Oooo I like this!

During Luke’s Speech Therapy and OT, there is usually a point where Luke sits in a chair with a tray.  They use this for their various activities, like playing with Mr. Potato Head or the play dough. 

Well, a few weeks ago when the Speech Therapist put this tray on Luke’s chair, Luke touched it and then started rubbing his hands across.  You could tell that this day there was some kind of static on the tray, when you put your hand on it you could feel the static and almost hear it.  Luke was so curious about this new feeling that he kept rubbing his hands across the tray, back and forth he went and after a while he would smile or laugh. 

Ever since the day with the static, once the Speech therapist puts the tray on his chair Luke puts his hands down flat and starts rubbing back and forth.  She tries to get Luke to play with the cards or Mr. Potato Head but all Luke wants to do is rub back and forth on this tray.  It is so funny to see.  I did catch this on video last week, which you can watch below if you’d like.

The real funny part is that he only does this with his Speech Therapist.  Even though the OT uses the same chair and tray, Luke only rubs his hands back and forth in his speech session.  He must associate the room or therapist with the action of the tray.  Silly little man!

The perfect "weight"

So for a long time now we have been working with Luke to strengthen his muscles.  Usually we try things like adding weights to things he pushes or lifts.  We’ve even filled some old Gatorade bottles with water, so that they are harder to throw (like he usually does with his toys) and harder to lift up onto the couch or chairs.  Luke actually likes to put those bottles in his wagon and push them around. 

Well last week our baby girl, who isn’t really a baby anymore now that she is one, decided to climb into the Step 2 wagon we have.  Usually the wagon is full of blocks and various other toys, but this day it was empty.  Therefore, it was the perfect place for our baby girl to climb into.  Once she got in she looked at me and smiled real big, like she had found the best place to play. 

Of course she did this while daddy was walking Luke around by one hand, up and down the hallway.  So when daddy and Luke got in range, Luke grabbed a hold of the wagon and started pushing it through the living room and down the hallway.  Daddy stayed close behind, in case Luke lost his balance.

On the return trip to the living room, our baby girl got bored and decided to be adventurous and try standing up inside the wagon while it was on the move!  Such a funny thing to watch!  Both Luke and our baby girl thought this “exercise” was the greatest thing ever!! 

I caught the return trip on video, so maybe that will help you visualize.

Wrestling daddy...really?

The other night my husband was in a “wrestling mood”.  Not just the “roll around on the floor with your son” kind of wrestling.  No, that was too boring that night.  Instead he decided a little hands on learning was needed.  This night my husband wanted to show off his muscles and show Luke how to do “curls”.  I’ll let the video show the rest.  It does such a better job than my trying to explain it.  Please also note, this was a onetime thing, we don’t make a habit of using Luke as our “weights” when we work out.

Advice

Ok, so today I just want to share with you something I learned this past weekend. My husband took a vacation day in order to go Bow Hunting, but his plans fell through. So instead of going hunting he stayed home with our baby girl and was planning to work around the house while I took Luke to town for therapy and ran errands. I knew what my husband was planning and wasn’t sure how it would work with our baby girl, but he said it would be fine.


To tell the rest I have to go back in time a little. This past summer we worked on our upstairs bathroom, one of the things we updated was the ceiling fan/light. Well in order to do that my husband had to climb around in the attic. One of the times he was up there, he slipped and his leg landed on the drywall that makes up the ceiling…instead of the support beam he was aiming for. The result? I nice foot and a half long crack in the ceiling of our hallway.

We left it, figuring it didn’t hurt anything. The plan was to fix it when it cooled off outside so that it wasn’t so hot in the attic. All that said, that is what my husband worked on last Friday. Although in order to do this he had to keep our baby girl out of the way. So he put her in her crib in her room. The only problem was, she kept falling asleep…even with the light on and some toys to play with. After all, she was in her normal bed right?

For the rest of this story I feel I need pictures, they tell so much more than I can explain. So the first is a visual of what the hall looked like (and imagine all sorts of white dust all over EVERYTHING).

So when I saw that, and saw that our baby girl kept going asleep. I got out the pack and play and set it up in the front room in front of the TV. I gave her more toys and by having the TV on she stayed awake, she loves some of the shows on Nick Jr. She looked like a little prisoner, so once again. I’ll let the picture do the talking…and I’ll end with what I learned last Friday. When you decide to make a mess doing something to your house, lock your kids up in a fun and safe environment OR just send them away…which is what we will do next time.

No Luke, stop!!

Ok, so this is embracing…prepare yourselves. And if you are one of those people who can’t handle TMI (too much information), like my husband…you might stop reading this post and just wait until Friday and read that one. Although I’m sure anyone reading this may have come across this scenario before …especially anyone dealing with children around age 2.


So last week we were really busy, we had doctor appointments and therapy every day. On Wednesday, we had two therapy sessions and an eye doctor appointment. Because of the busy schedule grandma watch our baby girl and it was just Luke and I on the town! Well, we had to have lunch right? So we stopped at a nearby Culver’s.

Of course my little man needed a diaper change, along with a pants change…because he was now at the leaking stage. So we went to the bathroom. At this culver’s the diaper station is in the handicapped stall. So I changed Luke and then after putting him back together and helping him back into his walker. I thought, I’ll go too why we are here. Might as well, right?

You can probably see where I’m going. While I’m trying to go real quick, Luke turns his walker around and heads for the stall door!! The handicapped stall is great for wheelchairs and has lots of space for that, but let’s just say that when a desperate mom needs to reach her son…the space is a little too spacious!!

I thank God for small miracles. By the time Luke managed to get the door unlocked and opened, I was putting myself back together. An older lady did come in at that point, when I was still telling Luke to “stop”…in between short bursts of laughter!! She looked at me strangely, probably wondering what kind of mom I was to attempt such a feat alone. Oh well.

I guess most parents don’t need the space of a handicapped stall when they take their 2 or 3 year olds along to the bathroom. It sure would be easier to control a munchkin if I was in a normal stall. If only his walker would fit in one. I guess it is just another “challenge” of a “special” mom.

The Kiss Monster

Luke has been working on his “kissing” technique” for quite a while now. For the longest time he simply kept his mouth wide open, leaned in, and all you got was a pool of drool all over your cheek. Sometimes Luke likes to bite, I haven’t figured out the trigger for that yet, but when he would lean in with his mouth open…I often withdrew, because I didn’t know if he was planning to bite or try to “kiss”.


Well last week Luke was working on perfecting these ”kissing skills”. At PT we were working on his standing by rolling a large exercise ball back and forth. Only two of those times Luke decided that simply pushing the ball back to me wasn’t enough, instead before pushing the ball he leaned over and placed a big old smacker on the ball. Including the sound “mmmmmma”. Very cute!

After PT we went out to eat lunch with grandma and baby sister. When the waitress came to take our order Luke started his “flirting” by patting the waitress’s apron, right where the tips go. Then he leans over and we hear “mmmmma”, as his lips smack together. Just doing this once, wasn’t enough….no…he did this several times, in fact I lost track of how many times. Of course all grandma, the waitress and I could do was laugh. Definitely a “silly little man”!!

Let's walk

We’ve been working with Luke on walking with his walker, at home since last January. As our baby girl started getting mobile she kept wanting to play with Luke’s walker. Then when he was walking, she would crawl in the way!


Now, she has taken the whole walker thing to a new level. For a couple weeks, I tried getting our baby girl to walk using our “toy walkers” and she wanted no part of it. But, she would go over to her brother’s walker and pull up to it. It was like she was telling me that if she was going to walk, she was going to walk just like brother.

Well the last week or so, we’ve finally be able to get her to walk with the toy walkers we have. So now, when we work on Luke’s walking in the house we don’t just have one of our children walking down the hallway. Now we have two.

Luke starts walking with his walker down the hall, and not far behind you’ll see his little sister walking with her own “walker”. Of course Luke is too nosey, so he tries to walk forward while looking behind himself. So, to solve that problem I put our baby girl in front of him. Only, the first time I did this Luke decided he wasn’t to be “out done” by his little sister. So he walked fast, and of course our baby girl was just getting the hang of the “walker” so she was going slow. You can probably see where I’m going.

Before I knew it Luke was running over his little sister. Of course, Luke being the impatient one, got upset when his sister was blocking his path! I think he was mad because, not only does he have to share his toys, but now he has walking space too!!

New Juice Holder

I’ve talked in the past about many of the unique places Luke likes to hide his toys and juice cup. In the past those places have included; under mommy and daddy’s bed, in the bathtub, behind the TV and couch, and even Luke’s diaper pail.


Well about a week ago, Luke found another unique “hiding” place for his juice and toys. I really think he likes to keep me “on my toes”. Maybe when I have looked for his “missing” juice in the past I found it too easily? I think that may be why Luke seems to think he needs to challenge my “juice finding skills”.

In this case, I looked all over the house….in all the usual places. When I was stumped, I stopped and thought back over the last couple hours. Then I remembered I had to take the garbage lid away from Luke (the kitchen garbage can has a lid that is easily removable).

I thought “it could be there, but surely not”. Well, it was!! I took off the lid and there was the juice along with a dozen toys!! Yuck!!

So “super mommy” dug all the toys out along with the juice and washed them all up. When my husband got home I informed him that we NEED to buy a garbage can. I’m still on the hunt for one with a good lid, a week later. Hopefully we find a one soon. In the meantime, Luke has yet another place to hide his juice! Which I’m sure makes him happy.

Professional Kickball?

The other day at PT the therapist worked with Luke on his balance and control. In order to do this she gave him a ball, which he in turn had to kick along the hallway. Luke really enjoyed this.


Using his walker Luke did a lap around the Easter Seals facility, while kicking the ball down the hallways. The funniest part was when after a while; Luke decided lifting one foot to kick a ball seemed silly. After all he has the walker, and it could do the job without lifting any of his own feet.

So there was Luke going down the hall, kicking a ball with his foot and all of a sudden he decided to “kick” the ball with the front end of his walker instead. Of course, he laughed thinking this was so funny.

All his fellow classmates better look out! Luke has a couple extra “legs” to help him out when the class goes to play kickball, soccer or any other sport including a ball on the ground! Luke will bring the game to a whole new level.

Of couse at therapy nothing can be easy, so once he seemed to master kicking the ball with the walker...we went to a whole new "level".  Luke's therapist had Luke try kicking the ball without his walker, and she held on to his shoulder blades.  He did really good.  He is getting so strong!  Go Luke Go!

Go Little Sister!!

Luke is teaching his sister well. I have to share two very funny things that happened this week with our baby girl, Luke’s little sister. The first happened on Tuesday. I was trying to straighten out some information for Luke concerning his new walker, so I was on the phone with the insurance company, doctor’s office, and the company we are ordering the walker from. I was sitting in the recliner in our living room and our baby girl was playing quietly on the floor. The “quiet” only lasted for so long.


When I called our insurance company, an automated voice goes through the menu and when it gets to the point where if asks “what would you like to speak to our representatives about today?” It then says “please say one of the following; dental, flexible spending account or if you need help with something else. Say ‘help me with something else’” Well the voice couldn’t get past “say one of the following”, because our baby girl was saying “ba da da…mm..ma” and so the “voice” on the phone says “sorry, I do not understand, please say again”. Then it started the normal menu again, but once again it didn’t get past the first portion before our baby girl started gabbing again and I hear “sorry, I do not understand, please say that again.”

After that I finally figured out what was happening and I covered up the phone so that the “voice” couldn’t hear our baby girl. I finally was able to say “help me with something else”, while cupping a hand over my mouth and the phone so that our baby girl couldn’t put her “two cents” in. So funny!!

But that wasn’t the end of Luke’s sister’s craziness this week. On Wednesday during our Speech Therapy, our baby girl was crawling all over the place while I was talking to the therapist. Before I know it the therapist and I look over at her and she is standing on a chair trying to climb onto the table that the therapist’s laptop was on. We laughed and I got her down.

Then about 10 minutes later I was helping the therapist get Luke into his walker and put his coat on, when we both look and see my baby girl actually ON the table and getting her hands on that laptop!! This time since I had my hands on Luke, the therapist went over laughing and got her off the table.

Out baby girl definitely has a one track mind!! She gets that from her brother!

What's this?

Last week at PT, Luke got a chance to walk with yet another walker. This one was the same brand and basic style as the one we have ordered (Nermi Neo Walker), but this one had a new piece of “hardware”.


The walker we have been working with at PT was pretty much exactly the same as what we ordered for Luke, including a Pelvis support. Which for Luke, he doesn’t always need but it is a great tool to have to remind him to stay in the middle of the walker.

The only thing wrong with this walker is that we think it had been in some kind of “accident”….the strangest thing would happen. When you just look at the walker it looks absolutely perfect, all four wheels on the ground and no apparent problems. Only when Luke starts walking with it, he gets about as far as two rotations of the rear wheel and all of a sudden the walker pulls to the left and the left rear wheel comes up off the ground. So strange! No matter what we tried we couldn’t seem to fix this issue. Although, Luke adjusted quickly and two weeks ago the whole “pulling to the left” thing didn’t seem to bother him…it was like he “knew” and adjusted accordingly.

Anyhoo…last week we finally got another walker to work with…but this one (as I said above) had a new piece of “hardware”…instead of a “pelvis support” it has an attached seat!! It is attached in such a way that it folds up when you aren’t using it.

Well Luke was so perplexed by this that when he first got into this walker to try it out, he didn’t do his usual “get in and turn around” routine. Instead he stood up, got in, turned around and then decided to do another 360 inside the walker…like he was just double checking what was back there or something! So funny!

Then of course eveyr other time we stopped on our “walk” around the therapy building, he would start to turn around to do another 360 inside the walker again! It was like he couldn’t get enough or he was still unsure about what was behind him and he had to check it out again…and again…and again. Silly little man!

Follow the Leader

Luke and our baby girl have started following each other around. One day we just got home from therapy and I took Luke out of the car first and put him inside the house, then I went back out to the car and got our baby girl. Well when we got inside Luke was just sitting in the middle of the kitchen waiting for us. Once I put our baby girl down on the floor, Luke took off crawling and his sister was right behind him. I started laughing and they both stopped, looked over their shoulders at me, smiled, and then turned back around and took off down the hall “turbo crawling”. So cute and so funny!


The latest form of “follow the leader” happened a few nights ago. My husband was on the floor with the kids and they were all over the place. Then our baby girl got the brilliant idea of crawling all over daddy, but that wasn’t enough fun. Once she saw that daddy had one leg flat on the ground and the other bent at the knee providing a nice little “tunnel”, she took off. Before we knew it she was crawling under daddy’s leg and laughing, like it was the best thing in the world. Then Luke, not to be out done, decided he should try it too. So after his sister got out of the way, Luke went under daddy’s leg too…only Luke is was too tall on his hands and knees, so daddy had to help out a little by lifting his leg.

Well, as you can imagine, once was not enough. They circled back around to daddy’s other side and did it all over again. They did this so many times that I lost count. The best part was when our baby girl decided that going in circles was losing its appeal. So in order to change it up, she went under daddy’s leg and then did a “U-turn” in order to go back under his leg without having to crawl back around to the other side. The only problem with that brilliant idea was that her brother was right behind her, so when she turned around and went under daddy’s leg again she came face to face with her brother. So funny! Eventually they figured out who had the “right of way”, which surprisingly wasn’t the BIG brother.