Typical Morning

This is Charlie on a typical morning (except most mornings he’s not in Eli’s chair at the table – usually he’s sitting in his booster seat with a tray, but Eli wasn’t awake yet). Charlie eats a bowl of cheerios, and if he finishes that and still seems hungry, I’ll add some rice krispies and he’ll chow those down too. He also loves our signature “green drink” that I make on an almost daily basis to guarantee that my kids get at least some vegetables in their diet. Here’s the recipe:

Green Smoothie Recipe (got it from the Blendtec Sales Guy at Costco):

1 large handful of fresh spinach (I try to pack a lot in there – so it’s often two huge handfuls)
1 banana
1/8 fresh pineapple, including the core if your blender can handle it (the pineapple core has a ton of nutritional benefits – it’s really good for you). I’m not always exact with this – I just threw a bunch of pineapple slices in. And this probably is fine with canned pineapple too.
1/2 C. water
1/4 C. ice
swirl of agave sweetener (or you could throw some honey in there – but agave is a little better for you)

Blend it up and voila! You have a healthy green smoothie that is a pretty color and oh-so-delicious. You know if my kids like it and drink it right up that it’s tasty. These kids are P-I-C-K-Y.

Charlie loves drinking the leftover milk in his cereal bowl -

This is Eli on a typical Monday morning. He’s often exhausted from a busy weekend, which makes him sad and prone to dragging his feet when we need to get out the door.

Poor Eli.

He cheered up for a minute when he realized they could BOTH go in the wagon really fast before getting in the car.

We go to Lisa’s office for physical therapy once/week still. It is one of his highlights – Eli LOVES Lisa and I think she is so terrific. Our neighbor recommended her to us and we couldn’t be happier.

Here’s Eli working on his core by sitting on this chair/scooter thing and holding on to a jump rope while she pulls him down the hall. It’s harder than it looks to keep the chair going straight because the wheels are really sensitive and slide all over the place.

Here is doing more core work with Lisa, doing a sit-up while holding on to the jump rope. Notice Charlie in the background getting into the basket of balls. Charlie is ALL over the place when we’re at Lisa’s. She’s really nice and doesn’t seem to mind Charlie’s added craziness to the session.

Lisa has a huge hook/carabineer in the ceiling that different swings and platforms can attach to and swing. With this one below, Eli has to work hard to keep his balance while it swings in the air.

He falls off plenty though :)

This time she slowly turned the log as he held on tight.

Here he is going a little more sideways, which makes it hard for him to continue to hang on.

And finally, they also do a game where he sits up, holds on with one hand and taps a balloon or toy with the other hand as she tosses it in his direction, which also helps with his balance/core.

Later, she put up the trapeze bar and took his shirt off so she could watch his core muscles as he did his exercises.

I’m amazed at the random stuff she comes up with to motivate him. Here he is choosing a Pokemon card with his toe – then she takes the card out, reads the name to him and they place it on that blue stool. Eli thought it was a great game and kept laughing at the different Japanese Pokemon names that sound different to him.

Working to bring his legs up and touch his feet to the bar -

Here’s Charlie, wreaking havoc in the hallway. He whined a LOT during this session, wanting to get into toys and things that weren’t out already.

We love Lisa!!

I think Eli has made great progress with his gross motor skills. Lisa does periodic testing to see if he’s making progress and to assess where he’s at compared to the average for his age. Eli is making lots of improvements – jumping is much easier, but stair climbing and descending is still very slow. He’s still my cautious little guy, but this has really helped his confidence and physical therapy is one of his favorite things because Lisa makes it so fun.