Capturing Life's Precious Moments...by Justina Hafely Photography

While we were in Ohio, we had some beautiful pictures taken of Kylie. A friend of mine from way back when had just recently started her own photography business, and she did a great job capturing some sweet moments of Kylie.

I thought of doing a slideshow of all of the pictures, but then I thought you could enjoy the beauty of them more one by one. Enjoy!

*Click on the logo to link to Justina Hafely Photography's site.

Getting Funky!

I have mentioned in past posts about us going to Funky Mama concerts. Kylie loves the music, and Funky Mama is so incredible, fun, and sweet, that we try to go to her concerts whenever we are available. We have chatted with Funky Mama a few times and she knows us now, so she always asks how Kylie is doing and is just so sweet!


I had gotten a bit off track from following Funky Mama, but our friend Bobbie let me know she was having an upcoming concert out at Park Place, so we added it to our MUST DO list last week.


As luck would have it, I forgot my camera, but Bobbie had hers and took some great pics and sent them to me...yay for Bobbie!


Here is a pic of the whole crew that we sat with to enjoy the show:

Just on the edge of her seat/blanket waiting for Funky Mama to start!

It is so incredibly cute to watch little kids dance around...even cuter when it's Kylie and Dylan!

During a brief intermission, the kids thought it would be fun to check out the fountains. Like how I named them in the pic below :)







Funky Mama has this super fun song "Pop n Hop" it is about popcorn and the kids get down low and she tells them to feel the ground because it is hot, and when she yells POP, they all jump up like they are popcorn popping. Anyhow, Funky Mama was singing a new song and asked the kids to get down low...Kylie immediately thought of the popcorn song, so she was about to blow on her hands in the pic below after checking for the hot ground...cuteness!

This is my all time favorite pic that Bobbie sent us...just look to see why :)

Matt took some cell phone video of Kylie dancing and it is pretty darn cute too! Below are 2 videos mushed together...the first one is up close, as Kylie was dancing right next to us, and the next one is when Kylie went to dance up front with the other kids...woohoo Kylie! Just look for the little girl in the yellow top and you will see her bouncing all around.

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
www.onetruemedia.com

So why is all this so blog worthy? Well because it is Kylie and everything she does is cute and amazing!

Mostly because in the past she would be so excited to go see Funky Mama perform, but her sensory issues and anxiety would take over and she would just sit there and be very much stressed out. If we ever tried to encourage her to dance she would scream and get so upset.

This time was different, and it was so great for us to see how happy Kylie was when she got comfortable and started dancing...she even wandered up front with the other kids and danced all over. Yes, it made me cry...more than once :) I was so proud of her!

It totally helped that a couple little girls were dressed up as princesses, so she said she wanted to go see princesses and that meant she had to go up around the other kids and find them. Hey, whatever it takes is okay for us...to see her smile and have such a great time with something that used to make her so uncomfortable was great for us to see!

Way to go Kylie!

Thanks to Funky Mama for sharing your music with us and watching Kylie grow and be Funky!

Get on Board with Team Kylie!

Hey all, for those of you that have been following the blog for some time now, you have come to know that Kylie has recently enrolled at the Lee Ann Britain Infant Development Center.



*This pic was taken on the last day of class at the Britain Center for their end of Summer Celebration

The Lee Ann Britain Center is currently raising money for their scholarship program. I want you to know that if it were not for the scholarship program, Kylie would not be there. It is through this program that Kylie is able to receive OT for her sensory issues, as well as be enrolled in their toddler class. This is where she can utilized the skills that she learns in OT, and it gives her the opportunity to interact with peers and further develop her social skills and overcome her anxieties.

WOW...all of that in one place! I know, it sure is amazing!

So will you help? Will you donate to the Britain Center on behalf of Kylie?

If this sounds like something you would like to do...click here to link to Kylie's page.

Rain drops...and tear drops

Okay, so I am pretty tired and was planning to go to bed, but I just keep thinking about today. We had a garage sale with our neighbors today and it started to rain a bit....of course, right? Anyhow, our neighbor (Jessica) started singing the Rain Drop song:



What if all the rain drops
were lemon drops and gum drops
Oh what a rain that would be....


Anyhow, Kylie looked at me and said "Where I hear that?" I told her that Miss Shannon (her OT) sang it to her at therapy this past week. Kylie is one to always try to link things together...I swear she has this giant puzzle in her little head of all the things she knows and where they all fit :)

*I took this pic just before dinner this evening



After we all rested and showered up, we went over to our neighbors for dinner and to celebrate our successful garage sale. Jessica started singing the song again...Kylie loves it and even began requesting it. Well, the next part of the song goes something like:



We all stand outside
with our mouths open wide
Going ahh ahh aah ahh ahh ahh ahh ahh ahh ahh



Well...Kylie doesn't like doing silly things like that or anything where someone might watch her...it makes her pretty well stressed or overly giddy. But she really wanted to do it, and having any sort of audience is tough for her, especially when she wants to try something or we are trying to get her to try something for the first time.



So she ran in their sunroom and said, "I do it in here so momma and dadda can't see me." This is where the tear drop part of the blog post title comes in.



I was so proud of her for trying it...for being smart enough to find a comfortable place to singing, and I felt sad that it is hard for her to do....so yeah, I started to cry.



It was mainly coupled with the fact that we have been seeing lots of crazy head stuff in the past couple of days, so it makes for a weepy momma and a stomach twisted dadda (though he would never tell you).



We know that her head going way back doesn't hurt her, but it scares us and makes us worry. Worry that she may lose her balance and fall, and just plain old worry about her.

I guess one of my biggest things about it all, is that it stops us from enjoying watching Kylie laugh and get all excited, because when we see her head go back so far...it just makes us feel sick and worry, and I don't like that these head things are getting in the way of us watching our child be joyful.

I don't know if it was before or after my tears, but I tried to get some video of the singing. Sorry, the footage isn't the greatest, but it is cute too!

*You may need to turn your volume up a bit

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Retail Therapy

I have a few posts that I need to do, but was so excited about my latest project for Kylie, that I wanted to share it ASAP!



So some time ago, when we were with ITSJC (before they kicked Kylie out...sounds harsh, but that's how it felt), they had started us on this Stickids program. I remember thinking how great it all sounded, but it was kind of hard to implement. Not because it is difficult to work with, but because you really need to figure out all things sensory to know what to do and when to do them.



I remember when we got our sheets from ITSJC, it was like 5 pages worth of these little cards of activities...it was overwhelming to say the least. I felt hopeful because our OT at the time was going to set us up with a calendar of sorts and plug the activities in to help me see what to do and when to do things.....unfortunately that never came. Not just because Kylie's services were discontinued, but because there wasn't much follow through with the OT.



No worries, because our new OT at the Lee Ann Britain Infant Development Center is so AWESOME and is working on all of these things with us. So much so, that I feel like I can really know when to do which type of activity with Kylie....yay for progress for mommy!



So the good thing about having all the old sheets of activities was that I could use them to create this wonderful game for Kylie, without it seeming all too therapy like for me and Kylie....I have a hard time when I see these things as therapy, because I want to Kylie to have no bumps in the road with her learning and development, and when I see them in black and white, it makes me weepy.



So onto some clarity regarding the title of this post. Okay, so right now I have the little cards from the Stickids sensory processing program in these little envelopes that I picked up at Joanns. I labeled them for the different categories (Motion, Heavy Work, Retreat, etc.), but the problem is you can't really shuffle the cards around inside of them, so Kylie ends up picking the same activity over and over again.



Here is a pic of our current system:

As you can see, the envelopes are flat and the cards tend to just all lay on top of one another, and well...you get the point.









So are you ready for my creation?



I'm sure at this point you are trying so hard to figure out what Retail Therapy has to do with OT and sensory, and all things considered.



Okay so here goes:

Click on the pic to enlarge...way cuter when you can see them more clearly!



Isn't it the cutest thing ever :) I am just so proud that I thought of this all by myself, and best of all.... I created it. I often find things online and just recreate them...like a lot of my sewing projects where I just use someone else's pattern.



So the tops of the purses are open to put all of the cards into them. Plenty of room to shuffle around in there. There are 6 categories in the Stickids program, which is why I made 6 purses. We often only use 3 or 4 categories, so we can always use the extra purses to put in the cards that we used...to minimize any chances of repeating an activity.




Here is a pic of the cards we use....these particular ones are on a key ring that Kylie's new OT put together for me...so I can keep them in my purse for when we are not at home.

I just thought that since Kylie loves to play dress up and carry around a purse, that this was the perfect way to make things even more fun for her...and me :) She already loves playing the "card game" that is what we call it right now, but I'm sure she will enjoy it even more when she sees that she can pick the cards out of the purses.

So how in the world did I make this board of purses?

*First off, get a board of some sort and cover it with fabric....I used a cork board.

*Then make your little purses...I thought of using felt, but I felt like the options would have been limited and I would of had to do more crafty things to make them cute. I used some of my fabric scraps, and I used some fusible stabilizer to make them more sturdy.

-Note the internet is your friend...so use it to find different styles of purses, so you can create a variety.

*Then I got some velcro to attach them to the board...that way they can be removed or rearranged.

I still may get some jewelry and have Kylie help me decorate the board to make it more fun and a bit more girly :)

Feel free to let me know your thoughts and which purse is your favorite. I personally love the tote bag!

Ohio....and the beat goes on

So I too over 400 pics while we were in Ohio, which totally explains why I am still posting about our trip :)



Now, I don't know how well this pic shows it, but I had fallen asleep on the couch or something, and my mom found Kylie in the master bath putting on some lotion. It wasn't just lotion, it was some lotion that kind of shimmers. She had put it on her face, so she was a bit sparkly on her cheeks.











My sister had come over to visit with Kylie, and I was able to capture some cute pics of them playing together.

Aunt Jen trying to get Kylie...Kylie is getting ready to take off, and already giggling!

Looks like Aunt Jen got Kylie!

I did some editing with this one, and I love it!

I don't know where Kylie found them, but she had a bag of chalk and was ready to decorate Grandma Karen and Papa Joe's driveway.

Kylie got Uncle Joey to help :)

Isn't this so cute?!

Uncle Joey getting Kylie...love her smile!










Racing Uncle Joey...they did this time and time again...really cute!

Uh oh....looks like Uncle Joey and Kylie have a case of the giggles :)

While we were in Ohio we were able to see the annual 4th of July parade in McDonald and go to the festival too. We actually planned our visit, so that we would be there when this was all going on. Kylie's follow-up with Dr. Ghosh was supposed to be the end of July, and we changed it. I really wanted Kylie to experience the things I looked forward to when I was growing up.

Kylie and Matt waiting for the parade to begin.






While waiting for the parade to start, Kylie noticed her shadow and was making a moose :)

Checking to see what is going on down the street

The parade was just beginning...Kylie was thinking it was too loud.

McDonld High School Marching Band









Some clowns...every parade just has to have them!

Kylie running to get some candy...she ended up with enough to last her 'til next Halloween!

Girl Scout troops!

I don't remember what she was saying...she sure is cute though!







Matt was so excited to see this baseball team...they were called the Royals...just like here in KC!

This is a note to all parade attendees....watch out for the little guys on the baseball teams that are in the parade, they will pelt you with the candy. Something that has been like that since I was a kid...Matt was shocked and laughing all at once.



Like every little festival, there are games to play and rides to go on. As we walked by one game, Kylie had her first meltdown over not getting her way. She sooooooo wanted to play this fishing game (go figure) and we told her we had to get tickets....come to find out we didn't need to get tickets, but anyway she got to play with her daddy and loved it!

Kylie and Matt as they were about to get off the Berry go Round.

On our last night in town, we went to play putt putt with my parents. Kylie had fun, but I think she also enjoyed running away repeatedly and having us chase her. Her Grandma Nancy would be proud of her playing, because she loves to golf!

Papa Joe taking a swing

Grandma Karen taking a wack at it

Kylie beat us all...whenever Papa Joe asked what her score was on each hole she said 2!

Super cute...Kylie and Papa Joe playing on the practice green.

Kylie cheering that she won!

Right across from the Putt Putt was an ice cream stand...super convenient. Kylie was checking to see where she measured up. Ding Ding....free cone for Kylie!

The girl asked if Kylie wanted a face on it, and we didn't know what to expect...look how cute!

I think Kylie's got a pretty cute face here to go along with the one on her cone :)

After eating her ice cream cone, Matt thought it was the perfect time to teach Kylie how to catch lightning bugs. I can say it was so sweet watching them together running around to catch some lightning bugs and then hear her squeal in delight when she got one.

I am amazed that she was okay with having them in her hands....as noted above, Matt did this with her not me....no thanks :)

Here is some video I got of them...sorry it was kinda dark, so it's a bit grainy.

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com