Days Seventeen and Eighteen - ADJUSTMENTS

We've gotten off to a rocky start this week. Frog has been very stimmy and harder to engage than usual. Rather than fight our way through it, I returned to less school and more Floortime. It also gave me a chance to ponder and envision some adjustments I want to make.

We are all a bit worn out here at the pond. So I am going to leave you with pictures tonight, and I'll post some description tomorrow -


ART






FLOORTIME






SEARCHING FOR SIGNS OF DUCHESS AUTUMN

Last Night on the Vantage

I left the Vantage in Frog's room last night set on it's home page. This is what it looked like in the morning:





The picture is a little blurry. The screen says:

. . . Is it, oj lj


I find the capital letter I, the comma and the spaces most interesting. I don't know if he typed out Is it or if he found the words with word predict after typing in the letter I.

The Award Winning Frog's School!

Julie at A Celebration of Our Journey has awarded Frog's School a Brilliate Weblog Award! Thanks Julie - what a nice surprise :0)

Now I get to spread the love. For those who are about to be honored, here are the rules:

1. The winner can (and should, really) put the logo on his/her blog
2. The winner must link to the person from whom they received their award.
3. The winner must nominate at least 7 other blogs for an award.
4. The winner must place links to those blogs on their own blog.
5. The winner must leave a message on the blogs of the people they’ve nominated.


Since I started this blog less than a month ago, I've been meaning to search out some other Home School blogs to follow. So I'm going to honor Home School with Autism blogs (a caveat - If you have recently received this award for your home school blog or any other blog, feel free to accept and reserve the right to pass it on later):

1. Christine at Adventures in Home Schooling

2. Bonnie Sayers at Autism Family Adventures

3. Kyra at This Mom

4. Harvest Mom at Along the Crooked Path

5. Mrs. C at Home school and Etc.

6. Lisa at Home School for All Kinds of Learners - Teaching Tommy

7. Sue at Living and Learning

I'll Add Aspergertopia - since she didn't have a chance to pick-up the award last time :0) A great home school resource with fabulous ideas!

And I think Julie's Blog - A Celebration of our Journey - is a wonderful home schooling blog and resource. A real "Can't Miss!"

Day Sixteen - LAZY DAY

Frog woke late this morning. I don't think either of us slept well last night, but I didn't really hear much from his room. He grabbed his Vantage when he woke and I found him with the device in his lap, pushing letter after letter with fingers, hands, elbows, even his tongue. The result was a long line of gibberish - but at least he is playing with the thing on a regular basis now. I hope it's usefulness as a communication device is not far behind.



Frog helped himself to pumpkin muffins for breakfast - four of them to be exact - although most of the muffins ended up as crumbs on the floor. Added to the dishes left in the sink from yesterday's muffin making and dinner, we had a mess to clean up. I spent the morning in the kitchen. Frog drifted in and out to play in the bubbles in the sink. We turned Zac, the robotic rumba vacuum, loose on the crumbs.




One of Frog's new "chores" is to turn the vacuum on when I request him to do so. First I ask him to turn on the vacuum, then I sing the "turn on the vacuum song." Today was the first day I tried this. Frog loves to turn on the vacuum on his own - I want him to work on following my request. He needed hand over hand today, but I think he will get this one. By 10am the house was clean, but the Frog was not. He headed for a bath and I grabbed our stories.

Since he did not like Apples and Pumpkins yesterday, I gave him the choice between It's Fall (one we've read before) and Hello, Harvest Moon (a new book). He choose Hello, Harvest Moon.



He did a good job listening and even took a moment or two to glance at a picture here and there. When we were done, I read It's Fall (for good measure). He didn't pay as close attention, but he didn't resist the story either. Both stories reinforced the various fall themes we've been using - harvest, leaves changing color, cooler weather, geese flying south, pumpkins, and Halloween. Both have beautiful art work that I hope Frog will take some time to appreciate on his own when he is ready. I plan to ask questions following the stories next week and use them as a basis for our letter and craft work.

When Frog was dried and dressed, we turned on Little Bill on TV. He is not a big fan of TV, but likes to watch occasionally when nobody else is in the room. I asked him if he could take care of himself and stop himself from making a mess while I took a shower. He grinned. I told him I knew he could do it and reiterated what I expected.

As I got dressed after my shower, I could hear a lot of hooting and hollering from downstairs. I said "It sounds like you are having a lot of fun down there. Will mommy be happy when she sees what you are doing?" Frog clapped twice (yes) - so I headed downstairs. 15 minutes had passed since I left him in the living room. He was still in the living room and there were no new messes anywhere in the house!!!!!

Friday is usually our play date day. He met with our group on Wednesday with his Grandma. Today we were a little too late by the time we were ready. We decided to fix some lunch and head out to a park on our own. Frog had a turkey and cheese sandwich, a banana and a bag of Doritos.

I choose a park near the airport where we could watch the planes fly low over the top of us as they took-off and landed. Frog was very good at visually locating and tracking the aircraft when I asked "where's the airplane?" We ran free on one of the baseball fields and Frog practiced stopping or slowing down when I directed him to "Wait for Mommy."

We visited the pond and watched the ducks.



We checked out the log cabins.



And we played on the playground. Frog had the place to himself and had a great time - especially trying to climb up the big twisty slide.









After an hour at the park we headed back to the car for a drink of water, and headed home to meet Diva when she arrived from school. Frog played in his front yard for a little while more, then headed for his room and fell asleep. A nap for Frog is not unusual these days. Especially on Fridays, when we have an evening NAET appointment - he sometimes anticipates the treatment and reacts with dis-integrated behavior or fatigue. I promise to post a full account of NAET on the 4-Frog blog when I have a chance to sit down and do it justice - for now I'll direct you to the NAET website and just say we have seen dramatic reactions and great improvements in Frog since we started the treatments in January 2008.

Day Fifteen - BACK IN THE SWING

Frog took a couple of days vacation at Grandma's house while I attended the Pacific Northwest Institute on Special Education Law and fulfilled many of my continuing education hours.

He was a little cool towards me when I got home last night, but warmed up considerably by this morning. We got Diva off to school with a high 5 from Frog. When we got home, Frog and I played with the air walker swing going fast and slow, bumpy and smooth. When Frog was ready, we did a few of our HANDLE exercises.

We read the book Apples and Pumpkins. Frog was not happy about it. I used Rapid Prompting Method to ask him 1. Do apples grow in an Orchard or in a Store? He picked Orchard. 2. Did the girl pick a Green Apple or a Red Apple? He answered Red Apple (correct). 3. Did the girl find the pumpkins in a Car or in a Field? He answered Field. He was very upset about the whole thing. After several questions about why he was so upset - he said yes to "Are these questions too easy?"

We had a long talk about waving and saying hello and goodbye. About why we wave and what it communicates to the other person. We will keep working on this.

Frog indicated he was ready to get out of the house. We took a drive, got some lunch and headed for Safeway. We got our cart and headed back outside of the store. Frog was hanging onto the cart handle and riding by standing on a rail at the bottom of the cart. I stopped by a large box of mixed fall gourds. I asked him to find a green one. He did. Then I asked him to find a yellow one. He did. Then I asked him to find a really small one. He did. Here are the ones he choose:



I showed him a medium sized pumpkin and asked him to find a really large pumpkin. This is what he choose:




Inside the store I asked him to find the apples, then the bananas, then the grapes. He led me to each item as I asked for it. I asked him if Diva likes strawberries and he clapped "yes." I said let's find the strawberries. He took me there too. I said I needed two boxes. He patted one box and I put it in the cart. He patted another box and I picked it up. He'd spotted a third box, but I told him we had enough and he moved on. The only thing he couldn't find at the store, was the car after we returned our cart - but that happens to me all the time :0)

At home we went into our garden and checked on our pumpkins.



We also picked some squash and some cucumbers. Frog played outside, making mud in his water table, while I put away our groceries. Then we got around to making pumpkin muffins.



While the muffins baked, Frog explored our vegetable table.



I took out his composition book and wrote Pumpkin on one page and Vegetable on the other. I added the letters P and V in the lines at the bottom. I put the book in front of Frog, handed him a small pumpkin and said "Is it a pumpkin or a vegetable?" he set it on the word Pumpkin. Then I handed him a yellow squash and asked again "a pumpkin or a vegetable?" He put the squash on the word vegetable. We worked on the letters P and V, although I think Frog would have preferred to be doing something else ;0).



Frog spent the rest of the day eating pumpkin muffins and playing outside. He told Dad that he had missed school and was glad Mom was home.

Day Fourteen - GO FROG GO

Today started off auspicious - First thing this morning, Frog danced a gig to the sliding glass door, pounded on the window and said Deerrrrrr (trilling that r like a pro). Sure enough there were two deer bounding through the yard - doing the same dance as Frog. When we got to Diva's school, Frog waved goodbye to Diva then gave her a high five (without a physical prompt).



At 11:15, we headed for the playground where we knew we'd find the pre-school playgroup. Frog had been excited about this for days. He's been stealing the SMART MOVES book off my nightstand almost everyday. He takes things like this often, but the fact that he kept coming back for the same book made me wonder.



Looking at the cover of the book I had a hunch. I sat Frog down and asked if he liked the picture. He patted the book. I asked if he saw a girl on a swing - he found it. I asked if there was a boy climbing a tree - he found that. I asked if he wanted to go back to the playground with the kids - an enthusiastic two clap YES!

Frog was in a bit of a mood today. There were lots of tears and sad faces, lots of arm biting, lots of struggles getting into and keeping clothing on. But every time I asked if he wanted to go to the playground I got an immediate yes - even through the tears. When we got to the playground, Frog jogged from the car to the kids on his own - no handholding or redirection needed. He got a little overwhelmed when one of the boys got right in his face and asked him questions - he threw a hand out to pinch, but stopped himself and ran off to rock and cry.

The boy was OK and continued to try to interact with Frog. I explained that Frog didn't talk, but could understand what he said to him. The boy introduced himself. He tried a couple of times to include Frog then gave up on talking. He resorted to the common childhood taunt rift - "na, na, na-na, na" He didn't seem to be doing it in a mean or taunting way and Frog - who can readily tune into music - found it charming. He even gave the boy a smile and a giggle. Frog did a lot of referencing with the adults. And the kids were fascinated and a bit perplexed by all the pea-gravel Frog was dropping into his mouth.

At home we worked on the letter A and P. I helped Frog to use his pointing finger to find the A on his Vantage. After we had A, I added letters until the word-predict function showed Apple. I helped Frog choose Apple. Then I asked him to find the letter P. He found the letter I. Then he found the letter M. Then he found the letter F and choose Floor from the word-predict choices. We finally found the letter P and I added letters until we could choose Pumpkins from the word predict options. He came back to the Vantage later on his own. He pushed the letter R and choose Rainbow from the word-predict choices. Then he pushed the letters HY.



I helped him to write the letters A and P in his composition book. He did these while he was half in and half out of his chair.



We also worked on pointing and color identification using a fall wreath Diva made.



We added a new book today Apples and Pumpkins. This will transition us from our apple theme to our pumpkin theme and is the first mention of Halloween. (Later tonight I found the book in Frog's room. I think he took it up there to have a better look at it). After the story, we took some of our remaining apples, some peanut butter, and some birdseed, nuts and berries and made a bird feeder.



Frog used his scissors to cut the ribbons. I helped him get his fingers into the right position and held the ribbon between the blades. Frog checked out the feeder in the yard a couple of times on his own. He also enjoyed playing with the left-over seed in the sensory table.



Frog and I played in the sandbox and jumped on the trampoline while we waited for Diva and Grandma to get home from school. When Frog saw Grandma, I asked him if he wanted to give her the applesauce he made for her. He got a big grin on his face. A few minutes later he let himself out of the trampoline. He made his usual circuit back to the house (slide, sandbox, fountain) then went inside. Grandma said "where's my applesauce?" Frog walked to the refrigerator. Grandma asked again, "where's my applesauce?" Frog patted the refrigerator. Grandma asked "should I open it?" Frog SAID "ged-id" which both Grandma and I heard as "get it." Frog's Dad asked him later if he was excited to give Grandma the applesauce he made - Frog clapped twice with a smile.

Day Thirteen - APPLE DAZE

Frog was up and ready to go at 7am today. His talker was on the holiday icon page and he had selected all sorts of holiday words. But today was apple day - to pick up on what we didn't get to do yesterday.

Frog gave Diva another high five as she left the van for school. Frog and I headed home. But when we pulled into the garage, Frog refused to get out of the van. I needed to clean it out before our afternoon play date, so Frog explored the van and the garage while I sorted through the various things that get left in a mommy-mobile.

We came inside and did some movement work and some of our HANDLE exercises. Trying to gently move ahead with our new goose story, I added a "fly goose fly" chant to our morning work. When we were all warmed up, we headed outside to pick some apples for apple day. My plan was to follow the Applesauce story as closely as we could.

I said to Frog, "Those apples are really, really high. I think I need my special guy to sit up on my shoulders - why? - to pick the highest apples." Frog though this rhyme was really funny, but he wasn't going for it. When he headed for the stairs to the pool, I followed. I looked at him and said "Honk, Honk." He looked at me. Again I said "Honk, Honk" and "yup, its time." Both are from our goose story. Then I sang "fly goose, fly. fly goose fly" and helped Frog climb on my back. We flapped our wings and flew to the apple trees where we circled once, circled twice and landed with a jump.



We searched for an apple he could reach. He picked it and put it in the basket. We found another one, but it wouldn't come off the tree. Frog got flustered, then reached into the basket, grabbed the first apple, and threw it. (I was reminded of Stanley Greenspan saying that you don't learn about an apple by being told that it is red and round and a fruit you can eat - you learn about an apple by picking it, feeling the weight of it in your hand and seeing what it feels like and what happens when you throw it at your sister!) I put Frog down and went back to the song from the Applesauce story:

A is for Apple, Applesauce,
sticky and sweet Applesauce.

A is for Apples in the Apple tree,
waiting there for you and me.
SHAKE, SHAKE, SHAKE the Apple Tree (I did)
Down come the Apples, 1, 2, 3 (they did)

We gathered apples and put them in the basket. Frog helped pick up three apples, then he was done. (Maybe he was listening to specifically to the song).

Then I told him:

"Home from the orchard with basket a-bursting,
with fruit from the harvest this family's been blessed"
(a modification of a line from the Duchess Autumn poem we've been reading)




We headed back to the house with our apples and prepared for the next step:

A is for Apple, Applesauce
Stick and Sweet Applesauce.

A is for Apples in the Basket too,
Apples waiting for me and you.

WASH, WASH, WASH the Apples all,
Chop them into pieces small.




Frog stood at the sink to "wash" the apples. Mostly he played with the water. I stood next to him and chopped the apples. After every apple I chopped, I'd ask Frog to hand me another one. This was done with lots of emotion and facial expression. At first he ignored me. I helped him, hand over hand so he would know what I wanted him to do. Then when I would ask for an apple, he would pat a floating apple but he wouldn't try to grab it. Finally he did grab one on his own and threw it into the garbage disposal. Eventually, we made it through all the apples.

A is for Apple, Applesauce,
Sticky and sweet Applesauce.

A is for Apples cooking in the pot,
Hissing and steaming, nice and hot.
Smush the apples through the holes,
Add the sugar, stir the bowl.

While the apples cooked, we checked on them once in awhile. Frog liked watching the steam roll out of the pot when I lifted the lid. We also did some table work. We drew our letter A in a composition book. I had done a drawing of a ladder against an apple tree that had both the upper and lowercase A hidden within. I hope to get Frog to copy these pictures someday. But today he just worked on his letters. He is doing well with the uppercase A. He just needs some support and stabilization. The lowercase was new to him and he wanted to just keep making the uppercase letter. I guided his first and second lowercase A. The third he did himself with support and stabilization and he made it uppercase.



He wasn't thrilled about the the sorting game, but was able to find both apples from field of three fruits. He really loved the tree and kept sneaking off with it when I wasn't looking.




We finished our applesauce off in the food mill. Frog reluctantly took and turn and turned the crank three times while holding on the to handle with his other hand. Then he got to pour in the sugar. That was his favorite part of the whole process. As you can see, most of it was poured over his hand and onto the counter. We stirred in the sugar and put the applesauce into containers. I left the mixing bowl out on the counter and sure enough, when he thought I wasn't looking, Frog came back and helped himself to a taste. He didn't come back for more - so I don't think he was overly impressed :0)



We had some lunch and Frog played outside. When he came back in, we spent a few minutes talking about his Vantage. We looked at the keyboard page and found the letter A. Then I showed him the word predict for the word Apple. Since he seems to be playing with this feature on his own, I am going to use it with our vocabulary words.

We are down to the last verse of our song. Frog's gone off to take a nap, so maybe we will get to this after dinner.




Update:
Frog woke-up in time to make Gingerbread. When he found out that I was not going to let him dump the flour out of its canister and onto the floor, he boycotted the project. But when he came back to the kitchen and found the mixing bowl and spoon he was all over it. He also discovered he likes mom's Italian couscous. (good for eating and for playing with :0)



We will be trying gingerbread and applesauce for dessert!

A is for Applesauce in a jar.
Look at our apples, they've come so far.

Applesauce with Gingerbread.
Dream of Applesauce in bed.

A is for Apple, Applesauce.
Sticky and Sweet, Applesauce.

LATE NIGHT VANTAGE EXPLORATION

Frog must have been up sometime late last night or early this morning. Here is what he did on his Vantage:




We always start the Vantage off on its home page at bedtime. Frog is getting to these additional embedded pages by himself.

Day Twelve - MOVING FORWARD

Frog woke in a better mood today, although he was tired. He was awake past 2:00AM last night - restless and frustrated and having trouble getting back to sleep.

He had a big breakfast - two bowls of cereal, a banana, yogurt, a bag of Cheetos, and some frapaccino. That got him reved up. He gave Diva a high five sign as she left for school - not quite a wave, but closer. When we got home, we did a little singing and movement work then headed outside to play. We checked the garden and watered some plants. Then I let Frog have a little free time while I got some things organized inside. When I came back to check on him, Frog was in his new "thinking" spot.



I've grown accustome to his standing up there - he is really quite good at it. But the step dancing on the ridge pole did put my heart in my throat! He also has trouble getting down from there. Often he just sits patiently for someone to notice. Today he cried out and clapped furiously until I came to the rescue - I think that is his equivalent of yelling "MMMOOOMMMM!"

A little later, Frog had a bit of a meltdown while playing in the dirt. He may have gotten a small sliver from the bark that is mixed in. I called him back inside and let him have a bath. While he was playing in the tub, I sang our Applesauce song. Then I read the story again, adding each song verse in the appropriate place. Frog did a good job listening to the story. Next I read the Duchess Autumn poem. He seemed to enjoy this recitation as well. I tempted fate and tried to add a new story about goose migration. This was met with resistance. He turned on the water, vocalized to drown me out, and finally just let me know "enough talking already!!!!"

At lunchtime I used Rapid Prompting Method to ask him what he wanted for lunch.



He definitely choose noodles, but I don't think I was specific enough. He turned his nose up at my home-made mac-and-cheese. I think he was expecting Pad Thai. He ended up with a lunchable and munched on it throughout the afternoon.

I wanted to go though our cupboards and get the foodstuffs organized. I invited Frog to join me. He was interested for a little while. He especially liked snagging boxes of snacks out of the pantry cupboard, then looking to see if I noticed.



When he got board, he headed off into the playroom. I went to check on him when I noticed it was quiet. I found him hiding in a corner behind a file cabinet, chewing his sister's bubblegum - not just one piece, I was soon to discover, but the entire pack with pieces of chewed gum left all over the house. Never trust a quiet Frog!

Once we had the gum and the cupboards cleaned up, we were ready for our Applesauce project. This is the culmination of the Applesauce book - picking apples, washing apples, chopping apples, cooking apples, smushing apples, adding sugar and making a gingerbread to go with the sauce. Frog had other plans.

We spent the next half hour working on dressing, undressing, potty training, and dressing again. When Frog tried to get back into the bathtub fully clothed and I said - No - that was it for him. Melt down and full temper tantrum ensued. He ended up taking a much needed nap.

We will save the applesauce project along with an apple letter sorting activity for tomorrow.

Day Eleven - STILL A LITTLE OFF

Tuesday September 16th, 2008

Frog was still having a hard time this morning. Things did improve over the course of the day. The dose of Tylenol didn't hurt either.

Frog did a lot of requesting today - mostly by getting me and taking me to what he wanted: his swing, more cereal, the door to the front yard, and the door to the bathroom (for a bath). We read our Applesauce story again and sang the song. Frog was in the bath at the time, but he listened to it all, then when I told him I did not remember the last verse of the song, he clapped then got out of the bath.

We used rapid prompting to pick-out something for lunch. He choose "sandwich" from a field of three. Later he came walking into the kitchen from the living room. He went to the garage door and stopped. I asked him if he wanted to go somewhere and he did nothing - just stood there. A couple seconds later I heard the garage door open. Then the front alarm bell went off. I unlocked the bolt on the door to the garage. Frog's Dad opened the door. As the door opened Frog said "Dad."

In the afternoon, Frog seemed sleepy again. I asked him if he was ready to go for a ride. He did nothing. I asked if he was going to take a nap, he clapped twice. He got up and got his blanket, but he never went to his room and he did not take a nap.

When Diva got home, he went swimming for an hour or so. When he got out of the pool he was starving - he ate watermelon, peas, crackers, cheese, turkey, and chips. He continued to act tired and went to bed around 6:30. He woke up at 12am and has been singing and jumping in his room for 45 minutes or so.

I think he is feeling under the weather because he has a tooth coming in and he is dealing with the effects of the full moon - which means he does not get much sleep at night. I'm hoping we are back on track in a day or two.

Day Ten - UNDER THE WEATHER

Monday September 15, 2008

Frog woke up cranky today and didn't want to eat. After Diva was dropped off at school, Frog headed back to his bed and crawled under his blanket. I asked him if he felt sick - he clapped twice. I asked him if something hurt - nothing. I asked him if his head hurt - nothing. I asked him if he did not sleep well - he clapped twice. I went downstairs and called the Clinic to cancel his speech therapy appointment. Frog came downstairs a little later. He looked much better, but was hot and cold all day long.

We had carpet cleaners coming in the afternoon. So after we played a little in the front yard, and watered our plants, I let Frog have his free time while I cleaned, moved furniture, and vacuumed. At one point I found Frog had removed his clothes and climbed up on the playhouse roof. He was sitting in the sunshine watching the neighbor run his tractor over the fresh topsoil they'd put down for a new lawn.

We made PBJ sandwiches for lunch - Frog only wanted to eat the J part. Then the carpet cleaners came and Frog and I headed to the backyard to play and stay out of their way.



He also swam in the pool and played in the sandbox. After all the activity he was pooped. He had a major melt-down, then took himself back to bed. He was up at 6pm for dinner and wandered around the house - sometimes loud and sometimes quiet - for the rest of the evening. We put him back to bed around 9pm. He was awake for a substantial part of the night - dancing by the light of the moon

Vantage Post

At bedtime Dad asked Frog if he'd been using his talker. Frog clapped, yes. Dad asked Frog if he wanted us to read what he said on his talker. Frog, clapped, yes.



When we tried to interput what Frog was trying to tell us with this - he got very upset. When Dad asked Frog if he wanted to learn to say more things with his talker - Frog clapped yes.

Day Nine - FRIENDS

Today was a different kind of day at Frog School. We had gifts to wrap and deliver for two friends who have birthdays this time of year. Diva and I had done the shopping, and Frog and I filled the gift bags. Then Frog chose a sticker for each card and signed his name (at least his first initial). I finished the card with the rest of Frog's name and Diva's name.



When we were finished, we got dressed to go out - Frog tried on his new shoes for the first time and kept them on all morning. We went to the first friend's house. Frog rang the doorbell and we waited for our friend's mom. Our friend was at school. Frog and I took the gift into the house and left it with all of our friend's other presents. Frog was a little unnerved by the family's two pet cats, but he kept it together.

Next we took a drive to the bank and then to Costco. We needed to replace our robotic vacuum "Fred" who worked very hard for us for two years before he just gave-up and started pushing crumbs around the floor.



Our new vacuum is black and silver and we call it "Zac." We found a few other things at Costco too - Frog picked out a big box of granola bars and wanted to open them as soon as we got home so he could try a new flavor.

Before we came home, we stopped at a playground where we were meeting our other birthday-boy friend. He and some classmates were having an after pre-school play date and we were invited to join in.







Frog played among the kids for over half an hour. He did a lot of referencing of me, the other adults and occasionally the kids. He watched the kids. He also dealt well with the kids being in close proximity. He tried the monkey bars all on his own after watching another child cross them. Frog hung and dropped a couple of times. When he was ready to go, he let me know.

At home we had some lunch, unloaded the car, and put Frog's water table back into the front yard. We checked on our new plants and gave them a drink with the hose.





I put the Costco groceries away and spent the afternoon working on spaghetti sauce and lasagna for our freezer. Frog came in frequently to check on what I was doing and see if there was anything good to eat in the kitchen. I checked on him in the front yard frequently and we had lots of fun playing with the water from the hose.