Off on an adventure

We're heading to the Red River Gorge & Natural Bridge in the morning..... a first try at camping with 3 kids. If 2 days is fun, we may try another trip later this fall. I have Raha sufficiently terrified about behaving correctly after last week's headache at Mamoth Cave so hopefully it will be a good trip.

OT with Jane

Our last session at home for a few weeks - Jane is going to go to Aaron at daycare. Today's theme is "sticky" ..... trying to get him to experiment with that texture & sensation.

• This may be one of the more entertaining things I've seen.....hammering golf tees into a styrofoam cooler. Luke was very happy to help. Big goal is the joint compression from hammering or pushing, but also eye-hand coordination & the low frequency sound.
• Jane talked about setting up a ritual for dropping Aaron off at daycare in the morning. (Maybe also get a vibrating toothbrush for daycare)
• Cutting practice - spring loaded scissors from Dollar Tree, and cutting strips of construction paper - strips are good for the satisfaction of watching the pieces fall off - then use a glue stick to attach them to paper. Also adding foam stickers.
• Syrup on a plate - dragging the z-vibe through it, and to our surprise he rubbed the z-vibe on his arm and chin as well as tasting it. He had a wet washcloth available for clean-up as he needed it. He dipped poptart pieces into the syrup, and eventually drew cirles with his fingers and sucked on his fingers.
• Jane will do his next appointment at daycare on Tuesday during their gym time and lunch.

Dinosaurs & Train Dreams

Luke woke up this morning and the first words he said were, "I need to go draw." He's making amazing dino drawings, mostly of a T'rex & anklysaraus in battle. I'll scan one in later today. Lots of armor detail, scary teeth, and even bloody bites.

Aaron is having lots of dreams, which are obvious to me because he wakes me up by talking in his sleep. Sometimes they are nightmeres, "Aaron falling down, down, down!" but he's also dreaming about his favorite Thomas the Tank Engine movie, "Diesel scare Thomas! Diesel bad guy. Percy, Thomas....."

Sunday's Adventure

Today we took a trip to Mamoth Cave at Becky's suggestion. It was wonderful trip and the caves are beautiful. The boys were hard work sometimes (Aaron high maintenence, Raha obnoxious) but did really well walking through the caves. Aaron insisted on walking down 300 steps by himself, with me walking backwards to protect him from himself. After a few minutes when I carried him, he fell deeply asleep and I ended up lugging a heavy, sweet, sleeping toddler for the next half hour walking back out of the cave.

The next stop was Dinosaur World, an expensive tourist trap with a few easy activities for the boys. The boys dug for bones and fossils, and saw some cool life-size dinosaur replicas.

Misc, out of date!

I've taken lots of photos in the last couple of weeks that I've been really slow to post! Here are a few new photos and quick captions.....bed is calling.

Aaron kicked out of an interactive Egypt exhibit at the Indianapolis Science Center, but he's happy to drip cars on a pharoh face.
Luke excavating a dino bone at the Indy Science Center.

Luke ready to dive in at the Louisville Finals for swimming. His group of 6 and under boys took 6th in the 100 meter relay.

Aaron making music with eggplants at the Louisville Center's Wild Music exhibit.

Luke as "Industrial Man," his invented character from a Super Hero camp at the Oldham County Arts Center.

Luke's bad summer camp

Luke is at the Louisville Science Center for a dinosaur camp this week. I am deeply disappointed - It's a really expensive coloring book camp. I've talked to the summer camp director twice. Unfortunately, I wasn't joking about the coloring pages - printed off the Internet, today with a bonus word search. The dinosaur info is very basic so he hasn't learned anything new in the last 3 days. I expected interactive activities and more sophistication, but it's been dull arts & crafts with a dino theme. He learned a lot more in Indianapolis with the ca omputer simulation of dino body construction and their wonderful exhibits.

What a mess. I'll keep monitoring, but I will write a formal complaint to the Executive Director and Education Director of the museum. A friend of mine suggested that we could put together a fantastic dinosaur camp, but I don't think my schedule has a good T-Rex-size gap.

Potty Guy

At the Indianapolis Science Center (amazing!!!), they have family restrooms with toddler size toilets. When I took Aaron in to change his diaper he seemed curious about the toilet so I asked him if he wanted to try it out. His immediate response was, "I can't do it. I too little."

Last night at dinner he announced, "Big potty I fall in."

Fortunately his daycare potty trains but he may be 6 before the deed is done.