Another Christmas, Come and Gone...

Things kept happening over Christmas break and I found myself saying, I need to remember to blog about that.  Sadly, I'm sitting here finally getting to Bryce's blog (it's all I can do to keep up with my Pinterest blog everyday, so this one is when I have the time/energy to get to it) and I've forgotten most of what I wanted to write down.  But as I think of things, I'll just toss them out there.  I apologize in advance to any and all English teachers for my lack of structure, decent paragraphs, thesis statement and concluding thoughts. :)

Christmas decorations: 

If you know Bryce at all, you know he has an astounding memory.  As soon as Thanksgiving was over, the houses in the neighborhood began to deck the halls, and Bryce was delighted.  We would drive through the streets around our house and he would point out any new "blow ups" as he calls them.  You know, those tacky yard decorations that people inflate at night?  I hate those things, but the boys love them, so we go searching for new ones every time we are out.  Bryce remembered EVERY HOUSE from last Christmas.  He would ask, "Where's the Santa and the reindeer with the hat?" or "The snowman in the snow globe isn't on the roof."  I had to explain that not every house was going to be the same as LAST YEAR.  Sometimes people move away.  For example, our neighbors to the left moved away and a new family moved in.  So the decorations were different.  This bothered him for a few days, but he was satisfied enough with the fact that the neighbors down the street got a new "blow up."  Every time we came home he ran down the sidewalk to check it out.  I just couldn't believe he remembered which yard decorations went with which house!

Uncle Nathan's torture:

Bryce has several obsessions.  One of them is the phrase, "Oh no!"  If anyone says that, it MUST be followed with "What are we going to do?"  He will pester you until you say it.  It stops his world and you can't get anything out of him until someone says it.  Usually it has to be the person who said Oh no.  For example, I can't say What are we going to do? if Jared says Oh no!  Uncle Nathan, being the typical "annoy the nephews" kind of uncle, decided one day to keep saying Oh no! in all sorts of ways in his sentences.  And he refused to say "what are we going to do?"  This drove Bryce batty.  He finally gave up and just ignored Nathan.  Of course, Nathan then took credit for "fixing" Bryce.  However, when we were in the car headed home, Bryce asked me to say "What are we going to do?"  So I humored him, thinking maybe Henry said Oh no and I just didn't hear it.  Bryce then proceeded to ask me to say it again, back to back, six more times.  He had been keeping track in his head of how many times Nathan said Oh no.  It was finally his chance to make things balanced and right in his world again.  Needless to say, Uncle Nathan has been banned from every uttering the words "Oh no" again!

Uncle Lance:

Lance is Jared's older brother.  He and his family came to visit us one day over the break.  We had a wonderful time with them, as they have three boys as well.  The cousins had a blast together, and Lance really seemed to enjoy Bryce.  He and Bryce sat next to one another while we had breakfast at Jared's Denny's the morning they were heading home.  Lance kept teasing Bryce about his pancakes. He said, "They are all out of syrup, so you're going to get hot sauce for your pancakes instead, OK?"  Bryce just laughed and said, "No! That's silly! You don't put hot sauce on your pancakes!" (Once again, I wish you could read inflection- his little voice just goes up and down with exaggerated emotion, especially when you're talking about absurdities.)  Later, Lance told him that the butter was gone, so he was going to use sour cream instead.  Again, Bryce just laughed and thought Uncle Lance was so silly.  This is really huge progress for someone who is autistic.  A year ago, Bryce would have cried because he would really believe that someone was going to ruin his breakfast.  Now, he sees the absurd and teasing part of things and is learning to enjoy humor.  So thanks, Uncle Lance, for including Bryce in the conversation and making him enjoy your visit!  Little things like that don't go overlooked! 

That's all I can think of for now, although I'm sure there was more I should be recording for posterity.  All in all, it was a great Christmas break (but we are happy to be back in the structured environment of school!).

The cousins, Christmas 2012

Cousins, Christmas 2011