John Wayne Fact: After meeting the late Superman (1978) star Christopher Reeve at the 1979 Academy Awards, Wayne turned to Cary Grant and said, "This is our new man. He's taking over.".

September 8th: Duke had his first IEP (Individual Education Program) on Wednesday. In this meeting we got his first goals for his Pre-K experience and it made me revisit almost 3 years ago when Duke was given goals from Children's Hospital. It made me reflect on how much he had grown and changed.

       From September 21, 2010:  Now to take him home means he has to do the following 1. Breathe on his own 2. Maintain his temperature 3. Be able to feed via his mouth. These are goals I know Duke can achieve because with him only being 5 days old he is pleasing the doctor with ever stride he makes. Before leaving they will still need to do a hearing test because often times babies born early have some hearing loss and we will need to see if and how much he has. We will also have to start testing him in a car seat to ensure he is comfortable and there are no problems with him in his seat.

        From September 4, 2013: This meeting had 9 people talking about Duke's Goals

1. Academic Communication: Given Verbal and visual prompts, Duke will produce the p,b,m,n,w sounds in 2-4 words utterances  with 80 % accuracy. (This one was increased in the meeting because Duke is saying full sentences.)
2. Academic Early Learning Skills: With fading verbal and visual prompts, Duke will participate in circle time activities for at least 10 minutes, by performing motor actions to familiar songs and finger plays, completing early learning activities and taking and waiting for his turn.
3. Academic Early Learning Skills: With a verbal prompt and fading visual supports, Duke will follow two step directions to complete classroom activities, with 80% accuracy.
4. Academic Social Interactions Skills: When given fading adult facilitation to independence, Duke will participate in interactive play and learning experiences with peers, for increasingly longer periods of time.
5. Physical Gross Motor: Duke will access his school environment with supervision assistance on 2-3 trials.  

       We have a walk through of Duke's Pre-school class on Friday and he will be going Monday- Friday for 2 hours a day and he is going to going 5 days a week. With his new love of Superman we made sure to get him a superman back pack, now it's just what does he wear for his first day of school.

Duke feeding a Geese

Duke feeding a Goat.

Michael Caine recalled in his 1992 autobiography "What's It All About?" that Wayne gave him two pieces of advice when they first met in Hollywood early in 1967. Firstly, on acting, Wayne told him, "Talk low, talk slow, and don't talk too much." Then Wayne added, "And never wear suede shoes. One time I was taking a piss when a guy next to me turned round and said, 'John Wayne!', and pissed all over my shoes.".

July 30th- Duke is on day 1 of potty training today.  He's not so excited about the whole sitting on the potty every 30 minutes, but he is a fan of going around the house in just his big boy underwear and tennis shoes. He has said big boy several times, so he is getting the concept of this is making him not a baby, but in the potty is still a concept to him. This morning we watched music videos and Toy Story Toons on the computer while on the potty. Duke had 2 accidents and no luck on the potty, but he did sit, and that's a start.

We hydrated like crazy today.

Not potty related, but loved him looking out the window.

One of our crafts between potty time. it's a monkey mask.

Nothing more manly than a man in batman underwear trying to find studs in the wall.

Trivia: John Wayne is known for his famous scene in True Grit where he puts the reigns in his teeth and charges while shooting.

June 10th: Duke's First Dentist appointment. I was nervous about this because Duke, though very good doesn't like his mouth messed with, which I get I don't like people all up in my face too. Dentists are also in prime biting range. The morning of I was dreading the whole visit. I knew we needed to go because Duke chipped his tooth from grinding he teeth a bit a go and I was worried about that and ensuring we were on track with his teeth. The Dentist asked to work with Duke because he has been reading about dental development of different Genetic disorders such as Duke's and was excited to work with Duke. Duke sat on my lap during the exam and did surprisingly well. He didn't like having someone in his mouth...but who really does. No cavities and his chipped tooth isn't soft so woo hoo!!!

[poem, "The Sky", he read on his 1969 "Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In" (1967) appearance] "The sky is blue, the grass is green. Get off your ass and join the Marines."

May 27th: Duke with those who have served

Duke and his GG!

Why is it I have a ton of pictures of Duke and a ton of pictures of Uncle Eric....but can't find any of them together??

Duke and Pop Rock....he's not drunk he just looks it.

 

Today Is John Wayne's Birthday.

May 26th: Duke's favorite movie for the longest time has been Despicable me. The minions are to credit for Duke being able to say Banana and Apple. When is having a 2 year old moment and we need him to get back to his normal calm state....Despicable Me is his Yoga. As we get closer to July 5th and the launch of Despicable me 2, he is getting more excited with each trailer and commercial.

 

 

John Wayne Fact: The evening before a shoot he was trying to get some sleep in a Las Vegas hotel. The suite directly below his was that of Frank Sinatra (never a good friend of Wayne), who was having a party. The noise kept Wayne awake, and each time he made a complaining phone call it quieted temporarily but each time eventually grew louder. Wayne at last appeared at Sinatra's door and told Frank to stop the noise. A Sinatra bodyguard of Wayne's size approached saying, "Nobody talks to Mr. Sinatra that way." Wayne looked at the man, turned as though to leave, then backhanded the bodyguard, who fell to the floor, where Wayne knocked him out by crashing a chair on top of him. The party noise stopped.

May 22nd: Duke has had the same seahorse that has been sleeping with him since he got it From Teresa and Ray Piecy for his first Christmas. now that is is older he still uses it but can hit the belly to help him go back to sleep (poor baby is just like his mom and needs noise.)  Last night the batteries failed at around 2am. I notice a noise in his room, but didn't hear more until 4 am when the sippie cup jail cell rattling started. I went into his room and touched his seahorse to turn it on for the wide awake baby. His poor seahorse was out of batteries. It was an easy fix, but it made me think of how reliable his seahorse has been to him. It's been thrown out during unwanted naptimes, lay next to him when sick and allowed me to check on him without disturbing him. His sweet seahorse that watches out for him, that one day will not be on his bed, but will be in my heart.

"I'm not going to give you those I-was-a-poor-boy-and-I-pulled-myself-up-by-my-bootstraps-stories, but I've gone without a meal or two in my lifetime, and I still don't expect the government to turn over any of its territory to me. " John Wayne

May 1st: Duke has taken to the Bat, he try to make a bat out of anything that is straight, this morning he tried to bat his Cars ball with a zip tie....needless to say...it didn't work.

FYI- Guess who also liked Baseball.