Maiden Kayak Adventures

We spent Memorial Day weekend on the river. We rented kyaks from the ORP on campus and spent Friday, Saturday, and Monday at Benson Marina kyaking. We had never been kyaking before, and didn't know what to expect. But the most intimidating part was visiting the ORP. Friday night, Chod and I went kyaking for our date. Then on Saturday we took the boys with us. And then Monday we took everyone, including Gracie.
 

I liked it a lot, but Bentley LOVES it! He was all over the place, and as always, had no fear of the water.

He went out by himself on Saturday and on Monday, and I can't wait to tell his OT about it. We even talked about buying kayaks (that's how much he liked it), but after doing a little math decided we'll stick to renting them for now.

 

We didn't take cameras out with us because we weren't sure how steady the kayaks would be, but it was fun to paddle around the marsh and see the birds, and have fish jumping around us. Bentley said his favorite was when we went under the bridge that was covered in Swallow nests with birds flying all around. It reminded me of floating the canal next to our house growing up. 

 

 Lincoln had fun as Chod's ship mate. He's still too little to paddle on his own, but did well as skipper. And Gracie....well she did great for the first 20 or so minutes. Just long enough for us to get a good distance from the dock before she decided the sitting still business wasn't for her. I tried a lot of tricks to distract her, but settled on wrapping my legs around her to keep her from wiggling out (since both hands were needed for paddling) and paddled as fast as I could back to the dock. She seemed happy to lose the life jacket and was content to sit in the car and watch Curious George. And Bentley was more than willing to take over my kayak.

 

 

 Pretty sure it will be something we do again.

2013 Soccer

Bentley was so excited to start soccer this spring. What he didn't know was that last year he was one of the oldest on the team, to this year he was one of the youngest. Which means he wasn't nearly as awesome as he remembers being.

He was a good head shorter than most of the players, and he spent most of his time playing defender. So on the way home after his last game he broke into tears because he hadn't scored a goal the whole season and never earned a root-beer float. Chod decided to pay up since defenders don't have many chances of scoring, but Bentley had taken a ball to the stomach and another to the face during the game.

There's always next year.

Selective Hearing

Bentley has had a loose tooth forever. Like it has been loose for the last two 6 month appts. so at least 8 months. It kept getting shorter and he refused to let anyone touch it. So off to the dentist we went.

Dr. Doug said that he just needed to wiggle it, or it would have to be pulled. And if he was going to pull that one, he would pull the one next to it at the same time. He asked if I thought him telling Bentley would get the wiggling started. I answered that honestly I really didn't think it would help, but he could try.

So he took the headphones off Bentley's ears and said, "Bentley you need to wiggle these teeth. I'm giving you 2 weeks to wiggle them out and then I'm pulling them."

Bentley stared blankly, and Dr. Doug said again, "You have 2 weeks to get these teeth out and then I'm pulling them."

Again Bentley stared blankly.

So Dr. Doug wrapped his arm around Bentley's head and got right in his face and told him, for the 3rd time, "In 2 weeks I am pulling these teeth if you don't wiggle them out."

"I heard you the first 2 times!" Bentley shot back.

"There was no indication you had heard me." Dr. Doug replied.

They sent us home with instructions to wiggle, a price sheet of what tooth extractions cost, and an appointment in 2 weeks.

For 12 days we reminded Bentley to wiggle, he said he was with his tongue. We offered him $10 a tooth he would get them out himself. And finally Chod laid him on the couch, handed him his phone and pulled the tooth out himself.

Instagram v.32

1. When my original plan didn't work, I turned to paper and paint at the last minute.
2. These 2 have no idea what they are doing. #puzzles
3. Love Cache Valley
4. Grace turns 1.
5. Our kitchen update on thecraftingchicks.com
6. Busted cup and a short straw. #sonicfail
7. And you thought her hair was crazy before. #trampolinehair
8. Because I can always think of 4,500 other projects to work on instead on doing the 1 that I have to do.
9. At least it doesn't say "I hate you" like the notes he leaves me on the wall?

Gracie's First Birthday

 

Crime Fighter

We checked Bentley out of school early Friday and took a little drive with Chod to Draper so he could deliver samples.

When we got back in the valley we dropped Chod off at the university. The kids and I drove home during "magic hour" when the sun is perfect and the light in the valley is beautiful. We took the upper road home between North Logan and Smithfield and as we looked down into the valley I kept telling the kids how much I loved where we lived.

We stopped by the school so Bentley could ride his bike home. Only his bike wasn't there.

His helmet had been thrown off to the side, but there was no bike.

Seriously, someone had stole his bike!

Suddenly our beautiful little town wasn't so quite so beautiful.

I was mad.

And Bentley was in tears.

We piled back in the car and said a prayer that we could find his bike. When we were leaving I saw two kids riding bikes. "Ah hah!" Our suspects I thought. But the first kid was riding a yellow bike and the second was on a bike with white strips I was pretty sure Bentley's bike didn't have. I told myself to calm down and quit assuming that just because they were on bikes didn't mean they had stolen them.

We came home and I started looking for the bike's serial number so we could call and report it missing. During the search I decided to make up some missing posters and offer a reward to go with it. Chances were someone would feel guilty and we'd get the bike back, if not, maybe $50 would be enough for someone to rat their friend out.

I pulled up a picture of Bentley's bike to put on the flier and low and behold it did have the exact same white stripes on the chain guard.

I confirmed with Bentley that these were the same marks on the bike we saw. And like there was a fire, I had the kids out of the house and back in the car and we raced to the school.

Never mind that I had no idea what I was going to do. The kids were leaving the school, heading south when I saw them. My hope was that the girls on the playground would still be there and know who they were. Or we would scan all yards south of the school. Or something.

I pulled up right at the swings  (drove on the sidewalk) and there were quite a few kids playing. As well as the boy on the yellow bike and a kid popping wheelies on the other bike. I pulled up to the wheelie popper and rolled down the window.

"Is that your bike?"

"Uh..."

"Is that your bike?"

"Ummm."

"It's not, you took it from the front of the school?"

"Yeah."

"Can we have it back?"

He handed it over.

As I was putting it in the back of the Yukon, I said

"Man I'm sure glad I got it back before I called the police."

His eyes got really big and he asked "Why would you call the police?"

"Because you stole this bike."

"No I didn't."

"You took something that wasn't yours, that's stealing."

"I was just borrowing it."

Which was probably true. And me going to call the cops was just as true.

(Let's dwell on how we got the bike back and not how I beat up scared the daylights out of a 2nd grader.)

When we got home Bentley said, "Hey the kid that was on my bike is on my soccer team."

Awkward.
 

Mr. Invincible

Lincoln definitely is his own person, and I've completely given up on making sure he looks presentable when we leave the house. People probably judge, but that's okay. The other day not only were his shorts on backwards, but they were inside out as well.

When you ask him to change/turn around/fix what he is wearing, he replies one of two ways:

"It's just my style."

or

"A kid does what a kid does."

And I don't argue with that.

The other night he came up for Family Home Evening in his pj's with a bubble butt. I asked what he had down his bottoms. He said, "Oh it's just my pull-up."

But something was obviously not right.

Then he whacked himself in the crotch and said, "Wow that didn't even hurt!"

Turns out he was wearing not just 1, but 5 pull-ups. And 5 pull-ups provide enough padding to create an invincible crotch. Just ask Lincoln.

He continued to hit himself and invite Chod or I to take a shot at him. Or kick him. It was our choice.

We declined all offers and tried to ignore him and stifle our laughter as we finished out FHE.

NEVER a dull moment when Linky is around, it's just his style.

Instgram v.31

1. Soccer season begins. Mines the runt in orange.
2. Where did my baby go?
3. And then there were 10.
4. Four sisters = Four Cousins born within 9 months. Truman, Delsie, Tuff, and Gracie
5. Replacing the kitchen faucet resulted in a backhoe in the front yard.
6. So proud this one is mine. #lovehim
7. The old Ford pulled out the tree stump.
8. Take that CPK.
9. Happy Cinco de Mayo

Bentley and SPD

In December, Bentley came home from school and pronounced it as the "WORST DAY EVER!

He couldn't jump rope.

He couldn't play on the monkey bars.

He couldn't pump himself on the swings.

"This worst day ever business" was becoming a regular occurrence and I didn't know what to do. But I did know that life as a first grader shouldn't be so hard. And life seemed really hard for him. The number of "I hate yous" scrawled on the stair wall kept increasing and we knew something wasn't right, but we had no idea what.

Chod was out of town at meetings. So I called Deidra and told her our frustration.

We know that Bentley has hardly any muscle (which could be from never eating protein or iron). So she suggested finding exercises for him to do.

I went back dealing with things here and she continued her search for exercises. The next day she called to tell me she thought he might have Sensory Processing Disorder. Most of the sites she found for exercises were occupational therapy sites, which led her in that direction. She then talked to her OT friend that suggested we read The Out of Sync Child.

Chod and I read it, and it seemed like they were describing our child. Suddenly, his quirks were making sense. SPD has 2 spectrums, the sensory avoider and the sensory seeker. Out of the symptoms we read it seemed like exactly half of them were Bentley.

I talked to his teacher, who gave out a huge sigh of relief and started telling me about the tests she had requested, because she couldn't figure out what was going on either, but that he was passing them all.

We ended up finding an OT on campus and we have been working with him for the last 5 months. There have been lots of tests, in fact we are still testing, and have learned that out of the 7 senses (auditory, olfactory, touch, taste, sight, proprioception, and vestibular) Bentley has some to definite dysfunction in all of them.

Which explains that when he is invited over to a friend house he often asks, "Does your house stink? Cause I don't like going to houses that stink." It also explains why he is selective in his foods (texture), why he hates fire drills (the pushing in and out of the building), why he stands in the back of the line (so he isn't bumped into), why heights and open rise stairs freak him out (gravitational insecurity), why he would spin and spin in circles (he did it to regulate his body), why certain music scares him, and why he is so darn stubborn. Kids with SPD have to adapt and find ways to cope because there isn't a cure. Being in control is one of the ways he can ensure he is safe.


It has been a huge relief to have answers to things that we knew just weren't quite right. Bentley falls in the sensory avoider category, and there are still tests to be taken and answers to find, because as the audiologist said, we're still peeling off layers and discovering lots about this guy.

It's a new road we are traveling down and I feel like we've come a long way. He no longer spins, doesn't chew on his sleeves nearly as often, and he ate an entire hamburger a couple weeks ago-his 1st ever!