Homemade Christmas 2012

1.  Bottle Cap Magnets - We used our 1" hole punch to cut pictures out of magazines and craft paper.  We added glitter, buttons, and other small items.  Then filled it with dimensional mod podge, attached magnets to the back and packaged them on card stock with a washer behind to hold them in place.   

2.  Relaxation Eye Bags - I made these for all my friends in the 9th grade when I discover them in a yoga class.  I had forgotten how much I adored them until recently I saw something similar on pinterest.  You can make them any shape you want.  These are intended to rest on your forehead and eyes.  They are filled with lavender and rice.  You can microwave them for 30 seconds and then lay back and relax.    This is the amount of sewing skill I have.  I can make a rectangular pillow (more or less).  

3.  Book Page Letter Ornaments - I printed large letters in a font interesting, but not terribly complex.  Then I traced the letters on foam core and cut them out with my exacto.  I spent a few evening shredding book pages and mod podging over the letter to make sure all white space was covered.  Then I threaded a piece of embroidery floss through a hole I had poked with a skewer.  Voila!

4.  Salt Dough Ornaments - We mixed 1 cup of salt, 4 cups of four, and 2 cups of water with our hands.  Then we rolled it out, and used all our fun cookie cutters.  Next we pulled out our stamps and colored inks.  They bake in the oven FOREVER.  I think I wound up leaving them in for about 5 hours at 225 degrees.  We kept a few ornaments and used the rest as gift tags.  

5.  I love making these.  One day you will see me at an art fair with my own booth selling my favorite sayings.  There are many layers and steps, but I really like the way this one turned out. 

6.  Scrabble Name Ornaments - I started by drilling holes in the end letters.  Then I glued the letters together and let them dry.  I used copper wire and pliers to create the hangers.  

7.  Cookies - This year we just made Peanut Butter Kisses and Cranberry Coconut Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies.  They were delicious, but gone :(  

8.  More Treats - We made 120 Spinach Balls, 1 Bananas Fosters Upside Down Cake, 1 Cheesecake and 1 Batch of Caramel.  Sorry, I forgot to take pictures of most of it.  

I am thankful for...
20.  60 degree days in November
19.  good deals
18.  photos to capture my memories
17.  books to take me on adventures I will never have myself
16.  the smell of pumpkin pies baking
15.  technology that lets me see the ones I love who are far away
14.  drinks with friends on long days (or short ones)
13.  showers that leave me feeling refreshed
12.  bedtime stories
11.  sleeping in
10.  warm cozies; blankets, dogs,slippers, and snuggles
9.  coffee to wake me up in the morning
8.  sunshine, and rain to make me appreciate the sunshine, and beer in sunshine
7.  our home, the roof over our head that protects us
6. the food that fills our bellies
5.  my smart beautiful daughter (who is using her talker to ask for carrots as I type)
4.  the ability to stay home while she needs me
3.  my parents moving closer to me, I am so happy to spend so much relaxed time with them
2.  my husband - I am thankful he smokes the turkey outside so I can monopolize the over.  I am thankful he makes me laugh.  I am thankful he wants to protect us and will always check when I hear a noise.  I am thankful they play acrobatics before brushing teeth at bedtime.  I am thankful he loves us with his whole heart.  
1.  the love and support of family and friends I have been blessed with, I am so lucky

Hold on, Mom.

We were late for school.  Shoes were on, jackets were zipped.  I grabbed the talker to walk out the door.  She firmly ripped from my hands and sat down on the steps.

Me:   "Honey, we have to go.  We are going to be late for school."
C (via talker):  "Good Morning.  Hello.  How are you?" (big smile at me)

Sometimes I need a reminder to slow down.  It doesn't matter if we are a couple minutes late.   This made my day, maybe my week.

CVCV

We have been working on consonant vowel consonant vowel since we started with our current speech therapist mid-August.

We practice Mama, Dada, Papa, Baa Baa over and over.  Sometimes with flash cards.  Sometimes with pictures.  Sometimes just in play.

We also attach gestures or signs to words whenever possible.  This provides additional input to jog her memory about how to make the sounds.

Last week she brought me something and said "Mama opa peas" (mama, open please) without any prompting.  We are making progress

Letter Magnets

Today we sat at the table after we ran around the house a while.  On a cookie sheet I had all the vowels lined up.  Approximations we attempted for each sound.  Then a sucker was rewards for about 30 seconds.  She then had to give the sucker back and do another set.  We added "B", P", "D", and "M" one at a time and moved them along the vowels.  Again, after each set the sucker was given as a reward.  She was getting tired, but trying hard after the last set.

Then we changed to a comprehension game instead of a verbal production goal.  I put e, w, d, h, s, b, a, u, t, n, g, and k on the cookie sheet.  Then I made a sounds and asked her to give me the letter that makes the sound.  Initially this went very well.  After about 5 correct letter she started just handing me letters before I asked.  When I held her hands until I finished it was about 50/50 for the remaining letters.  When I refilled the cookie sheet with the letters we talked about eggs, dada, hat, ball, apple, gum, kite as each letter went down.  Then I asked her for the letter kite starts with.

Long Vowel Supergirl

We have been working on elongating our vowels and increasing our breath support for a while.  Each growth spurt if it difficult again to support out vowels.  One example is "E", without proper support is collapses to "ish".

We blow things; bubbles, bubbles in our drink, cotton balls through straws, paint, whistles, recorders, etc.

Yesterday we flew in the air like super girl as long as we held our vowels.  This was an outstanding motivator and may have resulted in the longest vowels to date.   Combining big gross motor movements with speech seems to make a big difference.

Apraxia Focus

I have decided to change the blog for the time being.  Most of my readers know Corinne has apraxia and is learning to talk.  I need a metric to see us making progress and ideas for days I can not think of what to do for our speech goals.  So, I am going to track some of these ideas here.  I think it will be good for me and might give you an idea what we do.  You can stop reading.  It will not hurt my feelings.

Nova Chat and Wheels

Lots going on over here.  Now that we are back to school we finally got Corinne's talker.  She now carries a Samsung Android Tablet with Nova Chat.  She is using it to answer questions.  While we continue to working on talking we are now also working on using the talker to communicate.  I am so excited.  I know she has so much she wants to say and I am thrilled to hear it through any method.

In other news, Corinne is mastering her tricycle, big wheel, and roller skates.  We have been loving this fall weather and playing outside as much as possible.  She is making giant leaps on all fronts and having lots of fun.  

6th Anniversary Ring

Kevin had this ring made for me for our anniversary.  I love it!  Thanks, dear!

Indian Springs Awesome Park

Fly Swatter Painting...aka Body Art?

eh...this is okay

sponges are better.

I think green is my color.

ta-da

(note to self: the problem with painting your tummy 

green is it tickles like crazy when mommy tries to scrub it off)

the next logical step