Spring Break

Dallin's spring break was at the end of March. It doesn't change our schedule much since he only has preschool for 3 hours on 4 days of the week, but it's a good time to schedule some of his doctor appointments in Indianapolis. This way, we don't have to go drive down super early in the morning to make it back in time for afternoon preschool.

We grabbed a wagon (provided for use by the Children's Hospital) and went back and forth to three different appointments in 3 hours. Its funny that this picture shows Connor sitting in the wagon, because he spent 90% of the time pulling the wagon by himself, insistent on no help from me. Good thing they schedule lots of buffer time in between appointments so we had time for Connor to slowly pull Dallin around. 

Dallin was a trooper through his two ultrasounds and blood draw. He got to choose a coloring book (seen in the wagon above) as a prize for getting his blood drawn. That poor kid has been through so much and so many blood draws (at least 30 in his 5 short years). He cries at the sight of the chair. The Children's hospital has a pretty great phlebotomist though and we lucky to get her this time. It only took 30 seconds!

After all the doctor stuff, we ate our sack lunch in the cafeteria.

With it being spring break, I wanted to do something fun with the kids. So we stayed in Indianapolis for a bit instead of driving straight home. We went to the Children's Museum. It's been a few years since we've been there and Connor was only a baby then, so there was a lot for them to see.

They liked digging for dinosaur bones.

Connor popped his head up to tell me, "I'm digging dinosaurs!"

We got to play with some clay and make shapes. Dallin asked for a snowman so I sculpted the pieces and he put them together.

Then Dallin made his own person. He made this completely by himself with no help or prompting of any kind from me.

I was amazed because he's never made anything like this before. I've read studies about how children with Williams syndrome have difficulty with visuospatial construction. For example, a child with WS can draw a bicycle with all the correct parts present (seat, wheels, handles), but not in the correct locations.

That's why I love this person he sculpted, complete with arms, legs, torso, head and a very large nose. (In his defense, we had just made a snowman so I think he was trying to make a carrot nose for his guy too.) Maybe it has something to do with constructing a 3D model vs. drawing on flat paper. His drawings of people are scribbles. It's also possible that Dallin doesn't struggle as much with the visuospatial problems that many others with WS have. I've heard how difficult it is for even adults with WS to complete a simple 6 piece puzzle, yet Dallin is amazing with puzzles and can handle 30 pieces on his own.

Enough bragging about Dallin...

 Dallin asked me to make Darth Vader for him too.

I made the head and body, and while I worked out making the cape, Dallin reached over and stuck arms and a lightsaber on Darth Vader. I love this kid.

We played in the little kid area for a bit.

Dallin and Connor both loved climbing up and down these leaves.

 I thought they'd be nervous to climb so high, but they both climbed all the way up to the boat on top of the structure.

We all had a really great time. I'm glad we managed to have some fun during the cold, rainy spring break.