hide-n-(sensory)-seeking

A brief post about how well Kitty Bitty is doing.  Since Winston the Servicedoodle joined our family, we have seen some miraculous changes from our sweet girl! The biggest have happened in the last three weeks. One, she is now sleeping on the bottom bunk!! Not in our room!! I cannot even begin to explain how huge this is. Number two has to do with number two, and number one, as in she is out of diapers during the day!!! It took us until four and three-quarters, but hip hip hooray! She is a potty master! Mostly, she still has the occasional accident. I don't care, I'm so proud of her!! She is learning to use Winston for many things, and her desire to socially interact has exploded! She regularly talks to and plays with the other kids at the Kingdom Hall before and after our weekly bible meetings. When we have had company over, or been to events or other's homes, she engages so much sooner and her conversations are so much more natural, instead of short, gru...

I know, I know...It's about time!! Well, here you go. A very picture heavy, explanation light catch-up post. Our handsome boy at five months old! He's a year now, can't believe it! Kit loves her matching necklace! Helping Kitty Bitty through a thunderstorm. He whizzed through Puppy Two class at only 7 months old! Story time and snuggles. Just dozing at IHOP. Snuggling on Mama's feet watching Kit jump at a bouncy house park. Winston's "You gonna give me french fries?" face. The blue strap across his nose is something many people ask about. It is called a "Gentle Lead". It is exactly like the bridle on a horse's face, but without any kind of mouth bit. The lead goes around his muzzle and be hind his ears where it clips securely, but he can still eat, drink, yawn, and bark if necessary. The leash clips on u...

So this was an awesome Pinterest find that I was able to put together in less than 15 minutes! I happened to have all the supplies already which made it all the more awesome! Supplies: 1 Clear storage container (the lid for mine was white, so I simply turned the container upside down.) 1 string of twinkle lights (I used white, but different colors would create cool different effects) A strip of wax paper the length of the container (this makes the surface opaque, which diffuses the light more evenly) White duct tape ( any color would do, I just like the cleaner look of the white.) Use small strips of tape to secure the twinkle lights evenly arranged on the bottom of the container, or in my case to the lid, since that was going to be the bottom of our light box. Leave the length of wire with the plug loose and make sure you have arranged the lights so as to have the plug where you will have ease of access to an outlet. Secure the lid onto the cont...

I have multiple things I'm working on and attempting to get out of my head and into posts, but this is slow going and often interrupted. I am deep in the midst of Burnout. Have been, to a greater or lesser degree, for the last two years in fact, but this time feels worse than the others. It's much slower digging out, and the hole feels much deeper this time, but I'm slogging away at it nevertheless. One of the things I have been wanting to do is to re-post some of my older posts. I know not everyone has the time, energy, or desire to read through two years of archive posts. So I will, over the next few weeks, re-share some of my favorites. Reading back over these, it's amazing both how close and far away these days feel. We've made much progress in so many areas. Others were better back then, but prove challenging right now. Anyhow, I hope you enjoy reminiscing with me. The following piece was originally posted September 30, 2013, while we were still primari...

Last year Zak got some water beads in one of his science kits. And he played with them several times. Eventually, they got lost, swept up, left outside, etc. At the store the other day, I happened to notice several boxes of them on a shelf in the toy area. We bought two boxes, each containing three different colors, and totaling 1000 beads. The color sets we chose were: Pink, purple, clear and Red, yellow, green On Wednesday evening,  while Daddy and the big kids went to the fair, Kit and I soaked some water beads. She wanted "Pink!" Each color comes sealed in a small plastic bag of 150 beads. In the box there were three packets of purple, two of clear, and two pinks. We let the water run in the sink until it got warm, because I was guessing they might grow faster in warm water and patience is not Kit's most shining attribute. I filled a plastic container with about an inch of warm water. Snipped of the top of the bag with s...

Hair issues.  Seldom in the life of a girl are the firework fantastic hair days. But for a girl with sensory issues, those days are especially celebration worthy! The last year has had many hair raising moments, but I'm so excited that as time has gone on and we have worked with Kit on sensory diet activities and sensory integration therapy, her number of good hair days has increased substantially. Here is a photo overview of some of the ups and downs of a year of hair and Sensory Processing Disorder. Her typical 'do', wispy and a bit wild! This was the first time she wore and left in pig tails all the way through an outing! It was a very momentous event. Back to wispy and wild. This was a few weeks after we started doing reflex protocols and sensory integration work with Kit. She actually requested ''two pony tails" and picked out the colors she wanted and left them in all morning! Getting longer!  Another landmark day! T...