On June 28, 2017, Tanner turned 6 years old! Since March, he had been talking about having a Ninja Turtle birthday party with all his friends. We have never done a birthday party with friends, so we were reluctant to let Tanner do it, especially since he doesn’t do very well at big parties. We said he could invite 6 friends. Fortunately, the party turned out to be a GREAT time for him, his friends and for us!
For Tanner’s birthday service, I challenged him to think of things we could collect from his freinds in lieu of birthday presents that would help other children and families. I was so proud of him for making this sign that says “Cansuvfoud” (cans of food) next to the front door as friends arrived. It was a good learning opportunity for him in many ways, one of them being to trust in us. We assured him that he would get plenty of presents from family and wouldn’t need anything from friends, which he found to be true.
The night before the party, Tanner got everything set up. Including his Epic Lego Ninja Creation with a sign that says “PlesDnttush” (Please don’t touch)…
On the wall he hung this cartoon decoration that he made over the course of a few days. These ninjas have a lot to say. One of them is saying Callabunga dude! And another is saying I’m so ready for this!
And a paper ninja doll…
along with a demonstration on how he made it.
Jeremy was in charge of assisting Tanner with all of the activities, because they work much better together than Tanner and I do. I got to be in charge of the food. Here is the list of events for the party that Tanner worked on several weeks before the party, ( Jeremy helped convice Tanner to modify it a bit since we wouldn’t have time to do all his many ideas). The list was made to read like a book, with a front and back cover.
We had lots of ninja stuff that family members sent us in preparation for the party, so we got it all ready!
Before the party started we tried to get some pictures.
Then some friends arrived, and Tanner was done with taking pictures, just in time for a shot with Mom and Dad.
Before we began, there were some things that Tanner wasn’t happy with, so Jeremy took Tanner into the garage and helped him calm down. We all put on ninja turtle tattoos. Then Tanner was ready to roll again, so we showed the kids the very first episode of ninja turtles, since many of the kids are not familiar with TMNT.
Next, the boys had a big ninja fight in the basement! Grandma Nana made some ninja masks for the boys out of crepe paper that we had. They looked really cool and worked for about the first minute of the fight, haha. The boys used swim noodles as weapons.
Jeremy was Shredder, the bad guy.
After that, we made a ninja turtle craft. Tanner and I designed and prepared it based on ideas from the internet. But Tanner added more details for him and his friends to do, making the craft look way cooler.
All the boys liked doing the craft! One kid said “This is a fun party. I’m glad I came!” Which made us all feel good, especially Tanner.
The finished products, front and back.
Then we served lunch! Pizza, veggies and fruit.
All the kids really enjoyed each other’s company.
And cake! It was an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen with TMNT on it. It was the perfect treat because it was a very hot and humid day.
While we ate cake, we explained to the kids what we were going to do with all the canned food they brought. Then a conversation emerged about how heavy it will be to take all the canned food to the Salvation Army, so one boy suggested that Tanner use a truck. Then the kids spent about ten minutes discussing all the different forms of transportation that they could use to get the cans there. Ideas inclued trains, rockets, and robot powered wagons. It was really funny listening to them all talk with each other.
After dinner, the boys did free play outside in the backyard. Grandpa had fun playing with one of our little friends.
Angie lingered longer with her two kids. It was a beautiful evening.
Before Grandpa could realize, he was the center of a big game in which he was the bad guy. He managed to ward off the kids without moving around very much!
About a week later, we loaded all the cans into the car.
Dallin took this picture for us.
Tanner pushed everything into the donation area. He got to watch the lady weigh all the items, which totaled over 50 pounds of food! Tanner was beaming as we delivered the food, especially when he heard how many pounds he donated.
I am so grateful to be this little boy’s mommy. He is one amazing person with a mind that goes and goes. Tanner loves analyzing, creating, and problem solving. He studies things out, he loves to plan ahead, and he is really good at articulating his thoughts and ideas to us.
Tanner enjoys camping, playing all kinds of sports, making up songs, dancing, riding his bike, and playing in the sandbox. He learned how to pump himself on the swing this past spring. And he is really good at the monkey bars, which are his favorite thing on playgrounds! He loves to be the leader and is very good at it. He wants to be an everything man, which means that he will do a little bit of everything since he cannot decide on just one thing to be.
Right now, he loves building his own creations with his legos and drawing with a pen and paper, as seen above. He’s also had some interest in writing. It’s really fun to see how writing is an innate behavior that comes before reading, (which supports some philosophies on how children naturally develop literacy). Tanner likes looking at non-fiction books and he is really good at listening to me read him fiction chapter books. He reads several sight words and sort-of sounds words out, but when I try to work with him on more reading skills, he resists, so I don’t push it with him.
Lately, Tanner has been really good about playing with his brother. They will play for hours together outside, in the basement, in the library, building and imagining. Most of the ideas are Tanner’s, but sometimes Dallin’s ideas will be approved by Tanner and integrated into their games. I sometimes tell the boys, “You two are such good friends!” But Tanner says, “No we aren’t! We’re brothers, so you can’t call us friends.” LOL. But they really are each other’s best friend. One intersting observation is that when we are doing good at meeting Tanner’s sensory needs, he is much more patient with Dallin.
Tanner is getting more independent. He is the “morning person” in the family, waking up before everyone else. He gets dressed and reads or builds creations in the library while everyone else slowly wakes up. At bed time, he takes his own showers and does practically everything himself from starting the water to getting in his jammies and brushing his teeth. For the most part, he is eager to learn new things that help him be more independent. But sometimes he resists when I teach him a new skill because he knows that once he can do it on his own, then I’m going to expect that he keep doing it on his own!
Tanner has a competative streak in him. He works really hard to be the best at pretty much everything, especially at things like board games or sports. Sometimes this is a source of many anxieties for him, but we are helping him learn how to channel that drive in a positive way.
Tanner’s languages of love are Gift Giving and Quality Time. He loves coming up with little gifts and cards to give people and treasures everything that anyone gives him. He really thrives on playing and talking with others, and is always asking to play with me and Jeremy and begging to have playdates with his friends. The love language called Acts of Service doesn’t come easy for him. For example, his idea of helping us with yard work or getting dinner ready often involves him sitting on the couch talking to us while we do the work, lol. (Dallin, on the other hand, would much rather be working with us instead of talking). It’s helpful to understand what types of love drive my sons so that we can help them be as happy as possible.
While we continue to face challenges with helping Tanner navigate his sensory needs and anxieties, we are getting a lot of help from his therapists and by educating ourselves through great books. We are working on something called Zones of Regulation, which is a program that helps children understand their sensory and emotional systems, their triggers and how to use various coping tools to regulate their systems with minimal help from others. We still have a long way to go, but the exciting thing is that it’s helping us a lot and his school is adopting the program for all students this year.
We sure are excited for Tanner to attend Kindergarten this year!
I love you, my Little Tan Man!!! What a wonderful boy you are becoming!!