Hold up!

Okay, one more time.

Please excuse the Matchbox car lot. A boy lives here.

The excited calls from teachers keep coming. I love when the phone rings a few minutes after noon. Because that is the time right after Mya gets on the bus and about when they call to tell me the great things she did that day. Yesterday it was her occupational therapist and she was just excited to share how well she was doing with her switches. She was using both hands with purpose on a variety of different devices. Then they moved the toggle switch to her upper arm because she kept raising her whole arm to say 'goodbye' and then when they removed it she raised her arm higher and higher trying to find it again. Apparently she was not done. She is doing such great things.

We have a few new switches at home now. A few weeks ago we picked up a toggle on a long arm at the school district loaner library that is like she uses a school. We have that attached to her brown chair to use with some switch toys and are working on ways to use that more for communication in addition to play. Yesterday they sent home a bigger recordable button 'Big Mac' and a 3 level recordable switch and so we are going to work on finding a consistent communication routine for her at home. We are pre-recording phrases like 'good morning', 'goodnight' and 'I am home' so that she can have a voice in her day. She really lights up when she activates these buttons.

My new favorite maniac naptime activity is listening to the radio in 60 second intervals with Mya in control. Sometimes we get most of a song and sometimes we have to wait it out but she is getting more consistent all the time. Keep up the great work Mya!

Really Crayola?

If you have to put numerous warnings on the outside of the bubbles, is it really such a great product to market to kids? Why not just bottle up some mud and a grass stain and throw in some dish soap.  'Do not use at weddings', 'Wear play clothes', 'Keep off of white patios'...okay I added that last one...but really? And I knew all of this, which is why the stupid bottles have sat in my organization junk basket crossing over two Easters. But they saw them yesterday and I thought, well how much dye can really be in these things, we will just do it outside in the grass. And I will try it first. But then I tried it downwind and the very first thing I had to do was rinse a very purple stain out of a very white shirt. So then we all actually had to change into play clothes, like the bottle advised. I was warned. And I tried really hard to match the play clothes to the bottle color, but then I thought, how bad can yellow stain a blue shirt and made my next mistake. So we went back outside and I was all 'whatever, go at it'. But then I had Mya in the house watching out the storm door because yesterday she got a mosquito bite on her eyelid and I am still feeling a little guilty over that one, plus she was already eating and in her tomato seat and the single step to the front porch looked like a mountain to me. Breathe. Anyway, she watched in the mosquito-free zone. Also the dye-free zone as she is the only one who made it out unscathed, but I digress. So I am turning around to check on her for 'the look' because she is a vomit machine these days and when I turn back around I see that Clayton is not paying attention to the bottle of yellow in his hand that is now pouring onto the patio. Great, I think, I will go in and get a pitcher of water to rinse that off the patio. Stay in the yard people! But when I get back outside Ella IS paying attention and is trying to pour the pink 'into' Clayton's now empty yellow, which is really like pouring it directly onto the retaining wall, and rubbing it in with her hands. It was really a win on the sensory experience for the day. Sharing too, I guess. And the pitcher is not nearly enough for the yellow so I have to make about 7 more trips into the house for that and then tackle the pink but now I am laughing so all is not lost. And I don't remember who gave them the color bubbles, but thanks. A lot. Really. They are in the trash now.