Oh Brother

Brother loves his toy horses. He also loves to line them up. He has discovered that he likes to line them up on the ramps. He first discovered a ramp at Grandpa Gary's house. It was being used for a wheel barrel ramp to get mulch up to the flower beds. Brother wanted to make some ramps at home for his horses. I told him to go ahead and get whatever wood out of the wood pile that he wanted so that he could make a ramp. I just didn't think it would be this big. (smile)

His favorites are the Barbie Doll horses because he can brush their hair and then the look pretty. (tee hee)

Oh, and to fit all these horses somewhere, Grandma Judy sent us home with a huge barn she got for $7 at a yard sale. Here is a picture of me bringing it home in the car. Too bad I didn't have the suburban that day...

That's it, next to me in the passenger seat. It was too big to fit in the trunk and we had to fold the seat back to get it in. Can you see Brother smiling in the back seat?!

This year in our school district they had a special track and field day for all the Special Ed classes in the entire district. Usually they have participated with all the main stream kids in the Hershey track meet, which has been awesome, but it is also a little heartbreaking because most of these special needs kids don't finish alongside their mainstream peers and some even get overlooked.

This was one of those experiences you never forget. It was so awesome to watch the comradary between Brother and his friends in class and all the high school kids who were there volunteering their time to encourage, cheer, run with, push wheelchairs and generally be there for all these kids.

I have to add that it took everything in me not to cry the entire time I was there. It was just so wonderful!

It was so awesome to watch.

Here he is with his friend after the first 200 meter. It was so sweet because they had an interviewer going around with a microphone to talk to the kids on the field. After this particular race they interviewed Brother's friend, who ran with him and she said, "I ran because [Brother] wanted to run with me... and I looked behind me and there he was so I just kept running because he was running with me." So sweet.

He started the 400 hundred and I was trying to catch up with him to get a picture and this is all I could get of the beginning. He is the little spec running in second place, or count four runners in from the right.

Here he is coming in the home stretch! He holds his arms like that towards the end because he thinks it looks cool... don't tell him... (smile)

I really need to get my kids involved in Special Olympics.

Brother ran the 200 meter twice, the 50 and 100 meter, the 400 meter and did the long jump.

The next morning when he woke up for school he told me that his legs were so sore and tired. (smile)

I am so proud of him. He came in 3rd in his first 200, came in 4th on his second 200 and, I think, 5th or 6th in his 400.

Then the next day he went on his first scout campout with his scout troop and his dad.

We have been preparing him for a month now that he would be going out with his dad to this scout campout. He was so scared the morning of and kept saying he didn't want to go. But, then when it came time to get in the car he was all for it. (Looking back now I realize I should have done a social story. It would have made things a lot better--you live and learn, right?)

When Brother came home Saturday from the campout he was still grinning from ear to ear. He said he had a great time and had fun with dad. I think he was really proud of himself for going too.
(I have some great pictures of his scout campout but, Marc has them at work on his iPod.)

I am so proud of Brother and all the wonderful things he does. It helps me move past what is so tough for him. He is inspiring!

(check out his new vlog)