another picture of therapy

a pic from therapy last week. this time the AT asked em to do a sand tray of her life when she was a baby, just what she thought it was like. she tends to be more open by talking through the dolls (instead of having to talk for herself, the doll will say things). so while a pretty happy scene, the notable things are the definite wall (which went up first) that completely divides the mom and dad from the baby. no door or way around it. :( and the baby is holding her own bottle. she said the baby wasn't very sad or anything because she really liked her bottle. (probably why she has such food issues, and also why they learned not to cry). just another interesting peek inside her head. she's much more open about her feelings now, although she's completely avoiding any of the physical trauma right now for some reason. won't discuss it at all.

we've adopted another!

noooooo, not a child, a dog, though around here they're not so different. since our syd died in feb, we've been wanting another dog, but not the responsibility of a dog (especially the puppy stage!). but last week, we were visiting dad's family and his sister offered us a dog, super calm and affectionate, house broken, ~2 years old, so past the puppy stage, but young enough to play and grow up with the kids. we discussed the pros and cons, help with attachment, but harder to take trips... and the pros (and cuteness) won!
we brought him home that day and surprised the kids. i've NEVER seen them that grateful! they're having a ball and isn't it ironic (don't ya think?), they're helping jack attach to our family. :) we explained how he misses his family and his doggie friends there, remember how you felt scared and sad when you first came here? and they're helping him with love. :) our RADical kids helping our new radical dog. (i do hope he's not really RADical and gets over his homesickness quick!)
i wonder if i should assign them certain words to say, feelings to discuss, nurturing times, rocking times, massage, music & movement, therapy, oh wait, yeah he's a dog...
meet jack! yep, just like in little house on the prairie, they loved that even more!

week 7 of homeschooling & updates

i can't believe it's been 7 weeks, school is just flying by! and amazingly it's going very well. it's great to have flexibility and freedom, and i'm extremely lucky to have dad here handling the things that require more patience. i'm not gifted in that area (or even adequate, okay i have none!) and you know RADical moms need to show loving patience, so uh, dad to the rescue. and for us it works well!
we've had field trips, soccer, science experiments, lots of reading, making things out of nature, cookie research projects, lots of baking, water safety (aka white water rafting), fun stuff, hard stuff, challenges, days off, independent study, practical flat tire lessons, singing and playing in a band, writing lines, learning about indians, playing indians, written reports, oral reports, youtube, every subject known to man, and most of all, LOTS of time together as a family. i mean lots! which is good, challenging at times, but good.
we're loving the prairie primer (based on the little house on the prairie books) because it incorporates what we've just read into every subject. if we read about seeing indians, we study that. if they see a bear, we study that. history, science, bible, character, politics, social studies, art, music, biology, writing, whatever. they get it all and it's fun and relevant. (and super easy for the teacher!)
one day we did a photoshoot (i'm the teacher, we can do if it if say so!) and i finally got some frame-able pics. i started to make a big production of it and head to a local pretty place, but then i thought clearly and did a last minute let's go out back and take some pics quickly before the cookies are finished... i'm learning!
RAD-wise, mr is doing great! em is even doing very well, getting clingy, hugging on her own at times. both are mainly working on identifying feelings. mr's are very normal, age-appropriate (maybe a year behind, but just!) em's are just coming out and are pretty chaotic. she doesn't understand them, we don't understand them. we're supposed to help her by saying you're feeling sad because of __ or you're feeling frustrated because ___, but sometimes we give up and say we're not sure what you're feeling! but at least she's feeling! it might have been sad, then fear because she was sad, so cover that with anxiety over what we'll say, which leads to frustration because she wasn't perfect, and confusion as to why that's so frustrating... and we get lost often. but it's nice to see tears, whether it's about a pink hat or nothing at all, at least they're genuine tears.
we'll be starting with some massage and music and movement type things soon. from the bruce perry stuff, we know they need some basic stuff they should have received as babies, and it's supposed to help on that deeper level. we'll see!
okay, so that's what we've been up to. i need to catch up on some of my blogs. i've missed them!

advice about "how does your engine run?"

to my sensory-integration-knowledgeable friends, do you have/like how does your engine run? not sure if i want to buy it? thanks for input!
i'm so behind. have some new pics and updates to post soon!