Home Made Sinus Remedies

Even before Jack's stomach flu began, he's been having increased secretions and difficulty breathing at night due to that ever changing barometric pressure. Our family doc suggested Breathe Right Strips. I told him that I figured the concept would work but reminded him that Jack (who was not present) had an unusual nose and the Breathe Right Strips just didn't do their thing on him. "No problem," he said. He put his fingers on my face and showed the effect I was trying to create and said, "Just use band-aids." David laughed at me when I did this but it worked!

My bloggy friend Sheila also sent me these great tips from her Wellness Blog. I'm going to try these too (on me and Jack).

Click for more Wordless Wednesday, Wordful Wednesday, and Special Exposure Wednesday posts.

Don't forget to check out this week's Life is Therapy where we take a break for snuggling and last week's Life is Therapy where I tell you why boring is good.

Not All "Art Projects" Work Out

So our post this week, isn't your usual kind of craft but hey it's crafty! *Sorry for the blurriness of the photos. My camera phone is having issues or my hand is wobbly--not sure which.

We had a special event to attend yesterday evening so I decided to "sculpt" Jack's hair with mousse and hair spray.

He knew he looked good.

That evening when it was bath time, I discovered something.

Short hair with hair product goes nuts when it gets wet! We decided to have a little fun with all that messy hair product hair. We had it sticking up in various places then I had a brilliant idea!

A Faux Hawk!

 

Or not....

Well, we tried...maybe more hair product next time?

To see other's Magic Marker Monday posts and to link up yourself, click here.

Don't forget to check out the latest Life is Therapy and come back tomorrow to leave a comment or link up with your Life is Therapy moments.

6 Things I Learned at the Parade and Zoolights Safari

1. Sitting and watching the Christmas parade is lame.

Jack wanted to walk along with all the people in the parade.

2.  It's really hard to capture the magic of Christmas lights displays on camera.

It really did look like this hippo was trying to chomp off Noah's head. I promise.

3. Noah really did convert.

4. My little brother is an animal tamer (and sea life exists alongside zebras).

5. Dad still has his tickle monster skillz.

6. We're a pretty good looking Alabama family.

Don't forget to check out this week's installment of Life is Therapy.

Life is Therapy--Videos

New to the Life is Therapy series? Here's a quick blurb to tell you what it's about:

Sometimes we parents can get bogged down in the notion that the teaching of our children must be done by professionals. Parents of children with special needs are particularly vulnerable to this idea since children with special needs often have to learn and develop quite differently than children with typical needs. This series centers around the idea that learning can and does occur most effectively through everyday life experiences at home and out in the community--for children with both typical and special needs.

This week, let's talk about videos. Last week, Mommytoalot shared a video of her son Joey dancing to a video on YouTube. Back in October, Rachel posted a couple of cute videos of Ali and AJ playing together. Go check those out if you have not already. It's fun. Most kids like to watch and/or listen to videos of themselves. They find themselves fascinating. Jack is no exception. He loves to see himself playing and having fun. Some of his favorites right now include swinging at the park, banging on pots, saying "Happy Birthday", and splashing in the tub.

Making and watching videos of your child playing can be therapeutic in so many different ways. Watching videos over a span of time can show you how your child has grown physically and developmentally. Sometimes watching videos of your new talker can help you to recognize some of the words that he or she has been trying to say. Watching a video of your child can put into context some of the silly things that you've wondered about.

If you are in the video with your child, you can use the video as a check up on your interaction skills. Do you wait long enough to give your child a chance to do things on his/her own or do you take over play? Are you directive or playful? Do you respond to his/her attempts at interaction? Do you say and do things that are possible for him/her? Are you having fun?

An unexpected benefit that we have discovered from watching videos together is that Jack uses the videos to refine his speech and other skills. When we watch these short clips of our interactions, Jack will often take over my "speaking role" in the video. He'll imitate me giving directions or laughing or whatever. He also repeats himself but often more clearly than he says the words in the original video. He watches himself playing intently as if he is studying himself like a golfer trying to perfect his swing.

Give it a try. Grab your camera or camera phone and make some videos. Watch them together and have fun!

Recent Life is Therapy Posts:

Relfecting on Where You've Been
What's in Your Child's World
Setting Goals
For more Life is Therapy Posts, check out the left side bar.

Now it's your turn to participate. This is where we share our ideas and stories with one another. We're all in this together. Let's laugh together, motivate one another, and stimulate each others ideas. If you have a blog, create your own "life is therapy" post and link to the specific post in the Mr. Linky below. If you don't have a blog just leave a comment with your life is therapy story.

Wordless/Full and Special Exposure Wednesday--Family Thanksgiving

Every Thanksgiving, we get together with as many of David's five brothers and sisters as possible. The celebration size waxes and wanes depending on how many of the nieces and nephews are able to make it too. It's always a large gathering and as you can see, everybody breaks out the cameras and the hugs.

We always take over David's youngest brother Rob's house. He has a great floor plan to squeeze in lots of people. I love our family and I love seeing them all together. It's a good thing because there are people everywhere!

This year, Jeanie and Grandma sported matching casts.

It was thrilling to see Jack right in the thick of everything this year. He did not stand to the side and watch. He jumped right in with all the other kids.

There was tooty tot singing and dancing.......

and we all piled on the trampoline. I'm pretty sure we had to have reached maximum capacity and we did not even have all the kids on there.

Jeanie couldn't jump on the trampoline but she was a great sport and took her baby cousin for a ride.

So many cute little girls in one family!!! (and those are just the ones that made it to Thanksgiving)

There was little time for contemplative reflection

but lots of time for silly happiness

and playing

and sisterly love.

I think Jack's face pretty well sums it up!

Click for more Wordless Wednesday, Wordful Wednesday, and Special Exposure Wednesday posts.

Don't forget to check out this week's installment of Life is Therapy.

Tired Boy

Tired maybe?

Life is Therapy

I am starting my first ever blog series. I hope that it will be informative, encouraging, helpful, and fun.

Sometimes we parents can get bogged down in the notion that the teaching of our children must be done by professionals. Parents of children with special needs are particularly vulnerable to this idea since children with special needs often have to learn and develop quite differently than children with typical needs. This series centers around the idea that learning can and does occur most effectively through everyday life experiences at home and out in the community--for children with both typical and special needs.

The other piece to this puzzle is that just about everything can be therapy of one kind or another. Jumping in a pile of leaves? Sensory therapy (crunch of the leaves, feeling of fall after the jump), emotional therapy (joyful exuberance), play therapy (work out some pent up energy), social therapy (turn-taking as you wait for your chance to jump in the pile), physical therapy (gross motor skills required in jumping), vision therapy (identifying the pile), kinesthetic therapy (using combined senses to know when to jump), speech therapy (talking about the leaves, saying boom or crunch), and occupational therapy (picking up leaves). Get the picture?

Here's some more examples. Back in this post, I joked that Jack was getting blue speech therapy by sucking an icee through a straw. Well, it actually is speech therapy. Sucking through a straw works the muscles required for speech and sucking up an icee requires the recruitment of more muscles than say water. This post was an example of how swinging can be used for speech therapy. Of course, swinging is also sensory therapy. Riding a tricycle is physical therapy. Every bite of every meal or snack can be vision therapy and fine motor therapy and sensory therapy as the child finds, touches, and tastes their food. Get the picture?

This series is not just for children with special needs either. Parents of children with typical needs don't really call it therapy when their children practice their skills such as potty training but it's basically all therapy. We're all trying to help our children to develop skills to help them have the best lives they possibly can.

This is where we share our ideas and stories with one another. We're all in this together. Let's laugh together, motivate one another, and stimulate each others ideas. If you have a blog, create your own "life is therapy" post and link to the specific post in the Mr. Linky below. If you don't have a blog just leave a comment with your life is therapy story.

After that long-winded introduction, here is therapy at breakfast starring Jack!


***More Life is Therapy:
Prepositions at the Park
Rainy Days

Fall Festival

If you follow my twitter feed, you know we went to a fall festival a few weeks back. We had a good time just being out in the fresh air. Although, we made a critical error when we chose our first ride. We all rode the tilt a whirl first. Here's Jack watching it go round and round.
We were actually a little dizzy so we took a break to get something to eat and drink. That took a whole lot longer than we thought it would.
Jack got to drive a couple of older boys around for a bit. Then he drove a boat. I thought he liked the boat. David wasn't so sure. You decide!

Babies Love Watching Other Babies

Here's Jack watching the "Laughing Baby" video from Youtube. Click on the little laughing baby pic at the top and you can watch it too.