Sandy the OT

I think this is our week of bitter sweet good-byes. On Wednesday we said good-bye to our Occupational Therapist. Sandy took us from Quasimodo crawl....

To a walking 19 month old...

Sandy started with us when Nash was 14 months old. She taught me some tough love over those months as she pushed Nash until he was at times angry and in tears.

She discovered some real fears that Nash had within the sensory processing area, and was able to give us some great tips on helping him overcome those fears. Such as taking baths. Seems like a simple task but to Nash it was over stimulating and he HATED it. He still dislikes swimming pools. There is just too much to take in. Sandy was able to help me realize that you start slow. Play with the water first with your hands. Then dunk your toes. Make sure there are no toys in the tub until he brings them in. Then when you are washing you wash down not up. (try rubbing your arms upwards vs. downwards and you will recognize a difference. Washing up causes a disturbance to the nerves...or something like that.) Sounds crazy. Well I would like you to try and bathe a terrified child and then we will see what you do to help the situation. Nash takes a bath like a champ now, but there are times that he would rather there be NOTHING in the tub but himself and I am okay with that. I wish bath time was our only hurdle but there are others...but those little quirks are just what makes Nash who he is!

Nash really loves Sandy and gets very excited when I say "Sandy's here!" We are grateful for the service she gave our family, and we will miss her. Sandy owns K&S therapies and is always trying to get me to come work for her as one of their Instructional Therapists. It would be so fun and really a good job for a stay at home mom, because you set your own hours. But I think I will stick with being Nash's mom...that is enough for me! Besides we still have Jennette the Speech Therapist and Kristina the Instructional Therapist still coming around, so I am sure we will hear from Sandy every now and again. :)

Here are some funny pictures of Nash at 19 months that I thought I would share. His hair has always been crazy especially right there in the front.

Oh how we love this boy!

PlaySchool Goodbyes...

Over the past year and a half I have been teaching a PlaySchool in my home. I was very excited when we moved to our new house because the basement was perfect for a small school. It some how fulfilled a small dream of mine of having my own school. I enjoyed it very much and Nash LOVED having kids over to "play" every Tuesday and Thursday. I had such a cute little class!
Here is my Tuesday class (minus Madden):

This is my Thursday class (plus Madden):

The children are from our ward as well as Club Mom that I was a part of last year.

Madden, Riley, Josh, and Will

Nash, Gwen, Cole, and Ada

The children in my PlaySchool were 2 and 3 year olds. I tried to make everything centered around "play" thus the reason for the name. I believe children learn more through play rather than drilling academics.It is amazing how much you can learn from a child by playing with them.I LOVE this picture, it shows how much they watch and mimic adults.

I started this PlaySchool to help a friend as well as spend more time with my sweet little boy. I lost the friend during this process, but I gained a knowledge of the type mom I want to be. I got to see Nash in a different setting and I saw what he was capable of doing. Nash learns very different then other children. He is a very smart little boy but struggles in communication and social areas. He is an anxious little boy. I have had him involved in so many activities with HIGH demand since we moved here, which we have seen put a high stress on him. This is why today was my last PlaySchool day. I have illuminated many things in our lives and have tried to go back to the basics. It was hard to say good-bye but the biggest break through came on Tuesday when I saw my little boy talking to his friends, and playing with them. Nash rarely did that. He always seemed nervous and was content being alone. On Tuesday, I wasn't there pressuring him to do those things I was playing with him and being his mom. Which is far more important then anything else in this world. Sorry to be so sentimental but it was big in Nash's life. I am excited for all the fun adventures ahead of us now!

Nash's recent obsessions...

So I don't have much to blog on but I did want to write a few things about our little 2.5 year old. He is growing so fast and I am starting to see my baby slip away into a little boy. He still isn't talking to much but he does have a few cute little phrases. My favorites are "Mom, are you?" (mom where are you?) as he is coming down the stairs. Then he says "what oooin?" (what you doing?). Then when I get after him or when he is sad he says "Help Daddy!" or "Daddy, Work, HOME!" He is pretty shy about his speech and really anxious to speak in front of people. This is mostly why his speech is coming so slowly. Nash's English reminds me of what I was like learning Spanish! When he is nervous or does not know what to say he will just blurt out "ANIMALS!" it is such a crack up!
Here are a few of Nash's recent Obsessions:

#1 "Little Buzz"

This is Nash's favorite toy "little" as in little Buzz.
Not to be confused with "big" or Big Buzz (pictured below).

Nash carries "little" everywhere. He is always flying on elephants or dragons, fighting dinosaurs, and rescuing pigs/cows/sheep/etc. Nash loves to "hide" him, then not remember where he is hidden. That is how we lost "Woody" which is a toy we do not talk about anymore because he is NO WHERE to be found! SO when I see Nash carrying "little" I try to keep my eyes on where he is going so I know where to find him when a distraught Nash comes searching.

He still loves running in circles. And will do this for up to 15 minutes if I do not re-direct him.

Obsession #2 "that one" or the IPOD Touch.

I have to use this in secret. The minute Nash sees it he can not resist holding it. I think he knows how to use it better then I do. Today he came up to me saying "watch dinosaurs" when I looked at the screen he had opened the internet and was on the Netflix page. HOLY COW! I had this thing for months before I decided I was smart enough to use it.

Obsession #3 "DADDY"

This is what we see everyday when Darin comes home from work. I don't know who is more excited to see who. Darin has been doing some long days lately and he hardly gets to see Nash. When he is home he puts Nash to bed. (falls asleep with Nash) Then in the morning we have a sad little boy who can't find his daddy. We usually call Darin in the morning so Nash can say Good Morning. It seems to help him not be so sad.

He is such a sweet boy, and we are so grateful to have him in our lives. I don't know what we would do with out his silly little smile, and mischievous little laugh.

If you want to see more pictures of Nash click HERE.

Darin turns 32!

I asked Darin for weeks what he wanted for his birthday. He never came up with something so I decided to do a small party with friends for him. He seemed pretty excited about it and came up with what he wanted to serve which included an ice-cream cake (Willardson tradition), German Chocolate cake mound that I made, and fruit with chocolate and caramel dip.

This next picture is his guest list...

Ha! Kidding we had adults there too they just chose not to participate in the candle blowing, Happy Birthday song singing moments. :) Darin is in heaven when he is surrounded by children. Just gives him all the more reason to act like one! (in a good way)

While the adults mingled in the front room. Nash took it upon himself to take a bite out of EVERY apple on the kitchen counter! He doesn't like the apple peel so he so kindly left that for everyone else. Thank you Nash that was sweet. Good thing he doesn't like chocolate and wasn't found devouring the cake!

Our good friend Riley was so kind in sharing this picture per Darin's request....it is better to not ask questions. ;)

Girls Day In New York City...

January was probably one of the WORST months for us. Life was so busy with MANY disappointments. For my friends we had been so busy with New Beginnings for YW's that we were exhausted/frustrated and ready to get away from it all! So when my friend Stacia suggested we take a trip into NYC we jumped all over it. The only catch was Darin had to work...story of our lives these days! Taylor (Stacia's husband) graciously offered to watch Nash for me. I am not much on other people watching Nash for long periods of time, but I really wanted to go and so I took him up on his offer. Thank you so much Taylor!!
The crew: (top) Stacia Smith, Codi Barnes, Brook Ockerman and Lynette Wills (Erica Winter's SIL).

We really didn't have a plan besides see a Matinee Broadway Show.

After we bought our tickets we walked around a few shops and took in the city life a bit. It was a very simple day but so nice to be out.

We had fun goofing off!

I kind of like this coffee table in Anthropology.

We ended up seeing Mary Poppins. Which was AWESOME! The set was incredible and the music way fun!

I am very grateful for these ladies. They have been GREAT friends to me this past year. I am so looking forward to our next day out!