Dear Addie,
And scene. A mere three and a half weeks after Christmas and your birthday, you’ve finally finished opening your gifts. Now let’s be clear, it wasn't because there was an exuberant amount of presents or anything, it was more so (blessing or a curse) because, as a special needs parent we can find a therapy moment in just about everything we do, so this opportunity for fine motor practice of unwrapping wasn’t about to be wasted on your family doing it all for you. There they sat. There they waited. For three and a half weeks.
Now I’d be lying if I said that you were the only one excited about unwrapping your swag, even our two resident teenagers were intrigued. I mean your gifts are often some sort of cool sensory toy or activities, I guess one could say that’s one of the bonuses to being in our special needs family 😉. Forever proving the point that you’re never too old to play. Remember the slug from last week – we all love that guy!
This week it was all about Orbeez which are these giant colorful fish egg-type balls. Seriously, the weirdest thing ever, and even weirder when you think about what they are. May I present to you a little history and science lesson: Orbeez are actually super absorbent polymers that grow more than 100 times their size when submerged into water. Next question, what the heck is a polymer? Polymers are several itty-bitty molecules joined together and they expand when the water is absorbed in between the spaces of the molecules, thus creating the fish egg-type ball.
Now enough science here’s the history – these aren’t anything new. Shocking right?! They were actually invented way back in the 1960s to help irrigate crops during droughts. Pretty cool huh?! I on the other hand know them more so as my nemesis also referred to as wet diaper beads. Oh, curse you diaper beads!!!!!!! So, there you have it, we bought you a bin of giant colorful diaper beads.
Oye - what was I thinking?
Ten cups of water and four hours later it was time to play! Clara & Gabe carefully carried the bin into our craft/playroom where you were enjoying some downtime on your iPad. They set it on the table and those two wasted no time getting in on the fun. Their laughing seemed to intrigue you as you looked up from the iPad to see what they were doing. Recognizing this sensory activity from school you immediately began to smile and quickly leaned closer going all-in with both hands gently squishing the beads between your fingers.
Any parent will tell you it immediately melts your heart when all your kids are laughing and playing together. Insert heart-melting moment here. It didn’t take too long for me to realize this needed to be moved to a new location when beads started jumping everywhere outside the bin! Some quick thinking and off to the bathtub we went.
We set the bin in a dry bathtub engaging the plug to ensure any escaping beads didn’t make it down the drain. Addie, you sat in that bathtub for a solid 45 minutes just squishing away and scripting random phrases, just as happy as could be. Lucky for us you never tried to put them in your mouth – bonus! If I’m being honest, I don’t remember the last time you sat and did anything uninterrupted for that amount of time. A true testament to how a good sensory diet is at helping provide appropriate sensory feedback to those who have trouble regulating their sensory systems. You were laser-focused with the activity at hand and truly enjoying yourself.
It took three and a half weeks, but it was all worth it.
Happy Birthday Ad, enjoy your diaper beads lol!
Love,
Mom
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