Luke's gymnastics practice

• run & chasse around mat
• stretch
• lots of handstand work - Luke struggling to get legs high enough to stay balanced
• straddle press into a headstand, then into a front roll. These looked great!
• stations on parallel bars with Coach Brandon: swings and dismount over side; supporting body weight with legs perpendicular to torso; creeping up incline bars; knee hangs with pull up on uneven bars & drop into foam blocks. Luke's upper body strength compared to his peers very apparent here.
• high bar stations with Coach Jason: big swing with hitch on high bar; pullover mount with spot from Jason; sideways creep across high bar; upside down vertical hangs from low bar into body position work on dismount
• calisthenics with exercises chosen by tossing the cube - V sit-ups, jumps with 360 spin, bridges, push ups with clap (he can almost do these - right foot hops when he claps!)
• finish with some playful jumping on the trampoline and a flip into the foam blocks

Monday tends to be skill focused, Wednesday afternoons are a mix that includes some gymnastics-based games, and Thursdays are primarily conditioning. He has serious hand calluses. In the next level, they start using grips for bar work. I think he's going to miss the extra practice when school starts. Last week I asked him if practice was good, and he said, "No Mom, it was GREAT."

The church picnic

was quite a production! There was a live band, a magician, and an ice cream truck from Bruster's. Luke participated in a bunch of relays with the big kids - water races were a priority. I tied for 3rd place in the pie baking contest, with leftover berry pie that dripped all over the oven.

Swim Meet - Thursday at Plainview

Thursday meets are apparently not good for the Levinsons. Luke invented his own version of the freestyle, which was one stroke with his right arm then three strokes with his left while floating leisurely along. Maybe relaxing, but not particularly fast!

Luke 25 m. freestyle 1:24 (+14 seconds)
Luke 25 m. backstroke 1:07 (-3 seconds)

Raha 50 m. freestyle 1:00.56 (+4 seconds)
Raha 50 m. backstroke 1:31.51 (+2 seconds)
Disqualified in the breaststroke, but this looked much better than previous week

CSA + time =

This is the first year we've had a CSA share - every Friday we pick up a bag of produce from Fox Hollow Farm. Yesterday was fun, because our farmer (a man in his 20s with a European accept of some sort?) introduced the little boys to his 7 day old chicks. He'd gotten them through mail order, a box of 26 assorted fluffy babies that will be free range chickens for eggs in a few more weeks. Now they are 3 inch long gold, rust, or speckled brown fluff with their first couple of feathers at the tips of their wings. He said that he expects each to lay about 250 eggs a year. We'll visit each week with our veggie pick up to check their growth, along with walking into the fields to talk to the vegetables. Purple and green beans next week, and basil is growing fast!

The hard thing to get used to is the seasonal supply of produce. This week I've been overwhelmed since Mom dropped off their veggies too as they left town. I had 5 cabbages and lots of bunches of green onions, and what seems like an endless supply of mustard greens, kale, and swiss chard. Of course there are other things too (like the bunch of tiny beets that I roasted and secretly ate by myself because I love them), but the ones I don't love do present a challenge. I finally broke down and spent a couple of hours on the Epicurious and Cook's Illustrated websites looking for ways to make meals to freeze for the winter, and I'm now happy that my next task is going to be defrosting the deep freeze to make room for more Pyrex and Tupperware. Today I made: 18 potato-salmon cakes with green onions, 2 meals of Moroccan chicken with olives, 2 meals of sweet & sour beef and cabbage, 2 meals of chicken cobbler with cheddar-green onion biscuits, 2 meals of chicken stuffed with sausage & swiss chard, 2 blueberry pies, 2 loaves of banana date bread, and a big batch of coleslaw for a picnic tomorrow. As my chief dish-doer, Raha was a little stunned.

The other part of the day was a trip to the pool with Luke, Aaron, Sammy, PhiPhi, and Raha so that Tracey could spend some quality time on a landscaping project downtown - a vertical green wall. I was a little anxious about four kids under 6 by myself, but they were wonderful. Aaron borrowed a little inflatable ring from PhiPhi and happily swam independently. I know what to get him on my next stop at CVS, since he kept telling me, "It fun!!"

Tomorrow we had a big church picnic, which apparently includes a visit from Mr. Magic and lots of games. My friend Robin had to cancel her picnic for Ada's birthday in the evening because her kids were exposed to swine flu at summer camp and she's kind enough not to share. Poor kiddos.

Aaron says.....

A couple of recent favorites:
"Car-wee- air-wee-er" is car carrier
"Ca-cheese" is mac and cheese (and heaven forbid, NOT cottage cheese)
"See-sick" is music
"Doy-lion" is dandelion

OT appointment #2

Jane is amazing! Yesterday we focused on stimulating lungs & oral-motor, with the specific goal of reducing the amount of screaming Aaron does. The cool things is that we do this with bubbles & straws....what's not to love? Jane is also ordering us a new weighted blanket and a chair for the dining table, all courtesy of First Steps. Ideas and activities:

• Bubbles - big bag of bubble pipes from Walgreens that require different mouth positions, collect all bubble stuff into a dishpan & put towel down for hand wiping, blow bubbles into a bowl of water & bubble liquid with different sizes & shapes of straws (which require different mouth positions and amount of pressure) then "pop! pop!" all of the bubbles with fingers, sustained breaths and little puffs, straws help with motor planning (blow only vs. inhaling), straw bowl for blowing bubbles and for drinking foods of varying thicknesses, have a bathtub bubble day, races blowing little toys across water with straws
• Voice levels using "Daddy voice, Mommy voice, and Baby voice" and also use these terms with bubbles and breath control
• Harmonica & trumpet mouthpiece
• To encourage him to blow bubbles during swimming, take straws then cut them shorter and shorter so mouth is closer to the water
• Giant stretchy fabric - swimsuit material - drag him in it as our train, have him pull toys, and using it as a swing for full body pressure. Also sing while swinging and gently crash onto cushions at the end of the song
• Use the straws to blow pom-poms - targets, races, or catch between 2+ people, and practice vocabulary "all, none, some, most," and suck on the straw to pick up the pom-poms
• Try CD "Sleepy Ocean with Delta Brainwave Patterns" for calming during quiet time and going to sleep http://www.therelaxationcompany.com/ or on Amazon (we're borrowing to see if he likes it)
  

Swim Meet 6-22

3rd swim meet on Monday - progress! Raha's butterfly looks amazing. The private lessons definitely made a big difference in his form. Luke isn't much faster after the week off of practice, but his strokes look better and his breathing on freestyle is more consistent. I just wish they didn't go so late - Raha and I weren't home until 11:30.

Raha 50 m free: 55.80 (= to last week)
Raha 50 m back: 1.29.24 (- 6 seconds)
Raha 50 m fly: 1.16.54 (-8 seconds)


Luke 25 m free: 1.10.61
Luke 25 back: 1.10.62
no comparison times for Luke - swim meet first week times aren't a good comparison because the pool was not a standard size

This is a gruesome swimming week because we have another meet tomorrow night. So much for catching up on sleep.

What happens when you kiss a wasp....

but Rich says he just wants to be like Julie Roberts.

Garden progress

Murals are up, and mom built a wall today.... blisters on both of us!

Luke says....

Rich took Raha and Luke to the waterpark at Kentucky Kingdom. When it was time, they couldn't find Raha in the deep end of the wave pool. Luke said, "I can't find him. There are too many brown people out there." Raha's still laughing at this one....

Nightmare

Aaron woke up in the middle of the night crying, "Monsters!" Rich got him back to sleep for a couple of minutes, but when I went back in he said, "Monsters! It scare me!" He spent the rest of the night in our bed. He also just told me that S'mores is scared of monsters. Hope he's not developing a new habit, especially since he just started easily going to sleep (with eliminating his nap) and sleeping through the night.

How big is the solar system?

Yesterday Luke and I drew a scale model of the solar system on the driveway - the distances of the planets from the sun is proportional, and the size of the planets to each other is proportional, but the distances and sizes are not in scale. It was a lot of fun to do, and Luke is good an using the measuring tape and accurately identifying feet and inches.

Through the summer we're doing an integrated math/science unit published by NCTM and NASA for early elementary. Cool projects, easy to make accessible for his age. On Saturday we'll work on measurement and data analysis by flying paper airplanes.....what's not to like about that?

Happy Wednesday

Why it's happy:

1. The mural is done! Melinda came over to help
2. Raha said, "I've been a jerk," after he was a jerk then was great the rest of the day
3. Luke & I drew a scale model of our solar system on the driveway, and he's great with standard measurement
4. Aaron's stunt (repeated at least 20 times) -- fall off trampoline, crawl across room announcing "Baby Aaron!!", stand up by the couch and point at his head exclaiming "Big Me!!" He sometimes said, "I Big Me!"
5. Aaron has transitioned well to no nap and goes to sleep peacefully in the evening, making the evening peaceful for everyone else too

Aaron's first OT appointment with Jane

Ideas & tasks from Jane:

• Climb lots of stairs
• Heavier shoes like hiking boots in fall
• Mini trampoline with handles for safety - loves it!!!
• Stairs + puzzles - pieces at the bottom of the stairs so he climbs and jumps
• Puzzles + wagon walking - walking on hands across to get pieces
• Puzzles + jumping like a kangaroo
• Puzzles + tippy toe reaching for pieces held just out of reach
• Foam cut out puzzles for pushing with hands
• Take normal games and make them harder (physically)
• New chair - has place for feet. This enables him to lean forward. He eats easier, and does manual things like color more easily
• Pick up fuzzy balls with giant wooden tweezer and put them in a jar(tactile, hands)
• Side bar: Discussed crashing trucks and cars. Pull on arm and squeeze hand (gives sensory satisfaction) and say, "we don't throw trucks, we only throw balls".
• Blowing bubbles
  
  Jane said that compression & pressure helps the brain develop more body awareness and joint compression also releases serotonin. Walking on hands or doing activities that require lots of hand pressure also develops more awareness of sensation in his hands.

Luke's ear

First casualty of swimming -- Luke has swimmer's ear in his left ear and can't practice until next Monday.

Luke said...

"Look, Aaron is a work of art!" (I'm not making that up!)

Murals

The plan for taping off the panels didn't last long - Mom and I went to careful edging by hand and we have a first coat of all of the colors now. I'll get a second coat on Tuesday, and then start working on texture and pattern.

With a little help from my friends

We made a good start on the garden! Tracey prepped the bed on the right side of the house - incredibly fast with a garden fork. Raha finished putting up the wall & I'm already happier admiring bare plywood rather than the junk in the carport. Tracy, Mom, and Melinda drew the 4 quilt patterns and taped off the first color.

This is a tedious process. Only one color can be painted at a time, with multiple coats until the color is even and deep. Then the tape is pulled off of that set of color blocks and the next color is taped, and then 2-4 coats of that color are applied. We're using exterior latex on plywood - bright red, a warm gold, grayish purple, and sage green. They are all colors I love in big, simple geometric blocks.

Last night was also a opportunity to use up some of the vast quantities of vegetables from our CSA from Fox Hollow Farm. Mom and I cooked on and off through the day and the kitchen smelled wonderful from the pitcher of herbs Mom brought from her garden.

Dad finally made it back from Montana!

Landscaping Project

The front of our house has always been an area that I thought was pretty unusable and really ugly. These photo are taken partway into a big landscaping & mural project. Here the 4 x 4 foot brick patio has just been taken out, along with lots of heavy edging rock and round concrete stepping stones. My friend Tracy (landscape designer by profession) helped me plan the space and is ordering 4 big oak leave hydrangeas to form a green "wall" extending in a curve from the edge of the stone wall and about 50 helleborus to cover the concrete edge of the house. The gravel and misc. green plan areas are going to be mulch for a play area for the boys and the swing will back up to the hydrangeas. The space between the garden and carport are already partially walled in this evening, and tomorrow we'll finish the wall, paint it to match the house, and begin the murals that we'll mount on them. I've very sore and ready for bed, but I'm excited to see how quickly this is coming along. Here's a photo of one variety of helleborus - they are an evergreen that blooms from Dec - May!

Aaron's lecture

Climbing up onto a big piece of playground equipment:

"Big Owie!"
"Yes Aaron, big owie if you fall."
"Bandaid!"
"Probably lots of bandaids."
"Go doctor?"
"Most likely."
"Aaron careful?"
"Yes, please be very careful."

We have this conversation MANY times in a row while Luke is at swimming and Aaron plays.

Psyco Bunny

Beats me. Maybe he's spending too much time with the guinea pig.

1st Swim Meet

Luke and Raha both had a good first swim meet - both a little befuddled by the whole process. 5 year olds in the pool are a riot and take lots of herding from the coaches. Hard on Raha's ego to be slow compared to everyone else, but they've been doing it for 7 years and he's only had a handful of lessons. I'm emphasizing how much he'll improve over the season and he is really enjoying swimming.

Luke: 25 m. free in 1:10, 25 m. back in 1:06
Raha: 50 m. free in 1:01, 50 m. back in 1:32, butterfly and breast stroke both DQ'd but about 1:40

Aaron is....

"a funky little dude," according to his 1st Steps Coordinator. I've been giggling about that since yesterday morning when we were talking about occupational therapist services with Jayne.

Aaron on S'mores & misc.

"Kitty Cat!"

"It's funny!" (anytime she gets startled or wiggles)

"Gee Pig... wee wee!"

He gets so excited by her that he giggles wildly and trips over himself. It's comical and definitely dangerous. Today he opened her fence twice by accident - she has a little portable fence so she can play outside - and fortunately she moves slowly enough that I caught her. This all drives Mr. Responsible Pet Owner Luke batty. I'm going to have to start tying the fence gate together.

I am really enjoying her - I like bringing her with me when I go outside and feeding her garden bits. I remember when I was little that my Aunt Diane had guinea pigs that she'd let out in the backyard of my grandparents' house, and that my golden retriever Rosie was fiercely protective of them.

Aaron had a big breakthrough at swimming tonight - he realized that it's really FUN to jump in the water, even if it does mean that you briefly go under. When Luke made that discovery he was a riot; jumping so far that he'd either crash into me or drench me.

I'm finally relaxed, for the first time in months, it seems. I spent the morning sorting photos online and the afternoon staining our big swing. It was a relief to goof off guilt free. I decided that since we spend all of our outside time in the front of the house that I'm going to make it into our summer living room. I've gradually been improving the garden area with nice perennials (Tracey helped me pick out some unusual native ferns yesterday) and mom and I put some big potted plants by the front door a few weeks ago. My brainstorm is to close in the space between the garden and the carport because it's so unsightly, then paint two big murals based on the barn quilts that are going up in this part of the country. I'm really excited about this -- lovely, traditional quilt block patterns, and I'm thinking about using several that were used to communicate messages on the Underground Railroad. I'm excited to have that part of the house be functional and beautiful - we're talking about extending the rock wall at the edge of the carport and putting in an outdoor fireplace, and ways to make the area more kid friendly.

Apparantly, four pets was not enough to balance the fragile ecosystem of the Levinson household. Friday, I was informed that we would be "guinea pig sitting" this summer for a teacher in our building. Her name is S'more. No - not the teacher, the guinea pig! I think Heather must have named her that after thinking "we don't have enouth critters in this house -- we need some-more!

Pioneer Day at Blackacre Farm

What a lovely, relaxing day! The kids - including our friend Tracey's kids Phiona and Sammy - spent more time at a little manmade pond than anywhere else. I didn't see Raha most of the day because he was happy playing with the animals and visiting all of the activity booths. His favorite seemed to be throwing the tomohawk. My favorite was a hike with Ranger Mark to look for animal markings and tracks. It was fun to watch Aaron because he was SO independent...walking in the middle of all of the kids and completely unconcerned with where I happened to be at the moment.

Aaron discovered the joy of eating just the frosting

"Frosting! Yummy!"

Misc - swim, Wii....

Last day of school for kids tomorrow in Jefferson County - we're tired. Raha goes to Friday.

Aaron called a convertible VW bug, "Punch Bug - broken!"

Raha and Luke started swim team practice last week. Raha making big improvements but is frustrated by how slow he is compared to many of the other kids. Many of them have been swimming for 6 years. Luke is having a wonderful time - he has a full body wetsuit, which is a life saver. The little ones also wear flippers for some of their practice, so he looks really cute all decked out in his gear. This is the first year he's been tall enough to go down the waterslide at our pool, and he's thrilled to death by that. Definitely my kid, though, because he wants to be sure he doesn't go too fast.

I bought the kids (and myself) a Wii last week. It's been a lot of fun for everyone and it gives us another carrot to encourage good behavior during summer from Raha.