Weekly Therapy Update & More

Because of storm Sandy, I did not have internet access for a few days.  That also means I missed the last day of the 31 for 21 campaign!  So I will be using this post to conclude the campaign.  I want to thank everyone who followed along and sent me emails about the posts.  I also know that a lot of you were unable to leave comments directly on the blog.  Sometimes Blogger has trouble with comments.  I ever know why or how long it will last but I appreciate the efforts of everyone to contact me in some way. 

We didn't go out trick-or-treating on Halloween because it was damp and very cold outside.  So we had celebrated Halloween inside.  Everyone got dressed up in their costumes.

Isabella was Princess Jasmine.

Lily was a pink poodle.

Raymond was Elmo!

 

 

This is actually a picture of Sophie...we dressed her up as Sadie.  Pretty good costume isn't it?!?  ; )

 

Everyone grabbed a bucket and went trick-or-treating inside.  We set up trick-or-treat stations all around the house.  The kids would knock on the bedroom doors (etc.) and say trick-or-treat!

 

 

Lily was a VERY cute poodle.  Thanks to Grammy for making her such a perfect costume!!!

 

Lily thinks we should do that every night!  She loved eating her treats!

 

Raymond slowly decided that his Elmo costume was annoying.

 

 

The entire thing finally came off.

 

But before it did...

 

I was trying to snap a picture of Raymond in his costume and got this one.  I think this picture is hysterical.  Seriously, I laughed so hard at it after I took it I was crying.  It looks like zombie Elmo has his arms wrapped around Raymond's neck and is trying to eat his head.  Maybe I just have a sick sense of humor?  Maybe I wouldn't have even looked twice if it wasn't Halloween?  In any case, I still think it's a very funny picture!

 

After the trick-or-treating, I made chocolate skull cakes with peanut butter frosting.  I snapped a quick picture of them before I put the frosting on.

Then we watched "monster" movies.  Monsters Inc. and Scooby Doo and the Ghoul School were the kid-friendly monster movies I could find.  So despite the fact that we didn't go outside, we still had lots of fun inside!

 

***

 

Because of the storm, Raymond did not have a lot of therapy this week.  School was closed and so was the IU.  Here is an update for this week.

 

"It took Raymond a while to warm up to a new therapist.  He did not stay seated for therapists activities.  Raymond preferred to play with his blocks.  Raymond signed ball in imitation and imitated "ball" to get the ball.  Attempted identifying actions.  Raymond needed hand-over-hand guidance to "show/point/get" picture.  Worked on having Raymond imitate some CV (consonant-vowel) words.  He watched my mouth nicely but did not consistently attempt to imitate."

-Allison, Speech Therapist

11/01/2012

 

 

Lily also started speech therapy this week.  Her therapist is very nice and I think will work well with her.  I will probably start to post Lily's updates also. 

 

Until Next Time!

Lots of Love,



Everything Halloween

It's Spooky!

Even Scary!

It's our Halloween Adventures!

We started off by carving the pumpkin that Isabella picked out at Alexander's birthday party. She couldn't wait to finally carve it! We had been putting it off because we got the pumpkin at the beginning of October and explained to her if we carved it too soon that the pumpkin would rot by Halloween.

We also roasted the pumpkin seeds.

Isabella's preschool had a Halloween Party and Parade. She and all her little friends looked cute in their costumes.

It was extremely hard to get a good picture of Raymond and Isabella together in their costumes. They were both very wiggly. Isabella was wiggly to go get candy and Raymond was wiggly to rip the lobster antenna off his head! Later that night, the princess, the lobster and I went over to Aunt Theresa and Uncle Roy's house for a trick-or-treat surprise. Isabella wanted to ring their front door and say "Surprise! Trick-or-Treat!" and she did. We walked around in their development a little getting a few goodies.

On Saturday we went to the Lehigh Valley Zoo for "Boo at the Zoo". We called Grammy to see if she wanted to come along. She met us there and we were off to find even more treats.

First we watched the birds of prey presentation.

Grammy and Isabella

Isabella was disappointed that Raymond didn't wear his lobster costume to the zoo but she was understanding that it wasn't comfortable for him in the car seat.

Making a bracelet

Making a Mask

One of the treat tables had birdseed that you could mix together yourself in a bag. I thought that was a cute idea. Isabella was happy to take it home to the birds.

After we were done at the Lehigh Valley Zoo, everyone was hungry so we decided to find somewhere to eat. We drove past a church and noticed they were having a basket raffle and lunch. We decided to eat there instead of going to a restaurant. Since Isabella was in her Halloween costume she was able to enter into a raffle for a special kids basket. We also bought a few tickets and Isabella picked out several other baskets she was hoping to win. Guess what??? Isabella won!!! She won the Halloween basket and one filled with candy (just what she needed!).

The kids basket was PACKED full of stuff. It seemed like she was pulling things out of it forever.

On Sunday we went to the Daniel Boone Homestead for another Trick-or-Treat event. We had never been there before and it was really nice. We are looking forward to going back and taking Sadie with us. Dogs are welcome and she loves to walk and go anywhere with us.

Handsome Daddy

On the way home we stopped at Sonic for a drink and wound up getting $0.50 corndogs for dinner. It was a Halloween night special. Isabella was especially pleased.

When we got home, we all got ready for trick-or-treat. I bought three small bags of candy because we have several kids that live up the street but not too many. I really wasn't sure how many kids to expect since last year we didn't hand out candy. We owned the house but didn't live here yet. Isabella was disappointed that more people were not handing out candy. She did however go to the neighbors and they had sweets just for her. We spent a little time with our neighbor across the street. She was watching her brother's dog and I basically had to drag Isabella out of her house. Maybe we should get a dog? Oh wait, we have a dog! For some reason other people's dogs are still so appealing. So after three hours of trick-or-treat we had no one come to our house! Not one kid! Our neighbors told us that there is a development that most of the kids go to in Leesport that goes all out for Halloween. The entire neighborhood decorates and it's basically a big block party. Maybe next year we will go over and check it out. Chris was happy we had leftover candy.

Today I sewed a Halloween dress for Isabella's American Girl Doll. This is the first time I've ever made doll clothing. Isabella picked the fabric out a few weeks ago. She liked the webs with the purple sparkly spiders. It was a little tricky around the neckline because the fabric was very thick (especially for such a small dress) but luckily my sewing machine made it through. Tomorrow while Isabella is at school I'm going to go back to Jo-Anne's and look for some red fabric to make a Christmas dress (by request). I'll go with just Raymond since he won't request every other bolt of fabric.

Until Next Time!

Lot of Love,

Erica