Life is going along at our house quite well. I am as busy as ever. I rarely have a free moment anymore. I am stealing time that should be used for other things around my house to even do this writing. It's a little frustrating sometimes, but this shall pass. Even with all the frustrations and challenges I am happy with how we are all doing.

I am not at all in the Christmas spirit yet, which I suppose is okay. After all, it's not Christmas yet! We are enjoying our new Advent wreath and two Advent Calendars; one given to us by my oldest son's godparents and the other from my parents. It is still somewhat of a novelty for me to keep up with all the feasts and celebrations that the Catholic religion has. I didn't really grow up with these things being celebrated in my home. I gather all the kids together in the morning and we talk about feast days as we go over the calendar each day.

I am so grateful for the Personal Attendant help that Samuel has. The two people who help us out are doing well with Samuel. In between the times that I do his school work they keep him busy and out of trouble. It's really great to know that I don't have to worry about Samuel sneaking food or sneaking time on the computer. We still have a ways to go teaching Samuel to be more independent in using his free time appropriately. The visual schedule we use will help us teach him.

I have made a renewed effort to properly use reinforcers with Samuel. Using them properly makes his school work sessions so much calmer. As I prepare his schedule I prepare a token board. If I know that he will be agreeable to the work then I will use "high 5's" as reinforcers. Then for the subjects that he is not so agreeable I use "sweet snack" (Skittles ) or perhaps a "healthy snack" (raisins or peanuts) , or a "crunchy snack" (pretzels or a cereal bar). I want to move beyond just food reinforcers. There are some books he likes to look at, so I should have a supply of them ready for him to look at after he "works".

I hope everyone is enjoying preparing for Christmas! My thoughts and prayers this evening go out to a family I know whose son is scheduled for surgery tomorrow.

Making Snacks!

As Samuel has browsed his favorite website these days, Nick Jr., he has become interested in some recipes that they have. He started talking about one of them soon after we returned from our vacation, "Lazytown Sports Candy Pops." After he told me that he was going to make them several times, I finally sat down with him at the computer and we printed out the recipe. A day or so later we went to the grocery store to purchase the ingredients (I'll talk about that trip in a separate post!). Here is a picture of the finished product. I was supposed to get 6 of them, but we only got four.


I shared one of these with my baby girl. I liked it and Samuel liked his too, though he didn't ask to eat any of the others after that. They contain vanilla yogurt and then you mix in crushed pineapple, and a mixture of berries. I used blueberries, grapes, and strawberries. You put it in a plastic cup and then freeze it. I was very surprised that Samuel liked it because he doesn't eat most of these fruits. I'm sure frozen up in a popsicle they were a good sensory treat for him though.


A couple days after we made the sports candy pops, Samuel woke up while I was in the shower, went down to the kitchen, and decided to make his own "treat." When I came downstairs there were five plastic cups on the kitchen table. In each one were some Nestle's strawberry powder, a small dab of Cool Whip, some Hershey's Chocolate syrup, and then a marshmallow. He called it a "Wuzzleburg Sports Pop." ("Wuzzleburg" is from "Wow Wow Wubbzy") While I was surprised at the combination of ingredients, they do look kind of nice together. He also used a very small amount of each ingredient, so it was almost like eating an enhanced marshmallow! I'll have to help him with the presentation.. maybe it would be a good topping for an ice cream sundae!

We'll be doing some more recipe browsing and "cooking." I'll update our culinary adventures as we go along!


Recipe for Lazytown Sportscandy Pops, from Nick Jr. website

Servings: Makes 6 pops

Ingredients

1 can (8 oz.) crushed pineapple in natural juices
1 cup combination cut up grapes and berries (blueberries, raspberries, and strawberries)
2 cups vanilla yogurt
6 tsp. raspberry or strawberry jam
6 plastic spoons
6 six-oz. paper cups

Step 1 Place the paper cups on a cookie sheet.

Step 2 Transfer the yogurt to a large bowl and set aside. Drain the crushed pineapple and stir it and the fruit with the yogurt.

Step 3 Spoon the fruit and yogurt mixture--a little at a time, about a fourth of the way up--into each cup. Add a thin layer of jam on top of the fruit mixture.

Step 4 Add another layer of fruit and yogurt mix, another thin layer of jam, and continue like so until the cup is full.

Step 5 Insert a spoon in the middle of each cup (handle side up). Cover lightly with plastic wrap. Freeze until set, about 3 hours or overnight.

Step 6 To remove the plastic cups, dip the cups into warm water for about 5 seconds and gently slide off.