up to the challenge

A few weeks ago Dave told Calvin that if he could run a mile without stopping at all, in under 10 minutes, he would buy him a new gaming system. I thought that this was a pretty lofty, if not completely impossible goal. Calvin went out running with Dave a couple of times but could only make it a few houses and then he'd stop with cramps completely out of breath. He only tried this a few times and the rest of the days he wouldn't even go out and try. However, he was completely planning on getting the Wii U as evidenced by his hours spent shopping online for the best wii u package! He also told his sisters that they could keep his old wii when he got his new wii u.  I was very concerned that he would have a major let down as weeks and even months passed by and he couldn't get his wii u. He is not good at waiting. We told Calvin that it would take one or more months to train himself to be able to run that far without stopping.


This morning Dave got home from work and offered to take Calvin out to practice running. Dave said, "Let's see how far you can go without stopping." Calvin went with him and low and behold he ran the entire mile without stopping. It was amazing. He was really dragging toward the end but hung in there.  Lexey and I were out on bikes and saw him and Dave coming down the road so we cheered him on as he ran the last 100 yards.

He came straight in the house and sat with the open fridge getting lots of drinks of cold water and telling the girls about his battle "I had cramps but I just kept going" "My mind was telling me I should stop but I just told myself to keep going".  Good for Calvin!

Later this afternoon Dave took him out to get his wii. Christmas will be a real let down after this. 

Today is the biggest college football day of the year so Dave told Calvin he'd have to wait to play until tomorrow. Calvin said that would be fine....but Dave ended up finding another solution, letting Calvin use the computer monitor for the wii while he watches football on the big tv.


I wonder what else Calvin can do ..... sometimes I wonder if we underestimate him.

sports

Since coming to Houston I've tried to get Calvin to sign up for sports. At first we put him in Karate since he was doing so great in Karate at school. Technically it's martial arts, not karate. After just a couple of weeks Calvin decided he didn't like it because it was too hot. I chose martial arts since it is an indoor sport and would have great A/C but  Calvin didn't even like the exercise heating him up!  Once you get warm in this town you can never cool off!

There is a challenger basketball league here probably much like the one we tried at home. I asked Calvin if he wanted to sign up and he said no. When I asked him why he declined to answer several times.   Finally when I asked him one time he told me that he doesn't want to be in basketball with all of the handicapped people. It is interesting that he expressed that. He has been going to school with handicapped people for a few years now, some kind of like him and some much more handicapped. The basketball group was made up of people with more profound disabilities, many being intellectually disabled. It is tough to find a place where Calvin "fits" since he can't keep up with healthy kids his own age and is a little too far advanced to hang with a grouping of handicapped kids. I'd love to help him advance so that he could be with typical kids but I'm not sure he'll ever catch up.   The best solution I've found so far is letting him hang out with patient kids who will help him out, adults who are patient or much younger kids (2-5 years old) who he is basically on par with.  He is happy in his niche as long as his sisters aren't driving him crazy.

cute Calvin

Calvin is doing really well these days. He still has his moments...though his fits aren't as long or as intense or as frequent, which is great.

Lately Calvin has been really into stuffed animals. Lexey was sweet enough to give Calvin one of her stuffed animals "pup" a dog from build a bear that she got a year ago. Calvin talks to pup, takes pup on his bike, to school and to bed. It is very cute.

A few days ago I took Calvin with me to do some errands. I stopped by a thrift store to see if there were tennis rackets. They didn't. But they did have lots of stuffed animals (stuffy's). Calvin looked through each one.  He spent about an hour and found several that he really wanted to take home. Since they ranged in price from $0.75 to $3.99 he had enough money to get a few. He ended up picking 4 very small cheap ones to share with the girls and then one bigger one to give to Jo...a build a bear bunny.  My hands were all greasy from touching all of those disgusting used stuffed animals so we hurried home to wash our hands and wash the stuffies. They came out of the wash looking good as new!  Calvin made name tags for them all and has been taking a couple of them on all of his adventures.

Dave mentioned that perhaps Calvin has matured from toddler (2-3 year old in constant tantrum) to a 4 year old.  Funny and sad at the same time. Glad he is in a sweeter stage.

email

Sometimes Calvin emails me. It is really cute. Today I got this gem:  (Calvin has been reading a lot and has recently been putting lots of books, movies and CD's on hold. Last night we had been talking about this particular book, wondering if the library has it yet)

mom i put on hold diary of a wimpy kid the long haul, and its place in queue number is 149 thanks 



On Halloween Calvin decided not to wear his costume...but then changed his mind and sent this email.

Mom can you come to school with my costume? Because i am now wanting to wear my karate Gi and belt. And please email me back so i can know if you can or not? I U