Wednesday, April 27, 2016

April...busy month!!!

This month I have not updated much because we have been soooooo busy with our warm weather activities. From camping to parks to rivers we have (and are continuing to) squeeze every ounce of goodness out of these beautiful days!

Our April has included ....

Multiple camping trips including one with Ms Sue from wetlands institute...Glory is becoming an expert at tent and fire building







Continuing to expand her diet and try new foods

Many nature walks at local state parks and rivers and lakes....




When not camping Glory has been enjoying dance, yoga, 3 homeschool co-ops, her new foster kitty, practice work for numbers spelling telling time and all her other work, AND she also joined a special needs baseball team called 'field of dreams'!.....

 Bonding with Kennedy...our new FIV + foster cat

She also helped us shop for design decorate and build him his own kitty walkway


 Lots of beach time


 Field of dreams!! (she has two volunteers assigned to her to help)

 Mini golf at field of dreams after the game.... Sundays are awesome now
 I added a new board for her to choose practice work from daily, she loves it



Moonlight yoga



Helping us shop for...and prepare food is helping her expand her diet




 Co-op projects





Dance...


I almost forgot! Glory was also called up on stage as a volunteer in a magic act at 6 flags :) she got to make a table fly off the ground!


It has been a memorable full month ...the next two weekends are already booked for kayaking and camping so there's much more fun to come :)




Friday, April 8, 2016

Cold week but not letting it get us down


Mother nature can't seem to make up its mind this week ... its been so cold and windy and there is even snow in tomorrow's forcast !  We aren't letting it get us down though ... when we aren't spurting outside to avoid the rain and still get some exercise and time in nature we are bringing the nature inside with creativity that is Glory's trademark  :)


Tuesday co-op was a blast for the most part but Glory had a couple panic attacks and was having a lot of trouble with smells and we had to keep shifting rooms. She also had a meltdown when she found out it was too cold for everyone to go to the park afterwards.  When we got home she had a major meltdown full of screaming and she didn't know why.  She also couldn't eat her dinner because she kept gagging, or breakfast the following morning.  I think this cold weather and missing a weekend of getting her system regulated at 6 flags is def taking a toll on her. Its so hard for her when most of the activities in her day need to be indoor.













 A few minutes before Reiki

She was a mess in the afternoon ... feeling totally overwhelmed ... so after i shared a video i took of her screaming with our co-op and asking for help with her keeping regulated there we were very encouraged by one of our friends there who is a Reiki healer.  I have a hard time not being skeptical of things like this but Glory seems totally drawn to this type of thing ... and has already shown me she loves stone meditation.  So we gave Reiki a try ... and Glory gives it a total thumbs up.  We will be doing Reiki with Brenda on monday evenings from now on to try to keep her regulated through tuesday co-op.


during Reiki

It helped her so much that although i was considering not attending dance on tuesday night because i thought it would be too much overwhelm under the circumstances ... she felt up to going and did great, staying with the group and listening to her instructors instead of running around out of control as i had anticipated and as is typical for her after a meltdown. 
(Once i figure out how to get video on here from
 facebook i'll post a vid of her at dance...she did so great ! )

She even asked for some worksheets to do when we got home and was so focused on them she insisted on not only doing the work but coloring the pictures in. 





Getting some outdoor time !! even though we knew it was going to rain soon... and in Glory fashion after spending time outside she was finally able to eat without gagging ...
she ate a good amount of vegetarian beans and then a banana and some hash browns for lunch! 







 Glory made me 'trail stew'


We followed this beautiful trail and accidentally found an awesome campsite for our co-op !  we are looking into how much this site will cost and organizing a date.  Yay camping !  We were supposed to go camping with our co-op last weekend but it was just too cold.  Hoping to get out there soon!



 After seeing the camp site Glory was inspired to incorporate a campground for her dollhouse ... which led to many more improvements over the week ... so fun ...

 Making a homemade campground for her dollhouse ...


The campfire was totally her idea too .. its a battery operated tea light with stones and toothpicks hot glued to it

Dollhouse improvements !!  (a friend who knows how much glory loves them gave us a new one to fix up !)

 BEFORE: notice the old tattered floor/carpets






adding some color ...






New flooring 



looking great !

making a park !


so cute !



Glory said 'we have a boat !! lets make a lake!'

Couldn't wait to show daddy and play with him when he got home from work ... her paint job on the house looks so great !!  All this is really helping her with her imaginative play :) not to mention keeping her busy being cooped up inside in the cold weather






Glory's Words (in order of when spoken and constantly used)

Glory's Words (in order of when spoken and constantly used)

1. 'Dada' (3 months)
2. 'Mama' (4 months)
3. 'Kitty' (7 months)
4. 'Doggie' (8 months)
5. 'Baba' -bottle- (8 months)
6. 'uh oh' - when dropping something (or throwing something :)
7. 'No no no no' -when about to do something she knows she's not supposed to do- (9 months)
8. Hot (9 months)
9. 'This?' -what is this?- (10 months)
10. 'That' - i want that- (10 months)
11. 'mooooohh' - Elmo from sesame street (10 months)
12. 'Aeeyyy' - Abby from sesame street (11 months)
13. 'Ert' - Bert from sesame street (11 months)
14. 'Ernie' - from sesame street (1 year)
15. 'Weeee' - thanks to little people playground
16. 'Block' - building blocks
17. 'Fish' - because of a picture book
18. 'Tree' - because of a trip to the park
19. 'Cook' - (13 months)
20. 'Cup'
21. 'look kittie !'
22. 'Bath'
23. 'Kiss'
24. 'ook' - Book (she can't say the letter 'b')
25. 'Ducky' (15 months)
26. 'Coke' - when pointing to my can of soda
27. 'touch that?' - when pointing to the painting in the living room that we lift her up and let her touch.
28. 'No' (while shaking her head no) -when she doesn't want to do something or doesn't like something or is done eating or drinking
29. 'Woo Woo' (poop)
30. 'Yeah' (yes)
31. 'Clock'
32. 'I' (for 'I love you through and through' her favorite book)
33. 'Froggie' (16 months)
34. 'Wow!'
35. 'Giraffe'
36. 'Wash'
37. 'Yucky'
38. 'Horsey'
39. 'Eyes'
40. 'Rock'
41. 'Nice Kitty'
42. 'Mouse'
43. 'Hair'
44. 'Nose'
45. 'Mouth'
46. 'Cookie' 17 months
47. 'Monkey'
48. 'Elephant'
49. 'Kiss'
50. 'Alligator' (thanks to starfall)
51. 'Cheese'
52. 'Hi' (Hiiieeeey! LOL)
53. 'Nice' (gentle - after being told to 'be nice' ie don't hit)
54. 'Oh No!'
55. 'Splash!' (thanks to little people bath bar)
56. 'Dolphin' ("")
57. 'Pocoyo'
58. 'Bye Bye Dada'
59. 'No No No Bad Kitty!'
60. 'Arrrggh' (like a pirate - thanks to backyardigans)
61. 'Blues Clues'
62. 'My Paci!' (Pacifier)
63. 'Cool!'
64. ' A Clue ! A Clue!' (from blues clues -when she saw a blue paw print on the tag for her unicorn)
65.'Good dog woof!' (after Ubu sit at the end of family ties lol)
66. First song with actual words 'Blues cluuuuuues Blues clues'
67. 'Ooooo wow cool!!!' 18 months
68. 'Color?' (when she wants her crayons)
69. 'Chair'
70. 'Turtle' (blues turtle Torqoise)
71. 'A' (the letter)
72. 'Cheek' (learning names of body parts)
73. 'Doll'
74. 'B' (the letter)
75. 'Ball'
76. 'C' (the letter)
77. 'D' (the letter)
78. 'E' (the letter)
79. 'Juice'
80. 'Ooooooh wow!! Look!!!! Look !!!' (while pointing wildly at something she likes)
81. 'five?' (as in gimme five) :)
82. 'wazzzat?' ('what's that?')
83. 'Here ya go' (when handing us something)
84. 'Ostrich' ! (wow! thank you little people a-z zoo)
85. 'what's this?'
86. 'Oscar the grouch' (double wow! playing with her Oscar the grouch doll and she said 'what's this?' lol so i told her and now she knows !)
87. 'Big Horsey'
88. 'Dinasaur!'
89. 'Bye Bye See ya later' (19 months)
90. A reAffirmed Passion for saying the word 'No!' to just about everything.
91. The whole Alphabet !! (i'm not going to list each letter individually lol including their sounds!)
92. 'Blue'
93. 'Stop!'
94. 'Go!'
95. 'Igloo' (thanks to Starfall.com)
96. 'Car'
97. 'Shoes'
98. 'Apple!' (Finally! lol)
99. 'Yes!'
100. 'Thank You.' :) my favorite so far
101. 'Up'
102. 'Down'
103. 'On'
104. 'Off'
105. 'Nasty!' lol
106. 'Yucky'
107. 'Pig'
108. 'Cow'
109. 'Popcorn'
110. 'Girl'
111. 'Yellow'
112. 'Red'
113. 'Pink'
114. 'Green'
115 'Purple'
116. 'Black'
117. 'White'
stopped counting :)