Graduation Day

Morgan has had her last OT session. She has made huge strides in the sensory department. She's able to flip her socks inside out so that they don't bother her as much anymore. Most shoes are a non-issue, while she's learned to tolerate boots with minimum fuss. We know to give her a full sensory diet with lots of jumping, bouncing, and heavy work. Thanks to our friends, we have a small trampoline, like the one from her Center, that she uses daily.


I'll miss her Olivia Newton John look. The headset is part of a special listening therapy. During therapy, specific sound frequencies and patterns are delivered via these specially designed headphones that include vibration.

While she no longer has OT sessions with Tristian, we will continue to go to the Center for psychological services focused on emotional competence, problem-solving, and well-being. We still have a long road ahead of us, but at least we are getting closer.

Our Toothless Wonder

This weekend Morgan lost yet another tooth for a total of five. Luckily, her two bottom middle teeth are almost all the way in or else she wouldn't be able to chew anything!

Morgan has figured out just what that tooth fairy is up to: "She collects teeth so she can grind them down into her fairy dusty".

The Learning Plate So Far

This thing has been incredible! I really doubted the fact that Morgan was going to be able to scoop the food onto her plate. This is the girl who throws herself onto the floor in pure agony if there is baked chicken on her plate. Never mind the fact that chicken nuggets are her favorite food. Chicken that is not fried in little circles must taste just horrible.

But guess what? So far we haven't had to introduce the Learning Plate. So far she's put five tablespoons of each food on her plate. So far there hasn't been any meltdowns, battles or whining. So far there hasn't been the questions or prodding on how much more needs to be eaten.

And on top of that? So far she's tried everything on her plate without any begging and pleading on our part. So far she's tried shrimp in sauce (both seafood AND sauce being a hot point), she's finished all her glazed ham and she's eaten all her vegetables. She hasn't cared for everything, but when she doesn't like it, there is no drama. Mark and I exchanged excited glances at each other as we sit there in silence (and awe) and watch her eat. So far we are more relaxed since we are no longer active participants in her eating choices.

And so far meal time has been absolutely 100% pleasant.

Cats

Words I never, ever in a million years thought I would say: "Morgan stop putting the cat in the oven". Now before anyone from PETA starts hunting me down, let me explain that I was talking about her play kitchen. But still. Sounds pretty weird doesn't it?

Despite the terror that goes on in our house, Genghis is adjusting wonderfully to the family. Abbey and him are becoming great buddies, hanging out and playing together. I even caught Abbey licking all over his head while he laid there with eyes closed purring.

Yep. He's fitting right in.

Our Little Hockey Player

Morgan lost two teeth at school. She's been planning on losing them at school for a while now. If they come out there, she gets to go to the nurses office and get a special tooth box. So after much twisting and cranking, they both came out. Now she's got the smile of a hockey player.

On the way home from school, she lost one of her teeth so we had to write a note (again) to the tooth fairy. Wanting to make sure she that she got fully compensated for BOTH teeth, she placed the note under the the pillow one night, and the box with the tooth the second night. "So she doesn't get confused."

The next day I lost my cellphone. Morgan told me I should write a note and put it under my pillow so that the cellphone fairy could give me a new onee. And then she laughed and laughed.

Happy Valentines Day

Morgan made two Valentine's Day cards at school. One for me, a hope you feel better card for my eyes and an I love you one for... Genghis! She's mastered the art of star-making and now decorates all things with stars.

I'm pretty impressed.

The Learning Plate

Morgan's SPD sometimes gets in the way of our meal times. While she doesn't have full blown sensory adversion to food, she does have strong preferences. Add to that the fact that she has control issues and a strong will meal time can sometimes be less then pleasant. Her therapist gave us the following meal time plan and I'm very excited to put it into play. The following is a summary of said plan.

1. Prepare your child for the dinner meals changes before you implement them. Make sure to emphasize that it's about the WHOLE family learning, not just them.

2. Each meal should have one protein, one starch and one fruit/vegetable. At least one of these foods must be a preferred food.

3. Serve the meal family style with each person passing each food and taking a small amount to put on their plate. A rule of thumb is that a serving size = 1 tablespoon per year of age. If your child balks or is having a negative reaction, you can tell them that if it's too hard to put X tablespoons on their plate, then they can put just one tablespoon on their plate. If this is still too hard, then you can present the "learning plate".

4. The learning plate is a plate in the middle of the table where everyone can put a food that they don't want to have on their plate. For example, if a parent feels like they are tired of eating a chicken nugget, it can go on the learning plate.

5. At some point during the meal, there needs to be a conversation about the learning plate. Start with just talking about the food (how many there are, the color, the size, ect). Then move to the next step of interacting with it (uses a utensil to touch it or stir it). Next smell the food. If they tolerate that, then move on to touching the food with any part of the body. The last step is to taste the food whether it's just a lick, a bite that is spit out or a full chew and swallow.

6. If your child protests at any step, back off. The goal is to get them to experience different foods without forcing or pressuring. It will take time.

Last night we gave Morgan the heads up that there are going to be fun new changes to how we are going to all do dinner. Tonight, we will go over the specific details with her and the next night we will start to implement it.

I'm excited to start this new program and see how it helps our meal times become better times!

What is Love?

There is no higher form of love then being told "I love you more then a dead rat". Isn't that the sweetest thing ever?

Surgeries

This week there have been several surgeries happening to members of our household. Earlier this week, we had the vet remove a large mass from Champ. He was pretty sure it was a fatty mass, but with the way our luck has been, we wanted to make sure. It was a benign fatty tissue so that was good news. Bad news is that Champ messed around with his stitches and ended up getting an infection. He now sports the "cone of shame".

I had Lasik surgery yesterday. It went well and I'm happy to report that I can now see without glasses or contacts. The procedure is pretty simple and not painful at all. After the surgery, my eyes burned pretty bad for about an hour but then they were fine. Could have something to do with the Valium they give you as well. Those things are awesome. I'm going to talk to my doctor about giving me some before I fly. Although I'd probably need Mark to carry me off of the plane.

It's a bit weird getting used to being able to see unassisted 25+ years of wearing glasses or contact. But it's a good weird. Besides the great eyesight, the next best thing to come out of the surgery is these nifty glasses I need to wear at bedtime for a month. They protect my eyes from any accident bumping or scratching. Aren't they just the hottest things ever? Mark can barely contain himself. LOL!

Happy Groundhog Day

In honor of Groundhog Day, Crunchy Green Lovin' Mom turned me on to a special breakfast created by Gourmet Mom on-the-Go (did you follow all that??). Of course, I didn't take a picture of my creation so below is the picture from Gourment Mom on-the-Go's website. Mine looked basically like the one below except I added blueberries to the middle of my flowers and my groundhog's eyes were sort of sliding off his face.

I've always wanted to create special breakfasts for Morgan, but have never found the time or have thought of the idea too late. Which was evident by her reaction. The food was so cute that she didn't want to eat it and ruin it. She wanted to keep it as a decoration. I coaxed her into gobbling up her groundhog by promising to make another tonight. To keep. Just as decoration.