Q.O.T.D.

DS (on his truck): "me lightning McQueen!"
DD (on trike and without missing a beat): "and me Sally with a bike!"

Time to Talk about Eating

So...how is Mic doing with oral feeding these days??? Its been so long since I've tried to really write about it that it feels like theres LOTS to say and NOTHING to say. Weird contradiction, none-the-less, how I feel.
I had been planning to do another wean therapy here at home last summer. And just then she hit a weight gain crisis. All my effort was forced from oral intake to blenderized diet recipe analysis, and just trying to stop the weight loss. Well, now that that is finally more under control, my mind is turning oral-ward again.
I have known all along that before I "DO" anything drastic, I need to collect some data again. Going back to the whole, weigh-each-gram-before-and-after-each meal-and-count-each-calorie-down-to-the-half, routine feels so cumbersome and overwhelming. It is, however, a very necessary evil. Last week I managed to log one day. ...and is was cumbersome...but also, surprisingly, a bit exhilerating. Its premature to take anything off of one day only, but I did have some immediate observations. 1)a half a sandwich has way more calories in it than I remembered! 2)her oral cal's for the day didn't show much progress, but the amount of effort it took to get those calories into her, ...there's no comparision! Breakfast was work...it always is. I did dedicate a lot of one-to-one time to her at lunch too... but supper was basically effortless. She sat. I placed the plate in front of her. She ate. ...every last bite of the small portion. And asked to be excused to go play. That is so profoundly "normal" I could work myself up to tears over it. The good kind of tears.
Some other "progressy" events recently include an evening when she asked for refried beans with her chips. And a different day when she asked for chocolate milk and actually drank the very small amount that we gave her--all of it! These are both textures that if one is the easiest for her and 10 they hardest they were 11's. She has not repeated either of those events, but she has done it once, is processing it, and in time I know she will go there again and it will be easier each time.
We are not on a time table. I cannot, will not, do that to us. But soon, sometime very soon, we will do another calorie-cut, and feeding therapy, mimicking the technics we learned in her feeding therapy at the Toft House, and the possabilities excite me. Maybe, just maybe we are finally near a significant jump in numbers. We covet your prayers and encouragement as we continue along this way.

Black

When I was a young girl, never being one to easily make up my mind, I had a range of favorite colors. Mint green, baby blue, turquiose blue, brick red...and others depending on the day, the purpose and my mood. I have always liked color. (except when I was depressed but thats another story for another time...) I remember vividly the day in school in about the second or third grade when it dawned on me that the "cool" little girls all liked pink and purple. Pink and purple EVERYTHING. Even sweet tarts, even though the yellow ones tasted better. Maybe I didn't externalize it as much, wanting to fit in and all, but deep down I still thought back then that mint green looked better with pink than purple did! Oh, these grade school dilemas, so deep and important. ;o)

Now I have a little school girl of my own. She keeps life interesting, challenges me to no end, and makes me chuckle often. ...and apparently no one has yet told her that she ought to just like pink and purple! And maybe they never will, which would be fine with me. Her favorite color when painting or coloring is black. ...sometimes dark blue, purple or brown, perhaps a little bit of pink, but especially and above all...black. Sometimes respecting her choice is a bit of a stretch for me...can't we add some COLOR to that!? However, I try not to interfere in her art.

She has been begging me for three days to paint eggs, so this morning I blew the breakfast eggs and saved the shells for painting. Ever looking for a way to combine school and play I announced that we were going to paint winter eggs. We talked a lot about the kinds of things and colors that remind us of winter. I told them to paint their eggs with colors that reminded them of winter and then I let them have at it. I knew better than to interfer any further with their color choices.

And here's what we got!

A paper full of black splotches...

...and two of her three eggs were black : )
...oh, she does make me chuckle so!

Her brother proudly pointing at his creations.

2010 Birthday Reviews

I am quite aware that I didn't get around to blogging after any of my kid's birthdays last year. Busy, busy, busy! So as we usher in 2011 and I also just happen to have a free evening for resizing and uploading pictures, I thought it would be fun to do one mega birthday upload. (P.S. If you don't like pictures, maybe you should just skip this post...there's lots!) ;o)

We all have our birthdays in the second half of the year, and of the children, my little man is first. We threw him a "real" party for the first time and I did a doggie theme.

"Friends!"

The black nose and freckles were optional, but the dog ears were not!
A special gift from Grandma and Grandpa Westover

Toy Story 3 was well represented in the gifts, to my son's great delight!

He refused to take that t-shirt off for the next three days and nights.

The cake.

LLLLLLLove the look on his face!

More Woody!!! Hooray!

My little joy turned one!

I see no sense in a big party for "1", but of course, had to at least make a cake.

...She liked it!

I found this big ball and couldn't resist getting it for her,...

... its about as big as she is.

She liked it, but wasn't quite sure what to do with it!

Mic had three medical appiontments at the hospital on the day of her birthday. Its just how things happened to land this year. Despite how unbirthday-like that sounds, there were a couple very special things about that day. One was the fact that she ate five and a half chicken nuggets doused in kethcup after her appiontments were over!!! ...I have this vivid memory of us in a fast food restaurant shortly after her feeding therapy and confidently buying a small order of nuggets for her. It was a particualarly bad day for several reasons and in the end I ate every last nugget myself and felt like crying a bucket of tears over it. This contrasting memory made every single effortless bite of those 5 and a half nugguts full of meaning, joy and hope.

A few more special things about the day: 1) Time on the hospital playground structure, without a doubt, one of my daughter's favorite places on earth.

2) A new DVD she was particularly keen on having for her birthday.

and 3) The best for last. A MIRACLE! A hole in her ear left by her ear tube was declared completly closed! About a year ago the doctor told us that if it hadn't closed by then it wouldn't close on its own and would require surgery down the road. All glory to God our healer!

Some days later we did have a little get-to-gether at the park for Mic with some of her friends,

It was my first attempt at a decorative Jello. I was traumatized because it didn't look nearly as nice as the example picture online. But without that point of comparison, it really wasn't so bad. And Mic loved her stars, which is really the part that matters anyhow.

The whole group

and one happy little girl!

...Thank you, dear Lord, for allowing my children another year of life. I am aware that every day with them is a gift from You and I try not to take that for granted. May they have many more years to come, full of life, love and growth in You. Amen.