The Luck of The Chirish...

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!!

I know...I'm a day early. But really, I could celebrate the Irish every day of the year. And now that I have Chinese/Irish... we call them Chirish...children, it's a double celebration!!!

We had a great morning! Friday mornings are Gavin's special needs "Superstars" class at the YMCA. They allow siblings, which makes it so much more fun. And the room is FILLED with all kinds of great equipment.

I was psyched that I got Brian to hang from the parallel bars - and he was even hanging by his knees at the end!

And Gavin loved the net swing...as usual. And yes, I'm still determined to mount one of those in our house somewhere!!

Brian had a few behavioral issues during the hour. If he was on the trampoline...or in the ball pit...or playing with a toy...he thought it was his and only his. If another child (including his brother!) came over or, God forbid, touched it - he dissolved into tears. At one point I had to take him out of the room completely for a little chat in the hallway. I think it's typical toddler behavior. I'm an amateur child psychologist, you see.

Gavin got quite a workout in his class...but he still "brought it" this afternoon for his physical therapy session with Miss Wendy. As usual, she was so impressed with him!

Tomorrow morning, we will all be headed to an open house at Camphill Special School. We're so excited as this could be a potentially great school for Gavin. They will have crafts and horseback riding at the open house and it will be Brian's first time on a horse. I think I might be more excited about THAT than anything!! I better go clear my camera card. And I guess you better prepare yourself for the deluge of photos tomorrow!!

Chores!...

I decided that the boys should start doing some simple chores. Little things like "Feed Fishie" or "Practice in your walker" or "Give Mommy a massage". Oh wait, that last one is from Ed's chore chart.

Well anyway, I couldn't find any charts online that I liked. Some of them seemed too "old" for the boys. And most were just for one child - not shared by two. So I made my own with poster board, post it letters, scrapbooking stick on bling for the icons, card stock and velcro dots. Oh and a black sharpie to make my pretty uneven squares. What can I say - I'm a chore chart rookie.

I thought Gavin and Brian could each have an "icon" that would represent them on the chart. I chose a smiley face for Gavin - no brainer.

And I chose a cupcake for Brian - pretty obvious as that's one of his favorite things.

I didn't want to make "permanent" chores - so with velcro and some card stock I created chore cards that could easily be switched with new cards down the road. Each day as the boys accomplish their tasks, they place an icon in the square for that day. And I stuck the icons (that come with a sticker on the back already) onto hard cardboard to make it easy for little hands (or big, arthritic hands like mine!) to pull them off the velcro.

Brian gets excited to do his chores because he loves getting to put his little cupcake in the square. And to be honest, Gavin's chores are really our's. It is sometimes easy to forget to work with him each day on the many things we need to do for him. This chart is a daily reminder to make time for putting him in his walker...having him try some solids at a meal...and doing an activity at the table. Today he worked on the iPad...

The chore chart isn't Pinterest Perfect, but I'm pretty proud of how it turned out! It's just how I wanted it for our purposes. Now...I just need to find the perfect place to keep it!

This morning we had a blast. Brian was off from school for President's Day so Miss Sara and I took the boys to the YMCA for Gavin's "Superstars" class! It's held on Mondays and Fridays in a special room that is FILLED with all types of special needs equipment. There's also other things like trampolines, padded gymnastic mats, a ball pit, a jump house, a balance beam and a few slides. They have several people supervising and at least one was a Physical Therapist that is there to help you with anything. We mostly did our own thing and had SO much fun. These are less than HALF of the photos I took. Don't underestimate the difficulty of bouncing on a trampoline and photographing your child at the same time!

Brian's favorite thing was the ball pit - he could have played in there all day!!

And Gavin's favorite activity was the swing. He was so happy and content!

I'm seriously going to look into the possibility of getting one for our house. I'm sure it's unlikely...but it can't hurt to look, right? I mean check out this video and you tell me if you wouldn't feel the same way!!!

Brian loved the swing, too, as you can see...

Gavin even sat up and held onto a swinging 'pony' and tried out a different type of gait trainer while we were there.

And Brian got out a LOT of energy. It really was so much fun.