Big Ol' Niner!

Believe it or not, my Big T had his big day again today! Nine years old! Since his party was a big success last year, we broke the rules and let him have a friend party again this year. (I left my camera at my sis's house, an hour away, so I had to use the darn cell phone for pictures. GRRRRRR!!!) Yep, that's a real live Snake Cake!


Big T isn't the greatest host if a friend comes over. He likes to be by himself a lot. Yet, when friends do come over he laughs himself sick for a while before retreating downstairs. For the past few weeks he's been asking every day if it was his birthday. I tried to help him countdown and probably should have made a paper chain or something, but he didn't quite comprehend the "only _ more days" approach. Last night when putting him to bed, he told his dad that, "tomorrow's my birthday!" So maybe he did get it more than we thought.
I just prayed that some kids would show up! We actually had 4 of the 6 come!! One was from his spec-ed class and the other from his reg-ed class. They were so good to him.
It was a little tricky to plan a party for a boy who is not mentally at his grade level and his friends who are. So, I didn't plan a whole lot. They did do a scavenger hunt and ate (not nearly enough I thought for a bunch of boys), and then I played them a game of b-ball (it's a sickness, I know. And crimany, they just about took me!) Then I handed out little squirt guns and let them loose outside.
By the time it was over Big T was exhausted (so was his mom) and he was ready to go be a hermit for a while.
He had a great time!! He's such a sweetheart that I'm so blessed to have!!

Tough Job

So, being the nice mom that I am, I went ahead and shared my flu-bug with Big T. He started up on Saturday, and finally by yesterday (Tuesday) he seemed to be doing well enough to go to school today.
Big T really, really, really does not enjoy going to school. Every night before bed he says, "No school tomorrow, mom?" Then I tell him, "Yes, you have school tomorrow." And then he whines a big "Ohhh." And yes, we go through this EVERY night. Big T is one thing for sure, he's consistant! So after days that he doesn't have school or when he's sick it's really hard for him to get back in to the school "thing" again.
He's actually pretty compliant when getting ready for school. He does whine a lot, but he'll get dressed and go through all the motions alright. You just know he really does not want to go. So this morning after all the whining and him trying to convince me that he's still sick, we drove him to school. He got out of the car and came up to the passenger window where Rojita was sitting. He had his head down, then he cocked his eye up to see me and there it was... the biggest frown you'd ever seen. And then he began to cry.
It was the saddest face I'd ever seen. It all but broke my heart. I rolled down the window and told him he'd be okay and that we'd go to Grandma's after school. He just gave me a sad "okay, mom." and off he went.
So all day I just keep picturing this sad little guy moping off to class. What I really wanted to do was jump out of the van, grab him and tell him he never had to go to school again. But of course, for the good of all, I just told him to buck up and it would all be alright. Oh, sometimes it's so hard being the tough guy.