Where is My Plate?

I found this old puzzle at our local thrift store this last weekend.  I bought it because every time I looked at it, the song "Set the Table" from the first series of Signing Time came to mind.  Since I am close to becoming and Advanced Signing Time instructor, and I will soon be able to teach older kids as well as babies, I figured it might be a good investment.

A couple hours after taking this picture, I saw that the puzzle was upside down on the floor with the pieces strewn about the dining room floor.   Ben had gotten into it, which is fine, except the plate was nowhere to be found.  I looked everywhere, and I mean everywhere.....the dining room, living room, under sofas and chairs, in toy boxes, even the trash, but it was gone.

As a last resort I looked to  Ben, showed him the puzzle  and asked, "where is the plate?"  Normally he would say "Ummm", and tap his chin like he was thinking, which is cute, but not very helpful.

Not this time

To my complete suprise he said"Oh? Plate? Yeah. C'mere." and took me by the hand.  He led me to the laundry room (a place he is really not supposed to be).  He pulled the front cover off the toe kick of the freezer (something I did not really realize came off so easily) and started feeling around.  I was speechless when he pulled his hand out and handed me the plate.  What the $%^& ?  Had I just discovered his secret stash?  As it turned I had not, since there was nothing more than some dust bunnies under there.   Not sure what possed him to put the plate there or when the little sneak did it without being heard or seen, or how he even knew the cover just popped of like that.

But thinking back on it,  this incident just remineded me of how much information he is able to take in, process and remember. When I held up the puzzle with all the pieces in place execpt for the plate he knew exactly what I wanted, remembered where he put it a couple hours earlier and was able to communicate with me that he could find it and took me to it.

Now if he can just lead me to where he hides all his tippy cups we will be all set.

Career Aspirations?

Ben loves to go to his brother's basketball games.  He cries when he sees them leave the house wearing a uniform if he is not going too.  This year at games he is starting to pay more attention to watching the games and the referees. 

He loves sign language and becuase of this he is naturally drawn to the signs the referees make.  He loves to imitate and now if there is room, he runs up and down the bleachers with the referees.  In addition to the real games he attends, Ben has a very busy schedule refing imaginary games every day of the week.  It does not matter if he is in all the hallway, on a sidewalk or in a gym, any wide open space means there is a game to ref.  I love how he uses his imagination like this.  Please enjoy this clip of him in action.  Sorry that my autofocus could not always keep up with him. 

The Blessings of 2012

As I look back at 2012, I feel the many ways our family was blessed.  Hopefully each of can look back and find some blessings as well.  Here are a few of ours:
            1. All 5 of us made it through the year with out any major illnesses or hospital visits.  (OK    technically we made one ER visit, but the issue resolved itself before we were actually admitted, so it should not really count)
            2.  Ben is mostly potty trained.  He spends his days in underwear, with very few accidents.  Nights are still a challenge, but I am hoping by next year he will have made significant progress.
            3.  This was the first year that I was a stay at home mom for the entire year.  While I did not get as much accomplished on the home front, I did accomplish a few things that I am proud of, like: rebuilding the DSAF of NE website, being a co-chair and the web chair for the Step Up for Down Syndrome Walk, continuing to volunteer as the communication director of the DSAF of NE, getting a head start on my new business ABC Signing Kids, building a website for ABC Signing Kids, signed up to be a substitute aid at school, taught knitting in 4-h and kept the blog up.  
            4.  All three boys are doing well in school.  John has been on the honor roll every semester except one.  (he missed it by .01% )   Noah is keeping his grades up even though he has a very demanding schedule of his own practices and games, and also attending his brothers events.  His grades dipped for a short while, but he knew what he had to do, and worked hard to bring them back up.  Ben loves school and is doing awesome.   While he still has challenges with speech and fine motor skills (writing), he is doing great in reading and was tested as reading at a 1st grade level.  We are extra blessed to have a great team at school which is really helping him to excel. 
             5.  All three boys enjoy sports.  We are blessed that both John and Noah are athletic and get to play a lot in their favorite sports.   I also think they are fortunate to be able to experience both winning and losing, so they can learn good sportsmanship.   Ben participated in Special Olympics Young Athletes and was much better at following directions.  He is also learning lots from attending his older brothers games and likes to pretend he is a referee or umpire at the games.
            6.  I had lots of time to take photos and 2 pictures of Ben were included in the new addition of Early Communication Skills for Children with Down Syndrome.  A photo of Ben was also chosen to be displayed in the National Buddy Walk video and was shown on one of the big screens in the heart of Time Square. 
            7.  Due to the photo being selected for the video, we were lucky to have Cindy Lange-Kubick from the Lincoln Journal Star come out to our house and do a lovely article about the blessing Ben is to our family.
             8.We have an awesome support system of family and friends who are there for us when we need them.  They helped us to have an awesome turnout for Ben's Brigade at the Step Up for Down Syndrome walk and help us to raise over $2000.  We also had great support  at at our first ever fundraising event for Ben's Brigade where we had a few items for sale at the Murdock 4th of July parade.  It was so much fun, we might even do it again next year.
            9. We were fortunate, that even though we are new a one income family, we still were able to support our church and many of our favorite charities. 
            10.  Finally, we are fortunate that we have each other.  Our family is not perfect.  We do not always get along (John and Noah).  But underneath it all is love, and because of that, we are blessed.

Here is hoping that you too can look back at 2012 and see many blessings,

 and hope each of you find many new blessings in 2013!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

The day after Noah and I put up the ouside Christmas lights, Ben was sitting on the potty.  He look up at the window and with wonder and amazement in his voice he said "WOW!" as he pointed at the Christmas lights.  He said it again when he saw the Christmas tree light up, and again when he saw Grandma's Christmas lights.  

Wishing you and your families a Holiday Season is filled with lots of "WOW!" too.

A Hard Lesson to Learn

Our oldest son leaned a very important lesson this week.  While shopping at Target, he was pushing Ben in the cart and they were playing.  John playfully said "Shut your face" and Ben happily repeated it.  So they were walking down the isle saying to each other.  We told John to stop immediately as that is not something appropriate for 4 year olds (or 13 year olds) to say, but he simply walked ahead of us and kept talking quietly to Ben. 

Once in the car Ben repeated it a couple time.  Randy and I gave John the I told you so speech, that you can not say things in front of Ben that are not appropriate, because he will repeat them and this is what happens.  We told him that for every time Ben repeated it, John would lose a day on his PS3. 

I think Ben understood exactly what I said, because just then he started to repeat it over, and over, and over and over again.  Around 200 times of repeating it, John started to get mad at him.  It was time for another I told you so moment. But after a bit it just started getting funny. Ben was saying it with the exact same inflection that John had used.   It was all I could do not to laugh every time he said it.  Luckily I was in the seat directly in front of Ben in the car, so he could not see me smiling, but John could see me and was getting very upset. 

Part of me is very proud of Ben as he is making great improvements in speech.  Reading is helping and so is his willingness to repeat what we say.  He will repeat just about everything and he was making a great f sound when he said face.  

Unfortunately we were an hour away from home and it was going to be a long drive.  About half way home we switched it to an hour of PS3 time lost for each occurrence.  I never thought it would get that far when I first laid out the punishment.  However now that he has lost it for over 600 hours, it will still be a long time before John gets to play his new game. 

We finally talked the boys into "teaching" Ben a more appropriate phrase, so every time he started to say "Shut your face" , they would both shout "knee"  I am not sure why they chose that, but it finally worked. 
Maybe next time John will listen when we tell him to not say inappropriate things to his little brother......but I doubt it.

And The Winner Is.......

The winner of the the Signing Time Story Time DVD is ...Julie Anderson!  Julie was the first person to sign up at the craft fair and also got another entry for liking the ABC Signing Kids facebook page.  Not sure which one won it for her, but it never hurts to have your name in more than once.  Congratulations Julie!