how my shoulders got sore from a puppet

Last week I had a cool opportunity to be involved in some filming for kids videos at church.  By 'me' I mean 'Dizzy'.  But she is such a princess she won't go anywhere without me.

It was one of the first times I had ever puppeted deliberately for a camera - so I worked out a few techniques along the way - like lying on a bean bag, and using a skateboard to 'walk' her along. 

And my shoulders got pretty sore by the end of the day.

Totally worth it.

These were Dizzy's 'legs'.....completely convincing...hoping the magic of film works...

Lying on a beanbag in the 'office'..

Awkwardly 'walking' along holding a garden implement.  Not tricky at all....

Film crew in action

Thanks Lisa for taking 'the making of' photos.  I am looking forward to seeing the completed products!

the ten year old talk

Yesterday I took Gab for her ten year old outing.  It has been a tradition, of one previous child (her older sister), to take your child out for the day when they are ten and impart special ten year old only wisdom from your mother.  Apparently the tradition involved lunch, a pedicure, photos, and shopping for particular items.  And a woman to woman talk from the mother.  Me.

I won't go into big details about what we talked about, that is private, but Gab and I had a lovely afternoon together, giggled like fruitloops during the pedicure and filled ourselves very full at an Italian restaurant. 

She is so gorgeous, it was lovely spending one on one time with her.

On the other hand, where has my baby girl gone?

Then.

Now.

Then.

Now.

Mmmmmm.  Chocolate.

Ten is a wonderful age.  Possibly the last long look at the top of the rollercoaster before you plummet over the side into adolescence with all the twists, turns and drops.

playing with your food

This semester at work I have been doing a LOT of food play.  There are some small people at work who are very reluctant eaters - they have trouble being in the same room or at the table where food is, they have a very limited range of foods they will eat (a couple of students just have milk/formula as their main nutrition), and different tastes and textures really overload their sensory systems.  Part of their goals at school include eating a wider variety of foods, and that's where I come in.  With food play.

My goal is to have a calm learning space and whittle away at some of the sensory barriers these kids have around food.  The teacher and I introduce a carefully selected range of tastes and textures, and we explore the food - what does it look like, smell like, feel like, taste like.... We put the foods straight on the table as we found that trays inevitably ended up on the floor upside down.  It's really not as messy as it sounds.  But I have to remember not to wear white on food play days.

It has been amazing what the kids have started doing all by themselves when we have taken away the pressure around food.  When the main aim is calmness and self exploration they are really stepping up.  We do lots of modelling of how to taste and eat the food, but we don't force any of the kids to do it.

On student has tried tasting foods he has never put in his mouth before, one student has expanded out his range that he will bite, one student has started touching foods in the clean up time (there is a set up and clean up time for each session to give a beginning and an end), and one student has stopped lying on the floor and screaming when food is around.  This is all exciting, and when I look back at how far we have come over the last five months, I am excited to see where they will go by Christmas!

These photos are from some food play I did with a relative a couple of years ago - exploring different textures with the same colour food making a car, exploring different colours with the same shape food while making a tower, and a dinosaur swamp exploring different tastes with the same consistency.

I really like exploring food with the kids.  And I am overcoming a few of my own sensory barriers - we all have them!

keep meaning to....

I keep meaning to write on the blog - but then I get distracted.  By work, kids, TV, sleeping, washing, driving, reading, chatting, socialising, writing, performing, driving, watching TV, reading, kids, lazing....
Things are happening in our lives.  Wonderful things and hard things.  Daily things and once in a lifetime things.  Time trickles past and before I know it is three weeks later.

Once in a lifetime things.  Like Annika standing up for her faith and being baptised.  No prompting from us.

I might have cried quite and lot and been a bit of an emotional wreck.

She showed a maturity and eloquence I was blessed to witness.  Check out this video of her testimony:
https://vimeo.com/67612008

And daily things like growing children - encouraging them, backing off, pushing forward, letting them be.  It is like a dance of tolerance of instruction, guidance and love.

How do you get kids to do piano practice?

I guess at some point they start pushing off from the jetty and sailing off by themselves.  From when they are small and stamp their independent feet at you, to when they are tall and run with their friends.

Now this is turning into a mummy blog.

At the moment....my life.....

it is what it is.

story action

Last week we at Wide Eyed Stories had the privilege of helping out with a family service at Taringa Baptist.  It was great fun, and the kids got involved and everything!

I rocked it out with the ukelele.   I now know 10 chords - oh the possibilities!

That's my hand inside Dizzy.  She was being pretty feisty last Sunday morning.  I talk about her like she is not me.  She is a completely different character.  Completely different.  I would never dream of being as rude as her.  Although I do help her think of her best lines, so the cheekiness must be lurking inside me...

I enjoy doing puppeting very much.  Trying hard to work out how I can make this a full time job - Sesame Street give me a call if there is an opening...

In the meantime I am kicking some goals at work - kids are communicating and stepping along their pathway to being great talkers.  I have been so proud and pleased at some of the students over the last week, for example, when one of the students used his PODD book (book with laminated pictures symbols to point to) to tell me the monster I had drawn him was annoying and scary.  Completely appropriate.  Especially considering my drawing skills.  I would also choose annoying and scary as describing words.

I am spending a lot of time scripting and planning at the moment.  A few shows and our church holiday program are coming up.  Ideas are bubbling.

Onwards.

loving the flea market

Last Sunday the girls and I went to the flea market.  It's a great place to hang out on a crisp morning.  I got sucked into buying a box of mandarins for $3 - so the girls have been made to eat four mandarins a day.  It makes packing lunches easy.  They had a mandarin fueled Naplan week.

I picked up this bike trainer for ten bucks that attaches to my bike and gives it resistance.  I plan to cycle a whole lot of nowhere in front of the TV, hopefully burning off thigh diameter.

I also realised that last week I wore clothes to work pretty much all from the flea market.  I looked professional enough....

I think there is probably enough stuff in the world already.  Trying to buy second hand where possible helps.  But I am inconsistent with this.  I buy new stuff as well and contribute towards globalisation and downtrodden workers.

Tonight we are going to a 40th birthday party where the host has indicated no presents.  That's what I plan to bring - nothing.   It always end up that I take the 'no present' thing seriously and have empty hands, and everyone else just brings a little 'something'.  Hang on, I have just had a brilliant idea.

I will bring mandarins from the markets.

my favourite....

I have started back at work over the last couple of weeks.  It has been really rewarding seeing some of the kids and the flashes of progress they have made.  I subjected one child to my happy dance when she communicated using a two symbol combination at morning tea.  This was big for her.

But I have been thinking as I spend time in a workplace and use the facilities - does anyone else have a favourite toilet at an often visited place?  At my work I always go to the one on the right.  I feel weird, underperforming and unsettled in the left toilet.  And at church I always go to the one on the far right.  Almost to the point if there was someone already in it and the other one was spare, I would wait for the right sided loo.

Am I old?  Fixed in my ways?  Slightly on some spectrum?  I did find a slight Morticia streak of grey in my hair the other day and promptly dyed my hair red.  Age is Approaching.

Does everyone else have much more carefree loo visiting habits?

Am I weird?