Rock Hopping

Occupational Therapy 2

Should I feel guilty that the Coast Gaurd is paying for my child to play with a professional?

We had a really awesome time today and Ms. Celeste said it was OK for me to take pictures.
I love how she explains things in between fun. She started with some heavy lifting- it helps him tense and basically locate his muscles and helps him focus.

She did some Supermans on the ball- finding his balance. All the time, encouraging Shane to talk in full sentences.

Stretching his brain, she pulled out her shape sorter. Shane loves those things, matching and twisting the pieces.

From that, she went into the messy stuff that usually hangs up Shane. True, no kid, not even Shane can resist bubbles, but I've watched him take a bit of time to work himself up to getting his mouth close enough to the dripping bubble wand to actually blow a bubble. And you can usually forget it if he has to put is mouth on things. Today was different.

Then more small motor skills, threading beads. Shane's been doing a little bit at school, evidence is the "icicle" of tyrofoam figure-eight peanuts that hung on our Christmas tree (and for some reason I actually packed away for next year- hmm, I've lost my mind.) He did very well, showing off his problem solving skills by trying different ways to string the beads (hold the bead still? hold the string still? thread toward the floor, or sideways? oh, the difficult decisions of childhood.)

She combined the beads with the rice- Shane wasn't interested in touching it today, butt was able to switch gears (beading, digging, beading, etc.) wich he isn't usually good at doing.

In between times, he got to crawl through the tunnel. It is his all-time favorite. Just now, looking at the pictures, he was begging to go through again, saying please so sweetly and everything. I need to find him one.

Of course, he made sure Austin took his turns too.

Aussie kept trying to stand inside the tunnel- Shane thought it was hilarious.

They brought me the pieces of the puzzle; coming through the tunnel; then put it all together, talking the whole way. They're on thier tummies because it takes more muscles- holding your head up and everything.

Finally, the scooter-board. Austin found a way to help.

This kid is fast and furious.

What does all this do? For the very first time today, Shane put on his socks all by himself. Doesn't sound too huge. but it is to me who still mostly dresses my 3 1/2 year old. But to cheer all at once, he followed up putting on his socks by hid boots, hat and coat--ALL BY HIMSELF.

That earned him a little something from the prize box He chose a little gummy Sticky Hand- that we showed him how to throw against the walls and windows. Last I saw it, it was stuck on the sliding glass door.

This stuff stretches out to affect the rest of life too. He started having troubles being dropped off at school. They instigated a morning swing session for him after noticing that he did better after swinging on the playground. It's the same as the scooter-board, and Daddy flipping him around and running laps, and a hundred other little tricks and games he has come up with to help him cope with the world around him.
Celeste said the other day that had we not actively looked for help for him, he would have continued to find his own ways to deal with the sensory over- and under-load. He's incredibly smart. But, it would take him longer and longer and be much more stressful as he continued alone.

SNOW!

Today, my mind has been on snow. Between the time Brett came home last night (this morning actually 5 am) and the time the boys and I headed out for the morning (10) we got 4-7 inches of snow.

It was wonderful. But it got me reminiscing.

I got to thinking about the snow we used to get over in Homer. I'm sure everyone on the Penninsula is still "enjoying" the same amounts of snow. I sure miss it though.

The sledding games we used to play were foremost in my thoughts. I know that if Mom had seen some of the things we were doing, she would have flipped. It's a miracle that we didn't have any injuries, or broken limbs, or a concussion at the very least. Somehow we all escaped unharmed. We tried to be safe, with watcher on the bottom of the hill and the top of the hill; not that we ever got too many cars on our road.

I'm officially inviting everyone who joined in on our games of Crash and Thread the Needle and whatever else we called our shenanegans; to send me stories of what you remember, so I can post them.

For today, I thought I'd share the rules of the games I remember.

Crash: This one is fairly simple. Whoever could involve themself in the most cringe-worthy one-persone wipe-out, without getting hurt (vital- if someone got hurt then we'd all get in trouble) WON! yeah, I don't remember ever settling on a winner, we all just kept trying to top each other- though I'm sure I never got anywhere close to some of the things the boys would put themselves through.

Thread the Needle: At our house, we only had 3 sleds. One disc and 2 plastic tobbogans (the ones that could fit 2 people sitting, 3 if they were small). So, we shared. The idea behind this game was to make the most fun for everyone. We'd set our watchers, to make sure we didn't get surprised by any cars. The one who's turn it was on the disc would go down the hill and wait. The other two, at the same time, or in turn, would then try to make it past the one on the disc. Simple enough, though the title of winner went to the one who could safely make it by, on the side closest to the snow berm. Challenging when the disc lands right next to, if not half way up one side. Again, I was no where near as daring as my brothers.

It would be so much fun to go out sledding again. Even just a visit to Olsen Mountain would be fun. I don't know of any places around here that were as all enoyable as could be found in Homer.

I get the impression from Brett sometimes that sledding is not something 'grown-up'. He's planning a skiing and snowboarding trip south, but I'm not so sure where I'm going to fit in to the whole thing. I'd love to learn to snowboard for real, but spending money to fall on my butt in front of hoards of strangers isn't on my list of things that are fun to do. Call me crazy.

Wii!

Last winter, the local computer store had a little sign on thier door saying 'Ask About Wii'. So we did. It was going to be the next big thing, so we (mostly Brett) wanted to see it in person. They were out.

This year, the sign was back. Loaded down with cranky children and a head full of everything that I didn't have time to get done, I was only interested in getting through the next store alive (toy store- the most dangerous kind).
Brett wanted to at least see one, so he was going to try to steal a peek while I went on ahead.
Imagine my suprise when he caught up to us in the store with a white box under his arm.

BUT, it's been pretty fun so far. Brett is far more skilled than I am at pretty much everything.

We're fairly even on bowling (a game I've missed- there's no bowling alleys here). And everyday when Shane gets home from school, he insists we (I) play a round of his Diego game. He helps off and on, but mostly, it's just me.

We're all having fun now- right? Wii!

May The Force Be With You

Uncle Kenny (Brett's younger brother) is in for it!

He got Brett a gift that no boy could resist, thinking that if he only put Brett's name on it then it would be our choice if the little boys played with it. And he would be absolved of any responsibility. Think again buster! I learned my lesson about buying annoyingly noisy toys for kids that aren't mine, you will learn as well- I'll make sure of it! :P

The clash of blades- that never actually touch!

The boys are very cautious with them, it took me a half an hour to convince Shane to actually touch Austin with the glowing saber.

Austin likes to "practice" on his own when Daddy's trying to watch movies and it's nice and dark.

Though most nights, I think it's just the light show he likes best.

The Force is strong with this one- be afraid, be very afraid!

Distraction

The biggest challenge of Christmas was keeping Shane out of the gifts until Dad was ready. It was cake once I let him open Kat's present. Dad figured out how to hang it from the table crack, and the rest was fun and games.

It was a while before Kat even got his turn.

Must Be Santa

We had a funny kind of Christmas this year. Brett was slotted to work, and not knowing how long he'd be kept there- the original plan was to hold off, do the stockings and Santa would stop at our house during nap. Ha ha...

I guess Brett forgot the plan. I fell asleep while trying to get the boys to bed (suprise, suprise). He woke me up the next morning to let me know that he'd helped Santa move all the presents but didn't help with the other stuff.

So, I got up early Christmas morning while the boys slept in (is it just me or is that backwards?) to help Santa figure out the stockings and put bows on boxes.

When the boys did make thier appearances, all they wanted to do was watch a movie, but eventually, I got the TV off and the boys interested in what was spilling out of their stockings.

Shane refused to put on his Christmas PJ pants, but Austin didn't mind them. I ended up sewing them by hand when the boys kept trying to touch the sewing machine needle.

Brett ended up getting home by 9:30, so he had time to walk the dog while I ate and kept the monkeys off the piles of presents under the tree. I'll go into the big buys later (Wii!!!) but some of the biggest hits for the boys were...

for Austin, the box his new shirt came in (we all had some stuff in the box which is why it was big enough). He's in love with boxes. I ended up having to steal that one, so he found that he fits into one of the post office boxes- the bigger ones..

Shane got lots of stuff, including 3 different train sets. His favorite came from Aunt Kerrianne, Uncle Allen, Emily, William and Evan. It didn't even get out from under the tree. He planted himself right there until I set it up and got it going for him. His little OCD is that the train has to be in the same order every time. Shane's facination with trains has gone to the point where AUSTIN will go around stealing them and saying 'toot toot'. The big brother idolatry is something else!

Family Pictures

It took a long time to finally nail down Brett to get our Christmas picture shot this year. You're probably wondering where yours is at- so am I! Brett found some big suprises from Santa this year, so the Christmas letters are turning into New Years letters (though we've missed that one as well, the next big holiday is Valentines Day, and I don't want to have to take another picture to make sure it fits. Maybe for Groundhog's Day...hmmm.)

It took a number of tries.... Shane kept making this face (closing his eyes against the flash)