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Funny Ane Stories – and Tad’s New Word

Let’s go into the weekend on a lighter note, shall we? Here are some little anecdotes guaranteed to put a smile on your face…

Ane’s love of poppylocks is well-documented, as you all know. She has been fascinated for a long time with the candy machines at restaurants – the claw one where you grab as much candy as you can and drop it into the hole before the claw stops moving. She has watched other kids play this “game” and can’t understand why we won’t let her try it.

So, we were at Red Robin for dinner recently, and Ane decided to play pretend candy machine game. She inserted her pretend quarters, and then moved the joystick, pretending that the claw was moving and picking up candy. When she was finished, she announced, “Let’s see what I got,” and stuck her hand into the little swinging door.

And pulled out a watermelon Tootsie Roll Pop.

While the Webmaster’s jaw and mine dropped to the floor, Ane’s face lit up with glee and delight. “I won, I won!” she crowed, waving her prize triumphantly.

The pop was probably left by a kid who didn’t like watermelon, or just missed it on the first grab, or maybe it was wedged and stuck and Ane’s little hand managed to get a hold of it. Any way you look at it, it was a great thing for Ane. I just don’t know what I’ll tell her the next time she plays pretend candy machine.

*****

Ane likes to “help.” Whenever she asks me if she can help by doing a certain chore, it always makes me smile and flashback to her baby days, when I used to call her my little “unhelper” because of her penchant to undo whatever I had just done. She would unfold laundry, empty drawers of clean Tupperware, and dump toys back out that I had just picked up.

However, as time has passed and she’s gotten older, she does have a genuine desire to help that can be exploited encouraged. So, when she asked if she could wash dishes a few days ago, I agreed to it. I put an apron on her, filled up a plastic tub with warm water and suds, and gave her sippy cups and bowls and plastic forks and spoons – unbreakable items – to wash. She will lovingly wash each item – it is not unheard of for her to spend 5 minutes washing one thing – but she does need help with rinsing.

She picked up a bowl that was in her dishpan, which still had vanilla yogurt from breakfast clinging to it. “Mommy!” she yelled. “There’s still yogurt on this bowl!”

Translation: This bowl isn’t clean enough to wash!

I explained to her that her job was to wash the yogurt off the bowl with the sponge and soap. She gave me a skeptical look, but proceeded to give my wild and crazy idea a try.

I did end up having to rewash that particular bowl. But she had a blast.

*****

And now on to Tad…

Tad had the most affirming and rewarding speech therapy session yesterday (with Therapist #2, of course. She just seems to get him in a way that Therapist #1 doesn’t. I like Therapist #1, but I LOVE Therapist #2).

His new word? Jump.

His favorite song at Sunday School is the old Donut Man classic “Jumping Up and Down” (credit goes to Grandma, who regularly sings this song with the preschool kids at church) which involves jumping, hand-waving, and yelling “Hosanna!” at the top of your lungs. Tad is starting to get more of the hand motions down, and yells “sanna!” at the right times, and, of course, jumps with great enthusiam and vigor.

We demonstrated this at speech therapy yesterday, which impressed Therapist #2 greatly. She and Tad began a jumping game, where she would “help” him jump (by lifting him up off the ground – she had a grip on him right under his arms) if he said the word “jump” or if he said “go” (which is another favorite word for him).

By the time we left, he was saying “jump” with great regularity and very clearly, and Therapist #2 was telling me how pleased she was with his effort, good mood, and good eye contact during this session. He had even tried the word “open” and was jabbering happily at different points. It was all very encouraging and I left feeling reassured.

Maybe we’ll get this kid to talk yet!

One Response to “Funny Ane Stories – and Tad’s New Word”

  1. Matthew
    October 26th, 2007 20:12
    1

    I have dinner dishes in the sink right now. Send Ane over, will you?

    Go Tad!