Vacuuming, Stander Time, and Snack Time

Lo and behold I have a little bit of time and have actually taken pictures of everyday life.  That means I'm doing a blog post about everyday life for Mason just because I can.  For those who like those sorts of things, let me tell you a bit about Mason right now.  Mason is almost 4 1/2 years old.  He's learning new things and loves it. Case in point - he's finally old enough to have official chores at our house. 

The way it works here is that the first summer after you turn 4 years old you get a whole room to be in charge of.  And every child older than that gets a room.  You clean this room every day but Sunday, which means it never gets really dirty but you get a lot of practice with basic skills like picking up, wiping off tables, sweeping or vacuuming, cleaning toilets, etc.  Mason's very first room is our piano room. He picks up any toys that have been abandoned on the floor and puts them away.  Then he gets to vacuum.  Mason loves vacuuming, though he doesn't like how noisy it can be.  We have a couple different vacuums and he prefers this red one as the quietest of the bunch.

I caught these cute picture of Mason and one of his younger brothers, Samuel, having snack the other day. 

They used three of our cube chairs, one turned over to make a table and two for seats, and had their own little party together. 

Another day in the life thing here is time in the stander.  Mason generally likes this, but we still need to get adjustments to his HKAFOs (braces he's wearing in combination with the wheeled stander to hold him upright), so his time is limited in the stander to about 30 minutes. 

I think we know where the adjustments need made though, so it's time to schedule that appointment. 

Today he decided to used dry erase markers during his stander time.  This book is a construction themed one with mazes and dot to dots he can do and wipe off to erase over and over. 

Other things Mason likes to spend his day doing:

• Playdoh.  He's definitely a sensory fan and he asks to do playdoh every single day. He uses construction vehicles, animal figures, cutters, extruders, and toothpicks with playdoh.
• Thinking putty.  This is along the lines of silly putty but the ones we have either change colors as you warm them up/use them, or are magnetic. 
• Building with Legos.  He is just now getting to the point where his creations are recognizable.  Today, for example, he made a car to race against his siblings cars. 
• Magnetic tiles.  He builds construction sites, towers, and tracks for trains to use.
• Play Minecraft on his Kindle Fire.  Yes, he loves Minecraft.  He uses his Kindle especially during his daily enema because what else is fun to do for an hour on the toilet? 
• Books.  He likes to have me read to him.  Favorites right now are Curious George and anything with photographs of actual animals (not drawings). 
• Dirt.  He's a fan of playing in the dirt, though he doesn't like the heat and because he can't sweat due to a medication he's on it makes it difficult to be outside very long right now with temps in the upper 80s. 

Those are the highlights.  We're hoping to get to the swimming pool this weekend if the storms hold off and that will be a new experience for Mason (he was much younger the last time we went).  I have no idea if he is going to like it or hate it.  It will be interesting to find out!