Therapy Thursday

Today I wanted to make some stew and pressure can it, so I put Brad in charge of Grace while I was busy in the kitchen! It was so cute to see them both come back from their walk and they both had their huge hats on! Grace was so tired from the sun that she just laid on her back support and stared at me. Poor thing! She got some water and went right to sleep when Brad put her down for nap!



I didn't quite get the stew done in time, so Brad had to watch it for me while Grace and I went to water therapy. She was really clingy today, so she didn't do as well as usual. She also has NO fear about going underwater, so it was really difficult to get her to sit on the stair. Seriously, we let her go underwater quite a few times to see if something would register in her head that it shouldn't be happening, but she just sat there. And when she came out of the water, normally kids would be coughing, crying/fussing, or startling, but she didn't do anything. Just stared, wiped her face, and looked at us like, "what are we waiting for?"

This is what she's supposed to do. Sit upright, balanced, and when she's like this, Elaina will make waves towards her to force her to remain balanced.
But this is what she always did. Elaina actually got more than 3 feet away because she's SO clingy, and always lunges forward, thus plunging her head underwater...grr...

She did really well balancing while standing on the kick board, and Elaina could get her pretty far out of the water, which is great strides!!
But she wasn't too excited about walking back and forth on the ramp, which are the pictures below. See the hand up? That hand is seriously like an octopus' arm, with all those sticky circles on them...just waiting to grab Elaina!!!
Here's Grace kissing Dora. I just LOVED this picture!! And this was her first time using her glasses/hat combo and she did extremely well, but once the hat got wet, it was pretty pointless.
The noodle was for balancing. She's getting a bit better at this, but is still kinda nervous about it.
And here she is at home waiting for dinner :) She was just exhausted!
And here's my 7 quarts of Beef Stew with Vegetables that I finished today :) Well, Brad watched it keep the high enough pressure, but I did all the fixing up stuff. I'm so excited!!

Oh, one more picture of her I thought was so cute! This is how I first saw her when they came in from their walk...she was just SO tired. Plus, the movement of the stroller had been lulling her to sleep. What a cutie!!


All in all, a good Thursday. I felt really accomplished, and we got her therapies...OH!! I almost forgot!! Her developmental levels!!! Look below!

Gross motor: 12 months
Fine motor: on track
Self help: 3 year
Cognitive: 18 months
Social/Emotional: 18 months
Communication skills: 12 months

Alright, goodnight all!

Amanda

Grace's Homeschool Calendar

So I've started homeschooling with Grace. But it's super low key since she's only 20 months old. And even more low key since she's technically around 18 month cognitive development, and 10 month old physical development. I don't want to push her too hard, as well as not overwhelm her with things that are way beyond her scope of understanding!
The above picture shows our calendar...I've been slacking this morning with putting the date up!!! Oops! We have an animal, letter, and color of the week, but that's just simply saying the animal name and sound, saying the color, and saying the letter. Everything else is way too advanced for her.
I obviously didn't follow our schedule today, but that's because she got up later than usual, and it was a therapy day :) But that's the "Tentative" schedule that we hope to follow each morning.
This is our Chicka Chicka Boom Boom tree, but we won't be using it for that. We will be painting coconuts to fill the gap in the green, but the only other thing we'll do with the tree is add a monkey, bird, dog, cat and chicken next to it since she knows those animals. The red apple is for the color red, and she can recognize apple, so it's fun to hear her say it!
This is what I caught Grace doing on my way back to the computer :) Giving her baby a kiss!
And some hugs...
And some more hugs!!!
And then a piggy back ride with Mommy's help! This was SO cute, and she was so into it!!

Amanda

Therapy with LeeSee

We had a great experience today with LeeSee (Allyse). We didn't know if she'd be coming today, so it was a wonderful surprise to hear her soft knock on the door! Grace was just so cheesy with her in the beginning; it was so cute! I loved watching Grace interact with LeeSee, especially when they read "Growing Vegetable Soup." It was amazing to watch Grace stir the soup picture. Why, you ask? Because she's NEVER been prompted to do that! This was her first time reading the book, so I've never shown her how to do that. So it was amazing to LeeSee that she did that! Then the did some dramatic play with the story, and ate some pretend soup. I loved this as well because Grace would actually eat off the spoon, even though it was just pretend. After this...there was a mess...Grace TOTALLY exploded, so there was a mini break while I cleaned her, the floor, and her clothes! But after that, we were back to business!

The next thing LeeSee did was pull out some matching objects: two fish, two shoes, two socks, and two bears. First thing Grace went for was the sock. She grabbed one of them and held her leg up in the air, meaning "put on". So LeeSee put it on for her, while Grace helped pull it up a bit. Then Grace took off her sock she had been wearing, and pointed at her foot, prompting LeeSee to put the other sock on her. After this, Grace grabbed one of the bears...and we waited...quietly...She handed it to LeeSee, and did exactly what we were hoping!!! She grabbed the other bear that was amongst the other stuff! MATCHING!!! GOOD GIRL!!! That's amazing and stunning because she's NEVER worked on matching with me or LeeSee yet. So for her to know how to find the similar objects is wonderful.

After this matching, more continued. The fish had zippers, and so Grace grabbed one and lifted her foot, so LeeSee put the fish on her foot :) It was so cute! (I should have taken pictures!) Then Grace grabbed the other fish and prompted LeeSee again! Good girl! Gosh I've got a smart girly!

All in all, it was a wonderful therapy session. Grace showed me some skills that we can work on during homeschooling times, and showed me where I might be reaching a bit too much with some activities I was hoping to do. I also discussed development levels with Allyse, and she said Grace is at the lower 18 month age for cognitive, which isn't bad at all!!

Good therapy session!

Amanda

31 Days to Clean

So there's been a change of plans...I'm going to post about my cleaning days on Facebook since there's a group on there. Saves me later when I want to print this for Grace's birthday! This was just supposed to be a blog about Grace but my stuff keeps creeping in. I don't think she'll really mind...I can just keep it as Mommy's blog with a STRONG topic of Grace :)

Amanda

Therapy Today

Today Grace's physical therapist and speech therapist came over, and they were quite pleased with the progress Grace is making all around!

They said her speech is doing really well, and today the got her to say "all done" instead of just signing it! "Ah du!!" she said! She also walked about 5 feet with one hand being held, so she was totally showing off!

We didn't do too much physical work because when speech comes, it's usually just speech that's focused on. Grace did really well taking a lid off an old oatmeal can, and manipulating blocks, but she was NOT about to stack them! For some reason, she's just not interested with stacking! Silly girl. For 10 months though, which is her developmental age, she's on track with not really wanting to bother with stacking things, but would rather just push them down.

All in all, a good day.

Amanda

31 Days to Clean Day 2

Mary's Challenge: to think about ways I can make my domain come alive! Hm...How can I bring life to the home? I was thinking that a huge thing that the family likes to do is go camping, so maybe if we worked together on deciding when we wanted to go camping soon, that would be a fun thing to do! And that would liven us, because then we'd be planning/preparing for a campout! Also, backyard bbq's are always fun, and it gets us away from the TV/computer! I could also pull out some old board games we haven't played in a while, and rather than just watching TV, we could play those together. Another thing I've realized when thinking about this, Brad and Kailyn love giving themselves facials, and pedicures. But I never like doing that because it's just TOO Girly for me! So maybe, I need to break down my barriers on that and just do it :)

Martha's Challenge: Kitchen-Clean out and scrub down the refrigerator and freezer. (bleh) I am going to always take before and after pictures to hold myself accountable. That will be pretty embarrasing for me since they are both so stuffed, but it will be good to go through the thing and clean it out :) Pictures later!

Amanda

31 Days to Clean Day 1

So I've started following the 31 days to clean because I just feel like the house is cluttered with stuff we don't need! And because I want it to be more...me! I'm kinda behind, so I gotta get caught up! The first Mary Challenge was to make our own mission statement based no the specific reasons we want our homes to be our havens, so here's what I came up with...

Those are all the things I want my home to be, for myself as well as everyone that comes into my home! My mission statement would be to create a home that was all those things all put together. I made that subway art, printed it, and put it in a frame. And the thing about those words...they are all that my mother-in-laws house is! So to be like her, and to have a home atmosphere like her, would be wonderful :) Something to reach for.

The first Martha Challenge was to look through the entire book and make a list of the supplies I need...check! But I won't put it on here, how boring huh?!


Amanda

New Activities

There are a lot of new things that I'm involved with, so I thought I would document it all here :) The first one I'm super excited about is called... "31 Days to Clean...Having a Martha House the Mary Way."

I am also following a blog that's doing a 30 days "Homemaking for Girls" series. Of course Grace is too young, but it's never too early to just read and learn!

And then there's my gardening one :) I like this one because it keeps me up on taking pictures of the garden!!
And then my preparedness one! I like doing this one because it keeps me going on my canning, cooking, dehydrating and so forth. Plus there are such good links that I can learn from other people!
And then my barn hop one. I like this one because it keeps me going on everything as a whole...gardening, canning, housekeeping, everything like that.
And the one I especially like because it's been a personal hobby for so long...
Of course I didn't start the reading one in January, but I can start whenever and just go for a year :)

So, lots of fun stuff going on! Keeps me busy, on my toes!

Amanda

Our Garden Up To Date...and pressure canning

I swear this garden is wicked fast! I think the only thing I don't like about it growing so fast is that the weeds are very quickly taking over!! YUCK!
Our two rows of green beans and two rows of peas. i didn't think the green beans would outgrow the peas...we will soon have to put up some chicken wire.
Our squash, zucchini and cucumbers...and weeds...
A better shot of the same section as above.
Our seedling plants. I'm glad we planted these seperate of the other things, so that we could see the growth differences. And actually, they are doing as well as the other plants!
A close up on our wonderful potatoes!!! I am so excited about the potatoes because they've NEVER grown well before...actually, ever.
Our pomegranates. This was a branch that my husband planted from breaking it off a tree, and it actually produced last year, and I'm hoping these buds will be pomegranates.
Our non-edible area. I had to show off the beautiful roses :)
And the pretty iris!
And finally...the 7 pints of chicken soup I made!!! Actually, 6 pints of soup and one of broth. And I think, next time, I will find some way of separating the vegetables equally so that the soups all have the same amount. Hm...


Amanda

Visit with Andrea!

Today was a special day, not only because we started homeschooling, but because we got a visit from Andrea!! Grace was very excited to have a friend come over :) And I was excited to watch the two of them interact so well together!

I like this picture...can you tell that she's on a mission to do something? Can you think what it might be?
She just HAD to touch Andrea's head!!! It's been so long for Andrea's hair to actually grow out this long and have some volume...so Grace just HAD to touch it!!
Hanging out as a group!
I love how Grace's hair is so electrified.
And I just love this side view of my sweetie pie.
And relaxing on Andrea's Mommy! Ahh, how comfy! Be careful girls...there's another baby in there!!

It was fun. Grace loves having company, but it doesn't happen very much.

Amanda

New Header Again

So I changed the Header again! I just can't seem to stick with one for too long...it get's boring to me!! And I think the new one is the best, by far!! And the little sentences just seem to "belong" and they just pop into my head, which is very helpful!!


Amanda

Grace is 20 Months old!!

I can't believe my little girl is 20 months old already. It just feels like yesterday that she was kicking and flopping around in my tummy. And now here she is, cruising, walking, signing, laughing, and teaching me new things every day. And I just have to say, this blog will be OVERLOADED with pictures!! That's just cuz I'm so darn proud of her!!

I love this first picture because it looks like she's trying to tell the horse to "giddy-up!" but really, she's trying to get her feet out of the prickly grass!
Ahh, finally found a spot for her foot that doesn't tickle!

I love this picture...the one above. I think it's because she's got a determined look on her face, and it also shows her lovely hair!!
I love this smile! The fish she's holding is the one I had to get her to smile with! Gosh she looks so grown up...I can't believe it.
This face is like..."what...are you serious??"
She was TOTALLY cracking up with this fish!! I LOVED hearing her laugh!

And then...she's outta there!!! She was SO done getting pictures taken!
Tushy shot!! After this...her tush was ALL the way up in the air!!


And then inside...she was SO serious, it was beautiful... just stunning to me.

Happy 20 months Grace. I love you even more than I ever have. And that will keep growing. Exponentially.

Amanda