Apraxia and self-help skills

Twitter (via https://twitter.com/#!/YTherapySource) alerted me to a survey on self-help skills for special needs kids, being collected by an OT. I decided to give it a whirl. As I took it, I realized that this was a nice list to start working on. (Reminder: Nea is almost 8, and has apraxia of speech and also limb apraxia, affecting her fine motor skills.)

It was also a nice list to see things we’ve made progress on:

• Manages safety belt independently in vehicles
• Can receive and make phone calls (to her dad at work)

And then there were some items I’m going to give a pass for now:

• Knows the difference between putting out paper fires from grease fires
• Cleans up broken glass safely

Here’s the list, with my comments.

DRESSING SKILLS QUESTIONS

• Puts on and fastens a button up shirt  – We don’t do a lot of buttony clothing, but we should make sure she can do a button.
• Puts on and fastens tie shoes  – Forget it. When she’s older.

HYGIENE AND GROOMING SKILLS

• Washes, rinses, and dries hands well  – Key word being “well” – a comment that applies to this whole section
• Completes nose care well (blows nose)
• Brushes hair and manages tangles
• Brushes teeth well
• Flosses teeth well – OK, who am I kidding. Should work on.
• Obtains soap and hygiene products for bath/shower

FEEDING SKILLS

• Uses a knife to spread foods (butter)
• Uses a knife to cut foods

TOILETING SKILLS

OTHER FUNCTIONAL MOBILITY

PERSONAL CARE DEVICES

HOUSEWORK/CHORES

• Those sections she is age-appropriate on, or don’t apply

MANAGING MONEY AND SHOPPING

• Identifies the value of coins and bills  – working on
• Makes a simple purchase from a store or vending machine using cash with assistance

MEAL PREPARATION

• Prepares a cold snack (chips, fruit) or meal (cereal, sandwich) independently – Sounds like a really great idea!

PERSONAL SAFETY

• Can dial 911 in case of an emergency – We’ve spent so much time on learning our phone number that I’m not sure whether she can do this. Need to check.
• Follows safety rules when talking with strangers – working on
• Has stranger awareness when asked to leave a location with an unfamiliar person – working on
• Follows fire safety rules and knows family fire safety plan – should work on

TRAVELING

• Uses a key to unlock doors to enter house – should work on
• Follows basic road safety skills (crosses street safely) – working on

SCHOOL RELATED SKILLS

• Brings all necessary materials to school (homework, lunch, permission slips) – This section I’m willing to take the blame on. I’ve been taking papers out of her backpack and putting them back in. I need to stop enabling. It’s her responsibility.
• Brings all necessary supplies home to complete homework assignments or projects
• Completes homework and returns it on time

Also, I talked to our old babysitter, who is off getting a degree in special education (!), and she’s willing to work on getting Nea to ride her bike this summer. We’ve pretty much failed at this. Maybe she will be the lucky charm!

Carrot cake bake-off results

Note pictured: cake #6, which was a little late to the party.

There was a lot of smack talk leading up to the last book club. As you may recall, we had decided to get a definitive answer to the age-old question: what's the best carrot cake out there?

First, let's meet our contenders.

Are they not all gorgeous? The judges (2 non-participating book club members, one husband, two THRILLED elementary school kids) decided on two winners. The Best Looking and the Best Tasting. As it turns out, the same cake won both. I'll tell you which number in a minute. Go ahead and pick your favorite.

I've posted the recipe I used before. (Hi, Kate! Yes, your friend's!) That cake is a fairly substantial cake, with a lot of personality. I used the buttercream frosting recipe off the back of the powdered sugar box. Frankly, I was going for the looks category, as I think a good, moist carrot cake tastes much like the next. (And after tasting all 6, I'm sticking with that assessment. They were all very tasty.)

The winner looked like someone had just bought it from a fancy bakery. It's a lighter texture and flavor than my cake.

THE WINNING RECIPE

Jean-Marie reports that she found the carrot cake recipe on Allrecipes.com. It is:

INGREDIENTS

4 eggs

1 1/4 cups vegetable oil

2 cups white sugar

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 cups cake flour

2 tsp baking soda

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

2 tsp ground cinnamon

3 cups grated carrots

1 cup chopped pecans

DIRECTIONS

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease and flour a 9x13 inch pan.

2.  In a large bowl, beat together eggs, oil, white sugar, and 2 tsp vanilla. Mix in flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Stir in carrots. Fold in pecans. Pour into prepared pan.

3.  Bake in the preheated oven for 35-40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto wire rack and cool completely.

FROSTING

1/2 cup butter, softened

8 ounces cream cheese, softened

4 cups confectioners' sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

To make frosting: In a medium bowl, combine butter, cream cheese, confectioners' sugar and 1 tsp vanilla. Beat until the mixture is smooth and creamy. Frost the cooled cake.

No word on how to make it so pretty, though. Apparently you'll have to figure that out yourself. She did mention having a set of those fancy icing tips, so you'll want to run out and purchase those. I used a ziplock bag with a corner cut off, as is traditional in my household.

THE BIG REVEAL

(Drumroll, etc.) The winner was NUMBER FIVE! Yes, congrats to NUMBER FIVE, made by our own dear Jean-Marie! I did get an honorable mention for my marzipan carrots, lovingly made by me, using bits of pistachio for the green stems. Several people were surprised they weren't real baby carrots. Apparently not everyone wants raw baby carrots on their cake. Who knew!

Bonus shot of my cake. Because, hey. It's my blog. 

So that was a fun evening. We didn't actually talk about the book much. It was Inés of my Soul by Isabel Allende. Next month's is The Fault in our Stars by John Green.

Self-portrait

This is one of my favorite photos of me. I'm just chilling on the rocky shore of Loon Lake, MN, rockin' the post-triathlon body. I was bleaching my hair for awhile, but I decided it just wasn't me. I'm pretty low maintenance.

Really, it's my homage to Adu Gindy. I'm sure my artwork will remind everyone of her seminal work, The Brighton Beach Barbies. Sadly, I can't find a single image online.

Duluth artist Adu Gindy parodied photographer Craig Blacklock’s series “Lake Superior Nudes” by shooting photos of Barbie dolls posed on lakeside rocks.

Titled “The Brighton Beach Barbies,” the work was Gindy’s commentary on the objectification and artificiality she perceived in Blacklock’s work. The opening reception was literally packed. What was to be a one-night affair grew into a three-week show.

from http://www.businessnorth.com/viewarticle.asp?articleid=1021 

N and I are nothing if not totally hip to the Duluth, MN cultural scene, man. We are sooo hip. We make cultural references so obscure that I'm not even sure where this blog post is going, man.

For the back-backstory, Craig Blacklock's work, A Voice Within - The Lake Superior Nudes (NSFW) Please, to note that the model (his wife) apparently is actually named "Honey."

Quick rule for determining whether it's p0rn or art? If it's in black and white, it's art. (rimshot)

Art

Moved some paintings around this weekend. I tried this one (signed by Keiko Tofuku) over the mantle before and thought it looked too Republican. For some reason, it looks better to me now. I don't know why.

Book for kids

Just a quick recommendation. So You Want to Be President? by Judith St. George and David Small

I read this to both girls this week and could barely get through it because they kept asking so many questions. My only complaint is that it was published during the Clinton presidency. Please update and republish!

Noodles with Peanut Sauce

An Asian-style pasta dish which was a big hit around here.

• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 4 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 4 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon oriental sesame oil (optional)
• 1 tablespoon minced peeled fresh ginger (optional)
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper 
• Garlic, as desired
• Water, as needed, to thin

• 1 lb linguine
• 2 cups cabbage, shredded
• 1 large red bell pepper, cut into matchstick-size strips
• 1 cup broccoli, chopped
• ½ cup carrots, diced

• 1 cup tofu, diced
• 1/2 cup chopped green onions
• 4 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro (optional)
• 1/4 cup chopped salted peanuts

 

Combine first 8 ingredients in small bowl; whisk to blend. Set dressing aside.

 

Cook pasta in large pot of boiling salted water until until half cooked. Add cabbage, carrots, broccoli, and bell pepper. Cook until al dente. Drain pasta; rinse and drain again. Transfer pasta to bowl. Add tofu and green onions. Pour dressing over; toss to coat. Season salad with salt and pepper. Sprinkle with cilantro and peanuts.

 

Serves 6.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Book talk

Next pick for book club: The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer

Back to Unwind (last month's pick) for a minute. As is typical for books we feel strongly about (especially negatively), we talked about it longer than usual. It didn't hurt that there was plenty of current events that fed into the discussion. With the GOP trying to take away women's rights to contraception, the Susan G. Komen/Planned Parenthood kerfuffle, lots of material to discuss that related to the book. My final take on Unwind? Neal is pulling out all the stops to offend everyone. How juvenile. There's much better literature out there. Read something else.

And in this politically charged atmosphere, as so often happens, a carrot cake bake-off throwdown was launched. Yes, 7 of our 8 members are bringing a carrot cake to the April meeting. Judging will be on appearance and taste. We've been promised a prize by the one person not participating. She's more of a éclair baker. I can eat her éclairs for hours! Good thing that opportunity doesn't present itself monthly. Good lord.


Anyway. I assume I'll win the bake-off, har har, but in case I don't, I'll try to procure the winning recipe to share here. I definitely should win the appearance part. I have a Secret Weapon that I plan to use. My dad knows what it is. I bet he won't tell you what it is, either.


In non-book club reading, I just finished The Marriage Plot by Jeffrey Eugenides (interview and excerpt). Recommended. First book I've read in a long time that reminds me of what college was like during the 1980s.

For some reason this paragraph (page 49) struck me as particularly poignant. She's reading Roland Barthes A Lover's Discourse for homework:

It wasn't only that this writing seemed beautiful to Madeleine. It wasn't only that these opening sentences of Barthe' made immediate sense. It wasn't only the relief at recognizing that here, finally, was a book she might write her final paper on. What made Madeleine sit up in bed was something closer to the reason she read books in the first place and had always loved them. Here was a sign that she wasn't alone. Here was an articulation of what she had been so far mutely feeling. In bed on a Friday night, wearing sweatpants, her hair tied back, her glasses smudged, and eating peanut butter from the jar, Madeleine was in a state of extreme solitude.

Other books by Jeffrey Eugenides that you may have read: Middlesex and The Virgin Suicides. I liked the first but found the second unsatisfying. The movie, too. I'm pretty sure I saw the movie first. That probably ruined the book for me.