Milla is on the move!

It won't be long before we are chasing Miss Milla all over the house. She is so desperate to crawl! At the moment she is doing a great job of sliding backyards to get to or should I say away from things and the photo I've added is of her disappearing under the couch bit by bit.....


When she finally backs herself into furniture or a wall or if we are outside and she can get grip she plays with getting up on her knees. I'm sure she'll just decide one day to go and then there will be no stopping her!
If she had her way she would be standing at the lounge, or coffee table, or dining room chairs, or cupboards or our legs all day long - well at least until she's too tired.

What are the Costin's up to?

Matt and I are always joking the we "don't do things by half" - get engaged in New York, married 5 months later, fall pregnant 6 months later, head back to NY five months after that, come home and decided to pull Fliss out of school, have Milla 3 months later, start Fliss's program full time in the new year in five more months fall pregnant again at the same time as having the opportunity to head back to NY one more time and jumping on it....... who knows what will be next!

I thought about this the other day when I was floating around the house doing a bit of cleaning when I came to the lounge room. With no TV we find that at night one of us sits at the computer and the other is on the couch reading something and therefore a collection of books has accumulated next to the couch on the windowsill - this is what caught my attention and made me giggle....... I swear I just took a photo I didn't add a thing!


You'd never guess what has our little families focus at the moment really would you????

Sit back, relax and enjoy the show!

We had the video camera working overtime on the weekend just passed. There so many little things that both the girls are doing that just can't be explained with words so now that I have finally worked out how to get a video onto the blog we invite you to sit back relax and be entertained by our clever, cheeky and vocal little monkeys......

Movie one is of Milla hanging out in the backyard "helping" mum with the washing and movie two is of Fliss perfecting the word 'up' with her daddy - you might need to turn the volume up to hear them..... Enjoy

Volunteer Meeting

It seems like forever since we had our last volunteer meeting for Felicity's program. We were sick for the one in June and then the July one was cancelled as most of the volunteers were away on school holidays with their families, so the August meeting was this Sunday just gone.
Matt and I ran it, our first time running a meeting, and I think it went well. We opened with the exciting news that we will be heading back to the States to complete the next part of the training course, Maximum Impact, in October.
We discussed our most recent 'consult' - conference call with Son-Rise, in which we chose 5-6 'focus' words for everyone to work on with Felicity - Up, Down, Ride, Music, Tickle, Help & No - all words that we believe Felicity is motivated around and is starting to master bit by bit. We all then brainstormed some games and activities to do with Fliss in the playroom where these words are used lots.
Next on the meeting agenda was general questions and queries from everyone and anyone - a great chance for us to see how the volunteers are going and feeling about where they are at and their sessions in the playroom.
Then a quick partner game of copying a few basic symbols, drawn by me, with your non-dominant hand while your partner cheers you on - with the follow up questions of
1) How did it feel to do something challenging?
2) How did it feel to be cheered on?
This is a great exercise as this is exactly what is happening between us and Felicity in the playroom - she is trying something very challenging to her and we are there to cheer her on!
The feedback from that game was at first the drawer felt overwhelmed by the task they were being asked to do and thought they wouldn't be good at it but then started it and with a cheer squad helping them along really enjoyed the challenge and felt good about completing it. Very interesting to then put this back to a playroom situation when Fliss is being asked to say 'Up' for example and feels that is just too hard but with encouragement and her own personal cheer squad (us) she may feel it is a easier and more importantly fun thing to try - no matter what comes out!
We closed the meeting with more brainstorming for a planned fundraiser we are hoping to do in November this year to cover some of the costs that go along with getting Fliss through this program like travel costs for all of us to complete all the courses and in the long term to get Felicity and all of us to the States for the Intensive program - so far it's looking good for a fun night, we'll keep you posted.