Skylanders Kids Wall Art! {Are we creative or just cheap? Does it matter?}

So, I blogged this post over on our photography blog but it really needed to be over here too! Though all kids love toys & they love having cool stuff in their room I'm pretty sure no one understands the level of how cool this is other than a parent of a kid like ours. When we first got Skylanders I was just happy that they cost less than Backagon & BayeBlades! After we got to playing it & it was pretty cool, all three of the boys got into it big time. Sooooo, here is the post from over at the photography blog. Its a cool idea & jayden loved it. All in all it cost $2 a picture to print from walmart & $5 a frame from the Dollar Store.

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I want to start this post off be letting you know that we are massive dorks! I’m not talkin’ your run of the mill asthmatic, no sports playing, bow tie dorks either. At our house we take it to a new level! With that being stated you can guess that our poor boys are hopeless dorks as well. Staying up late on the weekends watching Beetlejuice for the hundredth time or playing endless amount of Wii. For Christmas we got Skylanders Giants, if you don’t know what that is you should probably Google it….right now….I’ll wait…..
This is a fun project we thought would make the kids play room more fun & more personal. They freaked out over it & while we used Skylanders you can really use just about any toy your little one has in the toy box.

 - First things first, we rounded up all of the kids Skylanders toys & the portal attachment for the Wii

– We set them on the portal one at a time & photographed them using a solid color wall as a backdrop.

– You can use photoshop or a free editing program to convert the image to black & white.

-- After that was done we uploaded the photos for a 1-Hour photo printer & headed to the Dollar Store to buy some cheap $5 frames

– We used Wal-Mart to print the photos because they were cheap & only 1 hour but you can use anyone

- After they came back from the printer all we had left to do was frame them & get them hung!

According to FOX my autistic son has super powers! {So why are his shoes on the wrong feet?}

     Before I even start I have to say thanks so much for the over whelming response to my last blog about the changes to the DSM!  E-mails, messages, comments, Facebook 'Likes', & I even got a call from CNN.  Since the story in the New York Times broke the other day Autism/Asperger's has been on the front page of ever news site I've visited.  Is that a good thing or a bad thing?  I'm not sure!  Nancy Grace even got on the air & blasted it as the complete wrong thing to do! 

     On to today!  The video on the left is from our ride home from school.  Jayden speaks very well most of the time but when he starts to get over loaded, like at school, he stutters & stammers alot. It's hard for him to even get two words out of his mouth.  Today I thought to pop out the iphone to get a short example & although today was apparently a very good day at school you can still get a taste of how it is.  This was a good day so you can only imagine how it is on a bad one, it's debilitating on those days.

     TOUCH. Need I say more? I'm not going to go all soap box autism dad on you right now because I didn't watch the first episode tonight but I mean come on, why do autistic kids or autistic people in general have to have super powers!?!  I'm not going to put my "Come On, Really!" stamp on it until I catch an episode myself but if I understand correctly we are looking at a mom who died in 9/11, a dad trying to connect with his non-verbal autistic son who sees the world in a way that allows him to see the future or something to that effect, & let the touching awesomeness ensue! Really? Okay, I'm going to watch it before I talk crap!  This show really isn't to far off my life, granted my wife is alive & well but right before I do anything at all Jayden tells me what I'm about to do. 

I'm cooking mac & cheese, Jayden walks in the kitchen & looks at the mac & cheese then looks at me....."Let me guess...Mac & Cheese for dinner?"



I've got a camera in my hand, my coat on, & the door open about to walk out. Me: Jayden, I'll be back in about an hour" Jayden: "Let me guess.... going to take some pictures?"



Yep! Scary!  I'm sure it's just a matter of time before we are out solving mysteries together! Thanks for reading & don't forget to click on the right of the page to "Follow" this blog!

No Pants Week! {Not near as dirty as it sounds!}

     There is a little known extra holiday hidden between Christmas & New Years Day, a day that sometimes stretches into a week long celebration in our home known as No Pants Day!  It's not nearly as awkward as it sounds I promise, there are pants involved but 99% of the time they are of the sweat variety & the boys are in footed PJs. We do an unnatural amount of grocery shopping the week before Christmas to ensure that there is no reason to leave the house for the whole week. Granted some outings are needed because, well lets just face it we would kill each other due to the small size of our house vs. the 5 people in our family! Never the less any trips out of the house are usually, if any way possible, done in PJs.



New Cowboy Boots & New Scooter!



     One of the funny parts of our holiday was visiting my grandmother's house where Jayden found an old disc while sitting at her computer & was seriously perplexed with what it was! It said 'Games' on it but what the heck was it! Notice the date on the disc. Its times like this that I think of all the things they will never know; VHS, Cassette tapes, Car Phones {not cell phones}, Floppy Discs, Film Cameras that you have to wait to develop. It's crazy!

     Now onto the not so fun parts of our holiday! For Jayden the change in routine from going to school every day to not going at all over break usually throws him into a spin but couple that with the excitement of the holidays & its really more of a nose dive! We have been dealing with a lot of over stimulation problems & with Jayden he doesn't really have many meltdowns but when he gets over stimulated he starts stimming & just going into overload where he shuts down & will at times not ever respond. Check out the video on my YouTube channel if you are interested.

     Last but not least, it was a few days after Christmas but the pizza I ordered from Giordano's in Chicago came in & we cooked it up. Amazing wasn't even the word, there are no words to say how awesome real Chicago deep dish pizza is. It's not the cheapest thing in the world, a large cheese pizza cost about $62 after shipping via FedEx but it was well worth it as a gift! They take your order, half bake it, freeze it overnight, then next day FedEx it to you in a box with dry ice. It tasted just like sitting in the shop in Chicago!      Well, I hope every one had a great holiday & that you have a safe New Year! I know I'm not the only one out there who is staying home but I'm still excited the boys are bound & determined to stay up all night long & pull pranks on who ever falls asleep first! There has been talk amongst the ranks of whip cream in the hand & a feather to the nose! The last time we pulled pranks we put Pop Rocks in Deano's mouth while he was asleep! All to easy to do since their daddy passed down the super attractive woman enticing trait of sleeping with their mouths open!

Starting Thanksgiving School Break Out On A High Note {Even if it's a fake high note!}

     As I talked about in one of my last posts we have been having a lot of problems with Jayen & school! Not doing work, not trying to do work, lies, & even some violent out bursts! Needless to say on this, the last day of school before Thanksgiving Break, I REALLY needed a win! Before he got out of the car today I gave him the "Jayden, I REALLY NEED you to do good today! Make good choices!" talk. Now normally this blog post up til now would be the lead up to a teacher stopping me & saying he didn't do anything but make sounds & spin his finger in class or just sat with blank paper for hours or what ever! Today on the other hand, dad needed a win so when Jayden got in the car & I cautiously asked him "Jayden.....how did school go today?" Both Samantha & I waited & he let out the same "Great!" in the same manner/tone he always does but today I didn't have a choice! I tried to be a good parent & pry it out of him, find out what happened, see what all went on! But..... "Jayden, how did school go today?"   "Great!" ... "Well, that's sounds genuine to me! Let's just take that at face value, shall we!"  Sometimes you just gotta give yourself a day, not every day can be super autism parent day. Sometimes you need a run of the mill, phone it in for the holiday weekend kind of parent day! Hope you all have a great Thanksgiving!

Lunch Time!!!

     Mom headed out to the store so lunch fell on me today & after seeing the difference I thought I would post up a short note on how awesome The Pampered Chef Cut N Seal is! No, I don't sell pampered chef & no they are not giving me money or product to talk about it (but if your reading Pampered Chef execs, I would! :) but I digress. We eat alot of Peanut Butter at our house...a lot! I'm talkin' industrial size, feed a school, massive amounts of goodness peanut butter! Anyway, we got this thing & it has made the difference between my nasty looking dad pb&j & the awesomeness that is the round ones in the box you get at the grocery store that the kids love but end up breaking my wallet! Check it out, best $10 I've spent in a while.



My Before & After!



Blog +Video = Vlog Awesomeness!

     I love You Tube, when I get on it I end up getting sucked into video after video & before I know it I've been sitting here for an hour! Why!?! Why are cat & baby videos so mesmerizing! Either way! I've created my own You Tube Channel & if you are into that kind of thing you should head over & check out a few. More & more will come I'm sure. Don't forget to click "Subscribe"!

Here is a clip from a conversation with about his feelings that is pretty funny. At one point he says "You two are the best parents a boy could ask for!" to that what could we reply except "Jayden, do you want a pony!?! Because if you want one I'll get you one after that!"

 & one more, a visit from a not so great version of Santa last year!?!

  

Oklahoma Earthquakes! {Call Kevin Bacon & Reba, Here Comes The Grab-Oids!}

     We live just outside of Oklahoma City, OK & in the last 3 days we have had 29 earthquakes including the largest in state history at 5.6 magnitude.  Now today we have tornado's & flooding rain so to say the least we have odd weather here, we always have.  80 in the afternoon & snow at night, weather changes like the wind here.  That being said, earthquakes are a new thing for most of us! I've been through my share of tornado's including some very close calls with some very large tornado's but last night when the 5.6 earthquake hit & the pictures fell, the windows rattled, & the stacks of paperwork on our desk fell my wife & I were more than a little freaked out! The photo to the left is one of my local public library that a friend of mine took.

My little town has been on the news nationally because of the damage to the local 100 year old college but MY main problem is this: Why when the news comes (all news but more so when national news comes) to Oklahoma do they always....always pick out the people that are going to best represent our state to the rest of the world! The screen shot attached to this post should explain it all! Thanks for reading!







Earthquakes? Oklahoma?



Adventures in everyday monotony!

     So this last weekend I was the photographer for Oklahoma's Walk Now For Autism Speaks & the family & I all walked as a team as well.  We had a lot of fun! Between the face painting, moon bouncing, snow cones, & free hand outs my boys were having a ball!

     The big news is yesterday we had Jayden's parent teacher meeting...... yeah ...... it was less than awesome! I can't even start to explain how frustrating it is to hear that your 3rd grader tested at a 6th grade level at the end of last year then was given state standardized testing this year that tells us he is below average & at a 2nd grade level yet he gets pulled out of class to go to Gifted & Talented classes because he is so smart! GRRR! I'm sure a lot of you find your self in the same boat, more so if you are playing the public school game like we are! "He is a special kid, not sure what we are going to do to get him taken care of! We are just going to try a bunch of different things & see what happens!" Not that I really blame them because I'm the dad & I can't hardly keep him on task unless I sit next to him & give him a tap "Jayden, lets get this work done!" about 178 of those little taps every 30 min. will do the trick!! We have him handing in papers that are not completed instead of bringing them home, shoving papers in his desk, on top of that....hold on to your hats.....he tells us.....GULP....."My girlfriend broke up with me today." We say "Well, jayden are you okay with that?" his reply is "Yeah I'm just upset that she lied to me...she told me she was a scientist & she's not." REALLY!?! I tried to play it cool but man! Half of me is happy & half of me is mortified. On the flip side of all of that, Samantha called it years ago even before we knew he was autistic. "Man, that kid is strange sometimes but he is gonna be just fine...he's so damn cute!"

     P.S. if you have an iphone & use instagram you should look me up, my user name is wastedfilm. If you don't know what instagram is you should download it, it's free! Kind of like facebook or twitter but its all photos! I'm a bit obsessed. Thanks for reading! 

Summer Days

     On my way home from work this morning I stopped off & got a watermelon. It's been such a rough couple of weeks with Zion being in the hospital for asthma for a couple of days we needed a "home with the family" kind of day. My boys, like I'm sure a lot of yours, are DEAD SET against eating anything that is not frozen, package, & served in a plastic bag. Needless to say the fact that the boys like watermelon & apples is a small glimmer of hope!  If I can talk Samantha into it I'm going to pick up the things to make home made ice cream tomorrow! Not even sure if I remember how to make it but the boys get crazy excited to see how things are made {We are big Modern Marvels & How It's Made fans! Love those shows!} so it should be fun.

     Thank you so much to all of you who sent me messages & posted on my facebook page your thoughts & prayers for Zion while he was in the hospital! It really meant a lot to us!

Respect The Pouch! {Children? Or Evil Geniuses?}



     I love my kids, don't get me wrong, but over the years I have been duped by these little monsters so many times that after this afternoon I'm starting to formulate a hypothesis... Just Children? or EVIL GENIUSES!! Dun Dun Dun!!

   Case In Point:

Mom leaves, as is usually the case when we have what has now come to be called a Dad-astrophe. As I walk through the kitchen after getting everyone fed & full I see a Caprisun Juice Pouch on the floor by the trash can.  Jayden looks at me & says "Daddy! Respect the pouch!" So in true dad fashion I smile & STOMP!!!..... IT WAS FULL!! Strawberry Kiwi all over the place. Did he know it was full?  Did HE put it there & lay in wait for the chump {ME} to stroll by!?! Do I get mad at him? Am I child as well that should act like an adult & then these things wouldn't happen!?!

     Well, on a different note, we made it through Jayden's first week of 3rd grade! So far so good but since school started on Wed. we have really only made it three days but who's counting.  Another year in public school make me want to throw up a little just thinking about it & in our small town in Oklahoma, where last year they told us after we notified them he had Asperger's Syndrome a form of Autism that we would "just need to bring his medicine into the office for that", I am as ready as I think you can be to play the three ring circus that is public school. 
     Today I took the boys to the store so we could pick up a few things.  In the freezer section I could hear Jayden behind me saying "It's Cold, It's Cold, It's Cold, It's Cold" as I looked. When I finally looked over my shoulder at him I pulled out my phone to catch a little of what I saw. This is something I have been trying with my 5 year old, Zion, when he has meltdowns. Zion has GAD & MRELD. Why you ask? Why record these little things? I'm not sure other than maybe showing a friend or you all reading this to get a take on it sometimes. I think that's why alot of parents I've had contact with do it, to show & get input that you kid isn't the only one who does this or has an issue with some things. For the longest time I had no idea other kids would start to randomly twirl their fingers in the air! All of a sudden someone showed me a video of an autistic boy doing it & BAM! "Daddy, I only eat my sandwiches in triangles!" then read a blog or watch a YouTube video & see once again, we aren't the only family dealing with the same thing! Kinda nice sometimes.

Autistic, Aspie, Evil Genius, & So Damn Cute!

What happens when you leave dad home with the kids? {ERs, Magnets, & X-Rays}

     When mom heads out to get her hair done & run some errands that means I'm in charge! Man of the house, mister mom, head which-wayer, & lead idiot of the Hibben Tibe! In the past I may have had... we will call them "Parenting Fails" for lack of a better term. Jayden has Asperger's, let him play video games unmonitored for to long & he will pee on himself instead of stopping to get up to go to the restroom. Zion has anxiety & MRELD, sometimes he does things & we have no idea why! Sock in the oven & turn the oven on, check! Iron plugged in so it catches something on fire, check! (Yeah, all times when mom wasn't home & dad was in charge! Lets just say I've learned hard lessons over the years) Dean, the "Normal One"! if you can call a kid that came from my gene pool "Normal". As you can see from the photo to the left has had his own chapter added to the book of "Parenting Fails By Tom"
     Jayden got some large super magnets from the Oklahoma Science Museum when we went with his class. All three boys have played with them for a few months now with no problem! Well, the other day when mom left we officially had our problem. I could hear Deano throwing one of the magnets up against the door & laughing like crazy when it stuck. I had done the first round of dad parenting, meaning I yelled "Deano, stop throwing that magnet! Your going to break something!!" from the front room. Apparently after tossing it got to easy Deano got the bright idea that he should put it in his mouth & spit it to the door & let it stick. (No I didn't know he was doing it! I'm not that bad!) About that time he came running into the front room holding his throat yelling "I swallowed the magnet! I swallowed the magnet!!" A trip to the ER later we got our $900 bill worth of medical knowledge..."He'll Poop It Out!" Another lesson learned!

Really!? Two Kids With Special Needs!? {Full Contact Special Needs Parenting}

First Day Of School

When we left the doctor's office last week after the 5+ hours of talking, sitting, waiting, & the unbelievable amount of paperwork I didn't feel any closer to knowing what was going on in my 5 year old's head. After leaving Jayden's appointment we pretty much knew what was to come & after three weeks we had it on paper in front of us. With Zion it was very different! With the meltdowns, the selective mutism, the rituals, & all the other ticks that make up this enigma of a kid I just didn't know what to think & to be honest with you it really didn't even seem like the doctor did either!

Once we got back to the office the next week we sat down & waited for...who freakin' knows what! Some areas he was tested in were really low, some average, & how do you test a kid successfully when the poor lady spent the first hour & a half just trying to get him to open up & say one word to her! After she got him to open up a bit he talked with her & she was able to get a good assessment. What we came out with was....drum roll please....Generalized Anxiety Disorder & Mixed Receptive-Expressive Language Disorder. I mean really, what the heck is that anyway! The best I could do was to flip-flop the Receptive-Expressive part so I could abbreviate it MERLD & say Zion had just been MERLD by the doctor! For the most part that's just how I roll! Stressed? Confused? Make fun of the whole situation, that will make it better! :)

Hanging Our In Our Photography Studio!

After reading the 15 page report & reading up on MRELD(the real acronym) I started to understand & see why Zion does some of the things he does. This kid can cut off his arm & be fine but if you don't blow him kisses he is shaking & screaming unable to control himself. From the time he was a baby of about 3 or 4 months old he has had meltdowns at the drop of a hat. Staying up til 5AM trying to calm him from a non-stop screaming fit. As he got older we would be asleep & in would walk Zion wide awake only sleeping an hour or less a night. We are constantly getting more set & strict in our routine & that helps so much for both but if you throw a monkey wrench in that in any way the whole house comes falling down! I'm happy we know whats going on now & while we already have a set of things we do to try & make life chill & workable, we are pretty much changing/re-working the way we do EVERYTHING to try and find a balance between Asperger's - Anxiety - & Parental Sanity! We can now start some speech therapy for him. Has anyone ever done any kind of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy or any kind of behavioral therapy for anxiety. Or ANY suggestions you all might have for kiddos with severe anxiety we would love to hear them!
So, this starts a new chapter in our life! All lumped into Adventures in Aspergers, why? Because a second blog called Adventures In Mixed Receptive-Expressive Language Disorder just doesn't have the same ring to it!