Brandt's Everything

Some days, I wish with all of my heart that I could stay home and be Brandt's everything-- his OT, his PT, and his speech pathologist. But, I cannot be everything all the time. I have to trust the people left in charge of his care during the day, and be momma-extraordinaire by night!

When I was trying to help Brandt crawl and walk, I bought everything I could. We have an infant exercise ball, scooter board, 3 ride on toys, 2 stand 'n' play toys, 2 push toys, an exersaucer, and a jumparoo. Anything I could think of, I bought! And I'm sure any parent in my position would do the same. The physical therapist tells me I have too many toys, and friends say I have enough to run a daycare!

So, recently, I have taken a particular interest in Brandt's fine motor. I bought a few toys--such as knob puzzles, stacking cups, blocks, stacking rings, legos, a shape sorter, pound a peg, and a latch board. Still, I wanted more so I took some advice from the OT and made it my own.

I was told to have Brandt put Cheerios in an empty water bottle--but that seemed to lack stimulation. So, I took it a step further.

With the help of a friend, I took an empty 2 liter and cut out a hole at the bottom (to get the stuff out). I lined the edges with red duck tape so no one would get cut or scraped.  Then, to make sure the objects don't go flying out, a piece of blue felt was affixed with brads. I then gave Brandt various-sized glitter pom-poms to drop down the spout.

He absolutely loved it. The good thing about different sizes is that some of the pom-poms went straight down the spout with no problems while he had to use his index finger to push larger ones down. I found that if I just let him grab them, he would shovel them in his hands and rub his hands all over the spout until they eventually fell in. If I used my pincher grasp to give them to him one at a time, he used his pinch grasp and put the Pom-poms in the container with far greater success and precision.

After 20 minutes of putting the glitter Pom-poms in and taking them out, he got upset when I tried to put it away for bedtime. I was so happy, I gave him another ten minutes--and he was mad again when that time was up. I was so happy that he enjoyed it--and it cost me like $3! :)

One suggested--weigh it down. I put a bag of dried beans inside to help with his unsteadiness, but you could use leg weights, bean bags, canned veggies, etc.