legoland with ryan

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Ryan asked to go to Legoland after he looked at the photo book I made of Andy's trip. He wanted to go before he turned 14 so he could go to the Driving School.​

Ryan chose the long route. We got to Legoland just as the park opened. We had to wait in line for his ticket. It was good that I did not order it online. A woman gave me a coupon for a free ticket. We saved $75!

We walked in and I let Ryan lead. I forgot about the dragon & the water and we both got wet. He wasn't happy.

We went on the Island in the Sky ride. It went well until the end. They ask everyone to go left so people can board at the same time. Ryan complained and wanted to go home.

We went to the Factory and watched the video. This put Ryan in a better mood. But then Ryan was thirsty and needed water. I got him a $2 bottle and he was OK. We were going to go on The Grand Carousel and waited in line. Then they cut off the people in front and Ryan was unhappy. He complained until we left the ride.

We walked into Minifigure Market. I did get him to sit by the sleeping guy but he said the Lego creation was trying to grab him.

We tried to look at the Greenhouse but it was closed. This further degraded Ryan's mood, he said they were not letting him see anything.

We walked on to Miniland. Ryan enjoyed this and noticed that Florida was in the shape of the state and all the areas highlighted were in their proper place.

We walked over to Lego Kingdoms. Merlin's Challenge shut down as we got there. The Dragon had over an hour wait so we didn't go. Ryan was not happy.

We walked over to Land of Adventure and went on the Lost Kingdom Adventure. Ryan enjoyed it even though I trounced him in the points. Ryan really liked the Safari Trek and waited in line by himself.

Ryan said he wanted to get the Driving School out of the way so we walked over there. He smiled for his driver's license photo and we watched a video. The video wasn't done when the door opened up and Ryan wanted to wait to watch. I told him we could watch that video online. (I have seen it before.) We went into another room and watched a video about safe driving and a Lego employee asked some questions. Then they opened the door to go to the cars. Ryan didn't want to go. I had to force him. I should have let him skip the ride. I really thought he would have fun once he got going but he did not. Once the ride was over and Ryan wanted to go home. He didn't want his driver's license. He didn't want to go to any other part of the park. It was only noon.

We had to walk through Miniland again. Ryan was happy since he didn't get to (or want to) see New York.

Ryan said his feet hurt and couldn't wait to go home. But I made him sit and watch me eat apple fries. They weren't as good as I remembered but it might have been the constant complaining.

We walked through The Big Store but Ryan wanted nothing. I got a pin. I spent less than $13 for the whole day.

We stopped at McDonald's and Ryan chose another long way home.

st pete museum of history

Ryan chose the St Petersburg Museum of History. 

Ryan chose BBD to Fletcher to I275. We got to the museum about 10:30 and parked. 

The museum is nice though small. The cost is $12 for adults, $6 for kids & students with ID. Photography is allowed. The exhibits are similar to Tampa Bay History Center and Heritage Village. We were done in less than an hour. 

We walked to The Pier. Ryan said he had never been there. I thought he had. I will have to check. 

We went up the glass elevator to the 5th floor observation deck and walked around. Ryan took the elevator by himself to the first floor. Andy & I went next and met him there. We walked through the first floor and out again. People were fishing and it smelled. We walked back through to the main entrance and took the trolley to the parking lot. Ryan didn't want to take the tour even though he said the trolley was the best part of the day.

We drove to McDonald's on S 4th Avenue then back up to CFA. Then we drove home. Andy chose I275 to I4 to I75 to BBD to CLR. 

chick fil a & gay rights

My boys are very picky eaters.  

When the boys went through the typical toddler aversion to food, I did not worry. I assumed that they would go back to eating more food like every other kids. But I was wrong. They were diagnosed with autism and their picky eating habits became worse. Mother wisdom would say to put the food out for the kid and they will eat or go hungry, they won't starve themselves. Mother wisdom did not have kids with autism. They will starve themselves rather than eat something they don't want. This was the main reason I never tried the gluten free/casein free diet that is supposed to be beneficial for people with autism. 

My boys eat the same things day after day, week after week. It makes meal planning simple but makes going out difficult. We can't just go out to eat. We can't just pick a place and find something the boys will eat. When we do go out, we  have to stop at Chick Fil A for Andy and McDonald's for Ryan. Ryan prefers fries from McDonald's. He will not eat fries from Chick Fil A. He just won't eat. I know Ryan will eat fries from McDonald's. He used to prefer fries from Wendy's until they change their process. I know that Andy will eat chicken selects and fries from McDonald's. He will eat fries and nuggets from Chick Fil A. He may or may not eat fries from Burger King or Wendy's.

This means we have two reliable places to eat when we go out. So when I started seeing tweets about Chick Fil A and gay rights, I became concerned. The tweets claim that Chick Fil A is anti-gay because they support pro-family organizations. This bothers me. I support gay rights. I support equal rights for everyone. I also like the food and service at Chick Fil A. The choice is not that easy. 

If I stop eating at Chick Fil A for political reasons, what can I substitute? We tried PDQ and Andy did not like it. If we only go to McDonald's, what happens if they stop making chicken selects? 

I have to choose my battles. I will continue to go to Chick Fil A when I am with Andy. But I will not go there by myself, no matter how good the tea is.

science projects

I hate them. I always put them off. I remember my first project in fifth grade. I did it the night before it was due while watching TV. It was clay study of the parts of the flower. I think my dad put more time into the project backdrop. (That was when they were made of wood and three dimensional.) I got an honorable mention. The next year, I copied one of my sister's projects and got a second place. I tried to copy her a second time and barely passed. Then I copied myself in the eight grade and got another honorable mention. I was lucky. In those four years, we had four different science teachers who didn't realize I was recycling my projects. I did do the work, I just wasn't original. I just didn't care.

Somehow, this apathy was passed onto my son. And the poor kid had to start early, in the third grade. We also share the tendency to procrastinate as well as not ask for help. In my case, I probably would not have gotten any help, just a lecture that I should have started earlier. In Ryan's case, he is worried about rejection so he won't ask.

I try to let Ryan do as much as the work himself. I get involved when I have to help with ideas and prod him along. I usually get frustrated with Ryan and my dad. My dad likes to chime in with complicated ideas. He doesn't understand that Ryan does have the drive or motivation to push himself to do more, to do his best. And Ryan will not say he doesn't understand so my dad thinks he has gotten through. The one year I let my dad type out Ryan's charts, Ryan got his lowest grade. He could not explain what was going on.

I do help Ryan with the presentation. Only because the artist in me cannot help it. I try not to do anything more than could be expected from him. I am sure other parents are helping out more than me. But Ryan has no interest in entering the science fair. He just wants to get it done and get a good grade.

All this leads us to this week when Ryan is conducting his experiment on water evaporation. He tried it last night and it was a failure. Ryan thought he would see results in an hour. He didn't see anything after four hours. The due date for the trial work is Thursday. A failed experiment is OK and acceptable but not to Ryan. He teacher is letting him rework and redo the experiment and turn it in a few days later. Ryan started this morning and planned to check the results this evening after 12 hours. I came home to see that my dad was checking every hour. I tried to explain that it wasn't necessary nor wanted since it was supposed to be Ryan's work and how could he get those readings while he was at school. This fell on deaf ears. Then I asked my dad if he was planning on getting up every hour during the night. He understood and stopped.

Getting Andy to do a book report seems so easy.

25 september 2011

I think my back pain is from my bed. It needs to be flipped/rotated. A bit of a conundrum as I can move the heavy mattress with the pain, but the pain will continue until I move the mattress.

I met my goals and did an hour each of scanning, filing, and shredding. I feel like I am filing making a small dent in those piles. I did about 3 hours of work in the scrap area. If I stick with the October 8 date, I have two weeks to get a lot more done.

Goals this week:

• Three hours of organizing in the scrap room/office.

• One hour of scanning documents

• One hour of shredding documents

• One hour of filing documents

14 september 2011

1. Happy Birthday Arlyn!

2. Andy went bowling today for special Olympics. This is the first event of the school year. Most of his class went to a local bowling alley, play two games, eat lunch, and go back to school. In the past, it has been crazy and chaotic as there are loads of schools coming and going. This year, things seemed less crowded and ran more smoothly. Andy had only one other boy in his lane so the games did not drag on. And once we learned that Andy needed 30 points in each game to qualify for the next round, he had incentivtive to do well. Andy finished with 44 points in the first game, and 57 points in the second game. We were done before noon. Andy got a second place ribbon.

The one part that did not get better was the food line. The small grill can not handle all of the kids. It was taking 20-30 minutes to get a personal pizza. Andy did not want to eat at the bowling alley. He wanted to go to Chick-Fil-A. We stopped at the produce stand on the way.

picnic

The ese classes had a picnic at Zephyr Park. I met them at the park.

I got there early and took done photos of the brave squirrels and ugly ducks.

Once the bus arrive, the kids wanted to eat but were led to the play area. Some kids knew about the water park and brought extra clothes. I would have brought clothes for Andy had I know they would be allowed to play.

The kids had fun and the teachers could not relax. The play area is not contained and they had to keep the kids from wandering off or getting near the lake.

The kids ate lunch then played some more. They fed bread to the ducks and birds.

special olympics bowling

We were told that the class would be at the bowling alley from 10:00 until 1:30. I didn't want to sit there that long so I took my time getting there. I arrive about 10:45. It was crowded. One thing that I don't think about are the variety of dsiabilities. Andy has mostly been around kids with autism. I don't recall seeing any kids with downs or similar disabilities at his schools.

As I walked through, one boys was taking French fries left on the plates by those who had eaten and left. A group of high school (girl) volunteers looks shocked and giggled at him. It reminded me of the time when a 4 year old Andy did this at an outlet mall. The man whose fry he stole was European and felt it his right to smack Andy's hand. Yep, I was pissed but not at Andy.

After two passes through the bowling alley, I finally did spot Andy's teacher. She told me that the kids were outside waiting to come in. Apparently they did this in shifts. The behavior specialist asked about Andy wearing a size 8 shoe. Huh? No, she read that wrong. 10 1/2 please. Oh are they ugly these days. After the 90s fashion craze of wearing bowling shoes outside the alley, they have made the fluorescent! And Velcro!!

Andy was actually doing pretty well bowling until he discovered the foot foul signal. He thought it was fun to make the light go off and hear the buzz. He lost a lot of points that way. There were volunteers supposed to help keep order but they were mostly useless flirting with each other instead. There were 3 boys in our lane and they got to play 2 games. Everyone got a ribbon but they weren't award per lane. Andy got a 4th place ribbon which he wouldn't pin on. I don't blame him as they weren't safety pins! S got a second place ribbon and was very upset that he didn't get a first. T was mad that they wouldn't give her more food. Watching the other kids made me more grateful for mine.

drive by conversations

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Andy has drive by conversations. He will come into the room and ask me a question. He doesn't wait to get my attention, he doesn't care if I am on the phone, he just asks his question. And he expects an answer. Luckily, they are mostly yes or no questions with many have an affirmative response. As soon as he is satisfied, he walks away. It may be an hour before the drive by or 30 seconds.

Then he will ask the same question but in a different form. This must be a teacher tactic and he mimics it well. The problem is that I don't want to answer the same question 3 times. Heck, I probably didn't want to answer the question once. But this is a form of communication he uses.

My dad has problems with these questions because Andy is sometimes quiet and has a tendency to mumble. And my dad is not familiar with the topics Andy is talking about. Andy likes to talk about the videos he sees on YouTube or things that happen at school.

5.20.08

Yay! I managed to convince Andy to go out and play after dinner. Oh and the weather was really nice at 7:30, low 80s with a nice breeze. And because the weather was nice, he stayed and rode his bike rather than going in and out of the house.

Now I wish I could convince him to leave his clothes on in the house. He is just too old to be walking around in boxer briefs.