Thank You Quarantine

Dear Quarantine,

Thank you for the morning cuddles on mom and dad's bed...

Time for little discoveries...

Sibling fun...

Forcing us to be creative...

And slowing life down so I can enjoy these times with my kids.

Learning New Things

With so much time at home, the kids have found that they've learned some new skills.

Both Jaxon and Violet have learned how to ride a two wheeler!

This was no small feat for Jaxon. Autistic children often have low muscle tone which limits range of motion and coordination. For example, sitting cross-legged is actually extremely difficult for him. He was even in physical therapy for several months last year.

Jaxon, tired of dribbling a basketball.
 *heavy sigh*

But after working on balancing on a bike for years, he finally nailed it down. We were sooo happy! I told Travis, "Oh, good. Now he can serve a mission!"

After he was done with his balance bike (I took off the pedals to his first, smaller bike), I handed it off to Violet. The next day she felt confident enough to try her big bike solo. No sweat!

She's also learned how to tie her shoes and how to sew with a needle and thread (after I thread the eye). Which is also a good time filler for her... ;)

Ginger's almost got all her letters and their sounds down (we'd been working on this for a few months now). Next step is putting the sounds together for some basic reading!

Here Travis is taking a break from work to carve a sling shot from some branches he cut down earlier.

And I decided to take another online class to add to my teacher re-certification credits. I'm kind of proud of myself for staying licensed after all these "kid years". Though one could easily argue if it's even worth it! But I do love learning! 

Family Time

This was great, and possibly a new tradition. For April Fools I made a special menu the kids could order off of. Except instead of it having different foods, it had different cookware and utensils. But it was coded, so they weren't quite sure what tool they were ordering. Whatever they ordered they had to eat with!

Travis ate with tongs. Really, the whole meal.

Ginger's glass was an empty Crystal Light container.

Jaxon twirling spaghetti with a spoon

We've been playing lots of games...

Having lots of backyard picnics...

Reading lots of books...

And having lots of fun together.