but overall he has had deficits but has overcome them or learned new behavior in many of the OT areas on his own.
. He continues speech therapy and progressing with that program and vision-wise has stopped having to be patched for several hours a day on his stronger eye because the weak one is maintaining and giving full effort now. We like team players around here! ;)
. he continues to be very popular at school and has lots of friends. Libby and Emma continue to be his main "girl" friends. Emma told her mom the other day that she and Libby are fighting some to see who is going to marry Nick! His main pal right now is Jack and he will have to have some play dates with Jack soon as we are losing our ability to play outside after school on the playground with the frigid temps.
. his vocabulary is outstanding. Yay, educational television (martha speaks and word girl especially) He surprises himself sometimes with new words. He totally will say something like...."well, not (exactly). ...mom, what does exactly mean" Cracks us up because he always uses it correctly but still may not know what it means?? too funny!
Well, the one whom I am writing about is distracting me enough that I can't think of any more and have gotten up about a million times to deal with a star wars crisis.
I am planning a new years card/letter this year since I want to get some fun pics in the snow for our cards. So don't worry, it will come just not yet. I hope everyone is having a blessed season with their families and friends.
