The Weekly Review: Week 70

SLP Idea of the Week

Think one piece of white paper, a bunch of matchbox cars, and some free printable car pattern templates (you can custom color them with the colors of cars you happen to have) and you have a great game most young children will love to play. During the game, you work on colors, directionality, patterns, following directions, turn taking, counting, etc. It is a simple, entertaining early language activity. Find it at Toddler Approved.

Ava this Week

Ava will occasionally (twice a month perhaps?) wake up in the middle of the night for no apparent reason and wander into our room extremely upset and disoriented. She can't seem to articulate any reason for the nighttime wandering. Someone (usually my husband, his nighttime response time is better than mine) simply has to reassure her gently that everything is all right and lead her back to her room and tuck her in again. She goes right back to sleep and doesn't seem to remember any of it in the morning. Strange.

Weekly Michael

Oh my goodness. I witnessed the birth of potty humor in our household. I was sitting at the table eating a weekday lunch with my children when our world went from one with no awareness of potty humor to a world where small children fall off their chairs laughing hysterically at the word "peepee".

We were innocently discussing nicknames. That led to increasing silliness where the children were rhyming with nicknames and pausing to see the other person's reaction to their rhymes. Ava, discussing a friend she calls "DeeDee" rhymed, "DeeDee PeePee" and paused for her brother's reaction. I turned to look at him. There was an exaggerated pause where I could practically see the wheels in his head turning and then he cracked up belly laughing. I started laughing because he was so funny. Ava just looked at us like we were crazy. Then, after Michael repeated , "DeeDee PeePee" about five times in a row, she understood too.

Things spiraled quickly downhill from there. The children took turns attaching "Peepee" to the name of every family member, friend, and casual acquaintance we know. The children laughed every-single-time. Next they moved on to every animal they could think of. And then it occurred to Michael that if "Peepee" was funny than "Poopy" must be even funnier.

I wish I had taped it. It was actually pretty amazing to watch them have so much innocent fun. Of course, I should probably mention that those jokes aren't appropriate for school...

Weekly Weight Loss

As I discussed last week, I'm using a combination of an online/app food diary and an activity tracker to work on reversing my weight's upward creep. Since this time last week I've lost 0.2 pounds. Not great, but on the positive side I'm still working at it and still motivated. I've dusted off my husband's old bowflex introducing a little weight resistance exercise into the mix which I enjoy. And I fought through several days of increased cravings and bloating that were, I think, related to monthly hormonal changes. So, all in all, an acceptable week in (comparatively) healthy living.