Eat it, Bunny

This is a pretty good example of an interaction with our Parents as Teachers lady.

She brought this bunny basket and basket basket and some chop stick like things. Pumpkin had to use the chopstick to feed the bunny. It’s good for hand eye coordination, finger dexterity and other stuff. Pumpkin got it figured out then decided to turn the bunny around backwards and you don’t have to go in through the mouth. Then she figured out it is easier to just use your fingers then the chop sticks. Then she found it even easier to just dump one basket to the other.

Instead of us thinking “Hey, you are cheating”, our PAT lady describes Pumpkin as a problem solver. She was given a task and did it and then started improving on the process. She saw the limitations in the mouth and the chopsticks and found ways around them. So when she breaks out of her tent in the middle of the night and destroys her room it’s not because she is a monkey it is because she is a problem solver.

And yes she is not wearing pants, it’s not because she is a wild child, it is because pants are so limiting and unnecessary.

We talk with the PAT lady about Bean too. She brought little rattles with different sounds for us and we are training her to associates what she sees and what she hears and locate sounds. She is good with our voices but maybe not random new sounds. She is a little nervous about it but I’m sure she will do fine.

Yesterday she was loving laying under this little play thing and kicking her arms and legs into the toys.

So my mom watched both girls yesterday and survived it. The girls were both asleep before Heath got to the highway so I am guessing mom was asleep about twice as exhausted and asleep around the same time.  We had chili for dinner loaded with healthy things venison, spinach, beans, tomatoes, corn, carrots, chia, cuscus, maybe I should call it chili stew. I had made it in the morning and let it cook all day.

So dinner was easy, I just made a big salad and sliced and baked some sweet potatoes. The girls stayed sleeping in the van in the garage and Heath and I cleaned up the house some and got ready for our PAT visit. Bean kept sleeping when we brought her inside but Pumpkin got angry and wanted to keep sleeping in the van. Our lady helped us try to coax her into eating dinner with us. It took a while but eventually she went from angry grunting to happy giggling and being silly.

It was a good opportunity to talk some about what is going on in her head during this transition and I found it interesting. When she woke up she was all emotion and did not use any words or logic. Slowly she introduced “NO” and other small words into her grunts and cries. Then she started to tell us she wanted milk and to play and the emotions calmed down and the cognitive parts started working.

Okay enough parenting talk.

PAT lady left, I worked on the wall and Heath bathed and put Pumpkin to bed. I made some progress and ran into some problems. We did actually get some drywall up on the walls.

Heath helped me drive some screws in.

I really think tonight or tomorrow morning we will be able to flip the 3 breakers that have taken the power away to part of the house, like the kids bedrooms and most of the basement.