Mama, Friend, Teacher

Love the low key, easy going days of summer!  Today I met an old friend for coffee at an outdoor restaurant near the ocean.  It was a beautiful morning sitting outside, drinking coffee and catching up with one of my dear friends. We only see each other about once a year now so I treasure the time with her. She encourages me to do the things she knows I dream of doing. My homework is to get one of those things done before I see her again. That's the push I needed. 

We have started our Sumer off with 2 fun filled weekends. Last weekend we headed to Met Life Stadium for our now annual Monster Jam outing. CJ's most favorite thing is Minster Jam, so for Christmas we got him tickets to see the show and have breakfast with the drivers. It wasn't quite the same experience that we had last year, but it was still good. The drivers are very nice...they love their fans. CJ loves the Anderson boys and was excited to spend some time with them again. Once the breakfast was over, CJ was able to see every driver and have them sign his book.  Thankfully it was a beautiful day as we were outside the whole day. The show was even more spectacular than last year. The most fun of all..watching CJ!

We are heading to NY for a few days and we are so excited. We haven't had a family adventure in quite some time. CJ planned our trip. We will be visiting the Discovery Museum, Times Square, Rockefeller Center, Guys American Grill and the Intrepid. We are hoping the weather holds up. CJ is the designated photographer so I will post pictures when we get home. 

My break from school started Monday. I was happy to have the boys home and enjoyed spending the day with them. We spent the morning lounging around reading and playing. Then we headed out to bowling fun. We bowled for a few hours and even though it was sensory overload for CJ,  he hung in there and did a great job. After bowling we decided to have dinner out. CJ doesn't do restaurants...he doesn't like being surrounded by people he doesn't know, he really doesn't like waiters/waitresses, and a restaurant can set him into major sensory overload. Thankfully, it was just 5:00 so it wasn't too busy and the waitress was very tolerant of CJ. He was a trooper and did a super job with so many new activities. 

Between being out with the flu and snow days I have only been in my classroom three days over the pat three weeks!  This is the time of year to get down to business, and yet this year it has slowed down. 

I had a great day yesterday!  Finally some mama time. A god friend hosted a ladies lunch and crafting day. The lunch was a delicious mixed green salad with roasted pecans, cranberries and Gorgonzola cheese. She is going to send me the recipe for the yummy dressing. Dessert was a light lemon cake with with frosting made from a can of frosting and cool whip. Yum!

We plan/prep for just about everything around here. Some months don't require as much planning as others. January is a big planning month. We can't figure out why, but CJ struggles a lot this time of year. So there is planning and preparing for EVERYTHING....birthday parties, day trips, even a night at home. Planning is both visual and verbal. Recently we have started modeling as well. I read a great article about the effects of modeling. It was a god reminder that talking too much at CJ isn't helpful to him. He needs to see what a behavior or situation will look like. We have been trying this in regards to his stranger fear. Having him practice saying hi to the crossing guard or friends of ours that we may run into. Birthday parties typically take about 2 weeks to get CJ ready. First by contacting the place where the celebration is being held to ask questions, showing pictures, watching videos, and if we can going to the party place ahead of time to check it out. Then there is the planning for what is going to happen with reminders to be flexible if something happens that wasn't planned for. A few days leading up to the celebration is talking. CJ has become good about asking good questions to help calm his fears.