The Good Choice Chain

I took D back to the ENT today, as he STILL has that nasty smelling nose. The ENT said its still crusty where his adenoids were, so thats taking its time healing. Where his tonsils were looks really good he said. He also said that D's adenoids were HUGE when he took them out, so it could be taking longer to heal. We're supposed to give it another few weeks to heal and I am NOT supposed to flush his nose out...OOPS! lol Oh well...

Now that you got the update, I have to share my idea. It worked great! This ENT's office is SO hard on D. Its very quiet in there, which drives him NUTS, understandably. The last two times we went, were rough. The last time we went there, I had to drag him out of the office into the hallway screaming TWICE for a talk and calm down time, he just could not hold it together. (This also included bringing small toys for him and a coloring book. They didn't last long). So this time, I tried to prepare more behaviorally. Before we went in, I gave D an old lanyard that I had in my purse (a keychain), and added 3 old grocery store cards that you put on keychains. I told him these were HIS cards, and this was his Good Choice Chain. With each infraction, he'd get a card taken off it. If he lost all 3, he lost the chain AND his sucker at the end of the visit, unless he earned it back. Two other rules for it: if he fought me, when it was time to take one off, he automatically lost all 3, and if he took off the lanyard, he lost all three (in hopes, he wouldn't take it off and throw it if he lost one...lol).

It worked well for the first time using it! He did end up losing all 3 (the wait was quite long in the waiting room), and started crying. I gave him a chance to earn them back by not talking at all and sitting completely still until they called his name (which I had a feeling was coming soon as we were the only ones left in the waiting room), so I knew it'd be an easy victory for him. He did great, earned em back, and was so proud of himself the rest of the time that I had no problems from him. So...YAY! A success. And yes, he got the sucker on the way out the door...lol

As soon as we got to the car, I got it back from him and told him it was just for visits like that (we do tend to have a lot of doc visits, between regular doc, ENT, neurologist, etc) so I now have something special to pull out for when I really need him to make happy choices.

D and his "guns"

D was showing me his "guns" this morning and I just had to snap a pic of it. He's quite proud of them...lol

The Wink

So D has developed a new flirting technique...sheesh. Like the kiddo NEEDS any more flirt in him. Anyway I couldn't resist gettin some kind of pic. Ignore the dirty face please...lol we had just gotten home. What girl could resist this??? Yikes, I'm in trouble when he becomes a teenager!

Phase One of my backyard revamp begins...

Here is our backyard. Awful, huh? Well keep an eye out here...its about to get better. I'm starting a minor revamp project to get it looking like a kid's backyard. This is gonna take some work!!! If you have any ideas, please feel free to comment!

The view from our back gate (the carport is on the other side of the fence on the left, the backdoor of our house is on the right)

The back gate (which is where I was standing to take the above pic), this pic was taken from the back door...this area always floods when it rains hard which makes it quite annoying to leave the house!!!

Another view from the backdoor, just to the right of the above pic

A closer look (I had just dumped out the nasty rain water that had collected in the swimming pool, its drying out right now and I want to rig it so I can hang it on the fence), you can kinda see it but its mainly rock dirt

Another view from the back door

A view of the back door on left and backgate on right (you can see the gap from backdoor to backgate, and I wish I could figure a way to put a cover over that so we don't get rained on going to the carport (which is outside the backgate) Most of the area on the right floods during hard rain, any ideas for that?

First bluebonnet pics of the year!

Yesterday on the way to dinner, I passed the field where we did bluebonnet pics last year, and I saw some blue scattered over it. Bluebonnets are here!!! This was my first sighting of them this year and I was so excited. They aren't super thick yet but are most definitely there. So today I made sure I had D's spring-ish shirt with us and we went by there on the way home. He also got a fresh haircut yesterday, so was looking quite dapper. We will probably go back in a few weeks once they thicken up and get some better shots, but I had to share these. OH and please ignore the ashy knees...lol I'd just picked him up from school, I'll make sure to bring lotion next time!

A day at the zoo!

Today we joined up with another DAM mommy, Tracey, and her little boy, Z, and headed to the zoo! We walked there for 3 hours but it was a perfect day for it. It was kinda cloudy, sunny towards the end, and a bit brisk but just right. The boys had such a fun time!!

Checking out the penguins

Then we hit up the gorillas, and got super lucky!!! The 3 females were in the viewing area, and were quite active! I wish I'd been able to get a picture of one of them running to hit the glass and startle people. It was pretty interesting to see. Usually the trainer goes in there with them at the same time we were there, but since one of the females had been trying to take the lead of the group lately, there had been lots more aggression, so the trainers joined us in the viewing area instead to answer questions.

Monkeybutt...lol

This is the 18year old female trying to take the lead from the 57 year old female...not happening, kiddo...

D riding the crocodile

A wizened old chimpanzee

The boys checking out the flamingoes

Huge paws! We did get to see the tiger some, but it was too difficult to get a picture...

The boys charging up the steep hill

Silly roo...

A huge tank of huge fish...

Mary had a little...well...you know...

Ride em cowboy...

My sweet handsome boy and the tiger he got today as a treat for being such an awesome kid

A morning at the Children's Museum

This morning, Teresa and I took the boys to the children's museum. We didn't stay with Teresa long as D was off and running, I just tried to keep up with him...LOL He had a great time though!!

Checking out the firetruck

Lil Digger

J's STRONG!

Big hand, lil hand...yes, that was my hand that did the print on the left...

I knew he'd find a computer...

Wanna ride the tractor, J?

Ride em cowboy!

Gathering eggs...

D and J rolling the balls around

My sweet boy posing

I knew he'd find the water table...

And something musical...

And of course, there's dress up!!! D loved the elephant costume!

Back to the fireman display...on a backboard...

My big digger

Becoming a spider!

I couldn't resist having him pose for this...

Back to being a fireman...but this time...gots to get the uniform on!

D and J playing fireman

Park fun with D

I took D to the park today to get out the house. It was pretty windy, and he was tired and needing a nap so we didn't stay TOO long, maybe about an hour, but had a good time. He wasn't wearing the right shoes (it has wood chips there), so that didn't help. We walked down to the "lake" and saw all the ducks. D said "I don't like bird poop" (it was all over the area near the pier").