TRICK OR TREAT!!!!!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!

Love, Dorothy and the Lion

A Snack.

I used to do this with Caroline all of the time. It was how she ate her snacks when she was a toddler. She would pick her snack and I would put it in a small bowl for her and she would take her bowl and go about doing what she wanted. She would take her snack and watch TV, play with her toys or whatever. Caroline rarely ate her snacks in her highchair. Honestly, Caroline only sat in a highchair for a short time. We put her in a booster seat at the table very early on.

I have never done this with Will; give him a snack and send him on his way. Today was the first time he was given a bowl with his snack and he could do whatever he wanted with it. Granted, I watched him like a hawk to see what he was doing with it. But I let him do his thing.

He picked his snack, Fruit Loops. I put some Loops into a bowl and sent him on his way. I checked on him minutes later and he had taken his bowl into the playroom and dumped them on the table. He may have dumped them on the table but he stood there and ate his Fruit Loops!

I can remember the first few times that I gave Caroline Goldfish, she would dump them on the floor and then eat them. It only took her a few snacks to realize that it was better for them to stay in the bowl! I am sure that Will is going to catch on real soon!

It was a small milestone today for Will but one that we were both very proud of!

How about a game?

Where is Will? Have you seen him?









Peek-A-Boo!!!

Halloween Party

Each year Josh's aunt and uncle (Eunice and Don) have a Halloween party for the kids. It is such a great time for both the kids and adults! We look forward to it each year. This year was no exception, the party was fantastic. There was chili, potato soup (which was awesome), hot dogs and lots and lots of fun treats. Aunt Eunice had games like the Frankenstein walk race, Eye balls on a spoon race, the kids had to search for hidden bones and of course the annual parade (the kids parade around the yard so that everyone can see their costume)!

There will be no pictures of Caroline and Will in their costumes, I am keeping that for Saturday!! I know, sneaky!!

Some of the kids.

Will spent most of the party playing on the swing set. He was able to climb up the slide and go down all by himself.

Ruthie was Lady from Lady and the Tramp.

Jan with Barrett the Lion, GOARRR!

Andrea and James. This is the only picture that I have of James that he didn't stick out his tongue!

More pictures of Lilo and The Stitch to come later in the week!!

LET'S GO BLUES!!

Josh took Caroline to her first hockey game on Friday. Josh said that they had a great time and Caroline was pretty excited about the game. When she got home she told me that hockey is the only game where it is okay to wrestle! Wrestling, punching...same difference!! Here are my two before they left for the game, with there matching hats!

Woof

This week was Fire Safety week at Will's school. They had a fire truck visit the school and the kids got to look around in it. Will's teacher said that he kept trying to shut the doors on the truck, typical Will! Today he came home with his little hat in his backpack. It is some sort of fire dog hat. It is a fire hat with Dalmatian ears...I don't know but he looks precious wearing it!!

In other news, I got a call from the school nurse today. Will's mic-key button had come out at school. I had an extra button in his backpack just for this purpose so the nurse was able to put a new one in right away. I was afraid of this happening at the beginning of the school year, but now I know that everything will be just fine.

Eating

Eating is what Will has been doing a lot of these days!! Since the weekend, Will has been trying different foods and enjoying them. This is Will eating his fruit loops (his new found favorite thing) and notice the bib...clean!!

And a few minutes later....

Feeding Update...exciting news!!

Over the weekend Will had an eating breakthrough! Meaning....he ate!! He has been showing signs of turning the corner in his eating habits. He has been eating pretzels and cheetos when he requests them from his board and we hand them to him. He seems to eat, without spitting when he is up walking around, not in his highchair.

On Saturday after church we went to Imo's (a local, StL sytle pizza) for dinner. The pizza has very thin, crispy crust and I cut it into very small pieces. William ate an entire piece of pizza (the slices of pizza are cut into small squares). He took his time and enjoyed each piece and didn't spit anything out.

Josh and I kept asking him to show us (making him say AWWWW so that we could see into his mouth) because we thought for sure he was storing it away in his cheeks. But no! He was swallowing!!

On Sunday he ate dried cranberries, chicken, apples and blueberries baby food, a three musketeers fun sized candy bar and fruit loops. I am so excited for Will! I hope that this is the beginning of the end....for the tube feeds!!!

Hat Day

It was Hat Day at Caroline's school today! Student Council was raising money for children how had lost their hair due to cancer or other illness. The money raised would go to buy hats for these children. The students made a donation then got to wear their hat at school for the day. I thought it was a fantastic fundraiser!

Caroline before school, with her hat on!

The Adventures of Old Cow and New Cow

There hasn't been too many adventures of the Cows in a long while. Will has refrained from putting them in the toilet or the dog bowl in ages. Mr. Cow has not seen water (except the washing machine) since we lived in the hotel! It's a record!!

But they did manage an adventure yesterday...

Will thought that they needed a time out in the dog cage!

We have a Girl Scout!

On Monday evening Caroline was officially inducted into the Girl Scouts. She is in a Daisy troop, for kindergartners and first graders. At the meeting they had to recite the Girl Scout Pledge, were given a smock and a certificate. She was so proud and can't wait for the upcoming events!

Oh...cookie sales starts in January!!

Chili Day

Every year my grandma Forcum has an annual Chili Day. She makes awesome chili. Family and friends go to her house for a bonfire, hot dogs, marshmallows, chili and chatting!

She had a great turnout this year. There were lots of people there and the weather was perfect!

It was hard to take pictures because Josh and I were both trying to run after William. But I managed a few...


Mikkah and his brownie (that he dropped on the ground AT LEAST 5 times!)


Caroline with her Grandpa Chris (my dad). She was chatting him up while he roasted her a hot dog!

Caroline with Aunt LeLe (my sister).

Josh and The Stitch!

Grandma!! No pictures of you! How did I manage to do that??

Just Something I made

I have a friend that just had a baby and I wanted to make the baby a little something. I came up with this...

Binky holders!

She had a baby boy, so I made one with brown and blue polka dot ribbon and one with Halloween spider ribbon. I also used snaps and suspender clips.

All I did was cut my ribbon and melt the ends with a lighter (to prevent fraying). I put snaps on each end (one to attach to the binky and one to attach to the suspender clip). And that was it!

I hope that my friend isn't reading this!!

What has Will been up too?

Communicating!! That is what!!! This is Will's communication station...

His teacher and speech therapist came to the house last week to teach me how to use his PECS boards. We have been doing this at home since last Thursday and let me tell you that it is empowering!

We put the board on a wall in the kitchen for now because Will is just learning. But in the future he can take the board/book with him when he goes places. The idea is that when Will wants something he goes to the board, takes the picture of what he wants and brings it to me. I then give him what is on the picture. His pictures are: Cow, cup, pretzels and various toys. It is amazing. I cried when his teachers were showing me how it worked because I was so proud of Will and also amazed at how well he did. They came in and put the board on the floor and he went straight to it and got the pretzel picture and took it to his teacher! Give the boy a PRETZEL!!!

He has been requesting pretzels ALOT!! I break them into little pieces and hand them to him and he eats them...EATS them!! No spitting! Did you hear that?? Angels signing Hallelujah! It is amazing!! I think that we need to add more foods to the board so that he can broaden his food choices.

He also likes to sing If Your Happy and You Know It. Which we sing ALL. DAY. LONG. But he requests it so we sing it!

I am working on taking more pictures for his board so that he can communicate more! I am so proud of Will and I am so excited about our future communication possibilities!

We Did It!!

Will's new favorite show is Dora the Explorer. When the song at the end of the show comes on he will come running to the tv to dance. In the video he is dancing then waving bye-bye to Dora and Boots. When he bends forward he is trying to jump (Dora and Boots jump on the show).

I'm Back!!!

That's right!! I got my computer back!! I can not tell you how excited I am to have my laptop, it has nothing on it, boo :-( but at least it is mine!!

I also got a new camera! I got a point and shoot for blogging and everyday snapshots that I am very excited about! It can also take video so I am excited to put some video on the blog.

So my blogging mojo is coming back folks!! Look out!

In the meantime...I will leave you with Prince William!

Because that is what you really want, right??