Cowboy Number Two

For the last few months we’ve had a second cowboy in the house.

Will began taking riding lessons during Ben’s lesson at Enchanted Acres with Ms. Trish back in August.  He really really enjoys it and loves his lesson horse, Splatter.

The cool part of it all is that that both Ben’s and Will’s teachers work together for part of the lesson.  Both horses are in the ring and the boys get to play games while in the saddle.  Many of the games are “hide and seek” sorts of activities where they have to maneuver their horses to different parts of the ring to look inside different containers for objects (puzzle pieces, different colored balls, play fruit/veggies…).  There is turn-taking, information exchange, and social interaction involved all while learning how to ’steer’ with the reins, communicate with the horse, and stay in the saddle!

We love that Kelly and Trish offer up this combined experience for siblings.  It’s great for Will who loves to do anything Ben does, and it’s also great for Ben to have a partner to interact with.  I love that the combined lesson doesn’t require me to be in two places at once, and that the relationship piece we work so hard for in Ben’s remediation can be supported in this, one of their favorite activities.

There are parts of the lesson that are not combined and it’s so amazing to see your children interact with other adults, apart from you.  Will listens intently to instructions from Trish and seems eager to please.  He is much more reserved and almost shy during his lesson, using a voice so soft and low that he needs encouragement to ‘use a big voice’ so the horse can hear him.  Trish has Will change positions in the saddle in order to strengthen muscles and encourage proper technique.  This jumping pose, however, sort of freaked me out.

I’ve been assured there will be no jumping for many years, yet–that three-year-olds only practice position.  Phew.

Ella Rose enjoys having me all to herself while we observe the lessons, and even felt brave one afternoon and requested to ride Star–Ben’s really tall lesson horse.  Thank God she’s too young for lessons.  I don’t think I could handle three of them in the saddle.   At least, not yet.  She is pretty darn cute in her boots, though.

Lesson 3: He rides solo!

Here’s Ben at his THIRD therapeutic horse back riding lesson, riding atop Spot BY HIMSELF.  Ben continues to surprise us all with his ever-expanding comfort with Spot.  This is Ben tacking his horse.  He is pulling the girth strap tight here, using upper body strength and minimal support.

Here is a little RDI moment of  co-regulation between Ben and his brother as they carry the bowl of sweet feed together. And here is Ben after turning Spot out into the pasture after his lesson.  Now that’s one confident cowboy!

More on Casey

We’re over the moon about Casey, the Wonder Dog.  She really is just a fantastic addition to our family.   We always knew we’d have a family dog, but we were waiting for the ‘right time’.  When Mark was serving in Iraq, I was overwhelmingly pregnant with Will, Ben was a toddler not walking or even close, and we had just moved from our big yard house to a teeny yard house–that time–was *not* the right time.  Thank God for Aunt Patty and Uncle Jim who adopted our first pet, Max.  Here they all are visiting us on their spring break last week: 

Having Max stay with us confirmed how ready we were for another pet.  There’s so much to be gained in the way of learning and enrichment for the kids–taking care of another being, responsibility, respect, loyalty.  Max was a puppy when we adopted him from the shelter.  Training him was a lot of work.  We knew we didn’t have the kind of time needed to train a puppy this time around.  We had agreed to get an older dog, but not too old.  We wanted an active dog that would run and play, but would not have to pee every 10 minutes nor chew things that would make us unhappy.

I had also been doing some research on therapy dogs for children with autism.  It’s probably not much of a surprise to dog lovers, but early “research” is showing that there are more than physical needs fulfilled through interaction with a trained therapy pet.   This study is looking specifically at development of social interaction with the help of animals.

Solomon hypothesizes that interactions with well-trained therapy dogs—which are simple, predictable and very rewarding social partners—help autistic children practice social interaction and fill gaps in social behaviors that didn’t develop earlier in childhood. In the future, she hopes to study the results of adding animal therapy to existing clinical programs for people with autism.

“Dogs could be like a catalyst in a chemical reaction,” she said.

I liked that the article spoke in terms of remediation, a la RDI.   Going back for a ‘do-over’ is a simple way to think about it.  Could a dog help in our RDI efforts with Ben?  Who couldn’t use a catalyst?

Enter Casey.  The craisglist post proclaimed her “the poster child for the perfect family pet”.  After 3 days with her, we really cannot argue that claim.   We’ve witnessed great affection and “private” moments between both boys and Casey that are worth any cost of having her.  Already.  How cool is that?

Here are some photos of the boys doing some training work with Casey.

“Casey, come!”“Sit.”“Lie down.”

And then there’s Will’s technique…

“Casey, come and eat this yummy treat.”

“Lie down like me.”“Have another yummy treat.  Good girl.  She likes me!”

Third Birthday!

He is absolutely, 100%, no doubt about it, in all ways THREE. But part of me can’t see it. As precocious as his babyhood was–walking at nine months, saying things like ‘bulldozer’ before he was 18 months–it is often hard to remember Will as an infant. And yet, he will always be my baby in my mind.  I won’t soon forget his birth–the one I did not plan, but that Mark “attended” via his phonecall from Iraq at just the right moment.  My big, ten pound, six ounce baby with cheeks that made ‘chubby’ sound svelte. He remains my must-be-bounced-carried-held-don’teventhinkaboutlayingmedown-to-sleep little guy who gave me such great upper body strength, and helped me lose 20 extra pounds while nursing him.   And my hindsight is perfect when I recall his poor little allergic body (before I gave up dairy)–rubbing his baby legs together to scratch that eczema itch, the night sweats, the back-arching, the baby acne that lasted forever, the troubles with pooping…No, nothing will diminish the memory of that OR my funny, sunny baby with those twinkly brown eyes and constantly revving engine.  Not even turning THREE. 

Happy Birthday Will!

Love,

Mama

“Christmas is over.”

Will spoke aloud what we all were silently thinking to ourselves this morning after a dramatic collapse of the Christmas tree. EllaRose was beneath, pulling on a favored ornament, when the un-watered, empty-based Old Blue found itself top-heavy and came crashing down.

There were minimal casualties.   I was sad about this one. But, since I found all the pieces, I superglued it back together.

Ella Rose did not get crushed, thank God.  But, she did not escape unscathed.  Poor baby.

Although, really, she didn’t and doesn’t seem too bothered by it.  That’s our tough cookie.

And as today is the Feast of the Epiphany (Three Kings Day, the 12th Day of Christmas), Christmas really is over.  Hooray!  and Wah!  It’s always bittersweet to move on from the Holiday Hoopla, but move on we must.  Look out 2009!

She walks!

I love how Will yells “she walked!” after the first clip.

I also LOVE how Ben, in his jammies and skates, points across the room to Will and asks, “you want to rollerskate?” (An RDI moment, for sure!)

And who could not LOVE Will’s response?  “Yeah, let’s ROLL!”

We’re celebrating milestones ALL OVER here!

Opinion Poll

Does Will resemble the adorable “Charles in Charge” era Willie Aames or do you think McConnaughey when you spot his summertime curly locks and usually bare-shirted self?  Vote in the comments section.  Let your voice be heard! 

Children’s Museum of the Lowcountry

Winner! We loved Charleston’s Children’s Museum of the Lowcountry. Super cool exhibits. We didn’t get to play with everything this first trip, so we went ahead and bought a family membership. I’m certain we’ll get our money’s worth. We went with our pal, Becca. She’s here, in her feather boa, posing with the boys in front of the child-size entrance.

Becca and Ben loved the kid-life-size shrimp boat. They intermittently and simultaneously were fishers, workers, and pirates. Will liked the rubber fish, but was a bit put off by most of the other, older children on the boat and their boisterous play. Ben, on the other hand, is excited by the loud dramatic play scenes. He is especially attracted to the “captain”. You know him. The bossiest kid on the boat who has comandeered both the wheel and the captain’s hat? He’s yelling orders at whomever will listen to “man the sails!” “get the nets!” “no, I’M the captain!” The other children follow along with frantic yelling and running in their mock panic. This ’stress’ theme seems to be common across age groups. I wonder if that’s just part of what makes action play exciting, or if it’s a sign of the times. Anyway, here are our little skippers.

The next best part of the museum experience was the grocery store. At least for Will it was. Ben did not secure a shopping cart quickly enough for his liking and returned to the shrimp boat with Becca. But Will. Oh my little shopper. The child-size metal carts are the same as the kid carts the boys love love love to use at Whole Foods. In the museum grocery store, though, the kid’s are in charge. Mama doesn’t get to say what goes in the cart. Once Will figured that part out, it was like a kid in a candy store, er, grocery store. Heh.

The store set up was adorable with shelves of packaged goods, a meat counter, a dairy case (with cool air blowing!), a flower display, a small refrigerator near the checkout lanes with convenience sized drinks. The checkout area was complete with a scanner that actually scanned (all the food had UPC labels!) and beeped and totaled up the bill on the computer screen.

As you can imagine, this is a hugely popular exhibit. Where he was daunted on the shrimp boat, Will charged right into the fury in the grocery. The produce section, where we do most of our actual shopping got a mere glance, with the exception of the procurement of one bright yellow plastic ear of corn. We don’t eat corn. Food sensitivities and diet protocol prohibit it. We haven’t had any in months, maybe a year. Will gleefully tossed that into the cart. He then zipped through the aisles where “real” cans, boxes, and plastic/rubber replicas of food items were neatly placed by their photo labels. None of it too familiar (since we eat mostly whole foods these days), he pounced on the things he recognized. “Mustard!” “Beans!” “Baking soda!” (which cracked me up) He didn’t even blink at the boxes of mac-n-cheese, crackers, or cereal. In the oh-so-cute, “air conditioned” dairy case, however, it was a different story. “CHEESE!!” Will exclaimed, practically exploding with enthusiasm. Where he had only selected one each of the other items, Will cleared the shelves of the cream cheese boxes, hunks of ’swiss’, and bright orange cheddar. Will has never tolerated dairy well. As a breastfeeding infant, he’d puke if *I* consumed any milk products. His intolerance has continued until very recently with the introduction of goat’s milk cheddar. I believe we have an addict.

The grocery store was really really hard to leave. There was some screaming. Some falling down dramatically. Some throwing of baking soda boxes. And then a full recovery. Phew. We can’t wait to go back.