“Cutie patootie, Cutie pie,” I say!  This all gets met with a, “I’m NOT a cutie patootie, I’m Anna!”  Oops! Sometimes I can’t help myself. She keeps me laughing a lot!  She tells me, “You’re funny. I’m silly.” I’m thankful for her keeping me laughing because although I have a good sense of humor, I’m naturally not a very patient person and can be quick tempered at times.  I was driving back from therapy one day and I look in the rear view mirror and see a sticker on her nose! Anna has really helped me laugh more and grow as a person.  

She’s helpful in so many ways.  She’s been helping me with chores around the house.  She will give the dog her food. She will carry the container of food and scoop it out to put into her bowl.   This helps with the wrist motion-occupational therapy practice. Building therapy into our daily lives is critical since we don’t have much time.  She also feels accomplished when she helps around the house. She is a member of the family and is expected to participate in helping others with her own set of responsibilities.  She also helps to unload the dishwasher. She will hand me dishes, cups, plates, and even put pots away. The handing me of the dishes in turn, saves my back since I don’t have to bend down to grab them.  She puts away the utensils by herself, now that she is able to reach the drawer. The putting away of utensils is key because of the needing to sort out the spoons from the forks for example. This helps to develop her cognitive skills and pre-academic skills as she learns to organize.  In terms of pre-academic skills, I also do phonics flash cards with her. This helps her learn the sounds of the different letters. Here’s a video of her doing a puzzle with letters and you’ll notice she calls the “g” by its sound.  

We have been dealing with speech errors as of late.  As she expands her vocabulary, she is still trying to grasp how to correctly say words.  For example, she saw a man mowing the lawn and said, “look, Mama, the man is lawning.” Keep modeling proper speech is the plan for now.