Will the perfect trash can ever be found?

Have you ever wondered if there could be a perfect trash can?  I’ve been thinking on this a lot lately.  No…I’m not obsessed with trash cans.  But once again I find myself trying to come up with something that won’t be penetrated by my very clever 4 year old. 

At first I had to buy a new trash can because Luke had learned to lift the lid of our old one.  So we replaced the old one with a new trash can that has a button on the top that then releases the lid.  Well this worked for about a year, then Luke figured out how to push the button on top so that the lid would release.  So then I tried turning the trash can around so he couldn’t reach the button.  That has worked until this last week when Luke decided that turning around the trash can wouldn’t stop him!

Luke has learned to simply turn the trash can around and then press the button in order to open the lid.  Then he quickly throws a toy or his juice into the can and then shuts the lid quickly.  Amazingly he doesn’t this very quick, so quick that it took me a couple time to figure out that I didn’t leave the lid open myself. 

Silly guy!  So now I am trying to think of some way around this new predicament.  My husband says to simply put duct tape over the lid and side….maybe we’ll try that.  A quick fix…for now.

What's that?

So we all know Luke has an interesting sense of humor.  Well the other day my husband was playing with some of his new “toys”.  I got him some mini flashlights that were on sale at the Bass Pro Shop the day about Thanksgiving.  My husband was bundling up to go outside and had one of these flashlights in the palm of his hand.   I had my back turned to the kitchen and was microwaving some things, when I heard Luke laugh.  I turned and saw Luke sitting on the kitchen floor, looking towards the door to the garage and he was quiet.  Then he laughed again when a beam of light hit his face.  I then looked to the door and saw my husband standing there pointing the flashlight at Luke.  He continued to tease Luke by turning the light on and off.  Which Luke found to be hilarious.  Silly guys!  I tried getting some of this on video, of course Luke doesn’t always “perform on command”.

Oh My!

Speaking as the youngest of four, I know that siblings can be really fun or really obnoxious.  I love them all, but being the youngest I often was picked on, hung upside down and chased around so much that it became quite normal for me to be picked on.  I’m trying to keep this in mind now as I am encountering sibling relationships at a different angle.  I watch Luke and our baby girl get along great when they are hiding things around the house.  I also see them scream/cry at each other when the other takes something or does something the other doesn’t like.

A great example of this happened just today.  I was getting lunch ready when our baby girl came in the kitchen, I told her to get in her chair.  (She is about to crawl up and put herself in her booster seat, which is so great).  I went back to putting the finishing touches on lunch when I hear our girl scream/cry and I look and she is trying to push Luke away.  So I went over and told Luke to leave her alone, and even moved him to the opposite side of the kitchen.  I went back to getting lunch ready and I hear another scream/cry, and I look…and there she is trying to push Luke away again!  I think Luke was being a big brother and either trying to bully away her chair or try to help her up….which she didn’t want.  Finally, I just grabbed our baby girl and put her in her chair…then Luke started his scream/cry…so I put him in his chair too.  It was finally quiet and I was able to finish cutting up the chicken for lunch. 

But one of the funniest things I’ve seen happen between the two kids happened about a week ago.  I had given our baby girl a small bowl with Club mini crackers earlier in the day.  Usually she does fine and keeps the crackers to herself or sometimes she’ll even hand one at a time to Luke in order to share them.  Which is really sweet to watch by the way…except when Luke decides to throw the cracker after it has been given to him.

Anyway, on this particular day, I come in the living room and check on the kids and what do I find?  They are laughing, like they like to do…only when I focused in on what was happening, I had to laugh too.  Our baby girl was giving her brother crackers, only instead of handing them over she was putting them down the back of his shirt!  I was so funny.  I had to put a stop to it though.  When I changed Luke’s diaper later before his nap, guess what I found?  Yep…a mini cracker!  Silly kids!

Sweet Music

So our little guy just turned 4 years old.  I can hardly believe it!  One of his gifts was an electric drum.  Luke decided to rock out right away.  He pushed the pre-music rock button and started hitting the drums.  Our little girl decided to jump right in and play with him.  Thankfully there are two drum sticks so I could give both kids one so we didn’t fight over them. 

Luke’s always loved music…who knows maybe he’ll be in a rock band one day!

Santa!

So, I’m not a huge one for the whole “Santa” thing and didn’t really think about taking the kids to see him, but one day my husband comes home and says “we have to take the kids to see Santa!”  I have to admit, I was a little shocked by this.  So I asked him “why would we do that?”  Then he told me where we would take the kids to see Santa, at the new Bass Pro Shop!  Yep…the Bass Pro Shop was going to have Santa and we just had to take the kids!

So the day came and we took the kids to see Santa.  We were walking along the line to see Santa so that we could get in line at the end.  Luke was in his walker and we were going along just fine when my husband says “help your son”.  I look down and Luke is standing there and his pants are around his ankles!  Yikes!!  The lady by us that was standing in line said something about him streaking….boy was I thinking I was the worst mom ever! 

Turns out that the inside adjustable waist button came undone…so the pants just dropped!  I’m glad that Luke is too young to remember the embarrassment of the whole thing.  The good part was that the kids both didn’t scream at Santa and sat nicely for a picture.

Silly Daddy!

I know I usually talk about how silly Luke is…well sometimes I think I’m pretty silly myself.  Although the other night I couldn’t help but think “silly daddy”. 

My husband and I were doing baths.  As usual we split the job, I washed Luke and handed him over to daddy.  Then I washed our baby girl and finished getting her ready for bed.  By the time I finished with our baby girl and we went in to Luke’s room so we could pray together before going to bed, I found an “interesting scene”. 

Before entering the room I heard Luke’s laughter along with my husbands, but I figured Luke was being his normal silly self and trying to bounce up and down or something.  Although when I actually got to look at what was going on, I found something I’d never seen before.  Luke was laying down and then sat up, but once he did and his daddy put his hand out…he fell back and laughed.  When looking at the scene at first I thought my husband was pushing Luke back down with his hand, but actually Luke felt his hand and fell back on his own.  It was pretty funny.

I managed to catch this on video.  

Silly Girl!

Today I have to talk about our baby girl.  She has been doing some of the silliest things lately.  The other day was pretty funny, so I have to share it.  We were all in the kitchen, and all of a sudden our baby girl decided to sit on the floor and use her feet to move herself in a circle…all while keeping her “behind” in the same position.  It was so cute and funny!

Of course I tried to get this little “act” on video and she didn’t want to perform for me…although I caught her starting to do it!

Light

Have you ever stopped to think about names and why you might have the name you have?  When you chose names for your kids, what led you to pick that certain name?  Do you ever think about how a person’s name seems to reflect their personalities? 

When my husband and I picked out our kids names, we didn’t look at the “meanings” of them.  Instead we went through lists of names we liked and found a common ground.  When we decided on Luke for our son’s name I remember my husband and I talking about it on the way home from church (about a 25 minute drive).  By the time we got home we were in agreement.  My husband liked “Luke” because at the time he was watching all the reruns of the “Dukes of Hazard”.  I liked the name “Luke” because of the Biblical connection and that on my side of the family we have a Mark and Jon, so why not Luke too?

Our daughter took longer to name.  We debated back and forth for a while.  I liked the name Leah, but my husband was afraid that it would be too close to Lea, like Luke and Lea from Star Wars.  Then my husband liked the name Daisy, and I was not going to do that to our baby girl.  So then we looked through a baby name book for ideas.  Finally we agreed on Faith for a name. 

A few months ago my husband and I were looking around a bookstore and I saw a book of “name cards”.  You know the ones that say the name of the person and underneath it has the meaning?  I was curious so I looked up “Luke”, and there is was….Luke means “light”.   Wow…I didn’t know that and remember thinking at the time how true it is.  Luke is a light for sure.  His personality and smiles light up a room.  It amazes me how our names seem to “fit” us so easily.  

I'm a big boy!

Luke decided to surprise me the other day with a “big boy” act.  I went in to get him up for school and there he was, looking at me so innocent.  Luke had one arm out of his shirt while the rest of him was still in it.  This was the first time Luke has gotten himself out of his shirt…even a little bit. 

When I saw him I said “wow, look at you!” and Luke just looked at me and smiled real big like he was just the greatest thing ever! 

About a week later he did it again and one morning I went in to find Luke’s pants off!  He hasn’t done any of this consistently.  Still it is a great sign that he is figuring some things out and is getting to be a “big boy”.

Creativity

Some kids struggle to find creativity while others have a wild imagination.  I’m not sure yet what Luke has, but I do know that he gets pretty creative at times.  Sometimes he is simply hiding his toys in new  places and other times he comes up with new ways to get something.

The other day I was in the kitchen and heard Luke laugh…at first I ignored it…then he laughed again.  I couldn’t ignore it anymore, I had to know what he thought was so funny.  I walked into the living room and saw what it was.  Luke was sitting behind the recliner and throwing his toys up and over the chair…the result was that the toys were all sitting in the seat of the recliner.  Luke definitely found a new creative way to get his toys where he wanted them.

I tried to get this on video, you can see what I am talking about….but Luke also didn’t “perform on command”, in that he started “missing” his “target” and started to get upset about that.  So his creative activity was funny when he did it right and frustrating when it turned out wrong.

Doors!

If you have been reading this blog for a while, you know that Luke has an odd fascination with doors.  He absolutely loves to stand and watch automatic doors.  When it comes to regular doors he will refuse to keep walking until the door is shut.  Then when Luke is on the floor he will close any door he can.  In the past this has been limited in that Luke could only push a door closed.

Well the last few weeks Luke has been perfecting how to pull a door shut from his position on the floor.  It is no easy task and takes a few steps.  First, Luke will scoot himself several times all while holding the edge of the door so that it gets close to the closed position.  Second, Luke pulls the door using the edge and gets it as close to closed as possible…this part makes me nervous to watch since he could easily hurt his fingers.  Third, Luke will get up on his knees, stretch and grab the door handle to close the door all the way.

Sometimes it take a few tries to get the door closed because he’ll accidentally bump the door further open when he tries to grab the door handle.  But, Luke sticks with it until he gets that door closed!  I happened to catch the “action” the other day on video so you can see what I mean, of course Luke doesn't always preform on command!

The guessing game

When it comes to kids I’m sure all parents go through the “guessing game”, for the first year we have to interpret “cries”.  That cry means he’s hungry or this cry means he’s just tired.  I’m finding with our baby girl that as kids get older it gets easier, they start to point at what they want or pull you in a certain direction.  Then they start to say some words, with out baby girl she usues more sign language than actual words…but we still can figure out what she wants and she’ll be two pretty soon.   Getting so big.

I say all this because with Luke, we still play the guessing game.  He’ll be four in a couple months, but for him we still have to interpret his “cries”.  Most of the time I know what he wants because of routines.  A good example of this is after we eat and I put Luke on the floor he’ll often start to cry at me but I know that what he usually wants is his juice.  So once I hand Luke his juice he is quiet and happy.

Luke is slowly doing some sign language “more”, “go” and “please” are his famous three.  But, that is the limit…..once and a while he’ll throw out a word out of nowhere which is a moment of rejoicing.  I am very happy with the progress he is making, but this week I’ve found myself frustrated with the “guessing game”.

On Monday Luke started to cough when sleeping.  By Tuesday night I started up Luke’s humidifier to help him sleep, of course he decided to party for 2 hours.  I’m still not sure if it was because I let him take a decent nap or because he is now taking a vitamin cocktail that gives him extra energy.  Either way, the cough continued…so on Wednesday night I also ran the humidifier.  This night Luke was up playing again for a couple hours, even though I cut his nap short.  This night though Luke had a new adventure of sorts.  The noises I was trying to ignore during the night, the coughing and the thumping of Luke playing with his bed…all of a sudden turned into crying.  So I went to investigate and I found Luke sitting on the floor and stuck between the bed and the front slates that grandpa made to keep Luke contained!  He had played with the bed so hard that two pieces popped out which in turn let Luke slide down to the floor.  Crazy boy!  I popped the pieces back together and we are waiting for daddy to get time and fix them.  So far…this hasn’t happened again.

But, then last night (Thursday night) Luke still had a cough so I still ran the humidifier…only this time Luke woke crying and crying and crying some more.  I’m not sure he ever really go to sleep…until about 1:30am.  I playing the “guessing game”…holding him, giving him some pain medicine, trying to sleep with him in his bed…none of which worked.  That is until I tried sleeping in his bed with him and after about an hour he decided since he wasn’t sleeping to start clapping up a storm and shaking his head around and laughing at himself.  At this point…I was so tired and figured if he can have fun…I can leave him again and try to get sleep on my own.  Of course Luke started crying after I left…but after about 10 minutes he fell asleep and I only heard some coughing the rest of the night.

I’m still not sure what the issue was last night and I pray that tonight isn’t a repeat of the “guessing game”.

Go Luke!

I’ve mentioned before how Luke has continued to get stronger and how he has been climbing up on the couch.  He’s also been climbing up on the recliner…which rocks.  I think the combination of trying to stay up right, put up his leg and the rocking motion of the chair, make this quite  hard for Luke.

It’s funny how Luke struggles to do things like this, but once he gets it down he makes it look so easy.  I’m so proud of him!

Family multitasking

As a mom I am constantly multitasking.  I think generally women do this more than men and so when I see my husband multitask with the kids, I find it quite entertaining since it usually involves trying to distract the kids.

I definitely saw this last night.  My husband asked me to cut his hair.  In order to do this without the kids being in the way, we set up the gate at the edge of the kitchen so that the kids can watch if they want, but they can’t get to us.  While I was getting everything ready he started playing with the kids by throwing a ball over the gate.  Luke laughed and went to the get the ball and then came back to the gate and threw the ball at his daddy.  This cycle continued until our baby girl wanted in on the action, and the kids were fighting over who got to throw the ball at daddy.  So before starting to cut my husband’s hair I went and got another ball.  So now both kids were throwing balls at daddy.

This all worked great until I started cutting daddy’s hair.  I have to say my husband did a good job for the first 5 minutes or so, he held his head “just so” and still got the balls and threw them at the kids.  But after a while he couldn’t reach the balls every time they came over the gate.  Which meant I began multitasking as well, when they were out of reach I had to reach over and pick up the balls and throw them at the kids myself.  Before I knew it we were all playing this game while I was trying to cut daddy’s hair.  Quite the family fun activity!  

That's Entertainment!

Even though I know Luke gets entertained easily, he continues to make me smile when he does this in various environments.  He does this so easily in the car or at home and even in new places.  The latest example of this happened a couple weekends ago. 

We took Luke in for an endoscopy, and then the following day he started getting sick to his stomach and didn’t stop.  We were admitted to the hospital and wound up staying three longs days to make sure Luke was done getting sick and could eat and drink on his own ok.  While there they decided to get him a “crib” instead of a bed since he has so many delays.  I was never so grateful for something.

You see the last time we had to admit Luke overnight they gave him a regular bed…which meant I had to stay with him constantly for fear of him falling out or something.  That also meant that he and I didn’t get a lot of sleep since he never sleeps next to me.

Anyway, so the “crib” was a huge relief for me and allowed Luke to have the freedom he loves.  The first couple days Luke felt so “puny” that he didn’t want to do anything but lay in the bed.  But, by the third day when he was feeling better Luke really got a kick out of his new surroundings. 

The “crib” had the bars on all sides that could be raised or lowered, but this crib also had a plastic canopy for protection purposes.  So when Luke started getting all excited and wanted to start throwing everything out of this new “crib” I “battened down the hatches” and put the bars up as far as possible and pulled the plastic down from the tops.  Wouldn’t you know it?  Luke thought this was the best ever.  Why?  Well he decided to take his monkey and the balls the nurse brought him and throw them at the plastic and then laugh as they fell or bounced back at him.  Luke thought this was the best thing ever!  Silly little man.  You have to love his sense of humor!

I tried to get this on video…but of course he didn’t perform on command, but you can at least see what I am talking about. 

Stinky!

Luke has an ability to do the strangest things.  I’m sure he isn’t the only kid out there to put things in strange places or hide things from his/her parents.  It just seems like once I figure out where he usually puts things, he decides to hide his stuff somewhere else.

This morning I went to get Luke’s shoes and SMOs (braces), I looked in the usual place underneath a small table in his room….I found two SMOs and one shoe.   The other shoe was MIA.  I looked in all the usual places that he stashes things in his room, under his bed, in his laundry basket, behind the door, in the drawers where I keep diapers, burp clothes and other misc items.  The shoe was nowhere to be found.

Then I had a thought…and it was one of those thoughts that you think “surely not, he wouldn’t do that”.  Then you think about it for a while, and wonder if he would really do that.  Well in this case, I was thinking “I wonder if he put it in the diaper champ, like he did with his juice cup that one time”.  I figured I looked everywhere else, so I decided to go ahead and look…and sure enough….I open up the diaper champ and find the missing shoe with one of the shoe strings attached to part of the champ that flips over….leaving the shoe kind of hanging above all the dirty diapers. 

The worst part was that the shoe smelled like the diaper pail, this also meant the shoe had to have been in there since yesterday some time. Yuck!   Since these are the only pair of shoes we have that Luke can wear with his SMOs I couldn’t just put another pair of shoes on Luke.  Since I was down to just 10 minutes till time to leave for preschool, I took the shoe and put it in the bathroom and sprayed it with air freshener.  When I went back to get the shoe 5 minutes later, it still smelled. 

Oh well, if Luke’s aide says something about smelling something on Luke…I’ll tell her all about it.  When he gets home from school I’ll scrub and scrub those shoes maybe even try to put them in the wash.  

"Love/Hate relationship"

The other day Luke was crawling around the kitchen floor while I was cleaning up the kitchen.  I was going through our papers on the dining room table, wondering how we could accumulate so much stuff in only a couple days, when I hear Luke laugh really hard.  Of course, I had to look and see what was so funny…and I started cracking up myself.  Luke was putting his head all the way down to the ground, stomach almost flat to the floor and trying to kiss the floor!!  I was so glad that I just mopped the night before!

Then when I get the camera to catch Luke in “action”, he starts hitting the floor…and then “kissing” it again!  It was a “love/hate” relationship.  I’m not sure if Luke could decide if he really liked the floor or if he considered the floor his “enemy”.

Balance

You know, for most of us balance is not an issue…but when it comes to Luke it has been one of his biggest struggles.  I’m so proud, Luke has continued to get stronger and stronger each day.  Along with that his balance has seemed to really improve the last few months as well.  The result?  He can now maneuver his walker with much more control and he has increased confidence which I believe has helped him to want to try to do new things, like crawling up on the couch.

Well the other day was the perfect example of how good Luke’s strength and balance have been lately.  Luke was down the hallway playing with the lights and he tried turning around to come back towards the kitchen.  The hallway is pretty narrow, but he had enough room to turn around if he did it right.  Not only did he turn around like it wasn’t a big deal, he started to fall over and caught himself.  Go Luke!

The mommy drum?

So today I am sitting on the floor with my back shoulder blades against the couch, minding my own business when Luke decides to climb up on top of the couch to be with his sister.  Before I know it he crawls up behind me and starts hitting me on the back and laughs…of course.  Then wouldn’t you know it, our baby girl crawls over and does the same thing.  Followed by a laugh.  This continued for a while, then our baby girl leans over and pokes my nose.  Then they started hitting my back shoulders again.  Only this time harder…so I had to put a stop to it. 

Silly kids.  They love to throw and hit things that make noise.  I guess they were checking out whether or not mommy would make a good drum or not.  I hope that my “sound” wasn’t exactly what they wanted, maybe they try out the “daddy drum” next time.

Come on big brother!

A couple weeks ago my mother-in-law and I took the kids to a local zoo, since Luke didn’t have school.  It isn’t a big zoo, but they have some of the basic fun animals…like the monkeys and they even have some Wallaby’s.   Luke liked seeing the animals, and so did our baby girl. 

The best way to take both kids anywhere is to use the Step 2 wagon we got for Christmas.  The double stroller is too small for Luke, so with the wagon it is much easier to take the kids places. 

So there we were going through the zoo, when our baby girl wants to get out and walk.  So I let her, and when we stopped to watch the monkeys move all over their cage she decided to be a big helper.   When she was done watching the monkeys she went over to the wagon tongue which was on the ground and picked it up and tried pulling the wagon with Luke in it! 

She was able to move it a foot or so, and when I tried to take it from her she got mad.  So then I tried to just “help” her and she still got mad.  It was like she was telling me she could do it herself…she didn’t need anyone’s help.  So once I got her aimed the right direction I let her take the lead and pull Luke.  It was so cute!

Crazy sister!

I have to share today about our baby girl, she has come up with some fun things lately.  One thing, I’m sure all kids love and that is rocking.  Even Luke loves to rock…he just can’t do it the same as his sissy.  She’s gotten really good, and of course…like her brother Luke she finds this really funny.

The other day Faith was making me laugh.  Every school day we have the same routine.  We had just finished breakfast and I did the usual by pulling out her chair from the table so I could get her shoes on, going to get her shoes and them coming back.  Only when I was on my way back (which only took a couple seconds) I noticed she had her foot up in the air and had a hold of her milk cup.  This in itself is not abnormal, but she then took her cup and tipped it so that her big toe was at the receiving end of the cup.  It was like she was trying to give her big toe a nice big swig of milk!  Oh..my silly girl….where does she get this from?

Let there be light!

Once again Luke’s humor comes to the surface.  It may not be an “awe” moment like when God said “Let there be light” and the sun appeared…but Luke loves to turn the lights on and off.  He used to do this when we sat him on top of a dresser by the wall in his bedroom while praying before bed.  Now Luke is tall enough to reach the light switch….only he rarely gets the chance to play with it since he has be standing to reach the switch.

Well the other day when Luke came home from school, I let Luke walk into the house with his walker.  He took off down the hall and before I knew what was happening I heard Luke and our baby girl laugh.  I just had to investigate!

I look in the hallway and Luke is standing at the end of the hall turning the lights on and off and laughing like it was the funniest thing ever!  Great OT skills!

Easy Entertainment

On our way home from Baltimore at the beginning of the month, we entertained the kids with food, peek-a-boo and lots of Veggie Tale movies.  But, Luke being…Luke came up with his own entertainment.  It always amazes me what he finds so funny.

I can blame Luke’s cousins on this one though.  It wasn’t his original idea.  On our Wisconsin vacation this year, his cousins decided to teach Luke and our baby girl how to blow on each other’s tummies.  Which both kids found really funny.

Well…since Luke was in the car and he couldn’t attack his sister’s tummy…he decided to blow on his arm…and laugh….blow on his arm..and laugh.  This all lasted a good 20 minutes.  At least he was happy and he wasn’t throwing anything!

So funny and so Cute!

So I mentioned last week about going to the zoo.  Well our first “zoo experience” on our trip actually was scrapped since it was raining.  So we looked into doing a Children’s Museum…which was closed and then we looked at going to the Aquarium….which was WAY too expensive to take really young kids to.  So what do we do?  Find a mall?  Stay at the hotel?  Turned out that there was a Bass Pro Shop that was attached to a mall!!  A good combo.

So off we went to the Bass Pro shop, where we saw animals…they were just stuffed.  We also had to stop and try on a few hats!  

We also had to try out a nice chair!

After walking all over the Bass Pro Shop we went in to the mall area and ate lunch at the food court.  After lunch we started walking back towards the Bass Pro Shop to get to our car, and on the way one of the funniest things happened.

Our baby girl has been known to “help” her brother from time to time, to back up his walker or get around something.  Well, for some reason she decided we weren’t walking fast enough so she grabbed a hold of the back of Luke’s walker and pushed him all the way across the mall and through Bass Pro Shop to get to the parking lot.  Not only was she steering and pushing Luke, she kept saying “Beeee..Beeee” for “Beep Beep”.

So funny!  Even people who walked by and saw this laughed!

Animals and More Animals!

While we were on our “vacation adventure” out to Baltimore, MD…we took a couple extra days to visit some zoos.  The day we were planning to visit the Baltimore zoo it rained…so we did the next best thing and went to the Bass Pro Shop!  At least we got to see some animals…only they were stuffed.  There were a few LARGE moose and several kinds of bears, including a Grizzly.  They also had a large aquarium with types of local fish.  So there were some live animals!

The second zoo we went to was in Columbus, OH on our way home.  That one we were actually able to go to, and if anyone is thinking of going there I highly recommend it.  It was very large, you could spend your whole day there.  We only spent 2 ½ hours, but we did cover a lot of ground.

When we go places like the zoo we use our Step 2 wagon, we can no longer use the double stroller since Luke is way too tall and since he doesn’t control his legs well, they usually hang over and get caught in the front wheels.  So for Christmas last year the grandparents got the kids this wagon so it would make going to the zoo and other places like it much easier…which it has.

No matter where we go we always have to visit the zoo, not for the kid’s sake but for my husband’s….he is a zoo fanatic.  He wants pictures of all the animals…even if you can’t tell what it is when you look later on.  I’m not sure Luke and our baby girl cared for a whole lot.  Although our baby girl really liked the penguins and Luke really liked the gorillas and monkeys.  He got really excited when he saw them.

Luke also liked the Polar Bears who were playing a lot in the water with the blue barrel and our baby girl showed her dislike of the roaring lion after about 20 seconds of listening to him roar.  I’m not sure he was her favorite.

Traveling Frenzy

Am I the only mom out there who can’t seem to understand why we go on vacation?  It seems so stressful.  Before we leave we wash laundry, wash the car, vacuum the car, vacuum the house, pack the kids clothes, pack our own clothes, pack the medicines, pack the emergency medicines, pack some toys, pack the DVD’s, and don’t forget the DVD player!  That’s only part of my list….I could go on and on.  I haven't mentioned the two pack and plays...or even the wagon that seats two!  I’ve gotten to where I keep an Excel sheet with all the things we need…and I have four “worksheet” in my “workbook”.  If your familiar with Excel you know what I mean, if not there are tabs at the bottom that allow you to have as many sheets as you want in one file.  In our “travel sheet”, I have one for our Wisconsin vacation, one for short trips (2 or 3 days) , and one for our Baltimore trips.

We just got back from Baltimore.  It was a 14 hour drive, that we split into two days.  But we were gone for over a week…first we spent a few days in St. Louis with the grandparents and went to the zoo…then we came home for about 36 hours and then left again for Baltimore…left on a Monday…came back on a Sunday.  Anyway…there was so much “stress” on what to remember to pack…and packing what we could ahead so that when the kids got up the following day we could leave as fast as possible. 

I spent so much time just getting ready to pack by doing laundry…not once…but twice.  Then I spent 3 hours cleaning our van from top to bottom.  Booking hotels…and confirming them….getting books from the library so I have something to read in the car…it seemed to never end.  There was a sigh of relief when we were all packed and on our way finally.

Then we make it through the week and we finally make it HOME!  Aaahhh…home sweet home!  Only…when you get home you can’t just walk in and collapse on the couch…no you have to unload the car, sort through all the stuff and put things away….do laundry….and more laundry….and yet more laundry.  Then….you have to clean the car or in our case our van once again…although this time I didn’t spend 3 hours…just an hour or so vacuuming it out well.  Since the drive was so long we fed the kids on trays attached to their seats and we drove down the road…the result was lots of crackers, teddy grahams…and some chicken and even some hotdog and ketchup (the result of our baby girl deciding to throw her ketchup covered corn dog all over the place).

So when it is all said and done, I sit back and wonder…is a vacation really a vacation?  It feels like so much work…at least with young kids.  I can only hope it gets better as they are older…and for us as Luke becomes stronger and more independent.

Can you see how full our van was?  We even had two coolers...one between the middle seats and one between the driver and passenger seat!  Good thing we had the "stow-and-go" option on our van...or else I'm not sure we would be able to see out the back!

A new NASCAR track

My husband absolutely loves NASCAR, I don’t get why.  After all the cars just go in circles.  I’ve been to a couple races with him, and I have to say it is better in person.  I still can’t sit and watch it on TV…..but being in person you have the loud sound of the engines, combined with the smell, and you can actually see how fact the cars are really going when you can see the whole track at once. 

Well the other night we took the kids outside to play after supper.  Luke was playing with the club house and opening and shutting the doors, when my husband starts walking around the clubhouse and our baby girl starts to follow.  Before I knew it my husband was walking circles around the clubhouse with our baby girl and Luke following him.  They made several laps.  My husband then says “we made our own NASCAR track”.  I just had to laugh.

Then our baby girl fell down and my husband says, “oops…baby girl spun out!”.  I just laughed some more.  I tried to get this on video so you can see for yourselves.

1-800...GRANDMA

A few months ago I went with some girl friends to Amish country. While there I saw a magnet that said “I’ve had it! I’m calling 1.800.GRANDMA”. It was one of those things I had to buy, I thought it was so funny and yet so true! I’m not sure what it is about grandparents but them to make Luke and our baby girl do things that we can’t.


Just one example of this happened this past weekend. We piled the kids along with the grandparents into the car and drove to St. Louis. The plan was for my husband, grandpa and I to go to the Carndinals game while grandma baby sat and then go to the zoo on the following day. It was a good weekend overall, although very HOT.

The room we got at our hotel for the night was a suite with two separate rooms. We try to do this whenever possible since neither of our children will go to sleep if they can see us and know they are missing something….especially Luke. When we got to the hotel it was nap time, so we set up the pack-n-plays and laid down the kids for their naps. Our baby girl cried for 5 minutes and went to sleep….but Luke was another story.

We had to put Luke’s “crib” in a corner of the kitchen area. There was a narrow spot where the “crib” would be “sealed in” on three sides. On the back side was the wall, one side was right next to the refrigerator and the other had cabinets. The crib also fit in such a way that the end stuck out a little by a kitchen table.

It didn’t take more than a few minutes for Luke to figure out he could peek around the wall by the refrigerator to see into the big room. My husband and I were sitting on the couch, but once we saw he was just peeking out at us we went to the other end of the room where Luke could not see. My husband took the chair in the corner while I sat on the floor.

Then about 10 minutes passed and I thought Luke might have gone to sleep…instead I hear BANG…BANG!! Sure enough Luke figured out that there was a cabinet DOOR and he could open and sut it with a BANG! He loved that! Only….he wasn’t going to sleep. After he played a while Luke was quiet and I thought he might have gone to sleep…but when I checked around the wall I saw Luke’s head above his “crib” and quickly saw that he was leaning out as far as possible to try and look around the wall.

The silly little man never did take a nap….his daddy got fed up with Luke playing with the cabinet door and got him out of his “crib” after he had been in there for about an hour. So much for a nap!

Then that night when the three of us went to the game and we left the kids with grandma….I was worried he would play around and not go to sleep for her either. I should have known better, the kids are always better for the grandparents.

We came back from the game and found out that Luke not only went to sleep….but when he fell asleep he was sitting up with his back up on the side of the “crib”. I couldn’t believe it! The kid that never falls asleep in the car no matter how long the trip or in any sitting up position, actually fell asleep sitting up!!

WooHoo!!

So yesterday I started the day like any other.  I get up at 7am, eat breakfast, take a shower, open Luke’s room so he can start waking up for school…and then finish getting ready myself while Luke is working on waking up.  I learned a long time ago to never just wake him up and grab him, if he isn’t happy when you get him up out of bed…he’ll stay unhappy for a long time afterwards. 

While I was getting ready and Luke was supposed to be lying in his bed waking up and getting happy, Luke decided to try a new trick.  I was in the bathroom doing my hair and make-up when I hear laughter.  I didn’t hear any other noises…like thumping or rattling that would indicate that he was kicking his feet or anything like that on his bed.  So I went to investigate to see what was so funny.  What I found shocked me.  Luke was standing up by his mat that is against the wall, and was holding on to the rope!!  I was so happy for Luke!!

This was not something easy for him to do for several reasons.  One is that this bed’s mattress is soft and therefore it is hard to get your balance on.  Two, the rope itself is not extremely tight so it isn’t the most sturdy object to hold on to in order to pull up.  Three, Luke has not even come close to mastering the art of standing up on his own, without holding on to something. 

So all of these things combined really show how great Luke is doing!  He is getting so strong!  When I saw him standing there I just shouted “WooHoo!!”  I was so proud of him.

Who am I?

Growing up I think we often wonder…who am I?  When were are little we are baby…so and so, like Luke was “baby Luke” for the longest time.  Then we get past that stage and we start having nick names, like Luke’s are “tank man”, “little man”, “nucky” or my favorite “sunshine”.  Some or maybe one of those names will stick and we’ll always be known as our nicknames.  My family, specifically one of my brothers started calling me “squirrel bait” when I was young and to this day…..he still calls me that.  By the way…I’ve been told it wasn’t because I was “nuts”, but because I was so small they could feed me to the squirrels.  Although…I’m not sure I believe the story…after all it came from my brother.

Anyway, as I was saying…we have these nicknames.  Then we go to school and we get a whole new set of names, some of us have those long “proper” names that the teachers will always call us by….like Robert…but our friends will call us by many other names…like B.J. or Robby or Bob. 

Then after we are out of school and we get married…we get even more names….”pet names”.  My husband calls me “Share Bear”, not really sure where it came from….but it has stuck.

Then come kids….it starts with the doctor’s office.  You call when they are sick and instead of giving your name, you are now known as “Luke’s mom”.  Then you call so much that all you have to do is say their name….and they know who is calling.  Once and a while I call and I tell them Luke’s name and depending on which nurse I am talking to…..they’ll ask me what is wrong…but use my name.  In those moments I realize that I am losing my identity.  I’m no longer my own person…I’m attached to these munchkins forever!!  Kind of a scary thought. 

I have to call so many doctors and therapists…and now the school when Luke is sick or needs something, that I don’t think about it much anymore.  I just say, “this is Luke’s mom can we set up a therapy session?”  It took a while…but by the time our baby girl came around….I was getting in full swing with my “new identity”.  Now, the biggest problem I have is when I call the doctor…or I go to pick up a prescription or something…and they ask…”what’s their birthday”…..I have to pause and think a second…and think through who I’m talking about here.  There have been times I’ve combined Luke’s birthday and our baby girls and had to retract what I said.  A real enlightening moment happened when I called a doctor for myself….and they asked me my birthday and I paused for so long….I just laughed and then told the nurse and then had to explain that I wanted to give her Luke’s birthday instead.  It just all becomes so automatic when you are raising kids to rattle off their names and birthday’s…but when it comes to myself I can’t remember my birthday…and many days my name…after all I’m just “Luke’s mom”.

An EEG experience

Have you ever gone on vacation someplace beautiful or unique and you come home all excited and tell people about it?  You show all your friends and family the pictures and tell all the stories.  But, in the end it just isn’t the same as actually experiencing the trip yourself.  You know that after all the pictures and descriptions you give your friends and family, they don’t really KNOW what the trip or experience was like…because they weren’t there.  They didn’t experience the sounds, smells, wind and all the things that really make an experience unique and memorable to you.

I’m finding that the same idea is applying to all our medical experiences with Luke.  Until you go through them yourself…you just don’t really know.  All the pictures and descriptions just aren’t enough.  Luke’s therapy, his MRI, his muscle biopsy, and his eye surgery were all experiences that are hard to describe.  Even experiences like trying to get a urine sample from Luke are things that are better “lived” than described.  I’ve gone through that experience twice…both experiences were different…and neither one very fun.

Well, after yesterday we have a new “experience” under our belts.  The EEG.  I can’t imagine this is a fun experience for any parent of a small child.  But with Luke…the boy who doesn’t sleep in the car no matter how long the drive, and doesn’t sleep with other people in the room….I was dreading this experience.  Luke had to be sleep “deprived”, which meant he could only sleep from midnight till 4am the morning of the test.  Because I was scared that Luke would still not sleep during the test…I even cut his nap short the day before.  Instead of 3 hours…he had a 1 ½ hour nap.  This made for a very cranky boy on Wednesday night. 

Thankfully I have a wonderful husband who helped me with Luke.  He kept Luke up till midnight and let me go to bed around 9pm.  They watched some Veggie Tales and then I heard them playing some basketball and things.  This meant I didn’t get to a deep sleep till later on, but at least Luke was happy and awake.

Then 4am came, and I got up and let my husband sleep.  I woke Luke, which took some doing…he did NOT want to get up.  Once up he stayed cranky for me…but I bribed him with teddy grahams and juice.  We had our breakfast around 5:30am and left for the hospital around 6:30am. 

Luke did really well until the nurses wanted to put things on his head.  Luke is just too curious and has to see what is going on.  Well…you can’t see the top of your head….so one nurse tried to keep him happy and held his head, while the other measured, marked, and then glued all the wires onto various places on Luke’s head.  Luke was doing pretty well with this part until he decided to trick one of the nurses.  Luke was playing really nice, smiling and everything….then all of a sudden he reached up and pulled off three wires!!  The nurse dubbed him a “stinker”…which I agreed with, and I told her he was probably laying there planning, just waiting for the “right” moment to get those wires.

After the wires were on, they took some wide gauze and wrapped Luke’s head.  It went around his head like a Turban and then they went under his chin as well.  In the end it reminded me of a mummy….only Luke eyes nose and mouth were seen.  I wish I had my camera.

Then I lay down with him trying to get him to sleep.  I even remembered the Randy Travis CD (if you remember this is one of best ways to calm Luke in the car).  Luke cried for the first 5-10 minutes….then we laid there in the dark listening to Randy sing.  Luke fought sleep for a good 40 minutes.  Then finally he drifted off.  He was only asleep for about 5 minutes before they called an end to it all.  This all seemed like a lot of work for 5 minutes…but at least he did go to sleep finally!!

Then after they took all the wires off there was all this glue in Luke’s hair and it had a red coloring to it as well.  It looked like he had been playing with some red paint.  The nurse used a washcloth and got most of the glue out…but the glue ended up being smeared all over turning in the glue into a  “styling gel” of sorts.  The nurse even took a comb through it and made cute little spikes in his hair, so he would look “presentable”.

After we got home, around 10:15am, I gave Luke an early lunch and then a bath to get his “gel” out of his hair.  Then I laid him down for a nice long nap…and I found some zzzzz’s as well.  My wonderful husband took Thursday off so he could take care of our baby girl…and they were off with the grandparents “fishing”….so the house was nice and quiet!!  So nice!

Luke got a nice long 4 hour nap before I woke him up, and I found that I didn’t wash his hair good enough.   Luke’s hair looks so funny, there were three areas where his hair was gathered together making it look like someone had come along and chopped his hair down to his scalp in those areas or something.  Later that night Luke got his second bath of the day, I finally got the glue all out!!! 

I am so grateful that the EEG went better than I thought it would.  It was still an experience not easily forgotten.  

Type A Personality?

Lately I’ve been wondering if Luke is developing a Type A personality….almost OCD or something.  He has been “organizing” his toys ever since he learned what it meant to put things “in”.  Over the last couple years he has taken the whole “in” concept to a whole new level.  He spends most of his time playing by taking all his toys (Legos, plastic food, blocks, balls, and whatever medium to small sized objects he can find) and puts them in one place.  Then he finds a new place and puts all of his “toys” in this new spot. 

Some days he puts everything in a drawer somewhere, like the oven drawer, and then turns around and puts everything in his wagon.  Other days he goes back and forth loading up the wagon and an empty box.  While other days he stashes his toys all over, in his Little Tykes kitchen, clothes drawers, and on a shelf under the TV and then goes around with the wagon and puts them all in.  If you interrupt his “toy gathering” he gets VERY upset.  Not just a little cry, but a full blown fussy fit…complete with crying and throwing a toy or two that are close by.

Then there are the times in the last couple months where he has began “organizing” his food.  Because we can’t trust Luke to NOT throw his plate and NOT stuff his mouth so full he can’t even chew, we put all Luke’s food on a plate and then give him a few bites of food at a time.  Mostly we give him finger foods, and when we are able we work on using a fork.  (You can’t trust him completely with a fork either, before you know it the fork can be clear across the room).

So, I give Luke a few bites of grapes or chicken or whatever at a time.  Once Luke gets about half done he has started putting the “bites” I’m giving him back on his plate.  Then once the food is back, he will arrange it the way he wants.  So if there are a couple grapes in two different areas on a plate, he will move them so they are together….and if there are any on the table they go on the plate as well.  Then once they are all in one spot…he proceeds to put all of the grapes in another spot on the plate. 

I think he could do this all day.  So I let him do it a couple times and then tell him to eat and stop playing around.  At first I was pretty concerned about this new “habit” of Luke’s.  It’s good to be organized…but when I see him doing this with so many things…including his food….it makes me wonder if something else is going on.  But these fears are disappearing after talking to one of Luke’s therapists.  She mentioned that a lot of kids that can’t control a lot (like their fine motor or gross motor movements or even their speech), tend to control what they can.  This makes a lot of sense to me.  So now I am trying to understand Luke’s “obsessions” and allow him to control what he can, whenever possible.

Go...Go...Go Luke...Go!!

Today I just have to share what great thing happened just this morning.  As I’ve mentioned in the past when Luke does something new it feels so wonderful.  As a parent when you child finally feeds themselves, crawls, walks, or talks….you feel such a relief in that they are becoming more independent.  Well…when Luke reaches these kinds of goals the relief and thrill seems so great…it reminds me that God is listening to my prayers for healing in Luke…that He continues to work in Luke even when we don’t always see it.

I felt this when Luke started crawling, when he started using his walker on his own and when he pulled up for the first time last summer.  Today I felt this again.

I was sitting on the couch and Luke comes over and pulls himself up.  At first I thought he was just reaching for a toy that was up there with me, but then I noticed he was trying to put a leg up on the couch.  Now, he has tried this in the past…but not like today.  Today it was like he wasn’t going to give up…no matter what he was going to get that leg up on the couch.

Luke was getting frustrated, crying to me…so I decided to help him crawl up on the couch.  It didn’t take much to help him, just give his leg some support.  Then after a while he wanted down off the couch.  So I helped him do this.  It became a cycle that I helped him with a few times, then all of a sudden he stands up to the couch, puts his knee into the place between cushions and pulls himself up onto the couch!!  All by himself!!  I was so happy for him.

Luke continued to do this throughout the morning and early afternoon.  Six times in total!!  It is just another step towards his walking and talking goals.  But, each step like this is so BIG….and I am so thankful.

Is that really funny?

Alright, any of you who follow my blog already know that Luke has a unique sense of humor.  I’m not sure if all kids are like this, if it is just Luke.  I know our baby girl doesn’t find everything so funny, she usually laughs when she makes Luke laugh.

Anyway, on our vacation a few weeks back there was a time where Luke started laughing and I couldn’t help laughing myself.   We were driving in to the nearest town one day, and it started raining.  All of a sudden Luke started laughing.  He would laugh and stop….laugh and stop….I couldn’t figure out what was so funny.  I asked my husband, “what is so funny?” and he noticed that Luke was laughing when the windshield wipers were going across the front of our vehicle!  I couldn’t believe it, so I watched and sure enough when the wipers would go across the windshield, Luke laughed!  I tried to get this on video, but of course Luke wasn’t laughing as hard for me then…but you can get the idea.

Will we ever get it right?

We have been once again forced to “re-evaluate” how to protect Luke from his wall next to his bed.  The pad still works, but the bungee cord idea is now out the window.  Last week, I noticed that Luke had some blisters and some broken skin on the underside of his fingers, right where they bend.  At first it was only on one finger, then a few days later it was on three different fingers.  The only way I could think of, that he could of done this, was in his “bungee cord game” he likes to play in his crib.

So we once again had to think about how to keep the mat up high enough on the wall without it falling over.  At first we were thinking to try something my dad mentioned, one of those tarp straps that adjusts and locks in place.  Then when I saw that, I realized how big the metal piece is that controls the length of it.  I figured we better try something else, since Luke would probably find a way to get a hold of the metal piece and really hurt himself.

The next step?  Well, my husband, the genius that he is…said “why not rope?”  My husband then comes in the house with this rope that is camouflage in color, since he keeps it to use when he goes hunting.  Why not?  I’m thinking that it isn’t elastic, there is no metal…so maybe it would work, even if this rope is designed to blend in with a forest.  So far…the rope has been up for 3 days…and we are doing well.  I just hope that Luke doesn’t figure out how to chew on it.  Right now I think it is a little too high, but you never know with Luke. 

This whole mat experience has been like any other of parenting.  You encounter a challenge, try to find a solution, and when that doesn’t work….you try again and again….and again.  Hopefully one day you get it right, after all as humans we aren’t perfect….all we can do is keep trying our best. 

A great new hiding place

Luke is always looking for new places to hide things.  Just a couple weeks ago, I spent an entire day looking for one his juice cups.  When my husband came home I told him about this and he asked me I looked in all the usual places; behind the couch, in the trash, in the bathroom, in Luke’s diaper drawer, in the Little Tykes Kitchen, behind the TV, and in his sister’s laundry basket.  “No” I told him…”it disappeared…I looked EVERYWHERE”. 

Well, that didn’t stop my husband from looking.  He made some comment about Luke was outsmarting his momma, but daddy was here now….so look out.  Sure enough after 10 minutes of looking he found it!!  I was so frustrated and looked all day and it only took him 10 minutes!  Of course he found in the one spot I told myself it couldn’t be in, inside the “diaper champ”.  If you are not familiar with these, they are set up to collect diapers without being too stinky.  You place the diaper in the top and then flip over compartment using a handle, then the diaper falls below in the trash bag and is ready for another diaper to be placed in the compartment on top.

Anyway…somehow Luke put his juice where the diaper goes and used the handle to flip it over so that the juice was INSIDE the trash bag underneath that held all the dirty diapers!  I spent a lot of time disinfecting this juice cup.

Now that I know his new spot, I wonder if he'll find even another spot to "stump" his mamma next time.

Peek-a-boo!

One of our kids favorite pastimes, in Peek-a-boo!  When they get upset it is one of the first things I try to cheer them up.  Of course Luke has also had a fetish lately with just covering his head with a blanket.  Sometimes he does this in his sleep...like he doesn't want to be disturbed or something.  Well on our way home from vacation last week, he decided to do this in the car.  I'm not sure if he was telling me he wanted to go to sleep, which he never does in the car, or if he was tired of seeing me...since I was sitting between him and our baby girl in the back seat.

Of course our baby girl isn't about to be "out-done" by her big brother.  She loves to hide her head behind anything she can...whether it is a blanket or her hands over her eyes.  The funniest thing I've seen her hide in happened only this morning.  She decided to use Luke’s cardboard box to hide in.  Both kids thought this was very funny.  

I don't know why my kids love to hide their faces so much....maybe they are playing "peek-a-boo" or maybe they just want to hide for a while, thinking that by covering their faces they can hide their whole body or something.

Stand-Up's

In PE growing up we always had to do sit-up’s, well for Luke we do a little sit-up and a lot of stand-up’s.  Over the fourth of July all the family was gathered and Luke was standing with his Uncle when he decided to drop to the floor.  Before we knew it he was doing his “stand-up’s” with his uncle, and I was able to catch a little of the fun on video.

Uphill Battle

Luke continues to work on so many different skills with his PT.  I remember when we first started therapy with Luke at age 15 months, the goal was for him to crawl.  Then once he could crawl we worked on his ability to crawl up a mat that was shaped like a large triangle, kind of like a ramp.  Now that Luke can walk well with his walker they keep working on his balance and one of the way to do this is to work on his walking skills up and down a ramp. 

The other day his PT worked on this with Luke and she used a large exercise ball as well.  The goal was for Luke to walk up the ramp and push the ball up the ramp at the same time.  Then once he gets to the top he gets to push the ball and let it roll down the ramp and hit any toys at the end.  This wasn’t the first day they did this exercise and Luke always finds the part with the ball rolling down funny.

New "Toy"

It is amazing what our kids find to play with.  Whether it is an empty box or a paper towel roll, they find the simplest things to be the best toys ever.  Luke has found a “new” toy, although this “toy” wasn’t meant to be a toy.  Like so many other things that aren’t intended to be.

Of course this “new” toy is part of the “solution” to our “banging heads” problem.  In Luke’s room we have the mat up on the wall, which is working well, except a couple weeks ago I hear “clink…clink…clink…thunk”.  When I went to investigate I found Luke playing with the bungee cord that holds the top part of the mat against the wall.  He had gotten up on his knees and was playing with the “hook” part of the bungee cord…like he was trying to get it “unhooked” from the wall or something.

Then the other day I hear Luke wake up, laughing and then I hear him “playing” with the end of the bungee cord.  Then he was quiet and all of a sudden I hear a loud “THUNK”, which is a very different sound, followed by Luke’s laugh.  I then heard it again, “THUNK” and laughter.  So at this point I went to investigate, since I couldn’t figure out what he was doing exactly.  I just knew it wasn’t the “boom” sound I hear when he hits his feet on the mat and it wasn’t the “playing” sound I hear when he messes with the end of the bungee cord.

So I open Luke’s door just in time to see that he has a hold of the bungee cord with both hands, and he leans back and then releases the cord.  The result, was a loud “THUNK” sound…and of course Luke laughed. 

The whole thing reminded me of when I would help out with a summer camp.  We would fill up a lot of water balloons and then get out these “launchers”.  Then we would play a game where one team would stand completely still while the other “launched” their water balloons at the opposite team.  In order to get a good shot you had two people hold either end of the “launcher” and one person would put the water balloon in the cradle part and then one person would pull downwards as far as possible and then “launch” the balloon.

That is exactly how Luke looked.  I did manage to get a video of him doing this so you can really see what I am trying to describe.  Although, Luke took his time getting everything just right before “launching” his bungee cord so before seeing him “launch” at the mat he has to rearrange his pillow and blanket.

Skiing?

You know, I’ve realized that to be a PT or OT or ST of children, you really have to get creative.  I don’t know how many times I’ve watched Luke’s therapists turn something so simple into a therapy session.  They take a ball and play basketball, kickball or “dodge ball” all while trying to get Luke to say “ba…ba” or trying to get him to use two hands to throw or even trying to get him to be balanced enough to kick the ball while using his walker.  Something so simple…turned in to an activity that helps Luke to reach his potential.

Even though they get creative with regular everyday toys, they also use their resources.  There is a “machine”, I’m not really sure it would be called that, that has two large pedals attached to each other but are set up so that one pedal is up when the other is down.  It also has tall handles that kids can hold on to so they don’t fall off.  With the pedals being so large and the handles being so high, it looks like Luke is trying to ski when he is on it.  The point of this “machine” is to work on strength and for Luke it is a great tool to use to get Luke to bend his knees.  Luke still likes to lock out his knees when he should be bending them, like when he is going down the stairs.  He is getting better at this, but still hasn’t mastered it.

So…we got this “machine” out the other day at PT.  Luke has done this once before, about a year ago, and was only able to go a few feet before he was ready to quit.  Luke was upset the other day when we started using this “Ski Machine”, but calmed down enough to let his PT continue working with him.  The result?  Luke was able to go down the hallway, about 100 feet, and back on the “machine”!  It was great to see!