Shaking?

Mena wanted to shake the pudding mix, but the funny thing was that although her knees were moving up and down the shaker never did move!

Lincoln Children's Zoo

Mena's case worker gave us some zoo passes before she was removed from Mena's developmental delay services team. It's working out nicely that Mena gets in free so I've only had to use the passes to get myself in and we've been able to go twice for free now. The first time I took the stroller but got tired of lifting her in and out of the stroller. With the stroller we spent a little under two hours at the zoo. the second time I didn't take the stroller. She walked nearly the entire zoo in a little over an hour before she got tired. She likes to look at the different animals but seems to prefer the ones that stay away from her. She laughed at the bats hanging from the ceiling but was scared of the marmoset sitting next to the glass!

In the first picture, Mena is looking at the leopard. In the second picture, Mena is sitting on the giant caterpillar outside the butterfly house. In the third picture, Mena is running to the next exhibit. She really enjoyed the freedom of walking the zoo herself. In the fourth picture, Mena is sitting on a bench in the aviary. The birds could walk right up next to her and she was a little scared. I couldn't get her to walk past a bird while holding her hand so I let go of her hand and walked past the bird without her. She stared at me and then at the bird and then walked really fast past the bird to me. Mena got a tatoo during her second trip to the zoo. In the last picture, she was trying to pull it off her skin. She tolerated the tatoo but didn't seem too thrilled with it.

New Friend

Mena's got a new friend, Traven. Yea, I've got my first full time client! Traven just turned 12 months and is a great playmate for Mena. Now that Mena's around another child her own age for this extended period of time, we've discovered it's time to teach her some social skills. In the playdates I used to take her on she was always very calm in her interactions. Now that she's got a playmate who stays for 8-9 hours a day, she starts to get tired of sharing toys and has slapped him on top of the head! With a decade of child care in my experience it's not the first time I've needed to teach a child not to hit, but she did catch me by surprise considering how laid back she seemed up to this point in her life! In this picture I was teaching her to trade. Every time she took Traven's Bible I would tell her to give him the other one. Luckily he didn't care which one he had because she practiced trading at least a dozen times in just a few minutes!

Memorial Weekend

Mena is wearing her new swimsuit and running through the sprinkler for the first time. At first she was kind of leary of the flying water, but we ran through it together while I was holding her hand and she laughed.

New Climber

Mommy and Daddy put this together for Mena on a Saturday morning. Took us a little over an hour and we never argued once! Woohoo!

Outside Time

Mena loves playing outside. She won't wear her sunglasses very long but enjoys playing with them. Mena carries the balls around but hasn't gotten the hang of throwing a ball. Duncan and Mena enjoyed playing in the playhouse together. May was Duncan's last month with us. His family's needs and my child care services weren't matching up. In the last picture Mena is inspecting a pod full of cottony seeds. She was very focused and stayed focused on these pods much longer than other things usually hold her attention.

Daddy Time

In the first picture Mena is alternating between drinks and tickles with giggles during some daddy time. In the second picture Gene was alternating between standing up and leaning forward; Mena found this hilarious!