Bike riding

One of my goals for 2009 is to teach Munchkin how to ride a bike. To accomplish this I told her we must practice at least once a week. Once a week wont be a problem in the summer, but in February it can be difficult. She was excited about the goal, but probably just so she can go outside. Part of the goal is to make an excuse to bundle up and go outside. Buddy Boy and Munchkin get cabin fever about as bad as Mom and Dad do, but they are more willing to brave the cold. For our first bike lesson, right away Munchkin asked if we could go to the park. Munchkin would rather go to the park any day than ride her bike, so I can see myself going to the park a lot this year in order to get that once a week bike lesson in.
~Dad

So Crafty!

We've been on a "reuse, recycle" kick lately. Munchkin has made a lot of efforts to remind us to turn the lights off to save energy, and to reuse the stuff we've stopped using to keep from filling the landfills. For Mom and Dad, it's been great to do stuff that's not expensive. It's been good for us as we've tried to keep spring fever and that winter cooped up feeling at bay. Anyway, here are a few of our attempts at creativity the last two weeks:

Dad's Valentine's Day gift from Mom, Munchkin and Buddy Boy (we'll be saving all our change in it):


Munchkin made great use of the glitter and paints Grandma gave us! Thanks so much Grandma, we love it!



Munchkin and Dad being pirates with scarves and leftover plastic pieces from toy packaging and old wrapping paper tubing:


We traced Munchkin and drew her outfit on some old butcher paper we had (I don't even know where we got it from!):


Peanut butter bars made from food storage items pinto beans and rolled oats. Yes, they are good. Picky Buddy Boy even eats them! And milk free, bonus!:


We took the "tiki" out of the basement room, and Dad used scrap wood pieces to build a frame. Now to sheetrock, mud, paint, all that jazz:

Sensory Integration

We've been blessed with fantastic resources and ideas to help Buddy Boy with his Sensory Integration Therapy. For those who don't know what that is all about...Buddy Boy basically has a lot of sensory issues. His vestibular and proprioceptive senses (balance and sense of where his body is in relation to the world around him) are out of whack, and his oral, visual and tactile (touch) senses are understimulated, meaning that he needs more stimulation provided. His hearing sense is overstimulated, meaning that he is extremely sensitive to sound.

Anyway, below are two videos of us doing some sensory integration therapy. What fun, huh! As you can see, Munchkin is enjoying this as much as Buddy Boy.

No Resolutions

I have thought and thought about New Year's resolutions, and I just am not feeling it.

I'm not sure, but I think the technical definition of a resolution is changing, or fixing something that you're doing wrong...maybe I'm totally wrong, but that's always how I imagined them. I think I'm doing some good things with my life though, and I'd like to add to them, but not necessarily change them. Does that make any sense?

Anywho, I've talked with the kids and hubby about setting goals, and we've set a bunch for the family for the year. My daughter cracks me up with her ideas, but I put them all down anyway, and we'll see what we can do....

Mom's goals:
- Plan and grow a much bigger garden for canning - oh yeah!
- Build shelves in the playroom (Dad was so nice, he did this before 2008 even ended!)
- Buy more rechargeable batteries. Lame? Nope, it will save us so much battery money. - Still haven't done this either
- Improve guitar playing - like, learn 4 new chords or something - nada, I think I forgot the 3 I already knew.
- Make DVD out of kids' baby videos - man, I suck!

Dad's goals:
- Build new shelves in playroom (as mentioned above, it's done, yippee!)
- Learn more about Autism - yeah

Munchkin's goals (from her own mouth):
- Fix the swing set - done!
- Take a vacation, maybe to Italy - does Paris, ID count? YES
- Learn how to sew - a little, still working on it (see, Mom isn't all that great of a teacher)
- Get green tickets every day at school until she's 16 - well, she did until the school stopped offering green tickets!

Buddy Boy's goals (with help from mom and sis):
- Learn to say or sign more words for more effective communication - yes!!!
- Learn to do ring around the rosy - nope, not interested

Family Goals:
- Paint most of the interior of the house
- Get Munchkin signed up for at least one extracurricular activity - (done after school programs, soccer)
- Get Buddy Boy signed up for the one-on-one early intervention play class - done!
- Teach Munchkin more life skills (give her her own garden box, take her to the bank to deposit her allowance, etc) - did a garden box, deposits $$ every 3 months
- Teach Buddy Boy more life skills (helping Mom clean, showing him to pull weeds and not flowers, etc)- hmm...working on it still

The geek that I am, I've got it all printed up, along with baby steps to get there.

Munchkin update

Munchkin just went back to school after her Christmas break. She wasn't as excited to go back as I thought she would be. I guess after having such an exciting Birthday, and Christmas, It would be difficult to beat the fun of it all. She has been playing with all her new toys, putting on her new dress, and watching new movies. We have been going to Granny's and Grandma's and playing with cousins, and I think she didn't want it all to end. She now totally loves High School Musical. She was able to watch all three of them. The third Mom took her to the theater, and she LOVED it. Munchkin loves it so much she wanted all of her stuffed animals to watch it too, so they can enjoy it. She has been dancing to it and singing to it. To make things better it has been snowing a lot and she loves making a snowman, and sledding. Too bad thing have to change. ~Dad

Buddy Boy Update

Buddy Boy had a difficult December. He was sick for the second half of November and the first three weeks of December. To make it worse his teeth were bothering him. He has been grinding his teeth a lot. He also started biting his lip, during December. I imagine it was to distract him from his pain of his teeth. He also was getting severe stomach aches. It has been hard to see him not being his happy self. He really is a happy boy though. I will have to get a video of him playing. Because of the difficult circumstances Buddy Boy didn't really enjoy his birthday. We took him to see a doctor, which came back negative. We also stopped giving him milk to help with his stomach aches. There is a theory with Autistic people that many of them have difficulties with dairy and wheat. Buddy Boy was drinking (when not sick) a gallon of milk a day. He would constantly ask for it, and he would wake up in the middle of the night asking for it. Then he would have a stomach ache until we gave him more milk. So we switched to soy milk. It seems to have made a difference. Some people totally get rid of all dairy, and wheat. We haven't got to that stage, but cutting out his milk cuts out 95% of his dairy, and he has not seemed to have the addiction to wheat. Mom has read a lot of books, written by doctors and others about Autism, and one compared milk to crack, and how it seems to have the same effect with some Autistic children. After observing Buddy Boy's behavior, it seemed to me like crack would be a good way to describe it. But don't worry. The rest of the family still gets milk. We tried making it a fun birthday without all the hoopla. We also went to temple square, which it was too cold for the kids to enjoy.
On a good news note, Buddy Boy has been handing me and Mom things (book, juice cup) and then asking for more by signing more, instead of just signing more and making us guess what he wants "more" of. We have been so excited about the increased communication skill. It has been wonderful to see him playing and happy again. ~Dad