First Full Week of Vacation

I'm still very happy to have Samuel at home after a week of him being out of school, but I will admit that I'm quite exhausted and a bit frustrated. Samuel's mission the past couple days has been to spend as much time as possible on something electronic. He has a choice between Playstation and two different computers. Samuel's two brothers are doing the same thing. It's not so bad on weekdays. It is easier to ration out time on the computers and Playstation because there is a bit more structure to our days. Now I need to get a routine for the weekend going. I also need to figure out how to make our computers accessible only by password.



My parents visited earlier this week. They live about a 3 hour drive from here so we only see them a few times each year. We all had a nice time together and Samuel seemed to enjoy their visit as well. He became agitated one time when we tried playing a game with him. He scattered the game pieces. I know that it is going against most of our natures to take a situation like that and deal with it only by speaking to the perpetrator in a monotone voice. Samuel's helper was here when it happened. She removed him from the room for a break. We finished the game without Samuel and then put it away. As soon as she returned with him I realized "Uh oh, he needs to 'finish' his game!" We quickly pulled the game out again and played another with no further incident. We put several things on his schedule for him to interact with my parents.. things like playing a game and having a conversation. All of these things went by very quickly, but he followed his schedule quite well! Best of all, Samuel didn't try hitting them! We had a problem with that a few visits ago.



I'll be busy in the coming week getting ready for our vacation up to Maine. It will be good to get out of town for a few days!


I don't think I've mentioned Samuel's current favorites in a while. Samuel is still very intrigued by retail locations that have gone out of business. In addition to the restaurant he likes to ask about he now asks about a motorcycle shop that closed. It is next to the place we get doughnuts after church on Sunday. On the days that just he and I go we take a walk over to the closed motorcycle shop and read the sign posted:"___________ will close effective ___________ 16, 2006. We are sorry for any inconvenience..." Samuel also likes Noggin, the TV station with kid's shows between 6am and 6pm. Samuel likes to ask me when the kids shows start and when they end. He, of course, knows all of this but for some reason likes to have me repeat the info. He also likes Nick Jr. He looks the schedule up on the computer and will tell me when the shows he likes are on. So far he cannot change channels on the TV, but that day will come soon.

Tonight when we were all playing outside I asked him what he was playing. He told me that he was planning to open a restaurant, a "Crusty Crab" (from Sponge Bob Square Pants) in an empty house that is behind a house we used to live in. When it came time to try to engage Samuel in play outside, rather than force him to play catch, the other boys and I joined his game and held a "board meeting" at our picnic table to discuss the opening of the new restaurant. Samuel thought this was great fun and played right along with it. The only trouble came from his 5 year old brother who did not want to wait his turn to talk!