Dear Noah......we were tagged.......25 personal things about you....

Well I was actually BUT I decided to base the answers to 25 personal questions about YOU since this is a blog all about you and your life. SO the tag came from Marcie at Fighting for Timmy's blog and I was supposed to list 25 personal things I would not mind sharing about me...but as I said.....I am changing this to list 25 personal things I can share about YOU!

1. You did not really start talking until you were almost 5 years old. Then it was only 1-2 word sentences. You made a lot of sounds which you still sometimes make.

2. You were not potty trained (pee) wise until 5-1/2 years of age. Poopy potty trained probably within a year of that or so...but it took longer....but wiping on your own? NO.....I still had to help you with that until just about a year ago. You are now 10 years old and can wipe yourself...with wet wipes...which we do NOT flush down the toilet which means each poopy wet wipe has to be bagged up and thrown away.....which means someone has to TIE all those bags shut ...which you cannot do..so I am still involved. We were using zip lock bags but you did not always get those locked....You are obsessed with wiping your butt and always seem to have to do it..so I tie off a bunch of bags each day. My next project is teaching you how to do that. NOW if you use any other bathroom than ours....I still have to help you wipe....as most bathrooms do not have a mirror you can see yourself in...which is required if you wipe your own butt. I am trying to teach you like the school tried....that you CAN wipe without checking your backside in the mirror....but it is a process. SO if we go out or to a relatives and you have a bowel movement.....I still have to help you wipe.

3. You only eat Kraft Macaroni and Cheese with extra cheddar cheese powder mixed in with the cheese packet that comes with it in the box and only noodles that are whole..no broken or split ones.

4. Every night before going to sleep when I am telling you good night and I love you.....you are still busy telling me where a Wal*Mart or Target or K-Mart location is or what you will do per hour schedule the next day. Trying to "turn off" your brain at night to sleep has been a bit challenging. I now tell you to tell your "thoughts" goodnight and you can pick them back up to think more on them in the morning. This has worked pretty well. I tell you to think of things you would like to dream about...relaxing things.

5. You chew off your fingernails and toenails rather than have me trim them. Of course you cannot always handle the toenails anymore as they are getting thicker so I do have to trim those from time to time...or at least the ones you cannot with your teeth. When you were in preschool you pulled out all the hair in the center of your head. Stress related? Behavioral? Had to give you elastic bands and squishy things to "pull" on instead....slowly you stopped pulling your hair out and it grew back. Until then you looked like a little monk.

6. You do not eat any real vegetables or fruits....by that I mean raw or cooked. You will still eat Stage 3 Gerber baby food bananas. AND YOU WILL sometimes now eat apple slices...but they have to be a red apple only and very juicy ones and slices a certain thickness. TOO thin or TOO thick and you will cry and not be able to eat it. Last Sunday you tasted ONE kernel of corn for the first time in years....and you said it was very good, but you did not eat any more than 1 kernel. I still am encouraging you to try tasting pieces of fruits or vegetables even just laying them on your tongue to get used to the texture...and then hopefully one day you will eat them. You do eat frozen French fries or hashbrown crowns....only Ore-Ida brand...and only ones in complete circles...no broken or blackened potatoes. You also eat them from restaurants.

7. You have hyperflexible joints and are sooo flexible! You can still put your feet behind you head and often use your feet as hands.

8. You do not any longer eat my homecooked spaghetti..only will eat the sauce and garlic toast. However...you WILL eat spaghetti and ziti at Fazoli's. You also love their breadsticks.

9. You do not eat candy except for PLAIN M&Ms and only the standard colors....no holiday ones for you. You also sometimes like candy corn or Hershey kisses. You recently discovered the big Hershey candy bars and now like those too.

10. You do not eat ice cream.

11. You do not eat cake, but will now eat icing off of a cake.

12. You can work wonders on a computer designing house plans and rooms and toilets and such.

13. You only learned to use scissors correctly by the time you were around 6 years old. Same for writing which we continue to work on today. It is very difficult for you to write things and it overwhelms you easily.

14. You love real estate and looking at houses (you get that from me I think!) You love to look at real estate booklets and floor plans. When looking at houses for sale in the past all the real estate agents were impressed with your knowledge base and vocabulary of real estate. I dare say you put many of the agents to shame! You have just about every home floor plan book Lowes sells.

15. You do not like to smell pork cooking or saukerkraut. It makes you gag and almost vomit. (cannot blame you on that one...it does the same to me now).

16. You have very flat feet and have to wear orthotics in your shoes.

17. You know everything there is to know about trains, and toilets, and bathrooms, and elevators, and Wal*Mart, and K*Mart, and roads, and highways, (you are my little MapQuest!) and anything that has interested you over the years. I mean you are like a walking encyclopedia of information on those subjects.

18. You know the tune of a song after just listening to it one time and then can play it by ear on your piano...nothing fancy but you can do it.

19. You have read your Bible many times over.

20. You are very lovable and always ready to snuggle. You come out now every morning and climb in my lap and give me hugs and just snuggle for a period of time.

21. You like to smell things and people. You do not do it so much anymore. You also used to lick people...which we nipped in the bud I think which is good.

22. You now love to play with other kids. You still like many toddler toys better than age-appropriate toys. I don't care about that...I am the same way.

23. You love Burger King, Kentucky Fried Chicken, and Domino's Pizza like I mentioned above. You love Domino's Pizza, but only sausage with lots of extra sauce.....lots.....did I say lots of extra sauce?

24. You do not eat beef or pork or turkey and only certain kinds of chicken. You do not ever eat what I eat or fix for myself....unless I am having the same thing you are having.

25. You are interested in making a time machine to travel into the past and future to see what the bathrooms used to look like in some of the former Wal*Mart stores or restaurants that have since been closed.