It's been a big week, it seems. I'm not sure that anything too out of the ordinary happened, but it filled up and we stayed busy enough.
At the beginning of the school year we discovered that miss L has a condition called Sensory Processing Disorder (SPD). Basically, SPD is a neurological condition that causes those affected to process their world differently than the rest of us. We all need input from our senses to understand our world and people with SPD either get way too much input or (in miss L's case) don't get enough input. This causes miss L to seek out that input in whatever way she can. The most obvious evidence (to others) is the fact that miss L is nearly constantly in motion. Because her body doesn't process where she is in space very well she requires a lot of sensory input to feel normal. There is no cure for SPD and it's likely something that miss L will have as a challenge in her life forever. The good news is that she ought to be able to learn to cope with her particular issues and so right now we are working with an Occupational Therapist (OT) and working intensively at home to help miss L become more sensitive and to help her cope with this challenge and to help her learn to calm her body. Part of miss L's OT process is daily sensory work. This time of year is particularly easy to squeeze our sensory work into since miss L benefits greatly from outdoor play, especially at the playground and at the pool.
Monday we went to the pool as a family. It's fantastic that something that is so beneficial for miss L is so fun for the rest of us. She's been taking lessons for awhile, but we haven't gone all together until now and I think that we'll be making it a priority in the future. Besides, my growing body LOVES that weightless in the water feeling. Mister W was unsure of the entire situation at first. He put his bottom lip out and cried a bit when he first hit the water, but by the time we left he was wanting to be on his own, as in walk away from either Brad or I while he was in the shallow kids pool. This is sort of essentially mister W. The boy is really quite persistent when he decides what he wants to do whether or not he is ready to do so. He also currently wants all of his food whole even though there are times when he simply can't eat it unless it's cut for him. All of that persistence will pay off one day though, right? :o)
This week was the week of Big Truck Days in a nearby city. We attended last year and had a great time and I knew that this year would be even better since mister W LOVES anything with wheels. We met daddy there after he was done with work and explored the big trucks!
We stopped for a photo by the entrance.
...and found our first big truck.
Miss L is driving in this photo, of course, but you can't see her over the steering wheel. :o)
Not the focus I wanted, but I love this photo!
Mister W enjoyed getting up close and personal.
They had a big pipe set up for kids to crawl around and in. I think that is really where mister W spent most of his time.
We sat in the scoop part of a front end loader. Things like this are always so much bigger up close than when you are driving past.
Miss L enjoyed "driving" the bobcat.
Photographic evidence of mister W having his own ideas about things. They had water and lemonade for participants to drink. Mister W wanted his own cup, he would not take anything from a cup held by one of us and so I think more of his water ended up on his belly than in his mouth, but that was fine with him.
They also had cookies. :o)
...and after a short break it was back to driving the trucks.
Miss L really enjoyed it!
She got to hang off of the back like a real trash man!
For Mother's Day weekend we spent Saturday at the garden center (which seems to be how we spend most Saturdays lately). We got some rocks to create a border for the remaining bed in the backyard and we got a couple of geraniums and caladiums to accent the irises in that bed. We spent the day together as a family and we spent nearly all day outdoors. What a wonderful day!
On Sunday we woke up and went to brunch at my favorite restaurant. Then that afternoon a friend and I went to a local park to take photos of the waterfalls there. It was really the perfect weekend. I had time to spend with my family and time to do something just for myself with adult conversation included! We even went out for smoothies afterwards. It was my favorite mother's day so far!
Here are a couple of the photos I got:
I even saw a lizard. :o)
Today the kids and I decided that we should have a picnic this evening for dinner. We went to the store and bought things for a cookout.
We found that mister W loves watermelon.
...and everyone likes eating outside.
Miss L is having a goofy smile kind of night, I guess. Every time I said, "Can you smile for me?" this is what I got.
We cooked s'mores after our hamburgers were eaten. It was mister W's first.
Who gives marshmallows and chocolate to a 15 month old? Us, apparently. He was sticky!
He was not only sticky, but wanted his mommy, so of course I got sticky too.
...and dinner was over and we enjoyed a little bit of the evening before it was time for baths and bedtime.
Have a great week! We'll see you soon!
No comments:
Post a Comment