Maybe the charger needs batteries.

Always a hairy haircut.

It was time for Mr. E to have a haircut.

Since I now have an apprentice under me at my salon (Anna), I decided to have her practice on Mr. E. The tricky part is, is that Mr. E absolutely hates the newly cut hair to fall on or down his neck whatsoever, and really, who doesnt that bother. With this kids tactile sensitivities its extra bothersome believe it or not. It's always harder to cut hair on a somewhat squirmy and impatient kid, BUT I was Super impressed with Mr. E today!!

 Anna is still learning, so a haircut takes a little longer than it normally would so I prepped Mr. E. (especially Since things tend to roll out of his mouth) I told him that he needs to be very nice and not complain or whine because Anna is learning, and we want her to feel good about herself while cutting his hair. I was proud of him, he was very polite! He did ask a few times when she would be done but other than that he did great. It did help that half way through the haircut, Anna let him play games on her IPhone.

The first half of the haircut, Mr. E told Anna all about his oragami tanks, buildings, airplanes, jets ect. Then moved onto his other obsession, minecraft which then lead to the question, for the umpteenth time 

    "mom why can't I play on your IPad"

 I again told him that the charger wasn't working.

 He then said "mom maybe the charger just needs batteries". 

I said "yes maybe."

Drum Performance

Today I asked Mr. E to take our keyboard down to the basement and he was gone for quite a while. I found him in his room with the keyboard.

I asked him what he was doing and he said that the books set up around him are the cheering crowd and he was playing the drums in a concert for them. It was cute to watch, he had some of the auto music playing while he pretended to drum. He has loved the drums since he was 1 yr old and has even had a cople small drum sets but I think it's time for a bigger set. His inspiration for this came from a you tube video my husband showed Mr. E of a drum solo at a Rush concert. 

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GHkucr1jJpQ&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DGHkucr1jJpQ

Playing at Grandma and Grandpa's House

Mr. E loves playing at his Grandma and Grandpa's House. Half because he loves his cousin's, especially his cousin Griffin and half because Grandpa has the coolest yard EVER!!!

Monday grocery shopping

Holy Threaken Shanks! (another one of his words he made up, and is one of our favorites)

Back in July we went to Walmart and Mr. E was super excited about all the fireworks they had. He was a little dramatic. He begged and begged to buy some right then but I told him (like we have told him every single day about 20x in the day ~no exaggeration~ ) that we were only buying some on the 24th.

Mr. E had his Heely's on, he lost one wheel so he balanced on one foot while holding on to the cart.  This kid cracks me up!

The Attention Center

Today we visited our favorite person Dr. Jones @ the Attention Center.

Every visit we re-fill out forms, he keeps everything on file and we have had to look back through a couple of times.  ~ During this visit I told him about taking Mr. E off of his medication towards the end of the school year to see how well he would do. I don't think I posted about that (but wanted to). ~  So briefly: We decided to see how Mr. E would do not taking his medication, not as a permanent thing but just to see where he is as of now. Dr. Jones doesn't advise taking kids off their medications for the summer because often times with ADD/ADHD comes behavior issues. Typically Mr. E tends to have highs and lows through out the day. He can snap pretty fast, so the medication evens out his mood. ~ Off the medication we were pretty excited about how Mr. E was doing emotionally. He had a lot more energy and seemed more outgoing than he is on the medication, he seemed to be more on a high than not (maybe more ADHD). We wondered if part of his constantly happy mood was the fact that school was going to end soon......  ~ I told Mr. E's teacher what we did after about a week and a half of no medication and she seemed a little bothered that we didn't let her know before hand but I really wanted to see what she saw without her knowing what to watch for. She said his focus was completely gone, so I can understand why she was frustrated. We also noticed his lack of attention. He's not always a fast mover so getting him to do something can take 2-3 times of asking while on the medication so Mr. E off the medication was more like 10-12 times asking and getting upset with him before he would do what we asked.  ~  When we added in Interactive metronome, he started to even out more. it was so interesting to watch. I told Dr. Jones about Interactive Metronome and the results we were seeing. He was not familiar with it so he asked a number of questions and wanted to know the results when we finished. He thought it sounded great!

 

Dr. Jones has DS's for the kids to play with. No wonder Mr. E loves going there. ~ It's great because while I go in to talk with Dr. Jones, the kids are entertained. After I talk to Dr. Jones then he has Mr. E come in, he's so sweet and encouraging with Mr. E. ~  Sadly Dr. Jones is quite a bit older so I'm worried he'll retire before we don't need him anymore.

"HI, I'm Mr. E"

Mr. E and I were tired this afternoon, so while relaxing I decided to ask him some Q's

Hi I'm Mr. E, 

My favorite things to do are:

   Play Mind Craft

   Ride my bike and scooter that sparks

   Light fireworks

   Go down water slides 

   Play with Lego's
   Jump on the trampoline

   

My favorite foods are:

   Spaghetti 

   Shepherds Pie

   Pancakes

My favorite treats are:

   Reese's Peanut Butter cups

   Butterfinger candy bar 

I don't like:

   Working

   School

   Eating soggy cereal

   Melted cheese

   Fire alarms

   Touching things that are to cold or to hot

   Stinky stuff

   Seeing soggy sandwiches or bread in water

Things that make me laugh:

   When Zeek (my little brother) toots

   

My favorite Movies:

   Forces of Nature

   National Geographic

Favorite Book:

   Disasters

My Best friend:

   Tristin

When I grow up I want to be:

   An engineer

My favorite animals:

   Reptiles 

Favorite color:

   Yellow

   Blue

   Then green

Tuesdays Top Ten E'isms

I've realized that a lot of the funny things this kid says is while we are driving in the car. Maybe its a good time for his brain to get that deep thinking in...?

1. "Mom I had a dream that me and Tristin and my friends (Tristin is a friend also...) were skydiving and yelling 'WooooHoooo!' and then, 'Ahhhhhh Oh No We Are Going To Die!'
(Mr. E wants to skydive super bad)

2. With complete seriousness Mr. E says, "Mom I'm kinda afraid with Talin around." (Neighbor boy)
Me, "oh yeah?"
Mr. E rubbing his arm, "Yeah he kind of a little bit is getting a lot if hair and......you know.......werewolf."

3. Mr. E "Mom why do we have meat in us?"
Me, "you mean our muscles?"
Mr. E, "....Ohhhhhhh I see! Wait meat is muscle?"

4. While playing the DS, I hear Mr. E say, "I'm getting confuseses"

5. Mr. E came walking in the front door and very matter a fact said, "Well mom I'm a wizard now. Leo helped me with the code so I'm a wizard now. I just don't know how to do magic yet. See watch." Mr. E then put a box on the floor and said, "abracadabra turn into a lizard. See mom, nothing. I don't know how to do magic yet."

6. At Walmart I heard "Becky?" I turned and it was Mr. E.
He continued, "Can I call you Becky?"
Me, "why?"
Mr. E, "because its getting a little annoying to call you mom. Hey Becky can we get some milk?" I just stared at him not knowing how to respond and he said, "Mom please can I call you Becky now?"

7. The other morning I came into the kitchen to see Mr. E eating rice crispies with brown sugar sprinkled on it, no milk. (He can't put milk on rice crispies because they go soggy to fast and the soggy texture even in the slightest, is to much for him)
He says to me "Mom I'm having brown sugar snackle pop!!"
(I think he means 'crackle pop'.)

8. Mr. E was laying opposite his older sister on the couch, heads almost touching. Casually in conversation I over heard his sister telling him about being sick up at girls camp and still not feeling well at that moment. Mr. E's response (which again was completely casual) "Livvy look on the bright side, just calm down and everything will be OK."

9. Watching TV, Mr. E saw an ad for NBCmouse.com and said, "Ohhhhh that's right mom NBCmouse.com is what it is. Whenever you get confused and don't know what school is about you can go there and be happy." (Makes sense....right?)

10. "Ummmm Mom the gluer threw up!"
I gave Mr. E some paper, a small glue gun and some crayons so he could make crayon art (pinterest). I guess to much came out at one point.

Big fat freckled-face kid!

Mr. E and his cute freckles.

Last summer when this kid was out everyday playing in the nice summer sunshine, he adopted a few more freckles. The ones he already had seemed to also show up more, so the question came up a few times,

"Mom why do I have to have freckles".

I always would tell him how much I loved his cute freckles.

One day he said, "I'm just a big fat freckled-face kid."

I was somewhat surprised at his comment!! 

I asked why he said that and he told me he learned it from our Charlie Brown movie. I realized he was more saying it to get a reaction out of me.

Well, he did!!

Transition....makes for a rough morning.

Mr. E had been doing so well last summer with getting up early when we needed him to. Typically we would be asking 4, 5, sometimes 6 times to get out of bed and by then WE were frustrated and HE would be frustrated. One Sunday morning last summer was one of those 'typical' mornings. 

Mr. E was really tired when I went in to get him up. I put his church clothes on his bed and told him we didn't have much time so to quickly get dressed and come down stairs so he would have time for breakfast.

Mr. E doesn't do well with having to hurry but then he doesn't do well without food in his stomach either. The best thing for this kid is to have a super-uber consistent schedule, but really!?! Let's be real. Life in general not to mention as a working mom with other kids that have needs as well, along with anything else each new day throws at you, doesn't always equal perfect consistency. If we can keep as much routine as possible, it really seems to help all of us but the rest of us don't seem to be as bothered as Mr. E is when routine is thrown off.

Once Mr. E is thrown off, it's tricky for him to self-regulate back to normal. As he has gotten older, little by little he's learned better to self-regulate. When he was younger and was thrown off for whatever the reason, he would have a full blown tantrum (we called them episodes) that usually lasted about an hour. There was no option of consoling or negotiating to help him calm down. The fact was.. he couldn't. We very often seemed to walk on egg shells just so we didn't have one of those 'episodes'.

Whatever helps!

This is what I saw when I opened the bathroom door the other day. This must have taken Mr. E's mind off the frustrating wait that constipation brings. We are happy that he hasn't had an episode in a while!! I'll talk more later about the foods he does and doesn't eat because it really does make all the difference!

Flarp

Mr. E picked Flarp out of the prize bag at Interactive Metronome.
That stuff entertained him for 3 days!!! It makes tooting sounds so the kids thought it was hilarious. He loves how it feels in his hands and would even squish it while watching a movie. It must be calming in a way. One night I heard him call my name from the living room and I came in to his name spelled out on the floor with the Flarp.

NEW Development for the blog ~ Tuesdays Top Ten E' isms

My husband and I decided that the E' isms need to be done consistently every week and Tuesdays seem to be fitting. Also 5 is not enough, this kid says to many funny things so why stop when there is more to share! I'll post the top 10 but then there may be a few bonuses from time to time.

Adults have always loved this kid and so many times our friends, family, teachers, neighbors ect. ect. share their entertaining encounters they have with Mr. E. I love hearing about them!!
I think the reason why he is so entertaining is because while other kids @ 10yrs old may say something similar, it is usually to joke around but not Mr. E, he is 99% of the time COMPLETELY serious. He likes to joke but he doesn't always understand joking so usually his jokes don't make a whole lot of sense. So this kids Wonderful-Imaginative-Curious-Literal Thinking brain makes life with Mr. E FUN!!!

So here we go, Mr. E's first 'Tuesday Top Ten!'


1. Mr. E took the cheese out of the fridge to cut off a piece and with a squirmy face asked, "Mom why do boogers taste like cheese?".
I asked him how he knows what boogers taste like and he paused and then said, "Because I tasted them when I was a kid."

2. "Son of a marshmallow!!!!........mom, that is not swear word right?"
(I've explained before how we don't swear in our home and that he is always making up his own words but yet he always makes sure they are 'OK' to say.)

3. If we are surprising the kids or want to share something exciting, we will sometimes have the kids guess. My husband will usually say something like, "OK kids we are going somewhere and it starts with a 'W' and ends with 'aterslide'." Or something like, "OK kids someone is coming over and it starts with a 'G' and ends with 'randma'. "
So Mr. E came to me and said, "Mom I know you are going to say no at this (you gotta love when they start out this way) but.......cannnnn........I, well, it Starts with an 'M' then starts with a 'L' then starts with an 'N' and it's on your iPad and has a lot of blocks and it has to start with 'rafts' and an 'M'." ............I was a little confused then I realized what he was trying to do. He was trying to have me guess like his dad does but didn't quite understand how the guessing game works. He wanted to play 'Minecraft' on my IPad.

4. I told Mr. E that Mrs.Tullis, his cello instructor wanted him to continue practicing his cello through out the summer and that we'll see her in August before school starts. He said, "Mom I know when I'll see her she'll have to say 'happy birthday' to me because my birthday is coming up."

5. The other day my husband and I announced to the kids that we were going to walk down to see our neighbors new basement. Mr. E was playing a game but said 'OK'. We were gone for about 30 min. When we were walking back, Mr. E was outside and ran up to us and said, "Phew your back, I didn't know where you were and I was worried!!" Our neighbor who was watering her lawn laughed and told us that earlier he came running out of the house panicking and came up to her and said, "Emma, do you know where my mom and dad are? If my mom and dad die will you be our mother?" She consoled him and said she knew we were OK but yes that she would be their mother if anything happened.

I love our neighbors, they are so patient and understanding with this cute kid!! Over the years I noticed that Mr. E likes to have a plan B. It is a way for him to feel safe.

6. After Mr. E got out of the shower, he went back to his room with a towel around his waist to put on his pajamas. He came out later and said, "Mom I bet Liz (his bearded dragon lizard) wonders why my bum is cut." I asked him what he meant and he said "you know mom, why my bum has that line and is split." (....I guess because lizards bums are different than ours and since lizards analyze the world around them, I guess Liz could be thinking that...?)

7. While we were driving, the kids saw 2 Llamas in a pasture. 1 was standing up and the other was laying down so the kids thought it was dead. I told them that it was probably just sleeping in the hot sun. Mr. E kept pondering on it and said he really thought it was dead because it was laying down and it's eyes were open and staring. (Again we were driving by and they were kind of far away so I think he was creating more in his head than what we really saw) Again I told him it was probably laying down but that it was probably wishing it wasn't so hot. He nodded and said "yeah pretty much I'm thinking of agreeing with you 'cause I'm hoping it wasn't dead."

8. Mr. E was sitting on the couch by his sister and I hear "OHHHHHHH E GROSS!!" from Mr. E's sister as she's waving her hand in front of her nose. Mr. E said "Oh alright I'll cover my butt".

9. We have some new next door neighbors so Mr. E decided to go check them out. They're a cute young couple with a 18 month old daughter. My kids were a little disappointed that there weren't kids their ages since the neighbors before had a son and daughter exactly the right ages.
When I finally met the new lady she told me how she met my 10 yr old son already (Mr. E). She was obviously entertained by him and told me how he said he was sorta kinda glad they are our new neighbors now but that he was sad because he had to say goodbye to Elle ( the girl who lived there before) because he is going to marry her but she moved so he needs to find her somehow. (He hasn't been introduced to facebook yet).

10. Again driving, we passed a big field full of kids so my kids asked what was going on. I told them that there were some BYU summer camps going on. I told them that next summer Emily is going to do a dance camp and Livvy is going to do a song writing camp and that Mr. E can do a cello camp or gymnastics camp.
Looking out the window and completely serious Mr. E said, "maybe I can do a skydiving camp."

(Skydiving was a fixation phase last summer, I'll post about that later, good stories)

4th OF JULY - A Holiday created for Mr. E - part 3

After the morning festivities, some of us wanted a nap. Since Mr. E got the most sleep, he took his energy outside with his friend Leo and played with his bottle launcher (I think that's what you call it).

Mr. E's uncle James made and gave the bottle launcher to him for his birthday last year. He could not have given him a more fitting present. It's hours of entertainment and it attracts all the friends on the block which makes Mr. E feel good.

You don't want me to hum?

Today at Interactive Metronome Mr. E was more focused than yesterday.Yay!
But he kept wanting to hum along with the beat but it seamed to distract him some. He kept getting higher numbers so Sue asked him to hold off humming until he hit a certain amount of reps. He said "You don't want me to hum?". He started doing better and then he started to add in some beat boxing (silly kid) but his numbers again were higher, so Sue pointed that out to him so he tried really hard not to hum or beatbox. It kinda kept slipping out though.

Sue has Mr. E stand on a balance board while doing the IM when he does his hand taps because he tends to be less wiggly and then he keeps his feet in one place, it helps him focus somewhat better as well. He still was itching some on random areas of his body but it was less today.

Mr. E finished up with 1226 reps! Most reps so far. He would have more but he was goofing around some.

This morning when we first got to Sue's, Jessie was excited to show Mr. E her butterflies she caught. She let him hold one and he excitedly said, "This is the first time I have ever held a butterfly in my whole life!".

Fireworks on the first day of school.

This picture was drawn on the first day of 4th grade this last school year. The students were suppose to draw their favorite thing about summer, so with no surprise Mr. E's favorite thing was FIREWORKS!!!

A little to excited about being at the grocery store!

I don't know where all Mr. E's energy came from today but I took him with me to the grocery store to grab just a few things and I started documenting the experience. This kid was cracking me up!

Whenever we go to the grocery store, Mr. E likes to stop at the bakery first to pick up the 'free' cookie they always give kids. This time I told him no because he had a donut earlier in the day and the donut was enough sugar for the day.
His response, "but mom I think... I already pooped out the donut...."

As we walked to the produce section he said, "mom what if everything was a dollar or free? wouldnt that be cool?!"
To bad the $ store was already created, this kid could have made us millions!

When we got to the produce section, "mom are these weeny peeny watermelon?"
I asked him what that meant and he said " oh you know, like kind of, a little bit smaller."

Walking further, "mom what if I owned this store? We would have so much food huh.....mom what if we lived here? "
I asked him where his room would be..
He said " pretty much anywhere and we could wake up and get whatever we wanted huh mom."
Me, "yep"
"Mom everyday I could pretty much come to this storage."
(We have a cold storage under our porch so we ask the kids to sometimes grab a food item from the 'storage')

Walking further, "Well that sucks there is only a little bit!"
I noticed he had stopped and was looking into a barrel of beans and noticed that they didn't go all the way to the bottom of the barrel. They only went down a few inches, how deceiving right : )

Further down he stopped abruptly and got loud, "IS. THAT. WHAT. I THINK. IT. IS??? Is that broccoli? Is that what I call a broccoli tree? I could make a whole food city and these broccoli can be for the trees!!"

Next to the broccoli, "hey mom, those look like people!" (Ginger) "and the salad can be the grass."

"Mom the most reddest apples are the goodest and most fruitiest."

Should I be fixing his grammar? I love how he talks but he IS going into 5th grade in 2 months.

This was quite an entertaining shopping experience thanks to Mr. E!

Top 5 E-isms

1. "How does it have to be so hot"
Mr. E has always gotten his helping verbs mixed up.

2. While picking out his colonial days outfit at the costume shop, Mr. E saw a ruffly, puffy beautiful ball gown on a mannequin,
"Oh my gosh Emily would blast out huh mom!!"
(Again, he always has made up his own words)

3. My neighbor who knows that Mr. E loves fireworks, asked him if he was going to get any this year.
His response, "pretty much on the 4th we are going to have a whole blob!"

4 ~ His fascination with buildings includes apartments, hotels and motels but mostly he's interested because whenhe's trying to figure out which one the building is. As we were walking the other day, we walked past some apartments and he asked if it was a hotel, we told him they were apartments so he said, "Really!?! Apartments and hotels are like twins, like brother and sister!"


5. Mr. E bought some flower fireworks and was excited to light them and show his friends. When his dad started to light them Mr. E told his friends to "Put your hand over your heart and close (plug) your ears." We laughed when we saw his friends try to do exactly that.

And it's alllll mine!!!

The other day Mr. E was excited to go to the store and buy something with a $1 that he had. After looking around the store he discovered that instead of buying 2 soda cans for .50 each, he could buy a 2 liter for $.99. A whole 2 liter bottle would be all his which means, he didn't have to share with his sisters!

The best part is later that day when his dad came home, Mr. E ran up to him excited to show him his purchase and with about half a bottle of soda left, asked him if he wanted some. His dad (who loves soda) gratefully accepted and drank the glass Mr. E gave him. Later, his dad noticed him drinking from the bottle and asked him if that was the first time he drank the soda like that.
Mr. E said, "no, it's mine so I can."

His dad was a little grossed out.

Late night, Frosted mini-wheats and a Monday.

Today at Interactive metronome, Mr. E really struggled to focus. Sue would remind him to watch the screen or the light and not a minute later he would wiggle and start looking around at other things. Another reminder and another minute and he was unfocused again. It wasn't until the very last round that he was completely focused and was able to finish the session with over 1,100 total reps.

I feel the extra distraction was a combination of going to bed late, getting up early, eating frosted mini-wheats for breakfast (to much sugar and no protein), and the fact that it is the beginning of the week. Mondays get us all right? He was in a fabulous mood which is not always the case when he has 3 strikes against him but I'm sure the sugar-high played the biggest part.

During the session Sue had him try cross-over which is tapping both hands on the opposite leg but the bottom of his feet started to irritate him to much so they went back to tapping his hand on his leg.

It's so interesting how it affects his senses so much, I knew he had some tactile sensory issues but it wasn't until we start doing the interactive metronome that we discovered how much so.

Taking a sweet break.

Mr. E and Jessie taking a quick break while @ their last cello practice before their Colonial Days performance.

Cellos practice for 1/2 hour then the violins come and they all practice for a 1/2 hour, then the violins practice by themselves. So these 2 went through their music and had some time to have a quick treat!

Social Interaction - today was great!

I love parks! They're a perfect place for kids to play, play, PLAY!!! And get all their busy little energy out. Mr. E loves parks because he's always loved slides. Watersides were his fixation for a couple of years but that.....is a whole other story.

Today I was happy to see him playing with other kids that were at the park. As he's gotten older he's wanted to play with other kids more and more but he still more often is content doing something by himself. At the park he would usually spend most his time at the slides and he's that kid not following the playground rules and is running back up the slide after he's just slid down.

1 if not 2 of the kids playing had to be about his same age which was also great because he tends to get along better and reach out more to kids younger.

I was entertained watching all of them run back and forth from the different play equipment. Mr. E would yell out, "I'm captain of this ship!" Then would run off yelling "hurry! A hurricane is coming, run for safety!" while the other kids followed yelling as well.

When I walked over to take pictures I noticed that he was yelling "all hells on deck! all hells on deck!" I started to laugh and told him that the phrase is suppose to be "all 'hands' on deck". I had to explain why they say that, and then I saw the light go on and he smiled and said "ohhhhhhh".

It wasn't until later that I started wondering if our consistency with Interactive metronome was what was making the difference with his social interaction.

Hobby Notebook

After Mr. E drew blueprints of buildings, he started drawing blueprints of some of his previous fixations like 'Forces of Nature' (as he puts it), and fireworks.

Fixation - Buildings blueprints

One night Mr. E came home SUPER excited from scouts because his scout master talked about how to build buildings and showed the boys how to make a blue print. (This amazing scout master knew Mr. E's latest fixation and he catered to that!)

Mr. E has a Hobby Notebook and these are some of his pictures....

Top 5 'E' isms

1 ~ This has always been our favorite 'E' ism :
While riding in the car a couple of years ago, Mr. E was staring out the window and was quiet most of the ride.Then out of the blue he said very seriously,
"Mom, did you know I'm sometimes taller than midgets."
I think he was introduced to midgets by watching 'Bedtime Stories'.... with this kid, who knows.

2 ~ A couple of times Mr. E asked me,
"Mom why aren't you happy?"
I usually responded saying
"Buddy I'm happy."
One day after he asked me the same thing again, I finally asked him why he didn't think I was happy and he said,
"Because you aren't smiling."
(Again an example of his literal thinking, he knows what he sees. After this experience I started talking to him more about facial expressions and people's responses and what they could mean.)


3 ~ While driving in the car one evening, Mr. E (in a serious tone) said "mom are you a witch?"
Me "No bud I'm not a witch"
Mr. E "Because if you are a witch you better not go down a water slide."
Me "............ummm is it because witches melt when they get wet like on The Wizard of Oz?"
Mr. E "Yeah if you go down a water slide you would be gone before you even hit the bottom right mom!?!"
Me "yes bud".


4 ~ His fascination with buildings includes apartments, hotels and motels but mostly he's interested because whenhe's trying to figure out which one the building is. As we were walking the other day, we walked past some apartments and he asked if it was a hotel, we told him they were apartments so he said, "Really!?! Apartments and hotels are like twins, like brother and sister!"

5. While at springs camp, the group played a song really well and Mr. E said, " that sounded like real music right!"

Fixation - Lego buildings

These are the only Legos we have left. His fascination for buildings has brought on this fascination for lego buildings which means... Mr. E wants more Legos. Not just Legos but lego buildings sets. He has already googled and found which ones he wants for his birthday and Christmas. Why do Legos have to be so expensive!?!

Top 5 'E' isms

1 ~ While watching basketball on TV with his dad,
"Dad why are there so many tan people playing?"

2 ~ Talking to his friend Jessie,
"I can't marry you because I'm already marrying Elle and she wants three kids and I want four or five kids so we need to go talk to the city and see which is good."

3 ~ The dogs ran out of the house before we could stop them so Mr. E threw his hands in the air and said, "Stupid Blops!" (Since we don't allow swearing in our home he has always made up his own words)

4 ~ Watching the chickens eat,
"That chicken just ate a whole glope!" (I assume 'glope' means 'a lot')

5 ~ Mr. E asked me,
"Why it is easier to balance a tall pole on your hand than to try to balance a short pole?" I told him that I didn't know and he responded very seriously and with some disappointment,
"Mom you should always know that." (That is his literal brain thinking. Though I'm flattered he thinks I know everything.)

LUNCH - what to feed this kid.

Mr E. isn't a super picky eater but there are things he doesn't care for and he definitely takes his time eating. This makes lunchtime at school very difficult. His pickiness actually comes more from the textures of the food than the taste.

School lunch.
I've always liked to go to the school and eat lunch with Mr. E from time to time, here are a few things I've noticed: He loves the chocolate milk and would drink it first but he would spend most of his lunchtime watching the chocolate milk go up and down the straw as he would suck on it.
Next he would pick the sweeter options like the fruit, which is good for you but he wouldn't ever make it to anything substantial then he wouldn't have much energy after lunch.

Home lunch.
He wouldn't always eat what we put in his home lunch. He again, would always go for the sweeter option first and then he'd take to long to eat it. He doesn't like PB sandwiches, which is crazy to me, what kid doesn't like PB & J's? He would only take a bite of a tuna fish sandwich at school yet he would eat the whole thing at home. He would never eat the soups, or pastas either. When we asked him what he would like in his lunch, he usually asked for a meat and cheese sandwich (as he calls it) but then many times would only finish part of it.

WE FINALLY FOUND THE ANSWER!!!!!

Home made luncheables!!!

As long as we put this in his lunch he would come home with an empty lunch pail. He also loves apples but a whole apple again, takes to long to eat and he won't eat the slices after they have browned. On pinterest : ) i found the answer to that dilema, we now cut them up and then drop some lemon juice or a drop of my lemon oil in the bag. They taste great and don't brown!

I win!!

Fixation - Buildings - Paper

Mr. E wanted to see youtube videos on how model buildings were built. We found some videos where they make the model buildings out of paper. He got started right away making his own paper city.

I found a fold-out brochure of a panoramic picture of New York, taken from Top of the Rock, from my New York trip last year. He was so excited when I gave it to him that he took it to school and showed his teacher and friends. He carried it around for a couple of weeks and would pull it out and look at it. He used the brochure to pick out the types of buildings to make for his paper model city. What was super cute is he decided to make a model city for himself and then got the idea to surprise his school teacher with a model city as well. She loved her model city and displayed it the rest of the school year.

Mr. E keeps asking if we can sell his little model city to the mayor of our city. I've told him that the mayor probably won't buy it but we can give it to him....