Whipped Cream Fingerpainting

Many 4 year-olds need help with their fine motor skills: strengthening their little hands to prepare them for learning other school-related abilities like holding a pencil, tracing and then forming letters, cutting with scissors, etc. In our 4 year-old who has also experienced severe brain trauma, the area of fine motor skills is the only one where we can actually see a deficit or a weakness, and the only one that his neuropsychologist pinpointed as "below average" in comparison to other children his age.

Cody will begin Occupational Therapy in the next few months, but until then, I thought we could do a few activities at home to help develop those FM skills. So tonight (deliberately scheduled right before bath...hey, I'm no dummy), it was time for some whipped cream fingerpainting!

Luke was all over this, right from the start. Give him the opportunity to make a mess (on PURPOSE, no less), and he's first in line.

You can just see the glee. He thinks he's getting away with something...ON the table, covered in goo. He thinks it's only a matter of time until Mama loses it. Little stinker.

Then Luke ventured down to the other end of the table to help Jackson paint. At first he wasn't sure whether Jacks would be willing to share.

At Jackson's invitation, he dove right in.

Jacks tried to show Luke that the "paint" was actually pretty good to eat, too, but Luke was skeptical.

And then distracted by the fact that it was all over his legs.

Undeterred, Luke decided it was time for his America's Next Top Model impersonation.

"And I do my little turn on the catwalk..."

Ah. Now we see where he's going with this.

Target acquired.

Confident he could make an already large mess even more satisfying, Luke attempts to empty the contents of the can into an already full tray.

"Hey, this thing is broken! Mine's broken!"

Meanwhile, Jackson continued to eat the paint. Yummy!

And where was Cody, during all of this artistic, fine motor skill-developing merriment?

Playing dress-up. Apparently Bumblebee decided that whipped cream was "Ew." :)

Jackson's First Basketball Game

Jackson played his first basketball game this morning. He was very excited to get started and couldn't wait to get out there with his team, The Lightning.
See the wristbands the boys are wearing below? It's a very clever system they have for identifying who their man is (ie, for you non-basketball players, that's who they are supposed to be defending). Jackson is wearing a black sweatband, so the boy on the opposite team wearing a matching black band is his man.Practicing dribbling the ball and shooting is fun, but I don't think Jackson realized that the games would involve so much running. He was worn out by the end!Each player got a turn to do the inbounds pass and bring the ball up the floor after the other team has made a basket. Here, it's Jackson's. Our dribbling skills are a work in progress. :)I'm just so proud of him. He's the youngest kiddo on the team and the only one who hasn't played before, so he's at something of a disadvantage. But he's picking it up quickly and working hard. He won the Good Sportsmanship star for the game today (each player gets a different colored star after each game which we'll iron on to his game shirt) and said he had fun. I hope he learns to love basketball as much as his Daddy and I do, whether he continues to play over the years or not. His just giving it a shot (pun intended) has made us very proud.

Fun in the Sun

We went to Firewheel mall on Thursday to enjoy the warm weather before the weekend's cold front hit. It was sunny and breezy and the big boys had a wonderful time playing in the fountain and climbing over all the rocks.
Meanwhile, Luke preferred to sit and observe from the comfort of his stroller. However, never let it be said that he was bored. Here's one of his latest favorite games, entitled "Belly Belly Belly."

Wanna see my belly? Tee hee!
Peek-a-boo, here it is!Haha, that's all you get! Bye-bye, belly!
Cody had a little accident involving his shoes and the water...so he got some new boots at Gymboree. Think he likes 'em?
And we capped off the afternoon with a delicious cookie. I think Luke enjoyed his, although once again he's wearing more of it than could possibly have gone into his tummy, so it'd be hard to tell. Except for this:
Yeah, I think he liked it. :)

Transformation

What's going on? Someone replaced the 4 year-old little boy I know with this...young man! Not that he's not extremely handsome, but please bring back the other version of Cody immediately. I'm not ready for him to look this grown up!

See all the drama a haircut can cause?

Happy New Year!

We had a ridiculously silly and spectacularly fun New Year's Eve at Casa Miller this year. The boys decided they wanted to eat Boston Market for dinner, so we brought it home and ate it off of our formal Wedgwood china. We tasted some sparkling grape juice (our bubbly) from our Waterford crystal wine glasses. And we enjoyed the whole meal by candlelight. It was great! For dessert, we made some very tasty New Year's cupcakes. Jacks and Cody were happy to lend a hand with the frosting. And by that I mean occasionally putting some ON the cupcakes while mostly licking it off their fingers. ;)
Note the tongue poking out of the corner of his mouth in this one...he was frosting those cupcakes with Michael Jordan-esque intensity and concentration. :)Luke mainly toddled around eating all the cupcakes and making goofy faces.
But Anthony decided to play with my camera last night and he took a bunch of Luke and Mama.
Mama gave Luke a kiss, so he decided to reciprocate...a little less teeth next time might be nice. Finally, Cody and Anthony made these fun numbers and so we posed for our official New Year's portrait. Happy 2009! May your year be filled with love and laughter.