Our Buckeye Fan

I was cooking this morning, and Riley and Reese were watching TV. I left them some brownies and peanut butter buckeyes to eat while I was busy. When we got in the car, I asked Riley if he shared the brownies with Reese and he said yes. I asked him if he ate any of the buckeyes, and his answer was, "I don't like that kind of buckeye; I only like the Buckeyes on the screen (TV sports)".

The Two Lefties

We went to visit Riley's cousin last weekend. Riley was so excited to go and visit him. His cousin was very nice to him, and Riley even stayed the night with his cousin in his room both nights. I heard his cousin read books to Riley and let Riley play with is Lego game on the X-Box. They had a great time, and Riley is really lucky to have cousins to look after him.

This is Riley and his cousin trying to use their weight against the strength of a shark's jaws. The following is a picture from our lunch at Johnny Rockets, smiley ketchup brings back memories of a ketchup mess on the floor!

Clothing

Clothing has been a problem this year. Riley has decided that he does not like anything with collars. He wears long sleeve cotton shirts with ease especially those from Land's End. They are a great quality shirt that I do not mind spending the money on because he will wear the shirts in all seasons. I bought pants for Riley that he will not wear because they are not soft. I have found that he likes sweatpants and jersey knit pants that I have found at Sears. Anything else and he complains.

Riley spent all summer in tennis shoes or barefooted. He would not wear sandals. Now that the fall is here, he is wearing all of his tennis shoes even those from Stride Ride that he didn't like in the spring; they felt funny.

I think that Riley has a tendency to like clothes that are a bit small and tight fitting. He may need that extra sensory input. I was going to give away a jacket that he would originally not wear because it is now too small and suddenly Riley has decided that he likes it and has worn it everyday for the past week. I bought his winter coat a little big and I think that I might have problems this winter with either the bigness or the bulkiness. I did take the lining (fleece jacket) out of the winter coat and that has helped with the bulkiness, but he will probably complain until he grows into the coat.

Clothing is something I have chosen not to battle him about. He started to wear short sleeves this fall after wearing long sleeves most of the summer when he should have been wearing short sleeves. I let him wear the short sleeves, and most of the time he chose to wear a sweatshirt jacket over his t-shirt.

Just Like Mommy

We have now been in school about two months and the teacher came up to the van last week as I was picking up Riley and asked if she could meet with me to discuss a behavior plan for Riley. I told her we could meet on Monday.

At the meeting the teacher said that Riley is a really nice boy, but he had some trouble focusing on what he was suppose to do. She wanted to set up a plan where Riley would be rewarded for completing his afternoon work. He had trouble completing his first assignment of the day; he liked to talk instead of completing his work.

I agreed to the behavior plan and gave the teacher some suggestions that the OT had given to us with regards to Riley's writing and coloring like having him use a short pencil and half crayons to strengthen his fingers. I also asked that if Riley is switching hands for her to encourage him to use his left hand because he has been left hand dominant since he was 14 months old.

As I was in this meeting, I thought he is just like I was when I was young. I liked to talk and socialize rather than complete my work in school also. In many ways Riley is just like me. He is his mother's son.

Well, he was able to stick to the behavior plan for one day. The other two days this week, he did not complete his first assignment. We'll see what he does tomorrow after all the sugar tonight from trick or treat!