Decorating Pumpkins with kids with sensory processing issues

Halloween can be such a tough time for children with sensory processing issues. Its also a learning process for parents and how they can better help their child enjoy Halloween and not fear or dread it. Sometimes planning ahead, changing the way you do things and some creative parenting can make it a fun experience for your whole family.

Last year carving pumpkins was the beginning of us realizing what its really like to have a child who processes textures very differently. Terror (just shy of 2 years old then) was all excited last year to be a "big kid" and help out with carving pumpkins. Once we started Ace (5 years old) dove right in as usual and started pulling out the guts and seeds. Terror plunged his arm into his pumpkin and started screaming, he didn't stop until every bit of pumpkin was completely wiped off his arm. He acted as though we had just played the meanest trick on him. After that he wanted nothing to do with Pumpkins and didn't want to come into the kitchen until we had cleaned up and the pumpkins were outside.

This year I thought I would tackle it from a different angle to help Terror adjust, enjoy pumpkins and be part of the Halloween family tradition of carving pumpkins.

First we went to the pumpkin patch on a no stress day (meaning nothing else but that activity that day) I gave Terror tons of notice that we were going and exactly what was going to happen repeating over and over. "We are going to walk to the pumpkin patch from the car with a wagon. You can point to one and mommy will pick it up and put it in the wagon." So by the time we got there Terror (just shy of 3 years old now) was good to go. He even wanted to pull the wagon. He took a while to pick a pumpkin, much longer then my other two children. He knew he didn't have to touch it cause Mommy was going to pick it up for him but he wanted to be comfortable with the pumpkin he was asking me to touch for him.

I cleaned them all off when we got home and for a few days we left them on the porch not carved so that he got use to them being there. We talked about them a lot and how you carve them to have scary or silly faces. Once he started asking questions about the pumpkins I asked him if he want his to come inside. He said yes and I put it on the kitchen table and left it there. By the afternoon I had laid out markers, googly eyes, glue, and other craft supplies around the pumpkin and just left it all there. I did that so he could make the decision to go over and check it out. He went over shorty after I left the room and decided to decorate his pumpkin. I stayed away peeking from the family room as to not add any pressure or expectations of him making it easier for him to touch it and get comfortable. This is what he came up with. It was perfect and no stress for him. We put it outside on the porch together and he was so proud of himself.

When it came time to carve the other pumpkins I talked to him about it all day and told him he could just watch he didn't have to touch it, or he could stay in the family room and him and I would watch a movie instead. He chose to watch but not touch the pumpkins. Half way threw he grabbed a spoon and from a safe distance above the opening of the pumpkin he pretended to be stirring it. Once Ace got all the seeds out and in a bowl I washed them all off really good and left them in a bowl by the pumpkins in some water in case we found some more. After a few minutes Terror started to touch the cleaned off pumpkins seeds and soon had his whole hand in the bowl and was squishing them around. Halloween pumpkin carving was a success this year. Terror may not ever touch the inside of a pumpkin or carve one and that's ok but at least I know he will participate with us year after year now as long as we ease him into it.

Helpful tips to help your child get through their tactile issues during Pumpkin carving time:

• Let them pick the pumpkin but pick it up for them and carry it for them.
• Clean the pumpkin off and let them watch so they know you cleaned it.
• Leave them outside but talk about them every time to enter and exit the house to get them comfortable with them.
• Let your child decorate the outside of the uncarved pumpkin any way they want. As long as they are old enough leave the pumpkin and supplies on the table and let them know they can decorate the pumpkin when ever they want. Then leave their line of sight so they feel no pressure to do anything with it unless they want to. You might have to leave it out for a for hours before they even decide to go over and check it out.
 • Let them decide if they want to be part of the carving and offer an alternative activity for them to do so they know they have a choice.
• Clean off the pumpkin seeds and leave them in some water near them and so if they choose to explore the fell of the pumpkin seeds they can but again no pressure about it just casually leave it on the table and don't pay attention to it.

This is just our own personal experience with what has helped our tactile sensitive child during pumpkin carving time. I hope these ideas help others out there dealing with a tactile sensitive child at Halloween.

Oh how we LOVE cloud dough!

For the longest time Terror has had a pretty routine life as with a newborn and a 18 month old you don't have much time to think of ways to entertain the toddler. So he spent most of his time at day care this last year once Little Miss was born but now that she is over a year and has a pretty steady nap time I am constantly trying to think of things to entertain him that he would enjoy. I came across the wonder that is CLOUD DOUGH or I have heard it also called MUSEUM SAND. Terror being a tactile sensitive child I was not sure how well this was going to go over, but much to my surprise he loves it. I suggest if you have a tactile sensitive child you let them watch you make the cloud dough and then put it on the table in a container with a few of their favorite toys and then walk away. Making it no pressure if they want to try or not.

If you have not tired cloud dough yet with your little one I suggest you do! Although if they are still the type of child that puts everything in their mouth I suggest waiting until they are old enough to understand not to do that.

It is so simple to make and last a long time if you keep it clean. (We wash our hands before playing each time and if he has a cold its off limits) Since Terror likes it so much he will spend at least a solid hour playing with it quietly at the table giving me a solid hour to clean and work while Little Miss is sleeping.

I have seen quite a few cloud dough recipes online and all of them make a TON of it, too much at once for us anyways. So I have modified it to fit our sensory bin size. Here is our cloud dough recipe.

• 4 cups of all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup baby oil

That's it! Just place the flour in a large mixing bowl, then add the 1/2 of baby oil and using a whisk mash the flour and baby oil until completely mixed. Then get your hands in there and mix it some more! Then add some toys. Terror likes construction trucks, army men and mini shovels but you can add any toys you want! Enjoy!

Kindergarten Graduation Already!

I feel like Ace just started Jr Kindergarten and now 2 years later feels like a a blink of an eye! No more Kindergarten for him its straight on to Grade One! The sweet little baby boy I started out with at the beginning of his school career is now a boy, who has a sharp mind, loves learning and has multiple opinions on everything. So proud of the little man he is growing up to be!

We could not have asked for a better SK year. His teacher and EA were amazing and prepared him so well for the next chapter in his life. 

In honor of his Kindergarten graduation I have created a FREE Kindergarten graduate printable over on the the Freebie page for you to download! Kindergarten Teachers you are welcome to download it as well to use for your class and their Kindergarten graduation celebration. Enjoy!

For more school chalkboard printable signs please my shop ----> SugarPickle Chalkboards

Feeding a picky eater

One of the MOST frustrating things I find as a mom is cooking a meal spending an hour or so cooking it only to have it become a battle. My first born Ace was never a picky eater, not as a baby, toddler or even now as a child. He is just like his dad, if its edible he will eat it. So I was in complete foreign territory when my middle child Terror came along and was impossible to fed. Early on one day he would like something the next day it was like I was trying to give him poison.

Things really hit the fan when he turned 14 months old and started having digestive problems. I had tried everything, forcing him to try something, waiting until he was hungry - to which he didn't eat only drank liquids for 3 days. None of it worked, none of it made each meal less of a battle or easy. I was tired, 8 months pregnant and just done. I had given up and just fed him what he asked for to get something into him . . . . pancakes . . . . over and over again. For 3 months his diet was pancakes, blueberries, hemp hearts in yogurt and milk. Then one night I came across a post about fussy eaters. It was geared towards 2 year olds and up but I thought I would give it a try. This is not my original idea, but for us it worked. If you have a picky eater, have tried everything to get your picky toddler to eat and this is worth a try!

All you need is healthy food and some ice cube trays or muffin trays (ice cube trays work better for one child in a high chair) Cut up food into bite size pieces and make a rainbow ice cube tray. 

 

I use to change up what went into the ice cube tray, scrabbled eggs, celery, chicken, apples, bananas, oranges, cheese, rice, raisins, tomatoes, red pepper, potatoes, etc. You can also pre make 3 of these for the day, put cling wrap over them and store then in the fridge. Then pull them out each meal and feed the fussy eater. 

 

The first night I gave him one of the ice cube trays. I put him in his high chair walk over gave him the ice cube tray then walked away and started making dinner ignoring what he was doing. Since a lot of his fussy eating is a control factor because of his digestive issues I wanted to remove the control factor about food. The ice cube trays give him choices and control of which of the foods he eats. The first night he ate everything but the meat. I did not praise him, I just didn't make a fuss about it at all. I asked if he was done and wanted out. Then just took him out of the high chair, internally I was doing a happy dance, but if I showed him that it would turn the ice cube tray into a power struggle again with him. This went one for about a year, so days we gave in and he got pancakes if he asked for them but only once a week the rest of the time it was ice cube tray meals and hemp hearts in yogurt (but more on that later)

When my youngest little miss started eating she was a picky eater but was not as easy as my first born. When she start to rebel against certain foods he went right back to his old ways of refusing everything except pancakes. So out came the ice cube trays, but they just wanted to eat out of each others and compared to see if one got more then the other which started fighting and whining. So to get rid of that problem I moved on to muffin trays that they shared from.

 

This is still how they like to eat. Its like a toddler buffet. This little trick saved my sanity, stopped food battles in my house and helped my little ones eat healthy. I wish I could give credit to the original blogger who posted it but sadly there are many posts now with ice cube toddler meals.

Our Christmas Pajamas!

So it took a while for me to find the ones I really loved but in the end we went with our favorite brand for oneies Christmas pajamas! You just can't beat Hatley pj's. They are soft stretchy and the kids want to wear them all winter which means for the price you do get your money's worth out of them. From our family to yours hope you have a Merry Christmas and find your families perfect Christmas pj's!

Our North Pole Breakfast with Evie the elf!

     This year Evie the elf decided she wanted to arrive in style since Ace was so anxious for her return! So Evie threw the kids a North Pole Breakfast which turn into North Pole Chaos! Unfortunately I had to help Evie set up since well she is just felt and stuffing. This posed a bit of a problem as how do I design, print and get all these things ready while the kids are in the house and one of them is up at every night. Then once it is all ready where do I put it so they don't see it? That's when I decided this year Evie the elf was going to arrive at our Mimi's (grandma's) house. Good thing Mimi lives right next door!

       
       So I started designing our North Pole Breakfast! I wanted to make sure there was tons of cute things they had not seen before to make it feel magical and special. I absolutely love the way it turned out!!


      I set everything up the night before including the north pole pajama's Evie the elf always brings for the kids the first night she arrives! A while back I posted that I was on the hunt for this years north pole holiday pajamas and I decided on the striped ones from Hatley!

      They are adorable, so comfy and the kids beg to wear them every night  all December . . . which means extra laundry for me every night but oh well its all part of the magic!

We had a very fun festive breakfast with candy cane pancakes with LOTS of syrup and whip cream, elf cookies, red velvet cupcakes and candy cane marshmellow sticks!

The kids loved it!! They manly ate the marshmellows and candy canes for breakfast! Cause of course what other day in your life can you get away with eating candy canes for breakfast!! We ate sweets, drank hot chocolate and read the letter Evie brought from Santa all together!

Soon breakfast went spiraling into a crazy straw sword fight, wrestling all over Mimi's house, using daddy as a human slide, the couch as a trampoline and lastly they set up the kitchen chairs in rows and pretended to be elves driving Santa's sleigh. We only had a few melt downs from terror and they were mainly that his elf hat fell off. They LOVED the elf hats and have worn them every day.

     It was a day of fun, laughter and joy I will never forget. I only hope with the pictures and video we took of them they don't forget it either. Little days like this make me remember the magic I felt at Christmas time when I was a kid! I know from now on the North Pole Breakfast will be a tradition in our house to welcome our elf Evie back year after year!! Let the holiday season begin!!

The North Pole Breakfast printable Set is available in my ETSY SHOP for Only $24.25 CAN and comes with tons of printables (over 16 different ones!) along with 3 personalized files, including a letter from Santa, a Welcome sign and table place setting for your kids!


To purchase the North Pole Breakfast Printable Set
CLICK HERE ----> North Pole Breakfast Printable Set

The story of our elf Evie . . . the second

     3 Christmases ago when we first had an elf visit our house, she was not received very well. I went out to buy a boy elf not knowing there was girl elves and all the boy elves in my area were sold out so I had to get a girl elf. At that time we only had Ace, he was an only child and was 3.5 years old. We read the elf on the shelf book, we named our girl elf Evie and Evie moved around the house for 24 days like every normal elf loving family does. Only our first elf Evie her story is has a bit of a twist. By day 2 Ace had definitely had enough of the "tattling elf" as he called her. Ace had been acting out that morning so using the elf like any parent would I told him "Evie is going to report back to Santa that you were being naughty today, so you better start making better choices and be good." and like every child Ace stomped off.

      Later that day from the corner of my eye I noticed Ace pulling up his stool to the tree where Evie the elf was resting for the day. Quietly I walked over so he wouldn't notice. Ace got as close as he could to Evie, quietly said in a stern voice all while shaking his finger at her "You stop tattling on me or I'm going to knock you out and throw you in the garbage!" I did everything in my power not to laugh and make my presence known. Ace continued with several "Are you listening Evie, no more tattling it not nice!" as I backed out of the room and then watched Ace pick up his stool and bring it back to its spot. I later asked Ace if he wanted to write a letter to Santa and have Evie bring it to Santa. Ace thought that was a great idea so we wrote to Santa and I took this picture of Ace with Evie and his letter to Santa that day.

      We continued on for all the days before Christmas having Evie move around and do a few silly things, but not many as we have quite a lazy Elf ;p! On Christmas Eve my Hubby dressed up as Santa and we staged a photo shoot of Santa leaving presents and picking up our dear little Evie. Then I put Evie in the box away in my closet, my dark walk in closet that Ace would never go into.

        In the morning we showed Ace the picture of Santa visiting our house and picking up our elf Evie. We read Ace the goodbye letter Evie left him and he seemed happy she was gone. Christmas day was fun and crazy and gone in a flash. I was 8 months pregnant with Terror but I know I put the elf away in the dark closet . . .

         A few days after Christmas I brought up Evie, ask Ace if he missed her and wasn't it fun having an elf in the house. Ace looked at me like I was crazy for bringing up the elf and said "No I didn't like it." I told him that maybe next year when she comes back to visit he will like it better. In a calm quiet voice while not making eye contact he said "oh she won't be coming back to our house ever . . . " The way Ace said it with such confidence made me want to run to go check on the elf, but I waited until he went down for a nap. I checked everywhere in the closet. The box, the book and the elf were gone! I searched for a few hours before giving up and realizing that maybe this Elf on the shelf thing was just not something we would be part of.

      A year passed, Ace was in kindergarten, Terror was 8 months old and I brought up the elf in mid November. I told Ace that if we wanted to have another elf come Santa said he would send us a different elf, a boy elf named Jingle. Ace had a melt down . . . not the reaction I was expecting at all! Ace was so upset and wanted Evie to come back and didn't want a new elf and Ace said he wanted to say sorry for being mean to her last year. So I spent HOURS while he was at school opening boxes cleaning the closet searching the basement for our Evie the elf. I finally gave up about a week before December 1st and went out to buy a new "Evie". My area was sold out of girl elves they only had boys this time and I needed a girl. I found one 3 hours away from my house and drove all the way to get a new girl elf. I grabbed the girl elf box spent another $39.95 and drove home. When I got home and opened the box I noticed the elves now looked different in the face. Ace is insanely observant and I knew he would notice the difference.

       So December 1st 2013 last Christmas our elf "Evie 2.0" as my husband and I call her arrived via
paper airplane with a letter for Ace and Terror saying she was back and was excited to be here and was a year older so she had a more chubby face cause she got older. It was the only way I could think of to explain it. Ace came down and was so excited to see her, he said sorry right away and then asked what happened to her face. I read the letter and the explanation satisfied Ace's 4.5 year old mind. So last Christmas even though our elf Evie was pretty lazy and just moved around the house from spot to spot she was a hit and Ace and Terror both enjoyed her. He enjoyed being able to go to school and share with his classmates what "his elf" was doing each day.  Ace was sad to see her go and even drew her a map of how to get back to our house next year so she wouldn't forget.

       To this day I have no idea what happened to our first elf Evie. I doubt I will ever know. This Christmas 2014 Ace was counting down the days until Evie the elf returned. So Evie 2.0 decided to arrived in grand style this Christmas by throwing our kids a North Pole Breakfast full of fun, but I will post about that another day!