counting my blessings - november 4, 2013

number four

i am thankful for a god who cares about families.

i am thankful for my family. jeremy, harrison and graham make my daily life so rich.

i am thankful for my parents.

i am thankful for their long, faithful marriage.

i am thankful we get to go visit them next week!

i am thankful for my brother. he's influenced me more than he knows.

i am thankful he chose an amazing wife who is a joy to be around.

i am thankful my boys have two cousins whom they love very much.

i am thankful for jeremy's parents.

i am thankful for their legacy of long, faithful marriage too.

i am thankful they live nearby and are always willing to help with the boys.

i am thankful for jeremy's brother. 

i am thankful my boys have an uncle zach and aunt val who love them dearly and who are dearly loved.


i am thankful, too, for my grandparents, aunts, uncles & cousins (those still here and those passed on) who hold such a special place in my heart and who have filled my life with many fun moments. i am smiling just thinking of them.

i am so very blessed.

counting my blessings - november 3, 2013

number three


i am thankful for a god who is relational. relate-able. who relates to us and reveals himself through our relationships with each other.

i am thankful for true friendships with women older and younger, near and far. with women smarter and funnier and prettier and braver. with women i talk to every day or catch up with once each decade (but it feels as if no time has passed). with women who are unafraid to relate, to reveal their authentic selves, to share their triumphs and trials. with women who allow me to do the same. i have some amazing friendships!

i am so very blessed.

counting my blessings - november 2, 2013

number two

i am thankful for a god who chose to make me a mom and who continually teaches me how to be a mom.

i am thankful for my two incredible, hilarious, fun-to-be-around, drive-me-crazy-sometimes, love-them-so-much-my-heart-might-burst sons.

i am so very blessed.

counting my blessings - november 1, 2013

number one

i am thankful for a god who always provides for our needs - especially so this past year, miraculously providing for very costly therapies.

i am thankful for a husband who works hard to provide for his family and who wisely stewards the money he earns so we can afford to live on one income.

i am so very blessed.

the wishbone and brain development

when we were young my brother and i loved breaking the wishbone. it was an annual tradition, typically occurring a few days after our thanksgiving feast. my mom left the bone out on the counter to dry which gave me a few days to contemplate what my wish would be.

i'm learning more and more about brain development as we've been walking through different therapies over the past year. graham happens to be in the magical stage of thinking. i've been so discouraged lately because i've noticed him getting so angry and blame-oriented when he gets hurt. he'll accidentally trip over a shoe that's lying in the middle of the hallway (yes, the very shoe i told him to put away) and he will pick up that shoe and throw it across the room, just furious that the shoe tripped him. i thought my son was crazy. turns out he's normal. he's just in the stage where he truly believes that shoe reached out, grabbed his foot and caused him to stumble. this fairytale stage of thinking, now that i know what it is, sure is fun!

harrison is entering a different stage of brain development - logical thinking. he reasons now in a more sequential, rules-based way. he's less magical and more matter-of-fact. i like this stage, too, because if i make a rule, he will follow it. rules are my new best friend!

last week i cooked up a whole chicken and saved the wishbone so my boys could experience the fun of breaking it. i left the bone out on the counter for a few days to dry. the boys had time to think long and hard about their wishes.

logical harrison wished that they could get bunk beds.

magical graham wished that a knight would come to our house.


doesn't that just make you smile?


harrison ended up with the larger half, making him the winner, but really i'm the one who lucked out! i love these kiddos!

sensory bin - halloween monster themed

take a bin

add some large black pom poms

 add some small gold fuzzy pom poms

the black and gold is for my brother and sister-in-law who are the biggest iowa hawkeye fans ever. 

go hawks!

 

 add some purple and green rubber porcupine balls

sorry i ruined the hawkeye concept.

 

 add some large silver dish scrubbers

 add some smaller rainbow dish scrubbers

add some foam circles

pop em into a bucket

add some googly eyes

pop em into a bucket too

now we have a bin full of circles and spheres of all different textures, sizes and colors. 

let's get crazy and add some pipe cleaners and straws

toss em into the bin

lastly add in some silly monster poppers

don't they look lonely in that big old bin?

let's create some friends for them!

oh, they're so much happier now!

it's a build-a-monster sensory bin.

build-a-monster play ideas:

use senses of sight, touch and hearing to see, feel and listen to differences in each object within the bin. discuss those differences.

use proprioceptive sense to push down the monster poppers.

make predictions as to how far they'll pop into the air.

use proprioceptive sense to try jumping as high/far as the popper did.

after designing your monsters discuss one thing you like about your own monster and one thing you like about another person's monster.

make up a story about your monsters.

use straws to blow over the poppers or to blow apart the monsters you build.

i hope you have lots of fun imagining more ways to play with your new monster friends!

understanding feeding - the things we take for granted during those 3 squares a day

source

can you recall a time when you've eaten a saltine cracker?

think about it now.

concentrate on the sensations you experienced upon putting that salty crisp snack into your mouth.

 

how did it feel? how did it taste? how did it smell? how did it sound? 

more importantly, how did the cracker change as you chewed it?

if you answered "it went from crispy to soggy" you are correct. 

but that's just the easy answer. 

want to know the complex explanation behind that easy answer?

with every single chew...the cracker LOOKS different

with every single chew...the cracker FEELS different inside the mouth

with every single chew...the cracker SOUNDS different

with every single chew...the cracker TASTES different 

(the enzymes within our mouths that begin to break down food detect differences in taste with each chew)

with every single chew...the cracker SMELLS different 

(the odor receptors in the back of our mouths/throat detect differences in smell with each chew)

with every single chew...there are changes in head position (vestibular sense)

with every single chew...the jaw joint changes the amount of pressure to use (proprioceptive sense)

with every single chew...the body adjusts the amount of glucose it produces, and focuses on satiation peptides and stretch receptors in order to decide how much more to eat (interoceptive sense)

all this is happening within our beautiful, intricate, amazingly elaborate bodies with  

EVERY.

SINGLE. 

CHEW.

and that's just in a typical body.

now take a child who's body is over responsive to sensory input.

his system does not easily process all this detailed information.

with EVERY SINGLE CHEW his body is working over-time.

eating is a chore. 

it's a chore he struggles with. 

it's a chore he is not able to do successfully.

it's a chore that results in failure.

how would you feel if you failed at something at least three times a day?

i'd feel defeated.

i'd give up.

i'd avoid it. 

we take eating for granted. we think it's easy. we get out a package of saltine crackers, open it, and before we know it the entire sleeve has been gobbled up. 

the truth is eating is the complete opposite of easy. 

it "is the MOST complex physical task human beings engage in. it is the ONLY human task which requires every one of your organ systems, and requires that all those systems work correctly. in addition, EVERY muscle in the body is involved (one swallow for example, takes 26 muscles and 6 cranial nerves to coordinate). plus, eating is the ONLY task children do which requires simultaneous coordination of all 8 of our sensory systems." (dr. kay toomey)

feeding ourselves is hard work. 

if you and your family are successful eaters, if you have one of those exceptional children who will eat anything, if you have a sweet kiddo who will eat most things, if you have never known a difficult battle-filled mealtime, please stop right now and thank the lord.

for those of us who do, or have a kiddo who does, struggle with feeding there is help and hope!

this is the next step in our journey, friends.

on tuesday harrison and i went back to STAR center for a feeding evaluation. it went better than expected, for which i am thankful. once again, i was so very proud of my brave boy as he was receptive to becoming a "food scientist" under the direction of dr. kay toomey, which resulted in him taking miniscule tastes of foods he usually cannot even look at. we will soon be starting feeding therapy. our whole family will be involved, will learn, will adjust, will go through it together.

thank you to feeding expert dr. toomey of sos feeding solutions for providing the saltine cracker illustration. when i asked her, "how do i explain this to our family? how do i tell them harrison's not just a picky eater?" she eloquently outlined for me how our bodies react to eating. she clearly explained how harrison's body OVER reacts to feeding...how he (we) will have to work very hard to learn how to eat.

no more avoidance. no more giving up. no more defeat. 

it's time for harrison to find success!