The Great Cricket Caper

Caleb spends a lot of time at his aunt Mimi's house He loves spending time with his cousins but sometimes they can get a little tired of entertaining him.   While at Mimi's house, Caleb begs his cousins to go outside with him while he catches crickets for his little bug catcher. Well, the past couple of weeks the heat index has been above 100 degrees here and it is HOT outside.  However, this doesn't  bother Caleb in the least, but his cousins agree it is hot and they try to get him to come inside as much as possible.

The other day I went to pick him up from Mimi's house but he also wanted his cousin, Kristen, to come home and spend the night at his house so they could catch more bugs....um, yeah, that was very enticing to Kristen!!!    So when Caleb asked Mimi if Kristen could come over for the night she said "no not tonight" and then he asked me - of course I agreed  - not tonight.   But that wasn't enough for Caleb....he proceeded to tell Kristen that if she really wanted to come over she could SNEAK into the back of my Explorer to go home with us.   Being the honest person she is Kristen told me of his plan and her own plan which went something like this:


Me: (getting into the driver's seat) "Oh wow, Caleb you are already buckled up and ready to go"

Caleb:  "yep, I have been waiting for you"   as he smiles very big.

Me: (put the truck in reverse and backs out of the drive)....."umm, something is wrong with  my truck....it feels heavier than it normally does...."

Caleb: "no, it doesn't.  just go home"

Me:  "No, something is definitely wrong here.....my truck is heavier that it should be"

Caleb:   (with his worried look)  "no mom, I caught a lot more crickets  - they are in the back - that is why your truck is heavy, just go home"

Me:   "I don't think that is it, maybe I need to look back there to see why it is heavy."

As I climb out of my truck to look in the back Caleb puts his head in the palms of his hands with the defeated look of  oh, crap now I am busted and then says to Sarah "I don't want her to look back there!!!!"     Because at this point he realizes that I am going to find Kristen in the back of my truck (which I do and then go on to play Kristen's game of getting caught in the act).  Kristen meekly looks at Caleb, shrugs her shoulders and says, " Caleb, I am sorry I guess I can't go home with you" as she stifles her huge smile of relief that she doesn't have to go home with him and help him catch crickets for his bug catcher. As Kristen was going inside of the house I asked her if she was worried that I wasn't going to stop (since I did drive out of the drive way and down the road just a little) and she kind of smiled sheepishly and said, yeah I thought maybe you were going to make be walk a ways back up the road.....of course I would never do that to her.....afterall, this was her little plan of getting out of having to catch crickets with Caleb!!!

For now the doctor is out......releasing those poor crickets back into the grass so they can RUN, RUN, RUN,  far away from Caleb!!!!

Summer Reading

One of my favorite hobbies is reading. I LOVE to read!!! I remember being the dork in high school literature/English class who couldn't wait to get the semester reading list. All around me were friends groaning and moaning about having to read this book or that book. Usually those friends would chose the book with the least number of pages (and read several) for thier assignments - not me - I wanted to read what I wanted to read whether it was 100 pages or 1000 pages. I read Gone with the Wind during the summer between 7th and 8th grade - fell in love with Scarlett and Rhett. Then I moved on to the Bronte sisters (Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights), Alexandre Dumas (The Count of Monte Crisco) and other authors/books that I wish I could re-read again and again. But I keep finding new books that NEED my time. When I was in college I would keep lists of books on my refrigerator throughout the semesters that I wanted to read when I had MY time back again and could pick up any book in the world other than a text book. The list grew and grew. I have conquered quite a few books from that long ago list and am working through the 300+ books on my current list here. I also keep a running list on the side of my blog of what I have read, plan to read and am currently reading.....yes, dork queen, I know!!

I like to read good literature books but sometimes I just need to read the no brainer, no thinking books. Put a book in my hand and I usually don't come up for air until I am at least half way through it or finished with it. It is sad that I can't control that strange habit ummm, or is it?

Because I love books so much and want to spend any amount of time reading I decided long ago that I had to teach my own children that same love of books/reading - I succeeded with my daughter, Sarah, who now has her own small library with almost 1,000 books of her own. After all, I did pay her to read classics while we were on road trips (beginning at the age of 10 and is another blog of itself). I am currently working on Caleb's love of reading....which is proving to be a little harder!!!  Caleb loves books - as long as they are about spiders, bugs, fish, frogs, snakes, etc.   He loves going to the library and checking out books - but only books on the above topics.  He will fill his bag with at least 10 to 12 books each time but when I try to steer him towards books that I want him to read problems arise.  Which brings me to the actual reason behind this post.

This is what I am reading this summer:

I am learning how to deal with a child who has sensory processing disorder.  I didn't even know this was a disorder until my pediatrician pointed it out to me at our last visit ("I think Caleb has sensory processing disorder so I am going to write a script/referral for therapy").  With Caleb I am expanding my mind once again.  Learning new things about how to deal with obsessive compulsive disorders and now sensory processing disorders. 

I love my little guy. 
He is absolutely darling -
when he isn't having meltdowns.
He loves to color coordinate our dinner plates in the cupboard.  He wants the red plates on top (so he can easily get them for his meals) then comes the orange, yellows, and greens --
 isn't that sweet of him????

He also doesn't like a change in schedule -
if it is a stay home day (as he calls it) then
I absolutely can't change things up and run errands
(meltdowns pursue).

He also loves to create patterns:
"Mom, how about this (as he is trying to get out of brushing his teeth) I brush my teeth tomorrow,
then I don't brush them the next day, then I brush them, isn't that a great pattern?"

Another thing my sweet guy doesn't like is water in the face. 
Yes, that creates problems with bathing and especially now while we are working
on swimming lessons. 

So until next time, the doctor is out......learning how to be a parent of a child with SPD.....