Essary 4.0: Rays of Sunshine

Just wanted to say that we’ve had the best weekend we’ve had in a long time and I’m so thankful. It’s always a blessing to be able to go out and have fun, and it’s something I don’t take lightly because it isn’t easy for us to just pick up and go usually.

Friday evening we did a Relay For Life event at a local elementary school. They served dinner and had people dressed up as various Disney characters for the kids to have their pictures made with. Selah is very into Disney princesses and such, so she ate it up. Korban did well but wouldn't really have his picture made with the characters. He did tell Woody hello, and was very smitten with Belle from Beauty and the Beast. "She's so pretty!" he blurted out. (She was! She could sing too, and the kids loved that.)

Yesterday was the Grove Bowl in Oxford, which is Ole Miss’s spring practice game. It’s a great game for us to go to, because there’s no pressure—we know we’re going to win. Ha! Seriously, there are no irate fans and people screaming out inappropriate things and the crowd isn’t as big. Also, it was free and that’s always a plus! We’ve taken Korban to it every year as far as I can remember since he was a year old. And Selah’s first game ever was a Grove Bowl. Korban loves sports, and as I’ve mentioned before he is generally very content to sit and watch a game being played.

As an extra bonus, yesterday Korban and Selah’s sweet cousin Abbie celebrated her birthday at the Grove on the Ole Miss campus and we got to spend some time with family that we haven’t gotten to see much of lately.

Korban was very anxious to get to Oxford. Matter of fact, on the day down there Selah said “I gotta go pee-pee,” and Korban said “No! No pee-pee. Go to Ole Miss!” Man, he’s strict. We were able to convince him that we had plenty of time to stop for a potty break though. He was ready to get right back on the road, and he always knows when we get to Oxford. This is so funny to me, because I’m not good with driving directions at all and I think he recognizes landmarks better than I do.

When we got to the stadium, Korban and Brad sat down with their game faces on, waiting for the game to start. They had music playing over the loudspeakers, and Selah danced her little heart out. She cracks me up. That girl can move! When the game was about to start and the music stopped, Selah turned to me and said “Is it time to go home now?” Ha!

It was pretty loud in the stadium but overall Korban handled it well. He won’t wear headphones to muffle noise because he doesn’t like for stuff to touch his face. He covers his own ears, or holds my hands over his ears. But he got accustomed to the sound after we had been there for a while, and we didn’t have to hold his ears anymore. He loves pom-poms, or as he calls them, “streamers.” He actually loves to pull them apart and play with the pieces, much like he does Easter grass. It’s a big sensory thing for him. After having an issue with shredded streamers pieces throughout our house on Friday and Korban obsessing over them, I told him that pom-poms were only for cheering. He was very careful to take a pom-pom to the game with him Saturday, and he did use it for cheering and for pulling the pieces through his hands to calm himself, but he waited until after the game to shred it.

We had a nice ride back—the kids were tired! The kids had done so well during the day we decided to go see a movie since we got home in time. We love going to the old drive-in movie theatre in Iuka. Just a tidbit of info here-- I have to say I think drive-ins are very sensory friendly for kids like my Korban. We park our van with the back end of it facing the movie screen and sit in the back with the tailgate open so we can see. This gives the kids freedom to move around a little when the wiggles hit. Also, since the sound comes through the vehicle’s radio, we can control the volume. We can also pack our own snacks and drinks and distribute them as we want. And since everyone is in their own vehicle, there’s not nearly as much worry about disturbing other movie-goers. Incidentally, Korban usually does very well in a traditional movie theater too, and for a long time he was easier to take to a theater than Selah. As long as he has popcorn, he’s good to go for the most part. I “movie-trained” Selah a couple of summers ago while Korban was in his extended school year program. The Malco in Corinth plays children’s movies a couple of days a week during the summer and admission is only $2.00. I would take her and leave early when she got restless, increasing our time a little each week. That way we could build up slowly and I didn’t have to worry about wasting a ton of money or making Korban leave a movie early because of his little sis. Sorry for chasing that rabbit, but people ask sometimes how we get our kids to sit through movies and that’s pretty much how. Build up slowly, pick sensory friendly theaters as much as possible, and stuff with popcorn. :)

We saw The Croods last night, and we loved it! Before we went to the movie, we decided to run by Wal-Mart so I could pick up some bug spray. Needless to say, with Korban’s skin picking, mosquito bites are not something we need. As we were heading on to the theater, Korban was excited and was getting pretty wild. Brad asked him to say a prayer to help him calm down. He prayed “Dear God, bless us and keep us safe and healthy. Help us have good week. Bless mosquitos. Help them not bite us. Or crabs. Or jellyfishes. Or sharks. Or whales. Bless dogs. Amen.” At this point I turned to Brad, trying not to completely crack up and said “What kind of movie does he think we are going to if he needs to pray for protection for all the ocean creatures?” So funny. He’s getting more verbal all the time, and I just love it. We never know what he’s going to say. As we were leaving the stadium yesterday, I tripped over Korban and he looked at me very seriously and said “Do not kill me dead.” We laughed so hard. I didn’t know he even knew those words, but he obviously knows Mom is clumsy and dangerous. And also, on the way back we stopped at a service station and they had some headless mannequins displaying shirts. Korban looked at them wide-eyed and said “They broke their necks! Are they sad?” It was funny and cute that he was worried about them. I don’t even really notice stuff like that, but he doesn’t miss anything.

I know we’ve had a lot going on lately, so I wanted to post something positive about this weekend. Korban’s behavior was good yesterday, and I didn’t get hit a single time. So thankful! Not sure if it was just because we did stuff he had been really looking forward to doing, or because the h. pylori meds are helping him to feel better or what, but I’m hopeful we are starting an upward cycle. Anytime we have a successful family outing or even just a peaceful weekend at home, I’m grateful and I don’t take any of it for granted!