The Disbelief Laugh

Thursday Chris got off the bus telling me about a book that he made in school. Actually telling me he made a book and that it was a surprise but that I was going to love the last page.

So he comes home on Friday and I ask to see the book. He hands it to me.

I flip to the first page and I can pretty much guess it is him riding a bike. I ask him just to make sure.

I have no clue what is on the next page so I have to ask again. This time he drew a pool.

Flip to the next page and I can tell that he drew roller skates here. He confirms.

Then I turn to the last page and have to ask him again what the picture is.

It's some on blowing up a school bus!

We laughed and laughed and said that we had the next Unabomer on our hands. He changed his story by the time he saw my sister that night. Suddenly he was blowing up and old broken down school bus.

I don't know if the teacher asked him what he was drawing or not but he told me over the weekend that he was originally going to draw a roller coaster. You can tell that he was because the bus is on tracks. So I have come to the conclusion if the teacher ever asked what he was drawing he would have said roller coaster then changed his mind. If she looked at it as a roller coaster she probably would have thought the detonation device was where the person started the ride and the fuse was the plug to make the roller coaster start.

The other funny part of the card is that Chris wrote his name and then made dots in each letter like he traced his name. I wonder if some of the kids in his class can't write their names and the teacher made dots for them to trace so Chris thought that was how he was supposed to write his name. He is so funny.

And He's Off

So today is the official day...Chris's first day of kindergarten! I can't wait for him to get home so I can hear about his day.

He said that he was not nervous or excited this morning but he was so hyper. He was fine until he had to get dressed for school. That is when it hit him.

We got our shoes on and headed out for a picture while we were waiting for Ryan and Daddy.

There were four kids at his bus stop. None of the kids really talked to each other or interacted at all. Chris tried to talk to a boy but the other boy was noticeably nervous.

I thought Ryan would be fine but he was upset after his brother got on the bus. He hasn't left my side yet.

Crazy Beach Day

We headed to the beach yesterday, which looks like one of the last times for the season since Chris starts school on Wednesday. We might be able to squeeze one last trip in as they close the weekend after Labor Day.

Anyhow, I didn't bring my camera again since all the pictures usually come out the same. Typically something that looks like this.

Boy was I wrong. The hurricane caused 6 foot waves! Chris was tossed around the ocean like a rag doll. He loved every minute of it. At one time he stood up pulled out his swim shirt and enough sand to make a sandcastle with fell out! Ken decided he wanted to try and body surf. He timed the wave a second too short and the wave crashed on him causing him to be tossed around. He emerged with what looked like paper cuts covering the entire left side of his back. He said he flipped under water and hit rocks.

Check this article out just to see how crazy the water was. And yes we did let the boys play in the water until it was time for dinner! We could not take our eyes off of Chris for even a second. There was no way I could have watched both boys by myself. The current was so strong Chris was never in the same place for more then a second and someone always had to have a hold of Ryan's hand.

The lifeguards were practicing saving people because they were expecting 12-14 foot waves today!

High tide was at 8:00 last night and boy was it high tide. The water came about 20 feet away from the boardwalk. The lifeguards moved their chairs off the beach at quitting time because they believed that the entire beach was going to be flooded. However we left before any of that so we don't know if the beach flooded or not.

Chris's Toe Walking

About 6 months ago we noticed that Chris was pretty much walking on his toes constantly. I'm not sure that people really noticed it unless I said something. My parents noticed it. He has pretty much been doing it forever but in the last 6 months it has been constant.

I started asking Chris some questions about his toe walking. He originally told me it wasn't a big deal because he could just wear high heal shoes when he got older. Then he told me he doesn't put his heals down because it hurts his back. That is when I started getting concerned.

So back in June I took Chris to the doctors and I really believed that they were going to tell me that he was going to grow out of the toe walking and it wasn't a big deal. Instead the doctor told me that Chris's heal cords were pretty tight and he needed to see and orthopedic surgeon.

More then a month later we finally had our appointment and this time I was sure that they were going to send Chris to Physical Therapy and teach me how to do some stretches with him. Wrong again...they told us that besides PT he also needed to wear braces on his legs all day. The took the molds of his feet that same day and we had his braces a little over a week later.

Our first day of PT they did an evaluation on Chris and I got the results today. This is what they said about how Chris walks. (Now if you know what this means...please explain because I really have no idea.) Christopher walks on his toes with his hips slightly abducted and lower extremities externally rotated. However with his braces on he displays an improved gait pattern showing a more defined heel/toe pattern with symmetrical arm swing and adequate trunk rotation.

Basically what I got is that Chris walks so much better with his braces. That isn't news to me. My mom and I could see that the first day he put them on.

So here is a list of the problems going on currently. (Remember I thought they were originally going to tell me that he was going to grow out of the toe walking and send me home!)
1. Decreased bilateral ankle range of motion
2. Decreased hip external rotation and hamstring range of motion.
3. Decreased stationary balance
4. Decreased dynamic balance
5. Abnormality of gait pattern

The cool thing about all this is that the Physical Therapists think that they can fix all of this in 12 weeks! Pretty cool. He will though be wearing his braces until at least January. I am keeping my fingers crossed that all of this works!

Happy Birthday Chris!

I wrote this yesterday but as I was writing it our computer went offline. I guess our modem died so we had to go pick up another one today. Anyhow, Chris's birthday was on the 12th. Here is the post:

Chris turned 6 yesterday!

He had his birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese. On our way to the birthday party we had to stop and get his cake.

I have to say I am not impressed with Safeway's cakes. Another party we went to earlier in the year also had a cake from Safeway and it was horrible.

Anyhow as we arrived at Safeway it started down pouring. We waited in the car for a few minutes and made it into the store pretty dry. The rain really let up. Well, while we were in the store it started down pouring again. So again we waited with about 5 other people. Finally the rain let up a little and everyone walked out into the rain at the same time. Pretty funny. However, I was the only one to pick the wrong row and then stand around for a second saying "Where is the car?"

So this is what the boys looked like when we got into the car.

They loved every minute of it.

We made it to Chuck E. Cheese and had a party. The kids had a great time. However, I was annoyed with how the party went down. They did not bring out all the food at the same time, although we ordered it at the same time. Then they put on a little show for the kids and when the show was over all the kids ran off to play games rather then have cake and open presents. So we loaded the presents into the car and left cake on the table for the kids to come back and eat. But I guess it doesn't matter if I was happy with the party....all that mattered was Chris was happy and the kids had fun.

This was the best picture I got of the kids. Chris is in the back with the red crown on. He had 5 friends and their siblings join him for his celebration.

The Boat

Chris, Ryan and I went to my parents house for a couple days. The boys kept talking about going out on PopPop's boat. Finally when the time came Ryan decided he was staying home. The only time I took pictures was while we were out on the boat.

Chris driving the boat. He was so excited to drive the boat but as soon as we got going fast he got nervous and left the driving up to PopPop.

Chris wanted his picture taken with the paddle boat.

Chris and Tracey. The boys love Tracey and won't leave her alone for one minute.

My Handy Man

Ken decided this weekend would be a weekend of home improvements. Wednesday night/Thursday morning someone entered our unlocked cars and helped themselves to a few of our goods. (The neighbors told my sister that the people doing this were at least being nice and not breaking into locked cars. I never knew breaking the law and stealing was ever nice.)

Anyhow, Friday morning can installed these motion detector lights on the front of our house. Watch out bad guys these lights are going to come on and someone might see you! We will also change out the lights by the door to match eventually. Those will still just be regular lights.

Ken's next task was entering the attic to get rid of a birds nest that was in our bathroom vent. He accomplished this task but shortly after put his leg through the ceiling in our master bath. I didn't get a picture of the actual hole but here he is taping the hole back together.

Then we put the joint compound on. I started this task but Ken said I was being to messy so he took over. He dropped his fair share of joint compound too!

Finally while waiting for the bathroom ceiling to dry he started putting up our new ceiling fan.

Next project on this list...painting and hanging pictures! I can't wait!

Ryan's New Couch

Ryan has found a new couch and a very comfortable place to watch TV.

Creatures

These are the creatures that protect our house at night. We left the light on in the front of the house so this guy could get a meal. If you click on the picture you can get a better idea of how big this web actually is.

This guy protects the back of our house. He visits every night and often brings friends with him. Some of the toads that visit are tiny tiny babies.

Even though we have these great bug eaters around the house they are still not taking care of the mosquito population. I still can not go into the grass after dusk or I will be eaten alive.

It's Potty Time

I wanted to share a picture from when Chris was potty training. I had all of my pictures on Ofoto from when Chris was a baby. Well, I went to get the picture and all of my albums have been deleted. I guess if you don't post or buy anything for a while they must delete your pictures. Oh well, like my dad said we have more pictures in a few years then they had of us all the years growing up.

Anyhow, so Ryan has started potty training. We took a little break for a week or so when he started having too many accidents. I got some books from the library and Ryan says the boys in the book are just like him. Today he taught his Eagles dog and Pooh to use the potty.

The stuffed animals have to have underwear on!

When Pooh has to go Ryan needs to help him take his underwear off.

Then Ryan helps Pooh sit on the potty.

Of course Ryan doesn't forget to give his animals a M&M when they are finished. However, since Ryan is also potty training I could get arrested for putting up the other pictures I have of him.

I remember Chris doing this exact same thing. He used 3 stuffed animals but only Cookie Monster made it to the potty.