Fire station

While we were home (meaning hometown) for Thanksgiving, my cousin called and offered us a tour of the local fire-station! Were we interested? Heck yeah!

So we piled the boys and my great-niece Adi into the car and headed over.

Jude got to turn on the lights, and I admit I cringed when Chuck showed him the switch for the siren. (Remember Jude has A THING for buttons and switches!)

The pictures pretty much speak for themselves, so I'll be quiet for a sec while you scroll...

They LOVED it, and got sent home with a fistful of plastic fire hats! The only draw-back (for me) was listening to a car-full of kids pretend to be fire-trucks on the way home. :) Jude and Owen had a heated debate on whether to become fireMEN or fireTRUCKS when they grow up.....tough decision. Thanks, Chuck and Anne!

Basketball

Basketball has become a big deal at our house.

Jude is interested in all sports, and very competitive. Owen likes the social aspect of sports, but that is about as far as his interest goes. 

Jude is a smack-talker. Points his finger at the competition, then gestures them closer, implying they can come closer if they want a whoopin'....:)

Owen declined to play basketball in his own league this year. However, Jude's team has needed an extra player every practice so far, in order for them to scrimmage, and Owen gets out there, in a wheelchair, and gives Jude a run for his money, even though he knows he won't be allowed to play in the real games. Owen is so shy that he barely speaks on the court, and is hesitant to pass or catch the ball...unless he is guarding Jude! Then he is all business and hustles, playing excellent defense.

Jude more than makes up for Owen's reticence, hollering for the ball, taking shots.....notice in the pic below that Jude has learned how to keep the ball in his lap, now that they have started enforcing the rules of "legs must be strapped down".

The team has special chairs that go very fast, have no brakes, and turn on a dime.

Owen is in a chair that is for a much bigger person, so struggles to keep himself in the chair.

Jude is having to learn to do more with his upper body, which is a struggle for him, as he is VERY mobile in his lower body, and he uses his legs a great deal for balance and power. He is mobile in his upper body as well, he is just used to being able to do as much as he can, with a he has, an being constrained irks him.

Learning to shoot from a seated position has ticked him off, but he is coming along. :)

Learning to roll the ball up the side of the chair is coming along too!

Below is an example of Owen and Jude head to head.

To close, today I over heard Owen say to Jude, while they played a video game, "Get him, bro'!!! Get him!" And I heard him call Jude "bro" twice more , later! No idea where that has come from but cracks me up!

A very good thing....

This is a list of good changes that have occurred as a direct result of Jude joining our family through adoption, in no particular order. I am unclear, in each scenario, if the change was fascilitated by adoption in general, Jude specifically, Owen specifically , or the unique elixir created by those factors.

- Owen sleeps in his own bed a LOT more often now, than he did before Jude came home.

- Owen whines "I can't do it" almost NEVER anymore...as a matter I fact I can't remember the last time he has said that. He tries to figure things out on his own, with his own initiative a lot more. THEN he says, "Hey, Jude! Can you do this?" I find both a nice change.

- Owen plays a lot more, in general. For starters, he has a built in playmate now. Who happens to be a boy. Who is for all intents and purposes developmentally about the same as Owen. Who is usually game for anything. Whom Owen thinks is a laugh a minute, and vice versa.

- Owen has someone with which to engage in imaginative play with, constantly, now, and as a result, kingdoms are built and empires are crushed underfoot daily at our house, as opposed to my poor attempts to remember that this pretend enemy has this fighting capability but tHAT one can fly, etc...it was an exercise in frustration for both of us. Jude and Owen have some kind of  twin-speak going on, that enables them to play for HOURS, in relative accord.

- Owen is a great deal more adventurous, as long as "Jude does it,too". This does not always end well for them, but in general, Owen is getting to experience a lot more of life than he used to, bc he was just too shy.

- Owen has shown a generosity of spirit, and some leadership that may have always been there, but how do you know, if you are never in the crucible?

Are things perfect? Is Owen perfect? Of course not. But what he is, is MORE. He's louder,more often. He tells jokes and laughs, in this totally hokey, all-boy way, that only another boy (or 45 year old man who used to be a goofy 6 year old boy) can find funny, more often.

He has IDEAS. BIG ONES, that have only come as there has been this sounding board, in the form of another person with BIG IDEAS to bounce them off of. Listening to them construct and reconstruct their tent-city is a joy-filled hour of enthusiastic brainstorming that continues to amaze me. There was just a switch that was NOT on, before May. It's on now.

I would go so far as to say that whatever trajectory Owen's life was on prior to May, it has taken at least a 90 degree turn. He was always a good kid. He just seems so VIBRANT to me now. It's a beautiful thing. :)

Art

Jude and Owen took an art class with a few classmates. This was their first completed painting.

This is the class

This is the canvas after they prepared the background for their second painting. I was impressed with even this!

This is the finished product. Owen's is on the left and Jude is on the right. Jude said Owen helped him with some if the outlines for the houses. (Without the rubber grips we use on pencils, Jude's grip is a little loose.) So, call me crazy, but I was impressed! The woman who runs the studio had 6 kiddos aged 4-8 sit still long enough to crank out a painting from blank canvas to a recognizable facsimile of a master's work. ALL the kiddos' paintings were this good! Is that not nuts?! Now I have to paint the boys room so they can hang up their art work....:)