Art Therapy & Reading

Yesterday in Occupational Therapy, Will wowed us with his ability to stack two blocks at a time (without knocking over the tower until the end!) This is not a skill he needed to master until the end of this month! Go Will! So, we decided to bust out the red & green paints for Christmas time & try out Will's new "grip aid." The grip aid (black thing on his wrist) is actually sized for a man but we made it work & he was able to use one hand to hold the paintbrush & one hand to hold his paper! This was very exciting for all of us but perhaps a little confusing to Will who is used to using two hands to do most of his tasks. Go Will!

(Remember to push pause on my music playlist to hear Will "reading" above.) Earlier today, Will was having some free play time & I was in the study. I suddenly heard him jabbering on and on and on. I peeked over at him & realized he was "reading" his favorite book out loud to himself! I quickly grabbed the camera & tried to film him without him noticing me. He was so cute, reading, turning the pages, pointing at pictures just like mommy does! He does catch me at the end but it is pretty cute, I think! He's reading, "Oso Pardo, Oso Pardo," by the way - his favorite! ("Brown Bear, Brown Bear" by Eric Carle)

On an unrelated note, perhaps you'll find this mom's ignorance humourous. I recently spent about an hour of Will's nap time working on an essay for a contest about why Will is my hero. I'm rather verbal, in case you haven't noticed, & upon submitting the essay, I learned it was waaaaay too long & I had to edit out nearly 500 words. Not an easy task... more nap time "wasted." My real reason for the contest was that if we won, we would win a trip to NYC! Not the most age appropriate city for a 1 year old, but that hasn't exactly stopped us before with our travels! Finally, I finish my work & submit my entry. Then, I became interested in one of the major sponsors as I was unfamiliar with their product. I clicked on their website & quickly realized that it is a product designed for a certain ethnicity. The winning child of the contest will be used in their ads... I'm just guessing that my blue eyed, curly blonde haired kid might not fit in with their typical consumer. I quickly read the entire set of rules and nowhere in the rules does it require entrants to be of a certain ethnic group. I'm thinking, however, that I just wrote a great essay & we're going to be disqualified! Oh well...

On another, unrelated note, I found great relief yesterday in a phrase, "frustration tantrums!" Have you heard of this? They are different from temper tantrums which mean a defiant heart. Will has been having some tantrums lately (some are definitely temper tantrums when told no). I've been so worried & quickly ordered some new books like Dobson's, "The Strong Willed Child." I was so relieved that I cried, however, when I learned that toddlers often do not have a defiant heart but are having a frustration tantrum. This is definitely the case some of the time with Will. He becomes frustrated because his brain is developed enough & intelligent enough to know he should be able to do something but his body just isn't there yet. Or, he watches the way other kids or adults do something but he has to put extra energy and creativity into adapting the way he will do that some task. This can be very frustrating for a 15 month old! I especially notice these frustration tantrums during zanco practice. He knows he is far more efficient crawling & gets frustrated with the heavy, cumbersome zancos! I don't want to make excuses and I get that we still can't tolerate tantrums but I understand his frustration and that is much eaiser to deal with than a defiant heart! So, encouragement for you other moms out there- our kids don't necessairly have defiant hearts all the time - sometimes they are just frustrated with what their minds are capable of that their bodies aren't yet. Good to know there's a difference in tantrums! :)