More Soccer Pictures

We had soccer again today. Dougie is quite mixed on the entire thing. At times, he is having the time of his life and other times he doesn't seem to want to participate. It's quite different for him though and we think he's just adjusting.

We did manage to get the good camera out today to get some better pictures.

Scoring a goal on Daddy




Throw In (okay, not really but it looks like one)


Kicking down the field


Knocking down cones(this isn't how it was supposed to be done but the coach told us to just let him do his thing for a few classes)


He eventually got what he was supposed to do with the cones


Running around the field


Watching the hoops

Toddler Art

Today, we did our first toddler art project. I've been looking forward to Dougie making art pieces for a while now. In keeping with our snow theme, we made a snow covered tree.

Dougie started by applying the paint with his fingers. He didn't really like the feeling of the paint on his fingers though.



Then he moved on to applying the stickers. Dougie could have done this a lot longer but we ran out of stickers.



Finally, Dougie discovered the paintbrush I had given him early. He decided to try his hand at painting again.





Painting with a brush is fun!



I finally made Dougie stop when he started eating the paint (thank goodness for non-toxic). His final masterpiece:



Dougie decided to play with his snowballs more while I cut out his tree.



Today was a lot more successful. The morning seems to be a much better time to get Dougie into his activities.

Who Loves Their Dog?

Dougie doesn't get a lot of one-on-one time with the dogs. We're still a bit concerned that they'll knock him over. We had Maggie in the other day though and decided to let her have some playtime with Dougie. It really is great how well they get along.

Today's Toddler Activities

This week's focus is snow so all our activities are snow based. As you can imagine, being in Texas adds some complexity to it all but we're making do as we can.

We threw snowballs into a basket



Then we played with a snowman felt toy (that mummy made)


We also talked about snow and looked at pictures of snow though Dougie wasn't that into that part.

Tomorrow is art day, hopefully, we'll have some cute pictures to show from that.

Message from Santa

Santa sent Dougie a message:

Message from Santa

On/Off

It wasn't too long ago that Dougie discovered light switches. He loves turning lights on and off but we always had to help because all the switches are too high. Today, he learned that there was one within his reach when he stood on his learning tower. Now he can play with it whenever he wants. Great, just great. ;)

On


Off

It's Official - I'm a Soccer Mom!

We finally found a soccer program for Dougie. I have been looking for a long time but most programs won't take kids until they are 4. Then, a friend of mine mentioned that we should try SoccerTots. We signed him up and Dougie had his first class this morning and loved it! Well, he loved half of it. The class is almost an hour and that is a long time for such a little guy to be running around. It'll get better once he gets used to it.

We tried to get some pictures but Dougie was moving fast and my camera couldn't keep up. We hope to have better ones next week.







Now, I just need a minivan.

Puzzle Me This

Dougie loves puzzles. I would have thought he was too young for them but they use them in feeding therapy and he was doing so well with them there that we decided to get him some for home.



He does this particular puzzle at least 10 times a day. He'll put the pieces in, dump them out and do it again. These particular puzzles make noise when you put a piece in. We haven't put batteries in all of them but he actually doesn't seem to care if it makes a noise when he puts the piece in.

Sometimes, Dougie will even work on several puzzles at once. He manages to work out which pieces go with each one and will get them put back together without a problem.

Lost in Translation

Today's activity was finding a ball hidden under a colored dish. The premise is that you re-hide the ball under the same colored dish each time. It takes a few attempts but after a few rounds finding the object should be easy.

I covered Dougie's eyes and hit the ball. Blue ball/blue dish. He found it on his second try.



I covered his eyes again and re-hid the ball and moved the dishes around. This time, he checked under the blue dish the first time. This actually sent the ball onto the floor but he did find it.



I covered his eyes again and asked him to find the ball. He had clearly had enough because he walked away from the table and into his playroom. It wasn't long before he returned though.



Apparently, I should have been more clear. :) At least he's resourceful.

Scrub Scrub Scrub

This year in Kindermusik we have talked a lot about doing things around the house. One of the songs is about cleaning the house. At the beginning of the year we sang "Dust Dust Dust" but lately we sing "Scrub Scrub Scrub." Dougie always enjoys singing it in Kindermusik and scrubbing the walls there.

Today, Dougie found a soft book and started using it to scrub my desk. I sang the song for him while he was doing it and he kept saying "aga" (again). I decided to get him a sponge so he could clean properly. He loved it. We sang and scrubbed for almost 20 minutes.

Sorting

We had Dougie's speech evaluated several weeks ago and the therapist asked if he could do several activities like sorting, matching, etc. It dawned on us that we had never asked him to do any of those things. So, we've decided to start trying to do a few more structured activities with him in addition to his reading time and the ever important play time. :)

Today was our first activity and we worked on sorting.

The Setup


Sorting




As you may be able to tell from the pictures, sorting is not currently Dougie's strength. He loved to put the little pompoms in the cups but he didn't really care which ones they went in. By the end, he was putting all the blue ones together but he never took to the brown or yellow. We plan to try again tomorrow at a different time of day and perhaps with some different colors.

Mystery of the Falling Pants

Occasionally, Dougie comes over with his pants down around his ankles. He's skinny and sometimes, he just isn't wide enough to keep his pants on. We have to buy the bigger size so they are long enough and they just don't make boys belts for kids this age. So, I dutifully pull them up and send him back on his way.



He doesn't mind it too much though he does like to be wearing pants. I have witnessed them slipping myself so I know that it does happen naturally but apparently, sometimes, they get help.



That was taken immediately after I had pulled them up. Perhaps we have been over accusing gravity.

More Pictures from the Park

Our chapter decided to have a second photo opportunity so we decided to try again for a few more pictures of Dougie. Here are some of the best:

Pictures in the Park

Our MOMS Club did a charity photo shoot recently. For $20 we could do 20 minutes of pictures and then had full rights to the finished pictures. It was a great deal and something we just couldn't turn down. Here are some of the ones we liked the best.

What happened to October?

Our poor neglected blog. I have no idea what happened to October but we're going to try to catch up now.

October, as always, turned out to be a very busy month. We made it to the pumpkin patch again this year. It was a lot busier so we had trouble getting pictures that didn't have people in them but we still got several really great shots.

Pretending to be a hippo






Dougie removed a bunch of these, this is him putting them back


After the pumpkin patch, Halloween seemed to just happen. Dougie was Clifford - The Big Red Dog. He LOVES Clifford. Obsessed with Clifford.

Here is Dougie with his stuffed Clifford.



And here he is dressed up.



We had three parties to attend again this year so we got good use out of the costume. It's designed for ages 2-4 so maybe he'll still love Clifford next year too. :)

Happy Thanksgiving

We had a nice quiet Thanksgiving this year. We decided to celebrate on Saturday because we weren't sure if Scott would have to fly out on Sunday night. It was a nice bit of family time.

This was our first Thanksgiving at home with Dougie so we made sure to expose him to all our various family traditions. One of these is pickles with dinner. Dougie had never tried a pickle before but they were a bit hit. Clearly, he is truly a Sharabura.





Hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

More Baking

Scott and Dougie did more baking this weekend. This time, it was oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. This was Dougie's most complicated recipe yet but he managed to do great!

It was a team effort


Not a tidy experience


Apparently, the chips had to go in individually


There are no pictures of the finished cookies because they didn't last long. They were the best cookies I've ever had. Here is the recipe for those of you who are interested.

Cowboy Oatmeal Cookies

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup margarine
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
3 cups quick cooking oats
1 cup chocolate chips
1 tsp vanilla

DIRECTIONS

Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; set aside.

In a medium bowl, cream margarine, oil, brown sugar, vanilla and white sugar until smooth. Beat in eggs one at a time. Gradually stir in the sifted ingredients until well blended. Mix in oats and chips. Chill mixture for 2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).

Drop from a teaspoon onto ungreased cookie sheets.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in preheated oven, or until edges are golden. Let set up on the cookie sheets for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

We Need a New Plan

A while ago, we shared with you a video of Dougie climbing onto his high chair. Since then, we have always been sure to put the tray on to ensure he can't climb up there. He's an excellent climber but his coming down skills still need work (see post from yesterday).

Apparently, our tray method is no longer effective.





Clearly, we need a new plan. We should just be happy that he's active, right? :)

Ouch!

Poor Dougie started this week off poorly. He was playing with his cars on the coffee table when something possessed him to get on it. He then attempted to get off but somehow slipped and fell onto the tile floor. Not good.

Once the crying stopped, he was just quiet but then he threw up. I had managed to do a quick search for "when to take your child to the doctor for a head injury" and that was top of the list. I call the doctor's office.

The nurse told us that bringing him in there wouldn't help because if he needed an x-ray of his head they weren't equipped to do that. She asked that we bring him directly to the children's hospital. So, off to Fort Worth we went. Several hours and one CT scan later, Dougie is just fine, though we certainly won't be posing for formal pictures anytime soon. :)

Here he is post hospital having a drink