Earning it

I think I found the cutest toys ever!  I just bought several of these wooden animals for $3.50 a piece on Mama Bargains a few days ago.  They arrived today and they are so adorable!  Now I want to own all of them for the kids (especially Cooper because he LOVES animals)! 

Have you seen this fun website?  It creates Polaroid like photos from your digital photos.  Once you download it then you just drag and drop a picture.  You can even shake your mouse to help your photo develop faster.  Cute!

Charlotte had her speech therapy today.  It was a little more structured since she is comfortable with the therapist now.  We really tried to get her to work on ‘muh’, ‘puh’, and ‘buh’.  We are also working on getting her to verbalize the consonant-vowel sound when she signs for something.  So instead of just accepting the sign for more when she wants more of something, we also ask her to say ‘muh’.  We don’t withhold anything until she does it, but we do ask for it and give her a chance to say it.  If she does we give her lots of praise and if she doesn’t, we just say the sound when we give her what she needs.

We are also working on lip closure, which is basically what it sounds like—getting her to close her lips when she makes certain sounds or does certain actions.  We ask for closed mouth kisses and we practice lip closure using a recorder/flute.  The therapist also noted that Charlotte seems to redirect herself when something is too hard, or when she can’t or doesn’t want to do something.  So if she doesn’t want to say ‘muh’, she will usually kiss or hug us, or start a new activity.  Sometimes she will put her hands on her head and sigh in frustration.  Now that the therapist pointed it out, it’s painful to watch her struggle so much with her words.  The therapist said to keep trying to redirect her to the activity we want her to participate in and then give her lots of praise when she does what we ask. Part of me just wants to give her what I know she needs/wants without making her put the effort in, but I know it’s best if we keep being consistent. 

I left after about 15 minutes so that Charlotte could have one on one attention without Cooper being in the way.  Cooper and I went to Ikea to look for a play kitchen (their big Christmas gift from us).  That is a really great store to let toddlers run and play in the kid section.  He loved all the beds, drawers, chairs, toys, and kid-sized everything.  We found the toy kitchen and Cooper LOVED it.  Although he was really frustrated that the water wasn’t coming out of the faucet when he turned it on.  Apparently he doesn’t use his imagination quite yet.

We really want a wooden kitchen instead of plastic because we think it looks better, but there aren’t very many on the market.  The one at Ikea was super cute, but I’m not sure it’s wide enough for both of them to play with.  The one at Target is the same size—too small.  I guess it will be a real test of learning to share.  I’m thinking about ordering this one on Amazon because it also comes with a fridge and you can’t beat free shipping! 

Oh and I found my first gray hair today.  I kind of like it actually.  I think I’ve earned it.  Of course I wouldn’t mind if I didn’t get any more for awhile.

Okay off to start preparing for Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow!  Yum, can’t wait!