Tank's First Hair Cut

Tank finally got his hair cut. His hair has been pretty curly lately so I really didn't want to cut it, but they hubby was really wanting it cut. So I bit the bullet. When I cut Turbo's he was only like 13 or 14 months, and had hardly any hair and it was so light. Tank was 19 months and had A LOT of hair to cut!

TOT School: "NANANANANANANANA" (aka BANANA)

Tank finally said a word that resembled the object that he was wanting/pointing to!!! Although he says the word without the "B", he certainly has the "NANANANANANANaNANANANANANA" down pat!

TOT School: Sick Day

Yesterday was an easy-going day as Tank was down with a fever. Pretty sure it was teething, but a sick-day was declared, nonetheless. A bit of brotherly love while enjoying a movie. Poor lil' Tank. A bit of a fever. But nothing a bowl of fresh raspberries and apple juice can't take care of. We couldn't let the day go by without a bit of playing. Tank is intrigued with Connect 4. He will happily sit anywhere and rhythmically put in the playing pieces. Fortunately, we had some entertainment out of our window for most of the morning. The complex is cutting down some cottonwood trees outside our place because of the destruction the roots are playing on the pipes. Watching the huge trees come down with the trucks, lifts, chainsaws and machines was mesmerizing for Tank.

Tank says "Cheese"

Okay, so not really, but his "cheesy" smile when getting his picture taken says it all!

He hasn't been feeling well recently, and the only thing he would eat that day was fresh blackberries. Smeared all over his face, I wanted to snap a picture. When I asked him to say, "Cheese", this is the face I got. We even took a video of him! He had us rolling!

Really? Spiderman? This Early?

Our new mornings look something like this:

Turbo wakes up. Tank wakes up. Mommy and daddy "lock" them in their rooms until at least 1 cup of coffee has been consumed.

This morning, instead of 2 boys emerging from their room, this is what came out of the black pit of toys:

Tank - dressed as a Fireman-Spiderman


Turbo - Spiderman complete with action hero poses


Oh wait, we aren't done yet: We now have a "Captain Spiderman" in our midst:
"AYE MATES!"

Who wouldn't want to start the day with strawberry pancakes? It's the breakfast of superheroes.



Finally, in preparation for Easter, Spiderman showed his softer side and became the "Spider Bunny".


These boys will make my hair gray before my time is due. And although it is now 7:36 in the morning, and we have had multiple costume changes, breakfast made and eaten, dishes cleared, and mom a blog entry posted, I will want to cherish these memories. For I know that in the short time of 10 years, I will be the one putting on a show to just GET these kids out of bed in the mornings.

TOT School: Music Class

Today we went to the zoo.

~~~Tank was introduced to animal names and sounds; sounds provided by his brother Turbo.

~~~Turbo was introduced to a foreign concept: The world does not revolve around him (He DID NOT want to go to the zoo today. But after explaining that when he was Tank's age, he enjoyed the zoo, so today was Tank's day to enjoy something that he liked. He wanted to go to the Museum instead today.)

~~~Thinking that a successful school week had come to a close, I was introduced to something on the way home; Music Class. Rhythm...to be more exact.

TOT School: Art

Recently, Tank has discovered writing utensils.

Recently, Tank has discovered how to take off items of clothing.

Recently, Tank has discovered parts of his body.

End result: Body Art

TOT School: Tank eats with a fork

For the past few weeks, Tank has been infatuated with silverware. Although he is given the utensil to play with and use, it wasn't until this morning, that he actually used it for its intended purpose. A fork is usually used as a comb/brush, which is super fun to get crusty cheesey eggs out of baby hair, mind you. A spoon is usually used for a slingshot of baby goo food. But this morning; however, he used it to eat his 3 pumpkin pancakes! YEAH!!!

"Mommy, can we do some school?"

All weekend, I reminded Turbo that school was going to start again on Monday. And all day Sunday he continually whined about starting school again! Monday morning came, and we sunk, ever so slowly, into our morning routine. When Tank went to sleep for his morning nap, only after he emptied the dishs, cups and plastic ware that the boys use out onto the kitchen floor, dumped all the blocks out of the school box on the shelf and proceeded to "stack" blocks on Turbo's beloved Hot Wheel Battle Force 5 Car, Turbo and I snuggled on the couch together. We talked about the day, his toys, and his friends, when he looked up at me, touched my face and asked, "Mommy, can we do some school now?" WHEW! Going back was a lot easier than I had expected!

We worked on the Letter G, and used our window crayons from Crayola to review some of our past letters. His lightbulb has gone on now that he realizes that the sounds of letters put together actually make a words, so he is hooked on writing and "reading" words. So instead of pencil and paper, we used window crayons and my sliding glass door. It really keeps his attention too! When I couple that with his Nerf Gun with suction cups, by asking him to shoot the specific letter/sound/number/word/color/or shape, I could keep him working for hours!

I have been compiling flashcards of all the words that are presented to him with HWOT, and quizzing him on them, and he is doing rather well. Although his impulsivity is still there by just blurting out words, he is beginning to look at the beginning and ending sounds and working through each word. P-R-O-G-R-E-S-S!!!! (can you hear me singing?)

We have challenged him to try 10 new foods. With each new food he gets a happy face. After 10 happy faces he gets a new Battle Force 5 Car. Today, he had 2 bites of cucumber! YEAHH!!! He didn't spit it out and go into covulsions either! He looked at me and said it was good but not great and that it wasn't his favorite! I wasn't going to push it, he ate a cucumber!!! YIPPEEE!!!!

In Tot School, Tank has been responding really well to multiple step commands, and as always is a joy! He recently found out that being pulled on a blanket is a rather exhilerating experience...thank you Nana... He also is doing great with the concept of block building.

I will begin more with Tank in the afternoons after nap, but for now, he just interested in remote controls, cell phones, mp3 players and my mouse...if it has a button, he wants it!!!!

Tot School: Apple Craft

Tank's apple craft was really simple to do. Using a hole punch, I punched a bunch of holes in a sheet of card stock. Using tape, I taped it to a sheet of paper. Then, giving Tank some red pain, he smeared the paint over the holes. Tactile touch with both the paint and the holes in the cardstock.

Here is the finished product!

Tot School: Animal Scramble

This morning, Tank was so adament about wanting the giraffe to the Animal Scramble game that Turbo got for his birthday. Usually, it is because the giraffe is large and heavy and those are the things that he delights in carrying around with him as he explores the house.

Only this morning, after giving it to him, he continued to reach for the package, grunting! When I gave it to him, he took out one of the animals and began to "capture" the monkey beneath the giraffe as he has seen many times his brother doing.

Finally understanding, I placed the rest of the animals out, turned the giraffe on and helped him "capture" the correct animal the game directed. He laughed and giggled and had so much fun. Although this game might have been over his head a bit much, I believe he knew what he was doing and wanted to be a big boy just like Turbo!

Tanks' First Christmas Craft

Last night, the family decided to do a Christmas craft. Now those of you with boys, and maybe even some girls, know that this is no easy task. Add a 1 year old to the mix and a quirky 5 year old, and you have a recipe for disaster. Fortunately, our Christmas trees turned out great, and our carpet was spared of green splatter paint.

First, we taped paper to the table. Actually, it was a white paper lunch bag, but that was all I had. Then we put blobs of paint on the paper and asked the boys to spread it around. Making it a bit more challenging, I asked Turbo to stay in the lines of the tree. Tank did great! He didn't any of the paint! Not that he didn't try!


Then we traced their hands for the ornaments!

Tank's Creation:


Turbo's Creation:

Hilarious Sibling Rivalry

Throughout our therapy with Turbo, Ms. Renee has tossed around the book, Sibling Without Rivalry and suggested that I was going to need it once Tank was older and could argue and fight back. Unfortunately, this day of revenge has come sooner rather than later.

While talking on the phone with my mother this morning, both boys, of course, were acting out. More specifically, Turbo was acting out with his BROTHER AS THE UNSUSPECTING TARGET! Once things had settled down, and redirection was instituted on both parties, this is what I saw when I came around the corner, and had to grab the camera before it was too late:




Tank had pinned Turbo to the ground while he was watching a kid show was proceeded to poke and pinch anything he could, all while using his only ammunition he had....SLOBBER! Turbo loved it, of course, but when it was all said and done, he realized why his clothes and face were all wet....HAA HAA!!!! That's right baby, you dish it out, it will come back to you 10 fold! (Now, I just need to make sure that my own lil' brother doesn't read this!)

TOT School

TOT School is now in session. Now that Tank is 1, I am ready to begin with Tot School. Tot School really isn't school as much as it is just focused time with him. There are SOOOOOO many ideas, activities, crafts, etc. out there, that choosing one thing is hard, but I am trying to make an effort in spending time with him just like I did with Turbo when he was younger.

Handwriting Without Tears has made such a huge difference in our home and in school. Granted, therapy has been taking a ton of time away from school, but that was expected. But now that we are getting down to the end, it is time that I begin thinking about the next semester and getting our act together.

During one of these times, Tank's napping schedule was kind of messed up, so we began some Tot School while I worked with Turbo on his letters. I gave him an empty plastic container and some crayons. Granted, I would have been more creative, but at the time, they were within arm's reach. Then I encouraged him to put them into the container. I dumped them out and he did it again. Besides having to tell him to not eat the crayons, he did good! Then I gave him buttons....WHOOOPSS!!!! wrong container. Here, ya go, baby....pompoms...yuck...he didn't like those....NICE JOB MAMA! ;)

Tank is Walking!

The past few weeks, Tank has been slowly getting his feet! I guess today, I can officially say that we have a brand new walker in our household! He is a little tipsy at times, but in general, he is a FINE walker!

Make a digital slideshow

WHACK!-A-Mole = Touch O'Meter?

So many things happen at therapy, that there just isn't enough room for my brain to process it all and be able to put it into words for me to look back on later. Sometimes, like this time, it comes to me MUCH later and I remember that I need to include it in our OT journey.

Remember that old carnival game where the participant would use a hammer to whack a button with a hammer that would send something up into the air to ring a bell? Well, Ms. Renee had a game much like this, but you had to hit a mole!



One of our goals for Turbo was for him to realize that there are different kinds of touches for different people and situations. By using this toy, she was able to ask Turbo what kind of force/touch was needed to reach the 1 (low on the scale) or to ring the bell (at the top). As he practiced this, she was able to equate it to certain people.

For example, a 1 or a 2 touch was a "TANK TOUCH". A 5 was a "MOMMY TOUCH". And...(sorry daddy), a 10 touch was a "DADDY TOUCH".

We've used this terminology some at home, but I really think we need to implement this more. I've also thought about making "TANK RULES". That was instead of telling him, "STOP SITTING ON YOUR BROTHER" (you laugh, but it is an hourly occurrence around here), I can say, "Uh-Oh! What are the "TANK" rules?!

Alright...now where is my paper...I must get those rules down before they both wake up from naps!