Day Twenty One - DIGGING IT

We started our day off with the Pam Marshalla CD, Do You Like Pie. Frog really enjoys the songs, but so far he is not interested in singing along. He is becoming more tolerant and even enjoying some of the verbal synchronicity games.

Our plan was to play in the dirt today. I also wanted to make some fall leaf cookies, but some little Frog had crushed all of my leaf shape cookie cutters in his powerful mouth! So the next order of the day was to shop for a new cookie cutter and pick-up some potting soil, bulb food and some fall annuals. We went to Jo-Anne Fabric to look for a cookie cutter. Frog stayed with me while I shopped was very interested in the large assortment of sprinkles they carried. As I was looking at just one more thing, Frog got tired of waiting and slipped my grip on his hand - he ran around the perimeter of the store - very happy. He did not yell, he did not grab at anything on the shelves, he did not make a mess - he just ran around and took in the sites. When I finally caught up with him we paid for our purchases and headed to the nursery.

At the nursery he got to ride the flatbed cart again. We picked out our flowers and requested the soil and amenities we needed, paid and headed for the car. Frog is doing better and better out in the community. I hope to reach a point soon when it will make sense to take his vantage talker with us. It might be easier for him to learn to answer the basic questions asked of kids in a real context rather than the more contrived practice at the kitchen table or in therapy. Hard to say, but worth a shot.

At home we read Arnold's Apple tree. This time, Frog listened to the whole book - said "yes" it was a good story, and asked for more. We read Hello, Harvest Moon, which also met with his approval today. I had a lunch date, and Frog got to spend a couple of hours with his Grandma J. She said they had a good time playing and when one of the TV shows started talking about fall - Frog stopped to watch and listen.

When I got home, we took advantage of a break in the rain to work on our bulb garden. I started by reciting our verse. I began to work some of the potting soil into the dirt. Frog watched from a distance, running back and forth between the fountain and the sandbox. I managed to catch him once and got him to dump some potting soil into the garden. I set the bulbs in place and slowly began to cover them. Again, Frog watched from a distance.



I finished covering the bulbs and added some more potting soil as a top dressing. I went to begin the process of gutting some small pumpkins for our next project. While I was busy, Frog made his way over to the flower bed and played with the dirt. He watched me empty the seeds and guts from the pumpkin - the sensory aspect must have been too much for him. He went into melt down and was only soothed in the bathtub. While he soaked, I read It's Fall to him. He enjoyed the book and agreed that we had planted bulbs just like the boy in the book.

When Frog finished his bath, we planted our pumpkin planters.



These were made as gifts for Frog's Grandmas, Aunt, and our Neighbor. Frog is just starting to understand and get excited about giving things.

When the planting was done and we were somewhat cleaned up, we went to the table for our letter work. We practiced the letters L for Leaf and M for Moon.



Frog identified the sight words, wrote the letters, and put the stamps on the correct pages with some help from Mom. Then we spelled our sight words on Frog's Vantage, using word predict to finish the word as soon as it appeared.



Our last project was to roll out, cut and decorate fall leaf cookies. Frog decided he would rather watch the news. Diva and I finished one batch of cookies that Frog was happy to sample :0)