June Favorites

What a month...the end of school, the start of summer and so many good photos I could hardly pick my favorites. I managed to narrow them down to my top 10 and here they are:

 

In this one Kyle and I are sitting in the car wash. I can't get enough of my cool dude in the back with his shades.

I got several good pictures of Tyler at the park this month and this is one of my favorites.

 

This is the Triple Berry Braid that I made and entered into the King Arthur/Joy the Baker boot camp on Instagram. I didn't win the contest, but this became my most liked picture on my profile, which isn't saying much, but for a few moments in time it made me feel good.

My little monkey head "hiding" in the bushes.

 

The baby birds in the nest outside the kitchen window. ♥ ♥ ♥

 

Bug eyes!

Coco Bear trying to convince me to give her love and pets rather than run on the treadmill. Meow!

Tyler showing me the funny parts of his Garfield comic book, a process that tends to go on forever since the book is full of funny parts.

The loviest, buggiest cat I know.

 

And finally my basketball superstar. Kyle is pretty good at shooting the ball and it's fun to see the big smile on his face when he sinks a basket.

Summer Reading Program

Yakima Allied Arts closed earlier this year and they are the ones that did the annual art classes in the park and movies in the park, so with those activities gone this summer we've had to look a little harder to find things for the kids to do. We signed Tyler up for swim lessons and both boys are participating in the summer reading program at the library.

 

The reading program has a science theme this summer so the boys wrote their names on little cutout robots that are hanging up in the children's section of the library.

All you have to do is read for 20 minutes a day and then fill out the circles on the reading chart as you go along and then come back to the library to get stickers and prizes.

So far both boys each have 4 stickers on their charts and they also got their first prize which was a cool color changing pencil.

Tyler also signed up for the summer reading program at Inklings bookshop. There he has to read 3 books off their suggested list and 3 other books of his choice and then at the end of summer gets to attend a pizza party. These are the books that I'm reading to him: A Tale Dark and Grimm (not pictured), Better Nate than Ever and Three Times Lucky are our picks off the suggested list. The Mysterious Benedict Society, The Secret Series: Book 1 and The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: Book 4 are our wild card picks. We already finished reading A Tale Dark and Grimm and The Mysterious Benedict Society and we're a good ways through the Secret Series book, so we're making good progress.

Swim Lessons

For the third summer in a row Tyler is taking swimming lessons at the Yakima Athletic Club. He's in a combined level 4 and 5 group and so far they've been working on the breast stroke, back stroke and side stroke. He has class in the evenings twice a week for a total of 8 weeks, so it gives him an activity to look forward for a good portion of the summer.

 

I just wish we had more access to the pool so that he could practice his strokes outside of swim lesson time because I see that he is struggling to make it from one side of the pool to the other. Level 4 is the first level they have you swim the entire length of the pool and Tyler just doesn't have the stamina to last throughout the 30 minute class. At this point I'm not sure we'll continue lessons beyond the end of summer. Right now he knows how to swim well enough to be safe in most situations and for him that might be good enough. Maybe next summer we'll look into a temporary summer membership to the gym so he can enjoy free swim at a less chaotic pool than the public pool at Franklin Park.

Fitness for Kids Marathon

For the last two months Tyler has been running miles at school in mileage club and with me at the high school track on the weekends as part of the Fitness for Kids Marathon, put on by the Hard Core Runners Club of Yakima.

 

He ran the first 25 miles at his own pace, averaging about 3 miles per week.

Last weekend all the kids that were participating met at Sarg Hubbard park and ran the last 1.2 miles together. Here they are at the starting line.

Tyler wasn't able to attach his number to his shirt before the race started, so he ran the entire way with his number in his hand. Thankfully he was able to take it all in stride and not let that affect his race.

He finished the race with a time of 10:50. I'm glad he had fun and did such a great job. Go Tyler!

Father's Day

Yesterday Kyle was really tired and cranky and actually begged to go home when we went to play at the park. It wasn't until late in the afternoon that it occurred to me that he might be sick, so I took his temperature and sure enough, he had a fever of 102 degrees. He had a fitful night of sleep last night and didn't even get up this morning until 11:30. So it was in those early morning hours that any and all plans for Father's Day were scrapped, as we expected to stay home and nurse a sick little boy. As it turns out though, all that sleep did him some good, since he was much better today.

 

The Father's Day photo shoot was a success thanks to some mini M&M's, without which I wouldn't have been able to pull Kyle away from his sand table.

Presents for Dad: a new George Foreman grill (one with removable plates) and some new polo shirts.

And for dinner I made grilled steak with a bean, avocado and tomato salad along with cilantro rice. Delicious!

Last Day of School

Yesterday was Tyler's last day of school. Can I get an Amen? Wow! That was the roughest school year yet. Switching schools for the PAL program only to take him out 2/3 of the way through, temporarily homeschooling, going back to his original school but only for half days, then full days, then back to half days.

 

For the last several weeks his teacher had been giving him a daily score from 1-10 on half days and 1-20 on full days. He had a goal to earn so many points with good behavior by the end of the school year and then he would be rewarded with a Rubik's cube (that his teacher bought with her own money). So on the last day of school he got a score of 16, which took him to his goal score with 3 points to spare and he earned the Rubik's cube.

I took him out for lunch today at McDonald's since that's the tradition.

The boys both got Happy Meals. Chicken nuggets for Kyle and a cheeseburger for Tyler.

And with the most supreme stroke of luck, the toy inside the Happy Meal was Pokémon related. Really!? Tyler could not possibly be more into Pokémon right now. Collecting cards and all that stuff. Too cool.

School just finished, but I'm already looking forward to next year. I'm really hopeful that Tyler has a better year. He received his diagnosis and will absolutely qualify for more assistance now. Rick and I already sat down with the staff at school and signed off on an IEP (Individualized Education Program) for next year. In addition the school will be receiving assistance from an autism consultant who works specifically on behavioral planning and strategies. Tyler has a large group in his corner, so I'm really optimistic about a better school year starting in August. Go Team Tyler!