They all had a blast being together and playing all evening.
Monday morning Andrew quietly snuck up behind daddy who was in the kitchen and tapped on his rear. When Ted turned around, Andrew lifted his own shirt and then let out an audible and smelly toot and then walked away.
Monday evening we all went to Amigos for dinner. Someone dressed as Santa came in. Later I hear Jade tell Lauren Milke, "Look! There's Santa!" Andrew yelled, "That's not Santa! That's just someone's dad!" I was so proud.
After dinner, several of the kids were using quarters to buy candy and toys in the vending machines. All on his own, he turned down the M&M's with food coloring, but he asked if he could at least get a hard toy. Amber gave him some quarters so he could buy some silly teeth to wear. All of them bought silly teeth and had fun trying to wear them without laughing hysterically at each other.
Tuesday he got to play Gran Turismo with daddy and Cole Vaal. Andrew actually won one round. He also read (very well!) the story of the Israelites creating and worshiping the gold calf to Jamie and Alli. In the evening he played Boxers or Briefs with us and Charles and Marion Hailey who were visiting. He held his own there too and had a wonderful time.
Wednesday morning when I got up he had a huge smile on his face. "Mom! Do you know what today is?! Christmas!!" I said okay and he said, "Aren't we going to the Space Center today?" I hated telling him that we were going the day after xmas and it'd be tomorrow. He said, "Oh man!" all disappointed. He was a good sport though. He did had an emotional breakdown after losing the game of Sorry. He threw the board and got in trouble. I was so proud of what happened next. He went to the bathroom and cried, then yelled, then screamed, hit things a few times. I had run the Bars therapy on him yesterday and evidently he had some emotions that needed to come out. I was proud of him for letting them out instead of suppressing them. Then he and daddy talked about why throwing the game wasn't a good idea and they talked about feelings and everything got worked out.
Later daddy told him he wanted to reward Andrew for saying no to the colored candy at Amigos (apparently he had promised treats at home at a later time and it hadn't been fulfilled yet.) Andrew voted for ice cream - strawberry and chocolate. I had fallen asleep in Andrew's bed and he woke me up when it was time for him to be getting in for a nap. I stayed to cuddle for a few minutes and he told me that after nap, he was getting a huge ice cream and it was going to be ten scoops with a pattern of strawberry and chocolate, strawberry and chocolate..... , and all with a cone on the bottom. He asked if I'd like that and I said no - because ten scoops of ice cream would make my tummy hurt.
Wednesday night at the meeting, he was very hard on himself. He dropped his songbook and started trying not to cry. I took him to the back and we sat on the floor by the water fountain finishing the song. Then he told me that he was upset because he couldn't read the words and keep up with the song to sing, so he didn't get to sing. I told him we could practice the song at home sometime, but that it's okay. We all have trouble sometimes and none of us do a perfect job. He drew a picture and was trying to color it in and got very upset that he didn't stay inside the lines perfectly. I kept trying to tell him it was good enough but he didn't accept it. Then he got upset that he couldn't write a letter S perfectly. Again, I tried to tell him that it was still obviously an S and it was a very good S and it doesn't have to be perfect. He didn't like that answer either. Then he had an answer prepared and didn't get called on, so we prepared two more and got missed on those too. He asked, "Why does everyone keep taking my answer?!" Finally he got to give one but he sounded disappointed by then.I asked him why he answered like that and he said, "Because I'm sad. I'm sad that I'm not ten like Cole." We also realized his shirts are getting too small. The sleeves were too short on his arms. He asked me to unbutton them and roll them up, but then he got cold. Time to start shopping for 5T dress shirts I guess. Some of his regular 4T shirts are getting small too. And he just moved up a shoe size. When we were at Bess' house last week, I realized the seams at the toes of the shoe were separating and sure enough, his toes were at the very end. I felt bad that I hadn't noticed his shoes getting too small! Thankfully I already had the next size up in the closet ready to go!
Thursday we took him to the Space Center in Huntsville, AL. He was so excited, especially when you could see one of the rockets from the interstate. We decided to watch one of the IMAX movies about outer space which showed how a telescope was built and used in the desert to capture images of galaxies and stars and nebulas, etc. He wasn't too sure about it (and this was his first experience in a theater), especially when the optics made it feel like the room was moving. He decided it'd be more secure to sit on a lap. And before the movie was over he told us he thought it'd be a good time to "find the exits and use them." He stood in line to wait for a moon rover simulator, but decided not to try it at the last minute. He enjoyed pedaling pretending to be in a lunar bike race, and attempting to simulate landing a shuttle, and he liked watching astronauts training underwater. One lady was playing basketball underwater using a bowling ball and she waved to Andrew anytime we were standing at the window watching. We were all disappointed that there wasn't a rocket to go inside, but there were a lot of displays to look in. The highlight for him was a small kids play area where he could pretend to pilot a rocket and run around and slide on a moon rock. All in all it was interesting. The last thing we did was tour one of the traveling exhibits that were a lot of little handmade machines, gears, pulleys, etc - all out of wood. One was building a bridge out of round wooden stakes - Ted and Andrew successfully built one before Andrew cheerfully knocked it back down.Upon leaving we asked what was his favorite thing about the space center and he said, "all of it."
Friday morning daddy finished the painting in Andrew's room so now one wall is red, one is superhero blue, one buttery yellow, and one lime green. By nap it still hadn't aired out all the way so we let Andrew nap on daddy's side of the bed while I sat and studied on my side. I tried to take a nap but I couldn't stop looking at Andrew sleeping next to me. He's getting so big.
Friday afternoon we played the games Sorry and Life. He does a good job keeping up with it all. In the evening, the Chumleys came over. At one point Andrew asked, "Am I really married? .... I must be because everyone kisses on me!"
Saturday we played board games with him again. I found a Disney version of Sorry in the closet and thought it'd be fun to try. He immediately claimed "the bad guys" and sounded evil through most of the game. We tried to explain to him that the bad guys never have true friends and they are the ones that usually die at the end. Then we made pizza together and watched an Ice Age movie where there was a bad pirate ape and we were able to tie that in to the previous conversation since the ape had no true friends and ended up dying at the end.
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