New sensory toy.

Thanks to a generous autism sensory grant through a nonprofit in our state, it's like Christmas early around here. Yesterday, this Vew-Do balance board arrived - this is the Zippy. The folks at Vew-Do were very helpful via email and recommended this one for Jake's needs.

With anything around here, it is very hit or miss. We've gotten some great toys that Jake shows zero interest in. So it's always a hold-your-breath moment when introducing a new toy to him. With this, I just set it up on the carpet and walked away. He was immediately interested - "skateboard" is something he's said before; despite lack of local skateboard culture (Vermont's not known for paved places!) Jake has picked up on it and has always enjoyed the concept of skateboarding. And in fact he calls a snowboard a skateboard, and really wanted to snowboard last year. (He skis, but the rest of us snowboard.)

Anyway, I snapped a pic of him on the new Vew-Do Zippy this morning before he zoomed outside to wander around in the meadow. Please ignore the crazy wires behind the TV - we just got our receiver back from warranty repair (can you believe it took almost a month??) and we haven't put everything fully back together yet, as Matt is doing some upgrades to the whole system or something. And, we're just crazy busy and life is very full, and that's my explanation for the general mess behind him!

We have a four-day weekend coming up (starting today!) and everyone is very much looking forward to a combination of relaxation and getting winter prep work done around here. I am so excited about the Zippy because we have such limited space, and this is a toy that can get set up in ten seconds flat, and can be stored in a little corner near the living room when not in use. It's really cool to have something that gives Jake some vestibular input and is so portable! We also have a Sky Chair coming through this grant program, and that may have to wait for the addition to get put up. Much more space-intensive.