GIANT Indoor Playground

We went to the most awesome indoor playground ever on Monday!  It is like a Chick-fil-A playground on steroids.

It's at Cornerstone Church in Madison (just over 30 minutes from our house - only 10 minutes north of downtown Nashsville) and it's FREE!

It was super clean (they are closed every Wednesday to do a thorough cleaning) and so big that even with a lot of kids there, it didn't feel crowded at all.

If you live around here, you have to go!  The kids had a blast!  And, did I mention it's free :)

Clock

Rylan is our early bird.  We've been struggling with sleeping to a reasonable time for awhile now.  For the longest time he was up before 5 am and calling for me to get him, ready to start his day.  There is something about 4:xx am that just feels too early.

So a few months ago we bought Rylan a clock.

During the night it glows a light yellow color (like a dim night light).  Then at a set time, it glows green, meaning it's time to get up.

When we first got the clock, we didn't set it for anything too ambitious - 5:15 am, I think.  Rylan never gets out of his bed (always waits until I come get him) and when the clock is green, he was allowed to call for me.  Then we slowly moved it back 10 minutes or so at a time.  I believe it was approaching 6 am when daylights savings time ended and Rylan was back to waking up at just before 5 am.  We worked our way back to a later time again and finally got to 5:45 am.  I'm okay with this time because I can still work out in the morning before taking the boys to school or a playdate and not feel rushed to get us out the door.

Rylan was doing okay with this, but then cold season hit (lots of waking up from coughing fits, etc), and we've been all messed up.  And Rylan started leaking in his diapers more and waking up from that.  So for almost two months, I've been going into his room when he calls me sometime between 1 and 4 am and just sleeping on his floor.  Sometimes Rylan will join me on the floor and other times he'll stay in his bed.  He doesn't usually sleep much though during this time.  He's always wide awake by 5 am but we aren't allowed to leave his room until the clock is green (which kills me because if I'm going to be awake, I'd rather be getting something done!).

This routine is not working for me.  So I've started our first reward chart.  I try not to bribe Rylan much (bribing him has completely backfired on me and I'll explain that in a separate post later) so this is something new for us.

Rylan gets a sticker for every night he doesn't call me until his clock turns green at 5:45 am.  Since we've finally discovered the joy of Chuck E. Cheese's, I told Rylan that once he gets 10 stickers, we get to go there (not sure how many tokens he'll be getting yet - 10 or 20 probably).

I took this picture a couple of days ago - Rylan has 5 stickers so far.  We only had one night that I went to Rylan's room at 3 am.  Rylan is still usually up by 5 am and talking in his room, but he doesn't call me.  My body is so used to being up by then too that I've been awake listening to him and trying so hard to doze back off to sleep.  But hopefully we are making progress and can both start getting more sleep now!

End of Hip Hop

Carter started taking a hip hop class at DC Dance Factory in August.  After the 45 minute hip hop class was a 30 minute tumbling class.  So we were at the dance studio from 5 to 6:15 pm every Monday.

Carter never really loved hip hop.  He didn't object to going and happily walked into his studio room, but he was never very excited.  He didn't know anyone in the class and never really made a good friend.  And he has my rhythm and ability to copy an instructor so he didn't excel in the class.  He did like the tumbling class though that followed the hip hop class.  And he was super happy after class.

In January the studio asks that you commit for the rest of the year so that the kids can begin preparing for the June recital.  So in December I finally asked Carter if he wanted to continue to do hip hop or stop.  He was very excited when I offered that up and asked to stop.

I'm so proud of him though for sticking with something that was difficult for him.  He never really learned any dance moves but he did learn how to skip :)

Here is a video of Carter in his last class in December.  He is in the middle row on the right (Carter moved up to that row when he turned 5 - he was pretty excited about that!).

Rylan and I are also happy to not be sitting in that crazy crowded lounge during dinner time.

As an alternative activity, I signed the boys up for preschool gymnastics again at Harpeth Gymnastics.  The boys are in a class with Missy and Suzy's boys and loving it.

Recent Pictures

We had a super nice day Monday - it got up to 60F!  After gymnastics we went to Crockett Park with Suzy and ended up seeing so many of our friends there.  Carter even got to see his two best buddies from school - Hunt was there early and Campbell was there later.  We played for over 4 hours before I finally dragged the boys home!  Carter and Campbell ...

Carter brought a ninja for "N"-week show-and-tell.

Like every other child in America, the boys are obsessed with "What Does the Fox Say?".  We even have the book ...

The Balloon Guy was at Chick-fil-A for kids night this week and both boys requested foxes (this is still a new design and the guy hasn't perfected it yet, but it sort of looks like a fox).

I always stock up at the end of a season for clothes for next year since the boys aren't picky (yet).  I got this Cherokee brand sweater at Target last year for $3 (70% off).  Carter gets comments about it everywhere we go (possibly even gets more comments on it than on his hair - wow!).

Carter set this up these boxes and pillows.  Then he sat down, stared at the TV, and asked, "Is this what Daddys do?"  Haha!

Happy Noon Year

Brian had to work on New Year's Eve so I thought it would be a good idea to go to the Adventure Science Center for their Happy Noon Year Celebration.  My good idea was definitely a bad one.  The place is large but I didn't really think through how half of Nashville would be there as well.  And I didn't realize Rylan was just starting a cold with a fever and didn't feel well (he didn't tell me he felt bad - just acted whiney, which he does all the time lately!).

Carter made a few crafts for the celebration before it got too crowded (a party hat and shaker).

The center did two countdowns.  One in a conference room at noon where they served ginger ale (my kids had no interest in trying it).  And then they did a countdown around 12:10 in the space walk area where they used blowers to set toilet paper flying.  And all the kids got poppers.  I tried to get a little video of it.  You can tell how happy the boys are in it.

We left right after that.  Luckily the boys did get in an hour of playtime at the center earlier but unfortunately the celebration did not go so great.  At least we tried.

Birthday Party Videos

Bloggers has finally decided I can post videos again - woohoo!  So here are the videos I had wanted to post from Carter's birthday party.

These are of Carter doing the first half of the course of gymnastics skills:

The boys taking their turn and jumping around in the parachute:

I think the kids would have been happy playing Freeze Dance for an hour:

Before cake Carter got a medal and t-shirt:

Singing "Happy Birthday" to the birthday boy!

Speech Progress

Ms. Rholanda (the boys' speech teacher) starts her maternity leave at the end of this coming week.  In preparation for her absence, she gave me her quarterly progress reports for both boys.  Below of the summary of each boy's report.

Rylan

Annual Goal: Rylan will improve intelligibility of speech to be a successful communicator in his classroom setting by mastery of the below objectives with at least 80% accuracy.

Status: Anticipate Meeting Goal by Individual Education Program (IEP) End

Comment: What a wonderful start Rylan has made.  I am absolutely impressed by his motivation to work hard, not only in speech but at home.  This determination and hard work will yield great progress!  He is a joy to have in therapy!

Goal 1: Rylan will eliminate the phonological process of final consonant deletion in syllables and words with 80% accuracy in 4/5 opportunities.

Current %: 80

Status: Some Progress Made

Comment: Rylan can independently complete exercises/worksheets with final /b, p, t, m/ with 90-100% accuracy.  He is just now starting /n/, which is slightly more difficult for him.  Goal ongoing.

Goal 2: Rylan will eliminate the phonological process of final consonant deletion in phrases/sentences with 80% accuracy in 4/5 opportunities.

Current%: 80

Status: Some Progress Made

Comment: Within the last couple of weeks, Rylan has really taken off with the above sounds in short phrases.  He is independently using /p, t, b, m/ in short phrases with 90-100% accuracy.  We'l continue to add more age-appropriate sounds to this goal.

Goal 3: Rylan will eliminate the phonological process of final consonant deletion in conversational speech as measured by three 3-minute speech samples with at least 80% accuracy.

Status: Objective Not Covered During This Period.

Goal 4: Rylan will produce s-blends (sp, st, sm, sn, sk) in words and phrases with 80% accuracy in 4/5 opportunities.

Current %: 25

Status: No Progress Made

Comment: Rylan has been introduced to /s/ blends in isolation, which he is able to do with a model and visual presented.  He does have difficulty with the word level.  While he's able to say "st", "sn", "sp" without a big pause in between the sounds, he really needs that break at the word level (e.g. s poon, s tar).  Goal ongoing.

Overall Comments: Can't wait to see continued growth.  I know he will continue to practice in his speech book!

I haven't recognized much of an improvement in Rylan's everyday speech.  But I'm not listening for the specific things that Ms. Rholanda has been working on with him.  She has told me a couple of times that she'll have a conversation with Rylan and he will naturally add on a final consonant sound he'd usually drop.

What Ms. Rholanda wrote in Rylan's report matches well to what he's been working on.  He seems to move on quicker than Carter but he's usually doing the same thing (final consonants), but each week is often a different consonant so it feels like we aren't stalled out.

It's harder to get Rylan to practice lately but once I convince him to get his notebook out, he wants to do a lot.  But he doesn't want me to listen or help.  He just wants to do it by himself.

Carter

Annual Goal: Student's speech is clear enough to be understood by most people.

Status: Anticipate Meeting Goal by IEP End

Comment: Carter continued to work on /s/ and /z/ and carryover into phrases/sentences.  He has greatly improved with positioning for /s/.  Also phoneme /l/ was introduced.  He is currently working on correct tongue position for /l/ in isolation and CV (consonant-vowel) production.

Goal 1: The student will improve auditory discrimination skills of target phonemes by identifying the target sound on 9/10 trials over 3 consecutive data days.

Current %: 90

Status: Objective Has Been Met

Comment: Mastered

Goal 2: The student will produce the following s-blends in phrases and sentences (sp, st, sm, sn, sk) on 8/10 trials on 3 data days.

Current %: 80

Status: Objective Has Been Met

Comment: Mastered

Goal 3: The student will produce /s,z/ in syllables and single words on 8/10 trials on 3 data days.

Current %: 80

Status: Objective Has Been Met

Comment: Carter was averaging initial /s/ and /z/ in words with 100% accuracy with no models or prompts needed. Mastered.

Overall Comments: Carter's goals will be adjusted in the next few weeks at his IEP meeting.  He makes great progress with new sounds introduced and I can't wait to see his performance after I return from leave!

Carter's goals were developed by his previous teacher (Ms. Judy).  I had been feeling this year that Carter has been doing the same things with Ms. Rholanda for months even though he seems to be mastering the skills after a few weeks.  After reviewing Carter's quarterly report (Ms. Rholanda did not give me one 3 months ago as she should have), I realized that she's just been focusing on these specific goals and not adding any additional ones before Carter's review.  Only in the last few sessions has Ms. Rholanda begun on the "l" sound, which should be Carter's main goal for the rest of the year.  However, we've had this same homework since before Christmas break.

Luckily Carter's review is on Friday and I'm looking forward to seeing his new goals.

Recent Pictures

The most played with present from Christmas is a Lego Duplo Trainset.  We've been combining it with all our other Duplos and creating lots of fun tracks.

We FINALLY got Carter a new carseat.  He'd been in the convertible one since he was 9 1/2 months old - it was time.  But he still fit all the requirements and it was 100% safe. Rylan is so mad though that Carter has cup holders and he doesn't.  I think we'll be getting him a new carseat soon.

The first week back to school after the break was "L" week in Carter's class.  He brought a Lego flashlight/keychain for show-and-tell.

Aunt Shannon got the boys some fun chopsticks for Christmas.  They love them (they prefer to use them to play with toys instead of eating though).  Carter is pretty good with them though.

Rylan and I met Luke and Missy at the downtown library storytime this week.  The kids are always so cute when they get to set on the stage for the last song.

This past week was "M" week in Carter's class and he brought his new baseball medal for show-and-tell.

Ms. Denise is trying hard to prepare the kids for kindergarten and really wants to teach them to write their names with only the first letter being a capital letter.  Each day the kids have to sign-in and trace over their own name written correctly.  She also sent home a laminated sheet to trace and practice writing their names.  Impressively, some of Carter's worksheets came home this week with his name written like this!!!

Brian asked me the other day if we should be worried that the 2 kids in Carter's Playmobil sets are always handcuffed.  I'm not sure.

Target had their January toy clearance this week (everything I got was 70% off except for one Lego set).  I stocked up on birthday presents for all the parties we go to (and a few things for the boys as well).

I got Charlotte a new bed for our bedroom (her old one was so flat that I don't think it was any better for her than sleeping directly on the floor).  It took her a few days but now she's always on it!

Winter Fishing

Carter has been begging to go fishing for several weeks now.  We keep telling him it's too cold and that the fish aren't very active right now (he doesn't have much patience yet and needs the fish to start biting pretty quickly).  Plus the boys got lots of cool fishing gear from GG, Papa Art, and Uncle Dale for Christmas so it's been killing him to not be able to go.

Last weekend we had a semi-warm day so we decided to just try it.  We got some worms and went to the Westhaven Pond where Carter can catch 20 fish in 30 minutes in the summer.

Even Rylan joined in few a bit.

Rylan was the first one to catch a fish!  And then he was done (didn't pick up the pole again).

Carter finally got one about 5 minutes later.

We lasted a little longer but it started clouding up and the wind picked up and we all just got too cold.  Luckily though both boys got one fish so we classified the outing as a success!

December Pictures

I have a few pictures from December that I never posted so here they are!

One evening after school and work, we went to the crazy light display in the Sunnyside neighborhood.  Going right after work was a mistake because traffic to get over there was crazy (and an accident didn't help), but we eventually made it.  We still beat the crowds (only one other family was there) - bus tours come through there and tons of other people.

On the Friday before Christmas, one of the girls in Carter's class (Sadie Mae) had her birthday party at Build-a-Bear Workshop.  Carter was so,so, so excited to go there (we'd never been there before).  It was a little crazy being at the mall only 5 days before Christmas, but the kids didn't seem to notice and had a blast.  Even though the store was packed with a line out the door, the kids had their own special stuffer and everything (the parents had to stay out of the store though because it was too crowded, but we all got to sit and talk which was fine with us!).  After everyone made their animals, they had a cookie from the Cookie Company in the food court (which is just across from Build-a-Bear).

Carter made a cool dog ...

And named it "Carter".

Over Christmas break, Brian and I tried to take the boys bowling one afternoon.  It was an hour wait and we decided we didn't want to do that.  The kids always get $1 each to play arcade games there and they still wanted to do that.  But because those games aren't all that great, Brian and I decided to take the kids to Chuck E. Cheese's instead.  It was their very first time there.  They got $5 each and had a blast.  Randomly, Carter got invited to a birthday party last Friday there too.  He was so excited to return (as was Rylan who I brought along)!

Monster Jam

Last Friday (Jan 3rd), we took the boys to Monster Jam at Bridgestone Arena.  The boys have some monster trucks from GG and Papa Art so they are familiar with them.  But the only thing they really knew about a show was what they'd seen on commercials on the TV.

I got tickets on the end of a first row in the second level.  This meant the boys would be able to stand at the railing to see and nothing would be blocking their views.

A few days before the show we went to Lowe's and got the boys headphones and a 4-pack of the disposable earplugs since we knew the show would be loud.  The boys were obsessed with the headphones and wore them constantly at home until the show.

When the trucks first came out, all of them have their engines on and do a couple of loops around the arena.  Carter very calmly told me he had to leave and that he needed a minute outside (his words).  He just kept repeating that so I took him up the stairs and out to the hallways.  He was NOT loving the noise.  He starting freaking out a little and telling me he wanted to go home.  At this point the boys were only wearing the headphones because I couldn't easily convince them that they wanted to wear earplugs.  I knew the earplugs would dampen the noise a lot but when I asked Carter to try them, he covered his ears with his hands and there was no way for me to pry them off (he's strong!).  Luckily Carter had two friends going to the show the next night and I told him that they were going to wear the earplugs.  He finally said he'd try them.  And then laughed as they expanded in his ears and thought it was cool.  I put the headphones back on him too and he was ready to go back in.  Thank goodness we brought along both things!  Rylan, on the other hand, didn't seem to notice the noise at all.

The kids had fun watching the show but because it was in Bridgestone, there wasn't a lot of space so it seemed like the show was really slow.  It wasn't really as exciting as I think we all anticipated, but we still all had fun.

The boys favorite part may have been the dinosaur that "ate" a car.

The show started at 7:30 pm and didn't finish until 10 pm.  Amazingly the boys stayed awake and were into the show the entire time.  They did pass out pretty quickly in the car though!

Carter's 5th Birthday Party

It's two months late, but it's about time I posted about Carter's 5th birthday party!!!  Carter and I had a little trouble deciding on where to have his party this year.  He really wanted a dinosaur party at the house like Rylan had this summer.  But November weather meant that we'd probably have to be inside which just isn't that much fun.  And the main thing Carter wanted was a dinosaur pinata.  If the party wasn't at the house, Carter wanted it to be at Glow Galaxy again (that's where he had his 4th birthday party).  I eventually figured out he wanted it there because he loved the mini golf course in there.  So I eventually suggested we have a playdate with our friends at a park with a pinata, have the party at gymnastics, and then we'd go to a mini golf course as a family.  Carter was 100% on board with that idea.  I gave him a couple of weeks to change his mind but he didn't and I booked the party at Harpeth Gymnastics.

We kept the dinosaur theme for the party.  I found some cute clipart on Etsy for a few dollars and made the invitations.  I picked the colors (green, blue, and orange) based on some balloons I had gotten at Target on clearance awhile back that had dinosaurs on them (and didn't even use for the party).

For party favors I used some things I had left over from Rylan's party and added a few more things - a dinosaur mask, dinosaur stamp, dinosaur tattoo, 2 small dinos, and 2 small playdohs.

I put the favors in white paper bags and attached the masks to the front of them.

I have always done cupcakes for the kids for their birthday parties.  I suggested some cool dinosaur cupcakes to Carter for his party but he was adamant that he wanted a cake this year with a dinosaur scene on it.  And he wanted me to make it.  So I did.  And I am still really impressed with how it turned out considering I've never done anything like it before!

I used two sheet cakes I made in a 13"x9" pan and frosted them together.

I also made a few round cakes in some Pyrex dishes I had for the volcano and stacked them.

Lots of frosting (and some food coloring) and then a tub of dinosaurs and trees I got from Toys 'R Us and there you have it!

When I was just starting to decorate the cake and put on the initial frosting, I asked Carter what he thought.  He told me he liked it in a very unconvincing voice.  I then asked him what he really thought and told him it was okay to tell me what he really thought.  He said he didn't like it so far but didn't want to hurt my feelings.  He added that it was okay though as long as I tried my best.  He's too sweet!  Luckily after the cake got further along, Carter started getting excited and ended up loving it.  Yay!

Carter had his 3rd birthday party at Harpeth Gymnastics and we've taken classes there off and on.  At the time we weren't currently taking a class there so Carter was excited to have his party there.  Unfortunately the room for cake is very small.  And we had a ton of kids coming to the party.  We invited Carter's preschool class as well as a lot of our playdate friends.  Apparently 4:30 pm on a Saturday is a time when people don't have a lot of other commitments!  We ended up with 23 kids (plus our 2) at the party!  It was a little insane.  Only 2 kids couldn't come that we invited - that NEVER happens.  But we still managed to squeeze in places for all the kids at the table.

I stuck with the green, blue, and orange theme for the tablecloth, napkins, and plates and then added some dinosaurs we had at home for table decorations.

And I made Carter a banner (I do one every year).  You can't really see it in this picture but each block has a dinosaur from the clipart I bought mounted on coordinating cardstock with a letter on it.

Now for a bunch of pictures from the party!

While waiting for everyone to arrive, the kids played in the pit - everyone's favorite part.  Carter had to wear the crown he got from school at the party.  My kids sweat so much though that halfway through the party it was a gross, soggy mess.

Once everyone arrived, the instructors talked to the kids for a minute and then split them into two groups.  One group did the tumble track and trampoline and the other did a course of gymnastics skills.

Look at all those kids!!!

Carter and Rylan's group started off with the tumble track.

Campbell:

On the way back to the tumble track line, the kids walked on a low balance beam.

Carter with Campbell and his big brother, Christian:

Rylan:

Sophie, Carter, & Campbell:

When the groups switched, the highlight of the other course was the rope swing.

Rylan still can't get his feet up like this (I blame his big belly!) ...

After wearing out the kids with gymnastics, the instructors got out the parachute.

I have vidoes of all this but unfortunately Blogger isn't let me post them right now.  After the parachute the kids played Freeze Dance and those videos are too funny!  Hopefully I'll get that worked out soon!

Before heading off for cake, the instructors gave Carter a medal and t-shirt and then had all the kids gather up for a group photo.

The good one:

And the silly one:

Singing "Happy Birthday" (I wish I could post the videos!!!) ...

Somehow all the kids fit!

It took a few breaths to get all the candles on this cake!

Happy Birthday, Carter!!!

Lots of kids means a crazy party, but it also means a lot of gifts!  Carter got so many amazing gifts from his awesome friends.  It took us a couple of sessions to open them all!