Here, There, Everywhere

I can't believe it's been almost a week since I've posted.  We are down to our last 2 weeks in GA.  I guess I need to get you all caught up on the end of last week.  Wednesday we went swimming at Amanda and Adeline's cousins pool.  This pool has a 12 ft deep section.  That is where Drew and I spent most of our time.  He is fascinated by the deep end of pools.  Our apartments deep end is only 5 ft so he can push himself down to the bottom while holding the ladder.  In the really deep ones he just holds on to the side and puts his face in the water and looks down.  At one point, he pushed away from the wall.  I nearly had a heart attack.  I grabbed him by the belly while I was still holding on to the side and helped him swim back.  And of course, we went swimming again after dinner at the apartment.

Fun at the apartment

Thursday we went to the Imagine It Children's Museum in Atlanta.  On the way to the museum, he kept saying "Go to zoo" and then he switched to "Varsity, chicken and FF" which is weird because that's not even what he ate when we went.  And then he said "Hey Manda (Amanda), go to Giant Target".  Giant Target is what she told him the mall was when we were there a couple of weeks ago.  And it's really cute because he always tells her where he wants to go because she is the one driving.  The museum had lots of little interactive exhibits.  There were crafts for the kids to make.  That days craft was a rocket.  There was a Thomas the Train exhibit that Drew found!!  Which is then where we stayed.  It was a pretty big display that had all kinds of neat little things that when you pushed the button it moved.  For example, there was a carnival that when you pushed the button the rides would move. That was pretty neat.  There was one of kids playing tug-of-war and when you pushed the button the kids would move back and forth.  After he watched this a couple of times he says "kids pulling".  I was able to pull him away from Thomas to do the craft and a couple of other things.  One of the most impressive things to me was the tunnel he crawled through.  It was pitch black.  I couldn't believe he went through it.  There was a little dome where you could stick your head up the hole and look around.  He did that too.  Then it was time to leave and of course he did not want to.  We got out with not too much of a scene.  But he kept saying museum, Thomas.

Yee Haw

Driving a delivery truck

Thomas the Train display

Making the rocket

Drew's Rocket

Sticking his head up the hole

Thomas the Train display

We walked over to Centennial Olympic Park and watched the fountain of rings.  They had the water shooting out of the ground set to music.  He wasn't crazy about it but handled it very well.  Then we ate at Googie Burger.  We tried to play on one of the playgrounds in the park but there were masses of kids everywhere!!  We decided to head back to the car and try to find a different playground.  We had to walk past the museum to get to the parking garage...NO BUENO!!  Meltdown city!!  He didn't want to get in the car and wouldn't let me buckle him.  So it was jump time!  I got him out of the car and made him jump in place for 30 seconds.  It was just like the bowling alley parking lot all over again.  Only this time I knew what to do right away.  Thank you, Jesus!  This time we only had to go through that routine 2 or 3 times.  We've also started implementing good choice/bad choice cards.  He really doesn't like losing a smiley face (good choice).  After the meltdown I told Amanda just to take us to our car.  Unfortunately, we still had about 2 hours to kill before Drew had his session at BB.  So we decided to tag along and go to the pet store to pick up Arthur from his grooming.

Ferris Wheel near Olympic Park

Fountain of Rings

Fountain of Rings

Olympic Park

Killing time at the pet store.  He was  watching the cats in the adoption center.

We still had more than an hour after stalling at the pet store so we went to Monkey Joe's.  While we there I had to have the "his brain isn't like yours and mine" conversation with an eight year old boy.  He asked Drew if he wanted to play and I had to explain that Drew didn't really understand the question.  Then he asked why he was wearing the blue thing on his ankle.  And I had to explain that it is so the police can find him if he gets away from me because he likes to run and doesn't understand he can't just go off by himself.  This seemed to be good enough for him.  I was a little leary of letting Drew play with him because I watching him and another boy playing pretty rough earlier.  But they all 3 played for quite a long time.  It ended up that the 8 year old starting kind of protecting Drew from the 5 year old.  That little boy didn't understand that Drew couldn't really rough house so the older boy would get between them or hold the little boy's shirt and tell Drew to run to give him a head start.  I still stayed really close to supervise.  Drew would yell at the boys "Come rescue poor me."  I'm sure it was something he's seen on TV.  We went to his session and came home pooped.

Friday he got a star and got to get in the treasure box at BB.  Then we drove home 3 hours in the rain.  I'm not kidding you it has rained at least 90% of the Fridays we've driven home.  When we got home, my sweet husband had dinner ready and waiting for us.  Before he was left to fend for himself the last 10 weeks, I could count how many times he's cooked in the last 18 years on my fingers and toes.  He hasn't had to because I love to cook.  He made a gluten free pasta dish that was DE-LISH!!  Later that night I wasn't paying much attention to what Drew was doing and I realized he had dug Just Dance 4 for the Wii from the back of the TV stand and was playing.  I figured it was totally left brain since it was screen time but it was the cutest thing ever!  Turns out Jessica said it's really good for him because of the mirror imaging and coordination involved.  She said it would be even better if we could find a slow song (slow music is right brain).  I'm posting the video below.  And I would like to clarify the mess at his feet is from him pulling everything out of the TV stand to get to the game!

Got a star and a trip to the treasure box!

Getting his groove on to One Direction on Just Dance 4

We drove down this morning in the pouring rain...imagine my surprise.  Drew is terrified of the rain.  He's starting to do ok when it's a light rain but when it's pouring like it was this morning he does not do well.  He was crying and said "I want to go home to see my daddy."  I told him I know and asked him why he was crying.  He knows that when you cry when you are sad so that's usually his answer.  I asked him why he was crying and the first time he answered that he was sad.  I asked him again a little later and he said "I'm scared."  I nearly drove off the road.  This is a pretty big deal that 1. he was experiencing fear (not the I don't know what to expect anxious fear) and that 2. he could identify it!  We went to BB for his session and then we met our other friends from Knoxville at the park.  Then me, Abby and Drew went for frozen yogurt and headed back to the apartment.  We had dinner, did BB exercises and called it a day!

This was at the entrance to the park!  Seriously?!  It was all I had not to turn around and run the other direction screaming like a school girl.

Tomorrow, one of my bestest friends from Knoxville is coming to stay and play with us for a couple of days.  We are so excited!!

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Until next time,