Wordless Wednesday: Piper's Pajama Preferences

Wordless Wednesday: Our Pretty Girls

My Costume

We're having a "sick day" at home today. Both girls woke up with icky noses yesterday, so it's been a few days of laying low. We're trying to find ways of entertaining ourselves and, of course, that does include more TV than usual (insert Mommy guilt here). Morgan was watching her beloved "Fresh Beat Band" on Nick Jr. today and was inspired by the episode that included the main characters dressing up in costumes. She kept saying "I want my costume" and pointing upstairs. I finally asked her if she wanted her "flower" costume, because she wore it this last Halloween and it was the most similar to the costumes they were wearing on the show. She said yes and put it on right away. She continued to wear it through the next show until I told her she had to take it off for Quiet Time (she also needed to use the potty, but was procrastinating because she wanted to keep the costume on).



Silly girls. It's not easy to get a picture when the TV is on. The costume barely fit Morgan. She is so tall that it couldn't have been that comfortable. Still cute though. It made her happy and that's all that counts.

Piper's Boo-tay

As some of you may have read a while ago, David taught Morgan to say "boo-tay" for bottom. Even though I use the term "bum" most of the time, she continues to use "boo-tay" when referring to this area of the body.

Last night the girls had their bath. Piper had already gotten out and was standing, still naked, on the stool by the sink, waiting to brush her teeth. Morgan, being dried off by David, points at Piper and says "I see Piper's boo-tay!" We laughed and said, yes, there it is! She then says "I want to touch Piper's boo-tay!" and heads towards Piper. She does just what she says she was going to do, then announces "It's squooshy!" Yes, "squooshy." Not squishy, but squooshy. I kind of like it!

Update on RDI

So...we made our first trip to the "Tri-Cities" (Pasco, Kennewick and Richland, WA) last week and it went well! The drive was two hours, so not bad. We (meaning me and both girls) made a stop halfway on the way down for Morgan to go potty. As we left the Starbucks restroom I told Morgan we were getting back in the car. She said "No, I want lunch!" Apparently she thought we were stopping for food too. She had already had her lunch at home and we were purposely making the trip during "nap" time so Piper could sleep. I managed to get both of them back in the car and Morgan seemed satisfied with a special scone I got her.

When we got into town we met up with David (who had made the trip early that morning and had some sales calls), had some dinner and went to meet with our consultant, Christine. She runs the Responding to Autism Center in Kennewick and it was an impressive facility. In addition to RDI, they do all sorts of autism assessments and therapies as well as running social skills groups.

That evening we went over the basics of the program and got to know each other a bit. Morgan and Piper played nicely with some toys and who can resist a long hallway to run up and down?! The next morning we did our first RDA, a baseline assessment of where Morgan is at as well as how both David and I interact with her. Christine had us do some specific activities with her and videotaped the sessions. This will be used for comparison when we do future assessments to evaluate how our interactions improve.

David and I have started our first homework assignments. Since RDI is a parent-led program, the first few months are all about educating the families about the program and preparing us to work with Morgan using what they call "Guided Participation." It was wonderful to hear that this program will really be working to change how we interact with Morgan on a day-to-day basis, not any specific time that needs to be set aside for "therapy." We can use the taught techniques any time of the day, eating, playing, any activities outside of the house, etc. We will be helping her to learn the basic communication and social skills she didn't naturally learn. As we have not yet learned the techniques to do this, I don't have examples, but I will share bits and pieces as we go along.

All in all the driving, overnight stay and sessions worked out well. Our next session will be via Skype, so it looks like we will need to make the trip about once a month, which is totally do-able for us. We are also fortunate that Christine has family in the Spokane area too, so she will be able to make some trips our way as well.

4th of July Fun!



Yes, Piper is naked in these photos. She seems to prefer being au natural in any setting. We got the water toys going before we changed her into her swimsuit and once we took the (wet) clothes off, she would not let us put the swimsuit on. Oh well. At least I chose some photos with less "exposure" than others.

As you can see from Morgan's face, the water was COLD! We left it out overnight hoping they'll get a warmer dip in it this afternoon.

Our 4th "weekend" was good. We did some swimming at the Y on Saturday, went to church and had friends over for a BBQ on Sunday. Monday we went to a park, had a picnic and picked up a cheap plastic pool and a slip 'n' slide at Target. Even David took a slide down the slip 'n' slide. Technically he was too big for it, but someone had to show them the technique! Yay for taking one for the team!

They loved playing in the water and did NOT want to come inside, especially Piper who threw a huge fit, as expected. We would have let them stay out longer, but even with sunscreen they both were a little sun kissed and tired after a lot of time outside. Once they were in bed, they were OUT. So, no fireworks this year. All in all we had a great time though!