Mommy and Son date!

Our local AMC does a sensory friendly viewings so Coop and I went to see Paddington last Saturday. Now, Coop is able to see regular movies (for the most part) but the atmosphere is so much more relaxed at the sensory friendly movies.  The lights aren't turned down all the way, the volume is not as loud but the most important part is that the kids are ALLOWED and ENCOURAGED to get up and move during the film.  No one glares at you because all of the parents there GET IT. 

Coop only gets to eat Sour Patch kids at the movies.  He does share, at least, lol

Kids eat free on the weekend so he's a cheap date! 

Terrific Tuesdays

I love Tuesday because Coop doesn't have school.  We go to therapy then the rest of the day is ours to do with as we please! 

Picnic

 Coop mastered this ladder at the playground...there's a lot of motor planning involved in climbing up a ladder!

Our little celebration from climbing up the ladder :) 

The menfolk

My menfolk at the playground. I love the weekends :)

A chilly day at the zoo!

The weather this month has been crazy in Georgia! We've had days with temps at 15 degrees (throw in a wind chill and it feels like 3) and days where it's been 66 outside!  We decided to take a day in the 50's as a opportunity for the zoo!  

I asked him to sit with the statue and inside he straddles it, haha!  Life is short...

Homemade snow

I found a recipe for homemade snow so decided to give it a whirl. Now, Cooper really enjoyed this activity but this is the one and only time that we'll be doing this activity!  He did play with it for an hour but I found this snow in the crooks and crannies for a couple of days...(the snow is made from a box of baking soda and 3/4 container of shaving cream)

A rainy walk

Coop is a sensory seeker so I try to take him out in all types of weather (as long as it's safe) so that he can explore the environment.  I'm not a mom that worries about him getting filthy and I pretty much let  him do his own thing...

Emerging abilities...

We work on academics and therapies every single day in our home and there are some days, where I do wonder if he's actually taking it all in.   These worries were alleviated the other day when he started writing his own name!  He also knows his left and right now, he's saying "I love you" in sign language and is also more involved in his activities of daily living, like getting dressed, brushing his own teeth, etc.  He's been on fire lately! I love it!

Downtime...

Coop has had some changes in his speech therapy treatments (more on that another time) so I've been trying to take him for fun stuff after his treatments.  We've been to this indoor playarea a lot over the last few years and he loves it!  It also happens to only be about 10 minutes away from his therapy place so it's a close and fun surprise for Coop :)

He was fascinated on learning the dwarves' names and hugging each one, haha!

I've been accussed of being a bit overbearing (usually from folks that don't know us OR don't have a child with Autism) so here is my attempt at giving him some independence...

A tree for all seasons!

Cooper loved the Christmas tree so much last year that I decided to leave out the smaller one and start a seasonal tree. We've been hanging our January crafts from it and it's so cute!

Here is our first craft for 2014, it's his footprint and it says "I'm starting 2015 off on the right foot!"

Coop loves this little tree! Not as much as the big tree but he still goes to see it at least once a day...

Goodbye 2014 and hello 2015!

We spent the last day of 2014 at the Noon Year's Party at the Children's museum. We've done this in the past but the actual Noon Year countdown was too much for him (too loud, too many kids, too much dancing, etc.) but he really enjoyed the event!

We started our morning with a breakfast at CFA :)

Really, the only reason that I took this photo is if you look at his left hand, you'll see the cow's missing udder in it.  I barely contained the giggles...

Our pic right after the new year countdown :) 

This was at home that afternoon when I gave him a bag of noise makers...