Shout Out: Bounce n' Play Rocks

I was going to write this up before the previous Reality Check post. Well, here it is.

The Bounce n' Play in town is FANTASTIC! I went there with E, her little sister Vivian, and our fantastic nanny Annette. There are climbing structures, both permanent (structural) and inflatable; an art room, as well as a painting room (you can paint the walls!); a toddler room; a fish pond; and a pretty good cafe. All this makes for a great day, provided your child can maneuver around the area. Which, as long as it's not too crowded, Elena can.

After speaking with the staff--E had permission to wear her shoes. I decided to leave them off...sneakers just stick when she should be sliding. The structured climb/slide arrangement is too big for Elena--and not because she has CP. I went in there with her (tight squeeze, let me tell you) and I ended up helping a slew of kids get up and down. Both girls liked the big slides.








Bounce houses are still one of those lump-in-the-throat situations...lots of kids, standing up, giggling, while my kid is trying and failing miserably do to do the same, while hoping that she doesn't get kicked in the head or worse. I find it's better to be in a Bounce House Situation if it's not too crowded AND if it's with friends that we know well. Here it was neither. And you know what? It was still okay.

It helps that E can climb up structures in a Bounce House (with some assistance). I wasn't the only adult helping their kid around the big structures, which was comforting. And it's also nice to see our motto "everybody falls" in action, b/c all the kids fall when on the inflatables. When it was really crowded (we got there when it opened; after 90 minutes, lots of people were there) the kids were actually very nice, and very patient. What a nice surprise (and their parents weren't even there to tell them to be nice). We ended up leaving the bounce area after that time, b/c the kids were getting tired and the place was filling up. We fed the fish, and then Viv went to the toddler room and I took E to art. She even met a new friend while coloring!



The BnP is a great place to take E and Viv, provided we're there at opening time. The staff and the clientele were very accepting of our situation. That's not exactly rare in this town, but it's always reassuring to witness.

Halloween!

We LOVE Halloween!

Elena was a giraffe this year! I incorporated her loftstrands into the costume as her front legs.

Giraffe Front View

Giraffe Side View


Some Halloweens have been pretty hard...especially before E was more mobile. It was hard on me to see all those kids moving around, being so cute, having such a good, easy time. But it got better.

This year, our goal was to go to at least 5 houses, with E using her crutches at every house. E had to do something, but not necessarily everything, at each house we visited--go up the driveway, up steps, down steps, across stones, etc. I pushed her in her stroller inbetween houses. She did very well, especially considering she had 2 Feldenkrais sessions, with a lot of walking downtown inbetween (she did nap before trick-or-treating).

We went trick-or-treating with some friends from down the street. That was another nice treat--this is our first year planning on going with friends. It was really nice to be included in a group.

E went to over 10 houses! She even braved some "spooky" ones, but didn't want to hang around after getting some candy. When the kids were done, we ended up going to G & R's house for a bathroom break--and ended up playing there for over an hour! E went to their basement playroom, and I tried to let her just navigate it on her own. E was AWESOME. She walked the whole room (at least 13 feet), and only fell once. The other kids were great to her. She did their indoor slide on her own. She tried to stand up from the floor on her own several times, succeeding once. She also didn't complain about her AFOs hurting! This whole experience made me think, someday SOON, she'll be able to play safely in a strange place, with other people, while I am in another room.





PS. Like her costume? If you have or know a child--especially one that has loftstrands, and they would like to have it, let me know. I'll pick from responses and send it to you. The costume is size 3T shirt (I think it runs small), and the pants are modeled after a 3T pant. FYI, E is close to 36" tall and weighs 26 lbs. I made the pants by piecing material together; the pants themselves to not have elastic, but are sewn to 2T "bloomers" inside the pants. I'd be happy to hold the costume until next year, so you can see how much your child has grown in the hopes it will fit.

Soccer and Slides

Today Jason brought the girls to catch the end of my soccer game. After the game was over, E wanted to go "score a goal" on the field. She did her BEST walking on grass I have seen to date. I'd kick the ball forward about 4-5 feet, help her get steady, and then she would walk to it and give the ball a kick (or, more accurately, run into the ball with her legs). She doesn't fall right away while kicking, but she always eventually goes down. I'm trying to get her to walk, stop, kick, stop, walk. That's not working too well, though.

Here is E walking on grass. I wasn't filming anything at the beginning, so this is at the end of her grass time.



After that, we all went to the playground next to the field. It's not for toddlers (steps too large, slides very tall, etc.) but we did it anyway. She did some good climbing, and at the top was a twin slide. I showed her what I didn't want her to do, and then how I wanted her to do it.

Now, I'm not sure what I did differently--but obviously something was different about today. SHE GOT IT!! A first--E stays sitting up while descending a slide!

PT payoff: local playground

I took E out with a new toy today. I bought her a Kinderbike, b/c I thought she would (eventually) be able to do it. We tried it two different times, about 20 minutes apart. She doesn't really get it yet; she knows to kick her feet out and "walk" them forward, and she knows to sit on the bike seat, but she doesn't know how to do them at the same time. My goal is to start with rolling back and forth, and standing while rocking the bike side to side. I think once the feeling isn't so novel, she'll be able to engage her legs better--right now her inner thighs are too tight for her to move well when she is on the bike.



Her reward for being so patient with me was going to the park. She has to get out of the car (I'll post a vid of that, I keep forgetting) and walk to the park with her crutches. There is a pretty big obstacle from the parking lot to the park, however.

Curbs.

We've been working on going up steps with crutches...SHOWTIME!



She can now navigate a lot of our playground by herself (but one has to stay close in case she falls). E loves to climb, and once we were through the structure and the monkey bars, she wanted to go swing. Here is she trying to get there herself. She is walking on mulch, up a slight hill to the swings.



She can also pump the swing herself to keep moving. Usually she is good at this; today, she really wanted to swing high. Right after this vid, she straightened her legs (and her torso, unfortunately) at the wrong time and nearly fell off the swing (a first).



The last part of our playground trip was the slide. As I've written before, E hasn't been able to stay sitting up while descending a slide--I guess she is so excited she stiffens up. She also does this when she's throwing objects in a sitting position, so we've been working on leaning forward while throwing in ring-sit. I think we are making progress; at the beginning of this slide, she stayed sitting for a little while--more than she ever has.



Great job E!

Third of July at Pen Park

E went to the park with her friend LC. She preferred to stay on the toddler playground; they have a larger playground for bigger kids (she did that too, but needed extra help, so no vids taken). She still needs constant supervision, especially while descending or climbing.

Steps, though, are getting much better. The toddler playground has appropriate handrails!





Elena, like most kids, loves slides-but she can't seem to stay sitting up while sliding. This normally means we have to be RIGHTTHERE to catch her at the bottom, or she whacks her head as her bum falls of the slide. At this playground, the slide is shallow, so I didn't have to catch her. I told her to stand up.



She can do better. I know she can stand up just fine from this slide, but on this occasion, no dice.