The Portland Zoo, again

Lots of fun at the zoo and the boys really enjoyed the otters and penguins. We got a good view of the Black bears and wolfs. We are handling the time at the zoo alot better, staying longer with out a major meltdown.

The day we had gone there was a class of 1st graders having their lunch on a open grass area and Logan got down there and decided to run,run,run and a little boy was happy to run around with Logan, this lasted about 15 mins(2 hours mom time). They had fun and it was time to see the elephants anyway.

If you look carefully there some antlers on those heads!

Great drumming from Charlie, he has a natural beat in him! All I got a say is More Cowbell, Logan!

Someones personal space was invaded, the invader was not thrilled either, so funny they put up with me and trying to get a nice picture of them together and this is what I get:)

The A word (no, it's not what you think)

So by now every one in the family knows Logan and Charlie are on the Autism Spectrum. Logan is going to have a harder and longer time learning his social and verbal skills than his brother Charlie. That being said, they are improving leaps and bounds in Pre-school and are impressing their teacher and the specialist every week.

For me I am trying to get into a ABA program (Applied Behavioral Analysis) with the help of the school and their specialist. ABA is basically a learning and teaching form of different approaches of skills that a child with learning disabilities can adapt to or learn from and use in everyday life (depending on what the child is needing at the time, potty-training, drinking from a cup, looking a the person who's talking to them, etc..) This is not a Fix-It program (some people think it is) but it can be a Great tool for the boys to learn in a way that is fun and social, if they enjoy doing it, I'm all for it!

I have found that some days are a lot harder than others (for any parent)and not to take the small things they can do for granted. I am their advocate and will be their voice and try to be as clear as possible to do what is best and also push them to their limit without major meltdowns.

So summer is coming and I'm going to see if I can get them into a swimming(getting used to deeper water) class. Trying to find a patient person who is skilled at working with disabilities and or Autistic children. Wish me luck!!

It's a great day to have a Parade!

The flowers were out and so was the sun! Beautiful weather at Long beach and they had their annual May day Parade, little did we know we would get by the end of the day (Bin Ladin met his maker). We enjoyed the boardwalk and people flying their kites, bikes and horses.

So this is our 10th anniversary, that's right we are getting OLD!! No kiddos on this trip, but they had fun at Grandma and Papa Protheros House while we were gone for the day and a half. The trip back was raining and very windy. We packed up and headed back to our boys and back to reality!! D'oh!