Our Buggy Friend

Anyone who knows Kyson, knows he LOVES bugs. His favorite pastime is to go outside and look for bugs. I rarely see grasshoppers at our house, but one day Kyson found one and was able to not just catch it, but pet it and keep it on his finger. They became pretty good buddies for the day. At the end of the day, though, I convinced him to let the poor guy go. Bugs that crawl can stand to live in a bug house, grasshoppers like to hop and it would be miserable. I used the analogy of Kyson having to stay in his room all day versus go outside and play. Just like Kyson, the grasshopper wants to play outside, rather than be stuck in his room. Fortunately it worked and the grasshopper was freed after about 18 hours.

Summertime Friends

I've talked a lot about Kyson's friends that love to come over, so I won't share too much more. Only that summer sun is so much more fun when you have people to play with. Every day Kyson wants to play with his friends and I'm so glad that they come over so often.

Backyard Camp-out

Because Kris and I both had the week off, we decided to do a backyard camp-out with Kyson. It would be a lot of fun with Kodi, but I think she's still too young. We put her to bed in her crib and brought out the monitor. We set up the tents and

pumped up the air mat- tresses, set up the sleeping bags and brought down the pillows. We were so excited. As night came and the sky turned dark, we brought out the flashlights and made shadow puppets on the walls of the tents and read all about bugs and David. After we'd had our fun, surprisingly, when we told Kyson it was time to go to sleep, he rolled over and didn't talk again.

While Kyson had a very enjoyable experience, Kris and my experience

wasn't as great. For some reason I couldn't sleep at all. I kept sliding down the air mattress like I was the meat in a taco and finally at 1:00am, I asked Kris if it would be okay to go inside. He was nice and obliging, and it may have been lucky because Kodi woke up shortly after for some reason. Kris was the trooper. It was the night for neighborhood clean-up and the city dumpster is always put in front of our house because we're in the center of the street. All night long, Kris heard people dumpster diving, looking for scrap metal. He also didn't get any sleep.

The next morning, Kyson woke up nice and rested and wanted to do it again the next night. We weren't so open to the idea.

Swimming Adventures

Since the new rec center was built out by us, we still had never made it out to enjoy all that it has to offer.

Because Kris and I had the week off, we decided to try out the much-raved pool. I have to admit, it was awesome. It has such a large area for children without quick drop-offs that scare parents. When we first got there, Kris and Kyson wanted to go on the big water slide so the two of them went off together while I sat at the bottom watching and waiting for them to come out. Suddenly, I saw only one person come out and it was Kyson. It pushed him into deep waters and I saw him struggling. The lifeguard wasn't paying attention and I told her that he couldn't swim. She jumped in and got him, and fortunately, he wasn't afraid of the water after that. I asked Kris why he let Kyson go down by himself when he knew he couldn't swim. Kris told me that they were planning to go together but the lifeguard at the top told him it was only one at a time, and Kyson dove in before they could stop him. My poor son doesn't understand cause and effect.Even with the slight drowning scare, it was a lot of fun.

They had little slides in the kid area that Kyson loved, and eventually Kodi got the guts to try. It took her a long time before she felt comfortable in the water. Ideally, we'd like to keep going so they can get comfortable, but it's too much money and we lack the time. I can't wait until life slows down a little. I really look forward to these times when I have work off where I can really take advantage of the time I have with my family.

A Visit to the Fish Pond

Near my house there is a small fishing pond. I've taken Kyson up there only a couple of times, but because I had the week off, I thought it would be nice to spend some one-on-one time with my son (and it's free). We saw a family of ducks and a gaggle of geese. Kyson loved all the dragon flies too. He was excited about everything, but it would have been better if I'd remembered to bring bread to feed them. Oh well - next time.

Preschool Program

Kyson just completed his first year of preschool

and I think he has really enjoyed it. He has been

attending 2 pre- schools: one normal preschool like everyone goes to, and another preschool done by Jordan School District to help him with his processing and speech delays. Well his traditional preschool, Small Wonders put on an end-of-the-year program where the kids sang and were presented one at a time. Kyson is obviously more immature than most of the kids there. It was an adorable program, but Kyson was about 2 steps behind all the other kids and sometimes he wouldn't even do the actions at all. The entire place was packed with parents and grandparents. Kris's parents came to see Kyson, but they were just a little bit late. Kyson noticed when they walked in though, and in the middle of a song he yelled, "Grandma!" We were on the last row and I heard it clearly. He'll learn with time.

When after the singing, they did a slide show of kids in the school and different projects they'd done throughout the year. It was great and we bought a copy of it so Kyson could watch it whenever he wanted to. After the slide show, they presented each kid one by one by saying their name, having the child walk across the stage. Then they'd be presented a lei by their teacher and

then they'd sit down. Kyson didn't follow this procedure, but ran across the stage after his name was read, refused the lei from his teacher and then sat down next to her instead of sitting down with the other kids. Maybe next year we'll have more luck.

I think it's so great that the Preschool takes the time to do all this for the parents. I've really enjoyed having him in this preschool and he's always talking about his teacher and classmates.

Herriman Days

Every year, the city of Herriman does a weekend of celebrating and it's full of fun events. Every year they have a rodeo and fireworks, but we never go to that. This year they had a car show, and I found out after the fact that they also had a "touch a truck" event at the car show where the kids got to get in the big firetrucks. Kyson would have loved that, but I found out too late. The events we did go to were the cinema in the park and the parade.

The movie showing at the Cinema in the Park was How to Train your Dragon. As usual, we went with the Holts because Kyson loves them so much - hopefully the feelings are reciprocal, but we sure can be annoying. Anyway, Lise was so prepared by going to the dollar store and buying glow sticks. They were a hit, and boy they were helpful with Kodi. She kept wandering off, so Lise suggested that we watch her but don't get her so she'll think she's lost. Then she won't run off so

far. We had her draped in glow-in-the-dark necklaces and bracelets so it was really easy to watch her. She thought she got lost, Lise went and got her and after that she didn't wander very far. It was great. Kyson didn't care about watching the movie, only playing with his friends, and that's probably a good thing. We were so far back we could barely hear it. It was still fun though.

The next morning, at the last minute I decided to take the kids to the parade. I didn't know what the parade route was and even when I looked on line for it, I didn't exactly know where the roads were. I knew the ending point so I figured I'd go that way and wing it. We raced to get ready considering I decided to go less than a half hour before it was to begin and none of us were dressed. We ran into the car and started

backing up when I noticed the Holts were backing out at the exact same time. I decided to follow them, hoping they were going to the parade and as luck would have it, they were. They knew a great spot to go and once again, all were happy - except maybe the Holts because we crashed their party (again). it's a good thing they're such good sports. It was a great weekend and I have to say, I can't wait for Herriman Days next year.