So, Pablo's been going to clinical occupational therapy for a month or so now. One of the things they've been trying unsuccessfully to get him to do is sit on this weird swing thing that hangs from the ceiling, and just gain some balance from sitting there doing a puzzle or whatever. Ideally, they'd like him to stand on it and swing and stuff, but he has so far REFUSED to get on it.

Paul decided he'd do better if he had one at home to practice with, so he built this huge header in our playroom - dude, it's strong enough you could hang one of those sex swings from it! Paul is 300 pounds and he hung from it to show me how strong it is. So he built that, and then constructed these AMAZING swings for it. Each one is encased in like 5 inches of foam, and the edges are completely padded with that stuff you use to insulate pipes. Then they're all covered with fake fur I bought in the fabric dept. at Wal-Mart.

The kids are LOVING THEM!!!! Not only is Pablo sitting on the swing, he's standing, spinning, lying on it upside down - all WONDERFUL stimulating activities for him! All four kids have been having a blast on them! The swings also bang into each other - which is another great stimulating activity for their sensory needs. They're like bumper cars!! And the huge amount of padding makes them pretty safe - even if you get beaned in the head with a swing, it feels like a pillow, y'know?

Anyway. So that's been what we've worked on this weekend. I wanted to share some pictures.


  


  


  

And then Paul found this camo netting stuff from his days in the National Guard, and we stapled it all over the ceiling and across that header beam today! So it looks all jungley in there!!


  

Here's a little video clip so you can see the insanity in action!!