X-rays, puppies and silliness!

A lot of this week has been about bodies.  There's been the usual conversations about wee and poo - they're a staple in this house lately! But then there's the conversations about food and where it goes to (our bellies), as well as what muscles and bones.  When we do something that uses our muscles (like lifting something heavy) we've always said something like "wow look at your strong muscles".  Well Miss M (3.5yrs) will now tell you to look at her muscles, as she does something, usually a random pose.

Yesterday I was rolling around on the floor with Miss F (1.5yrs) and Miss M took a sudden interest in my ankles.  Ankles are very interesting.  Then she says excitedly "Oh my goodness!! Mummy!! You have bones in your body!!".  Yes, yes I do! And so do you!! So we Googled images of X-rays - we stuck to hands and legs, I think skulls can be a bit spooky.  She loved it.  Sat on my lap comparing her hands to the pictures of hand X-rays.

We looked at all the parts on our bodies where bones can be felt easily - ankle; hip; rib; jaw; feet; toes; knuckles; elbows etc.  All the ticklish spots!!

With the weather settling down a bit this week we've been outside heaps more.  The girls have loved playing in the sandpit.  Miss F is slowing learning not to throw sand at everyone.  The dogs have enjoyed having us outside too.  We play 'find the buried treasure' in the sandpit. We bury barbie dolls, sticks, sandpit toys, my feet.  They love digging up a treasure.  So the girls did this, so I could find her....

                                

I think she actually enjoyed it! She didn't move once.  

Miss M LOVES taking photos.  My phone is always telling me my storage is full and I have to go through all the photos and delete hundreds of random photos (I do keep some).  She loves her own feet! Lately it's been shadows.  Lots of photos of shadows.  And random exclamations of having found her shadow.  We've talked about something blocking a light and that makes a shadow... but I don't think she understands.  She likes watching Peter Pan chase his shadow! 

                                    

One of the things Miss M struggles with (being autistic) is creative play.  Playing with things in a different way to what they were designed for is always a fun conversation.  I'm always doing the wrong thing and being told I'm silly - silliness is underrated! It feels really strange having to teach my daughter how to be silly and random, and not always so completely serious and black and white.  It's not something I ever though parenting would look like.  Don't get me wrong, it's sometimes fun being the silly one, and being able to justify it to unknowing onlookers! 

We recently got a beautiful wooden rainbow puzzle.  It's brilliant for encouraging creative play.  It can be anything you want.  It took a fair amount of convincing to get Miss M to let me make them bridges on our road rug.  I was silly and wrong and all sorts of things! But in the end she loved it and actually spent ages playing with the cars, going under the bridges and over them! 

                                         

I feel like these blogs neglect Miss F lately.  Grated she doesn't talk much, but she's trying! Most of our conversations with her are very repetitive or are telling her not to bite (yes, she's a biter!).  Today the dog (featured above) actually managed to steal a soft toy (a puppy) out of Miss F's hands and ran off with it. It was good to see Miss F get a taste of her own medicine for a change (usually she's the snatcher!).  She was very upset and for about an hour the conversation was "Daisy! Puppy! Gone!"  While she stood next to our dog pointing at her.  We got the toy back straight away (otherwise she would have eaten it!).  But it didn't calm the drama in our poor tormented bub! lol!