Playing Hookie

Friday was yet another Teacher Work Day so Morgan had off of school. My friend April and I decided to play hookie from work and have a girls out day. The weather was beautiful so we headed to the zoo. I must say, this was one of the most relaxing trips I've ever had at the zoo. I don't know if it's because the kids are getting older? Or it could be because we had a day were we said yes to just about everything. The girls got to ride both rides, have lunch, a snack and one toy from the gift shop, which ends up making a free with membership day, not so free.

You'll notice a theme with the following pictures. Rather then getting their pictures taken with the real animals of the zoo, you they wanted their pictures taken with all the status and such. The real animals were second class.

Show-Offs

Morgan: This is how show-offs walk

She puts her hands on her hips, swinging them from side to side as she does a dramatic stomp walk.

Morgan: They are called show-offs because they show-off the clothes.

In case you couldn't tell, she's talking about models. She's picked this up from watching Project Runway on Lifetime. Surprisingly, she's fascinated with this show. She's fascinated that people can make their own clothes and even more fascinated that boys sew as well as girls. She also has an uncanny knack for picking out the winning outfit.

If she doesn't become a rock star, perhaps she will be a future designer?

A Rock Star

Apparently a rock star puts huge ink stamps across their cheeks. They also decorate their entire face (nose, cheeks, forehead) with lip gloss so they are sparkly. At least this is what I was told by my five year old who went to school this morning as a greasy, glossy mess!

The Simple Things

You know how when you watch Supernanny and she introduces the simplest technique or idea to the parents and you want to scream at your tv - duh, that's so obvious, how do the parents not know that? Well, Morgan's therapist introduced us to a why-the-heck-didn't-we-think-of-this technique that has made our life tons easier.

Morgan has always had big issues with transitions. I can't tell you how many times a verbal warning of five more minutes would lead to a full blown melt down. She also needs constant verbal reminders and redirecting when she is trying to complete a task. We've turned blue in the face with the amount of times we've said, you have 10 more minutes before we leave and you still need to do A, B and C. We were exhausted!

Morgan's OT introduced us to the most wonderful invention ever - the time timer which gives her a visual reminder of how much time is left.


We don't have to prod anymore and when the clock dings, letting her know the time is up, she knows better then to throw a fit at an inanimate object.

But the reason I really, really love this clock, is the new found independence it has given Morgan. In the morning Morgan sets the clock for an hour, plays by herself and then wakes us up when the hour has passed. The girl who gets upset when she needed to go into a room RIGHT NEXT DOOR to you by herself is finally learning to be on her own. We were so happy this weekend when we heard her little feet pitter pat down the hall, the beep of the clock as she set it, the pitter pat down the stairs, the sliding of the back door as she lets Champ out and the quiet that followed allowing Mark and I to get some more rest.

Yes, I love these clocks.

The Learning Plate - Take 3

Since so many people were interested in this idea, I thought I would give another follow-up now that's be in place for a while.

We still have not had to introduce the Learning Plate, but Morgan is definitely testing the concept. She isn't eating as many foods anymore, I think, in an attempt to see if we really won't press the issue. It's hard to bite your tongue, especially when you see her leave food she usually tries untouched on her plate. As we stay quiet and continue to disengage, I'm hoping that she starts to try things again. I'm 99% sure this is the strong-willed child testing the boundaries to see if we go back to our previous battles.

I'll keep you posted.

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.

Here Kitty, Kitty!

We've been thinking about adding a new family member. I've been keeping my eye on the shelter listings and have found a few potential candidates. We've been wanting a Siamese, but apparently they are in high demand. Each time I've gone to look at them (within a day of them being listed), they are already gone. It's been crazy. A couple weeks ago I came across this listing.

Pretty hideous eh? Doesn't even look like a Siamese, so I ignored him. After all the other cats had been scoped up so fast, I decided I might as well go and take a look at him in person. I called the shelter and found out this picture was taken at 2 months and he is now 7 months old. He was in a foster home but was now available at the shelter.

I was pleasantly surprised when I met him. He was a handsome little fellow. The only thing was, he still didn't really look like a Siamese. He had the point marks, but that was about it. And even then, he had pure white feet with the marks starting above his huge paws. Ultimately, he won me over with his good looks and sweet disposition. I decided to go for it.

Being a foster cat, I was not allowed to visit with him, let alone adopt him, unless the foster mom approved my application first. The person in front of me was handing in an application for a different foster pet and the receptionist informed her that it would be about a week and they would get back to her. Great, I thought as I handed in my application. But then she informed me that the foster mom was at the shelter and she could look at my application right there and then. And I was approved! I told them that I was surprised that he was still around and they informed me that there have been many, many applications, but none had been approved. I guess our home was a good match.

The pictures do not do him justice. I'm not able to fully capture his unique cream coloring and markings with my camera. You can see in the first picture, his right eye has brown scar tissue on it from his eye infections when he was first found. While he's eye sight is fine, the scar is permanent.


We'd been batting around some names (Wonton, Moo Shu, Yeti) but none seemed to really fit. Meanwhile, I was really curious to figure out what he's mixed with since he's characteristics are so unusually. That's when I discovered that he most closely resembles a Tabby-Point Birman (obviously he's a mix), who's main distinquishing feature is the pure white feet.

Then I found out that Birman breed has an interesting naming convention. Each year is assigned a letter of the alphabet and then the cat receives a name that starts with the same letter. While some countries skip letters, the US runs through all the letters. 2009, the year he was born is the year of the "G". And then the right name clicked into place.

So everyone, please say hello to Genghis.

Homemade Sensory Stepping Stones

I have been contemplating whether or not I should buy some sensory stepping stones for home therapy. At $65 they are pretty expensive but they but the different textured stone surfaces stimulate sensory development.


Then Morgan solved the dilema all on her own.

As I was getting ready for work, Morgan was very busy playing in the loft. When I came out, she showed me her busy work. A bunch of her stuffed animals; all ranging in size, softness, stuffing (ie beans versus cotton) and fur texture, had been spread out in several paths. She was pretending there was hot lava on the floor and she needed to stay on her "stepping stones" in order to make it to safety. She had managed to incorporate all the elements of her therapy without us having to spend a dime. Brilliant!

Why My Husband is a Brave Man

Mark took off yesterday to be with Morgan since there wasn't any school. It's been a while since he had an extra day off with her and I think he was trying to make up for lost time because this was their day:

First there was breakfast at IHOP followed by a morning at the local bouncy house. Now that in it's self would be enough kid-friendly fun for one day but then he also went to Chuck E Cheese. That's right a bouncy house AND Chuck E Cheese all in one day. It doesn't end there either. After that they went to the local animal shelter to look at the new batch of Chihuahua that came in from California. I think he might have outdone himself.

And speaking of Chihuahuas, if you have never read a SkippyJon Jones book, you must check them out. They are our current household favorite (especially Lost in Spice) and one of the driving forces behind Morgan's love for the Chihuahuas.
If you are looking at this cover and wondering what Chihuahuas have to do with a Siamese cat, you're going to have to read the book to find out!

Toys to Grow on - Good, Sears - Bad

In this day and age, it's not too often you get great customer service, especially without putting up a fight, but Toys To Grown On far out weighed my expectations. Morgan's Clap and Laugh microphone that she got for Christmas suddenly stopped working. The stand still works with the clapping and laughing buttons, but the microphone is silent. Despite my jokes about needing it to come to an untimely death, we did not sabbotage the thing. And despite the fact that she sometimes drives me crazy with this toy, she does really love it. And so, being the good mom that I am (cough, cough) I contacted Toys to Grown On and inquired about the cost of replacing just the microphone piece. I immediately got a response from Customer Service apologizing for the problems I encountered and offering to replace the microphone for FREE. Yep. Free. Just like that. I was blown away. I will definetely be shopping at Lakeshore Learning (our local store that carries the TTGO line) more often.

On the other hand there is Sears. I will never use Sear again for any type of service call. Our dishwasher broke and we scheduled an appointment with one of their repairmen. Our window was on a week day from 1 pm - 5 pm. At 5 pm I received a call from the repairman stating he was running late and would be there in an hour. We waited another hour, at which time the phone ran again. It was the repairman stating it was too dark for him to be able to find our house and he wondered if I would reschedule. I told him I would not. That I had already waited five hours for service and I would not be able to take another day off work. He started explaining that his GPS wasn't working and that he eouldn't see the numbers on the house. I told him that I could give him directions but he wasn't interested. Then I told him that in the old days, people found other people's houses without a GPS and that people find addresses ALL THE TIME in the dark. Then Mark talked to him on the phone while standing outside. Mark saw the guy drive by and told him that he JUST SAW HIM. The guy still refused to stop. At this point, I really didn't want him to stop, because goodness knows what kind of service we would have received at this point. When we called Sears to complain, they told us that we had to reschedule for another four hour window, they could not guarantee us the first appointment in the morning. When we told them we already waited five hours and didn't want to wait again, they just didn't care.

Mark found a local handyman who came the next day. The handyman called us before he left for our place and told us he would be there in 15 minutes. No waiting. And he temporary fixed the dishwasher for much less, and he worked with Mark on what part Mark needed to order and how to install it himself when it came in. Needless to say, we are keeping this guys card.

As for Sears, a week later I received an automatic message confirming our dishwasher appointment for the next day between 1 and 5 pm. An appointment that we never rescheduled. an appointment I promptly cancelled (only because they had our credit card number and could charge us for showing up, otherwise I would not have given them the courtesy).

Sensory Box and Report Cards

Since starting kindergarten, we have been getting regular reports about Morgan having difficulty paying attention. We've been trying to explain to the teacher her Sensory Processing Disorder and how it affects her learning but she's hasn't been very receptive. FINALLY, she asked to work with the therapist on techniques she can use in the classroom to help Morgan's focus. So last week, I put together a sensory box for the classroom. Oral stimulation helps Morgan calm down and focus so the box consisted of gum, chewy candy like Starbursts, a water bottle with a straw and a couple of chew sticks, that look like below. (As a side note, she calls the chew sticks her chew toys. I think we need to come up with a better name so it doesn't sound the same as something a dog plays with!)
I checked in with the teacher this week to see how the box has been working. I am so happy to report that the box has been working out extremely well. The teacher has noticed that Morgan is much more engaged and attentive when she has an item from her box. Also, Morgan has been doing a wonderful job of self-regulating herself by getting an item before the teacher has to direct her to do so. This is great news!

We also received her report card this week. Academically she is still doing great. She received proficient in all areas with a few exceptions. She received partially proficient in knowing one less from 5-1 and in spelling 11 or more words from the high frequency word list. With the spelling, she probably just couldn't think of 11 words from the list since she is a better speller then she is a reader. And finally, she received Advanced in all four areas of reading.

Looks like the second half of school should go smoother then the first.

December In Review

Yes, I'm still alive. The holiday seasons got super crazy and super busy, but I'm back now. Let's see if I can sum up the last month...

I co-hosted a holiday party at our community clubhouse for 40 kids. We had cookie decorating, ornament making, and games such as pin-the-nose on Rudolph, snowball toss and musical presents. We also had a very special guest. I happen to work with Santa and he agreed to come and give us a visit. He's an EXCELLENT Santa. Even my daughter who runs and ducks at the mere sight of most characters was more then happy to visit with him.

Christmas was filled with way too many presents even though I could have sworn we toned it down this year.

And no, that is not eye shadow in that box. All of the containers are either lip gloss or nail polish.

Bendaroos were high on her list, but once we played with them, they were terrible. They do NOT hold their shape and they do NOT stick together. Even when art projects don't work out right, Morgan usually still loves them. Not so much with these. After one time, she was ready to get rid of them. I do not recommend Bendaroos at all!

When I was little, my grandfather handmade a work bench. Morgan uses that work bench to "fix" her toys but she has never had a real project to work on. Thanks to Staci at Mamma's Gone Over the Wall I found the Project of the Month Club and Mark placed an order for the woodworking projects. Now every other month, her and Mark will have a fun project to bond over.

Morgan's absolute favorite gift from us is her microphone. In hindsight, we should have never bought a chatty-kathy something that enables her to increase her volume while following you around the house room-to-room, narrating your every move.

After gift opening at our house, we headed on over to Mark's Dad's house. Morgan was ecstatic to get her #1 present wish - the Dot's Ice Cream Maker. She wanted this so badly, that she put it on three wish lists with the hope that she would have one to play with at home, one to keep at Grandpa's and one to keep at Grandma's.

On Saturday, we took a break from all the holiday celebrations to play at the Wildlife Experience. They were having a special exhibit on the life cycle of butterflies, starting at cocoons...

...escaping from really scary looking spiders...

... to getting your wings and flying away.

Sunday we celebrated at Mark's Mom's house.




If that wasn't enough, during her winter break she also:
• Went to Gymnastic Camp where she did tons of gymnastics as well as bowled, skated and saw Cloudly with a Chance of Meatballs
• Saw The Princess and the Frog
• Had a playdate with her bestest friends Taralyn and Ellie at Taralyn's house
• Went downhill skiing with Mark at Echo Mountain
• Went tubing with us and the neighbors at Fraser
• Stayed up to 1 am on New Years at a neighborhood party
• And visited with the Chihuahua, her favorite breed of dog, at our local shelter (around 20 were shipped in from California)

And that is why I have not had time to be on here!

Whew!