John Wayne Fact: Donovan's Reef is set at Christmas time in a "South Seas Paradise" where a nativity is a little unconventional

December 12^th: Tis the season for children to become OBSESSED with the holiday. Duke is full on into the Elf on the Shelf and finding him on the daily. He looks for “Ho-Ho”/ “Santa” out the window daily. He has totally spotted all the Christmas presents, not that they were hiding in my closet and thankfully…they are all wrapped. He asked Santa for a Chewbacca (Bacca) toy for Christmas so I think we are safe on this one.

Elsa had frozen the Elf earlier in the day, this is after the thaw.

He has become so obsessed with Polar Express that I’m genuinely concerned for his sleep. He finds paper and takes it to bed with him saying “I got Ticket.”

I'm just going to go up here and hold Baby Jesus.

Happy 5th birthday Duke

September 16^th: Today Duke turns 5. When I woke him up this morning he said he was 5 and then spelled his name “D-U-K-E Duke Williams.”

This is a milestone birthday in that Duke is no longer a toddler, but a little boy. Shortly he will be a pre-teen and I will lock myself in the closet and will cry while Steve talks me off the ledge probably for the 10^th time that week. As he is getting older he is getting bigger and with the Prader-Willie Syndrome I have to be careful with his celebration, for example when he would get cake 3 times today, it is just once and fruit for the rest of the events. This weekend he celebrates his birthday with a Star Wars theme, and his Hannah (i.e. Stephany’s best friend) will be there and I’m sure he will be falling over her all day.

At age 5 this is what Duke is into: 

·         Doctor Who: This is no joke, he loves Doctor Who and will watch a full episode of the show. When watching it he now likes to put on his angry caterpillar hat because it’s the closest thing he has to a fez and likes to spike his hair like Doctor Who. When he gets hurt he first says he wants a Band-Aid then he wants to see Doctor Who.

·         Star Wars: His favorite characters are Darth Vader and Chewbacca which could not be any further of an extreme. He recognizes the characters and will sit through most of the movie. The new Star Wars has him 100% geeking out when anything comes on the TV with Star Wars. I love this!

·         Transformer Rescue bots: He has them all…and even today as he got the final one (the Blades character…not as a plane but the ‘copter’) he has a complete collection and plays with them so feverously. 

·         Emotions: Duke likes to tell you emotions or a singer and you are to act them out. In exchange you get to do the same with him, the funny thing is when you say something is funny…he does my terrible laugh.

·         Hot Dog, Nana and Yogurt: This is what Duke wants to eat for dinner…every night. We do make the 3^rd item a berry and sometimes switch the hot dog for grilled cheese. The exception to this is on Friday’s when we go to the diner by our house and he will have a waffle.

·         Lip Syncing: We all know this…they boy is obsessed with music and knows all the song before I have even heard of it. 

·         Monkeys: He loves monkeys. His favorite shirt is a yellow shirt with a monkey sticking out his tongue with a crown and every time he wears it he points to it at random times and says “Funny Monkey!”

John Wayne Trivia: Holds the record for the actor with the most leading parts - 142. In all but 11 films he played the leading part.

May 30th: We are at week 4 of Duke going to the potty every morning. I am SO GRATEFUL for this start. When duke goes he gets a tattoo. When one gets washed off it is replaced the next morning. We have gone through 2 packs of tattoos and I couldn't be happier

Duke is also wrapping up his second year of Pre-K and he can write his name independently. Duke is able to count up to 10 and is able to identify the full alphabet and colors. His favorite song at the moment is Creep by Radiohead....he BELTS the chorus.

John Wayne Trivia "He was offered the lead in The Dirty Dozen (1967), but went to star in and direct The Green Berets (1968) instead. The part was eventually given to Lee Marvin."

March 29th: Duke has been having a rough time of potty training lately, and it's one of those things that is frustrating, but you have to remember he has extremely low muscle tone, so we can hold it...it's hard for him. He loves when he does go on the potty and the temporary tattoos that it means are coming his way.

Duke has recently become OBSESSED with Star Wars, Darth Vader and I'm okay with that. With the new Start Wars movie coming out Duke had gotten to enjoy Darth Vader yogurt for him to eat, Star Wars Rebels for him to watch and Darth Vader apparel for him to wear. He had the light saber...and then hit people with it...so that's in time out.

"When people say a John Wayne picture got bad reviews, I always wonder if they know it's a redundant sentence, but hell, I don't care. People like my pictures and that's all that counts." -

February 22nd:  In school this week Duke wrote his name without assistance. He is also working on words that start with B and has an awesome singing robot to go along with.

 Duke has taken up lip syncing semi professionally. Okay if there was semi professional lip syncing Duke would be all over this. He is so great with music and his latest GEM had me dying. Enjoy!

"You can't whine and bellyache because somebody else got a good break and you didn't."

December 25th: Duke was all about Christmas this year. He was into the shows and the specials. He knows the traditions (his elf which he changed his name to Chippy this year, the gingerbread house at school and looking silly in elf PJ’s on Christmas Eve). 

 

Duke knows about Santa, but he calls him Ho Ho, which I don’t correct him on, because it’s adorable. He knows about the reindeer and the North pole. He knows about Baby Jesus and his Ma Ma (Mary) and Da Da (Joseph), but he really loves playing with the animals in the manger.

 

Duke got up at 3am asking if Santa was here…on the hour…no one was amused. He did a good job opening gifts, but really just wanted to play with his transformers and nothing else was as interesting. He played from the time toys were fully out of packages until it was lunch time…at which point he collapsed from exhaustion and slept on his PopRock’s lap like he did when he was a baby (he loves his grandpa).

"Life is Hard; It's harder if you're stupid" JohnWayne

December 6th: Duke is able to recognize Santa....he doesn't get that he needs to tell Santa What he wants...but he knows who he is...My heart melts!

"There were periods when you could blow the valve and let off some steam. Like Halloween. You'd talk about it for three months ahead of time, and then that night you'd go out and stick the hose in the lawn, turn it on and start singing Old Black Joe or something. And when people came out from their Halloween party, you'd lift the hose and wet them down. " John Wayne

November 3rd: Halloween and Duke are a magical time. He loved dressing up and he has so many costumes he has gotten/ had passed down to him. This year was very different from other Halloween's though...this year he liked candy...he likes candy a lot. My pockets can not handle any more dental bills for his poor teeth this year with his low saliva, one of the many reasons I don' let Duke eat candy. He's tried every day since Halloween to negotiate him being allowed to eat more then the budgeted two pieces of candy. He is very funny in the process as she points to the candy and asks as he pretends to throw a piece in the air and catch it in his mouth. He is a funny kid!

Duke at his field trip

Duke and his classroom pumpkin

He has the funniest expressions

DC Comics vs Marvel Comics

Bumblebee at night and Hulk during the day

Trivia: John Wayne was born in Winterset Iowa

October 5th: Duke has taken to liking transformers and actually makes the noises as they transform, which cracks me up EVERY time. This weekend we celebrated his 4th birthday with his cousin Abey. It's funny That Duke's baby shower was the same day as Abey's 1st birthday and here we are 4 years later and they are sharing their birthday. We kept the party small their cousins and our cousins. I love that all these guys have had the opportunity to grow up together and so many of them are about the same age. It is always great to know how loved Duke is, even when he has a breakdown mid party over a toy and needs a nap (everyone understands. Thank you to everyone who made this day so special.

Trivia: Mentioned in many songs, including JimmyBuffet's "Incommunicado", Tom Lehrer's "Send The Marines", RayStevens' "Beside Myself", Paula Cole's "Where Have All the CowboysGone?", Queen's "Bicycle Race" and Bruce Dickinson's (of Iron Maidenfame) "Sacred Cowboys".

August 17th: Duke’s love of music is exciting to me. When he is in the car with me he wants music. He will sometimes let me know who he wants “Katy” “Gaga” are the two artists he knows by name…but though he asks for them it could be someone else and he’s meaning someone else. I’ve gotten into a good pattern with him, knowing what songs he wants in the morning and the evening. There are some songs I hear on the radio and I hear him humming or singing in his own way

Singing, I couldn't get video because he would stop singing.

 

This is the list of songs Duke is able to “sing” and by sing he knows some of the words and belts those then just dances for the rest of the song.

Hot and Cold by Katy Perry (to be honest he has been singing this song since he was a newborn)

Dark Horse by Katy Perry

Smooth Criminal by Michael Jackson performed by Alien Ant Farm

Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen performed by The Muppets

This is Gospel by Panic at the Disco

Don’t Stop Me Now by Queen

 

 

John Wayne on the Oscars "You can't eat awards -- nor, more to the point, drink 'em."

July 31st: July has been a stressful and rewarding month with Duke. The beginning of the month was Duke's Dental work (due to low saliva big man had 12 cavities that needed to be filled). Luckily they are all filled and he's got all of his teeth sealed so he can't get anymore. He was funny at the hospital before as he had all Spiderman PJ's and a new Spiderman toy. Afterwards ....well he wanted to stay asleep and didn't like that we were getting him up. He slept a while after on the couch with his favorite blanket (the one with bugs he got as a baby from Aunt Candi) and eventually got us to nothing but Disney movies and a bubble bath (this new favorite bath activity...aka Duke: The bubble destroyer)

Duke had 3 weeks of summer school with his teacher and classmates. I love his teacher, and I will be so sad when he goes to kindergarten because she set a really high standard. I love that she has fun with duke and wanted to share their fun experiences together with friends (she even asked which I love about her, though I have no problems showing off duke anywhere. He's kind of amazing.)

Shaving cream fun

Watching M&M's loose their color.

I love their faces in this picture.

Finally Potty Training is going, Duke knows when he just missed out and tries to go to the potty when he sees other go (yeah it's awkward at times).  It's on his time, just like everything else.

He goes potty with Swag.

"Well, when I went to USC, if anybody had gone into the president's office and shit in his wastepaper basket and used the dirt to write vulgar words on the wall, not only the football team but the average kid on campus would have gone to work on the guy. There doesn't seem to be respect for authority anymore; these student dissenters act like children who have to have their own way on everything. They're immature and living in a little world all their own. Just like hippie dropouts, they're afraid to face the real competitive world." John Wayne

June 29th: Most of these blog entries about Duke's progress. I would love to say this is one, but after I just cleaned up a nap time room where Duke was naked and took all the stuffing out of his Superman bed toy...followed by waking up this morning to Duke covered in poo and ironically him trying to use the Lysol with his poop covered hands...guess what isn't germ free anymore. The problem is that with Duke having low muscle he doesn't feel when it's about to come yet, but when it is happening. I know people tell me it ill happen when it happens....well he is going to be 4 in 3 months and I am tired of cleaning up poop when I wake up. He needs to keep his diaper on, but do you blame him for not wanting to sit in poop. I have asked him to tell me and he has let me know when he poop by coming up to me and saying "Ew." I just can't wait for this poop trail to be over.

Other than my poop Ran here are some of the ways Duke has developed this month. He's starting to do impressions.

He's also a swimming fool, it is darn near impossible to get him out of the water.

He took my bangles and made them earlings,

Insert Something Witty about John Wayne here

June 3rd: I've been meaning to post pictures of Duke lately but have been a 100% slacker. Duke's Teacher just re-did his IEP because he met a lot of goals. He talks so much. His favorite colors are between Red and Pink (still obsessed with Pink since Easter). He loved anything with Thomas, Spiderman, TMNT or Transformers Bumblebee. He cracks me up with his obsession with bugs and his lack of fear. He gives the best hugs now and rubs your back just how you rub his, it's so soothing.

Duke Can hit the ball with his eyes closed, I'm back there being an awesome mom and looking at my phone

At school they did a lesson on the hungry caterpillar...so cute!

They had a lesson on the life cycle with food, needless to say duke paid 100% attention!

This was from our attempt at dental work on Duke, we got  cleaning, but the cavities will be handled in July

He is such a goof ball. he love anything for his head

Some cook action shots of Duke at the park.

Trivia: John Wayne's mother's nam was Mary Alberta Brown

May 11th: Duke has been good at school (minus that when he gets frustrated he takes off his shoes to protest doing work). He talks so much and knows his colors and letters. They have been singing "Let it Go" to which ...he knows almost all the words to. Each day he talk to us about school, sometimes we know what he says sometimes we don't.

He had jeans but had an accident (don't judge the pants)

We took Duke to see Spiderman 2 yesterday, he was ok 85% of the time (the other 15% of the time) after we went out to eat dinner, they didn't have a Spiderman coloring page, so Duke asked to have spider's drawn on his page for him to color over (FYI all Spider's are Spiderman).

For a week I took pictures and video's of duke (many of the video's he is singing or dancing). Duke likes wearing a lot of different things and I've been letting him pick more of his clothes. The end is a bit cloppy, I'm still learning the program. Duke loves singing the end of this song because the lyrics are "Don't go Cryin' to your Mama" he sing/screams that from his car seat. Also featured are his cousins Justin and Izzy.

John Wayne Trivia: His TV appearances in the late 1960s showed that Wayne had overcome his indifference to television. In addition to appearing on The Dean Martin Comedy Hour (1965), The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour (1969), he became a semi-regular visitor to Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In (1967), often good-naturedly spoofing his macho image and even dressing up as The Easter Bunny in a famous 1972 episode.

May 2nd: Here are Duke's Easter pictures. He was all about Easter egg hunting this year. His favorite Easter egg colors are Pink and Yellow ( I think because he has a friends at school who like those colors). He loved wearing his shirt, tie and vest, it was so hard to get him out of it at the end of the day.

Duke is on a mission!

Such a smooth criminal