Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Just Finished Evan's 3rd Year Book!
I can't believe Evan will be 3 on January 2nd! I feel so blessed to have such a sweet boy! He has grown so much over the last year and brought our family so much happiness!
Sunday, November 27, 2011
Therapy and Apps
Evan started Aquatic Therapy last week. We have been working with All Children's Hospital to try to get Evan on the schedule. When a temporary spot became available, we jumped at the opportunity and took it. Hopefully they will have a full time spot available after the new year.
Evan loves the water and it is a huge motivator for him. He did great for his first session and smiled the whole time! The therapist is wonderful with him. She put weights on his legs/arms and got him to kick in the water to help strengthen his legs/arms. Evan loved all the big gross motor exercises. She did some work with his hands to see about getting him to hold small toys. He did pretty well with the vibrating toys.
After the session, the therapist told me he did wonderful, but that he was going to react in one of two ways. He was rather going to sleep a lot or be up all night! I am happy to report he slept great that night :)
Evan loves the ipad2 his grandparents got for him. Here is a cute video of him playing with his favorite app, fireworks.
I am amazed to see how quickly Evan has responded to his ipad! Here are the apps he likes…
1. I Love Fireworks Lite- (Free) Great for cause and effect. This is one of Evan’s favorites!
2. Magic Piano- Great for cause and effect. This is also a favorite!
3. Drum Kit XL- (Free) Another one for cause and effect.
4. Bubbles- The app fills your iPad with tons of virtual bubbles that can be popped. The bubbles create life like popping sounds when popped. This one doesn't hold Evan's attention very long.
5. Fluidity- (Free) Visual, interactive app. Looks like a lava lamp. Is good for Evan’s sensory processing challenges.
6. Doodle Buddy- (Free) The app gives Evan the option to finger paint and easily drop in cute stamps.
7. Sound Touch- There are cute cartoon images for Evan to touch. Touching an image brings up a real life photo of the item, accompanied by the sound it makes. Each item has 4-5 sounds and photos. Evan's therapist started using this one with him.
8. Peekaboo Barn- Evan loves opening the barn doors to find the animals. This app helps him learns about cause and effect and helps him become familiar with animal names and sounds. Definitely one of his favorites!
9. Bus HD- Interactive musical book, The Wheels on the Bus. I have to do a lot of this for him, but he loves to watch.
10. Baby See- This app has a series of contrasting, black and white, moving images.
11. ABA Flash Cards – Emotions- (Free) There flashcards show children with different emotions. You can also make your own custom flashcards. I added pictures of Evan’s family, friends, and toys he plays with on a regular basis. I like that I can also use my voice to record the flashcard titles.
12. Choice Board Creator- (Free) This app is great for creating customizable choice boards. It reinforces correct choice by playing an auditory reward. This app is advanced for where Evan is developmentally, but practice makes perfect!
13. Word Totz- Flashcards- This app has built-in cards organized into categories. Also this app has the option to create custom cards with your own pictures, and record your own titles.
14. Talking Tom2- (Free) Cute interactive app. Tom will repeat every noise Evan makes in a funny voice.
15. Talking Dino (Free)- Like Talking Tom2, the dino will repeat everything. It's a cute app!
Evan loves the water and it is a huge motivator for him. He did great for his first session and smiled the whole time! The therapist is wonderful with him. She put weights on his legs/arms and got him to kick in the water to help strengthen his legs/arms. Evan loved all the big gross motor exercises. She did some work with his hands to see about getting him to hold small toys. He did pretty well with the vibrating toys.
After the session, the therapist told me he did wonderful, but that he was going to react in one of two ways. He was rather going to sleep a lot or be up all night! I am happy to report he slept great that night :)
Evan loves the ipad2 his grandparents got for him. Here is a cute video of him playing with his favorite app, fireworks.
I am amazed to see how quickly Evan has responded to his ipad! Here are the apps he likes…
1. I Love Fireworks Lite- (Free) Great for cause and effect. This is one of Evan’s favorites!
2. Magic Piano- Great for cause and effect. This is also a favorite!
3. Drum Kit XL- (Free) Another one for cause and effect.
4. Bubbles- The app fills your iPad with tons of virtual bubbles that can be popped. The bubbles create life like popping sounds when popped. This one doesn't hold Evan's attention very long.
5. Fluidity- (Free) Visual, interactive app. Looks like a lava lamp. Is good for Evan’s sensory processing challenges.
6. Doodle Buddy- (Free) The app gives Evan the option to finger paint and easily drop in cute stamps.
7. Sound Touch- There are cute cartoon images for Evan to touch. Touching an image brings up a real life photo of the item, accompanied by the sound it makes. Each item has 4-5 sounds and photos. Evan's therapist started using this one with him.
8. Peekaboo Barn- Evan loves opening the barn doors to find the animals. This app helps him learns about cause and effect and helps him become familiar with animal names and sounds. Definitely one of his favorites!
9. Bus HD- Interactive musical book, The Wheels on the Bus. I have to do a lot of this for him, but he loves to watch.
10. Baby See- This app has a series of contrasting, black and white, moving images.
11. ABA Flash Cards – Emotions- (Free) There flashcards show children with different emotions. You can also make your own custom flashcards. I added pictures of Evan’s family, friends, and toys he plays with on a regular basis. I like that I can also use my voice to record the flashcard titles.
12. Choice Board Creator- (Free) This app is great for creating customizable choice boards. It reinforces correct choice by playing an auditory reward. This app is advanced for where Evan is developmentally, but practice makes perfect!
13. Word Totz- Flashcards- This app has built-in cards organized into categories. Also this app has the option to create custom cards with your own pictures, and record your own titles.
14. Talking Tom2- (Free) Cute interactive app. Tom will repeat every noise Evan makes in a funny voice.
15. Talking Dino (Free)- Like Talking Tom2, the dino will repeat everything. It's a cute app!
Friday, November 11, 2011
Video Montage
Here is a video montage I made of Evan learning how to walk! I got this wonderful idea from another WHS mom and had to make one for my little man :) It is amazing to see how far he has come! Grow Grow Grow!
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Disney
Our family trip to Disney exceeded all of our expectations. Disney is truly a magical place!
On Thursday morning we left our house and headed to Chef Mickey's at Disney's Contemporary Resort for our 10:40 am reservation. We decided to do the breakfast to give Evan a chance to meet the characters. I was not sure how he would react, but though it would be less stressful for him to meet the character this way rather then standing in the long lines at Disney. Well, Evan was not a fan of the characters at all. He screamed and clung on to Dan for dear life. Dan and I were surprised by this reaction since he usually doesn't get scared or show fear.
So I ended up taking a picture with Mini and Dan got his picture with Goofy! Evan was more then happy to watch the characters from a distance.
We stayed at the All Star Sports Hotel. There was so much to see and explore. Evan had a blast running around the football field!
Thanks to heated pools, we even got to go for a swim in November!
We ended our first day of our trip at the Boardwalk. We ate an early dinner at the ESPN Club and played around on some of the arcade games before heading back to the hotel. We wanted to get Evan to bed early so he would be well rested for the Magic Kingdom.
We got to the park right when it opened and got to see the characters arrive on the tram and preform a welcome song. Then we headed over to the Harmony's Barber Shop for Evan's first hair cut. Evan did not like the scissors and started to cry. The lady cutting his hair tried to pull out all the tricks to get Evan to cooperate, she had stickers, bubbles, a light up spinning toy... nothing worked. She ended up getting the clippers out and Evan thought that this was hillarious and went into a fit of giggles!
This made the rest of the hair cut much more enjoyable.
I was sad to see his baby curls go, but love his new big boy hair cut. It is amazing to us how much older he looks now. Evan got a cute certificate and Mickey Mouse Ears. I got some of his sweet baby curls to add to his baby book :)
I loved seeing Evan experience his first big boy ride, Dumbo. He smiled ear to ear the whole ride.
Here are some of my favorite pictures from our trip...
On the way home Dan and I talked about how much we enjoyed experiencing Disney with Evan. Having kids makes going to Disney so magical. We are so lucky to live so close! We are already planning when we want to go back :)
On Thursday morning we left our house and headed to Chef Mickey's at Disney's Contemporary Resort for our 10:40 am reservation. We decided to do the breakfast to give Evan a chance to meet the characters. I was not sure how he would react, but though it would be less stressful for him to meet the character this way rather then standing in the long lines at Disney. Well, Evan was not a fan of the characters at all. He screamed and clung on to Dan for dear life. Dan and I were surprised by this reaction since he usually doesn't get scared or show fear.
So I ended up taking a picture with Mini and Dan got his picture with Goofy! Evan was more then happy to watch the characters from a distance.
We stayed at the All Star Sports Hotel. There was so much to see and explore. Evan had a blast running around the football field!
Thanks to heated pools, we even got to go for a swim in November!
We ended our first day of our trip at the Boardwalk. We ate an early dinner at the ESPN Club and played around on some of the arcade games before heading back to the hotel. We wanted to get Evan to bed early so he would be well rested for the Magic Kingdom.
We got to the park right when it opened and got to see the characters arrive on the tram and preform a welcome song. Then we headed over to the Harmony's Barber Shop for Evan's first hair cut. Evan did not like the scissors and started to cry. The lady cutting his hair tried to pull out all the tricks to get Evan to cooperate, she had stickers, bubbles, a light up spinning toy... nothing worked. She ended up getting the clippers out and Evan thought that this was hillarious and went into a fit of giggles!
This made the rest of the hair cut much more enjoyable.
I was sad to see his baby curls go, but love his new big boy hair cut. It is amazing to us how much older he looks now. Evan got a cute certificate and Mickey Mouse Ears. I got some of his sweet baby curls to add to his baby book :)
I loved seeing Evan experience his first big boy ride, Dumbo. He smiled ear to ear the whole ride.
Here are some of my favorite pictures from our trip...
On the way home Dan and I talked about how much we enjoyed experiencing Disney with Evan. Having kids makes going to Disney so magical. We are so lucky to live so close! We are already planning when we want to go back :)
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