Apparently I forgot to credit my mom with the creation of those clown costumes. As you can see, they were worn before Stephen and I got them... They held up well, didn't they? Thanks, Mom, for saving the costumes!!Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Sorry, Mom!!!
Apparently I forgot to credit my mom with the creation of those clown costumes. As you can see, they were worn before Stephen and I got them... They held up well, didn't they? Thanks, Mom, for saving the costumes!!
Sunday, November 8, 2009
A is for ART!!
Last week, Stephen and I started working on a kind-of "Letter of the Day" curriculum at home. We will do this on weekdays when he is not at school. Thursday's letter was "A." I gave him some roll-on paint marker thingies to color this A (you can see the squiggles...). You may also be wondering about the Christmas Tree...
Last week, I rearranged the playroom (which Stephen has LOVED, by the way!), and I decided to take some toys out of rotation, and put some other ones out. I pulled out his Little People Nativity Set, and another Christmas set. The plan is to start teaching Stephen about the Nativity a little bit, but I got out the other set as well for fun. He remembered the Christmas Tree, obviously, and remembered that pressing down on the star will make it play either, "We Wish You a Merry Christmas," or "Oh Christmas Tree." So, in order to get him to stay at his table and paint/color for longer than 5 seconds, I let him bring the tree over.
This is the first time we've let Stephen color with Markers. He seems to enjoy them over anything else we have had him use so far! Without prompting, he held the markers with a really good grasp (most of the time, anyways!). He put the marker down whenever he had to restart the music on his tree...
And for anyone wondering what this coloring project has to do with the letter "A," that little guy is Austin from the Backyardigans!
We also worked on another project that day, but I can't post anything about it because it is for a Christmas present for the grandparents!!!
Last week, I rearranged the playroom (which Stephen has LOVED, by the way!), and I decided to take some toys out of rotation, and put some other ones out. I pulled out his Little People Nativity Set, and another Christmas set. The plan is to start teaching Stephen about the Nativity a little bit, but I got out the other set as well for fun. He remembered the Christmas Tree, obviously, and remembered that pressing down on the star will make it play either, "We Wish You a Merry Christmas," or "Oh Christmas Tree." So, in order to get him to stay at his table and paint/color for longer than 5 seconds, I let him bring the tree over.
This is the first time we've let Stephen color with Markers. He seems to enjoy them over anything else we have had him use so far! Without prompting, he held the markers with a really good grasp (most of the time, anyways!). He put the marker down whenever he had to restart the music on his tree...
And for anyone wondering what this coloring project has to do with the letter "A," that little guy is Austin from the Backyardigans!
We also worked on another project that day, but I can't post anything about it because it is for a Christmas present for the grandparents!!!Monday, November 2, 2009
Just a few more...
He finished off the evening of Trick or Treating with a pumpking cookie (thanks Grandma Deb!!), a bath, and The Backyardigans!! It was a lot of fun, but we were definitely missing having other kids around. Maybe next year we'll take him somewhere with other kids!! Saturday, October 31, 2009
Happy Halloween!!!
Yesterday, I got to school early to see Stephen and his pals go "Trick or Treating" at the director's office for CDO. When I got there, the boy was in full-on, meltdown mode. He was very upset, and when I asked the teachers, they said that they were planning on getting the kids their snacks, but they were all running a bit behind, and hadn't gotten to it. No biggie, so I gave Stephen some cuddles as I helped him in to his costume. He finally told me twice that he was hungry. He actually used those words, twice. Excellent. Since he told me what the problem was, I let the teachers know I was going to give him a little snack. Then, they all headed down the hall to Ms. Stephanie's office for treats!
(that little guy behind Stephen is Noah, his buddy. I think Noah was trying to figure out if he could get someone behind that door to give him some candy too...) Stephen and Noah play together whenever Noah is at school. I met his mom today, and hopefully in the future, we will be able to get the boys together to play outside of school!
They all made it down the hall, and were getting their treats...
(that little guy behind Stephen is Noah, his buddy. I think Noah was trying to figure out if he could get someone behind that door to give him some candy too...) Stephen and Noah play together whenever Noah is at school. I met his mom today, and hopefully in the future, we will be able to get the boys together to play outside of school! They all made it down the hall, and were getting their treats...
I just love this picture (below). I don't remember what their teacher (in the striped shirt) was saying to them, but I love how they are all listening so intently!
So here he is, our happy clown!
We will be trick or treating on our street tonight, and depending on how Erik is feeling, we may or may not go to "Haunt the Zoo." Erik is sick, from all of the dust aggravating his throat and nose from construction right outside his office at school. Our sweet boy, knowing that Daddy was using a lot of kleenex, brought him the box while he was in the kitchen this morning. After he gave him the box, he went back to playing. What a sweetie!
We will be trick or treating on our street tonight, and depending on how Erik is feeling, we may or may not go to "Haunt the Zoo." Erik is sick, from all of the dust aggravating his throat and nose from construction right outside his office at school. Our sweet boy, knowing that Daddy was using a lot of kleenex, brought him the box while he was in the kitchen this morning. After he gave him the box, he went back to playing. What a sweetie!
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Monday, October 26, 2009
More stuff...
I can't even believe I forgot to post about this... Stephen graduated from Physical/Occupational Therapy last week!! His therapist was going on medical leave for 4-6 weeks, and he is no longer behind enough to warrant them assigning us anyone else for that period of time before his birthday. He is at or above age level in most areas of gross and fine motor skills!!! It's not always obvious to us, though, because Stephen has some very definite ideas of what he will and won't do, no matter his ability. Oh well! He has a couple of things to work on still, but we are all very confident he will have them in a short period of time.
On the potty front, we are also seeing some improvement. He still won't tell us with words when he has to go, but he gets pretty whiney when he needs to, because he doesn't want to have an accident. That works pretty well for us at home, but not so much at school. I think he will just have to continue to wear the training pants at school until we can get him to verbalize his potty needs better - we just can't expect 2 teachers with 10 kids to know all of his non-verbal potty cues!!
In about a month, Stephen will be evaluated by some people in our school district to determine how much speech help he will need after he turns 3. Several months ago, this stressed me out to no end - I didn't want him to have to have a an Individual Education Plan and be in the "system" at all. BUT... the fact remains that he doesn't talk enough, and when he does, it's hard to understand him. He understands everything we say to him (and frequently things we say to others... he's a smarty pants little stinker sometimes!), so we certainly don't worry about that. He just needs help articulating his needs and wants, and we are grateful that we have this resource available to us, without having to pay for it or go through our insurance! Our school district actually has a preschool class specifically for kids with language delays, which is pretty exciting. This means that there will be less likelihood of him being place in a class with kids with other issues, and end up having behavioral problems as a result.
"School" is going well also! Stephen just loves it so much there, and it's obvious that they love him as well. He pushed me out the door last week after I got my kiss goodbye, and barely even noticed when I came to pick him up! We can totally tell a difference in him since he started - he is just blossoming! It's just so nice.
Ok, for the next post, I promise some pictures. I just don't feel like waiting for Blogger to upload right now!!
On the potty front, we are also seeing some improvement. He still won't tell us with words when he has to go, but he gets pretty whiney when he needs to, because he doesn't want to have an accident. That works pretty well for us at home, but not so much at school. I think he will just have to continue to wear the training pants at school until we can get him to verbalize his potty needs better - we just can't expect 2 teachers with 10 kids to know all of his non-verbal potty cues!!
In about a month, Stephen will be evaluated by some people in our school district to determine how much speech help he will need after he turns 3. Several months ago, this stressed me out to no end - I didn't want him to have to have a an Individual Education Plan and be in the "system" at all. BUT... the fact remains that he doesn't talk enough, and when he does, it's hard to understand him. He understands everything we say to him (and frequently things we say to others... he's a smarty pants little stinker sometimes!), so we certainly don't worry about that. He just needs help articulating his needs and wants, and we are grateful that we have this resource available to us, without having to pay for it or go through our insurance! Our school district actually has a preschool class specifically for kids with language delays, which is pretty exciting. This means that there will be less likelihood of him being place in a class with kids with other issues, and end up having behavioral problems as a result.
"School" is going well also! Stephen just loves it so much there, and it's obvious that they love him as well. He pushed me out the door last week after I got my kiss goodbye, and barely even noticed when I came to pick him up! We can totally tell a difference in him since he started - he is just blossoming! It's just so nice.
Ok, for the next post, I promise some pictures. I just don't feel like waiting for Blogger to upload right now!!
Sunday, October 25, 2009
To the Farm!
On Saturday, we headed down to Moore, OK, to go to the Orr Farm. There are a TON of things to do there, including a petting zoo, playground equipment, a corn maze, a train, a carousel, pedal cars, a bouncy area, a hayride, and of course, a pumpkin patch.
We started the day at the petting zoo. The goat was interesting...
And the pig felt rough and scratchy. The pig was very distracted eating, so he wasn't too interested in the small person touching him...
The best animals, though, were the sheep! We reminded Stephen what sound the sheep makes, and he just lit up, understanding that THIS sheep is just like the sheep in his current favorite book ("Moo, Baa, La La La"). He even fed the sheep a little bit!
Then we had to make him sit with the big pumpkin for a good photo opportunity. This was the only one where he was smiling - the others, he was just relaxing on the hay!
We rode on the Carousel... Stephen was pretty aprehensive about it for the whole ride. He had been on one before, but that was last summer, so I suspect he just didn't remember, and was a little nervous about it!
Remember that episode of the Twilight Zone - "Eye of the Beholder?" Yeah...
We started the day at the petting zoo. The goat was interesting...
And the pig felt rough and scratchy. The pig was very distracted eating, so he wasn't too interested in the small person touching him...
The best animals, though, were the sheep! We reminded Stephen what sound the sheep makes, and he just lit up, understanding that THIS sheep is just like the sheep in his current favorite book ("Moo, Baa, La La La"). He even fed the sheep a little bit!
Then we had to make him sit with the big pumpkin for a good photo opportunity. This was the only one where he was smiling - the others, he was just relaxing on the hay!
We rode on the Carousel... Stephen was pretty aprehensive about it for the whole ride. He had been on one before, but that was last summer, so I suspect he just didn't remember, and was a little nervous about it!
Remember that episode of the Twilight Zone - "Eye of the Beholder?" Yeah...
But here was our happy boy on the train. I was surprised that this was his favorite activity of the day, but he really enjoyed the 15 minute ride!!
After the train, we hopped on the tractor for a hayride out to the pumpkin patch to pick out our three pumpkins. About halfway through the ride out, Stephen started to poop out. He had very little interest in picking out his pumpkin, and dozed off a bit on the way back. We ran him pretty ragged, but all in all, fun times were had by the family! We'll definitely do it again next year!!!
After the train, we hopped on the tractor for a hayride out to the pumpkin patch to pick out our three pumpkins. About halfway through the ride out, Stephen started to poop out. He had very little interest in picking out his pumpkin, and dozed off a bit on the way back. We ran him pretty ragged, but all in all, fun times were had by the family! We'll definitely do it again next year!!!
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