Dear Noah.....spending lots of time at the Darke County Fair.....

You looked forward to this all summer. You were hoping your dad was going to make it in for a visit during fair week, but he was not able to. I bought myself a pass though so we could go as many times as we wanted...you are free. We prayed for nice weather and it has been beyond nice....so cool and low humidity! PERFECT fair weather! Sunday when we went back it was almost like a FALL Festival ...so cool we had to wear jackets and long sleeves and jeans! PERFECT to spend an entire afternoon and evening at the fair!







I bought you a wrist band ride pass and you chose to ride the GIANT SLIDE over and over again......for about 3 HOURS! I told you the next day you would probably be sore....meaning your legs. BUT the next day you came up to me and said instead, "Mom, my armpits are really sore!" You could not raise your arms up over your head! THAT was because you had gone up and down that giant slide ride about 100 times...and you hoisted your body OFF the slide at the top on the hand rails to place yourself on the burlap sack to ride down. That used a lot of muscles you normally don't use in your underarm area and stomach! You said today your stomach and lower abs were sore......all from that repetitive movement I am sure!





You did well standing in line and was very helpful at times to the other kids or ticket attendant.

You also rode the Merry-Go-Round 5 times...played Skeeball...and putt putt golf. We saw all the animals and exhibits of pies, cakes, vegetables, and art in the coliseum and fine arts buildings. We walked around and saw the horses race and people playing games. We saw helicopter rides....etc. We have really enjoyed the fair. I have taken over 1 GB of photos and video clips of the fair so far. We want to go back again Wednesday night to see the fireworks!









On another note.......you have finally learned how to tie off your own disposable bags that hold your wipes you use after a bowel movement. It has only taken you THREE years to get you ready enough to even want to be near the bag let alone touch it...and learn to tie it off. YOU now CAN TIE it off and in a KNOT!!!!!! I am so proud of you and feel very weird now as you can now do all your toileting by yourself here at home finally at 10-1/2 years of age! This has been a long time coming! Learning to tie shoe laces will be a breeze I bet for you now!

Today you had your first occupational therapy visit for the new year. They are working on strengthening your eye muscles to focus on things left and right....up close and far away.....as you have definite weaknesses there....afterwards you ended up with a really bad headache.







You then had speech therapy. You look washed out tonight.

I tried to get you to TASTE a black seedless grape last night....I cut one in half and told you to place it on your tongue to just taste its sweetness and juice. You said it tasted good but it had a "very strong stench for me" and I got to laughing hearing you say "stench!" I said , "stench?" and you said, " yeah you know, really strong bad smell!" haha. I asked where you had heard that word and you said probably on a Thomas The Tank Engine movie and I think you are right. Anyway.... you could not get past the strong GRAPE SMELL to eat the grape piece. You said it was too much for you!

You are expressing yourself to me and others more and more all the time which is huge progress for you too. School is going along okay too.....it is always tough to start out with all the changes in routine for you at the start of a new year.

Well....we will hit the fair again tomorrow after school and work...and a few other things. We made a run to Walgreens last night when you found out that they had Candy Corn out for sale already! YOU LOVE candy corn..so does Opie!

I love you Noah and am very proud of you!

Mommy
XOXOX

Here is a snippet of you coming down the slide ONE of the many times you did...and of you on the Merry-Go-Round: