My little buddy!

Matthew is a wonderful kid and I always enjoy spending time with him and feel much happier when we bond and have weekends together to plan family outings. I feel it is very important to give him balance by providing him fun and interesting experiences outside of school. I feel he is making progress with school and he is on a schedule during the week which is essential. I feel that being on a schedule is beneficial for Matthew during the week and when the weekends arrive he seems to sleep later and has no real agenda. I would like to get him involved in some organized and structured weekend program that will enable him to enjoy fun activities and expose him to kids his age like school does and in a more relaxed setting where he enjoys the experience and has the chance to make friendships.

I also like to plan weekend day trips or visits to places of interest like the aquarium or the children's museum or a trip to the city. As the weather changes and becomes increasingly colder we usually prefer going places indoors and find bowling and movie theaters fun also for family outings. As the autumn season is here and if my wife is lucky enough to have a day off we like to drive upstate to see the beauty of nature with the leaves of the trees changing colors and go apple picking or pumpkin picking. Whatever we have planned it's nice to be spending the day with my wife, son and mother-in-law. I have referred to my son affectionately as "my little buddy" and seem to refer to him with this phrase quite often as I am so proud of him and so fortunate to have him in my life with my wife and her mom.

If we plan a trip upstate we try to leave in the early morning so we can get there before the afternoon and we sometimes meet with others like Maria's sister and daughter who also make the trip from Long Island. We enjoy the day and we like apple picking because its enjoyable walking around the grounds and seeing all the different types of apple trees and getting a chance to pick them right from the tree. We usually bring enough back to eat of course and for making home made apple pie as both Maria and her mom enjoy cooking and make delicious home made pies and Matthew likes having them sliced and eating them as they are.

Usually Maria works on the weekends so it's usually Matthew and I and grandma. I enjoy taking Matthew to the movies and we usually invite grandma to come with us after we pick her up from church on Saturday as she attends church from 5:00 pm to 6:00 pm. We stop for pizza and then head to the Broadway mall and watch a movie that is appropriate for Matthew and we have seen some really fun movies. The last movie we saw that we enjoyed very much was Up! which was really fun to watch and had a nice message with some sad moments but overall was very entertaining. The next movie Matty would like to see is Cloudy with a chance of meatballs which seems like a cute movie so we will probably plan to see that this weekend.

Every chance I have to spend with my son on the weekends I welcome it because during the week it is hard to spend time with him because he is in bed by 8:30 pm and sometimes I'm not home until after 10:00 pm so my wife and son are both sleeping by the time I'm home. We always have a great time out when we go to the movies and I love to see my son happy and smiling as it brings a smile to my face and I love spending time with my little buddy as he is what makes life so worthwhile and he enjoys spending time with dad and grandma and wishes mom was with us. When we get home grandma makes him a snack and after that I give him his medicine and prepare him for bed so by the time Maria is home he is asleep. I give my wife a kiss when she arrives home and tell her what we did for the day. She is glad that we had a nice time and then she eats her dinner her mom prepared for her and we call it a night.

By the time the weekend is over and Monday approaches it feels good that we had some time together as it is so very important and makes the start of the work week a good one for me and the start of the school week for Matthew easier for him and he seems to enjoy our weekends together as I most certainly do. I always enjoy when I have the weekend to share with my son, "my little buddy".

Edward D. Iannielli III