Thursday, March 13, 2008

Maya's Original Pictures

Maya was a busy little beaver tonight - playing fairly quietly here on the living room floor for the most part. I figured she was coloring -something as you all know by now she enjoys doing - but it wasn't until Mandy happened to look over at some of the papers Maya had put up on the coffee table that she realized exactly what Maya had been doing. For a change, it wasn't anything bad either but it sure did surprise the heck out of us!

I don't know how well you'll be able to make out what she has on here but I'll describe it for you. All of these stick drawings -and the printing of the names too -were done by Maya, all by herself -not a whit of help from anyone here! At the top, you'll see her rendition of herself -and her own name below it and to the side of that in the upper right-hand section, is her mother and "Mommy" is printed below that. She has "Gram" printed there twice but the picture in the middle at the bottom is her drawing of me. In the bottom left, with the name Jacob printed under it, is a drawing of one of the little boys in her school class. He also rides the mini-van to and from school with Maya. And in the middle of the page on the right hand side, that is supposed to be Kurtis and yes, she did try to print his name there too. That one takes a little doing to make out her spelling. I was going to just scan this into the computer but then I remembered the scanner had been weirding out on me a bit the last time I used it so I decided to make use of my lovely camera - especially so I could share this page with you of Maya's special artwork! We were all thoroughly amazed that she did that though. Had no idea she could write -and do such a good job too on spelling these names! Not bad at all for a four-year old now is it?

We have two things -both were gifts to Maya from a very special cousin of ours down in Virginia. One is this bunny-thing - it's actually a pillowcase for a standard sized pillow made of really soft fleece type fabric with this big bunny head attached to it - floppy ears and all. Maya loved having it in her playpen when she was a baby and often would play with the bunny head. We also have a pillow shaped like a teddy bear baby rug -also a gift to Maya when she was about 18 months old from that same special Virginia cousin. Mr. Bunny and Mr. Bear is what they are called here. Maya loved the bear pillow too but not near as much as Kurtis does!

He sometimes uses "Mr. Bear" as a pillow to rest his head on and other times, he pulls "Mr. Bear" close and hugs him and at times, he likes to pull "Mr. Bear" up so the pillow covers his head and eyes too. One of the little "issues" or quirks Kurtis has is that he will be two years old - a month from today, April 13th - but he refuses to relinquish the bottle. He's adamant in that he won't have anything at all to do with a sippy cup - no way, no how -and we can't try to wean him to an open topped cup because, you see, he will not hold a bottle and drink anything from a sitting position! He has to lay down to drink. This is a bit of a problem to the staff who run the WIC program here as they are insisting that Mandy wean him -NOW, but actually, should have been done YESTERDAY, in their books. We're very aware that he should have been weaned long ago but, what the WIC people DON'T take into consideration here is that he is also autistic and you don't just train these kids to do something new like that overnight - not even over months for that matter. That, plus he seems to be unable to lift things like that up to reach his mouth too. (Another reason he has an occupational therapist working with him too.)

But anyway, when he sees us coming with a bottle in hand, we like to describe his actions as being the "Stop, drop and roll" -like you learn to do in fire safety training and such. As soon as he sees someone bringing him that bottle, he stops whatever he's doing, drops to the floor of the playpen, gets his head arranged then usually on "Mr. Bear" for his pillow support and he's ready to go to town scarfing up whatever he's just been given then! Tonight, he was a busy little beaver, running all over the downstairs of the h0use here and Mandy had given him a bottle. He had "Mr. Bear" out of the playpen and had come into the living room and grabbed that furry pillow and took it to the kitchen where he laid it in front of the island. He then came back into the living room and removed one of the pillows from the loveseat and took it to the kitchen too -placing it on the floor alongside "mr. Bear." After he had that all set up, he then laid down on the floor with the pillow and "mr. Bear" and proceeded to polish off that bottle of milk.

Here's a picture of him with his own little "set-up" and Maya had to join him too!
And here are pictures of both of them - showing off how well they can each smile so pretty for the camera! Why is it though that it always seems little boys get blessed with a head full of curly, curly hair and little girls - usually it's just the reverse and they get the straight stuff?





And that's my post and mini picture show for tonight!

Enjoy! I am.

16 comments:

Dianne said...

Wow jeni - Maya did a great job!

what a pleasant surprise that must have been - and no glue was involved.

great photos - sweet smiles.

Suldog said...

You reminded me of something I hadn't thought about in years. I had a pillow in the shape (more-or-less) of Mickey Mouse's head. I slept with it when I was very small.

I sometimes wish I still had it :-)

the mother of this lot said...

My two middle ones used to do that in the afternoon - I'd cover them both with a blanket and they'd pretend they were 'Babes in the Wood'!

Have you visiited Casdok's blog? There may be some links on there which might be useful for you:


http://motherofshrek.blogspot.com/

Linda Murphy said...

Great artwork, Maya!

We just bought a huge beanbag for the boys as recommended by the OT. The boys love it. My older one is taking a nap on it as we speak. :)

The pictures are so sweet!

Jeff B said...

Got to love kid art. I think Lisa has saved every picture the boys have ever drawn.

Great job maya!

Minnesotablue said...

How fortunate you ,Maya and Kurtis are able to spend so much time with one another. Not every child has that great experience of really knowing and loving their grandparent.

fuzzbert_1999@yahoo.com said...

Love the drawings!

BTW, did you see the news piece on NBC the other night about umbilical cord blood and autism? It seems one couple saved the blood from the little boy's birth, at great expense, but after she was diagnosed with autism, doctors used the blood's stem cells to inject into the little boy. Within two days he was talking and walking around almost normally.

Somehow the cells go to the underdeveloped cells in the body and help repair them.

OHmommy said...

Way to go Maya!!! What a hard working girl... and all by herself.

They are simply delicious. So sweet!

OHmommy said...

Way to go Maya!!! What a hard working girl... and all by herself.

They are simply delicious. So sweet!

Anonymous said...

Maya's got some major talent there! Both kids are such cuties too!

Smalltown RN said...

If I double click on the picture it enlarges so I could see perfectly what she wrote...that is fabulous...looks to me like the school she has been going to is making a huge difference for her...that is just amazing....

Little Kurtis is just darling...a the bottle....does the child care folks know that he does not have the body mechanics to hold a sippy cup? If the therapists are working with him on that...then can't you explain that it is something that you are working in...but if her does't have the body mechanics to change from bottle to cup then what do they expect you to do? I guess on your families part you can just be diligent about reinforcing what the therapist is trying to do which I am sure you do...best of luck with it...

I was reading your previous post and diagnosis...it's funny what people think....I remember when my youngest brother was born with Down Syndrome this was baby number 12 for my mom...the doctor actually asked my mom what she wanted to do with him....this stunned her..."what do you mean do with him" take him home of course....in those days they were put into institutions....growing up I learnt so much from my younger brother...he was just pure love...you never got an unkind word out of him...just a lot of hugs and smiles...there is a poem called Heaven's very special child...I remember my sister doing a essay competion using that poem but she was using it to reference my brother...if you ever find it it's wonderful worthy of being posted somewhere....

Anyhow, I am glad you have a diagnosis and that you know can all move forward....great posts Jeni...

Smalltown RN said...

Hey Jeni here's a link to that poem I was talking about...it's interesting they say the author wrote it in 1981, I know it was written before that because I was in elementary school when I first heard it....
http://www.our-kids.org/Archives/Heavens_special_child.html

Lori said...

Sweet babies...and great drawing!
Referring to your post below...I work with children who have learning disabilities (moderate) and I have to say that the ones who have a good home life and lots of love and support from parents and grandparents are the ones who succeed. Just keep loving these babies and they will do just fine.

Thank you for your kind words at my blog. Much appreciated! :-)

Cath said...

Wonderful post Jeni! Your love for them shines through.

Thanks for stopping by mine.

the mother of this lot said...

Jeni, came back to say my little Fixer has made you an award! Come on over and collect it!

Sandi McBride said...

I just love it. Now put them away and in twenty years when you come upon it, what a wonderful warm feeling will come over you! There will be Maya all grown up and on her own, and you can show her how talented she has always been, always will be.
Sandi