My girl's smile

If you had known my girl 3 years ago you would know that it was very rare to see this kind of smile on her face. Look at her now, so happy, so much more aware, so much more present, so HER. I can only imagine the smiles she will have on her face as she continues to flourish. So proud of her!

The birthday week is over!

Hi all, we had a very fun week celebrating the kids' birthday. They look so big now and they have come so far. Thank you everybody for the presents and specially for the LOVE. There is no price for the love you have for our kids, and we are so grateful for that. Their birthday celebrations were just happy and full of love. Here are some pictures. I have many more if you want to see them!

The triplets are turning 5 this week!

The kids had a great time today at bathtime. I made a mistake and put too much soap in the water and when Tony "turned the bubbles on" we got LOTS of foam. Such pretty smiles, such amazing kids, so proud of them!!!

Mommy's 40th birthday!

Hi all,
I had a great birthday this year. Look at these wonderful pictures. I got to celebrate with Antonio, the kids, Kaffie, Shelby and Ashley. The kids were all engaged and participative. I got a wonderful card from them with the help of Kaffie, Shelby, and Ashley. Kaffie made great cupcakes and brought a delicious pumpkin pie, my favorite! The Rodriguez family was extended by our SonRise family. Then, I got to go to Canada and celebrate again having dinner with friends from school and work. Thanks everybody!

Top 5 ideas from the August Outreach

I am leaving to Canada tomorrow, so I will for now just summarize here the top 5 learnings I got from teh outreach. I have Megan's notes now, so I will distribute them as I see you.

1. CELEBRATE when they look at us, when they initiate games (asking something from the shelf or asking for a horse ride), and when they talk. Megan told me one thing is to respond quickly to their language, which is great because they see that talking works, but in addition to responding quickly we need to continue encouraging them and congratulating them for all the effort they are doing in looking at us, telling us what they want to play, and talking to us.

2. SELL OUR GAMES TO THEM AND WEAVE OUR GAMES INTO WHAT THEY WANT TO DO. When I played with Duchis, Megan told me that I could have mixed my game (the twister mat with signs) with Duchis' game (the parachute) instead of waiting to finish the parachute game to show her again the twister game. I realized that we have been only proposing our games a few times per session, but Megan wants us to take advantage of any opportunity the kids are connected to us to looking at us to again MERGE our game with their game.

3. SHOW DUCHIS HOW CONVERSATIONS WORK. Megan suggested that we work a lot with puppets, figurines, and stuff animals showing Duchis how conversations work. We agreed to use different themes with the puppets/figurines (e.g., beach, bday party, circle time, zoo, park, etc), but that in all our scenarios we would introduce the sentences that Duchis needs to learn to use more frequently: GIVE ME ..., FIND ME ...., WHERE IS ....?, BRING ME ....., SHOW ME ..., LET'S .... We will not ask Duchis to do anything directly and we will not ask her questions, but the puppets can say things like: "let's play with cards", "ok,  that is great", "take a card" ... So, this is an indirect request, and if Duchis wants, she could take a card or wait and see what teh puppets do.

4. PHYSICAL GAMES FOR LIAM WITH A ROLE IN THE GAME.  With Liam we will play lots of physical games since he likes them so much. Things like obstacle curses and games with blankes and pillows. We need to give him a role, which does not imply him talking. Thinks like: push the ON botton and I will do it again. He does not need to talk, but he should have a role in the game, like pushing something or choosing a card, or something like that.

5. START SESSIONS WITH LIAM BY PROPOSING HIM A GAME. Upon entering the room, use your energy and excitement to swoop him into playing. Assume that he is going to interact and do not directly go into joining him. Don't assume that he does not like to play with you. Sell your game with all your heart at every green light you get and mix it with whatever his interests are at the moment.

Ok, I have to go to sleep. More information to come, but lots of it is in Megan's notes.
And now, look at these beautiful pictures. Awwww, the love!  Thanks for coming to our house, Megan, and being part of our team!

Thanks Megan and our great team for an amazing Outreach!

Thanks everybody for coming to the outreach and for helping us with the kids, the food, and everything!!! Look at us, we have come so far in so many dimensions!!! Thanks for  being part of our SonRise family! Also, thanks to Cara, Jenny, and Susan for coming from NTS! And, thanks to Kelsey, who could not come the last day, but was with us on Tuesday and Wednesday, and to Christy, who spend lots of time with us on Tuesday. I will send everybody in the team, who could not come, the reports and summaries. We have great ideas for the next months!