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!

Five Photo Book Ideas

I seek out deals and often wind up with "free" photo books.  I do photo books for our primary albums, but these free offers very rarely time out with when I am ready to print.  Plus, my albums are usually huge and free books are around 20 pages.  So, I have made some creative books for C's entertainment.  Here are a few of these ideas:  

1. " Who Loves Me?" book for babies and toddlers.  Features pictures of family members, pets, etc.  This was awesome at restaurants, and out and about.  Great way to learn everyone's name.  

2.  Alphabet Book - Ours has pictures of places we have been, our favorite toys, animals we love, etc.  I laid this one out in photo shop to format it the way I wanted, but it could easily be done in a design wizard. 

3.  "How Time Flies" book for school age kids.  Pages show families growing and kids changing.  It is amazing to see all this change in one place.


We did a page (or a few) for:
(1) extended family on each side (2)aunts and uncles dating, getting married, their family growing (3) each cousin growing up from baby to now (4) best friends that have been around for years (5) our family (6) our dogs (7) each birthday labeled with the age (8) each Halloween labeled with the year (9)  each Christmas labeled with the year (10) favorite pictures of my kid from birth to now



4.  Holiday specific books - We have one for Halloween and one for Hanukah / Christmas.  These are collections older than our child.  It includes our childhoods, and when possible our parents childhoods and pre-kids.   We keep them in our seasonal storage and pull them out and look through them and talk about them as the holiday approaches.  It allows us to refresh or teach our traditions in advance so the holiday is fun and not weird surprises.  These books are all packed up, but you get the idea.

5.  Recipe Book - Photos of baking or enjoying your favorite family recipes with the recipe.  I have not made this book yet, but it is on deck.  I plan to create it while she is little and hold on to it until she gets her own place and give it as a house warming gift.  I may never execute this plan.  I lose things, forget things, and who knows, but I love this idea.  

Today's Plan: Fun Work

We had a fantastic Christmas.  Lots of love and fun with our families was enjoyed.  Lots of presents were opened.  Lots of food was eaten, and savored.  

Today we need to get back to normal.  We have vacation for another week from school and therapy.  

We need to make sure we are doing our work.  Today we plan to paint with new do-a-dot paints.  Circle practice is also on the agenda

Practice our signs and verbalization with Sign to Talk cards.  The front of the card has a large 5"x7", full-color, glossy photo of the target item. The reverse side contains a photo of the ASL sign, a written description of the hand shapes, and a series of Kaufman Speech to Language "word shells," which are highly effective for shaping intelligible articulation.

Then I think we will make funny faces in the mirror or the camera and practice following directions and imitating.  "Touch your head.  Touch your toes.  Open your mouth."  or "Reach for the sky.  Reach to the sides.  Stick out your tongue."  These things help her mimic more advanced movements when requested.  

We are also trying to spend at least 20 minutes each day using our talker in a focused task.  Today we will be describing objects, what they are, their color, etc.  

Time to get to work.  

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