Jackpot

Our timing was perfect today.  We walked into our therapy center as a truck was unloading all new mats.  Being me, my first questions was "What will you with all the old mats?"

We are the proud owners of a tumbling mat that runs the full length of the family room.  We tested it, it works great.  

One Quick Slide

Excuses, excuses

Had a successful visit to the dentist

Played with our friends and jumped on our bed 

Enjoyed the indoor water park

I am sorry I have not been here in a while.  We battled a mild illness for 10 days and that really threw us off.  Here is a quick update.  We are "Tangled" crazy.  While sick she wanted to watch it multiple times a day.  In addition to being sick we...

Played in the snow

Relaxed and read

Patterns

 We spent some time working on patterns yesterday.  It is a spatial logic concept that should help her motor plan, understanding at some level you can anticipate what comes next.  We have tried many pattern techniques in the past and this is a concept she has a difficult time with. We have most often tried with blocks.  So, we tried a few new methods.  I found a printable with with colored bears in rows.  Then I cut each row and provided her just animals to match the colors in the row she was working on.  This wound up being more of an exercise in matching.  She did not place them in order left to right.  However, she did complete the task.  My hope is after we practice matching the patterns we will be able to continue them beyond what it on the page.  For example, if the bears are RED BLUE RED BLUE RED BLUE then she would be able to continue RED BLUE RED BLUE RED BLUE RED BLUE.

I also took a sheet of paper and used our dot paints to make patterns.  I limited the colors, and think I will just use two colors next time.  She did needed some hand of hand help on this one, but did an excellent job.

This bucket was a gift from Grandma and Grandpa to bring all her Christmas gifts home in.  She LOVES it.  She moves it around the house, throws balls in it, reads in it, positions it in front of the mirror and pops out of it to surprise herself, and gets carried around the house in it.  The bucket is crazy fun.

Scooter Board, Bouncing Bull, and Spirals Oh My

We went painter's tape crazy today around the house.  We are still working on mastering circles and other pre-writing skills.  So, one of the suggestions was to trace as many circles as possible in different ways.  We made a spiral on the floor and drove the cars round and round.  She really wanted the car to stay on the road and this went much better than expected.  

Then we moved into the kitchen for some scooter board fun.  I scattered 12 small Toy Story figurines around the kitchen and dining room.  Lying on her belly on the scooter board she got them one at a time and put them in the red container.  This is to build up her trunk control and upper body strength.  It is a crazy core workout I am quite certain I could not do.

Just for fun, we went back and forth on the line on the bouncing bull 4 times.  Again, she was very focused on staying on the line.

We used the talker in the dollhouse to talk about who is doing what.  I take all the people into a container to start and she has to ask for each one and then tell me what room they should start in or what they are doing.

Sign Alphabet and Talker Practice

We were lucky to receive this awesome sign alphabet puzzle for Chanukah this year (Thanks, Uncle Steve and Aunt Laura).  We dump the whole puzzle and I hand her one piece at a time.  I do the sign, then do the sign on her hands, then list words that start with that letter.  The last word is the picture in the puzzle.  Then she gets the piece to put in.  We are both making good progress on learning our sign alphabet.

Our talker exercises today were these lacing shapes.  To describe these shapes multiple screens must be used for navigation.  We discuss what they are ("plane", "strawberry", "fish", etc) and then the color.  The objects vary enough to make her move through many of the noun screens.  Then she returns to the colors.  It is a nice exercise because it helps her learn to navigate her talk and shows her knowledge.  When in the mood it is fun for everyone and she is proud of herself.  When she doesn't want to she really doesn't want to.

Happy Birthday, Mom

It is my amazing mother's birthday today.  The little one and I had the pleasure of celebrating with both my parents over yummy meal and a dreamy carrot cake.  I am so lucky to have them just a few miles away.  

Since Christmas is barely a memory I often find it difficult to think of a gift for her.  As it is the start of a new year and everyone has renewed focus on getting healthy I decided to pre-make 7 healthy meal options for her ease.   

I made Mexican Strata, Healthy Breakfast Burritos, Spinach Egg Muffins, Apple Bran Muffins, Moroccan Chicken with Chick Peas, Chicken Fajitas, and Crispy Ginger-and-Garlic Asian Turkey Lettuce Wraps.  It was a labor of love.  Happy Birthday, Mom.  I love you!