Wednesday, February 25, 2009

I'll tell you when I'm ready to go

Today we had an interesting experience.

Bright Eyes did not want to go to preschool and did the whole scream and cry routine. He shut himself in his room, so I gave up and said, "We'll go later."

"I need to be by myself in my room," he said.

"Okay," I agreed.

Five minutes later I heard this: "You can come in now," so I went in and helped him come out with me. We started to talk gently about preschool and he said to me, "I'll tell you when I'm ready to go to preschool."

"Okay," I said. "Are you ready to go now?"

"No, not yet. I'm still patting the dog."

"How about we do 10 more pats and then we'll go," I suggested.

"20 more pats," he said.

"15," I negotiated.

After 15 pats, we went happily, and I mean really happily, to preschool. And he had a great day.

Monday, February 9, 2009

Brothers


Bright Eyes and his best friend/worst enemy little brother Jamesie.

Focus time

Big sister went off to art class and little brother was at daycare today so Bright Eyes and I had some really good focus time, working on our RDI objectives.

I thought it would be good to get out of the house for a bit, so we spent 1.5 hours hanging around town. We read library books, went to the bank, saw the train station, rode in the lift, went to the park, played trains and headed back to the library again.

Along the way, I kept commenting on things that looked like other things. "Wow - that building looks like our church a bit" or "This lift is just like the lift at the Powerhouse Museum" or "Oh, there's a camera just like Dad's."

This is to get him aware that he can compare familiar situations to new ones and find similarities with other things he knows already.

I did get two comments from him. One was about the park: "Oh, that looks like our garden," and the other about a red POST van we saw: "Oh, it's just like Postman Pat's van."

A second objective is about finding alternative ways to do things. So I kept introducing new ideas. "Hmmm, we could go this way and cross there, or we could cross here, and walk up there," or "We could read this book first, or maybe it would be good to read this one first."

It was a good time together and I think we are getting somewhere on the objective.

Saturday, February 7, 2009

... or not to weigh




We borrowed some old scales from a friend to play with for a while. The children are enjoying comparing the weights of objects around the house. We even weighed our pet rats!

Not ready yet

We tried to beat the heat today by riding in our airconditioned car to the airconditioned Powerhouse Museum where we thought we could have a few good hours of exploration.

Unfortunately, however, we realised Bright Eyes is not ready to hit a venue so full of stimulating sounds and sights. We could literally see him getting flooded. He turned bossy, controlling, anxious and loud. After a reasonable attempt for the rest of the family, we left for icecreams and headed home.

Maybe we'll try again next year.

Monday, February 2, 2009

Donut surprise

Of all the expensive kitchen appliances I've bought for the purpose of creating better things to eat for my picky food child Bright Eyes, the $17 donut maker from Big W has been the most successful.

The problem with a lot of gluten free cooking is that it just seems to crumble apart. I have not had good success with cookies and muffins. However, if you put the same batter in the donut maker it comes out so together you wouldn't even know it was GFCF.

Today's recipe is a lucky success: Zucchini and Banana donuts. Here's how I did it.

Peel (to get rid of the green bits for hiding purposes) and steam a zucchini. Whizz together with a ripe banana into a disgusting looking mash.
Cream 150g butter with 3tsp sugar.
Add the zucchini/banana mix.
Add one egg.
Mix in 1 tsp baking powder and about 3/4 - 1 cup of GF flour. (Honestly, I measured nothing, so I'm guessing. You need a relatively thick batter.)
Spoon into the donut maker and cook the donuts.
Ice with a thin coat of chocolate icing (just icing sugar, cocoa and water)

It might work in a waffle maker or small pancake maker too. The last batch of donuts had sweet potato in them, so you could try any type of pureed vegetable.

I'm pleased I made them with a banana because I'm not tempted to eat them at all, bananas being my least favourite food (besides liver).

Sunday, February 1, 2009

Happy happy happy happy happy

Fanfare: boom dish boom dish tah-dah. Bright Eyes has made a friend!

I walked in to preschool to pick him up from his first day back on Wednesday last week and I saw him hand in hand with a little boy. The two of them came up to me and the little pal said, "Could we have a few more minutes to play some more?"

Flabbergasted, I said, "Of course (heck, kid, go do what you want)" and made big eyes to the preschool teacher.

"They've been like that all day," she said. "They are playing together and enjoying the same things. They just clicked from the start."

The little fella (and I'll have to name him Buddy I think) is about 4 and was not in the class last year. He loves cars and trains and all the things that Bright Eyes loves so they are a good match.

Day Two was the same. The teacher showed me a photograph she took of Bright Eyes sitting next to Buddy in group time, with his arm around his shoulders. I walked out floating.

This is really the first friendship. I'm going to try to have Buddy around to play if it keeps going. If that happens, it will be Bright Eyes' first real playdate. And you'll hear about it.

Just when I thought I couldn't get enough happy things in one week, this morning for the first time ever, Bright Eyes went to Sunday school and stayed in for the whole class. It's a new class, with only one other little boy in it (also about 4, and looking exactly like Buddy), so that will be perfect for him.

Thanks for sharing my happiness!