What Gets Easier as Your Kids Grow Up – Ep. 424

Laura

Welcome to Big Fat Positive with Shanna and Laura. This week, we have our weekly check-ins. We have our special segment, Just You Wait, where we offer some glimmers of hope to our listeners who are struggling with their young kids. And we close with our BFPs and BFNs for the week. Let's get started. Hello, hello, hello, everyone. Welcome to episode 424. I love a palindromic episode, Shanna.

Shanna

I don't think I've ever heard that phrase in my life, palindromic episode.

Laura

I love it though. My dad loved palindromes and he loved that he could be part of a palindrome. He'd always be like, you know, when you say, madam, I'm Adam, it's the same forwards and backwards.

Shanna

Madam, I'm Adam. Spell it out, Shanna. Absolutely. But isn't there an eye? Oh, the eye is the middle letter. Oh.

Laura

I love that. I wish I was part of a palindrome. I bet there's like a palindrome generator. We'll try to see if Shanna can be used anywhere. Okay, all right. I'm into it. But let's do that later because right now it's time for your check-in. Can you tell us what you've been up to this week?

Shanna

Well, this was a week. A couple weeks ago you talked about some camp drama with Augie where he was Mm, politely asked to leave the camp and you... Uninvited. Uninvited, that's right. Uninvited. And you had to scramble to find a new solution. Well, I've got a bit of my own camp drama this week, but it is a little different. But I just had to share.

Laura

Okay. It's always nerve-wracking to hear that there's camp drama, because as we've mentioned before, camp is such a, like, delicate house of cards that we put together every year, the jigsaw puzzle of camp for the summer. So what happened?

Shanna

Yes. So the girls finished their three week musical theater camp, and then it was time for them to go back to the park camp. I had arranged for them to do the parks and recreation camp for several more weeks, like three more weeks. We are going to Canada next week. But other than that, it was like parks and rec. That's it. And they had done a few days back at the beginning in the summer and it was okay. But I think I mentioned on a previous episode, I was definitely a little bit like, oh, okay, like who's in charge here and just dropping my kid at this playground and etc. So that's what they returned to this Monday. one hour after I dropped them off, I get a phone call from Elle who had brought her cell phone to camp that day. She usually doesn't. And she called me in tears and she's like, can you come get me? And I was like, oh my gosh, no, I'm about to record.

Laura

So that was a little weird, right? Yeah, but also kudos to L for being so emotionally mature. I love that she let you know she was okay and she got over it at least a little bit.

Shanna

Yeah, so I was like, okay, good. That's okay. Camp is not in jeopardy. This is good news. Well, I go to pick them up and CeCe reports that this one kid in camp, a different one, a bully of sorts, like punched her in the stomach on the playground that day. And later in that day, when they were playing kickball, this same bully kid was shoving L around. And I'm just like... What is happening at this camp like kids mean left and right. I can't really tell what the adult oversight is. There's a lot of counselors and training which seem to be the people in charge that I see and they look like 13 year old and 14 year old kids that are bored.

Laura

Yeah, I remember counselors and training at my like sleep away summer camp were like 14 or 15.

Shanna

Yes, very young and there's nothing wrong with that. Like if they're actually adults guiding them and they're like interactive and like they seem responsible. But these, I don't know, I just got a weird vibe. Like I was getting a lot of weird vibes and weird gut feelings. And then I remember that this is a field trip camp as well on Wednesdays that go on field trips. And in two days, I was supposed to send my kids off with this group of people where I don't know who is in charge really with these bullies to Hurricane Harbor. What? The Six Flags place?

Shanna

Oh my God. If you don't know, Hurricane Harper is like a huge water park. Like, yeah, like Six Flags level, but like water park slides and water. I just go like water. I'm just like, oh my God, my kids are better at swimming. But I don't know. I'm just imagining like bullies pushing them under and like 13 year old counselors not noticing. And I just, I don't know. My anxiety was spiking. I did not feel comfortable about it at all.

Laura

I would not feel comfortable at all, either. I mean, I specifically chose camps that did not include any swimming, any pool swimming, water plays fine, but actual pool swimming for my boys because I'm just not confident enough in their swimming abilities at the moment. And I'm also just not confident enough that the camp counselors that I've never met before, who knows who they are, are watching my kids well enough. And that's me being a little extra paranoid. I'm pretty good at being extra paranoid. Your seems like a pretty good typical level of paranoia.

Shanna

And I'm like, you know, I know Hurricane Harbour has lifeguards and everything and it will probably be fine. But that already combined with the girls coming home and at that point after having been punched and shoved, you know, They're like, can we not go back to that camp please? So they're begging me not to go back. And I've got this already, this gut instinct of like, I don't love this. Like I'm also supposed to send them to the beach. Oh, the beach. With this group like in a couple weeks. And so my mind is spinning because I'm like, oh my gosh, there's three more weeks I've already paid for this camp. There are no refunds. But I don't want to send them back. They don't want to go back. What am I going to do? So basically I put them to bed that night and they were just like, can we not go to camp? And I'm like, I don't know. Good night. And it was unresolved.

Laura

Yeah. Mommy's got to think about this one.

Shanna

And think about it, I did. I went to bed that night and just could not sleep. I just kept, like, I don't know, trying to think, what could I do? I don't want to spend another, like, $1,000 or more on another camp that we can't get a refund. And what do we do? But I really, like, maybe I could give them that 90s summer, you know, that you and I talked about.

Laura

Honestly, that must have been such a relief. Like, I know that feeling. You know, I had that feeling that you're describing of just being like so unsettled because you don't feel like your kids are safe and happy, but really not knowing if you have any other alternative when I decided to move the kids' schools. Like, I just remember being like... Right. Well I guess I'll just homeschool them. At that point because again your gut is telling you like when something is off it's off and you need to follow that to feel safe like with your kids and the relief that comes like when I found out that there was a spot at the school that Augie's at now you know I'm like I think I started crying because I was just like, the relief of it was so great to know that I didn't have to keep worrying about this.

Shanna

Absolutely. So much relief. I was able to go to sleep after he had texted me back about Stephen Cates and just felt so much better about it because the girls have had great experiences there already. They really like it. It is a lot farther for me to drive. I have to drive them a lot farther across town and, you know, there's also drawbacks, but I don't have to worry about them. I don't know, being shoved under water at Hurricane Harbor, you know, I don't know. I don't know. It's always just tricky to balance your anxiety and your worries about what might happen and your gut instinct. You want to be like, just let it go and be chill and be like, it's okay. You'll be fine. I don't know. I don't know.

Laura

It's just a lot. I don't know if I trust myself at Hurricane Harbor with my kids alone. You know, I mean, like one adult, two kids, you need to have one adult per child. I feel like in a place like that.

Shanna

Yeah. And granted, I have never been. So I mean, maybe it's just a lovely, nice, safe, calm place. And I'm just picturing it as this hell on earth of like sloshing water that's like 20 feet deep. You know, I don't know. If you've been there, try it and let me know.

Laura

I've actually never been there either. I've always looked at it from Six Flags Magic Mountain and been like, ah, not today. You know, like when I was a kid, I remember like a teenager, I remember when it opened and being like, oh, that looks like fun, but never actually going. Really? No, I do think that you made the right decision and obviously great, but you don't have to pay for Stephen Cates. I know. Girl math means you made the money back from the camp that you didn't attend, right?

Shanna

I think so. I think that's how it all computes. Yay. Yay. Anyway, that was my drama for the week. What about you, my friend? What have you all been up to?

Laura

Well, this is week two of the screen time ban in our house. Yeah. And the only screen time my boys participated in this week was a movie night with the family. We did Diary of a Wimpy Kid. The animated one, there's like a million different versions apparently, but we watched one of the, I think the first animated one, which was actually I thought it was really cute. It was really fun. But otherwise, nothing. And it's gotten easier. Oh, good. They are now not asking for it first thing when they wake up. It's just assumed now that they're going to go start playing instead of start watching something. Ooh. Which is cool. And they still occasionally ask, like, can I have some iPad? Or like, can I watch something? And I'll just be like, no, no, we're not doing that. And like a little bit of whining, not very much, like very half-hearted whining. You know what I mean? Like, how come?

Shanna

That's awesome. Are you finding it challenging in the way of like, you know, I think screen time had become a crutch in a way for kind of like to keep them occupied while you were doing other things, you know, there's that fear of like, oh no, it'll take more out of me when I'm trying to work to watch them. Is any of that happening?

Laura

Yeah, it's definitely taking more time for us to like just interact with them, which sounds really sad, right? Like we're like, oh, I'm gonna interact with my kids now. It's not that we interacted with them before, but you know, like it's a lot more like, mommy, will you help me with this? Mommy, will you do that? I've definitely had to be a little bit more present this week, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. And I've kind of just come to terms with it. You know what I mean? Like, I've realized how important this is, so I'm like taking the trade off. But I'm also trying to build up their tolerance for more independent play, especially Augie. Sebastian, I don't know what his deal is, but he was born as an independent player. It's so fascinating to me.

Shanna

Yeah.

Laura

We've talked about this before, but he just like he loves to just putter around and like be in his world and like make his little sound effects and if you ask him what he's doing, he gets mad because you like pull him out of it. It's like, okay, just do your thing. This whole life, he's been like that. Augie, I don't know if it's a first kid thing or what, but he just always wants us to be involved in his play. So I really am trying to like do a little bit of like scaffolding and scaling back of the scaffold where I'm like, well, no, you you need to play with yourself for a little bit, you know, trying to be a little bit more assertive, being like, no, I have work to do, so you can find something to do. You know what I mean? Like I'm bored and like, well, guess what?

Shanna

Yeah. Well, it sounds like you're taking the right steps and that's a step in the right direction.

Laura

Yeah, I hope so. I mean, you know, I think Corey might be getting the brunt of it. I feel a little bad because I kind of unilaterally made this decision last week because it was just like, mean and he agreed with it but I was just like it's over you know like I think if he had made the decision it would have been a lot more flexible like today we're not doing it maybe tomorrow like you can earn the TV back but since I've been reading more and more about like ADHD and how screens affect it I was just like we need to do absolutely nothing and so because of that I think Cory might be a little annoyed He's like, you know, he's the one who's having to do a lot of the parenting while I'm getting these projects done. And, you know, it's a lot, but thankfully they're both in school or school or camp. Augie's in camp, which I'll talk about in the last segment.

Shanna

We're back and this week's special segment is Just You Wait, where Laura and I give hope to listeners about the things that will get better as your kids get older, because how often do we hear people say, oh, just you wait, when your kids are teenagers, they're never gonna talk to you again, that kind of thing. But we want you to know that there are wonderful things coming as your kids get older and we are gonna share a few of those from our worlds. Laura, you are up first.

Laura

Okay, if you are a listener with like young toddlers or let's say like young preschoolers and you're seeing all these cute art projects on Instagram and they're like just set up an art station for your kid and give them some paint and create this cute little heart-shaped handprint, whatever it is, you know what I mean? Like there's all these adorable art projects that every time I looked at them when my kids were, let's say under the age of four, I'd be like, Ha! That's gonna be a shit show. You know what I mean? Like, there's no world where I'm going to just give my child free access to paint without covering everything in plastic first, you know? Oh, yes. No way. All right, just you wait, listeners, because one day you'll be able to do actual art with paint with your kids without it being a complete shit show.

Shanna

I'm impressed that you've reached that stage already with a five-year-old. Oh, my gosh.

Laura

Well, Sebastian, he's very into art. He really likes doing things precisely. I don't think Augie was quite there at five. But I will say, it might be like a little bit of a shit show. You know what I mean? Like, I still have to be careful. But I this week gave the boys, you know, because I mentioned there were not doing screen time. So I had to do a lot of arts and crafts with them. And so they wanted to paint. Cory was like, no. And I was like, you know what? It's fine. Let's give it a try. And I gave them one of those little plastic rows of tubs, tubs of little paint, the ones you crack open at the top. Oh, yes. Yeah. And I sat close to them for a second while they were dipping their paint brushes in and stuff. But after a minute, I could tell that they were being responsible. So I backed off and I was able to do some dishes while they painted. Yes, that is great.

Shanna

That is true. That's the same with my girls, too. At some point, they learn that at the very least, they need paper under the paper that they're drawing on, because they learn that it bleeds through. So that's a big, yeah, that's big. That's a big milestone. So yeah, that is my first just you wait.

Laura

Shanna, do you have one to share with us?

Shanna

I do. OK, everyone, parents who have spent years taking your kids to playgrounds and having to stand there and push them and push them and push them on swings. Not that this is terrible, okay? It's not terrible to push your kids on swings. It's one of life's joys, really. But then your kids kind of start to get to an age where they're a little bit bigger and they probably can push themselves and swing themselves and they're still like, please push me. And then it's like harder. Well, Laura, just you wait, because at a certain point, your kids will be able to swing themselves on the swings while you sit on a bench in the shade, off in the distance, relaxing and enjoying park time.

Laura

When did this happen for you out of curiosity?

Shanna

Well, I just had the realization the other day. It probably happened a lot sooner. I mean, they learned to swing themselves probably when they were I don't know, three or four. But on my birthday when I made everyone go hiking with me, after the hike, there was a little playground nearby. And I was like, oh, let's go. You guys can play in the playground. And Steve and I will sit on a bench. And usually just sitting on a bench at the edge of a playground is like a no go with my kids if they want. and you're involved, you know, you got to be standing supervising. So used to that type of playground interaction. And I'm sitting there off in the distance. I don't know why the bench was just a little bit set back under the trees. And I was sitting there, Steve, and all of a sudden I was like, oh my gosh, we're just sitting here relaxing for an extended period of time.

Laura

And I don't know, it just felt really nice. You know, my kids, well, okay, Sebastian just figured out how to swing on his own and Augie learned about sometime last year. My kids, I don't know if it's because we were enabling them for too long by pushing them, but I feel you because like they still want to be pushed even though they know how to swing because, you know, we push them better quote unquote, right? So they're like, push me, push me. And I'm like, my shoulders hurt.

Laura

Oh, my God. And then the other day at home, because we have the swing set at home, Sebastian wanted a rocket push, which is what they call like a really big, you know, like I pulled them back and pushed really hard. Oh, yeah. I don't know what happened. I didn't do anything different than usual. But when I pushed his butt slipped and he like fell backwards. So he's like, so like behind his knees, what was what was like hooked onto the seat. And he was like freaking out. He was so mad at me.

Shanna

It feels so bad. Well, Jesse, wait, Laura, because at a certain point they can take responsibility for their own swing mishaps.

Laura

They can be responsible for their own injuries. Great.

Shanna

And the other thing is that at a certain point, if you have siblings, they can push each other. Elle was pushing Cece for a little bit and giving her big pushes this day.

Laura

That's nice. That's very sisterly. And that is really cute. Like how wholesome is that? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But the sitting down at a park, I'm still working on that one, you know?

Shanna

I know, I hear you. I think five years old, I was definitely still very actively engaged at Playground. So, yeah, you get that able to sit down time just as they're like outgrowing the Playground. You know, I was watching Elle play there and I'm like, her days are numbered on these Playgrounds. How sad.

Laura

I don't know though, because I've seen teenagers at the park and they seem to be enjoying themselves. You know what I mean? That's true. They act like it's all ironic. They're like, haha, look at me on the swing. But then they're like just happy to be swinging.

Shanna

Yeah. Yeah. Swings are for anyone really. I mean, I love a swing still.

Laura

There's this park by us that just got redone with this new structure that's like, I don't know. I want to say like three store. No, that's probably two. I two stories high. It's really tall. So it's like this big, it almost looks like a silo, like a grain silo. And on the inside is a bunch of like interwoven bungee cords, right? That make like this big web that you can climb. And that's it. You climb all the way to the top of it, and then there's a slide, but there's no other way to get up. Oh, wow. And I'm like, that's designed for older kids. You know what I mean? Like, Augie doesn't like it. He's pretty brave, but he's like, that's too high. You know, I'm like, what age is this for?

Shanna

Yeah. A lot of those have the age range of like for five to 12, which is a pretty big range, but that sounds like it's more for like L's age. It's for 21 plus.

Laura

I do. Okay. This is related to the being able to sit down thing. So if you are a parent who has a younger child now and you get invited to a birthday party, And let's say you're friends with the other adults there and you would love to have a conversation with them. But your child is dragging you from place to place. They want to go play with the toys. They want to go do face painting. They want to do this. They want to do that. And they're too little to just let them like roam off on their own, right? Like they will probably choke on a choking hazard or you know what I mean? Like you have to be right by them at up to a certain age, right? For sure. And you keep passing your friends, you know, and you're like, oh, nice to see you. And you never get to talk with them, right?

Shanna

It's glorious. It's so glorious. Are you talking like house parties, park parties?

Laura

You know, honestly, at this point, kind of both. Like, I'm not really worried about them at a park, like a playground or anything. My kids are not runners either. Like, they've never, they're too clingy, you know what I mean? They've never wanted to be that far from me. So I'm not worried that they're going to run off. And when they're with their friends, they don't need me to follow them around a playground. You know, I don't want me to follow them around a playground. So, but I'm, yeah, so park parties, but especially house parties. So like last weekend, the second party that I went to with Sebastian with, which Augie like sat out because he was grumpy about video games being taken away. it was at a friend's house. I've been friends with her since way before we had kids. And we reconnected after we had kids because we just so happened to have kids at the same preschool.

Shanna

That's right, oh man. Yeah, that really is so nice. And even like just indoor play spaces, like when I take the kids to Kids Empire, you know, when I first started taking CeCe there, she was like three, I think. And I almost had to like go up into the maze with her and like climb up stuff. And it's fun to spend like that fun play time with your kid, but also it's like difficult and whatever. And now I can just sit back at the tables, even do some work, and the girls just go off and play. And this place is big, right? You've been there, and you can't see them for a while. And it's just like, well, they're fine. They're fine. Yeah. So it is nice. That's a nice feeling.

Laura

I mean, that one time we went together, that's what we did. We sat at the table together just talking, and you were doing a little work. And every once in a while, we'd be like, do we see Sebastian? Because he was the littlest. We were like, oh, there he is. We'd be like, OK, back to our own thing. Yeah, it's a big change. Yeah, it's cool. Chuck E. Cheese, too. That's one where I can just be like, bye-bye, especially because they don't let you leave with anyone but the family that you've been stamped in with. They have the security measures there. I like that. So Just You Wait, it's coming for you, my friends, my listeners. All right, so that was my second Just You Wait. Shanna, do you have another one for us? I do.

Shanna

As a parent, we all know what it's like for our kids to beg us for stuff, to buy them stuff, right? Buy me this, buy me that. Spend your money on me. Spend your money on me, right? Like, that's how kids are. Well, Just You Wait, because at a certain point, they will become generous with their own money. Really? Yes. This was a big one for me. I was like, wow, this is really cool. This is Elle, who did both of these. I'm sure Cece is also generous with her money, if given the opportunity. But recently, Elle and Cece went on the Stephen Cates field trip camp, I think over spring break, right? And one of the places they went was the Getty. And they both had wanted to bring money with them to buy souvenirs while they were there. So they went in the room, grabbed their money. For some reason, L had 50 bucks. And maybe grandma slipped her 20 or something. I don't know.

Laura

100% sounds like a grandma contribution to the fundage.

Shanna

Totally. They brought their little purses and stuff. And when they got home, I was like, what did you get at the Getty? And Elle showed me a little, I don't know, music box thing that she got. And I was like, okay, well, what about like, what else did you spend your money on? Turns out she bought these little heart stones that they were selling in the gift shop for all of the counselors of the camp that she really liked. And she wanted to give them gifts. Oh, that's so sweet. I know. And Steve said that when he went to go pick her up at the end of the day, all the counselors were like, oh my gosh, she got this for us. It was like so sweet. And they were so touched by it and everything. And I thought that was really nice.

Laura

Yeah, I bet they really loved that. That must have made them feel so appreciated.

Shanna

Yeah, so it's like sweet to see your child be thoughtful of other people. Totally. Totally. But it doesn't end there because I took the girls to Target to get a couple things and they were trying on clothes and CECE trade on these shorts and she really wanted them and she had already picked out a couple other things and I was like, I don't know, you gotta only pick a couple. And Elle was like, I'll buy those shorts for her. And I was like, what? No, no, no, no. She's like, no, definitely. CECE, I will buy you those shorts. And I mean, I didn't make her. You know what I mean? I ended up getting the shorts. But I thought it was sweet that she offered. And then we went to the pet section to look for dog food. And Elle found this little dog t-shirt that says sock burglar on it. She's like, oh my gosh, this is so funny and cute. And Radley would just love this.

Laura

totally. And also, I mean, she's tapping into one of the great joys of life, which is to give people gifts, you know, like it is a love language for a reason, whether or not you ascribe to the love languages. But, you know, it's a thing that people like to do because it feels good to give someone a gift that they appreciate and enjoy.

Shanna

Yes. And Radley appreciated and enjoyed it so much. He looks very adorable in it. I really do think he likes it. It's really

Laura

Okay, so when my kids were little, I remember it was such a to-do to get out of the house, right? Every time you get out of the house, you gotta like pack a diaper bag. You gotta make sure you have extra clothes because my kids were spitters, right? You gotta like make sure you have lots of snacks. You gotta make sure everything, you just gotta make sure everything is right. You gotta make sure it's around their nap time and there's all those considerations. Oh, yeah. And then you have to strap them into the car seat. There's a long period of time where they don't like being in the car seat, so you have to do like the folding the kid in half method. You know, you have all these like methods, right? Once they're in the car seat, you're not going to take them out of the car seat unless you absolutely have to, like, till you get to the destination, right?

Shanna

Yes, that was the period of my life where I wished every establishment had a drive-thru. Oh my gosh, why doesn't home goods have a drive-thru, you know?

Laura

Totally, totally. I do feel like the pandemic, which was horrible in most ways, one benefit of it was, especially when you had little kids, was that everything turned to curbside pickup. And so... It was very handy for me to have everywhere due curbside pickup while my kids were tiny, tiny. So that was, you know, silver lining. Yes. So this still looms large in my head, right? Like all the to-do around going anywhere, getting in and out of the car, yada, yada, right. Mm-hmm. But listeners, if you are going through this right now, just you wait because a day will come where it'll be just so easy to jump in the car and go places with your kids that you will just like do it on a whim. Yes. Like the other day, I needed something from the grocery store, first thing in the morning, like we were out of everything the kids eat for breakfast. And I was like, oh my God, what am I going to do?

Shanna

It's so great. And then when they learn to buckle themselves in, I mean, all I do now is I'm like, everyone buckled. Yep. Yep. And then we can go. I don't even have to like climb in, push with it, you know. Oh, it's amazing.

Laura

Yeah. Augie will buckle himself. He's still in a five point harness. We're very close to moving to a booster. Like he's perfectly fine size wise to go to a booster, but I'm just a bit of a car seat. You know, what do you call it? Like a maximalist. I like to max out the phases, if possible. Yeah. And so I haven't been a five point, but he doesn't himself and he even tightens it himself now. Yeah. Awesome.

Shanna

It is so great.

Laura

Getting independent. Yeah. So that was my final. Just you wait. Shanna, I think you have one more for us, don't you? I do.

Shanna

When you have little kids, mornings can sometimes be all over the place. You make breakfast for your kids every single day. They don't want to eat half the time. It's just a thing. It's just something you're always doing, making food for your kids for breakfast every day. But just you wait, because one day your kids might make you breakfast while you sleep in. I thought it was a myth, Laura, but it has happened to me. What? I also thought this was a myth. What? Yes. I slept in, I mean, sleep in, what, 7 a.m. a couple of weeks ago on the weekend, and the girls come sneaking in. They're like, And there's no occasion. Okay. I don't know. I don't know. It wasn't my birthday. It wasn't Mother's Day. It wasn't anything. I was like, hi girls. And I was like, oh, we have something for you. And I was like, what?

Laura

Yeah. The mint pairing is truly inspired. I love adding mint to my yogurt with, yeah, like nectarine, some other stone fruit. So good. Corey thinks I'm nuts. Like I'll go out to the garden and get my own mint and put it in my yogurt. He's like what is wrong with you? I'm like it's delicious And I also will sometimes do like a little pinch of salt just to give it a little extra depth Interesting. I will also add honey honey and salt. Yeah

Shanna

I'll have to try that. Yeah, I hadn't thought to try Mint and it was a wonderful addition. I believe that was Elle's idea, that addition, so kudos to her. But yeah, so maybe one day instead of you making all the breakfasts, your kids will make breakfast for you.

Laura

One can dream, although I'm not a breakfast person. Like most days it takes me till a good like 10 a.m. till I'm actually hungry enough to eat. I've never been a breakfast person. I don't know what it is. Except for rare days where I'm like, well I actually when I was like postpartum I was definitely a breakfast person, I was like, give me all the eggs. I will eat a dozen eggs this morning.

Shanna

Oh, yeah. No, I've always been a breakfast person for most of my life. When I would wake up, the very first thing I would think is breakfast. Like, what can I go eat? What can I go eat? Now it's coffee. And then, oh, I wonder if the kids are up. And then I get around to thinking about it, but definitely a breakfast person here.

Laura

I do love breakfast foods for lunch or dinner. Also, weirdly, I like dinner foods for breakfast or lunch for breakfast. I love a BLT for breakfast.

Shanna

Oh, well, yes. Because bacon is involved in toast. So that makes sense. I do cold pizza for breakfast. I will definitely do that.

Laura

Well, one day maybe my boys will bring me a slice of cold pizza for breakfast.

Shanna

Maybe they will. All right. Well, that was it for me. And I believe that's it for our segment. Shall we move on to our big positives and big fat negatives? I think we should.

Laura

We close every episode with a Big Fat Positive or a big fat negative from the week. And Shanna, you're up first. Tell us if you have a BFP or a BFN, please. I have a BFP.

Shanna

Yay. Yay. So way back in February, I think, I started looking around for occupational therapy for CECE. Oh, yeah. Mm-hmm. Her pediatrician thought it could be helpful for some of her sensory sensitivities and stuff like that. And I was like, okay, that sounds cool. Like, let me look into it. Well, I called a bunch of places. Most of them didn't take my insurance. And then the ones that did had a massive wait list. And so I got on them. And about a month ago, I finally got off the wait list for this one particular location. We went in, we got an assessment. I've been waiting to get the results and then to finally get the first appointment. So it has been months in the making to try to get her some OT. Well, this week, finally, after all of those months, she went and had her first OT appointment.

Laura

That is a long time. It's a long time to wait. So how did she like it? First, tell me about the place. Like, is it like there's like a gym or their classrooms? Like, how does it work?

Shanna

I'm not sure what all it entails because it's located in a huge office building, and I saw the gym portions. There are two different indoor gyms, almost like my gym, but even better. That's where we were for class. I assume there are other classrooms and meeting places all around the complex. And so the OT took us to this room, and L was with us this day, because I had picked him up from that Parks and Rec camp a little early, and we drove over for OT, so L was with us. And they went into this gym and were like, what is this? L immediately looked at me and was like, Mom, can you sign me up for this activity?

Laura

That's awesome. I mean, that's how Augie feels about it. Like, he thinks it's fun playtime. And I will sit there and watch what they're doing and be like, sure, I guess they're like, if it's helping him with what he needs help with, great, but also if not, it is like with insurance, a fairly inexpensive activity. So like he loves the gym. Oh my gosh. Every time we go, he's just like, I want to do gym time first. And it does regulate him. So they're like, sure, of course, they've got all these, all these random swings, like a hammock swing and a platform swing and a tire swing. And they have a climbing wall and they've got crash pads. And it's just, yeah, it's his favorite.

Shanna

Oh, it's so cool. And it's shocking that there aren't more places like this. And from other parents I've talked to, it seems like they're few and far between. Everyone is waiting a long time to get services. Was that not the case for you?

Laura

It took us a couple months to get into OT at our place, yeah. But it was partially because of timing. I didn't want to have to pull them out of school for it. Yeah. So we needed like weekday afternoons and that was the longest wait, but we could have gotten in right away if we were willing to go at like noon on a Tuesday.

Shanna

I see.

Laura

But yeah, no, I mean, it does seem like places are really, really hard to get into. I get it. It's a lot of overhead, right? You have to like build this whole gym. You have to have like, I'm sure you have to have crazy insurance. You have to hire all these professionals, like OTs are all professionals, so I'm sure it's expensive to do that. So I get that it's not something you and I could just do. our spare time. We should add on to our plate. Let's open a new OT therapy center. I mean, it looks like a cool job. I'm not going to lie. I was like, maybe. Oh, I've had the exact same thought. I'm like, I could do this. I'd be good at this. Yeah. But yeah, that's so great. I'm so glad she liked it. I'm so glad you guys are on the schedule now. Yes, finally. Yay.

Shanna

But yeah, that is my BFP. What about you? You have a BFP or BFN?

Laura

You know, I also have a BFP. All right. Which is that Augie went to drama camp this week. Yay! You know how I feel about drama camp. Love it. I want to hear everything. Yeah, so this drama camp was just one week and what they do in this week is they come up with their own play, like they write their own play and then they put it on on Friday, like for the parents. Yeah, and I was a little skeptical, like how are they gonna manage that? Cause it's a lot, right? To like write a whole play, get a bunch of kids to like agree on the topic, agree on the title even, right? Come up with the story, pick their roles, all that stuff. And apparently it was pretty democratic. It wasn't like the counselor or the teacher was doing everything. They all were making these decisions together. But man, he loved it. First day he came home, he was so excited.

Shanna

Oh, very nice. He looks like a detective. And I can see the space where he is. So it looks like it is an actual theater. There's a stage and stuff.

Laura

Yeah, it was in like a high school auditorium. Cool. Yeah. And I am going to send you the video of the play. I'm not going to make you watch the whole thing. That would be a lot to ask of a friend. It is like... How long was it, by the way? My video is 16 minutes long, so... Oh, okay. That's not too bad. Not too bad, but still a lot to ask. But I am going to send you to the seven minute mark where you can see one of his Honestly, really impressive pieces of stagecraft, if you will. He has a really good sound effect situation going. You'll see. OK, cool. I've got it pulled up.

Shanna

Here we go. Oh, yeah. The doorknock stomp effect. I love it. He did that perfectly. He really did. He nailed it.

Laura

That's the kind of stuff he loves. Like saying the lines, I think he was a little hesitant. You know, he wasn't necessarily projecting with his full voice, but he loved all the like the pantomiming and the, you know, the like the fake knocking and stuff like that. He was very dramatic in all those things. So.

Shanna

Yeah. Oh, that's awesome. How many kids were in this camp or in the show they did?

Laura

Let me scroll to the end of the video and find out. Looks like we got one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 11, like 12. 12 were in the group. So. Wow.

Shanna

That's a lot of kids to work together to make all those decisions and everything. That's really impressive.

Laura

Totally. Yeah. So it was a great camp. We're really happy. He wanted to go back next week. He's like, I don't want to go to a different camp. I just wanted to draw my camp again. And I was like, oh, but honey, next week is Percy Jackson camp. Oh, guess it's that. So yeah, even with that, he was like, I don't know. I still want to go back to draw my camp. I was like, I don't think you know what you're saying. So we're just going to keep this going. So yeah, next week is Percy Jackson camp. And I'll check back in about how that goes.

Shanna

Awesome. I love all these updates about his Campapalooza. Campapalooza of his bespoke camp experience.

Laura

Yeah. Oh, well, that is it for me. And I think that's it for our show. I think it is.

Shanna

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Laura

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Shanna

Big Fat Positive is produced by Laura Birek, Shanna Micko, and Steve Yager. Thanks for listening everyone. Have a Big Fat Positive week. Bye! Bye!