A List for Tuesday

5 Reasons Why Dutch is Awesome

(in no particular order)

1. When you ask him how he's doing he says, "Doing great!"
2. He wants to be a firefighter when he grows up
3. He thinks kindergarten is "AWESOME!"
4. His favorite thing to do is play LEGO
5. Out of nowhere he'll come up to me and give me a hug and say, "I just love you, my mama."

Why do you think Dutch is awesome?

A Few Things About Dutch

We went in for Dutch's parent/teacher conference last week. It was full of surprises! Almost without exception Dutch has improved enormously in everything since school started. He's more social, more engaged, paying more attention, listening better, and - the best of all! - he now has "normal" speech for his age. I was so surprised when his teacher and speech language pathologist told us that!

The last few months his language has just exploded, but I hadn't realized it had gotten THAT good. He's used words like "catastrophe" and "ruckus" and keeps surprising us with how much he's willing to say. There are still times when I can't understand a word, but those are few and far between.

To put this in perspective: Last year on Dutch's first day of pre-school I asked him what he did at school today and he responded, "I played with toys." I cried because that was the most he had ever said all at once. Now, only a year and a few months later, he is telling Chris, "Daddy, take your coat off. It's really nice in here."

His teacher said that he should be ready for kindergarten next year, no questions asked. That made me really nervous. Chris and I had dabbled with the idea of holding Dutch back a year, just to make sure he was ready. Turns out he won't be eligible for the early intervention program next year because their policy is if the kid is 5 he goes to kindergarten.

Friday the answer to my prayers came. A few weeks ago Chris had applied Dutch for a special autism starter program that the state is starting. They had so many applicants that they did a lottery and picked 250 kids. Dutch was one of them. This means that he will get a lot of extra help, one-on-one attention, and a lot of opportunities he wouldn't otherwise have.

I feel really lucky and blessed that things are going so well for Dutch. Like every mother, I worry about what the world holds for my child. Now I can rest a little easier knowing that he is being given his best chance to succeed through all these amazing programs and people.

A Halloween Conversation

Pam: What are you going to be for Halloween?
Dutch: A pirate! Arrr!
Pam: What's Dane-Dane going to be?
Dutch: A parrot!
Pam: What's Mommy going to be?
Dutch: A princess for pirates!
Pam: What's Daddy going to be?
Dutch: A pooper!

This after I've told him many times that Daddy is a party pooper and won't dress up for Halloween.

Resolution Horse Company

Today was Dutch's last day riding horses at Resolution Horse Company. While we were there he worked with three trainers: Terri, Sarah, and Bruce; and three horses: Feliz (which I thought was Felice), Dixie, and Bisbee.

It's been such a great experience for him to be around the horses and learn to take care of them, how to behave around them, and to have a relationship with them. I am very grateful to the whole team there for everything they've done. I hope and pray that they will be able to find a job locally so we can enjoy many more years of horseback riding with them!

 Dutch riding Feliz on his first day

 Dutch with Miss Sarah

Dutch looking awesome in his Lightning McQueen helmet

My Dutchie

I can't upload pictures to my blog. I have a very funny blog about Dutch cutting his own hair, but it just doesn't work without pictures. This blog would be so much better with a precocious picture of Dutch. Instead you'll just have to imagine one.

The other day I had an acquaintance asking me if I was every bitter that Dutch was autistic. The question knocked me back. Of course I'm not bitter! I don't think of Dutch's autism as something negative that makes him more difficult to deal with, I see it as part of who he is and it shapes a lot of his personality. I worry about him, of course, but what mother doesn't worry about her child?

Dutch does not have full-blown autism, but he is on the autism spectrum. His autism is most prevalent in his (lack of) speech and in his social skills. There are other things as well, but those are the main ones. In the year since he was diagnosed I don't feel like that knowledge has changed my behavior toward him at all. Perhaps it's made me more understanding when he has a meltdown, but I still treat him (and discipline him) as I always have.

Tuesday Dutch started his second year of early-intervention pre-school. After his first day of school last year I asked him what he did at school. I didn't expect an answer, but Dutch said, clear as a bell, "I played with toys." I started to cry. It was the most words he'd put together on his own EVER. It's amazing to think that was only a year ago. He's come so far since then.

I'm grateful for the wonderful program the school has in place. I'm grateful for supportive family and friends who understand Dutch's quirks and love him for them. I'm grateful for Dutch's hard work and how much he tries. I'm grateful because I'm so lucky.

Dutch and Dane Stats

We took a trip to the pediatrician this week to see how the little bubbas are growing. Dutch went in for his 4-year check-up and Dane went in for his 15-monther. Here are the vital stats:

DUTCH
Weight: 50 lbs 6 oz (97th percentile)
Height: 45.7 in (99th percentile)

DANE
Weight: 21 lbs 3.5 oz (10th percentile)
Length: 29.3 in (5th percentile)
Head Circumference: 46 cm (15th percentile)

So, in short, Dutch is super-huge for his age and Dane is super-small. They are both healthy and adorable. They also both had to get shots and neither one of them cried! The nurse was very complimentary about my tough, brave boys!

Dutch's 4th Birthday!

Camera cord is still lost. One of these days there will be a series of all-picture posts!

Yesterday was Dutch's Golden Brithday - he turned 4 on the 4th! When Chris wished Dutch a happy birthday the first thing Dutch said was, "FIREWORKS!" It seems he associates his birthday with fireworks, and rightly so.

We went over to Bah and Honey's house for brunch where Dutch received his first two presents of the day. A remote control Jeep from Uncle Zaque and Aunt Amy, and a pair of water guns from Bah. He loved them both, of course, but the Jeep got it's own song: "I love my Jeep! I love my Jeep!" repeated over and over again.

The water guns were only fun if he was shooting them at you, but not if you were shooting them at him! And when Chris swiped his gun and shot him with it, Dutch was VERY upset. So I guess we're going to have to work on the rules of water gunning.

As his birthday present from us Chris and I took Dutch to the movies to see Madagascar 3. We convinced Grandma Honey to come with us too. For the most part Dutch really loved it. He also loved having a soda and popcorn.

Chris let Dutch pick out his birthday cake and he chose a covered-in-bright-red-frosting Elmo cake. We shared it with Bah, Honey, Uncle Zaque, and Aunt Amy. Grandma Honey gave Dutch a family photo album, and he refused to believe that the baby in the pictures were him.

We topped the evening off with Sandy City's fireworks display. On the way home from watching the fireworks Dutch fell dead asleep and didn't wake up until 8:30 this morning!

I think it's safe to say it was a pretty awesome birthday for our big 4-year-old.

Some Stolen Pictures

So I have pictures from Dutch's graduation that I need to upload. Unfortunately I can't remember where I put my cord. In the meantime I will offer you some pictures I swiped from my sister Heather. They were all taken by her.

 Dane at Roy's in Ephraim 

eating my sunglasses instead of pizza

 Dane with his cousin Bella

(she taught him how to clap)

 Dane and Bella

 The face Dane gives anyone he's not sure about

(he has yet to stop giving it to his Uncle Zaque)

 Dutch in desperate need of a haircut

He's so handsome

(even with a scratch on his face)

Big Dutch News

Three items of big Dutch news.

1. Last night, for the first time since we moved into this house in September, Dutch slept in his own bed ALL NIGHT LONG! I am attributing this in equal parts to his "new" big boy bed and the Cars 2 (or, as Dutch calls it, "Johnny Missile") bed sheets.

2. He has been doing fantastic with potty training lately. We haven't had a poop accident for over a week, maybe even two! It happened right after I called my sister in despair, telling her I was sure he would NEVER poop on the toilet. I know he didn't overhear since he wasn't home when I placed the call, but somehow he knew that Mama really needed him to get potty-trained. It is, by far, my least favorite part of motherhood.

3. Next week Dutch "graduates" from his first year of early-intervention pre-school! I remember his very first day of school when I asked him what he had done that day and he said, "I played with toys." It was the most he had ever spoken all at once and I started crying. Since then he has grown so much and his language improves every single day. I don't talk about it very much, but I'm so grateful for his teachers, bus drivers, and, especially, his speech language pathologist.

That's the big Dutch news for this week!

Dutch-isms

Dutch says and does so many cute things on a daily basis. Here are a few:

• When playing with our spray-on sunscreen (which he should not have been doing) Dutch sprayed himself in the eyes. After they were flushed with water he decided they were still not "all better" so he went and put Band-Aids on both of his eyes.
• I was leaning over the other day when Dutch pointed at my cleavage and asked, "Itsa butt?"
• When he's frustrated with something he says, "Come ON!"
• When I was weeding in the garden I showed him a ladybug and he was so excited. He was constantly asking me about the "baby bug."
• I put the ladybug on a leaf and Dutch was sad because she was going to sleep, so he went inside and got my chicken egg timer and held it right next to the ladybug while it was going off and yelled, "Wake up, baby bug!"
• We've been reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar a lot lately and when the ladybug disappeared Dutch said, "She's going home to sleep and turn into a butterfly."
• I bought some paper lanterns to decorate for Dane's party and I had an orange one hanging up and he pointed to it and asked, "Itsa punkin?"

Easter: Davis Style

Our Easter Sunday was fabulous. We started with new outfits and Easter baskets for both of the boys. They both got candy, new shoes, a new movie (Curious George episodes), and more candy. We went to Greg and Kellie's home ward for church where my mom-in-law Kellie and my sister-in-law's mom Kathy both spoke. They did a great job. I was then lucky enough to go to the Sunday School class that my friend Jenel taught.

After church we went to Greg and Kellie's for brunch, egg hunt, and playing. Here are pictures:

 Zaque and Josh putting together a styrofoam plane

 Dutch and Chris checking out their booty

Dane eating an unpeeled orange by his Aunt Amy

 Xander

  Dutch and Chris

(with Amy in the background)

 Xander and Dane

I love Xander's face in this one.

 Because of Dawn's leg in the background you can see the extreme awesomeness of Dane's hair. It pretty much always sticks out in the back like that.

Happy Dane-Dane

Dutch the No-Sleep Monster

I found Dutch asleep on our bed.

Well, sort of on the bed.

I try not to compare my boys, but there is one place where they are so different and it's driving me crazy. Dane has been consistently sleeping through the night since he was 5 months old. Dutch, at 3 1/2, does not.

I can count on one hand the number of times he's slept through the night this year. Usually he wakes up between 2 and 3, kicks either Chris or me out of our bed and then goes to sleep. That's a good night. Most of the time when he wakes up at 2 or 3 he stays awake. Did I mention he hasn't taken naps since he was about 2?

I'm SO tired of not getting a full night's sleep. I don't know how Dutch does it.

A Dutchie School Update

I was trying to take his picture and he

 kept getting closer to the camera until

he was right in front of me!

This last week Chris and Dutch and I went to a Parent/Teacher Conference with Dutch's teacher, Gretchen, and his Speech Language Pathologist, Allison. He is making progress in all the areas we've been focusing on, but he's still having trouble interacting with other kids. I'm trying to make friends with some of the women in the neighborhood who have kids Dutch's age. Hopefully a few extra play-dates at home will help his social skills. He's doing so well, in fact, that they wanted to have him come 3 days a week instead of just 2. That way he can progress even faster. That means next school year he'll go 4 days a week! I am excited for him to get to go to school more, but I'm also excited to have more time just Dane and me, and more time to myself. 

We also learned a few interesting things about Dutch:
1) He refuses to take his coat off at school. I think that's so funny because at home it's the first thing he wants to take off! I guess he's using it as his security blanket or something.
2) He's regressing as far as his potty training goes; he won't go to the bathroom without being bodily taken in there. Because of this he's had a few accidents at school, so we've gone back to Pull-Ups for now. I have to say that potty training is, by far, my least favorite thing about parenting.
3) Apparently he has a huge crush on his teachers Brittany and Julie. Sometimes he has trouble focusing in large group because he wants to play with Miss Brittany's hair!
4) Dutch is (still) the most polite kid in his class. He always says "please" and "thank you" and I'm so proud of him for that!
5) Lastly, they both said they all think he's so cute! That goes to show how smart they are because he IS so cute.

So crazy to have a pre-schooler, but we love him so much!

Dutch and Grandma Honey

So I haven't posted pictures because no one seemed to be interested. Then I was told that someone was. So these are for that one interested person.

The following are pictures of Dutch helping his Grandma Honey make dinner. We go over to Greg and Kellie's house every Tuesday and most of the time Dutch just wants to play and eat fruit. This time, however, he wanted to help. And he was a really great helper!

Notice his dinosaur shirt. It's one of his favorites.

Bargain Hunting at Target

Dutch has a pair of green frog boots (see above) that he loves more than anything. Given the choice between boots and shoes he always chooses his boots. He has already gone through two pairs of these in less than a year. Today I went to Target to buy him a new pair. To my immense pleasure I found that his favorite boots were on clearance for less than $4 a pair! Not even kidding! I bought him 2 pairs and then the minute I got home I wondered if I should have bought more. That's a ridiculously good deal, but there were too many what-if's. What if he doesn't like them for much longer? What if he grows out of them too fast (even though I bought them too big on purpose)? What if we put them somewhere and forget and don't find them until he's 15?

Also, for Dutch's birthday last year my sister Heather gave him a Super Dutchie outfit. There's a mask, a cape,and two arm-bands. This morning he put it on wearing nothing but his underwear. When we got dressed for the day he still wanted to wear it so I let him put his arm-bands and cape over his sweater. Then we went out in public with him dressed like that. I'm not sure if that makes me the world's most awesome mom or the world's worst!

Doesn't Play Well With Others

For those of you who don't know Chris very well, here's something you need to know about him: He doesn't really like people. Other than his two brothers he has one or two friends. AND HE LIKES IT THIS WAY. That's something to keep in mind as I tell you about our first Parent/Teacher Conference for Dutch yesterday (and the blog title refers to Chris, not Dutch).

Dutch started pre-school a couple of months ago. It's part of the Early Intervention Program. Before he even started school we worked out some goals for him for the school year. Here are the goals and the progress he's made so far, in order of his success.

• Dutch will match 7 shapes and 7 colors with 80% accuracy over 3 data probes. He has met this goal! He matches 8/8 shapes 87.5% of the time and 8/8 colors 100% of the time! His teacher, Gretchen, is going to continue to work with him on these, stepping up the difficulty so he can really master his shapes and colors.
• Dutch will attend to small/large group activities for 5 minutes 4/5 opportunities over 3 data probes. This one he is making "sufficient progress" on. He'll pay attention 67% of the time in small group (with a 7% refusal) and pays attention 80% of the time in large group (with a 20% refusal). There's still room to improve, of course, but I'm just glad he's able to focus this much!
• Dutch will follow classroom directions with no more than one prompt 4/5 opportunities over 3 data probes. Okay, so he's following directions 33% of the time, but he also refuses outright to do them 33% of the time, so that needs a lot more work. To be fair, this is something we struggle with at home so I'm sure he won't get it at school if he can't do it at home. Any suggestions to help with this?
• Dutch will demonstrate cooperative play with a peer for 3 minutes 4/5 opportunities over 3 data probes. This is something I've been worried about for awhile now. They send home a little piece of paper to tell me what he did that day and who he did it with. I noticed that Dutch would play by himself or next to other kids, but never with them. I was really surprised, however, when she told me he's doing this 0% of the time. They can get him to parallel play with other kids, but he never plays WITH them. I feel pretty guilty about this because Dutch has play-dates about once a month, if that. So, to help my sweetheart make friends (so he doesn't end up like his dad), I am going to try to make some friends with kids his age so he can learn how to play with someone else. (And when Chris and I discussed this he emphasized that they should be MY friends and not OUR friends.)

He also had some goals for his speech, but those are pretty specific and I don't want to bore you more than I already have. So we survived our first Parent/Teacher Conference and I felt very proud when they told me Dutch is the most polite kid in the class and he's always concerned when other kids are crying or unhappy. That's my boy!

Control Your Children!

Back when I was an expert on parenting (you know, before I had kids), I would see kids running wild and I always looked at the parents with disdain and thought to myself, "Why don't you control your children?" Now that I'm on the other side things look a little different. As my mom-in-law says, "With the pitter-patter of little feet come a thousand words to eat."

Lately Dutch has been really out of control when we're in public. There are days when I'm so exhausted by him that I let him run a little more wild than I should. I can see the looks from other people. The same looks I used to give. If only it were easy to control my child!

The Many Accents of Dutch

If you've read this blog for any amount of time then you know that Dutch doesn't talk a whole lot. Sometimes when he does hilarity ensues! Here are a few samples of Dutch's many accents:

Southern
Dutch says: "Bo, hush!"
Sounds like: "Bo, hoosh!"

French
Dutch says: "My paper!"
Sounds like: "My pay-pear!"

Spanish
Dutch says: "What they heck?"
Sounds like: "Whatha hayk?"

And this last one isn't an accent, but hilarious nonetheless
Dutch says: "Bye-bye, Oscar!"
Sounds like: "Buh-bye, Sucker!"

Dutch's First Day of School

 I told him to look at me and this is what he did.

He was trying to pull Bo into the picture.

Today was Dutch's first day of pre-school. He is in Ms. Gretchen's class on Mondays and Wednesdays from 11:30 to 1:45. On Saturday we took him to pick out a backpack (the only school supply he needed). He surprised no one by picking a Toy Story one with Buzz and Woody on it. 

This morning he decided he wanted to wear his Percy (the train from Thomas and Friends) underwear instead of a diaper. I was wary, but said yes. He did great this morning and didn't have any accidents, so I told him he could go to school in them too. I warned one of his paraeducators, Barbara (a friend of my mom-in-laws) that he was not 100% potty trained.

When I went to pick him up I saw he was still in his same outfit. Hooray! But it turns out they were taking him inside to change him. They weren't sure if he'd had an accident because they'd been playing in water, but they changed him just to be sure. I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt and say it was just water! ;)

They said that he did great and was a sweetheart! Then in the car on the way home I asked him what he did at school today and he said, just as clear as can be, "I played with toys." I started crying! It was the first time he'd referred to himself as "I" and the first time he'd used a full sentence like that without prompting. It was a little miracle that made the day perfect.

By the way, when I dropped him off I did not cry OR jump for joy, although I was sure I would end up doing one or the other. I think this is going to be a great school year!

Speaking Dutch

I try to encourage Dutch to talk at every chance I get. The other day we passed one of his favorite things: a back-hoe. He instantly shouted, "Truck!" and I said, "That's a back-hoe. Can you say back-hoe?" He looks at me, nods his head and says, "Uh-huh." I say: "Will you say it for me? Will you say back-hoe." Dutch: "No."

Can't say I didn't try.