blatant random silliness

as time goes by

So, wow, I let another whole summer go by without blogging.  In my defense, I have been quite busy.  A new baby + lots of design jobs + gardening + getting as much outside time as possible with the family = much less time for blogging.

Now, however, I'm getting caught up with work.  And I have more time for work.  So, I can squeeze in some time to catch up with my blogging.  My plan of attack:  a post about each of the kids and how they've grown over the summer, a post about the garden, and a post about the fun we've had travelling around and in our own backyard.  And once all of that is done, I pinkie pledge to blog more.  Especially now that we'll be inside a whole lot more.  And baby girl is napping more regularly.  And Dylan has his tutoring at the new Behavior Matter's clinic in the mornings and preschool in the afternoon.  It all adds up to more time for Mom.  At least until Sasha's two  to three naps move to one. 

It's September and fall is upon us.  Summer is short here in Alaska.  We had some warm times in June and July, lots of rain in August and now the leaves are vibrant shades of yellow and orange and fall everytime the wind blows.  This morning it was 43º.  I'm just waiting for that first frost and hoping I get what needs to be gotten out of the garden before that happens.

And now, its time to go wake a sleeping baby (I do hate doing that), put her directly in her carseat and go pick up Dylan for the "lets get home and eat lunch before the bus comes" rush.

More soon.  I promise.  :)

Dylan and "The Elephant in the Playroom"

Here we are after walking in the Alaska Walk for Autism with the Behavior Matters team.

I just recently I read a fantastic book called " The Elephant in the Playroom: Ordinary Parents Write Intimately and Honestly About the Extraordinary Highs and Heartbreaking Lows of Raising Kids with Special Needs".  The book is filled with wonderful essays from parents of children with all sorts of special needs, from autism to ADHD and beyond.  

I first wrote about Dylan's Austism Spectrum Disorder in this lengthy post back in February.  But, I never really wrote about how we, as parents, feel and deal with his day to day highs and lows.  Reading "The Elephant in the Playroom" really made me think about those highs and lows.  And also really made me think about just how good we have it with Dylan.  How much worse things could be.  I was inspired by the parents' essays and learned some good tips about education and philosphy of life.  

One of the most beautiful things I learned was to dive into Dylan's world more than I do.  Here is a quote from the essay "Dutch Boy" by Anna Perera:  "When I first learned of his diagnosis, I was determined to pull him into my world.  I sat endlessly trying to make him speak, make him look, make him do.  And then slowly I began to realize that his world is beautiful too.  So I stopped trying to yank him into my world and instead tried to enter his."

I love the concept of joining Dylan in his world.  I think I already do this more than I know.  And when I get frustrated or down, I just remember that his world is beautiful too, and I can be a part of that.  That gives me strength.  Dylan's world is full of letters and numbers and words and songs.  He likes to recite the alphabet and words that go with each letter.  He likes the alphabet sounds.  He likes anything to do with letters and numbers.  And as much as that can get old to us, it's his world.  

For us, the downs of an autism spectrum disorder are more annoyances for us than anything.  Dylan perseverates (which means obsesses) on lots of things that change from week to week.  Usually they are scripts (repeated words or phrases) from the computer (we let him do Starfall.com which is all about reading and math), or from books (or books on Starfall...he's recently discovered their library online).  He also uses kids apps on my iPad and he will perseverate on those as well.  For instance, there is an app called Clicky Sticky that is a virtual sticker app.  They have different scenes (like the ocean, space, dressup, dinosaurs) and you can drag stickers onto the scene.  He likes to do this and has made up his own games to do with me or with Denny.  He'll drag a sticker down and say "What's this Mommy?"*  And I'll tell him.  And if I say something different than what I've said before he'll get upset and want to start all over.  Which is a recurring theme in our house.  He knows in his head what he thinks is the right way and he doesn't like you to be wrong.  For that matter he doesn't like to be wrong either.  And this is frustrating not only for him but for us as well.  When he's in good spirits, sometimes you can move past the mistakes (which happened this morning..yay!).  He likes to do these sorts of "games" over and over and over and over and over.  And as much as I love interacting with him in this way (joining his world), it also can drive me bonkers.  And I have to confess it drives me crazy more often than not....probably because I'm not getting a lot of sleep these days..which leads to an impatient mommy.

*(The "What's this Mommy?" game started out with him pointing and saying "I don't know".  I'd prompt him to say "What's this Mommy?" and we'd go through that little routine a lot.  Finally, he started doing "What's this Mommy?" every time.  Which is awesome...especially since he's using that phrase in otherplaces...not just when we play that game.)

He's finally learned the word "no".  Which is good and bad.  When he doesn't want to do something, he can't just say "no".  It has to be a very dramatic bad-tone-of-voice "NO!".  Even for something super simple like asking to help put his pants on.  This can escalate when he's tired or hungry into a tantrum.  Which leads to the sad face....he cries and says "Do you want a sad face?" and well, it's very sad.  Tara, his ABA tutor can ignore it and he'll usually stop.  But we don't get off the hook that easily.  Some days, we don't hear about sad faces at all.  Today has been one of those...probably because I'm letting him do whatever he wants since he's sick.

Unlike typical kids, you can't ask Dylan what he did today.  You have to be very specific in the question you ask.  So, instead of "What did you do at school today?" (which has only been answered maybe once when I've asked it) I have to ask "What song did you sing at school today?"  or "Who did you play with at school today?".  Most days he gives the same answers as part of his script.  And some days he surprises me and answers with something different.  Talking to Dylan a lot of the time can be like talking to yourself.  He tends to live in his own little world and not pay attention to what you are saying.  At least that's what it seems like.  A lot of times he is listening, he just doesn't respond.  This can be very hard to explain to other children who really want to interact with him.  Or to those kids who don't understand that he thinks differently (for instance: Dylan really likes to line up letters and numbers and was given a set of them at a Christmas party.  Some of the other kids came over and messed up his alphabet order and picked up some of the letters.  It was past Dylan's bedtime and it really upset him.  I tried to explain to them that "see, he's crying...please don't mess with his letters" and a few of them picked up letters again after I asked them not too.  Meanwhile, Dylan is sooo not happy.  So, I stood guard until he was finished and we could leave.)  He really tends to tune other kids out and needs facilitation when they try to initiate communication with him.  This makes me worry about bullies (like the incident above...which wasn't even about bullying but about little boys being little boys).  Luckily, so far, most other kids really like him anyway...especially the little girls.  He does have those lovely brown eyes and that amazing dimple.  

I do wish somedays that I could get him to sit and do a craft with me like he used to when he was younger.  Some days I can.  Yesterday I tried to get him to paint with me and he was not interested at all.  And I know why now, because he's sick.  Poor little guy was up last night with quite a fever and is coughing up a storm today.  When he's sick, his "behaviors" tend to get worse and he really sticks to the things that make him happiest.  Which doesn't include painting with mommy.  So, I'll try again tomorrow if he's feeling better, we'll see how it goes.  It's hard not to get frustrated when you want to do something with him and he doesn't want to.  Then I tell myself that he's a little person with his own wants and needs and I should respect that as much as I can.  

Denny tends to really worry about how things will be for Dylan when he's a teenager or when he's an adult.  I, on the other hand, stick to the present and what we are doing tomorrow and what about school for the next year.  We really have to remember that he is only 4 and will change and grow as he gets older and more mature.  For now, it's just amazing that he's reading and writing and memorizing multiplication tables (yes, he is....he found them on starfall.com and started memorizing their little multiplication songs).  He really does amaze me constantly with his memory and his artistic skills.  He likes to copy the pictures he sees on flash cards or on the computer.  He types words and scripts that he's learned.  He types words from books.  He is a little sponge ready to learn.  

Which brings me to the highs of life with Dylan.  He's a loving boy who loves to give hugs and squeezes.  He'd like nothing better than to spend time on the big bed with me or Denny getting cuddles and tickles and singing songs.  He so loves to sing songs.  With a memory like his, he has quite the database of songs to choose from.  This can cause problems when he asks us to sing something he learned at school or on the computer and we have no idea how it goes.  Sometimes though, we can ask him to sing it for us instead and he will.  When we are not at home, he is a good listener.  I don't have to worry about him running away from me in a store.  He likes to be nearby and holds my hand.  He loves being outside in nature and we have lots of fun doing nature walks.  He also loves jumping on our neighbors trampoline.  Especially when someone bigger jumps next to him and makes him "pop like popcorn".  So, after school we've been spending the nice days on the trail near our house or at a park with friends.  We'll be doing more of that once school is out.

Yay for the trampoline.


Running on the trail near our house.


Digging in the mud at our new favorite park: Goose Lake Park

As for having a little sister, he's doing pretty well with that now.  He looks at her every so often and checks her out.  The other day he was sitting beside me while she was nursing and very gently touched her head without me prompting him to.  When she was napping in the swing one day and I had turned it off when he was out of the room, he came back in and tried to make it go again.  I do see some jealousy here and there.  Mostly in the form of him wanting to pull me in the other room.  Or him coming upstairs to ask me to come downstairs when I'm changing her diaper.  I hope one day he'll learn that when she is napping is prime mommy-Dylan time.  For now, I just know that he's so full of love, that as she gets older and more interactive, he'll be an excellent big brother.  Also, maybe she'll be a typical kid and he can learn from her as she develops.

School is out on Thursday and we've opted not to do an Extended School Year.  Mainly because he'd be in a different classroom with different kids and different teachers.  I just kinda decided that would be too much change and too much trouble.  His ABA program is going to be doing some group sessions during the summer which should help with social skills.  What this really means is that we'll have afternoons free for more time at the park and with friends.  

So, to sum it all up:  Some days are frustrating.  Some days are really hard.  Some days, we both feel sad. And some days, I'm really impatient (most of these days are the ones where I got a really bad night of sleep).  But, most days we're happy and try to focus on the positive.  And every day is full of love and hugs for our dear little guy.  Even through the worst tamtrums, I just have to take a deep breath (and have him take a deep breath) and move forward.  Because that's what life is all about.  And because, we love our little guy for who he is...the good and the "bad" (I'm using quotes, because really, there isn't anything bad about our boy....well...except the poop.  He isn't potty trained yet, and I'd say the poop is pretty bad for a large 4 1/2 year old.  But that's coming...we are working on that during Denny's leave.  Keep your fingers crossed for us.)

Sasha Smiles

When babies are newborns, the only way to catch a smile is while they are sleeping. Like this:

And then, sometime during the fifth week, you catch a glimpse of a real smile. And we've gotten more and more smiles everyday since.

 

what Dylan has been up to

First, a song (I love his moves):

 

That's one of Dylan's favorite songs. He gets way excited about singing it. :)

Spring has finally hit here in Alaska.  The snow melted slowly....and Dylan liked riding his tricycle into what was left of it.

He also enjoyed splashing in the back alley (where there were lots of potholes filled with water and ice):

We planted seeds for the garden in anticipation of spring (in early April):







And of course they grew and grew. Now they are ready to plant, but the ground isn't quite ready yet. Still a bit too cold in the mornings. And it's May!!

Dylan's been through a few favorite books recently.  For a few days he was focused on "Kitten's First Full Moon", which has been in our library for awhile (and one of my personal favorites). He's had fun recreating pages from it: 

Did I mention I got a laminator? I've been laminating everything (including my shopping lists and meal planning sheets...more on that on my food blog soon). I downloaded lots of worksheets from starfall.com for Dylan and what you see above is just a laminated piece of blank paper that Dylan likes to draw on. It's a very portable (and cheap) whiteboard.

I took Dylan and Sasha to take a picture with the Easter Bunny at the mall.  Dylan sat as far away as he could from EB on the big chair, so I asked him to give the EB a hug.  And this was the result:

On Easter, we decorated eggs (I was a bit late with that) and invited a couple of friends over for an Easter Egg Hunt in our backyard.  Evidently we were lucky that the snow was all gone this year...in the past we've heard tales of having to hunt for easter eggs in the snow.

Dylan enjoyed coloring the eggs.  He directed me to the proper colors for dunking (and chucked a few in himself....I don't say "chucked" lightly..we ended up with some prematurely cracked eggs.  He wasn't very interested in drawing on them this year (Denny and I did though).

Dylan's always had a specific way to go on an egg hunt.  He usually needs some guidance to actually look for the eggs.  But, he knows there is something inside, so he stops as soon as he finds one to open it up and have a look.  And then he eats whatever yummy things he finds inside.

He tends to get distracted after finding a few eggs.  Some running around occurs (I love his hair and his tongue in this photo):

But, luckily, he has friends that find eggs and share with him:

On a totally different note, I'm currently reading a book called "The Elephant in the Playroom: Ordinary Parents Write Intimately and Honestly About Raising Kids with Special Needs".  The book has inspired me to write a blog post about Dylan, his special needs and our highs and lows.  Look for that soon.

1 month old

Shhh....Sasha just fell asleep in the baby carrier.  And she's been awake for awhile (hence, me resorting to walking around in the backyard, in my pajamas to get her to go to sleep...she was overtired with a full belly and cranky).  This could, however, mean I get a looong stretch of sleep from her tonight.  So, I'll be brief and get us both upstairs to bed.

Sasha turned a month old on the 22nd.  And today (I think I mentioned this earlier) she is 6 weeks old.  Here are her one month pictures.  :)

Being a model is exhausting.

life with two

So, the juggling act that is my life has been going pretty well.  I bounce between the kids (still seems odd to say "kids" in the plural).  Dylan is back to being his usual self these days.  Once Grandma and Grandpa left and things got close to normal again he got back to himself.  I try to give him special Mommy-Dylan time everyday, but can be thwarted by little Sasha waking up from a nap.  I also bring her into the playroom when I play with Dylan (and she's awake) to get him used to her.  So far so good!  

The hardest part is finding time for me in the midst of the juggling.  My hubby started NCOA (Non-commissioned Officers Academy) after one normal week of work after paternity leave.  That means he goes to school at 7:00am and doesn't get home until after 5:00 and some days 6:00.  And Dylan goes to bed at 7:00.  And then he has tons of homework to do.  I know I shouldn't complain...especially with so many Moms whose husbands are deployed.  I have so much respect for you Moms with deloyed husbands (I'll be one of those in a few months myself).  It's hard work doing it all by yourself.  It's hard work feeding yourself and finding time for a shower when there are two.  And its hard work finding time for my paying job and for keeping up with my blogging.  And poor Denny.  He misses us as much as we miss seeing him.  Plus, he's missing out on his guitar practice (which he loves).

Sasha is 6 weeks old today and is having more awake time during the day.  We have some good nights (she slept for a 5 1/2 hour stretch last night...starting at 8:00.  I went to bed at 9:30 so I got 4 hours of that) and we have bad nights (where she's up for a couple of hours...or half up...I'm up at least).  Here are photos from the past month:

Sasha at 1 week.  I tried valiantly to take professional style photos of her (as I've done for others as part of my  business), but it was an epic fail.  I got maybe 5 shots and this one was by far the best.  I've determined that its much easier to take photos of someone elses children than my own.  Also, I think the shutter is broken on my D70.  Gotta get my good camera into get fixed sometime soon.  Until then, I'm using our cheap little Canon.

Sasha at 2 weeks in an adorable little outfit some friends of ours from Ohio sent to us. The teddy was a gift from Grandma and the Piglet a gift from her Daddy.  My friend Bethany says it looks like she's ready to punch them out.  


Sasha and I after our little photo shoot. I think she was hungry.

Again at two weeks.  Denny took this photo with his iPhone and I made it black and white.

On our first walk at two and half weeks.

Almost three weeks and we introduced the pacifier.  Dylan never took to a pacifier, although we didn't try it until much later than this.  Sasha, happily, likes the paci and it keeps her from using me as a pacifier.  She even falls asleep on her own with it every now and then (including last night...yippee!). 

Dylan and Sasha (three weeks).  My only photo of them together.  I'll have to try again another time.  This one was quick and I was lucky it was in focus.

Denny and three week old Sasha.  I think this photo needs no caption.

Sasha at almost four weeks.  That's her favorite pacifier...she won't take any other kind now.

 

Sasha at four weeks. Getting bigger every day.

Next post will be 1 month pictures!  And then a post all about Dylan!  (I'm feeling ambitious today...we'll see if Sasha's naps cooporate or not).

our new baby girl

Our baby girl will be two weeks old tomorrow, and I'm finally getting around to blogging.  In all honesty, I've just been exhausted...the sleep deprivation caught up with me.  But, I realized today, tired or not, I need to blog about baby Sasha.  :)

I'll backtrack a bit to the beginning of March, when my friend Laura hosted a baby shower for me.  There was yummy food, lovely gifts and best of all, great company.  It was nice to have a girls afternoon with my friends.  My neighbor Eva came up with the idea of decorating my belly.  Here is the end result:

The decorated belly, at 36 1/2 weeks.


And here's my smiling face after the baby shower.

During the next few weeks, I decided I did need to do something special for Sasha's little corner of our room (she's sharing our bedroom for now...there are only two bedrooms on our top level and we don't want to move anyone downstairs. That may change as Sasha and Dylan both get older). So, I pulled out my paint and brushes and got to work. I still have a few things I'd like to add...I ran out of time as you'll see below.


Sasha's corner of the world....complete with the ladybug quilt that her Grandma made for her.

Fast forward a few weeks to March 22nd.  I was definitely feeling the last trimester woes....back pain...sciatic pain....bad nights of sleep.  And we took this photo that morning:

My convenient coffee table, at 38 weeks, 6 days.

Little did we know that our afternoon would not be our typical afternoon.  Around lunchtime, I started feeling achy in the tops of my legs.  And I felt extra tired.  We took Dylan to school as usual and instead of going to run errands with Denny, I asked him to bring me back home for a nap.  He dropped me off, I took a book upstairs with me and got comfy on the bed.  Those achy legs turned into underbelly pains by 2:00pm.  I timed them at 8 minutes apart.  I didn't feel like my belly was contracting at all though.  So, I called Labor and Delivery on base to tell them what was happening.  The nurse I talked to told me, "you don't need to come in until the pains are 3-5 minutes apart for an hour.".  Well, within 15 minutes of talking to her, the contractions were 5 minutes apart. So, I called Denny.  He rushed home and we loaded up, deciding to pick Dylan up from school early (and by then the contractions were 3 minutes apart).  Meanwhile, I sent a text to our neighbor Eva asking if she could watch Dylan that night.  When we got to the school, Eva and Dylan's teacher were outside waiting.  His teacher said she'd watch Dylan until Eva could take him home with her.   What a relief for us. 

We headed to the hospital and arrived around 3:30pm.  They showed us to our room and we waited for 10-15 minutes for them to come in and hook up things.  I was dilated to 6cm by then and the contractions were 1 1/2 to 2 minutes apart.  I asked if it was too late for an epidural, and thank goodness, it wasn't.  They got the epidural in quickly along with an IV for fluids.  They put the IV catheter in my right wrist, which ended up being  quite painful over the next 24 hours since I needed that wrist to bend for breastfeeding.  

Anyway, by this time, I was able to labor comfortably (yay for epidurals).  Probably around 6 or 6:15 I started feeling the urge to push.  The nurse said they'd be back at 6:30 to check me.  They didn't come back until 6:40 or so and I was really feeling that urge to push the baby out.  I was fully dilated so they got the doctor in quickly and the room ready for delivery.  I pushed through two contractions and baby Sasha was born at 6:54pm.  She was 7lbs 3ozs and 20" long and 1 week and 1 day early.  

We totally forgot to take a decent camera with us when we rushed to the hospital. So, for the first day at least, we have cellphone camera photos. Here we are with baby Sasha.

A closeup of our sweet baby.


Sasha as she's getting all checked out.


Denny and Sasha.

Amazing how different this birth was from Dylan's (click here if you'd like to read his birth story).  I was soooo happy that my legs worked after this birth.  Then again, pushing for only a few minutes versus two hours was a whole lot easier on my legs.

Sasha and I stayed in the hospital for a bit less than 48 hours.  She had an elevated bilirubin count, but luckily, it wasn't enough to need the phototherapy lights like Dylan needed.


Sasha and I ready for bed on our first night in the hospital. Denny stayed with us the first night and our neighbor Eva stayed over with Dylan.


Sasha's piggy toes.


Denny brought Dylan the next morning to visit us in the hospital. He was a bit aloof and didn't seem to know what to think about mommy being in this big bed with a baby. I did manage to get him in the bed with us and tickle his tummy to get this smiling picture.


I really should've swiped this cute little t-shirt that is government property. But, I'm a good girl and didn't do any swiping.

 We came home the night before Denny's parents made it into town the next morning.  We did have to go back for a weight check and one more bilirubin test two days later.  Her weight was down to 6lbs 11ozs.  So, we had to go back one more time for another weight check.  The second time, her weight was back up to 7lbs 2ozs and we were free to be home until her two week appointment which was today.  Today, she weighed in at 7lbs 14ozs and was 20.25" long.  Which means to me that I must still have miracle gro in my breastmilk.  We'll see if she packs on the pounds like her big brother (Dylan was 22lbs at 4 months).  

We were so excited to get the news that Sasha's bilirubin was not high enough for phototherapy and that we could go home. I got us both dressed and Sasha ate and fell asleep.


Denny's parents with their new granddaughter.

The past two weeks have been a bit of a babycation.  I've been doing a lot of recouperating (despite the easy birth, I did have a 2nd degree tear) and a whole lot of feeding Sasha.  Along with holding her and snuggling her and changing lots of diapers.  She's a very content and happy baby for the most part (not so happy when she has gas bubbles to get out).  And for the first few days she did well at sleeping, waking upt to eat, and going back to sleep quickly at night.  That's changed a little as her gas bubbles have gotten a bit worse.  But, with her temperment, I think she'll be a good sleeper (*knockonwood*).  Having Denny's parents here has been so helpful.  And having Denny home on paternity leave is wonderful.  He's been so wonderful getting Dylan to school and to his other appointments.  

Sasha at 4 days old.


She found her ear...I guess we were being too loud. :)


Denny serenading Sasha.


Sasha and I. And yes, my milk did come in.

Snuggling with Grandma at 5 days old.


Sasha snoozing at 6 days old.


Dylan learning how to play solitaire on Grandpa's iPad.



Sasha at 8 days old. As you can see she's getting chunkier.


Sasha at 9 days.


Sasha at 11 days getting her own little concert.

Dylan has had a tougher time adjusting to all the changes.  He went from having Mommy to himself all the time to having Mommy tied down to this new little person and instead having Daddy take him places.  I've been trying hard to give him Mommy-time every day.  But, his behaviors have escalated a bit.  He's been scripting more and started sucking on his fingers.  He's also become a bit more belligerent (which started before the baby came...he hit a major independent streak where he wants to do things himself and gets mad if you try to help) and more physical.  It doesn't help that the day we came home from the hospital he caught a stuffy nosed cold.  So we had to keep him away from Sasha for the first few days.  I think as things start to normalize again, he'll start to get back towards his normal self.  Knowing how this is affecting him has been hard on me emotionally as my emotions are tied to his so fully.  Plus, with all the postpartum hormonal stuff that happens, I've been crying more often when I think about the changes he's having to deal with.  That has gotten more under control as time has gone on, which makes me think I'll be back to normal soon too.

Today, I asked if he wanted to kiss Sasha on the head and he did an excllent job of kissing her and touching her head gently.  :)

And that brings us all up to date.  I'll write more again soon.

 

Green Kid Crafts and Scrap Paper Rainbows

I want to share the guest blog post I wrote for my friends over at Green Kid Crafts.  I wrote about a rainbow craft that Dylan and I did twice this week (and that we found over on No Time For Flashcards).  We modified it a bit and ended up with a lovely rainbow that is now brightening up our living room.  We are still covered in snow up here in Alaska and hoping that spring (otherwise known as "break-up") comes soon.  Maybe we'll get to see a real rainbow before too terribly long (if we're lucky).  

Anyway, click on over to the Green Kid Crafts blog to see my post.

spin art fun

The past few weeks I've seen a couple of blog posts about doing spin art in the salad spinner (and I apologize to those who have posted this before me...I don't remember where I saw it and evidently didn't bookmark the page).  Last weekend, we decided to give it a try with really cool results.  Plus, Dylan really really loves making the salad spinner spin....and thinks its quite hilarious when Mommy or Daddy makes it go really fast.  

It's quite an easy process.  A paper plate fits into our salad spinner perfectly, although you can cut it down smaller if you need to.  We ran out of paper plates and Dylan wanted to keep on spinning.  So, I hit the recycle bin for cereal boxes and other bits of cardboard.  I cut them into square and rectangle shapes and it worked great (plus, it reminded me of when we used to do spin art at festivals).  I now have a hefty pile of cardboard scraps ready for painting.

Oh yeah, back to the process.  :)  Put nice blobs or swashes of paint (we used the crayola washable paint...you can use whatever kind you have around) on the plate or cardboard.  Do lots, you'll get cool results.  If your kid paints a shape, that's okay, it adds to the art.  Then, put it in the spinner and take it for a spin.  Here are some of our results:

Our first one. This first one we painted while it was in the spinner. However, Dylan is a "strong" painter and I realized that painting the plate first and then putting it in the spinner works much better.  


The spun plate. Cool, isn't it?


Another plate...bigger blobs.


Denny and Dylan take it for a spin.


The finished art.


These all hang on the wall of the playroom and have been joined by some others (we've done this several times this week). I love that with the darker cardboard you can use white paint for a nice pop.


Denny liked the spin art so much he wanted to do one of his very own. Here it is pre-spin.


And here is the finished piece.

So, get to spinning!

rainbow art time

After our successful handprint project, Dylan wanted to paint every day for a few days.  He tends to be a very literal kid and tended to just make dots of colors and then be done.  So, I tried to take the extra step of showing him how to make a whole picture.  I painted grass and a tree and a sun.  And then he wanted to add a slide.  Yay!  

The next day he wanted to paint a rainbow.  So, I wrote out the colors in the rainbow and we started down the line.  He was not happy with my list because it didn't have all the colors of paint that I'd set out, so we made a second rainbow Dylan's way by adding brown, white and pink.  I thought I'd take the opportunity to teach him a little science about where rainbows come from.  So, I asked him to paint a sun and explained how the sunlight hits the raindrops to form a rainbow.  Then, I had him paint a cloud and raindrops (his original rain is on the right side of the painting over the slide.  After he did those I showed him how he could just dab the brush to make the drops).  And, because we'd done it the day before, he wanted to add grass and a slide to the picture.  I'm happy he's old enough now to get the concept of rinsing his brush in between colors...his colors used to turn to mud after he would dunk in each one with the brush.

Dylan admiring his artwork.

All this talk of rainbows reminds me of a book that we used to have to read over and over and over to Dylan when he was half the size he is now.  It's called "What Makes a Rainbow".  I wonder if we still have it.  I remember we hid it at some point because, well, as is anything that you either have to hear or read over and over and over and over and over and over again, it was really on our nerves.  Denny and I used to completely try and outdo each other with silly voices for the baby rabbit and all the other animals.  We had particularly obnoxious voices for the bunny.  Heh, I should get Denny really good by hunting down that book before bedtime.  Dontcha think?