Science Center

I was really happy when I opened a gift from D's parents at Christmas to find a membership to our local science center. Many friends had told me how great it was and in my eleven years of living in Columbus I had never been there. They currently have some exhibits I would like to see without a two year old in tow. A single visit is a bit expensive, in my opinion, so I worried about taking LB and only being able to stay for an hour or two. However, the great thing about the membership is that we can go whenever and leave whenever and not feel like we are wasting money. LB and I have been twice so far this year and on Friday my mom came with us. I think she was pretty impressed with all the stuff they have for kids that are LB's age. The key for us is to get there right when they open and then leave when it gets really crowded and crazy, which is usually about lunch time so it works out well. LB tends to split his time between playing with the balls and playing in the water. Two of his most favorite things! My jaw literally dropped the first time I saw the water play space. I think LB may have said, "wow!" They even have little raincoats for the kids. So cute!

We had a good time and I'm glad my mom was able to experience it. Hopefully, next time D's parents can join in on the fun too! Oh yeah, and D too.

Happy & Sad

LB had an incident at the park this week that reminded me of some really wise advise he received from his three old buddy, G. This advise is now in my arsenal of tools to use with LB and it is very effective. I'll set the scene for you. It is no secret that LB looks up to G and that LB thinks the world of him. A few months ago, we were playing at G's house and G tripped over a toy and fell. He started to cry a little bit and had a very sad look on his face. LB has always been troubled by other kid's showing signs of distress, especially when it is someone he loves. LB is very empathetic but also has anxiety in certain situations. (Hmmmm... that sounds like someone I know. Oh right, that's me.) In the adoption world, this is often referred to as hypervigilance. Crying is a noise that has always troubled LB. It triggers a fear response. Well, once LB noticed what was going on he lost it. He started crying and screaming and ran to me. We were down in their basement so I took him upstairs to try and calm him down. I was trying to tell him that G would be okay and his mommy would make it better but LB wasn't really buying it. Once G was okay I heard his mom tell him that he needed to go upstairs and tell LB he was okay. G came to the top of the stairs with the biggest grin on his face and exclaimed, "Look! I'm happy! Sometimes we are happy and sometimes we are sad. And that's okay." Hello! I could not have said it better myself. Such a deep statement. I am pretty sure that is the way life goes. "Sometimes we are happy and sometimes we are sad. And that's okay." When LB saw that G was smiling he was able to relax and smile too.

Ever since that event with G, LB has done a much better job not worrying too much when other kids are upset. If we hear or see another kid crying, I just tell him that the boy or girl is just sad right now but soon he or she will be happy again. I sometimes add, "remember what G says." It's pretty simple and it seems to work. I think because it seemed like he was making so much progress that is why the recent incident at the park initially really bummed me out. We had some warm weather this past week so LB and I went to the school park down the street after his nap. There is another boy in the neighborhood, J, who we see there pretty often. He is in kindergarten and LB thinks J is pretty darn cool. J is usually very sweet to LB. J was being a typical, goofy six year old boy and started rolling around in the grass, pretending he was hurt. He was saying "ouch ouch" pretty loudly. LB didn't realize what was happening and thought J was actually hurt so LB started in on the grabbing on to me for dear life and crying and screaming. It was heartbreaking. And if I am being honest, these situations tend to really me stress me out, which probably doesn't help the situation. (See above reference to anxiety.) We stepped away from the other boys for a little bit and I tried to tell him that J was being silly and that he was happy and not sad. I also tried to tell him that it was just like how he and his Dad will roll around on the floor and tickle each other and be silly. I may have used too many words and in LB's state of fear it was too much to absorb. I walked him back over to J and showed him that everything was fine. I was so relieved when LB recovered and even smiled at J. There had been moments last fall when he got so upset by other kid's distress that we just had to leave because I couldn't get him to recover. I am really working on leaving places on a positive note rather than mid melt down. So I let him see that everything was okay with J and then one of J's friends came over to LB, hugged him and gave him his box of raisins. Then I almost lost it. It was so sweet and compassionate. LB could not stop grinning and was so pleased to have received this gift from an older boy. We spent some time on the swings and then we left the park. LB was smiling and not screaming. So even though it discourages me that he is still holding on to fear, I do think he has overcome so much in a relatively short period of time. I'm proud of him. And after all, "sometimes we are happy and sometimes we are sad. And that's okay."

I also really hope that when LB is in kindergarten he will share his box of a raisins with a scared, younger kid.

Play Dough

My sister was in town for the weekend but sadly had to leave today. LB and I were both pretty bummed. After I put LB down for a nap, I found myself wallowing over the fact that my family doesn't live closer. To beat the blues I decided a distraction was in order. I have been wanting to make play dough for LB for a while and so today was the day! I know I could just as easily buy some at the store but I wasn't sure if LB would try to eat it. He still occasionally explores things with his mouth and I didn't want to risk him ingesting it. But if I made it then I knew it would be safe just in case. Plus it is cheaper! I was weirdly a little nervous to give this a try. Crazy, I know. It is the easiest recipe in the world but making play dough falls under the crafty category and the cooking category. A double whammy in my book. Those are definitely two areas where I am still building confidence. However, I actually enjoyed myself. I got the recipe from my mother-in-law. Here it is:

2 cups water
2 cups flour
1 cup salt
2-3 tsp cream of tartar
3-4 Tbsp oil
food coloring

Put all the ingredients, except the food coloring, into a large saucepan. Mix well. Cook over medium heat, stirring until mixture pulls from the sides of the pan. Once done place on cutting board and knead in food coloring.

Here is a link to a website with a recipe as well. It is basically the same but makes a little more. Her play dough also looks much prettier than mine.

I was surprised by how quickly it cooked. I may have cooked it a touch too long but it was fine. I put wax paper over the cutting board to help contain the food coloring mess. I also divided mine into three sections so that I could do three colors. The first two colors, green and blue, turned out pretty well. Sadly my yellow was a bit of a fail. I had to rush at the end because LB took a super short nap and I could hear him as I was trying to finish. So I got a bit careless and some of the green coloring mixed in with the yellow and I didn't get to knead in nearly as much for a pretty yellow. Oh well. We still used it even though it wasn't pretty.

I put glad press and seal on LB's little table in the basement and put some play dough out for him. He totally didn't know what to do with it. So I started showing him how we could smoosh it or roll into balls. I also brought out some cookie cutters and a little rolling pin that he has for his kitchen. I should not have shown him how to make balls so early in the process. Given that he is obsessed with balls this meant that he always wanted to hold a ball in one hand. It is also something he tends to do when we are trying a new thing involving touch. His OT says it is like he is keeping one hand "safe." I tried to take it away at one point so he would play with both hands but he wasn't interested in that and I wasn't in the mood to battle. Even though he used mostly one hand throughout the whole thing I think he really liked it. I was also glad we finally got to use his new, little table for something other than coloring. I bought the table at a garage sale in the fall for $8. It was in bad shape but just needed a paint job. D painted it when the basement was finished and I think it looks good as new. I remember having a little table like that when I was growing up. I have memories of using it to play school with my sister or to watch Saturday morning cartoons while eating pancakes. Hopefully, LB will get a lot of use out of his table as well. Today was a good start.

He loved making the shapes with the cookie cutters. I only have a star, a heart and a gingerbread man. I need to get more. I remember seeing an Africa shaped one some where. I am now on a mission to find it. LB couldn't really do the shapes himself but he helped me. I thought it was pretty creative of him to give the men belly buttons. The funniest part was when he decided that one of the men had a tattoo. I guess that is what happens when your dad has tattoos. After a while he didn't want to sit any more so I just pulled the chair away and he was able to continue playing while standing. I showed him how to make letters and I made him a little airplane. He played with that airplane for a while. I couldn't believe it when I looked at the clock and we had been playing for an hour. That is an eternity for an indoor game at our house. I know it was the first time so future play dough adventures may not be as long. I'll probably try and make more as well so we can have lots of different colors. Apparently, if you store the play dough in tupperware it will stay good for a long time.

This was a really easy project to clean up as long as you don't count my hands. I can't tell you the last time I used food coloring, if ever, and I was not expecting the food coloring to stay put on my hands after multiple washes. Although, I have to admit that the stains made me feel very crafty. Totally worth it.

Rainbow Recreations

Last week I took LB to a place called, Rainbow Recreations. They sell outdoor play sets, trampolines, basketball hoops, etc. The great thing is that during the week you can take your kid to play at their indoor showroom. It's a perfect activity for winter. It's like going to a park that is on steroids AND it's inside. Awesome! (Should I say that it's inside one more time? It's inside!!) They have some days when it is free but the place gets a little loud and chaotic so for us it is worth it to pay the $5 and go when it is less crowded. I took LB several times in the fall but this was our first time there this year. I was super proud of him because he was so much more adventurous this time. He is clearly more coordinated and stronger than he was just a few months ago. He was able to climb up the play sets on his own and got very daring on the trampoline. I think he played on the trampoline for close to 20 minutes. We recently got LB a little mini trampoline so that may be why he was more comfortable this time around. After we had been there for a little over an hour, LB turned to me and said, "car bye bye." I was a little surprised that he wanted to go but am glad we are reaching the point in his communication when he can express that to me. So I followed his lead and we left. If he can have fun for an hour and then happily leave a place then it is a success in my book. The first picture gives you an idea of how big the place is and how much stuff there is to do. The rest are just of LB playing and having a good time.

I love the last picture of him smiling on the trampoline. Perhaps he is thinking, "please get me one of these things!" Or he wants to say, "this was a great work out for my proprioceptive sensory system." Okay, that's doubtful but you never know. 

Green Monster

I like to think that LB's food choices are mostly healthy. Some of his favorite foods include humous, yogurt, oatmeal and bananas. However, he has never been good about eating vegetables. He likes carrots and that's about it. I decided to try sneaking spinach into a smoothie. There are lots of recipes floating around the internet since this seems to be a current trend. I landed on one called the Green Monster and I got the recipe from the blog, Iowa Girl Eats. If I am being honest with myself then I probably don't consume enough green veggies either. So my hope was that both LB and I would like it. Here is the recipe:

1 frozen sliced banana (slice the banana before you freeze it)
1 tablespoon peanut butter (I put in a little more than that.)
1/2 cup Vanilla Greek Yogurt
1 cup milk (I used Almond Milk.)
4 cups baby spinach

Throw it all in a blender until smooth.

Here is the great news. LB liked it! He even said, "yummy." That was definitely the first time he consumed spinach. I think the next time I make it I will use a little less spinach. I liked the smoothie but think I will like it more if I use less spinach and a little more yogurt. I know I am defeating the purpose a bit but it wasn't quite sweet enough for me. I am thinking 3 cups of spinach and 3/4 cup of vanilla yogurt. It was incredibly filling! Truly, it is a meal and not a snack.

I am hoping to make more of these types of sneaky smoothies so I'll be sure to post more success stories.

Nutrition & Behavior

I have a confession. Here it goes.

When we were in the paper chase stage of the adoption process, we had required videos to watch. They were on a variety of topics like attachment, behavior, food issues, etc. Most of them were led by a psychologist, Karyn Purvis, who is highly regarded in the adoption community. She co-wrote a book called, The Connected Child, which I have now read parts of and have found it to be extremely helpful. Here is the bad part. And I can't believe I am admitting it. I really disliked watching the videos. I completely understand if you just gasped loudly and are judging me. I judge me. I think at the time I just viewed it as one more thing I had to do to become a mom and I was bitter about it. We had to jump through a billion hoops when most people just had to do one thing (cue blushing). So I watched the videos because I had to but with a dismissive attitude. So terrible.

I am now eating serious crow. Thankfully, despite my wretched attitude I did absorb some of the wise information Dr. Purvis dispensed on those videos. Many of her techniques are on my go-to list for discipline. There are times when I will confront a behavior issue with LB and actually say to myself, "Dr. Purvis would be so proud." Oh the irony. I am telling you this because I just willingly signed up to attend a webinar that she is having on nutrition and it's effects on behavior and I thought some of you out there might be interested as well. (Side note: I really dislike the word, webinar.)

Here is the LINK. It's only $15.

I have recently become fairly fascinated with this topic. I think D and I do a pretty good job of avoiding a lot of the nasty stuff that can be found in food like partially hydrogenated soybean oil, dyes and high fructose corn syrup. We try and eat organic as much as we can afford. I have always been someone that tends to check labels more often than not. The fact that I have a child that has had to overcome fear issues with food would make you believe in karma. It's not new information that sugar makes your kid hyper. However, I know there is more to it than that and I'm ready to expand my knowledge. One of my favorite bloggers recently did a post on how switching to a gluten free and dairy free diet tremendously helped her son deal with sensory processing disorder. I actually went off dairy for several years starting in college and found that it really helped my stomach deal with stress. Eventually, I was able to slowly work it back into my diet and now can eat it in moderation. Poor LB has had GI issues for most of his life and we are actually working with a specialist now to try and get to the bottom of it. We'll be taking him for blood work this week (that I have been putting off) and one of the things they are testing him for is a gluten allergy. We'll see. I have no idea if big changes in our diet are in our future or not but I'm eager to learn more.

Speaking of dairy, LB and I had an ice cream date this past week. He was so happy. He even used two spoons so he could be more efficient. And yes, he was bouncing off the walls when we got home.

If you are interested in the webinar but can't attend let me know. I'd be happy to share my notes with you.

Indoor Water Table

When my mom was here in January, she noticed that LB loved washing his hands in the kitchen sink. At the time we would just hold him there for a little bit but he always wanted to stay longer. I would tell him I was going to sing a song and when the song was over it was time to be done. Most of the time that worked but sometimes it didn't and he would get mad and cry. It's not that I objected to sink play but just didn't enjoy holding him there for eternity. A week or two after my mom left, a package arrived in the mail for LB. He was very excited to see that it was his very own step stool! Thank you, Grandma Kathy. Now that he can stand independently at the sink it has allowed us to make the sink our winter water table. I got the idea from Play At Home Mom to add bubbles and ice to make it more of a sensory experience. Previously, I just let him play around with stuff in the kitchen. That works too but he definitely enjoyed the bubbles and we pretended to give his toys a bath. We did this earlier in the week and he played happily for about 30 minutes. Yay! I did have to give him a few stern warnings about not dumping an entire cup filled with water on the floor but other than that he was happy and I was happy.

LB loves that he can put the stool in front of the sink by himself. 

Yes, that is a pie slicer he is playing with.  

When he started getting bored I drained the bubbles and added some ice cubes. Every time he touched the ice he would said, "brrrr." But it didn't seem to bother him because he kept going back for more. I totally forgot to add food coloring. We'll do that next time. 

In the future, I will time this activity when I have stuff I need to do in the kitchen. That way I can supervise him and do what I need to do. I imagine we'll be doing this a lot over the next few months.

Coat Face

Someone insisted on playing outside this morning even though it was only 35 degrees and overcast. I was none too pleased. That certain someone also refused to put on gloves. Sigh. I choose my battles. Luckily, he did agree to wear his hood. I just love his little coat face.

Rice & Beans

We have had several days of crazy warm weather around here. I am loving it even though it freaks me out a little bit. LB is loving it even more. That boy loves to be outside. Yesterday he woke up from his nap and went straight outside and stayed there until dinner. Too bad we don't live in California or Florida or some place that is warm year round. I decided it would be a good day to pull his water table out of the garage and fill it with something a little more appropriate for winter. The last time we went to see LB's OT she had a sensory bin filled with rice and LB spent quite a bit of time playing with it. My friend, Lisa, also recommended using the water table in winter but to fill it with rice. I didn't quite have enough rice so I supplemented with dried kidney beans. It worked really well. LB spent a lot of time moving the rice and beans from one section of the water table to the other. I also pulled out some kitchen utensils and he had fun stirring and scooping. The best part was when I found some of the little toy animals that came with the water table and I hid them in the rice and beans. LB would go searching for them and got really excited when he found them. That game went on for quite some time. Once I had the animal covered LB would exclaim, "hidey!" So cute.

Initially, he spent about 30 minutes playing with it. Then we had to spend some time looking for rocks and sticks and playing with some of our other outdoor toys. Our neighbor got home and LB immediately insisted on showing her the contents inside his water table. He proceeded to play with it again for another 20 minutes or so. So I spent less than $4 for 50 minutes of sensory fun. Success! I am glad we did this activity outdoors because LB spilled a fair amount of the contents outside the water table. I think we would be finding rice all over the house for weeks if we had done it inside. But in a pinch I would do it inside and just put a bunch of towels down with the hopes it would be fairly contained. LB actually spent some time picking up the beans he spilled and put them back in the table.

I am trying to make an effort to take more photos of LB with my actual camera instead of my phone.  I think I got some good ones of him having a little snack break in the grass.