We were blessed with gifts, tokens of love...although we were not blessed with health this Christmas.  My husband had such an upset stomach that he missed much of the gift opening.  Afterwards he went back to bed for a nap.  We had had little sleep the previous nights.  Then after I got some clean up done with the gift wrap, I collapsed on the couch with a poetry book and started snoozing.  The kids woke us up to go to Grandma and Grandpa's for the rest of the day.  I really did not want to leave my warm cozy spot...because I could feel my cold taking over.  But I just did not feel up to making any dinner...so that was basically what enticed me to finally get up. 

Anyway, the whole time I was dozing, the children were contentedly playing with some of their new toys...that was novel! They just don't play with toys.  They rarely do things on their own...although they are leaning more in that direction now.  But usually they prefer to have some sort of directed activity with me or dh. They were diagnosed with Sensory Integration Disorder as toddlers and apparently that is one of the symptoms.  They were discharged from OT services about 8 years ago, with the condition I keep working with the kids.  So I am always on the lookout for the types of things the OT loved. Along those lines, I found some cool things that I got for stocking stuffers for them.  These totally cool things are the very items that kept them quietly content for hours! 

Familiar with Floam?  www.floamit.com

I'm sure our OT loves this amazing texture toy!  Last spring I saw some of this on display at a fancy toy store.  It was out so we could hold and play with it and it was so cool.  It perfectly molds to any shape you want, is not sticky, and has an amazing touch.  However, I was not so certain of the price, which was a bit steep for my preference.  But I am now sold!  This product mesmerized my children with creativity longer than any item in history!

Then I found some squiggle pens...just for fun!  They vibrate and the kids like to put it up to my back to massage....it feels great!  They had fun wiggling their writing on paper!

Of course this is not meant for handwriting...as least not in the normal way!  I would not take a handwriting grade with anything done with this pen.  But the OT taught me that texture goes a long way in improving fine motor skills...and thus handwriting skills.  

Interestingly, my brother and his wife gave dd some floam too.  They had bought it not knowing what it was, but it looked interesting to them.  So dd excitedly took it out of the package to show them...and it was gooey and sticky.  When it first comes out of the container, you have to work it, but this was not working as well as the ones we had left at home.  DH tried to help them clean up but he couldn't even wipe it off with paper towels. They finally went out back to clean up.  We brought it home and left the container open a few days to dry out some.  I'm not sure how it is now...it disappeared from the kitchen counter.  But if that doesn't work we'll just return it to the store for another one.  So if this happens to you, don't despair. That's not how it's supposed to work.  It is really cool.  The kids were even playing ball with the good batches we had!