Cookies and Crayons

With two kids and four dogs, having the immaculate house I dreamed of is, difficult, to say the least. I have tried so many different cleaning plans. All of them have elements that I like but, inevitably, something that makes them impossible to stick to. I love the idea of having the house completely cleaned in a single day but I just don’t have that kind of time anymore. We tried FlyLady and, though she has some great ideas, I just couldn’t get past the constant e-mail and some of the “rules” that I didn’t agree with (we’re Canadian – we don’t wear shoes in the house!).

So, I’ve turned to the only resource I have for help – the kids.

As you’d expect, Connie is of no help cleaning but Dougie is starting to get the hang of it.

He’s actually pretty good at it.

He really enjoys helping around the house as well. We have talked several times about assigning him some chores and based on this, I think he’s really ready.

In the meantime, Connie has settled into a supervisor role.

There is no rest for the weary – unless you collapse on the floor.

We had a long day today. By the end of it, we were all more than ready to be done but, with an hour until bedtime, we had to find one more activity. Dougie suggested play-doh. I agreed. So, out came the play-doh and Dougie went to town making various creations.

Play-doh is serious business.

We actually really encourage Dougie to play with things like play-doh because it helps develop his hand muscles. The occupational therapist that Dougie saw encouraged him to play with therapy putty (funny that is what Scott used to make) and play-doh is a bit more fun and has the same benefits.

Once Dougie got the play-doh soft and ready to mold, he started making “animals.” Now, you need to get your imaginations ready and just trust me that this is what he told me each one of them was.

Turtle

Goldfish

Cat

Alligator (he’s making it go “chop chop” in this picture)

Mummy and Daddy (Daddy is green) – I helped with my head

Dougie – with pieces constructed by Mum

While we played, musical stylings were provided by Connie.

After a lot of research and some discussion with our doctor, we have decided to switch Dougie to a gluten free diet for a test run. There has been quite a bit of research on the benefits of a gluten free diets on children with autism. Though Dougie is not autistic, there have been some early studies that indicate that a similar diet can help children with apraxia. So, yes, we decided to take the pickiest eater in the world and limit his food options.

So far, we’ve been doing pretty well. We’re a week in and have found suitable substitutes for many of the foods that Dougie loves. We are going to have to start baking more though because gluten free foods are going to lead us quickly into financial ruin. Fortunately, several people have been very helpful providing recipes and suggestions.

The jury is still out on the results. We didn’t expect to see an instant improvement so we’re still going to give it time. We have noticed that Dougie is starting to use substantially more complicated sentences. It could be a coincidence but we’re hoping it’s the beginning sign of success. We’re going to give this diet a 2 month run and see what changes, if any, Dougie has and then evaluate

This time, it’s just our blog.

We have moved to a new domain.  Our blog is now located at http://www.cookiesandcrayons.com.  If you receive updates in e-mail (and you got this one) you’re all set.  If you use a feed reader, your reader should update the feed however, in the event it doesn’t, you may wish to resubscribe to the new feed.

We also have a new look! We’re very excited about all the changes and hope this makes the blog easier for people to find and more fun to read.

Dougie can, almost.

I think she was as surprised by her new found talent as we were.

Dougie loves his sister. When we pick her up to bring her upstairs to change her or take her anywhere, he frequently protests “no, that’s MY Connie”, “lay the Connie down Mummy”, “Mummy, can I please hold the Connie.”

He loves just hanging out with her.

It makes it hard to get pictures of her without him.

We really hope they’re always like this.

She seems to feel the same way too. You should see her light up when Dougie comes over to see her (well, not in that last picture, she’s just trying to work out why he’s messing with her Jumperoo).

We bought Connie a special blanket. It’s called a Taggie and has little tags all over it. I guess babies like to chew on tags so the blanket is designed to have lots of them. Connie loves it!

She takes it everywhere – though it doesn’t get in the way of some thumb time.

Mmmm….

We’re back in Dallas for a few days to get Connie checked out. She is doing fabulously! She still has “chubby cheekers” and is the picture of health. She has met all of her developmental milestones except for grabbing her own feet – though she can now roll over both tummy to back and back to tummy so the doctor was impressed.

Our little girl remains not so little. Her latest stats:

• Weight – 14lbs (74%)
• Height – 25″ (89%)
• Weight – 16.5″ (85%)

What was most interesting to us about these numbers was that Dougie, who we tend to think of as being quite small, was only slightly smaller at his 4 month check-up. I guess boys are generally expected to be a bit bigger but Connie is only a pound more than he was and he started at a lot less.

Dougie at 4 Months

Connie at 4 Months

We’re heading back to Calgary tomorrow after a few more visits with friends. It was a shorter trip than we had originally planned but we’re sure the dogs will be happy to have us home.

Connie is clearly an over achiever – a few days before turning 4 months and she learned to roll from back to front.

She loves doing it as well. She’s constantly flipping herself over now. She is still on her quest for the elusive full revolution, but she’s working on that.