The Ybarras are in Germany!

I didn't get a chance to blog about Dave's parents leaving on their mission to Germany last week. Before they left we got to visit them and say our goodbyes. We will miss them dearly but are so grateful for their examples and their service. We'll see you in 2 years!

Miles: 14 Months

This kid is funny.

He still isn't walking, but that doesn't keep him from getting into virtually everything and anything. He loves playing with the Legos. He doesn't put them in his mouth anymore, he mostly likes to grab fistfuls, and throw them onto the carpet.

He's kind of a picky eater this one. But that doesn't stop him from snacking on dog food when he can get to it. He likes meat, rice, mashed potatoes, and crunchy stuff. He also really likes beans. Black beans, kidney beans, navy beans, etc. He'll eat those over any chocolate. Strange child. Definitely didn't get that from me. 

 Miles loves to follow his brothers around and enjoys taking baths with one or both of them. They make it a lot more interesting and fun.

And he loves the Lucy Dog. She puts up with him pretty well. I'll catch him hugging her or crawling on top of her; she's a good sport that dog.

Miles likes to play peek-a-boo, read books, swing in the hammock, and snuggle while watching Sesame Street or Phineas & Ferb. He loves to get into things and make messes. He's really good at that.

I like this kid.

Jett's Stats 'n' Stuff

Jett had his well-child check up on the 21st and he's growing fantastic! He weighs 42 pounds (62nd percentile) and is 42.5 inches tall (41st percentile). Poor kid had to get shots. He was due for 4 of them, but I am going to wait on the MMR and Chickenpox until Kindergarten gets closer. But he still had to get 3 because I had them sneak in the flu shot as well (sorry Jett!).

On his birthday, we gave him his birthday present which was a pretty cool Imaginext Batman RC Robot. He'd been wanting it for a couple months. It's pretty awesome. At school, Jett brought donuts for his birthday treat, and luckily there were 11 people in his class, which meant I got the 12th donut. He he. In the evening after Dave got home from work, Jett picked Zupas to go out to eat for his birthday. I'm always ok not having to make dinner.

Jett is doing awesome! He is doing speech at school once a week and is making some good progress. He absolutely LOVES preschool! He gets so mad at me if I ever make him stay home when he is sick or potentially sick. He is learning a lot and loves to practice drawing and writing. He writes his name mostly in the correct letter order; he usually writes it like this: e J t t...except the 'e' is backwards. He is really good with cutting and tracing, and loves to draw pictures of his family.

Jett loves to cook, especially bake, and to build stuff. He also loves robots, just like Cruise, and fishing with his Dad. His best friend these days is Connor McGarvey, his favorite color is blue, his favorite food is spaghetti, his favorite drink is chocolate milk, he loves showers and isn't too crazy about baths, his favorite toy is Batman, his favorite dessert is chocolate cake and pumpkin cake, he also loves pumpkin pie. He also claims to have a girlfriend at school named Emery and apparently she has lovely red hair. His favorite song is The Wheels on the Bus, his favorite t.v. show is Wild Kratts, and his favorite movie these days is Big Hero 6.

Jett is such a great helper and is always doing stuff for me, especially when it comes to Miles. He'll watch him while I have to do some laundry or cleaning, he'll grab a diaper for me or find his bottle when I need it. He is so gentle and sweet with his brother. He also is a great helper with chores (most of the time) and is really easy to take grocery shopping.

I took Jett to get his 5 year pictures this past week and the photographer said that he is one of the easiest kids she's every photographed because he smiled so genuinely every single shot. He's always been such an easy kid to photograph because he's naturally happy and outgoing. But that also causes problems because it's so stinkin' hard to pick out pictures because there are too many good ones!

We love Jett; he's one of the funniest kids we know. I just can't believe he's 5!

Today You Are Five

Dear Jett,

Today you're the big 5! You've grown so big so fast and I have loved watching you grow and learn. You are such a sweet, helpful, considerate and polite boy. You are kind to your friends and peers. You are patient with your brothers. You are respectful to adults. You are so eager to please and you're a hard worker. I love your great big smile and your optimism. I love that you love school and that you are a friend to everyone. I love that you always ask to be snuggled.

Jett, you are such a a smart and talented boy. You have interests in building and tools, baking and crafts, and even fishing. You are funny and silly. You just make people happy wherever you go. You can make anything fun.

Jett made a "candy stand" and sold candy to Cruise & I.

Our family would not be what it is without you. You bring so much fun and light into our home. You bring laughter and silliness. You bring fun and creativity. You bring love and snuggles. You are so important and so loved. Your brothers love you so much. Cruise loves to play with you and to follow your creative lead.  I love that Miles follows you around everywhere because you're so much fun to play with and can always make him laugh. Dad loves having you as his fishing buddy; he always tells me how much he loves spending time with you. I just love hanging out with you; even just grocery shopping just the two of us is so much fun.

You help me so much every day and I want you to know just how much I appreciate your willingness to help your ol' mom. I know I expect so much from you. In so many ways you are a big brother to Cruise and sometimes I forget how little you are still. You are so obedient and are always wanting to make your dad and I happy. Buddy, we will always be proud of you. We will always love you. Our love for you is not conditional. I hope you know that. I hope you know your mom loves you more than anything.

I am so proud of the young man you are becoming and couldn't ask for a better son. Don't grow up too fast, Jett. I love you so much and think you're just fantastic! There is no one quite like you, kiddo!

Happy Birthday, Sweetie!

Love,
Mom

Jett's 5th Birthday Party

This year, Jett wanted a Ghostbusters themed party. I'm pretty sure most of his friends have never even seen Ghostbusters before, but Jett still loved it and that's all that matters, right?

So to begin...we have the invitation brought to you by MarysPartyDesgins on Etsy:

Jett originally wanted to go laser tagging for his birthday party, but he also wanted to invite his entire class and 4 neighbor friends as well...totaling 15 children. I can't afford laser tagging for 15 children. Which meant I would have to do a party at home, which is not my favorite since I have to not only set up, but clean up afterwards. So I thought I had this one in the bag when I said, "You can invite 4 friends and do laser tag, or you can invite everyone and have a party at home." I really thought he'd choose laser tag. In fact, I would've bet money on it, but apparently the kid just can't not invite everyone. So, a home party it was!

I started the cake on Wednesday, making the modeling chocolate and fondant. Thursday I worked on the sculptures of Marshmallow Man and Slimer. Hot dang those things were difficult! I kept trying and trying and trying. And finally, after three tries, I finished Slimer. Then I went to work on Marshmallow Man, and tried, and tried and tried until he came together as well. Halfway through I was really wishing I had taken a sculpting class in college. That stuff is no joke! And I'm just working in chocolate and fondant! 

On Friday after dropping Cruise off to school, I got started on the cake part. 

Jett wanted a pumpkin cake so I found a great recipe with a cinnamon cream cheese frosting recipe along with it. I made three 9-inch rounds and two 6" rounds and a dozen cupcakes with the leftover batter, which were gone within hours. I put the cream cheese frosting in-between layers and used buttercream to ice the outside. I've come to learn the cream cheese frosting tends to make the fondant slide off the cake. I covered the tiers in white fondant, made buildings out of grey fondant and used a black food marker to crudely draw on windows and doors. Then I made the slime. I mixed green piping gel, some neon green food coloring, and corn syrup and then drizzled it all over the cake to make a slime effect. Next came the sculptures. I was so afraid these things would fall off, but surprsingly they stayed on, even overnight! Then I finished it off with writing 'Jett' and '5' on the cake with green piping gel and voila! The cake was done! 

   

Saturday was the day! The day Jett has been bugging me about for months. We had 7 kids show up, so that was pretty good. I was secretly hoping not everyone would come because honestly, there really is no space in my house for 15 children. Random tangent: In my last therapy session, we discussed the upcoming birthday party and my anxieties about it because I had never done a birthday party where we invited kids whose parents don't know me and where the kids were all typically developing. In Autism Land, parents ALWAYS stay. You don't drop your kid off. You stay. Even if you know the family. You. Stay. So I was surprised to find out by my therapist that parents just drop their kids off and say, "Have fun!" Wow! That would be nice. It was equally surprising to me that I didn't have to constantly be worrying about other kids' sensory problems, or helping them return to the group, or constantly be giving them directions one step at a time. So man! This was not too shabby!

Okay, back to the party...so I had 2 hours planned out, but things seemed to go a bit faster than expected. But I did what my therapist told me to, and expected things to not work out how I planned and to remember the whole point of the party was to celebrate Jett and to make sure he had fun. So that made things a lot easier. I had a table set up to make slime aka "Ectoplasm",

another table to make marshmallow men,

and in the playroom I had a shooting range set up for the kids to shoot silly string at ghosts. Jett was particularly excited about this one. I found these awesome silly string guns online (which are surprisingly very hard to find) and thought that would be a nice way to make up for the lack of laser tag in the party. I got some foam board and drew Slimer and Marshmallow man, and then hit up the party store after Halloween to get a ghost 50% off, so that was cool. Each kid had ten seconds to shoot the "flying" ghosts which were actually tied to the hooks in the ceiling that we use for the sensory swings. So the rule was you had to shoot them in the front, which required the kids to run around. It made a mess, but it was fun. 

We still had a ton of time left, so we had musical chairs to the Ghostbusters song about three times. The first two times, Jett's friend Dylan won, on the 3rd Jett one. Cruise had a really tough time with losing and went and hid to cry because he didn't win and we were transitioning to the cake. So his awesome Dad set up a musical chairs for just the two of them and they played and of course, Cruise won and we finally got a smile out of him.

Then we went to cake! We sang, we ate, and the kids went nuts playing in the playroom while we waited to do presents. 

Jett got a lot of fun gifts that included a big batman, a couple Nerf guns, and some cars. Afterwards, Jett wanted to put on Ghostbusters since we had about a half hour left (all while praying I wouldn't scar someone's child for life) and those who wanted to, made more slime. 

Luckily my sister Abby was able to come and help out, which was awesome because I don't think Dave and I would've been able to do it very well on our own. So thanks Shmoopie! 

Jett was such a sweet heart and thanked me for his cake and his birthday party. He had such a great day and that is all I wanted to hear.  Whew! Now I can start stressing about Thanksgiving dinner!