Ding dong, The taxes are done!

I wish I had something more interesting to report but I’ve spent the last weekend holed up in our office doing the taxes. Yes, I procrastinated a bit this year. I actually used to sort of enjoy doing the taxes. We have some complicating factors which I found great satisfaction in figuring out all the little ins and outs and crazy little irs rules. Now, it’s just time spent away from my little girl and husband.

Kaia’s Grandma and Grandpa came to town for the weekend to help Paul out while I was holed up in said office and it’s always so great to have them around. The best part is how much Grandma absolutely adores Kaia and all the nitty gritty details of taking care of her – changing her diapers and even the messy, frustrating business of feeding her.

Bonus of having Grandma and Grandpa here: Paul and I got to go on a couple dates. I surprised him Friday night with a couples massage. He had never had a professional massage. It had been years since I had. We were both all giggly and excited to do something so different. I felt a little extravagant about spending so much money on a hour’s worth of luxury. I felt much better about it after finishing the taxes and discovering that uncle sam decided to reward us this year with a nice little refund.

Let’s see, what else? Kaia had her augmentative communication evaluation Monday. She didn’t want to “perform” but the therapist still recommended, based on the reports of myself and her speech therapist who also attended the evaluation, a low-tech device like the go talk 4+, the cheap talk 4 or 8, the 7 level communication builder, or even the super talker. We now have access to the lending library where she’ll get to borrow any of those devices and test drive them for a month at a time.

We’re also going to be bumping speech therapy up to twice weekly so she’ll have an extra hour of therapy each week (up to 7 therapy sessions a week now). I, of course, have mixed feelings about this. I want her to have the most opportunities for success and yet still give us time to have a life outside therapy. I just can’t rightly keep that hour of therapy from her. Not when we only have just over a year in early intervention left.

Weekly roundup

Kaia’s Aunty Karen recently bought Kaia this book. Kaia, in the last couple weeks, started pushing the buttons which motivated me to start looking into augmentative communication. We know that kids with her syndrome, in spite of having a limited vocal vocabulary, are often very successful at using complex augmentative communication systems. So, I spent the lion’s share of last Sunday and Monday trying to figure out if our early intervention program would cover augmentative communication devices. I finally discovered after much pestering of Kaia’s service coordinator that we could get her an augmentative communication evaluation. I’ve heard that if she does well and they think she may have the ability to be successful with a device, we may be able to borrow or rent different ones. Getting this evaluation, along with several experiences with our early intervention program over the past few months, cemented what I’ve been learning, which is this: no one will necessarily look out for your child or offer what may be incredibly helpful services for your child. You have to do your own research and advocate for what is best for your child.

Vital Stats – On Thursday, Kaia’s nutritionist/dietician made a visit and weighed and measured her. Kaia weighed in at 24 lbs 13 oz bare naked, and is 34 and ¾ inches tall. That’s an increase of 1 lb and 11 oz and 1 full inch since the dietician’s last visit Jan 16th! Kaia really is a tall, thin drink of water. But something is working! She’s gaining weight and height. We’ve recently discovered that Kaia loves Haagen Daaz ice cream (260 calories in one little serving container. She never eats the whole serving in one shot; it usually lasts a couple days).

We absolutely love Kaia’s speech therapist. In addition to all the speech and language play she does with Kaia. she also started a feeding therapy with her that is deceptively simple. She takes the pressure completely off of eating and does it outside of the highchair, using foods that I want Kaia to eat: crunchy/chewy snack stuff that she has to chew. It is a very positive experience for Kaia; any attempt made by her to mouth, lick and/or bite down merits lots of praise and clapping. We all participate and at the first sign of distress Kaia can put the offending food in an all-done container. It wastes a lot of food but it definitely is worth it. Kaia frequently prefers to try to feed us, but she will and loves to have me “kiss” her with the cracker/whatever in my mouth. This is actually how she initially started allowing these foods to come close to her mouth. She is now at a point where she even retracts her tongue and attempts to bite down on the food when I “kiss” her with it. It’s all very fun, there’s lot of smiling, giggling and chortling going on. Kaia was starting to chew this weekend while eating and I know that it is because of this type of activity.

On the respite front, we finally! selected a provider. We learned that the annual budget operates on a fiscal calendar from July 1st to Jun 30th which means that we have just over 3 months to use up our annual allotment of respite hours or lose them. I found a trusted old coworker who is willing to do all of the hours we have available. So, if we want, we can have two 4-hour evenings of respite each week until Jun 30th. While this is tremendously exciting, I’m a little nervous to be away from Kaia so much. However, I completely trust this person and that brings such peace of mind.

Speaking of respite, this past weekend we took Kaia to two Parent’s Nights Out programs in a row. The PNO we’ve been using through Easter Seals Crossroads expanded their program and parents can now bring their child two times a month. We also found a church that offers a quarterly PNO so we had Kaia attend that for the first time on Saturday. Both programs were great and seemed extremely well organized. I can not even say how great it was to be able to go out to eat and just talk. We rarely have time to do that – to just focus on each other. We really tried to follow some wonderful relationship advice and not discuss the child(ren), jobs, or money. Instead, we just focused on each other. It was so refreshing.

In other Kaia news: Kaia loves, loves, loves clapping and will now bring both pointer fingers to her face dimples area to initiate or imitate “when you’re happy and you know it” song. If we don’t clap for her when she is expecting it she will take both of our hands and bring them together to have us clap for her. I think this is also a revival of the game “close together, far apart” that we’d play with her while she was practicing balancing standing to get her to be able to move her arms to different positions and still keep her balance. She’s also kissing like crazy but does these open-mouth, drooling French kisses that we absolutely adore.

And, finally, probably the best part of the weekend for me: We Went Running! In my former life before Kaia, I ran. Hubby and I ran in half marathons and enjoyed the bonding and health benefits. After Kaia, I was determined to get back into running, and I fought valiantly for several months. I registered for the mini marathon in Indianapolis and tried and tried to train. At best, it was incredibly difficult to even complete a training run on the treadmill while Kaia was napping. One day it took 3 of her naps for me to complete my run. As Kaia got older, I didn’t want to strap her into a stroller, immobile, during the precious little time that she could be learning by moving her own body. I was expecting way too much from myself and it was stressing me out no end. Most days I was lucky to get a shower. I finally decided to accept that for the time being, running just wasn’t going to be a part of my life.

And now, a new chapter is beginning. For the past few weeks with the spurts of warmer weather, Paul and I have been saying that we should attempt a run and see how Kaia handled it. We went tonight and Kaia loved it! She pointed out and squealed at the deer in the park, laughed when I ran past the stroller, and enjoyed the music we listened to from the speaker on my cell phone. It was so great! My knees are a little stiff but I am finally starting to reconcile her need for movement with my own. I think a couple necessary things are happening: she’s started walking and I’m seeing the amazing progress she’s making with her gross motor skills. I know that having her in the stroller a few times a week while we run isn’t going to be the end of her progress. We still are very conscious of her need to move and made sure that when we finished our run, while we were stretching, she got out of the stroller and had the opportunity to walk around on the grass. She enjoyed all the antics of our stretching positions. Then, when we got home, we gave her more opportunities to push her toys and walk outside again. The other necessary thing, aided by the positive experience of our parent’s night out, is that I’m realizing we really do need to do things for us - that not everything can be about and be defined by what is best for Kaia. We are a family and our needs matter too. Part of me can’t even believe I’m saying that but I know that I need to take care of me too. My whole world is taking care of Kaia. Next comes my husband and his wants and needs, and last is me. It’s been too long. So, while I’m not signing up for the next half marathon yet, I am going to try to run a few times a week. Just for me.

On the go, go, go

This past weekend was go, go, go. Saturday was a balmy 70 degree day here in Indy. We decided to head to the zoo. We purchased an annual zoo membership in December after being entranced by the Christmas light displays and zoo hours open until 8pm. Then January and February set in. Frigid, raw cold. No zoo for us.

I think every family with small children all had the same idea Saturday. It was stroller central. It’s funny. I’ve noticed our stroller usage is different than how other parents utilize a stroller. While other parents will use the stroller as transportation for the child, we use it to haul our huge diaper bag, my purse, etc, and have Kaia push the stroller. Unless, like on Saturday, we have Kaia nap in it – which normally I never, ever do because I am a total nap slave. She needs to sleep in her crib. I revise that – I need her to sleep in her crib. I need that break each day. It’s just funny to see all these other kiddos hanging out, chillin’ in their ride, while Kaia, with proud intent, determinedly pushes her stroller along. I want her to have every opportunity to move her body, to know how to use her body for her own transportation.

I had to nurse Kaia a couple times at the zoo and it was pretty inconvenient. There’s no real great place at the zoo to nurse a toddler. We found an empty amphitheatre but later another Spanish-speaking family and children were hanging there too. There was no other place to go so I nursed her there while all the kids played around us. I wondered for the first time if other people think Kaia might be getting a little old to be breastfeeding. I sat her up to pat her back and burp her and stood her up and realized how big she was getting. It was in stark contrast to a woman I had just witnessed in the women’s restroom nursing (or attempting to) an 11 day old baby. The baby looked like a little bird to me. She had to literally show the baby the nipple and after several attempts finally got the baby to latch on. Kaia was like that before too but now is like a little barracuda. She now lifts up my shirt if I make the milk sign to her. There was no way I could’ve nursed Kaia in that restroom. Every flush of the toilets and rocket launch noise of the hand dryers running intermittently would’ve prevented her from nursing.

Instead, I peacefully nursed Kaia in the amphitheatre, while I watched the large-by-North-American-standards Hispanic family kids play contentedly around us. My husband snoozed on a bench nearby. I felt the wind blowing gently through my hair and the sun shining on my face. My little girl suckled at my breast, and I sensed how truly good life was in that moment.

Kaia also continued hippotherapy last week. She was standing! while riding on the horse this week. She’s been riding a different horse than Molly (the white show pony on the first day). Her newest steed is a brown horse with white markings on the face. He has a thinner back. And, get this, his name is Fairy Tale. Can you believe that? Fairy Tale. How cute is that? After hipportherapy we went up to a friend’s house for a playdate. Kaia will be starting a new OT at the end of April and the only time she has to fit Kaia in is immediately following hippotherapy so we'll have to race back home to see her. Until then we're going to enjoy being out and about early in the day on those days. But the good thing is then we'll have Fridays completely therapy-free. I'm looking into another storytime we could go to on those open days or maybe we'll just do other fun stuff. It's so hard to get out with all her therapies. I'm also looking into starting her in a kindermusik class. The girl isn’t a bit overscheduled, is she?

Sunday we went to the circus in the late morning. I was so excited to go to the circus. We were all a bit disappointed, though. I remembered the childhood magic of the circus, but the reality of the thinly veiled animal mistreatment, borderline talent, annoyingly overamplified sounds, and the mixture of the smell of cotton candy and animal dung just wasn’t as magical as I’d remembered. $18 a seat wasn’t too magical either. We managed to stay for almost the entire show then Kaia had had it and got pretty cranky.

We also spent some quality time out in our front yard/driveway this weekend so that Kaia could practice walking/pushing her various toys. Our whole neighborhood comes alive in the spring. We don’t have a playground in our neighborhood so the kids really just play in the street. It sounds like the projects. It isn’t, but I do think these kids could use a decent place to play. All the kids come running when Paul is out with Kaia. He’s like the pied piper. He’s always been like that, even before we had Kaia. Back then it was all the neighborhood preteen boys (who are now, I can’t believe it, in college). Paul is the cool old guy. The guy that knows how to do all the skateboard tricks that their Dads can’t do. Paul had a half-pipe in his backyard growing up so he is more than a decent skateboarder. But all the kids are in awe of someone who is their Dad’s age throwing those kids of tricks, and ask “Are you sponsored?” I know he loves it.

One very cute little neighbor girl always come to see Kaia when we are out. She is such a sweet girl. She is 5 and will be starting kindergarten next fall. She just loves to come see Kaia. On Saturday we had Kaia’s wagon out, her fancy radio flyer wagon. She alternately likes to push and ride in it. The neighbor girl joyously insisted on pulling Kaia around in the wagon.

I had this image watching them as she pulled Kaia in the wagon down the sidewalk. I imagined them older, in high school. The girl is just over 3 years older than Kaia. I thought - maybe when they are older, in school - she will look out for Kaia. Maybe if she sees her in the hall or at lunch she will say hi to Kaia. Maybe she will set an example for how the other kids should treat people that are different. Maybe she will be a guardian angel of sorts for Kaia. I know that’s a lot to put on a 5 year old girl. But I’ve got my dreams.

What I love about this girl is that she never once has asked what happened to Kaia’s lip/nose. She has a bit of a speech issue – she stutters – so maybe she understands what it’s like to be different and sees past that. Or maybe her parents already have had the talk with her and explained things and told her not to ask. I don’t care. I just love it that she loves my girl.

It was so cute how she would copy how I interacted with Kaia. We’ve been teaching Kaia how to climb into her wagon herself (it’s pretty difficult b/c it has the high wooden sides attached to the metal wagon base) and the other girl took it upon herself to teach Kaia as well. She would repeat almost verbatim the things I and Paul said to Kaia. What power we adults have, for better or worse, on children. I forget that sometimes. It surprised me to see that we have that over other children, not just our own.

All in all, it was a pretty good weekend.

Alternative therapy

Last Friday I took Kaia to an alternative type of therapy. Another mom I know that has a kid with cerebral palsy was frustrated with the progress her son was making in traditional therapy and with the lack of creativity of the therapists. She researched other types of therapies and found one called the Anat Baniel Method, based on the work of Feldenkrais. More info at: http://www.anatbanielmethod.com/help-children-overview.htm There were no practitioners of this particular type of therapy in our city. The closest was in Chicago, a three hour drive away. So, desperate to try anything that might help her son, she drove him up to Chicago to do this alternative therapy. Thankfully her insurance is covering the cost (or at least part of it) of the therapy.

Being part of a group of moms with kids with movement issues, she and the practitioner decided to gauge interest by having the practitioner come to Indianapolis for a weekend and offer a free trial session to kids here. I jumped at the chance to give Kaia the opportunity to experience this alternative therapy free here in town.

I have to admit I was skeptical. Some of the tenets of the therapy I agree with partly, in principle. For instance, they advise no orthotics. We actually waited quite a while before finally getting orthotics for Kaia. My concern was that she would never strengthen her ankles, which pronate, if they were fixed in orthotics. I finally relented to the idea that if we give her that support, she would have an opportunity to strengthen the other muscles needed for walking by being able to have the stability to try it. The Anat Baniel practitioner (she’s not a licensed OT or PT) also advised us not to assist Kaia walking by holding one of her hands. The idea as I understand it (which may be completely wrong) is not to force a child to be more upright than they are ready to be. The woman, after having me remove Kaia’s shoes and orthotics, spent most of the time touching/stimulating Kaia’s feet in a sitting position. She also touched her back. She didn’t mind Kaia being in, and didn’t force her out of, a w-sit position.

I still don’t really completely understand the theory behind it. Perhaps she didn’t do a very good job explaining it or maybe I just didn’t listen well. The other mom’s kid and Kaia have the same physical therapist. This PT was there observing for the session (The other mom had scheduled the PT to be there to watch her son’s session and the PT stayed for Kaia’s upon my request). I could tell she was trying very hard to be respectful by asking questions regarding the how/why of what the woman was doing. I didn’t think the practitioner provided an adequate explanation to her either. There definitely was some tension in the air. It pretty much is the complete opposite of everything that we’ve been told by traditional therapy to do with Kaia.

Kaia is tactilely defensive and did an admirable job putting up with all the touching. But fairly quickly she started to push the woman away and started signing “all done” and “bye bye” to her. I felt a little guilty forcing Kaia to submit to this therapy and yet I force her to do things that she doesn’t necessarily want to do all the time because it’s good for her – changing her diaper, brushing her teeth, etc. Inwardly, I was elated to see Kaia communicating her desires, even if I couldn’t fulfill her request. Thankfully the woman discovered some quirky things Kaia likes. Kaia warmed up to her so much that by the end she was trying to kiss the practitioner.

Anyway, the upshot is that if the practitioner generates enough interest, we could bring Kaia for sessions with her when she comes to town for a cost of $95 per hour. It’s actually unusual for insurance to cover it. I told her I’d check with our insurance to see if they would cover it because otherwise we really couldn’t afford it.

That same evening we brought Kaia to the monthly parents night out program. When we picked her up, Paul took her by the hand to assist her to walk down the hall. Wouldn’t you know it, she pulled her hand away and walked - on her own - the entire length of the hallway. It was at least 25 feet. The only reason she stopped was because the hall ended. We’ve had these breakthroughs before but she will usually revert to crawling almost immediately. So I didn’t hold my breath that it would remain consistent. She definitely has been on the cusp of walking for a couple months now, though.

Saturday we took her swimming in the morning and shopping in the evening. She was off and on with the walking. On Sunday, we put her therapy shorts on her. They’re called hip helpers, are bright red spandex, and she looks like a little super hero wearing them. She took off on Sunday! She walked at least 50 feet continuously and even made a 45 degree turn on her own in the middle of that stretch. She’s kept at it; alternating between doing really well or not being as motivated when she’s tired and/or hungry.

But she really can and is walking! She still falls a lot and walks with a wide base of support (the shorts do help with that), but she can do it! She can also climb up on to the couch by herself now! (That started late last week). Even after coming down with a cold Monday morning, which has thrown her balance off in the past (one of her therapists attributed that to increased fluid in the ear, which is the center of balance), she has continued to persevere in attempting to walk this week.

She also made the “help” sign to me, independently, without any prompting, today. Holy cow, was I surprised. Then she did it again a few more times. She also has said “bubbles” and “more” a couple times this week. She just loves those bubbles.

So what do you all think? Do you think she was just ready, no matter what? Do you think it was the one alternative therapy session? Do you think it was the hippotherapy (she’s gone 3 times now)? Maybe it’s the confluence of it all.

I wish I knew, but in the end I guess it doesn’t really matter. I accepted long ago that all we can do is maximize Kaia’s environment and provide opportunities for her to progress. She’s going to do it in her own time. I’m constantly amazed by her perseverance and her abilities in spite of the incredible challenges that she faces.

Preschool

Kaia and I toured a preschool today. It went okay. I’m torn about this subject because I don’t know where she will be at developmentally in six months, or how I’ll feel about letting her go for two to four hours at a whack, but I figure it’s better to plan now and have the option open next fall than put it off. Otherwise, we may find ourselves in a situation where I’d like to have her in a preschool setting and not be able to find one that has an opening.

My main interest in sending Kaia to preschool is for her to have the opportunity to see typical peers playing and to interact with them, as well as to give me a break. I also think it’s a gift for the other kids to see and interact with Kaia. As I’ve mentioned in other posts, Kaia has never really been outside of our care for any length of time. Grandma and Grandpa (who visit from MN) watch her when they are in town to give us a chance to have date nights and we have utilized a parents night out program a few times for a couple hours at a time. That’s it. So I’m pretty nervous about sending her to a preschool but I also know that there are benefits for her and me. I can’t even imagine what four hours at a stretch to myself would be like anymore. I could study for class, go for a run (and even shower afterward), go shopping in peace and be able to put everything away once home - the possibilities honestly seem endless.

Originally I had been looking at co-op preschools. If you haven’t heard of these, they are preschools in which parents share a vested interest in teaching. Locally, there are two options for us. Both offer two hours, twice a week, 9am-ish to 11am-ish. Both require parental involvement two or four classes per month. That means ¼ to ½ of the time Kaia would be in preschool I would be there with her. They also require parental time commitment in the way of initial training and occasional cleaning. One of my biggest fears is that if I send Kaia to preschool she may be left sitting in a corner, in a w-sit, easily forgotten. Because of this, I figured co-op would be a great option since I’d actually be there to make sure that didn’t happen. However, it would also mean I wouldn’t get the break I’m really looking forward to with this whole preschool thing. For comparison purposes, co-op is also the same price as other options. One of Kaia’s therapists also pointed out that since sometimes I’d remain with Kaia at the co-op preschool and sometimes not, it may be more confusing and difficult for her when I don’t stay.

I also discovered a four hour, one day a week option through a local church. I am hesitant about Kaia’s ability (and mine) to tolerate being separated for a four hour stretch. They also feed the kids lunch there. I worry about her ability to eat in a highly distractible environment. They have the kids sit at a toddler table in little toddler chairs. Kaia’s never eaten outside of a highchair. But, it’s only one time a week. If she doesn’t eat well, I can feed her when we get home. It may even be good for her to observe typical peers eating. They have a 2 year old classroom which has a 10 to 2 ratio; but after speaking with the director and explaining my fears, she suggested we consider the option of putting Kaia in the 18 month classroom (their youngest classroom) which has an 8 to 2 ratio. The kids in that class wouldn’t be that much younger than Kaia - as little as 6 weeks younger since the cutoff for the two year old classroom is Aug 1st and Kaia turns two June 22nd. The director also said if we find that 4 hours is just too long at first, we could arrange to have me pick Kaia up early, after two or three hours.

Whatever option we choose will mean that at least one of Kaia’s therapists will have to see her while she is at preschool. I’m not too hot on this because it will mean we won’t get to observe the therapy session and have that first-hand knowledge of what to implement with Kaia, but it will also mean we won’t have to try to cram in that therapy session on another day. Since Kaia is now getting therapy 6(!) times a week, I don’t even know if that would be possible.

Do you send your child with special needs to a typical preschool or parents/mothers day out program? What has been your experience? If you had any of the same fears as me, how did you deal with them or how were they resolved? I have much more to write about our visit today but Kaia is waking from her nap so this must be continued later…

Her little pony

Growing up, I always wanted a pony. What little girl doesn’t? I don’t think I had an opportunity, though, to ride a horse until I was in my late teens. So it blows my mind that my little girl had her first pony ride today. And she will get to ride her pony, a little white retired show pony named Molly, every Thursday morning for the foreseeable future. These aren’t just any old pony rides, either. They are official hippotherapy sessions. A physical therapist guides Kaia on the horse around the large barn. Kaia rides facing forward and then facing backward. As kids progress, they even stand while riding on the horse. We saw a little 3 year old boy doing that during Kaia’s session today. Apparently he had started hippotherapy a year ago and couldn’t even bear weight on his legs. Within six months he was walking. There’s more info about hippotherapy in this article: http://www.nuvo.net/news/article/horses-heal The company featured in the article is the one where Kaia rides. The therapist named at the beginning is also Kaia’s therapist.

All of Kaia’s therapists have been telling us grand tales of how much progress Kaia will make when she starts hippotherapy. I don’t even care if that’s true. Don’t get me wrong, I want her to progress. I’m just excited that she is riding a horse! And I hold my expectations in check, especially after the professional who fitted her orthotics told us that kids were often walking within a couple weeks after getting them (orthotics). We just want this to be a pleasurable experience for her and I know that it is an amazing opportunity for her – in terms of sensory-input, another hour with a physical therapist, and just riding a horse, for goodness sakes!

Getting there has been a little complicated. Kaia’s been on the waiting list for occupational and physical hippotherapy since November. She was number 8 for OT and number 4 for PT. The hippotherapy stable called last week with openings for both OT and PT. We were in a bit of a dilemma over how to proceed with therapy because we were unsure how we wanted to pay for the sessions. The early intervention program through which Kaia currently receives occupational and physical therapy would cover hippotherapy by replacing either her OT or PT provider in the home. We’d also have to prove that these therapies were not working in the home. Right now she receives 2 hours of OT in the home and 1 hr of PT per week. Her OT works on feeding issues in addition to fine motor skills. The hippotherapy provider only had 1 hr of OT open and they cannot work on feeding at the barn. You’d think we could just keep 1 hour of OT in the home to work on feeding and have 1 hour at the stable for hippotherapy OT, right? Apparently that’s a big no-no. It seems it is impossible to have two providers on her plan for the same service (OT). (If you utilize early intervention in Indiana and have a different experience, please let me know.) We also really did not want to give up Kaia’s current PT in the home. In the end, we decided to do hippotherapy by paying for it with private insurance. This meant paying more out of pocket (a copay and coinsurance). That may not sound like much but over the course of a year it adds up. Our insurance is strange in that we have unlimited PT benefits – no annual limit on visits, no specific lifetime cap. However, OT benefits are unbelievably low. There is no annual limit on visits, but there is a lifetime cap of $1000. That covers maybe 10 visits. If you have a child with an ongoing need for OT, that is pitiful coverage. Kaia will receive, thankfully, services with the early intervention program until she’s 3. After that, it’s the school system, and from what I’ve been told, there really is no such thing as individual, 1 on 1 therapy there. That’s something we’ll just have to deal with in the future, though. Right now we decided to keep her two hours of OT in the home with early intervention, as well as her hour of PT, and utilize our private insurance to cover hippotherapy as PT. We’re still hoping that we may be able to appeal the ridiculous rule I mentioned regarding 2 providers with early intervention but I’m glad that we have such good PT coverage with our insurance and that she could get started right away. That’s the most important thing.

Here’s a couple shots of Kaia’s first pony ride. You can see that I was the sidewalker. Normally they don't allow parents to do that. Since it was Kaia's first time they made an exception.

Riding backwards:

Still smiling at the end!

Signs of the time

Kaia has officially added another sign to her repertoire. She really is making steady progress with communication. For the past week she’s been doing the “all done” sign, in addition to “more” and waving “bye bye”. The "all done" sign looks kind of like if you were brushing crumbs off your chest. The way Kaia does “all done” is kind of a both hands wave. She gets very excited when she sees us excited about her doing the sign. We start signing it back to her and her sign becomes even more animated.

Her receptive language ability is also growing more evident. Lately when we tell Kaia "it’s time to eat" and make the eat sign to her, or ask her “where do we eat?”, she vocalizes and points with an isolated pointer finger to her highchair. Then she crawls very excitedly to the highchair, pulls up to it, and looks at us like, OK, you said it’s time to eat, let’s eat.

She also loves her pecs schedule. Pecs is a picture exchange communication system. We started doing very primitive versions of pecs last summer with Kaia. Initially we offered choices with the pictures, and reinforced whichever picture she chose with that toy or activity. Then Kaia’s speech therapist taught us how to use a picture to teach her the concept of exchanging the picture for a desired outcome. For example, we used a picture of a green circle during a turn taking activity and Kaia would have to give us the green circle to have a turn with the toy. At first, when Kaia wasn’t yet releasing objects, we had to have two adults doing this activity with her. One adult would physically assist Kaia hand the picture to the other adult to get her turn. It’s much easier now that she is releasing objects because she is also giving us things.

Our newest foray with pecs is an activity schedule. I read about this at: http://www.brighthub.com/education/special/articles/2723.aspx. Although it really is intended to help kids with autism function more independently, I figured it would be an easier way for us to incorporate pecs into Kaia’s daily life now by giving her more opportunities to have exposure to the pictures and the concept that the pictures mean something. The other methods above I found I had to make a conscious effort to do once each day. It was another thing on the to do list each day and Kaia only had that one opportunity each day to learn that these pictures are useful for something. Kaia also thrives on routine so setting up a visual schedule seemed to make sense with her affinity for routine. It still is difficult to remember to return to the schedule so that she can remove the latest completed activity and put it in the all done envelope. Sometimes we get a few pictures behind but we just talk about them when we do catch up and she loves the chance to put more than one in the packet. It’s great because we make her stand to remove the picture, then squat to put it in the packet.

Last, but certainly not least, Kaia was also saying mama like crazy on Saturday. Music to my ears!

Activity & toy ideas for snowy days

Kaia's developmental therapist gave us such a great list of toys and activities that I thought I'd share it here. We haven't even done all of them yet. He also shared a play dough recipe that is supposed to be better (last and stay flexible longer) than store-bought play dough.

1) microphone (singing, imitating words)
2) personal photo books (self concept)
3) echo or voice distortion microphone (imitation/language)
4) Discovery Toys ball tower + various balls (cause/effect, big/little)
5) Velcro fruit (pretend, matching)
6) ‘color of the week’ box (not sure what this is - we haven't done it yet)
7) cookie/cracker matching game (match object to picture)
8) catalogs & sale fliers (rooms in house, language)
9) stickers on faces in a mirror (self-concept)
10) ‘ball pit’ in a clothes basket (find hidden toys, sensory)
11) Lucky Ducks game (color match)
12) Leap Frog basketball (letters, etc)
13) Finding objects in rice (sensory)
14) Magnet fun (United Art & Ed, or fridge magnets & cookie sheets)
15) Stringing bears (fine motor, colors-Dollar Tree)
16) Pull toys that make noise (cause/effect, sensory)
17) Give objects to boy/girl on felt board (gender identification-Dora, etc. felt boards at Meijer)
18) Nesting blocks (size & spatial concepts)
19) Toy in child’s hand during clean up song
20) Finger plays (Tiny Tim Turtle, etc- imitation/language)
21) “hello” song & ‘homemade songs’ (social interaction, language)
22) Play dough (language, pretend, sensory)
23) Tape player & songs (language, sensory)
24) Toy people & who is it? Game with a toy door (turn-taking,language,make-believe play)
25) Sorting game-2 kinds of toys or snacks in separate containers)


Homemade Play Dough

Add to large (pasta) pot:
2 cups flour
2 cups water
1 cup salt
¼ cup vegetable oil
3 teaspoons cream of tartar
food coloring of choice
scented extract (vanilla, almond, etc-optional)

Stir constantly over medium-high heat until mixture is one large ball

Remove from heat and knead on cutting board until smooth

Store in air-tight container(s)-ziploc bags or Tupperware & keep in a cool place (fridge, etc). Lasts at least 1-2 months

Therapy-Free Days

Therapy-free days are pretty few and far between around here these days. Kaia has a jam-packed schedule with speech therapy on Mondays, developmental and occupational back to back on Tuesdays, physical on Wednesday, and occupational again on Friday. On Monday we also try to get out to a toddler group and I try to keep Thursday open for storytime at the library. But the last month or so Kaia's PT has only seen her every other week due to vacation, so we've had every other Wednesday free for other activities. Today we went to a nearby church to check out their indoor play area. We had been to one other one recently that is further away, and they are such a great resource. Both are open all day every weekday and are free. That's right - you read that correctly, they're absolutely free. In the winter it's nice to have somewhere like that available when cabin fever sets in and weather prohibits going to an outdoor playground. We met a couple other moms and their kids there and it was nice to get out of the house and do something different. I wonder sometimes what it must be like to have a typically-developing kid and thus no therapies and to have all that "free" time. I can't imagine. I'm sure we would get out even more. I am so thankful to have all the therapies that Kaia receives, though. Her therapists overall are amazing and as a first time mom, it's nice to have all those sounding boards and sources for advice.