Yoga time!

So, the dds hate it when I do yoga. So I am on a mission to find yoga we can do together as a family, kid-friendly yoga that still wears me out. We are hitting up the library first. Today was our first victim, Kids Yoga ABCs. It was actually much better than I anticipated. There are a lot of yoga moves disguised as fun letters and animals (from the traditional cat and cow to fun animals like iguanas), plus a few basic yoga concepts (a short song about Namaste and an Om exercise). Dd1 had a blast being a caterpillar and an eagle, and I got a workout with "iguana" and the wheel. I am apparently sorely out of shape, lol. We only get each DVD for a week at our library so we'll see what the replay value is tomorrow, but I think it's entertaining enough for kids to keep dd1 involved and until I'm strong enough to do a proper backbend (sorry, the wheel) it will work quite well for me, too. I also discovered that I either need to steam clean the carpets or pull out the yoga mat. It smells funny.

Fun with speech

So, dd2 has a speech evaluation next week. Dh and I both think there is nothing organically wrong with her. She just doesn't see the point. She can sign very well, and picks up new signs as fast as we can teach them now that she conquered her receptive issues. She says, "ma," "da," "ba," and "w" plus vowels. She does NOT babble. She will now say "dada" or "mama" for an adult and this week she started to imitate "bah...bee?" when we say "baby" (very, very emphasized per the usual to help her pick out the sounds). She doesn't say it on her own, but it's her first two-sound combo besides "uh-oh" so that's impressive. She also now says "mi" for milk instead of "mah." So see, she's progressing! She just doesn't see any need to use speech, really. She signs and signs and if you ask her to speak instead of sign, she just signs again and again and again and gets very frustrated and cries/screams. It is kind of nice to have a 21-month-old who can't say "no," LOL, but she can shake her head and then throw a tantrum. *sigh* We're working on the self-control stuff. She doesn't have any. But that is half the SPD and half her personality. There's nothing inhibiting her speech but her own desire or lack of. When the developmental behavioraist tries to get dd2 to talk, dd2 just stares blankly at her, so it's not just her ignoring us. She just sees no reason to use her mouth. She'll sign. That's "saying" it to her. And if she does make her sounds, she signs along with them. The vocal is just for emphasis, lol. We talk and add gestures for emphasis. She signs and adds a sound for emphasis. It's not "speech" to her.

I need to start blogging again

I have all these fun ideas and I'm usually just too tired. But I'm going to try. I need to actually make contact with the outside world occasionally, lol. I need to talk about more SPD insanity (speech evaluation next week. Seriously?? It's not that she can't talk. She just has no interest in it whatsoever.), ways for broke peeps to go green (it's actually cheaper when you break it down, and there are really, really easy ways to get started), going vegetarian for carnivores (as we go from meat twice a day to maybe once a week and beyond, and meet interesting characters like "TVP" and "seitan" and find out how to make them honestly taste like meat without slaving away in the kitchen), lots of budgeting and money-saving ideas, breastfeeding (but TopHat usually has that covered), babywearing, dh's new self (or "adventures in therapy, medication, support groups, starting school again and generally growing up"). And how to do all of this on 4 hours of sleep a night, every night. For years. Help... ;P