The Weekly Review: Week 44

Weekly Kitties

Umm. We had a weekly kitty health event requiring a vet trip and medicating all the kitties in the household. I promise you don't want more details than that. It was interesting to note that while 3 out of 4 kitties were unusually well behaved while taking their medicine (a pill) the fourth was extremely challenging.

Attempt 1: I popped the pill in Sophie's mouth and she spit it back out before I managed to clamp her mouth shut.

Attempt 2: I picked up the now sticky pill and popped it back in her mouth. I got her mouth clamped shut and got scratched several times while she tried to push my arms away. I was about to celebrate success when I looked down and saw the pill sitting by her side. She had managed to spit the thing out again.

Attempt 3: I wrapped her in my pajama bottoms, which were handy, to try to keep her from clawing me up any further and stuck the pill back in again. Her sister came over to groom her while she growled at me with her mouth clamped shut. I waited and waited and waited for the swallow. It wasn't until I unwrapped her and was about to let her go (preparing for a fourth attempt) that I finally saw her swallow. Success.

My husband totally gets to give her the follow up pill in two weeks. I'll do the other three, but he gets Sophie.

Ava this Week

Ava has discovered that her room is a place to play. On one hand, this is a wonderful development. When she awakens an hour earlier than everyone else in the household, she can now entertain herself rather happily in her room. On the other hand, it is messing with her nap/bedtime routine.

Before this new discovery, you could put her in bed, cover her just the right way with two blankets, hand her something to snuggle, sing a song, and never hear another peep. She was asleep in minutes. Now, as soon as I leave the room she's back up. She plays for 10-15 minutes and then opens her door and creeps down the stairs to share something that seems very important to her.

The first time, she had found a thread on the chair in her room. (Really, a thread?) The second time, she had bumped her ankle and felt I needed to know. The third time she was cold. I think you get the idea. Now if I want her to go to sleep at nap time I have to sit in her room to keep her in bed long enough for the sleep to catch her. At bedtime, we're putting her bed multiple times.

I'm hoping the problem will solve itself once the shiny newness of independent play in her room wears off.

The Weekly Michael

Interesting story about Michael. This past weekend, Ava spent a day and a half with her grandparents leaving Michael here with us for some one-on-one time. He was an angel. He was thoughtful and polite. He was fun to play with and also spent long periods of time playing independently. As soon as Ava came home he went back to the somewhat wild, slightly disobedient, attention-seeking behavior. I'm not sure what to think. He likes his sister. They get along and play together amazingly well. Why would he behave worse with us when his sister is home?

Ava's Weekly Home Therapy Focus

This has not been a productive at-home therapy week. First Ava spent a night with her grandparents and then came home late the next night. Then we were getting ready for an unexpected trip out of town and the preparation and travel kept us from doing our usual nightly speech sessions. It's ok. We'll get back to it next week and perhaps the break will have done some good.

Weekly Blog Possibility

It's been a while since I've done anything new with the blog design. I'm considering making a few changes. It'll be a while before anything happens. I'm going to do some thinking, some researching, some playing around, and some more thinking before I actually change anything. But it is fun to think about.

The Weekly Review: Week 43

Weekly Main Event

Ava's IEP meeting was held Thursday morning. It went well. She'll be receiving 90 minutes of speech therapy a week beginning on her birthday and 15 minutes of consultative services/month beginning in the fall when she moves from daycare to preschool. It's nice to actually be anticipating the benefits of the transition from early intervention services to services provided by the schools. The program she'll be entering seems to be extremely well designed and well suited to her needs. I am excited and thankful that she'll have the opportunity to participate.

Ava this Week

Completely spontaneously, with very little encouragement or input from us, Ava has begun to night train. She's been potty trained during the day since well before she turned two. She just picked that up when we were training Michael. Over the last week she has begun to wake up in the middle of the night disoriented and somewhat panicked wanting assistance in going to the potty. She takes great pride in trying to keep her nap and nighttime pullups dry.

I am proud of her, of course. Is it terrible to admit that the return to inconsistent and unexpected night time wake-ups is very unpleasant? I wonder how long this will last? When will she learn to just take herself? Or, even better, just be able to hold it until morning?

Even with the inconvenience and disrupted sleep it is still a huge milestone and I'm simultaneously proud of her and amazed at how big she's getting.

The Weekly Michael

Have you ever heard the phrase, "If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all."?

Let's just say that the combination of my stress level this week and subsequent impatience and Michael becoming a little older and more independent and stretching his wings has been a bit...unfortunate.

I'm desperately trying to be more positive and use more redirection. And I'll just leave it at that.

Ava's Weekly Home Therapy Focus

We're continuing to work on initial and final /k, s, sh, and f/. We're also working on initial /l/.

We chose /k/ months ago because Ava was fronting everything and didn't really have any back sounds at all. We finally have an approximation of /k/, but some nights it comes out flawlessly on every repetition of every word and other nights she substitutes /t/ every time and nothing I try changes that. Ahh, lovely motor planning problem.

We added /s, sh, and f/ recently because Ava wasn't really using any fricatives and she was stimulable for all three. She's doing remarkably well with all of them. /f/ is particularly easy for her and I'm already seeing occasional spontaneous generalization in conversation. /s/ is pretty good and with a gestural cue I can get a good production every time. /sh/ is a bit more difficult, which makes sense given that she has more difficulty with sounds that are produced further back in the mouth. However, with more intensive cueing, she's pretty successful there as well.

We added /l/ because it is a phoneme she uses daily. It is in the name of someone in her life. She really struggled with it for the first few weeks, but this week it has really clicked for her. She seems to enjoy it and is spontaneously using it correctly in conversational speech. It's a thrill for me every time. I love hearing the beautiful /l/ and enjoy watching her pride in making it.

The Weekly Review: Week 42

Blog Post of the Week

There's conversation points - "Oh, I got my haircut today."
There's news - "Our son brought home his first ever report card today."
There's big news - "We're getting married."
Then there's really, really big news - "By the way dear, I'm carrying triplets."
Check out this blog post. Surrogacy, in my opinion, is a beautiful, generous gift. My congratulations and best wishes go out to Jen, her family, and the family she is helping.

Weekly IEP Preparation

1. Think about what I want to advocate for.
2. Do appropriate preparation by setting up appointment to do a classroom visit in our school's special education preschool room.
3. Have all previous preparation rendered insignificant by call to set up IEP meeting in an entirely different district than expected (don't ask - it is complicated).
4. Review new potential placement options. Discuss pros and cons of new placement options with family members and friends. Reassess what I want to advocate for.
5. Set up IEP meeting for next week.

Ava and Michael this Week

Ava loves to mimic her brother right now. Here are a few examples.

Michael: I like orange.
Ava: And I like orange.

Michael: I like candy.
Ava: And I like candy.

Michael: My favorite animal is a kitty.
Ava: And my favorite animal is a kitty.

A few days ago I told Michael that the TV show I had just started was going to be the last one. These were the comments that followed:

Michael: I'm not happy with you! (accompanied by a stomp of the foot)
Ava: And I'm not happy... Oh, I am happy!

Ava's Weekly Home Therapy Focus

This week we've been continuing to work on initial and final /k/ at the single word level. Ava has learned her cards well enough that I can simply provide a carrier phrase and she fills in the blank. For example, I say, "When you go to school you put on your _______." and she fills in "pack." She's at about 80% accuracy on a good night.

We're also working with initial and final /s, sh, and f/. I've already put up our initial and final /sh/ card sets and I'm working on /s/ and /f/ card sets now. Every few days I pull out a card set like the /p/ simple sentence/phrase set and focus on final consonants in short phrases and sentences as well.

The Weekly Review: Week 41

This week's brief Weekly Review is sponsored by the holidays and being hundreds of miles from home. Wish us luck on our 12-14 hour ride home tomorrow.

Website of the Week

Another great website I discovered recently is Art Projects for Kids which is a blog written by an elementary school art teacher. Again, I just went months and months back in her archives finding tons of great art projects to do with my little ones.

Highlight of the Week

Family. Really, that is what the winter holiday time is about for me. We had two wonderful days spent with both parents focused on the children and with hours and hours of bonus grandparent time. Then we traveled to spend even more time with extended family. Yes, I enjoyed choosing special gifts for special people and watching them open those gifts, but mostly I just enjoyed the time spent with family. I watched my son spend hours building his first big Lego set with his father. I played music with my own father (Dad on the piano and me on the children's new glockenspiel). Ava was delighted with her new big girl backpack and carried her new Hello Kitty stuffed animal around in it everywhere. We sat down for two big family meals and the children are old enough that the focus was on lively conversation rather than just the mechanics of feeding two small children. It was all lovely and I hope you all had amazing holidays as well.

Ava and Michael this Week

Michael is long and lean and looking so much like a little boy these days rather than a big toddler. He's taken to talking to his sister like I do. I didn't realize how often I say, "Ava, baby..." until he starting copying me. Wow, that sure sounds condescending coming from a 4-year old. Ava lets me get away with it, but whenever her brother tries she corrects him saying, "I'm not a baby."

Ava got a kids camera for Christmas and loved it. At first, she just held on to it clicking the picture button as quickly as possible. Then she noticed the viewscreen and would get about half an inch from her intended target and attempt to take pictures that way. After a while, I noticed her slowing down and really watching her viewscreen. She'd start up close, and then back away actually framing a shot before taking her picture. She would then switch to the review pictures mode and check out the pictures she had taken to see the results before taking more. I think I have a budding photographer on my hands.

The Weekly Review: Week 40

Website of the Week

I have enjoyed exploring A Little Learning for Two. Almost every post has a great activity for little ones. This mom is super creative and I found a lot of new ideas on her blog. I just kept working my way back through her archives filing away idea after idea.

The Weekly Project

You would think that this week would involve panicking about holiday preparations. Instead I realized that in less than a week I'm going to be travelling for at least 24-28 hours (12 or more each way) in a car with two very young children. Therefore, every spare moment this week I've been preparing car friendly activities. I've done a few more busy/quiet book pages, and prepped some other activities as well.

Illness Week

This week's highlight was Ava getting sick on the last morning I would have had on my own to get some work done before the holidays. Instead, the two of us spent an entire day camped out on blankets and towels in front of the television. Poor girl was so nauseous she wouldn't even eat a goldfish cracker. I'm pretty sure she at nothing other than a single bite of a saltine all day. Fortunately, she was on the mend the next day and back to normal on the third day.

Ava and Michael this Week

Pretend play has arrived. This week, mostly at Michael's prompting, the children have played squinkie school. They've also had sleepovers. They played superheros complete with capes made from blankets. They were the parents of a sick baby. They brought her to the doctor (me) in a car made from a laundry basket. Michael informed me that the baby had a torn eardrum. I pretended that a funnel was an otoscope and peered into the baby doll's ear to confirm his diagnosis. I wrote out a prescription on a piece of paper and sent the little family back in their car to the pharmacy (again, me). I then filled the prescription with a medicine spoon and empty medicine bottle and they drove off to Ava's room where I overheard them dispensing medicine to their baby. Then Michael came back down for more medicine and told me they gave it all to the baby. I explained the concept of overdose and gently suggested that perhaps they needed more because they had accidentally spilled it? He thought that was a great explanation and brought his new bottle of medicine upstairs. I'm pretty sure that bottle got "spilled" several more times before they moved on to a new game. I adore all the pretend play and hope that this is just the beginning.

The Weekly Review: Week 39

Interesting Online Article of the Week

A New York Times blogger discusses an interesting study. You think your child is willfully ignoring you when playing. Instead, they may genuinely not hear you.

The Weekly Project

I dove back into cardsets this week. I am enjoying being able to work with Ava in a regular and structured manner and I needed some new cardsets to address my current objectives. So I made and shared some.

Crazy Week

This has been a stressful week. My parents have been out of town and we are dog sitting their two chihuahuas. My wonderful mother usually helps with picking the children up from their two different preschools, but she could not do that when away. I've been sick. And of course, Ava's evaluation was this week. However, even with all of that, the week has gone by swiftly and the evaluation day was oddly anticlimactic (more on that later).

The Weekly Vent

So I'm an Amazon Prime Member. Essentially I pay an annual fee to get free 2-day shipping on all orders for a year (plus a few other perks). I ordered a Christmas present for one of the children 10 days ago. Today it dropped in price by almost $30 dollars. $30!!! Now that's enough of a drop that I'm willing to pay to ship the original gift back and rebuy one at the lower price. After all, shipping on the new one is free for me.

However, that seemed silly. Why should I pay to ship one back, and Amazon pay to ship me a new one when they could simply credit me with the price difference? I was perfectly willing to take a credit rather than a refund. I was also willing to let them deduct one set of shipping costs. I managed to get a customer service agent on a live chat to discuss the issue.

They wouldn't even consider it. Their policy is to not refund price drops. Period. Even if it is ultimately going to cost them more money to refund my original purchase, to pay to ship me another one (2-Day shipping at that), and to pay someone to restock the original item. They still wouldn't even discuss offering me a credit or acknowledge that my argument made sense. The customer service agent simply cut and pasted their price drop policy without even discussing my specific situation or argument. He did helpfully point out that I was welcome to return the item.

So, I politely thanked the agent for his time, shut down the chat window, and bought the new one. As soon as the box arrives, I'm going to open it up, remove the invoice, stick in my return order authorization, and ship it right back to them for my refund keeping the original one I already unpacked.

Rarely am I disappointed in Amazon, but this time I certainly was. It's just wasteful.

Ava and Michael this Week

This week the children have been doing something new and irritating interesting. They are both trying to talk to me simultaneously. They are upset that the other child is stealing my attention and each handles it slightly differently. Michael just wordlessly whines at an ever increasing volume until my attention returns to him. Ava will chant "excuse me" over and over and over until she gets my attention. This simultaneous whiny neediness sends my blood pressure skyrocketing and I usually choose whichever child I feel initiated the conversation first and focus my eye contact and attention on that one after telling the other I will be with them in a minute and holding a finger up to try to put that one on "pause" until the chosen one can get their message out.

If I step back from the high emotions generated in all three of us, it probably looks hilarious to anyone watching.

The Weekly Review: Week 38

Online Post I Enjoyed this Week

Linda Sharps wrote a post on The Stir that I really enjoyed this week. It listed some of her favorite posts about parenthood. My favorite was, "You don't really understand human nature unless you know why a child on a merry-go-round will wave at his parents every time around—and why his parents will always wave back. — William D. Tammeus."

The Weekly Holiday Tradition

I shamelessly stole this tradition from one of my aunts who did this same thing for her two children. Each Christmas of her children's lives she chose and bought a special ornament for each of them. Then, when they moved out and had their first Christmas tree of their own, she gave them all of their ornaments to use on their own tree. I've been trying to choose ornaments that represent what my little ones have really loved for the year. The ornaments of the year get a special place of honor on the fireplace mantel. Here are the children's ornaments for this year.

One of My Absolute Favorite Christmas Treasures

We moved away from New Orleans right before my eighth grade year. Every year since then, our family has traveled back to New Orleans to spend the holiday with our extended family. We didn't have Christmas trees of our own after that. One of my aunts had the most beautiful tree every year. The same aunt who bought the special ornaments for her children actually. The highlight of her tree, for me, was the beautiful handmade garland she had made for it. Every year, I would joke that she'd have to leave it to me. Her daughter would say, "No way! It is mine!" Shortly after I got married, she surprised me by making me my own. I treasure it. I love it because it is beautiful, but I also love it because it was handmade for me with love.

Ava this Week

Ava is starting to compete with her brother for conversation space. It is both beautiful and painful to watch. They'll both run up to me just brimming over with something to say. His words will spill out. Hers will often stutter and stop. For a child with motor planning problems, she's actually more fluent than usual, but in this particular high pressure situation, her fluency tanks. I love that she's trying though. If I slow it down a little bit, and make him wait quietly while she talks, she has so much to say. That part is wonderful.

The Weekly Michael

I wrote about how sensitive Michael seems lately. We've decided to try OT style brushing with him twice a day. It worked miracles with Ava, so we figured it couldn't hurt. We've only done it for a couple of days now, so it is to early to tell if it will help. He enjoys it (and the attention), so that much is good either way.

The Weekly Review: Week 37

This week's atypical weekly review is brought to you courtesy of the two hours I went overboard prepping for a preschool school project last night instead of working on preparing a typical weekly review.

So, this is how it went...

Assignment:
Help your child make five holiday cards to be sent to a nursing home.

Initial thoughts:
Hmm. I can use the cricut to make some trees. Michael can glue them to some construction paper and then glue on some ornaments and color it and we'll be done.

And then:

1. Well, if I'm getting the cricut out anyway, I might as well cut the cards out of cardstock and matching envelopes. (This step didn't go smoothly, and took much longer than intended.)
2. Oooh, I have some pretty glittery cardstock. I'll cut the ornaments out of cardstock too.
3. And look! I can print a pretty phrase too! (Joy)

Seriously, by the time all that was done, my poor husband had put the children to bed by himself.

And now I have a big pile of card components to assemble with the children today and they'll still just color all over them.

The Weekly Review: Week 36

Blog to commiserate with this Week

You know when your child does something they shouldn't for the millionth time and you fuss (or possibly even yell a little). They apologize, sincerely even, and you know the mature adult thing would be to let it go and move on. And yet, you're having trouble letting the transgression go. Linda wrote a post about encountering that very situation more times than she'd like in her week. I completely understood.

The Weekly Procrastination Update

I did slightly better this week. I got 5 additional CEU's. That leaves me with 5 more to get in the next three days. Why, oh why am I always leaving this to the last minute? Oh yes, the answer to that would be the children. Well, that and my natural tendency to procrastinate.

The Weekly Thing for which I am Extremely Grateful

My amazing parents took both children for three days. My husband and I booked a beautiful room at an inn 6 hours away and spent two nights there together. It was our first getaway since we became parents a little over four years ago and it was wonderful. We had a private balcony overlooking a river. I went out there once, but it was cold, so I went back in our room. The room had a gas fireplace and an amazing whirlpool tub. It had cozy comfy chairs and a canopy bed. They brought us milk and cookies at bedtime. And there was silence and adult conversation. It was peaceful and rejuvenating.

Ava this Week

Ava is blossoming. She's come out of her silent bubble and is fully participating in the world around her. It's amazing to see. Three months of occupational therapy has worked wonders. I didn't realize how much of what was holding her back was due to sensory issues. Those are mostly under control now and what a difference. She tolerates noise and being near others. She tolerates being touched and touching things. She's so much better about trying new things to eat.

And as she tolerates all of those things better, she's talking more. She's talking in more settings and more situations. She's initiating conversations and drawing attention to herself. Kudos to early intervention. We still have a long road to go on clearing up the speech, but now we have some speech to clear up and she's willing to use it.

The Weekly Michael

We came back from our mini-vacation and picked up the children from their grandparents' house. Once we got home Michael said to me, "I thought we were going to stay at Grandpa's house forever." He sounded disappointed that he had to come home. Hmm. Always nice to be missed.

The Weekly Review: Week 35

Favorite Blog Quote this Week

I identify strongly with the following quote from this post: "Children are wonderfully wonderful but they are also bottomless gulleys of sucking need..."

The Weekly Procrastination Update

With the 2 additional hours of CEUs I managed to get this week I now need 10 more in the next 12 days... Hmm. I don't seem to be gaining on this situation.

The Weekly Celebration

Four years ago, in the wee hours of the morning, following 19 hours of labor, we welcomed our 8 pound, 6 ounce firstborn into this world. We joined all the other parents who have experienced this profound transformation.

In the four years since then he has grown from a helpless (and rather incessantly noisy) infant to an amazing young boy (still incessantly talking). He loves cars, tools, building things, fixing things, and destroying things. He loves petting a kitten and watching her purr. He takes pride in being a big brother and loves his sister's company. He can read three-letter words, write his name, and will listen happily to any story. He carries a tune nicely and loves to sing for an audience or just to himself. He began preschool this year and is doing amazingly well there.

I am simultaneously excited about what the next year will bring, intimidated by the challenges it will hold, sad at how fast the time will go by, and curious about the little boy he will be when he turns five. Raising a child is such an adventure.

Ava this Week

Twice a year, we have parent conferences at Ava's preschool. They use a checklist of skills and write (N-not demonstrating, S-sometimes, A-Always) next to each item. 6 months ago Ava's sheet was full of Ns and Ss. This time almost everything was an A - even in the communication section. The combination of speech services, OT services, and preschool has been so powerful.

The Weekly Michael

This is really the first year Michael has fully understood what a birth day means and what birthday celebrations are about. We've been celebrating off and on all week. First his grandparents came into town and we had his party. Yesterday they did some special things at school. Tonight we will give him our gift, a gift from his godmother, and his gift from his other set of grandparents. He has been so mature about all of it. He is excited, but not crazy over-excited. He's been grateful, polite, and appropriately thankful when receiving gifts. He's been good about sharing with his sister. All in all, I've been struck by what a sweet, mature new 4 year old he is. It's been a wonderful (and busy) week.

The Weekly Review: Week 34

The Weekly Procrastination Update

Last week I mentioned that I need to get 13 more hours of continuing education credits by the end of the month. Since then I got two. That's better than 0 right? Now, that leaves about two-three more weeks to get 11 more. Hmm...

The Weekly Accomplishment

I'm managing to fit some speech drill in with Ava on a daily basis. Sometimes that is two 30 minute sessions. Other times it is 5 minutes. All of it is better than nothing.

Now, the kittens knocking over my rather precariously balanced tower of speech materials three times in a row was less helpful. The first time I simply sighed and picked it back up. The second time, I scolded a bit and picked it back up again. The third time I used several inappropriate and uncharacteristic words before picking up the tower a third time and trying to re-stack it in a way that was less tempting to kittens. Good thing the children were napping at the time.

Sibling Moment

Michael is starting to feel proud about being a big brother I think. I told the story about him defending her when eavesdropping on our speech session. Later, when he overheard his grandfather teasing her a bit, he piped up rather loudly with, "Don't talk to my sister like that, Grandpa!"

Ava this Week

I'm trying to pay attention to how often I don't understand Ava. It is more often than I think. I have a strategy I use in these situations. I can often tell if she is making a comment or asking a question due to her inflection. If she's making a comment I can't understand, I'll say, "Tell me more." and hope to get additional hints from her expansion. If I still don't get it I'll make a generic comment like, "That's really cool." (if she sounds positive) or "That stinks!" if she sounds negative and just move on. But we've missed an opportunity for more meaningful conversation. If she's asking me a question, I'll respond with, "Well, what do you think?" and hope that she'll answer her own question or that whatever she says next will give me a better clue about the subject of the original question.

The Weekly Michael

We're getting ready to celebrate Michael's birthday this weekend. His actual birthday isn't until next week, but I'm not sure I'm going to try to explain that distinction to him. He is adorably excited. When asked his age, he now responds with, "Almost 4!" instead of "3 1/2!" The party will be small, but hopefully just right for us. My husband's parents are travelling in from out of town and it will be wonderful to have them here to celebrate with us. My parents will be there as well and we'll have a few close friends that Michael is really comfortable with. I'm looking forward to it too. Watching 0-4 has been an amazing transformation.

The Weekly Review: Week 33

Website of the Week:

I browse the web looking for activity ideas a lot. I have about 30 open tabs in my browser at any given time. Often I have two copies of my web browser open with 30 tabs each. Consequently, the computer runs soooooo slowly and will occasionally pop up a message about how I'd better close the browser immediately because the computer is out of memory. Then I panic because I might lose all the tabs. "Oh, no! So many great ideas would disappear forever."

Then I discovered pinterest.com. It is like a virtual bulletin board. Members create boards around categories and they "pin" up pictures with links to the original websites and their comments. Pinterest has a whole category just for ideas other people have "pinned" with ideas for kids. The content is so deep. I could literally spend hours there.

I don't have a pinterest account myself. I desperately wanted one. Organization at my fingertips. Visual reminders of all the cool ideas. I was practically drooling. I requested an invite. I waited impatiently for several days and then I got one. Then I hit a stumbling block. In order to sign up, you -must- sign up through facebook or twitter. That was a big stumbling block for me. I don't want everything I "pin" automatically posted to my facebook account. I don't want pinterest to have access to my friends. It just made me nervous. So I didn't sign up. But I still think about it longingly.

Even if you don't want to sign up though, you should just check it out. It is gorgeous. And so many ideas in one place..... And they're already vetted by other people interested in the same topics.

The Weekly Obsession

If you're a regular reader of the blog, you've probably noticed that I've been on a huge activities-with-the-light-box kick (here, here, here, here). I sincerely apologize if I'm boring you to death. It's kind of the way I work. I get super excited about something and I do it a lot (remember the busy books?) until I get excited about something new and move on for a while. Stick with me and I'll get back to SLP, Apraxia, and other familiar topics soon enough. The kids are finally old enough that we are beginning to do regular "special projects" and it is wonderful. I expect that toddler/preschool activities will continued to be featured heavily for a while.

The Weekly Procrastination

As a certified SLP, I have to get a certain number of continuing education credits to maintain certification. There is no way for me to temporarily suspend certification while I am staying at home, so annual dues and continuing education credits are a must.

Our national organization requires 30 hours of continuing education every three years, or an average of 10 per year. Missouri requires 30 hours every two years. Sometimes the due date for national and state fall on the same year, sometimes not. I have decided that I just need to get 15 annually from now on and I'll always be current. (This is to avoid last year's debacle where I needed to get 30 hours in one month because having two under two pretty much killed all thoughts of continuing ed for 2-3 years).

I joined a pretty nice website (speechpathology.com) that has unlimited access to a nice library of courses for $99/year. I set a reminder in my iPhone calendar to let me know when I had only a month left to my membership. This week it let me know that the time has come. So now I need 13 more hours in the next three weeks.

Instead of hopping right on that, I did lots of light box activities with my children instead. I did mention that I occasionally (umm... often) procrastinate, right?

The Weekly Accomplishment

I sailed right through my husband's first extended business trip post kids. That felt nice. It was a shame that his homecoming consisted of us both realizing we had gotten sick while apart.

Ava this Week

Ava is learning the power of being dramatic and is attempting to determine how much she can use drama to manipulate those around her. Many times this week a scenario went this way:

1. Michael is playing with a toy.
2. Ava decides she would like the toy and attempts to grab it.
3. Michael, understandably resists.
4. Ava bursts into heartrending sobs and plaintively wails, "I want the ______."
5. Now, all of us are wise to the ploy (especially Michael) and so this gets her nowhere except possibly sent to her room until she calms down.
6. Therefore, hopefully, the behavior won't last long. In the meantime, it is definitely pitiful.

The Weekly Michael

When my husband told Michael that he'd be gone for a few days, Michael burst into tears. He was genuinely upset that his Daddy would be away. The next day, he asked his grandmother to help him make a "card" (a tiny yellow post-it, actually) to give to his Daddy when he came home and dictated the contents of the card. He brought it home and put it up on the refrigerator with a magnet. He couldn't keep it a surprise though. He told his Daddy all about the card that night on the phone. It was adorable.

The Weekly Review: Week 32

Blog Post with an Outstanding Description

This week Amalah wrote about a situation at her son's school where several parents of children with special needs felt they needed to advocate for their children. This post contains an outstanding description of the variety of personalities and responses that make up that population of parents and how they all ended up in the same place anyway.

Weekly Blog Post that Made Me Want to Cook:

Weelicious.com featured a crockpot vegetable lasagna recipe a while ago. I liked the idea so much I decided to try it. It was so easy and turned out really well. And, all four members of the family liked it. That's a major success around here.

Weekly Entertaining OT Activity:

This week our OT arrived with three things. She brought powdered sugar, peanut butter, and honey. We didn't measure anything, so I can't give you an exact recipe. We put several tablespoons of peanut butter in a large bowl (for each child) and let them taste the peanut butter with their fingers for a while. Yummy and good sensory experience rolled into one. Then we put some honey (a tablespoon or two?) in another spot on the bottom of the bowl and tasted that with our fingers too. We talked about how the peanut butter and the honey tasted and felt different from each other. Finally we sprinkled powdered sugar (lots) on top of both and let the children taste that too. Then we encouraged them to pat the sugar down into the honey and peanut butter using their hands. Patting turned into pushing. Pushing turned into stirring with a finger. Stirring with one finger turned into mixing enthusiastically with both hands (tasting frequently all the while). Eventually, with much stirring and adding lots of powdered sugar the mixture reached a play-doh like consistency. We made peanut butter play-doh. Lots of fun, yummy, and a great sensory experience. The end.

The Weekly Michael

Michael's continued theme is exploring destruction. Please tell me this is a phase. This week he deliberately pulled up his floor vent and stuffed random objects inside (multiple times). He popped Ava's balloon - with his teeth. He pulled a well attached canvas wall print off his wall and then pulled the 3M wall hangers off both the wall and the picture as well. He attempted to cut a hole in the side of a bottle of glue with his scissors (right in front of me). I have actually told him that he needs to stop and think about whether his actions will destroy or harm something before doing it and decide to stop if the answer is yes. The next time he destroyed something he just informed me that he had forgotten to think.

Ava this Week:

Baby Kitty has been replaced. At the store the other day Ava passed by a bin of $4 baby dolls. She found a pink one with a kitty embroidered on its bib and a pacifier in its mouth. She cradled that doll in her arms for at least half an hour before we left and asked so nicely if she could take it home. I couldn't resist. Certainly not for four dollars. Mama Kitty and Baby Kitty are still in bed with her, but Bitty Baby (as we call her because she's small) takes the place of honor tucked in Ava's arm as she falls asleep.

The Weekly Review: Week 31

Website of the Week:

I love, love, love Play at Home Mom. I find the creative ideas inspiring. Since finding the blog a week or so ago I've done at least 5 activities from the site with the kids including making our own light boxes (post to come when they are complete), making textured paper to paint, and playing with glow sticks in the bathtub in a darkened room.

Weekly Victory over Procrastination

For weeks now (I kid you not, at least 5 weeks) I have been saying to my husband, "We need to start planning Michael's birthday party." This week I realized there was less than a month left and I finally set something up and sent out invitations. I'm excited. It should be fun. It is so hard to believe that nearly four years have passed since he became part of our lives and we became parents. Crazy stuff.

Weekly Summation

This week has been a week of contrasts for me. On one hand, I have been inspired to be more creative with the children building one or two extra activities into their days rather than simply running on autopilot. The activities are fun, help time move more quickly, and keep everyone active, engaged, and happy. Definitely a success and worth the energy I put into them.

On the other hand, I've been inexplicably grumpy at the same time. And everything else has gone down the drain. I haven't done any more busy book pages, I haven't returned an overdue library book, I haven't done this week's meal plan/shopping (a bit late now), and the house is an absolute mess. I think I'll blame the change of seasons, colder weather, earlier dusk, and week-long rainfall.

This Week's Pleasant Surprise

Michael caught a cold this week. For once, the early croupy cough and slight wheeze did not land us at the doctor's office or in the emergency room. The cold appears to be on the mild end of the spectrum. Now, if only saying that "out loud" so to speak doesn't jinx us...

The Weekly Ava

Ava is growing up before my eyes. I know, I know. They all do. That hardly makes her unique. But still... She's leaving the toddler behind and turning into a young preschooler at blinding speed. And she mimics her brother. It is simultaneously cute and annoying depending on which behavior she is choosing to imitate. Good manners - cute. The fake laugh - a little cute and annoying. Head butting mommy from behind and thinking it's funny - definitely not so cute.

Michael this Week

Michael has been a bit manic all week. He's been sick. Just a little, but sick nonetheless. Usually when he's sick he is calmer than usual, eats less than usual, and sleeps more. This week his appetite has been mostly typical, he's skipped every other nap, and when he is up he's running circles around the house - literally. This child prefers building with legos to going outside. This week he can't stay still. He sits for a few minutes then jumps up and runs off the extra energy. It's strange. I'm not sure what to make of it.

The Weekly Review: Week 30

Blog Post that Made Me Laugh

I can't help it. I laugh at these kinds of situations while simultaneously being profoundly thankful that it wasn't me. Amalah had a solo parenting evening that could have been taken right out of a comedy.

Blog Post that Made Me Cringe in Sympathy for all Parties Involved

Problem Girl does a wonderful job of helping her little girl celebrate her sixth birthday, but nothing is ever simple.

Weekly Ticking Time Clock

In nine weeks Ava will be evaluated to see if she qualifies for services from the schools. In 20 weeks she will no longer be eligible for early intervention because she will turn three.

I feel like this timeline is the huge "but..." in our life right now. "Ava has great therapists, but..." "Ava is making beautiful progress but..."

I need to remind myself, yet again, to focus on today's blessings rather than on tomorrow's potential problems.

Weekly Pleasant Surprise

Jourdan at futureslps did a post about my free articulation picture cards. That post was seen by someone at Pediastaff which posted about the cards on their blog. Consequently my site traffic tripled for a day or so and, hopefully, the card sets have found their way into the hands of many more therapists who will find them to be useful. Many thanks to Jourdan and Pediastaff for thinking enough of the card sets to mention them to their readers.

Ava This Week

Well, I don't know what Ava herself would be most excited about this week, but I am most excited about finally being able to fix her hair some. She's letting me put in ponytails and pigtails and will even sit still enough for me to get a bit more creative. She's still too sensitive to stand much brushing or tugging, so it's a bit messy, but such progress. I really do credit OT.

The Weekly Michael

Michael has become a preschooler. He's just not a toddler by any stretch of the imagination any more. He's becoming just as interested in his peers as his parents, possibly more. He wants his sister to play with him and wants to direct every bit of that play. Fortunately Ava is pretty agreeable. "Come on Ava, let's go play sleepover." "Come on Ava, let's go to my room." "Come on Ava, let's go on a ghost hunt." And off they go. He never stops talking, but she doesn't seem to mind. It's lovely.

The Weekly Review: Week 29

Weekly Super Cool Link

About a month ago I solicited ideas about what to do with a sensory table (thanks for the great suggestions guys). This week I found a great web page full of ideas for using a sensory table. There are at least 25 creative ideas here including ice rainbows, exploring spices, and using turkey basters.

Weekly Obsession

Now that I've started, I'm completely obsessed with making a creative busy/quiet book or two. I've completed page 1 and page 2 and have several more in the works. I'm leaving small details like how I'm going to bind the book to figure out later. I wouldn't want to slow down the creativity and enthusiasm with important finishing details. (Please let me not regret this decision later!)

Weekly Landmark Event

First overnight stay in the hospital with one of our children (not counting their births).

Michael's Weekly Adventure

Remember when too much silence resulted in discovering that Michael had half-disassembled the wooden dollhouse in the basement playroom? Well, this week while staying at his grandparents' house too much silence resulted in discovering that Michael had fetched scissors from his grandmother's drawer and used them to cut several holes in his peapod (a small tent he likes to sleep in at their house). We've turned the situation into a learning experience. He's gone on a shopping trip to buy a tent repair kit and they are going to patch the holes together.

The Weekly Ava

Did I mention the croup and the difficulty breathing and the ER and the breathing treatments and the overnight stay at the hospital? Hmm. I did? Enough said I suppose.

The Weekly Kitty Escapade

Remember the miracle where the cat that had been missing for months was returned to us? As we were just coming home from Ava's hospital stay and a brief trip to the grocery store for necessities, I left the door open. Ava was calling for help and my hands were full of groceries and I just missed it. 15 minutes later my husband noticed the open door and we just knew. Cleo was gone again. Just like that. I felt terrible. My husband walked up and down the street calling, but nothing.

We left some food in the driveway and then came back in to settle Ava down for her nap. We were depressed and a tiny bit angry. Why does she want to get out so badly? And why does she run so far away that she can't hear us so fast?

We got lucky. This time, when my husband went back out about 30 minutes later he found her. I am so grateful. But what are we going to do? Cleo is obviously an escape risk. The very first time a door was left open she disappeared again. We have two small children. It is just so hard to watch the door all the time, every time. We'll make sure she has a collar and a current microchip. We'll do our best with the door. Any other ideas?

The Weekly Review: Week 28

The weekly review will look a little different this week just because I feel like changing things up a little. This time you get what comes floating off the top of my head. :-)

The Weekly Annoyance:

Facebook changed everything around again and I'm not particularly fond of this newest version.

The Weekly Indulgence:

I'm watching fall television pilots over the internet. I very rarely have the time to watch tv anymore, but prior to having children I loved checking out all the new shows each fall. Now we don't even subscribe to television. I do have a hulu plus account and lots of the networks make their newest shows available on their website and so I have spent way too much time this week checking out some new shows that I enjoyed and several I thought were pretty awful. Still, I had fun and isn't that what's really important for leisure time?

The Weekly Admission:

Someone, who shall remain nameless, had their school pictures come in this week. I admit it. I snickered. If you could just see the facial expression involved you'd snicker too. How can it be so cute, and yet so funny at the same time?

Weekly Coolest Toy Ever:

We found Michael's birthday present. It is two months early, but I stumbled upon it on Amazon and it was just so perfect. Apparently Lego has a whole separate educational line. Who knew? I certainly didn't. In that line they have a Duplo set called tech machines. This is a set designed around the concepts of air, land, water, and space. The set comes with lesson plans for a teacher. The thing that is unique about it is that there are screws built into the duplo blocks. So when you assemble the vehicles, you lock each piece together so that they can actually be played with without falling apart. I think Michael is going to love it. It's a shame I have to hide it for the next two months.

The Weekly Review: Week 28

Blog Post that Gave Me an Idea:

I need to do this project for a meal plan board. Several months ago my husband and I finally felt that our family life was pulling together enough to stop planning meals five minutes before we needed to start cooking (and then often going out to dinner because we didn't have ideas/groceries). It has actually been great. Our food budget was reduced by at least a third and as long as we've actually done the meal plan and made the trip to the grocery store we always know what dinner will be. My current sophisticated method of accomplishing this task looks like this:

The meal plan board would be a beautiful upgrade.

Ava this Week:

Ava started going to school two mornings a week when she was 18 months old. She cried at drop off every time. They always tell you that after a few days, or weeks, or months it will stop. It didn't. I was told that she was fine within five minutes of me dropping her off, and I believe that. That knowledge didn't make leaving my crying child any easier. I learned to just make the transition short and quick. Lingering only prolonged things. It has been this way for over a year.

It started last week, but was perfect this week. (I hope I'm not jinxing things by saying this out loud.) Ava has been perfect at drop off. She's excited to enter her classroom. She immediately goes over to her teacher or joins the other children at their activity. I have to get her attention to give her a kiss and tell her goodbye. It is beautiful every time and I feel relief and gratitude for the change.

I really do think the combination of occupation and speech therapy is beginning to pay off. Ava is more comfortable in her classroom and more confident about her ability to communicate and participate. And that translates into less anxiety about being dropped off. It is wonderful.

The Weekly Michael:

Michael loves company. He likes to communicate and interact with other people most of the time. A few weeks ago he was constantly seeking out my company or his Daddy's company. "Come play with me" was a common refrain. Over the past couple of weeks we have started to see a shift. He's asking Ava to come play with him. When she is in the mood to join him, they disappear for 20 or 30 minutes at a time to their bedrooms or the basement playroom. I love watching their bond as playmates begin to deepen.

On the other hand, Ava is still kind of a Mama girl. Often she doesn't want to leave me. Or she'll play with Michael for a while and then wander away from him to come check in on me. And I'll hear Michael calling after her, "Ava, come play with me!"

Kitten Update:

The kittens are hitting adolescence. They are climbing curtains, tipping over laundry baskets and getting stuck in boxes. They are also still adorable and cuddly with us and each other. Black and white Sophie is amazingly tolerant with the children letting them carry her around and pet her in their rather clumsy way. Grace (all black) comes out in quiet moments and snuggles the adults making sure we get some kitten love too. They are now four and a half months old and have been with us for over half their life. Here's a picture of the two of them in a quiet moment.

Weekly Random Question:

Do you ever find yourself debating what's more important: transferring leftovers into a smaller dish so they'll take up less space in the fridge vs. the fact that doing so will create an extra dirty dish to take up space in the dishwasher?

The Weekly Review: Week 27

Post I Found Visually Amazing

I came across 21 Images You Won't Believe Aren't Photoshopped at cracked.com. I loved the images and the true stories behind them. They really are extraordinary pictures of some amazing things.

Sibling Moment of the Week:

Typical school mornings involve getting the children dressed and fed in pretty quick succession. They tend to be underfoot the entire time we're getting ready. Then we drive first Ava, and then Michael to school. Yesterday morning I went downstairs to make some oatmeal for breakfast. I didn't really pay attention to the relatively leisurely time I was having making breakfast until I realized half an hour had passed, the oatmeal was cooked and had cooled and there were no children attached at my hip. I eventually found them together in Michael's closet with some toys and flashlights playing sleepover. I do love the joys of independent sibling play.

Ava Names a New Kitty:

Ava has her mama kitty and her baby kitty. She has recently discovered Hello Kitty. She likes Hello Kitty bandaids and a Hello Kitty shirt she was gifted as a beloved hand-me-down. I noticed though, that she calls Hello Kitty, "Hello." When choosing a bandaid she requests "Hello." When picking which shirt to wear, she wants the one with "Hello" on it. It is difficult to figure out how to explain to my 2 1/2 year old that the character's name is "Hello Kitty" and not simply "Hello." It sure is cute though. Too bad we had to ban the bandaids. As it turns out, her skin reacts to the adhesive with huge red welts.

The Weekly Michael

Michael read the first Bob book to me tonight. I am so proud. He's been spelling for a while now. If I help him sound out the individual phonemes he can instantly tell me the letters that go with the sounds. Every time he's on the computer playing with the paint program he switches into font mode and tries to spell something. A few days ago he ran in the kitchen saying, "Mama, come see! I made zoozoozoo!" Sure enough, he had typed in exactly that.

At the easel today he wanted to write boom. I asked him what it started with. He said, "B." And then he attempted to write a "B". Then I told him that two letters together make the "oo" sound and asked him if he knew what two letters do that. He responded "O" "O" and proceeded to add two Os to his word. Finally he put the "M" on as well. I am amazed at how good he is at this stuff. (Of course, "boom" looks more like "doom", but he tried.

Projects of the Week:

1. I figured out how to add both audio and video to the site.
2. I completed two hours of continuing education credit. Both hours were on Childhood Apraxia of Speech topics.
3. I created a short screening tool for my own use with the kids that tests each phoneme in initial and final position using only 22 CVC words and administered the screening to both children. I am using the results of the screenings to decide what to work on next.

The Weekly Review: Week 26

Weekly Blog

I discovered a new blog: The Long and Winding Journey. I don't remember exactly how I stumbled upon it. It is sad and fills me with a desire to turn back the clock and change one moment in time for this family. At the same time, this mother's blog about her precious daughter is a chronicle of strength and hope. Reading it brings some perspective, balance and wisdom to my own life. My prayers are with their family as they journey through their life.

Michael's Moment

We often serve banana pancakes for breakfast. To increase their nutritional value a bit and help breakfast stick with the children, we sandwich some peanut butter between two layers. Some days they get a whole circle, and some days when we're running low they only get semicircles. Occasionally, when only one pancake is left and both children want a little more, they get quarter circles.

Yesterday morning, Michael had an entire circle (two full pancakes with peanut butter in between). On a whim I asked him how many semicircles were in a whole circle. He answered two without a pause. I thought that was pretty smart, so I decided to ask a couple of follow up questions. I asked him how many quarter circles were in a semicircle. He thought for a brief moment and answered correctly, "two." Finally I asked him how many quarter circles were in a whole circle. After a short pause he replied, "four." I was so impressed. Here we are laying the foundation for fractions at breakfast.

Ava this Week:

One moment Ava is full of snuggles, sweetness, songs and giggles and my heart melts. I wrap my arms around her, smell her hair, and savor the moment. Mentally I try to bottle it up and save it for the time in the future when she no longer wants my arms wrapped around her all the time.

At least three separate times this week, as I enjoyed a few moments of quiet conversation with my husband wrapped in a mutual hug, Ava glanced up from whatever she was doing and rushed over to us. At that point she would squeeze herself in between us prying us apart and look up at me expectantly waiting to be picked up. It cracks me up every time. It cannot be coincidence.

And then there are the frequent moments when Ava pushes me away because she insists that she do something, "on my own." This girl has an independent streak a mile wide.