Cooking with a sensory seeker

I meant to write a post about this back when we baked Christmas cookies, but never got around to it. I was reminded of it the other day when school was closed due to ice and I decided baking brownies would be something fun to do to entertain the boys for a little bit. Plus, stirring the batter is good proprioceptive work for Brady.

So, I pour the mix into the bowl, and it starts. And I rememer why my patience was seriously tested back when we were baking for Christmas, for other people, who didn't want all of Brady's germs.

"Mom, can I smell it?" "Mom, can I feel it?" "Mom, can I taste it?". Constantly, after every addition of an ingredient. This time, since the end product was just for us, my answer was yes to most of his questions. Really, I'm super glad that he asks before doing it, but, really? Why does he just HAVE to scoop up a fingerful of brownie mix (just the powder) to smell and taste it? I did stop him from trying to immerse himself up to his elbows in it, though. Then, we add the oil, and have to re-smell the mixture (basically putting his nose INTO the mixture), stick fingers in it, and then lick the fingers. Luckily, there are only a few ingredients that go into a box mix of brownies because I'm remembering the constant no's I had to tell him when trying to bake cookies from scratch, with loads of ingredients, for other people. He begged to touch, smell, and taste EVERYTHING. He'd probably stick his ear in the bowl if he thought it would talk to him. I just couldn't, in good conscience, let him get all up into the dough that was going to be cookies for other people.

An SPD Christmas

I'm sure I'm not the only one who does this, am I? When picking out Brady's gifts for Christmas, the first thought is what would be helpful for his sensory diet. And most of the things he got were to help me help him. Like games with pieces that he can carry through his tunnel or take across the room on his scooter board. And "What's in Ned's Head?" to help him with tactile discrimination. And of course, his new crash mat!!

The best present of the year needs a little background....

Brady is obsessed with Spiderman now, and the top of his Christmas list was a web shooter. He's been trying to figure out how to climb the walls and shoot a web to swing on for awhile now. Less than a week before Christmas, he was talking about how he wished he'd asked Santa for sticky hands and feet to go along with his web so that he could really be like Spiderman. This is when we realized that he thought the "web shooter" was actually going to let him swing from the rafters. So, Daddy goes googling to find him something, anything, that he could safely swing from. We looked at zip lines, but it's a bit cold outside for that and I really needed something active that he could do in the house. Then, we came across the perfect thing for our little guy - The Twizzler II. Not only can he pretend to be Spiderman, he can swing and crash into his mat.  So now we've basically turned our "formal living room" into a gymnasium, and he LOVES it.