Family Reunion (and LargeBoy goes to OT)

Very exciting things are happening! First, I posted for the first time in a month, so if you haven't yet, scroll down and read the previous post, too, to catch up. Even more exciting, though, we met Marti, MechanicalMan, and Child yesterday on their Midwest Baseball tour. It's nice to meet family and see how TOTALLY cool they are! I'll fill you in on that in a moment.

SmallBoy had OT last night. in the summer, we go on Tuesdays. We were heading straight from there to Meem's to meet Marti & family, so PC & I brought LargeBoy with us (Girl is still on vacation). It really was a great experience, because it gave LargeBoy some insight into this mysterious thing called "OT", and what his brother does there. LargeBoy got to see his brother do things that he never thought he could, kick a punching bag, punch the punching bag and send it flying, balance blind, and so many more things. He learned things that he can do with his brother while playing that work into his OT (his "homeowork"). He learned WHY we do certain things with SmallBoy. More importantly, though, he got to play with the toys in the waiting area. In this picture, LargeBoy (remember he's almost 16) had stolen the textured ball from PC (you know, the ones that are open so you can fold them inside out to get the smooth side?), opened it up and put it on his head. I couldn't resist the picture. PC did the same and looked like a rooster. Sadly, I missed that picture. We had a good time, SmallBoy - without prompting - introduced LargeBoy to J, the OT extraordinaire, he worked hard and was ready to roll. He was SO excited to be done and to go meet his cousin, Child.

Two Aspie cousins, keep in mind there is no blood relation between them, since Child is from Meem's side of the family, and SmallBoy from mine, thus no shared "Aspie gene". Both boys were SO excited to meet. It could have been disastrous - putting two Aspies together who have never met, but SmallBoy and Child have been waiting SO long to meet each other, they've been learning about each other through Marti & me and through the things each have written, that it was instant success! The boys immediately took off together with their squirt guns. They ran, screamed in fun, squirted, chased, they played with LargeBoy & Princess, and soaked LargeBoy. They played pool, sang karaoke, watched baseball (it was Child's Minnesota Twins vs SmallBoy's Chicago White Sox), ate hamburgers (we ate pork tenderloin), played Apples to Apples, shared, vegged out, and had a FANTASTIC time! I know that SmallBoy had a really really good sleep last night. I'd be willing to bed that Child did, too.

I had a "straight" picture, but I think this best describes Marti & me. We're both juuuuust a little off kilter. I can't begin to tell you what this was like, but I'll try. We arrived at Meem's before Marti & family. The waiting was like a child waiting up to catch a glimpse of Santa or to hear the hooves of the reindeer on the rooftop. SmallBoy and I kept running to the window, alternately, to see if they had arrived yet. When we both got involved in something else, I turned around in the kitchen to peek at the kids outside, notice that my FIL had arrived home from work and that there were extra people outside. At first I saw MechanicalMan, but just legs & shoes, and I thought that LargeBoy was chatting with FIL - until I noticed the beautiful redhead standing next to him. "THEY'RE HERE!!!!!" That's what came flying from my mouth as I bolted to the door, racing to Marti who gave me the HUGEST, WARMEST hug! (I'm getting all teary eyed just thinking about it). Big hugs from/for MechanicalMan & Child, too. Oh I was - we were all SO excited!! We talked for hours, laughed, shared stories about family, watched our boys, played games, ate Meem's Phallic Pork (oh we had SO much fun with that!) while the boys ate burgers, the kids played pool, ET (aka HippieWineSteward per Marti) and Princess (aka Sarah Bernhard per Marti - I LOVE these names!) played and ate, SIL joined us later, we played them a bit of Code West......I wish the night could have gone on forever - or at least that I could take the next three days off of work just to hang out and catch up!

The boys got along famously, we learned more about this wonderful family of which we are all the BEST branches, and are now looking at the calendar to see when we can get to Minnesota, don'tcha know! Oh you guys....LOVE YOU LOVE YOU LOVE YOU