Mommy & Me

Joshua built this tower all by himself...what a big boy!

This morning Mommy & I went to a "Mommies & Me" group being held at the Conestoga Valley Community Center by Grandma's house. She heard about it on the radio and learned that it was free to attend and is targeted toward children ages 0-3. That's us! There were three other mommies and their kiddos there this morning - one little girl was almost 3, one little boy was 2, and one other little boy was 1.

Joshua is proud of his tower! I love his face in this picture!

This morning's theme was on love & attachment. The teacher had different activities we could do for bonding. One was to play with post-it notes. As mommy put them on herself, we were supposed to mimick the motion and put them in identical places on us. Instead of wanting to put the post-it notes on me, though, I still put them on her. The teacher said that was normal for my age. The next was to crumple up wax paper into a ball and straighten it out, just for the fun of the noise. This reminded mommy of the stuff I play with at the doctor's office, and I was NOT into this game at all. I handed back the wax paper to the teacher. Next we sang songs with our mommies...one was row, row, row your boat where we acted like we were rowing. I was feeling restless and wanted to get up. Most of the time, Mommy cuddles me and sings to me when it's nap time. But, it wasn't nap time yet! Did she think I was going to sleep in front of these other kids? Not a chance!

Just so you can fully appreciate the accomplishment...here's a picture!

After that, we went to these big mirrors on the wall, and we were supposed to mimmick our mommies' expressions. But I wanted to mimmick the little 2-year old boy. He was bigger than me and so fascinating to watch! I did just about anything he did. If he climbed under a table, I followed. If he picked up a ball, I wanted it too. If he got a jump rope, I grabbed the one next to it. At first Mommy thought it was cute that I had made a friend until she realized that the other little boy wasn't being very obedient and I was following right in his tracks!

This is a different night where we built a house! He helped!

I loved the playtime with other kids. Mommy has homework for our next session, and we were told other mommies and kids would be there next time that weren't there this time. People can come and go and join as they like. Each week is on a different topic. Mommy wasn't sure what to expect, but it was better than she thought it would be, even though the other mommies seemed way older to her than she is. Two of them had mulitple kiddos and one was even expecting a new baby like us!

What a handsome Bean in his PJ's!

Yesterday, we had our evaluation with Early Intervention & the physical therapist. Unfortunately, I slept the entire way through it. That was okay, though, because they had already done my evaluation and this meeting was on setting future goals since I've accomplished the goal of walking now! I'll continue meeting with Miss Trish, my new PT since Miss Laura had her baby, once a month to get ideas for enhancing my physical movement. My ultimate goal now is to be able to walk on my own without being held, including when we go up and down stairs (right now I get around on them by crawling). She gave us the idea of making an obstacle course in our backyard to help me with my balance. I'm looking forward to it, as soon as the weather gets a little warmer! Mommy also asked about my head-butting, and the Early Intervention Coordinator is scheduling a meeting with us and a behavior intervention specialist, in case they can give us any ideas of how to help me channel my frustration in a different way other than hurting myself. Mommy is excited for any ideas she can get!

I love this kiddo!

It's been a busy & exciting week for Mommy & me. She hasn't been writing as much, which is a bummer come pay time but way cool for me since I've had her undivided attention. Yesterday we colored a picture for Daddy together with our new color-wonder markers! Hooray!

Can you tell this picture was late at night?