Nicole's April Visit (Seaport Village)

Today was Nicole and Camden's last day here before heading home. Michelle was nice and stayed home with the kids during their therapy and got them on the bus for school so that Nicole, Camden, Jason and I could go do something fun. We ended up going to Seaport Village which is a quaint, tourist attraction downtown right at the shore. We enjoyed windowshopping at all the fun shops, seeing cool trees (including Nicole's favorite pictured below, and my favorite that looks like it has red bottle brushes growing from it). We enjoyed the beautiful flowers, looking at the ocean and all the boats and just allowing Camden to have some fun exploring while Jason was napping in the stroller. After Seaport Village we picked up Michelle and had pizza at the park before heading back home for Camden's nap and running them to the airport. We were so happy they came. We miss them so much and love when they visit!

Make a Smilebox photobook

Snuggle Fest

Who says people with autism don't show affection?

Mission Beach

So on Sunday we decided to record conference and do something with the kids, since none of us have the greatest attention span and you can get kind of stir crazy. Michelle had been to Mission Beach with her friend Liz, and thought it would be a great place to take the kids. Boy was she right. They had a fun playground with a family favorite, swings, overlooking the ocean. There was also an awesome walkway. We got the best exercise ever while looking at the beautiful beach and the dark blue ocean and imagining what it would be like to afford one of the awesome beach houses along the path. The kids really loved going on a fun walk. Caiti's favorite part was to sneak off with Aunt Michelle while Garrett Jason and I sat in some shade. She got to go play in the ocean. Aunt Michelle said that she thinks that is the most fun Caiti has ever had. That makes sense since her favorite things are sand/dirt and water. What a nice day with the family! We will definitely be going back soon!

Last weekend I unsuspectingly (is that a word?) took Garrett outside to get the mail. Much to my surprise, my next door neighbor had a gigantic Spongebob bouncer in his yard. It took all my power to drag Garrett, who had made a beeline to the bouncer, back inside where he proceeded to freak out and think I was so mean. Luckily, our nice neighbor rang our doorbell about then and invited the kids over to jump. I was very grateful to Michelle for watching them in the bouncer while I ran some errands. They were in heaven.

Snugly Garrett & Caiti Confronting Her Fears

Garrett loves having Aunt Michelle here. When she leaves, he points to the air and says, "Aunt Michelle right there!" and waits for me to confirm that she is right there...even if she is not. He usually starts out in his room or my room when he goes to bed at night, but by morning, he has sneaked in to sleep with aunt Michelle. When Aunt Michelle is relaxing or watching TV, Garrett especially likes to snuggle up to her. He climbs right behind her and gives her hugs. We're sure glad she is here to make things easier and happier for all of us!






This is a funny sight from the same time as the above snuggle fest. Usually if Caiti sees a vacuum she runs the other direction, so we thought we would capture this amazing moment in time.

Sweet brothers!

Make a Smilebox greeting

Isn't that cute! Sorry for the poor quality of movie, my camera is broken. Aunt Michelle took this with her cell phone. Though Garrett is snuggly and sweet to adults, he usually ignores his brother and sister and other kids. (Typical autism behavior). Yesterday, he was watching a movie on Aunt Michelle's cell phone with Jason, and he kept looking over and smiling. Today, he randomly came up and gave Jason a kiss on his head. That might not be a big deal for other kids, but it is for Garrett. He still does steal Jason's apples, but we are making cute progress!

Jason's bathtime

Aunt Michelle took some really cute pictures of Jason in the bath. He's so cute.

So fun!

Jason turns 1 next month, and I can certainly tell that he is getting to that age. His favorite activity is to practice walking by holding onto my pants while I walk. I love it! He took his first step today. Only one step, but that still counts, right. I bet Michelle he would be walking in 2 weeks. He also is trying so hard to talk. He has a bunch of babbling and cooing going on with inflection. It makes me happy. It is so fun to see him growing and developing.

So, it's 1 a.m. here and yes, I'm up with Jason. I hear Caiti in her room being super hyper too. A day in the life...or should I say a night in the life...or to be technically correct...an early morning in the life....

Going to the Beach

Today my neighbor JerriLynn watched the kids so that Michelle and I could get out. We ended up in La Jolla at the beach. So fun!

Make a Smilebox greeting

Caiti's Favorite

We all know a sign of autism is lining your toys up...so no surprise that Caiti is really good at that. She organizes the toys by category, then puts them in a nice orderly line. Examples of this are all of her dolls, all of her Madagascar figurines, Dora/Diego toys, Chevron cars...basically anything that goes together. It just really makes her happy. Here is her favorite by far. I see this configuration the most, and as you can tell, these toys make her very happy.

Some New Pictures

So, I'm up in the middle of the night...like always lately. The good thing was that Kevin called, so I was able to have a little visit with him over the phone. It was just really great to hear his voice. It sounds like he's doing pretty good. They're 13 hours different right now, so it was the middle of the afternoon for him. Garrett's sick; he's going to the doctor soon. Jason's mixed up about day/night...again...but he's sure cute and funny in the middle of the night. He totally was trying to play with Garrett. Garrett would have none of that and kept moving to different spots on the couch to get away from him; then Jason would just crawl or cruise on over to him again and bug him some more. Totally made me laugh. Anyway, here are some fun new pics of the kids.