An Apple a Day Keeps the Doctor Away

If the old saying is true - "An Apple a Day Keeps the Doctor Away" - then Ben should be in good shape! Ben has this love for my bowl of fake display apples. He LOVES to play with them... and not in the way you would think. Since the apples are so motivating, I figured this was the perfect time to work on having Ben use his sign language (Ben has shown us through picture cards that he recognizes the sign for about 60 nouns/verbs, but was only signing two things himself - "more" and "shoes"). So I started working on "sit" and "apples". Both requests he needs to do for apple play. "Sit" is because he needs us to sit him in his highchair first. It is amazing what a little motivation can do. It only took a day or two of hand over hand every time he wanted the apples for Ben to realize that when he signed these two things, he got EXACTLY that. I didn't start taking the video until after he signed "sit" but did get him doing "apple" and "more" and EVEN using them together to request more apples!

Pillow Talk

Ben recently started using a pillow. Even though Ben still needs to be in a crib for safety reasons, dad still thought he would be more comfortable with a little pillow under his head (and I figured typical kids would have a pillow at this age, so why not). I found the perfect one online and Ben took right to it. And I do think he is sleeping better on it - doesn't toss and turn as much. Here is Ben enjoying a nap on his new pillow (yes, he is sleeping in the photos but does so with open eyes because of his facial palsy).

School Photos

Ben’s fall school pictures came back today… he wasn’t cooperating with them this year and they took him down on three different occasions to try and get a good photo. The picture place sent home two packets for me to pick my favorite. I liked both for different reasons – one he is angry and getting ready to pull off his trach nose, which will always remind me of what Ben was doing at this age… a lot of trach pulling. The other he is wearing his implant and showing off his cute cowlick at the back of his head, which I also like. I called to see how much extra I would have to pay to keep both and was thrilled when I was told nothing. So here are both shots.

All good things come to an end...

Ben's soccer season is officially over and he had his last Hippo-Therapy session for the fall. We've grown accustomed to having all these activities to take Ben to, I don't know what we are going to do with ourselves now. It's going to be a LOOONNNNG winter for Ben :)

Trick-or-Treat

Ben was a giraffe this Halloween. I under-estimated his size, so his costume didn't fit. After a few modifications, we made it work.

Or so I though... the hood wouldn't stay on. So Ben went as the headless giraffe and his car became part of the costume.

Something about the padded belly gave Ben super strength and he kept on getting on his stomach and pushing up really high... higher than ever before! I've saved the costume for future therapy sessions.

Pumpkin Patch

I wanted to go to a real pumpkin patch this year with Ben where you could actually go in the fields and pick pumpkins (we recently purchased a van and now we can fit his wagon in the back). The patch I choose was close to home, but was a real working farm so it ended up being inaccessible for Ben's wagon - I don't know why I thought it would be, but I did. And as it turns out, Ben isn't a fan of pumpkins. It could have something to do with the fact that he wanted to go for a long, quick moving wagon ride, not a stop-and-look/take pictures ride. We grabbed three pumpkins by the checkout, snapped a few quick pictures, picked up Ben's thrown sunglasses and hat about 10 times (he does this when he is angry), paid and left. This all happened in about 5 minutes. Don't think we will be doing this again next year because it ended up being better in theory than reality. But nonetheless, here are our photos...

Even Dad couldn't convince Ben that stopping to take a photo was ok.

If you click on this photo to enlarge it, you can see the field of pumpkins. So neat!

I tried to get Ben to pose with a little pumpkin... he tried to push it out of the wagon.

Charge It For CHARGE

I know times are tight for everyone, but if you give a holiday donation to an organization, please consider the CHARGE Foundation. And no amount of money is too small. The CHARGE Foundation can use every penny donated.

Right now we are participating in the "Charge It for CHARGE" campaign - we would really LOVE to reach our goal! This is the first year we have participated.

We were fortunate enough to receive a first-time attendee scholarship from the Foundation to attend the biennial CHARGE Conference this past June. The conference was life-changing for us and we learned so much. Without the scholarship, we may not have been able to go. The Foundation relies on donations from this current annual campaign to fund publications, research programs and the biennial international conferences. They do so much for individuals and families affected by CHARGE.

To support our Family team, visit:
https://www.kintera.org/faf/donorReg/donorPledge.asp?ievent=324400&supId=273901083