Short days = good days

Half-day of school yesterday, so Ryan managed to come home with a green card!! One poker chip away from Gattiland. It'd sure be nice not to have to cook tonight...

I saw some real maturity from Ryan a couple of times yesterday. (Backstory: while he was at school, I took Max and Lily to the grocery store, and picked up 3 helium balloon/lollipop give-aways as we walked out. I discussed with M&L why we had to keep the balloons inside, and that they could play on the screened porch with them or in the basement. I reminded them again once we were in the house. Three minutes later the phone rang, and during my 5 minute conversation they managed to take their balloons outside and of course L let go of hers and it promptly took off for heaven.) Ryan came home from Grandma's house and saw his balloon, but once he heard about Lily's, he told her right away that she could have his. !!! He just wanted to make sure he got to keep the lollipop! He told her again later on in the evening that the balloon was hers, he didn't need it. :-) For the record, Max also kept insisting that he share his balloon with her. What great brothers she has!!

Oh, and at soccer practice, while he still had a couple of problems, he DID show some maturity. One of the other boys playfully tackled him and dragged him to the ground, but instead of getting up and trying to do the same to the other kid, Ryan just laughingly got up, brushed himself off and went back to paying attention to the coach. Yay!! On the other hand, he did keep throwing the ball *at* people...at their backs, especially, from short range. The first time I let go because it was one of the dads who kept playing around with Ryan, the second time it was the sister of one of his teammates and I didn't see it happen (she came and told me...I apologized for him); and the third time it was one of his teammates and he hurt her hands. I made him sit out for 5 minutes during his favorite game, and told him if it happened again we were going to leave. Fortunately for him, it was only 10 minutes from the end of the session, so he was able to behave!

I was reminded yesterday and today of something the OT mentioned. Kids with some of Ryan's SPD's don't do a lot of creative imaginative play, and they are often TV watchers/video game players. I've always been aware of it with Ryan, but especially so during the last 6 months or so. Max and Lily are *ALWAYS* playing pretend...pretend bakery, pretend store, pretend birthday party, pretend whatever. Ryan will join in on occasion, but he rarely initiates it. He will play pretend NASCAR races, but that is about all. Also, Ryan would watch TV all day long if we allowed it, and/or play computer games, Leapster, and video games. Max and Lily could really take it or leave it. They do like to watch a couple of short shows, but there have been mornings that I've inadvertently left the TV on and they haven't watched it at all. They enjoy computer games once in awhile, but never ask for it more than once or twice a week. It's just interesting to notice the differences!