Visit to the Waterfall

Saturdays adventure with Nani:

Feeding the Chipmunks

After picking Iann up from school - where he only cried for a few minutes today - we drove up the Lands End, on the Grand Mesa. We've lived here for almost 7 years and never been up to the Grand Mesa, the largest continuous mesa in the US.  A guy Jon works with told him about a fun thing to do up on the mesa, so we headed up there today.

Here are the highlights:

Brynn, Iann, Jon's mum Nani and I at the top

The view from the top - beautiful even with the cloud cover

The highlight of the day was feeding the chipmunks:

 

 Brynn describes the feel of the chipmunks feet as ticklish. I think he could have stayed on top of the world, feeding these guys for hours:

Another step forward

When we decided not to try potty training Iann this summer, I wanted to do something that would help him become more of a 'big boy' so we decided to move him out of his crib. However, as any of you who have read my previous posts know, Iann isn't the greatest sleeper. Remember me writing about how it can take him over an hour to go to sleep, and then if he woke up at night, he would be up for 2-3 hours. So, while we wanted to move him into a 'big boy' bed we weren't sure how to keep him in it!

Enter the Nikel Bed, made by a family who have a son with autism who wouldn't stay in bed either. A good friend in CA bought one for her son to use, and gave me their web address. My parents bought him one for an early birthday present in June ... and it just arrived today!!!

Brynn has been just as excited as me, checking the front porch to see if if had arrived nearly every day. However, he really wasnt' impressed when it arrived! Basically it is a tent that you put a twin mattress into, which zips up to keep the child contained. I guess Brynn thought Iann was getting a whole new bed :)

So, here are some pictures of rearranging the boys room: getting the mattress into the Nikel Bed, taking down the crib (sob sob) and Iann's transition into a new bed.

Remember how he HATES transitions? All my angst about how he isn't taking to preschool very well? And now another transition ...

How are we supposed to get the mattress in there mama??

 Iann playing in his new bed ... so far, so good ...

Taking the crib down -  I was more emotional than I expected

 

The room all set up - we moved the bunk beds over the where the crib used to be, to make the transition easier for Iann

 

Brynn reading on the top bunk

Iann ASLEEP on the bottom bunk

Jon said that Iann didn't fuss at all when he put him in the tent/bed!!!! I unzipped the flap to take this picture, and he didn't move :) The blue/gray thing in front of the bed in a railing to keep him in bed since we aren't sure that the tent will hold his weight if he starts to fall off the bed! 

Here he is with the flap zipped up:

Finally, here are both boys in their bed:

While this is a bit of an emotional day, Iann growing up etc., I am so excited to finally have both boys sharing the bunk beds that we bought a few weeks just before we brought Iann home. And, sooo excited that this transition went so smoothly :)

Things are looking up

Iann had preschool again today, after a long, 3 day weekend. Last week he did poorly on Monday, better on Tuesday, bad again on Thurs and then had the best day yet on Friday. I was expecting today to be super rough since that's how it the trend went last week.

There were some hopeful signs though. We went back to our regular church this weekend, and although he cried hysterically when I left him, I was told that he calmed down within 5-10 mins. He kept starting to whimper, then look to see who was watching him. When he realised no one was interested in his crying, he gave up and started playing :)  Jon and I had talked about what to do if he didn't settle, I was going to go be in the nursery with him, so it was good to be able to stay in for the whole service. The week before, after only 1 day of preschool, he didn't settle in the nursery at all, and I had to sit with him in there.

The other hopeful sign was that he didn't immediately start crying when we got in the car today. See on Saturday morning he cried the whole way to brunch at our friends' house, stopping only when he recognized their house. And again on Sunday, he started crying when I said it was time to get in the car. We were headed for church that time. Yesterday he didn't get quite so upset but he certainly wasn't happy when we went out to buy some shrubs at The Home Depot. This morning, he was excited to get into the car ... until we pulled into the school parking lot. By the time his aide met us at the car he was pretty hysterical :(

He wouldn't let go of my hand as we walked into the classroom, and I could hear him crying loudly when his aide took him to wash his hands (first thing he does when he gets to school). He refused to sit in a chair, plunking down on the floor to cry and show us how angry he was! I handed him his sippy cup (aka his 'transition object') told him that I loved him and that I'd be back soon, then walked out the door. Sigh. I hate that part.

When I walked up the ramp to his classroom door to pick him up, I couldn't hear him crying. Usually he starts crying again at pickup, when he sees any other children leave before I get there, and so I immediately thought that they had taken him to a different trailer, so as not to disturb his classmates. But no, I walked into the room and he was sitting on the rug, smiling and laughing!!!! He got up and ran to me, after his teacher dismissed him and his aide let him go, jumping and smiling. He only cried for 20 mins today!!!! Wooo-hooo! He even took part in all the class activities and brought home his first 'craft.'

So, even though there is no school on Wednesdays, so there's a day off before he goes again, I would say things are certainly looking up.