The Shirt of Awesomeness

Also known as the 100th Day shirt.

Christopher had an assignment for today. It was to create a shirt and cover it with 100 things for their 100th Day of school. Who knew this was a thing we celebrated? I had no idea. Then again, I went to kindergarten in a day care center run by a hospital. I guess it's a big deal if you've recently discovered how to count to 100.

We procrastinated, and though I had an idea, we didn't get around to shopping for supplies until last night. And we let Chris lead.

I thought we'd get safety pins and pin 100 things to a size small yellow shirt, I had leftover from making Disney shirts. So Eric took him shopping last night (to Wal-mart, brave soul), and let Chris pick what he wanted to pin. He was led to ribbons, so he picked out a few colors of ribbons. We used gold, red, blue, purple and pink. But he also fell in love with some alphabet beads. Eric decided to do both.

So when they got home, roughly 8 o'clock, hello procrastinators anonymous, we put Chris to work Counting 100 beads.



Then he helped me cut 100 pieces of ribbon.



Daddy counted out 100 safety pins, and then came the "Fun" of having Chris write 1-100 on each ribbon. We probably didn't have to write the numbers on them, but we did it, because I thought he should be able to demonstrate his mad skillz with writing the numbers 1-100 as well as count. He did great!



He did wonderfully, but by the 80s he started getting punchy, understandable, it had been a long day. And he was getting tired. Us too.



But Chris Wouldn't go to bed until the homework was done. That's honorable, albeit a little crazy. So we worked together as a 'Team'. While Chris and I wrote out ribbons, Eric started putting the pins together. Then when Chris and I were done, I started putting the pins in the shirt. We didn't opt to let Chris deal with the safety pins directly, I thought that was just asking for trouble. We worked out ok.



But then he was so tired. And he Wouldn't go to bed. It was almost 10 by the time we finished. He was blithering, but he Wouldn't go to bed. Doesn't he look like a drunken sailor? But he Wouldn't go to bed.



This morning, he was so excited to wear his special shirt. He was thrilled. He told me, "My shirt is Made of Awesomeness!"



He may have been right. ;) However, Mommy and Daddy need to work on their Procrastinating. This will not do in a higher grade when the project takes more than 2 hours. But Chris loved his shirt, and came home with a reward of a 100 fruity o's for a snack today. He'd had to remove his shirt in the middle of the day, apparently 100 pieces of ribbon can only take the beatings of a kindergartner for so long. But he Loved it.

Just remind me folks, to shop more than a day in advance, even if I'm still sickly and not wanting to go shop. And to let Chris start it before 8 o'clock at night, the night before. Just because Mommy started her homework late, does not mean that's a trend I want to perpetuate in my son.

*The reason that it's called the Shirt of Awesomeness, is when he got dressed for school the next morning, he told me, "My Shirt is Made of Awesomeness!"

2! 2 Good Riley visits, Ah Ah Ah

Last week we went to Riley for a couple appointments. First we headed to the Orthopaedist. It was the first ortho we'd seen in 3 years, as it turns out, I knew it had been a while, but not That long. Anyway, first they wanted an x-ray. At first, Chris was nervous, but he did great. And our new doctor took a look at him, said he's doing great, his scoliosis isn't showing any changes, in spite of the hemivertebrae. We just need to keep watching in case there is a change.
So he'll see us in a year. I love that.

Then we went to Therapy with Mr. Doug. We were coming off our DisneyWorld high, and didn't really have much bad to say about anything. Chris says he doesn't like us complaining, luckily, there wasn't much to complain about. Chris has been doing well in school. Any meltdowns are usually resulting from exhaustion. And Chris is implementing his deep breathing exercises on his own. He's doing really great. Mr. Doug doesn't want to see him back until March! We're backing down on Therapy!

Woohoo!

Then yesterday, we had an appointment with Dr. M in Urology. We didn't chose the time, I had to pull Chris out of school at noon to get him there by 1. He was having a Urine Flow study. We had been slacking and not given him his Flomax in weeks. Then they did an ultrasound to see if he had enough pee. He didn't. And he was flipping out a little.



He had brought Duffy bear to school, and wanted to bring him to the procedure. It was actually pretty comforting to have Duffy, and the great nurse helping him out hous. Turns out the ultrasound goo makes him uncomfortable, but he did better if they put it on the wand first, instead of on his belly, I'll have to remember that trick.
He didn't have enough liquid, so they gave us a cup of water, told us to drink and walk. We did. We walked over to McD's, where I got him a juice and had him drink that, by the time we got back, 1/2 hour later, he had to pee. Then he did the Test like a champ.

AND they liked what they saw. He had a little residual pee left behind, but nothing to worry about. Here's the Best PArt. First, we could officially discontinue the Flomax. Second, they don't want to see us back for 6 months!!!!

Praise the Lord!

First Dance Class

For Christmas, my sister and Mom bought Christopher a semesters worth of Dance class. It's a combo class of tap and ballet. Tonight was his first lesson. Initially he was worried he'd be the only boy in the class. He wasn't. Since I was sick, Eric took Chris, and made sure to get me plenty of pictures and video, so I thought I'd share them.



He's simply enchanting. I'm very impressed that he seems to have picked it up so quickly. It's really only his first dance lesson.



Then he got to switch to his Ballet shoes.



He's so precious. Reminds me of my old dance class days.



Eric said that he had to hide behind a window, so there was only minimal peeping allowed, and if you're wondering why the video sound is weird, it's because there's noise of other kids and parents. Apparently for this ballet video, they were dancing to YMCA, although I think Chris was more OI hula hula. I love it!

For his first night, I'm very impressed. And I don't think I'm entirely biased, I think he has Enthusiasm as well as natural gifts, which are both very important. He's Simply Fabulous.