"real" day 1-myrtle beach, South Carolina

Saturday morning we checked out of our hotel around 8 a.m.  We stopped at a Biscuitville for breakfast and then began our journey from NC to SC.

When we arrived in Myrtle Beach, we weren't sure if our house was going to be ready.  It was only a little after 10:30, so there was a good chance it wasn't.  Luckily for us, it was ready.  I got the keys to Z59 and my husband took the boys to get our rental golf cart.  (This is the primary mode of transportation at Ocean Lakes Family Campground.)  He and the boys took the golf cart to the house and I followed in our car.

Our house was on one of the lakes on the property.  It was very nice.  I checked the house for grocery staples while we unpacked our things.  Then, I drove to Walmart to get supplies while the boys explored the campground on their scooters.  Walmart was crazy.  It took me forever to get everything we needed for our week at the beach.  See how full my cart was.

When I returned, the boys and my husband had picked up some food for lunch at the Meet and Eat (a concession food stand on the campground).  After we finished lunch, we loaded up our golf cart and headed for the beach.

The water was very warm and the current was very strong.  It kept dragging the boys further and further down the beach.  My husband and I took turns getting them to return to our spot.  We stayed at the beach for a couple of hours.  It was great!

After we finished at the beach, we stopped by the Sandy Mart (a campground store that has anything that you would need for the beach).  We bought a few essentials and then drove our golf cart back to our house.  

We did a little fishing at the house.  That was one of the features that I loved about the house.  SJ got bored with it quickly.  I took over for him.  It was very relaxing.  

After dinner, we took the boys to the arcade.  Each boy got $5, which was 21 tokens.  They enjoyed the arcade.  Bob was playing things that didn't give many tickets.  He gave the little bit of tickets that he had to SJ.  A great big brother moment.  

We went back to the house and went to bed early that night.  A very full day of vacation!

driving to South Carolina

Friday morning we got the boys up very early and began our LONG drive to South Carolina.  We were renting a house at Ocean Lakes Family Campground in Myrtle Beach.  

We were in the car somewhere around 5:30 a.m.  The boys could have slept, but they were too excited about vacation.  We started our journey in Pa and headed south through WV.  

We stopped in West Virginia to get a DVD player for the car.  SJ also bought some Teenage Mutant Turtle movies.  That kept them busy for a chunk of the trip. We were going to stop at the New River Gorge, but it was raining very hard.  

We continued south into VA.  It was close to lunch time, so we stopped at a Chili's for lunch.  It was yummy as usual.

We got back on our route and crossed into NC.  We drove for a few more hours.  My husband had enough of the driving, so we stopped for the night at a Comfort Suites in Rockingham, NC.  

It wasn't the nicest hotel we ever stayed in, but it wasn't the worst.  It was mostly clean, but our room had a very musty smell.  I wouldn't stay there again.  

We went to Dairy Queen for dinner.  We went through the drive through and ate in our room.  The Dairy Queen smell did take away from the mustiness.  We all went to bed around 10:00.  We were exhausted. A full day 1.

summer speech #5

Two Wednesdays ago, SJ had his speech session.  His therapist reviewed some homework he had trouble with.  On Identifying Synonyms, he was able to correctly answer 10 of them on his own.  With prompting, he correctly answered 3.  He still had trouble with the remaining three.  Those three were courage, calm and border.

She also reviewed a worksheet where SJ has to choose a correct definition for a boldfaced word.  With her assistance, he was able to correctly choose babble's definition.  She assigned him another worksheet on this subject for homework.

She talked to him about our upcoming vacation and he told her he was excited to go.  

She began a worksheet on Identifying Irrelevant Information in Sentences.  They did 4 together and he is to finish the remainder for homework.  Here is one of the sentences.

I'm pretty sure that today is Monday.  SJ had to tell her that I'm pretty sure is the irrelevant information.

She also assigned him a worksheet on Using Adverbs.  He needs to choose an adverb from the word bank to complete each sentence.  

For example:  thoroughly, rarely and wearily.

Beth looked ________ at the huge pile of laundry.  SJ will need to use wearily as the correct adverb.  

We have not done the homework yet (we will get to it tomorrow).  He was in no mood to do homework on vacation.  

Since we were going away, he skipped speech therapy on July 24th.  He will be returning to speech therapy on July 31st.

summer reading tutoring #5

Two Tuesdays ago, SJ had his reading tutoring session with Mrs. Banks.  They continued to read two more chapters of The Island: Survival.  She said SJ did a great job reading.  He even offered to read more than his share.  I was so happy and proud to hear that.

Next, they worked on an I Spy style worksheet where SJ had to answer questions based on the picture.  This is the picture.

Here are a few of the questions.  

1. What holiday are the ocean creatures celebrating? 4th of July

2. What two creatures are carrying watermelons?  Octopus and swordfish

3. How many little fish (like the ones on the blanket) can you find?  10

Then, she had him do a beach glyph.  He had to decide on the color of the girl's bow and dress (orange-he likes to play in the sand), the color of her sunglasses (purple-he has visited a beach), the color of the bucket (red stripes-he hasn't collected shells along the shore), the color of her eyes (green-it is important that he has a swimsuit and sunscreen at the beach), the color of the shovel (brown-we have talked to him about beach safety), what kind of face to draw on the sun (smiley-he can hardly wait for vacation) and how many birds to draw in the sky (2-he's been to the beach twice). Here is the finished picture.

This was his last session in July.  We were vacationing the next week.  Mrs. Banks was also going on vacation.  He will see her again in two weeks.

summer speech #4

Last Wednesday was SJ's speech therapy session.  When his appointment was over, she said she went over the homework we had done together.  On the choosing the correct definitions homework, she reviewed the words that I needed to explain to him.  After her review, he was able to correctly choose the definition for palm and construct.  He still had difficulty with babble.  We will have to review that. 

She also reviewed the synonyms that have been challenging for him.  She reviewed 16 words.  Out of those 16, he was able to give a synonym for 7 of them (infant, job, great).  With prompting, he was able to give a synonym for 6 of them (beautiful, fearful, border).  He still couldn't give a synonym for 3 of them (tidy, calm, annoy).  We will have to review those words.

She said he did a nice job for her this week.  She said he was much more cooperative this week.  He told her about finishing up with swim team and our upcoming vacation.  I told her that I took him to see a psychotherapist to help with his anger management. 

For homework this week, she assigned him a worksheet on identifying key elements in sentences.  He did fairly well with this activity.  It was a listening activity and he repeatedly wanted to look at the paper for assistance.  Out of the 18 sentences, he only needed prompting with a few.  He seemed to have more difficulty with sentences that had proper nouns in them. 

For example:  Keith is from Florida and Latrice is from Quebec.  He needed to tell me that Keith from Florida, Latrice from Quebec.  He got Latrice from Quebec but couldn't remember where Keith was from without prompting. 

Next, we did another worksheet on choosing correct definitions for a boldfaced word.  He had 4 words and only had trouble with one.  This is the one that he had trouble with. 

wade

a. to make fun of

b. to change color

c. to walk in water or mud

d. to speak in a low voice

He had no idea what wade was.  I needed to define it for him, which was hard to do without using the words in the answer.  I did have him give me a sentence using it without assisting him.  This was his sentence.

I waded through the baby pool.

She also gave us a comprehension story to read that focused on vocabulary and semantics.  It was a two paragraph story about a family on a camping trip.  There were three questions on main idea and details.  He did well on the first two.  The third one he was guessing on, so I had him look in the story.  There were five questions on vocabulary and semantics.  He only had trouble with one of the questions.  He didn't know that "pitch the tent" meant put the tent up.  He kept telling me that this was too easy.  "Try to give me something harder next time," he said. 

Here comes the harder assignment.  She gave him a sheet on identifying descriptors that go together.  He had a lot of trouble with this.  He either gave me an answer that wasn't exactly right, he needed assisted or he had no idea.  Out of the 21 sentences, five of the answers weren't exactly right (It is very damp and cold in the basement.) He should had said wet.  Eight of the sentences, I prompted him with clues.  (Let's take it slow and steady this time.)  The last eight he just couldn't give me an answer, so I had to give it to him.  (Alan's hands always feel cold and clammy.)  This is definitely a skill that will need to be practiced. 

summer reading tutoring #4

Last Tuesday was SJ's reading tutoring day.  He was so tired!  I woke him up at 8:30 and he practically slept walked downstairs.  Normally, I wouldn't care, but we had to be at Mrs. Banks' house at 9 a.m.  He was only able to eat about half of a bowl of cereal and then we were out the door. 

I was concerned that SJ was going to be uncooperative with Mrs. Banks, since he was so tired.  When I picked him up after his session, I was pleasantly surprised to hear that he was anything but uncooperative.

Mrs. Banks said he worked very well for her.  They started out the session by continuing to read 2 more chapters from The Island: Survival.  She said he did a very nice job.  He was engaged and read when it was his turn.  She said they are at the point in the novel where the kids find a body.  That was very interesting to SJ.

Next, they worked on a glyph.  SJ had to decide what color to circle the girl with the sunhat (red-he likes to go swimming), the color of the first three letters (pink-he stays home over the summer break), the color of the kids' hair (red-he reads a few times a week), the color of the boy's clothes (yellow and green-he takes out the trash and helps in the garden), the color of the girls' clothes (purple-he hopes we travel south to the beach) and what kind of face to draw on the last child (frown face-he feels sad when summer is over).  He also had to finish the following sentence and write his answer on the line under the kids.  The summer is a great time to hang out.  See the finished glyph.

 

 

They finished the session with another round of Doodle Dice.  Mrs. Banks said he did much better with the game this time.  Considering that we had a rough start to the morning, I was more than pleased that he did very well with his tutoring session.

 



monday, psychotherapist, monday

SJ's developmental pediatrician had suggested that I make an appointment for SJ to see a psychotherapist.  He was concerned that SJ would be getting attention as puberty falls upon him and he wants him to have someone to talk to about those feelings.

So, on Monday we had his initial appointment with the psychotherapist.  When we got there, we were greeted by a very welcoming face.  I had a good feeling about the therapist as soon as I saw him.  He took us back and got some background on SJ.

He asked about his birth, milestones, his Autism diagnosis, diet, therapies (speech, occupational, behavioral), schooling, family dynamic and friendships.  After I answered all of his questions, I told him about his occasional anger issues and the petechiae incident.

He asked me to leave him alone with SJ, so that they could chat for about 15-20 minutes. After he was done talking to SJ, he had me come back in.  During their alone time, SJ told him that he would like to be a police officer one day.  He also told him that he likes Legos, video games and Star Wars.  He admitted that he gets extremely frustrated when he loses and when Bob agitates him. 

The therapist told me that he discussed with SJ to try to be a Jedi Knight in training.  He reminded him that being a Jedi means he needs to stay calm and on the "light side".  He should not go to the "dark side" (having tantrums, getting enraged).  He gave him some acronyms to help him remember when he gets mad or someone is bothering him.  I loved this idea.  So simple, but so clever!

For anger management, SJ is to remember this acronym.

Stop

Think

Act

Review

 

For conflict management, SJ is to remember this acronym.

Work it out, or else walk away

Ask other person(s) to stop

Request help

Self defense

 

He also told SJ that he needs to find a "Safety Zone".  This will be a place for him to go to calm down for 15 minutes. When he is in his safety zone, he is not to be disturbed.  His safety zone is going to be his room.  He told the therapist that Bob sometimes bothers him when he is in his room.  The therapist asked me if we could have a family rule about that.  I told him I would remind Bob that he can't bother SJ when he is in his safety zone. 

 

He also wants SJ to arrange a "Calm Down Kit".  He wants him to put five things in it that will calm him down.  He asked, "Like my plushies?"  The therapist said, "Yes.  Anything that makes you feel better."

 

He also asked me to keep a calendar to track his temper outburst.  Each day is divided in half .  If he does not have a temper outburst, he gets a star.  He gave us some optional rewards.  He said we could do a 5 items daily or weekly list.  If he gets 2 stars each day, he would get one item.  If he gets 11 to 12 stars weekly, he would get one item.  I am not sure if I want to do that, so we are still deciding on the rewards. 

 

He said he would like to see him back at the end of July.  I thanked him and told I was hoping these new techniques were helpful for SJ.

 

 

 

 

 

lake house saturday and sunday

My husband's cousin invited us up to their lake house this past weekend.  It wasn't too far of a drive (just a little over 2 hours), but the boys hate being in the car for "long car trips".  My husband decided to stop at Wal-Mart and pick up a game for them to play in the car.  It was a plug in version of the classic Atari game.  Thank goodness for this.  It kept the boys busy the whole way there. 

When we finally arrived at the lake house, we went into the house to see my husband's relatives.  We didn't see too many people at first, but we did see all of the dogs.  There were a lot of dogs.  There were four black labs, a red golden retriever and a border collie.  Bob is allergic to dogs and SJ is afraid of big dogs.  Great!  This is going to be a long weekend.  (Honestly, the dogs were very well behaved, so the boys weren't bothered by them too much.)

A few minutes after we arrived, SJ changed into his suit and went right into the lake.  He stayed in the water for about 30 minutes and then he got out.  He said it was just too cold.  He still played near the water's edge. He and Bob were busy tossing rocks and stones into the water. 

I thought the boys would fish while we there.  For some reason, they just weren't into the fishing this weekend.  I was hoping we would be able to go out on their boat and do some tubing.  That wasn't to be this weekend.  Unfortunately, the host's boat was not working.  So much for tubing. 

In the evening, the boys played with some other kids who were staying at the lake house.  I was glad they had something to do.  My husband and I relaxed down by the fire and got to visit with his relatives. 

When it was time to go to bed, Bob and I went up to our room.  SJ and my husband stayed downstairs (it was very hot in our upstairs bedroom) and they passed out in the living room.  SJ and my husband got up very early on Sunday.  My husband decided to go fishing with some of the guys.

While the guys were gone, we ate some breakfast and hung out by the shore.  The boys and I went for a walk down by the marina and took pictures.  We also played a little corn hole and SJ attempted to  bond with one of the black dogs.  This is progress for SJ.  He was trying to get it to retrieve sticks.  It worked for a few minutes.  It was a beautiful morning. 

When my husband returned, we said our goodbyes and thanked them for having us.  I wish the boys would have done more lake things (swimming and fishing), but it was still nice to give them a change of location.  It was also nice that they got to spend some quality time with my husband's relatives. 

fifth of july with friends

On Friday, we were invited to one of my husband's high school friend's house for a picnic.  My husband has been friends with some of these folks since grade school.  The friend, whose house we were invited to, had his brother in town from California.  We were very excited to see him. 

We arrived at their house at dinner time.  They had sandwiches, salad, meatballs, chips, dips and a yummy cookie cake for dessert. 

The one thing that the boys love the most about going to this friend's house is he is a big game player. Since it was a summer party, he had lots of outdoor sporting games set up.  He had badminton, corn hole, volleyball and ladder ball.  Plus, he has stomp rockets, remote control cars and tons of balls and bats for the kids play with.

Before we started playing anything that I had mentioned above, SJ and Bob had spotted the ping pong table that was set up in the garage.  They thought it would be a great idea to have a tournament.  SJ made up a bracket and assigned people to play each other.  The competitors only had to play up to 11.  SJ and Bob stayed in the garage and were the score keepers.  SJ also went to retrieve the upcoming competitors.  Everyone who played seemed to enjoy the tournament.  See the attached bracket. 

 

After the ping pong tournament was over, we all moved to the back yard for the other games.  They started with volleyball and moved onto badminton.  We played badminton the longest.  Everyone seemed to enjoy that.  They played just kids, just adults and then we had mixed teams.  It was so much fun!

 

I did have to remind SJ a few times not to get so upset over losing points while he was playing.  He was told that he would lose electronics if he let his temper get the better of him.  After two reminders, he calmed down and enjoyed the game.

 

We stayed at their house until a little after 10.  It was so nice to see all of our friends.  Even though it was the fifth of July, it almost felt like the fourth (minus the fireworks).  

 



fourth of july 2013

This was a weird Fourth of July for us.  Usually, we have friends and family over for a huge picnic and firework fun.  This year, our core group of friends were off doing other things (one was on vacation, one was at their lake house and the other was in a baseball tournament).  My parents were going to come over, but we were expecting bad weather.  Due to that fact, my parents opted to stay at home. 

When lunch time came around, SJ and Bob wanted to know where everyone was at.  "Doing other things this year," I said.  I wasn't really disappointed, but it wasn't the traditional holiday that we have. 

We still had picnic food (hamburgers, hot dogs, corn, beans), but we didn't have anyone to share it with.  After we ate, we played a few rounds of badminton.  I would have liked to play more, but it was extremely hot that day.  After we finished, we let the boys shoot off some small bottle rockets, smoke bombs and burn some "snakes".  They really had fun with that. 

Around 8:00, the predicted storm arrived.  We heard thunder and the winds started picking up.  We cleaned up the fireworks and put the badminton rackets away.  We made it in the house as the rain started.  The storm only lasted about 45 minutes.  While it was storming, we watched a few Fourth of July specials on television. 

After the storm was finished, we went on our back deck to enjoy the big fireworks that two of our neighbors were shooting off.  Their firework displays continued for at least 45 minutes.  It was great!  Even though I would have loved to see our friends and family, it still was an enjoyable (although quieter) Fourth of July!

swim meets

SJ had two swim meets last week.  He had his last home meet on Monday.  He swam in three heats at that meet.  The first heat that he was in was freestyle.  He did well for him. He finished with a time of 54 seconds.  He was very disappointed with his performance, since he came in last.  I thought he was going to throw a fit, but he was calmed down by some fruit snacks.

His second heat was the breast stroke.  This is his favorite stroke.  His time was 1:05.  He again finished last.  He wasn't as mad as he was when he finished last in the freestyle.  He wanted a snack.  They didn't have anything that he could eat at the concession stand, so he opted for his dry cereal that I had packed.

His last race was the butterfly.  He did pretty well in his heat.  He didn't finish last and his finishing time was 1:04.  He was happy with how he swam in his second hardest stroke.   He had a great meet and we were very proud of him. 

On Wednesday, he had his second meet of the week.  It was an away meet.  He was also only swimming in freestyle, breast stroke and butterfly.  It was a very cloudy night and they were calling for thunderstorms.  I was hoping they would get the whole meet in. 

His first heat was the freestyle.  He finished again at 54 seconds.  He didn't come in last, so he was relieved at the end.  He brought his 3DS to the meet, so he kept himself busy playing that in between races. 

His second race was the breast stroke.  He didn't do as well as he did on Monday night.  He finished at 1:10.  At least he didn't finish last.  He finished fourth, so he was happy. 

He was scheduled to race in the butterfly.  Unfortunately, there was a bolt of lightning.  The meet was called, so SJ wasn't able to swim.  He seemed very disappointed that he didn't get to swim.  I was surprised, since he doesn't really like the butterfly.  He saw his coach in the parking lot and he praised him for doing well.  That was very nice to hear.  He is doing so much better than I thought he would be doing.  This was an unexpected surprise!

summer speech #3

Last Tuesday was SJ's summer speech therapy.  He was in a much better mood than the week before.  She said he was a very hard worker for her.  She reviewed the synonyms that SJ had trouble with.  He had trouble with about 15 of them.  With review, he was able to get six of them correct without prompts.  He was able to identify 7 with prompting.  He still couldn't identify a synonym for calm or border.  We will have to work on those words. 

She also reviewed the antonyms that he had previously had trouble with.  He still had difficulty identifying antonyms for fancy and truth.  We will have to review those words with him as well. 

For homework, she assigned him a worksheet on choosing correct definitions for boldfaced words.  There were four words.  He was able to do two of the four correctly.  He had trouble with the word babble and palm.  I needed to explain to him what those two words meant and then he was able to match up the correct definition. 

The next homework paper was to select the best adjective from the word bank for each word and make up a sentence.  This is an example of one of the word banks.

joyful  playful  helpful  painful

 

a _____________ puppy

a _____________ injury

a _____________ song

a _____________ hint

This is a playful puppy.

This is a painful injury.

The music teacher sang a joyful song.

The student needed a helpful hint. 

 

The last thing he was assigned was a vocabulary and semantics story.  The story was about a boy who was dog sitting. After we finished the story, SJ had to answer 7 questions.  He was able to answer 4 of the 7 on his own.  He needed prompting on the other three.  I reminded him to go back into the story to find the answers.  He was resistant, but he did eventually listen.  

summer reading tutoring #3

On Tuesday, SJ had his weekly reading tutoring with Mrs. Banks.  They started out the session by reading a short story on the Fourth of July.  Mrs. Banks said he did very well with the story.  After the story, she had him do an I Spy type sheet.  It was a picture about the Fourth of July and SJ had to find all 10 items.  He also did very well with this activity too.  See the attached papers.

Then, she had SJ make up some words to be inserted into a Mad Lib style story.  These were his words and his story with his words inserted.

verb  burn

adjective  firey

adjective  scary

noun, plural  people

verb  crying

adjective  happy

verb, past tense  fired

noun  fire

noun  wood

verb  sleep

adjective  hot

noun  house

verb, past tense  swam

noun, plural  mosquitoes

verb  scream

adjective  surprising

 

Sky of Fire

 

Sue could hardly burn.  She was old enough to stay up late.  She would see her first fireworks show.

Mom packed a "firery" supper.  There were thick sandwiches and red watermelon slices.  There were scary people in the watermelon.  Sue looked forward to seeing how far she could crying them.

Mom also made lemonade.  It was sure to taste good during the happy evening.

Dad fired everything in the fire.  It was good to arrive early to get a good seat. 

It seemed like the wood would never go down.  Sue and her parents ate their supper.  Sue spit so many watermelon seeds she was sure they would sleep a million hot watermelons.  Finally, the sun went down.  The house changed from blue to black.  Then the fireworks swam in the sky.

Up it went, and then it exploded into a ball of color.  Then many squiggly mosquitos went up.  Some of the fireworks made a scream.  Groups of shooting colors went up. 

Sue was so happy to see the sky fill with fire.  It was more exciting than she thought it would be.  She sighed.  What a surprising night! 

 

The last thing they worked on was to continue reading from the Island book. They read chapters 3 and 4.  Mrs. Banks said Chapter 3 was short, but Chapter 4 was very long.  She was waiting for him to complain (which he did a little) and she offered to read more of it.  As she was reading Chapter 4, she said he stopped her and asked her if he could read.  She said absolutely that he could.  I was glad that he is getting over his fear of reading.  I am also glad that he is doing such a nice job for Mrs. Banks this summer. 



grad party

Last Saturday, we were invited to my husband's cousin's son's graduation party.  I was really looking forward to going to this party.  It was in a park that had a catch and release pond, a huge playground, a paved area that is good for scooter riding, basketball and tennis courts. 

We arrived at the party and unloaded our things.  We had brought the boys' and my husband's fishing rods and both boys' scooters.  We had also brought two desserts.  SJ scanned the area for snacks.  There weren't many things that were gluten free, so I told him he could have fruit or nachos.  He grabbed a few nachos and made his way to the pond. 

The boys started fishing.  SJ was having a lot of trouble getting his worm on the hook.  I had to help him a few times.  (No big deal for me.  I used to fish a lot when I was a young girl.)  The boys weren't able to catch anything, but they still seemed to enjoy fishing. 

When they were done with fishing, they moved on to the park.  They played in the park for about an hour.  When they were "bored", I told them to ride their scooters.  SJ jumped right on his and went around the pond a few times.  Bob (mopey preteen) was too cool to use his scooter.  I told him to find something to do.  Eventually, he started racing SJ on foot.  I told him he didn't have a chance while SJ was on his scooter, but he kept taking short cuts. 

We ate the catered dinner (by we I mean my husband and I).  Bob had some meatballs and we allowed SJ to have some spaghetti.  (I know it wasn't gluten free, but he had to eat something.)  Everything was so delicious.  It is too bad the boys are so picky about food.

We stayed at the party for another hour.  The boys went back to playing in the park and riding on the scooters.  We got to visit with my husband's relatives while the boys were entertaining themselves.  It was great to see everyone and for everyone to see us. 

rainy day = movie day

Last Friday, it was a miserable day out. It was raining all day. I had a doctor's appointment in the morning, but after I returned I thought SJ and I could go to a movie. SJ had wanted to see Monsters University, so I told him we could go after my appointment. I asked my neighbor if her son and she would like to join us. They already had plans, but she had some free passes for us to use.  Bonus!

SJ and I drove to the theater. We both got snacks. He got popcorn and lemonade and I got peanut M&M's and a diet coke. The theater had only a few other patrons, so we had a many seats to choose from. We got settled and waited for the movie to begin. After 12 minutes, the movie still hadn't started. An usher came in and said they were having trouble with the projector. They were hoping it would start in a few minutes. Five minutes later, the same usher returned with apologies. He said the projector was broken and we could come back for the next show.

I thought SJ was going to throw a fit, but he was surprisingly calm about it. I told him we would come back to the next show, which was two hours later. "What about the food?" he asked. "We can just take it home," I said.

So two hours later, we were back at the theater. SJ wanted to get more popcorn and another drink (the others were finished at home) and we got our same seats. The theater was a little more crowded this time, but SJ said we were lucky to get our same seats. The movie started this time with no problem. It was really good. It had a Revenge of the Nerds feel to it. I liked it better than the first one, Monsters Inc.

After the movie, we drove home to see what my husband and Bob were doing. They were just hanging out. I made dinner and the boys started playing in the house. We made the most out of the rainy day.

 

swim meets-ups and downs

SJ had two swim meets last week.  The first one was on Monday and it was at home.  He was only swimming in three races at this meet.  The first one was the freestyle.  It is his fastest stroke, but not his favorite.  He was swimming for exhibition (to improve his time).  His finishing time was 49.40 seconds.  That is his best time yet in that stroke.  Even though that was his best time, he was still a little weepy at the end.  He came in last and he has trouble handling that.

His next race was the back stroke (his least favorite), which he was swimming for exhibition.  Every time he swims the back stroke he complains that it hurts his brain.  (Don't ask me what that is supposed to me.  I haven't a clue.)  He didn't swim that well in that race.  He finished with a time of 1.11.65.  He only had one other time for that stroke and it was slightly faster than this time.  Of course, he was complaining about his "brain hurting" when he completed the race.  I folded and allowed him to have a slice of pizza. That seemed to make his brain better.

He wasn't swimming the breast stroke (his favorite), so we had a big gap until his next race.  He was hanging out in the grassy area with some of the other swimmers.  He seemed to be having a good time, so that was great.  I was glad he was able to get some social time in. 

His last race was the butterfly.  He was swimming for points in this race.  He doesn't love the butterfly, but I would say he is a little better at it than the breast stroke. He has done the butterfly at two other meets and finished at 1.08.84 and 1.08.78.  I didn't have high hopes that he would get any points, but you never know.  He did great at his butterfly. He finished at 1.04.02, which is a nice improvement.  He also came in third and got 3 points for our team! 

The second meet was on Thursday and it was away.  He was again only swimming in three races.  All three races were to be for exhibition.  I told him to try his hardest and to try to beat his previous times.  His first race was the freestyle.  He did not do well.  The swimmers for the other team were very fast.  He tends to look at the other lanes while he is swimming, which slows him down.  He finished with a 1.03.18.  This is not his worst time, but it is far from his best.

He was so upset after the race that he slammed his goggles down on the surround.  I sat there frozen trying to decide if I should go over to him or let him resolve his anger.  He sat on the surround for a few seconds crying and then I noticed the one coach talking to him. That seemed to calm him down slightly.  He picked up SJ's goggles and was trying to fix them. (I had a back up pair in the back pack.)  SJ was still crying, so I walked over.  At that point, the head coach now had SJ's goggles.  He said they weren't really broken.  He was able to fix them.  I thanked him and the other coach and had a talk with SJ.  I reminded him that his behavior was unacceptable and there would be a consequence if it happened again. 

We had a big gap until his next race.  When he collected himself, he wanted to get a snack.  We walked over to the concession stand, but they didn't have anything that he wanted.  I had brought a few snacks from home, so he had some of those.  While we were waiting, the head coach came over and asked SJ to swim for points in the breast stroke.  He told SJ that one of his teammates was sick.  SJ was excited to be swimming for points. 

He did okay in the breast stroke.  He finished with a time of 1.06.35, which is a slight improvement from the last time he swam that stroke in a meet.  Unfortunately, he got disqualified.  The line judge told me he was scissor kicking.  I would tell SJ about that in a few days.  He was happy right then, so I didn't want to upset him before his last race.

His last race of the night was the butterfly.  He was swimming exhibition, so there was no pressure for points.  He did amazing.  He finished with a 59.99, which is an incredible improvement.  He was so happy with himself.  He said, "That was the BBTE, Mom."  I asked, "What is that, SJ?"  He smiled and said, "The best butterfly time ever!"  I was so proud of him.  I later found out that he was disqualified in that stroke too, but even that can't take away the BBTE moment!