Happy 5th Birthday Nathan!

My baby is getting so big. Nathan had a pretty good birthday I think. It started on the actual day by being woken up before daddy left to go to work so that we could open presents together. We did leave Joshua asleep so that there wouldn't be any fighting over presents. And yes, that is Christmas wrapping paper.

A little more than a week later we had his birthday party. He had been asking for a party where he could invite friends over since last year. We invited friends from school, church, and all the family over. We played with stickers, jumped on a bounce house,


hit a pinata (my niece Jillian broke it), and enjoyed cake and ice cream. It was a lot of work, but mostly because Richard and I finished off a few outstanding back yard projects in the weeks before the party. Nathan was very happy with it all. He thought that it was a great day and had a wonderful time throughout the entire party. He was even a fairly good host, for a 5 year old.




The funniest thing about all of it is that two weeks after the party, the rental company hasn't picked up the bounce house and we still have it in the back yard.

San Diego pictures

I finally published the entry on our San Diego trip. If you want to see the pictures, please scroll down past the "Goodbye to Mr. Gan" entry.

Good Bye to Preschool

Nathan's preschool had their end of the year party yesterday. Actually I should say their end of the year party for part of the class. The preschool is actually sponsered by the school district (not common) and is on the campus of a local elementary school. It is mainly for high functioning autistic kids, but they have a handful of typical kids to act as peer models. Nathan was one of the peer models and it his role (along with the other typical kids) to just be themselves and socialize with everyone in the class. It was very interesting, especially since half of the time I didn't know which kids were autistic and which were typical. I definetly want to have Joshua be in the same class, especially if Ms. Lara is still there; she was great. I also hope that Nathan has learned a little about accepting people who are different from him. I didn't tell him in the begining that there was anything different about any of the other kids in his class; I didn't want to prejudice him or get him confused. But it has come up a little bit in these last few months when he has asked why so and so doesn't talk very much, and other questions along the same line. I know that Nathan likes all his classmates and that he doesn't really see anything wrong with them. One of his favorite classmates is a little boy who is not as high functioning as some of the others. Nathan will usually say goodbye specifically to him and give him a hug. Tama usually just makes a noise and pushes Nathan away, but Nathan doesn't seem to mind.

Yesterday was a good bye party for the peer models and it was at a place called "Pump it Up," a small ware house type space with four inflatable party jumpers and other structures. It included a large slide, an obstacle course, and a multi use jumper along with a regular jumper. It was a lot of fun and we were all tired afterward. The party ended with pizza and other goodies. Just what a buch of 4 and 5 year olds love.

Goodbye to Mr. Gan

I have really enjoyed the preschool that Nathan goes to and I think that the teachers are wonderful. There are four regular teachers with Ms. Laura being his main teacher and Ms. Heather, Mr. Michael, and Mr. Gan are the other teachers. Today the class went to the park as a fieldtrip/ goodbye party for Mr. Gan who is moving on to bigger and better things. The day included a water baloon fight, flying kites, and playing on the playground. Everyone had a great time and we were all very hot and tired afterward.

The last picture is of Josh and the water fountain at the playground. I haven't seen a fountain placed so low to the ground before and I can only imagine that it is for the dogs that may come to the park, but it was perfect for my little boy.

San Diego Trip

For Richard's vacation time this year, we decided that we wanted to spend some time at home working on projects around the house, and then spend a few day in San Diego.

Sorry, I started this post ages ago and just haven't been able to finish it and now I'm feeling that I will just bore everyone describing the trip. So here are the pictures, we had a great time. We should have done one more day in between Sea world and the Animal Park but kept it as a rest day and not visited any parks. We went to San Diego Zoo, Sea World, and San Diego Wild Animal Park and by the end of it, the kids were animaled out.

Mother's Day

Just wanted to say a quick note about Mother's Day before it got too far past. I actually felt like I had several Mother's Days last week. On Monday night, Richard took the boys out to buy me some mother's day presents. Apparently they did a lot of walking and Richard didn't take the stroller so he ended up carrying the boys at the end. They were successful though, and the boys could hardly wait to show me what they had bought and Richard and I couldn't talk them out of it. After I had admired the gifts, Nathan pulled out the wrapping paper and he and Josh wrapped them. One was done in red Christmas paper and the other in silver and gold striped tissue paper.

On Friday, Nathan's preschool class had a Mother's Day Tea which was very lovely. Nathan's teacher, Miss Laura had prepared a lovely spread of sandwiches, fruit, salad, and desserts. Most was pre-bought (I'm so glad because she does so much already) but the students did help make the sandwiches by spreading on the filling and cutting the sandwiches into shapes with cookie cutters.

On the actual day, I got some lovely hand made items from each boy, a card from each of my guys, and a new gadget from Richard; I got a satellite radio. I was really surprised about the radio as I didn't think that there were any more gadgets left to buy, but it has been a lot of fun to have. The family favorite at this point is the children's music station. I get a kick out of how the kids will hear the beginning of a song and they will shout out excitedly what song or show or movie or character it is. And today Nathan impressed me when he heard a song sung by Kermit the Frog and insisted that it was Ernie (they are both voiced by Frank Oz). I decided not to try and explain.

Kindergarten preparations

Poor Nathan got stuck more times today than a pincushion. He is starting kindergarten next year and today he had the infamous kindergarten check-up. He was a little nervous going in and that surprised me because he usually doesn't have a problem with the doctor. About half-way through the appointment he mentioned getting a flu shot a few months ago (that kid is getting a good memory). Now I knew why he was worried. I hadn't mentioned shots to him at all but he has finally gotten the connection between the doctor's office and those nasty little shots. I felt really bad when at the end of the appointment the doctor left and Nathan felt all relaxed and happy. You see, our doctor doesn't give the shots, his nurse does, after the appointment is all over. So here is Nathan, thinking that he is free and clear while I know that he is about to get the worst set of shots that he is ever going to get. I'm still trying to decide if I should have warned him a little or if that just would have made it worse. In the end he got a TB test, blood drawn, and three shots. The nurse worked quick and Nathan cried hard and loud. At the end I wasn't sure who I felt worse for, him or her. It was her second set of kindergarten shots for the day and she seemed to honestly feel bad for having to do it.