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!!