Planning the Plans

 October 23, 2022 

As the month is getting closer to the end, things like the upcoming Christmas season start to brew in my mind. For the most part, Bradley is not a huge Christmas guy. I have tried to engage him with an advent calendar and I’ve tried the same little Christmas tree chart that Curious George uses in his Christmas movie….but he doesn’t always like the toys out of the calendar and the calendar I tried to do, I did the 25 days of Christmas - probably too ambitious for him. 

Last year, we put the Christmas tree up on Thanksgiving weekend, Sunday afternoon and Bradley was very excited by the tree. He helped drag it in, he wanted to pull EVERYTHING out of the boxes, and then put one ornament on it, and then proceeded to sit and supervise for the rest of that activity. I think this year we’ll probably put the tree up the day after Thanksgiving, if he can be excited by the tree, he can get excited about other parts too. So we’re going to look for Holiday events that we can take him to and this year we’re going to try to figure out how to get him to see Santa. He doesn’t do lines so well, but we’re going to do our best. Maybe more than once. He definitely likes Santa, he starts watching a lot of Christmas movies this time of year. I start pulling all of them up on his iPad and on the morning tv when we watch that. Plus, they are all starting to trend; if not now, then over the next weeks. I am hoping that with us continuing to expose him to the Season we can try to help him get more excited about Christmas in general. 

I’m going to try George’s chart again, but I’m going to be a good little mommy and copy it so when he looks at his, he remembers George’s. Maybe that kind of connection will click for him too. 

Which leaves us to the hardest part. What the Heck are we going to get Bradley for Christmas. He loves Scooby, Cars stuff, and he loves Magna-tiles. But he has so many Magna-tiles and lots of Scooby… well, as much Scooby as you can get these days as he’s not so popular anymore. And that makes me sad of course. But that also keeps me a regular at Cracker Barrel these days. For some reason, Cracker Barrel is still a Scooby Doo fan and they keep cycling through some different products. So I try to pop in and check the stock and hope to add to Bradley’s Christmas and Birthday presents. 

Yeah - his birthday is about two weeks after Christmas. Oh and his Dad, his birthday is two weeks before Christmas! These men in my life!!! Oh my gosh!!! So I am looking for the perfect gift for Eric’s Birthday, Christmas presents for Eric and the kids, and then Bradley’s birthday present. And in the meantime, I’m going to help my boy gather some understanding and certainly am hoping - Bradley has some fun and joy. If he is going to keep giving us joy, I really want to find a way to return just as much to him. 

For now, we’re trying to prep for Halloween. Maybe. Right now, I plan on getting Bradley checked tomorrow because his cough is making us nervous. I’ve been doing some research and I thought for sure that unless he had a fever he was good… now I am not sure that he hasn’t dropped something into his lungs that he just can’t shake free from. Tomorrow, we’ll make sure. Better safe than sorry for sure. 

Then when we get past Halloween, we get into Thanksgiving. And I work overtime to make sure that our table has a meal with everything that Bradley can eat and all I can get him to try. Feeding therapy has helped us to expand what hits his plate each year, and at Thanksgiving he eats a little more each time. Luckily, the girls are not as picky. Though they always remind me of their favorites and I always try to get them on the menu. God willing that never changes. 

For now, I’ll hit the Cracker Barrel shop this week and peruse their Scooby merchandise as long as I am not here at home with Bradley. Every day is a new and surprising adventure in our house! 

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