Sweet Pea has been waiting since before Christmas to get back on a horse and her day finally came yesterday! I was a little nervous that she wouldn't remember how much fun she had 3 months before on the horse, but I shouldn't have worried at all! I mentioned to her a couple of times throughout the day that we were going to go ride a horse after nap and she even piped in "helmet" because apparently she remembered that she had to wear a helmet when riding last time.
When we got to the stables she was almost immediately comfortable and walked away with strangers to go mount her horse, Gracie. She was grinning from ear to ear for the entire lesson and looked so confident and comfortable on the horse. This lesson confirmed my original feeling that these lessons are going to be amazing for her. Between the confidence that it is building and the muscles that it is working, it is a no brainer. Ellen is a generally a fairly happy girl, but when she is on that horse, she is the happiest girl in the world. It makes me so happy watching her be so happy!
Thank you to those that are helping to make these lessons possible!!!! We are going to be attending weekly sessions for the time being.
Today was our trial of a therapeutic riding facility not too terribly far from us. I've heard about the wondrous things that horses can do and was hopeful, but cautiously optimistic as Sweet Pea has NOT been a fan of horses (or ponies) recently. A friend had recommended the facility, Dream Catcher of LA, and their fees were somewhat reasonable since it's only therapeutic riding and not full hippotherapy. Our lesson was this afternoon at 3:30 so we left in what should have been plenty of time...except that it was Friday afternoon and even worse it was the Friday before Christmas and even worse...I took a wrong turn because Google Maps didn't give clear directions. Oh well...turned out to be okay as Sweet Pea got to sleep an extra 20+ minutes and they were running late so it all worked out.
When we arrived Sweet Pea wanted nothing to do with any horse and kept saying "all done horse". Having a little free time to just sit and watch the horses, have a little snack and just hang out was by far the best thing we could have done. By the time it was Sweet Pea's turn she was willing to have me carry her up to a horse. I would put my hand out for the horse to smell and she would watch, but wouldn't do the same. She wouldn't pet the horse or touch her in any way. I just held her and talked about the horse. One of the ladies brought over a helmet and so we made a game out of putting it on and that didn't work real well, but I think she finally forgot about the helmet.
We then took her over to a ramp and I carried her up it and then passed her to Joan, the owner of the facility, at which point Sweet Pea started freaking out. She had clearly dealt with lots of fighting kids before because it didn't phase her one bit and she got her on the horse with ease even though Sweet Pea was struggling against it. I walked down the ramp as soon as I passed her off and got out my camera to photograph whatever was about to occur. I honestly was not expecting much success! Here is the video that started recording about 10 seconds after she got on the horse:
She is doing it!!!!
Hi Mom!
She looks so small on the big horse!
Having a good time!
Half smile:
They walked her around for quite a while getting her more accustomed to the horse and I loved how they aren't really holding her directly. The sidewalkers (amazingly that is what they call the people walking on the sides of the horse) hold the saddle and kind of trap her leg under their arm in the process. I think that will make it much easier to move away more and more as she gets better (yes, that would be WAY down the line, but I always think way too far ahead).
This video is from just a couple of minutes into the session and you can see a marked improvement in her confidence on the horse.
Then they had her do a small amount of movement on the horse as you can see in the below video. Joan was doing an evaluation of sorts on Sweet Pea to see what she could do and what kinds of activities would be best for her. She had her put rings on a pole and you could see how unsure Sweet Pea was about leaning very far to reach the stick in the below video:
After they were done in the ring they went on a tour of the stables and Sweet Pea never once complained or whined at all. The horse even tripped a little at one point and she just kept on going! I was so proud of her!!!!! It was amazing to see the change from when they first put her on the horse until they took her off about 20 minutes later. I am excited to begin doing sessions regularly (or as regularly as finances will allow at least) as I know that this is going to help her in so many ways! Here are a few that I am hoping might be impacted:
Core strength
Sensory integration and willingness to try new things
Confidence
Speech & Language (she was chatting up a storm tonight after the session!!!!!)
The Dream Catchers of LA website lists a bunch more, but those are my top reasons for wanting to try this and why I am so happy that I found a place that wasn't too far away and that is willing to work with Sweet Pea. Many facilities won't work with children under 4 years old, but Joan doesn't buy into that and Sweet Pea will be 4 in just a few months anyway (hard to believe!!!!). We are figuring out the schedule now, but hopefully we will be seeing horses a couple of times a month come January!
Disclosure: This sponsored post was written for Tiny Prints and I was
compensated. However, all opinions expressed are completely my own.
I'm not sure about you, but in our house getting the annual Christmas card ordered is a big accomplishment and sign that the holidays are almost upon us. While I'm old fashioned and the Christmas season doesn't really start until the day after Thanksgiving, I think I can start to knock a few things off my to do list without the holiday cops being called on me. Today was a productive day and thanks to Tiny Prints, I was able to create our Holiday Cards.
Their new 2012 holiday cards have been released and there are some wonderful options to choose from. Tiny Prints site is easy to use and I love that I can select how many pictures I want included and it will narrow down the search of cards for me. Who has time to waste looking through cards that only have space for one photo when I know I want six this year! Their collection includes all sorts of designs from traditional to modern, flat to tri-fold, and themes that include, among others, Happy Holidays, Christmas, Hanukkah, and even New Years (makes me think of the year that I didn't get them sent out in time so they turned into New Year's cards). One new feature they are offering for 2012 is their Premium DoubleThick™ Matte Paper, their most luxurious cardstock yet.
And now...drum roll please...here is the card that I put together to showcase our girls playing in the snow last weekend. We were in our local mountains celebrating Thanksgiving with our extended family (yes, it was a week and a half early, but it is better than not getting to celebrate it at all!) and a cold storm had dropped some snow the day before. It's a little early for snow there, but we will take it! The only other fun/good photos I have are from Halloween or summer pool time...somehow, neither of those seemed fitting for a Christmas card. (Thanks Uncle A for taking most of these photos!)
Go take a look at their designs and I know you will find the perfect one for your family too! While you are there, be sure to check out their Special Offers Page for the latest deals.
When you have a sun room that looks like this...
And the kids have to climb into and on top of boxes just to reach their climbing structure...
You never know what you will find has moved in...
in addition to a few spiders (luckily no black widows were found)...
and a few silverfish (yucky things that they are)...
we found that this had decided to join our family...
We sure were lucky it was only a strong willed tomato plant!
It took me quite a while to notice it initially when I was cleaning the sun room and it took quite a while longer to get the area cleaned enough to see how it got there. When I did I was pleasantly surprised that it hadn't done any damage, but had casually climbed through a tiny gap between the screen frame and the window that was open. I haven't had the heart to cut it off yet, but the plant should be dying soon enough now that fall has finally arrived!
(Oh, and no...our house is a mess, but it isn't normally this bad! This was everything from the attic and other rooms that had to be moved out when we had a little construction done a couple of months ago. I wanted to get it organized before putting it away again and that kept falling lower and lower on my priority list. Finally got to a good chunk of it this past weekend.)
I know October has ended, but I'm going to make an earnest effort to continue blogging regularly. It won't be daily, but hopefully at least a few times a month. I'll have to highlight some of the insanity that is Angel as well since there is certainly plenty of that going on in our daily lives!
This was a story that Daddy came across today and I thought you would enjoy it. Stories like this give me hope for Sweet Pea's future and I pray that she has a good set of friends surrounding her that will keep the bullies at bay. Kids are mean and I don't like thinking about what things might be said and done to her. We are including her in as many community activities as possible so that the kids get to know her early on in hopes that it will create a bond and an understanding that will save her from some meanness.
Too many photos from today to get through so here is what happened yesterday...because you know two days of Halloween is better than one! Sweet Pea had a parade and party at preschool and Angel got a chance to go with Grandma to story time at our library. Princesses were a last minute costume change as it had been so hot here so we raided our dress up box and found these. The girls LOVED them!
Before school photo shoot
Class photo before parade:
The beginning of the parade...excited, but she has no idea what is coming:
Did she really put candy in my bag?
Mommy! I got candy!!!!!
Constantly checking on her growing stash:
Enjoying the noodle bowl and tongs during the Halloween party. I was impressed she could work the tongs...and she figured it out all on her own!
