Friday, July 18, 2008

Fun parts of therapy

All the nice ladies who come work with me on stuff are fun. And they always do some fun stuff. But sometimes it's hard work, too. I try to do my best, but I get tired sometimes. But today I'm gonna show you some of the fun stuff we've been doing lately!

Miss C came on Wednesday and we had a good time playing while I was having some yummy yogurt. I've been taking more bites from her, and some from Mommy too. It's kind of messy, but Mommy's trying to get used to that. Here's a movie from when Miss C was here last time.

Then Miss Lori came to help me get stronger. I showed her how I was climbing and everything, and she was so happy! Then we did some practice standing on a rocking board and up from my new feeding chair. I love my chair alot, so I don't mind when we get to use it for practicing. (Mommy note: Some of these therapy videos may seem like there's alot of nothing, but for those of us in this world of therapies and milestones that we work so hard for, these are glimmers of hope and quite exciting hints at what's just around the corner.)




I've been trying new ways to have fun climbing. This is the new way that I watched TV the other day. Mommy thought it looked silly, but I watched my whole show like this.


I like to turn around in my feeding chair, too. I haven't figured out how to get up in it on my own yet, but I'm trying.


Mommy even put another place up so I can climb even more. But then when I get up there, she takes me down so I don't fall. But I like to just lay like this and relax.

When I've been climbing a while, I get pretty tired.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Leaky belly

On Sunday Mommy was feeding me my vanilla milk when she looked and saw that I was sitting in a big puddle of milk in my chair! She put me down and Daddy looked to see what was wrong. The milk was coming right out of my second button where it's supposed to go in.

After they checked it out, Mommy decided it was time to put in a new button, so Daddy got the stuff and the new one, and he made it so it was ready to pull out easy. Then just like that... Daddy took it out! There was just my belly left with a little hole!

Mommy held my hands while Daddy was working on me, and he put the new button back in. I've had the same button since I first got it last year, so this was the first time we changed it. But it was really easy and it didn't even hurt.

When Daddy got it back in, he put water in the little balloon in my tummy so that the button stays where it's supposed to be.

Look, all done. New button!


And I never even got sad face. Just talked to Mommy while Daddy did the switch!

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Retropost: LOTS of therapy

Last week I got to meet all my new therapist friends with First Steps. Monday Miss C came. She's an OT and she's going to help me learn to eat better. I ate a little bit of beans from the Mexican place that we had left over, and I tried to take a little bit of water from my nosey cup.


After Miss C left, Mommy let me play in some gooey stuff, and it wasn't so bad. Usually I don't like to have that stuff on me, but it was ok this time. I even got a little in my mouth, but not much.



On Tuesday, we went early in the morning to see a guy who measured my feet in a whole bunch of ways for my new Sure Steps to help me stand and walk. While we waited and Mommy wrote on some papers, I played in the chair.



Tuesday after lunch, Miss Jocelyn came to see me. She's an ST and she's going to help me learn words and say words. She brought bubbles for us to play with, and I wanted to do them myself.


On Wednesday we went to see Miss Stephanie again. She helps me learn to eat too, but I got a little upset again because Mommy wasn't there. She waits out in the other room during my feeding time at that place. I don't like that so much, so next time Mommy's going in with me. I did eat some pudding though.

On Thursday, Miss Lori came to play with me. She's a PT and she's going to help me learn to walk and climb and stuff. We had a fun time, and she showed me how to climb up on the couch. I even stood up for a little while with just a little help from the couch. I think I'm gonna have fun with Miss Lori and all my new friends!!


We didn't go see Miss Brandi on Friday since it was a holiday. I'll tell you about my fun holiday weekend soon. I'm trying to catch up!!

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Doctor Therapists Realtor

I knew this was gonna be a busy week, but today was a little ridiculous.

9 am: Braska pediatrician appt. Just to get established and make sure she had all the right info. It was pouring rain when we left, and I'm no good at kid and rain combinations. We made it barely on time. My first concession of the day was to go out in schlumpadinka fashion. Yep, I've gone there. Capris, neat shoes, and cute top--didn't happen. Yoga pants and T was it. What has happened?!?

10:15 am: Back to the apartment. It's so darn trashed there's not anywhere on the sectional to sit down. But I feel rough, so it's plop in the recliner for me while Braska plays. Dealt with some work and emails but mostly I just sat still and tried not to be dizzy.

11:00 am: Knock at the door. The PT is here. Forgot about that one. I sent an email to find out when my appt was, but didn't get a response. Darn email keeps going to spam. Ok, welcome to disaster central. Braska did great, made some big strides with pulling up to her knees at the couch. But I could hardly keep my eyes open.

12:10 pm: Feed the kid in 3 minutes. (Thank God for tube feedings at times like this.) Rock her for a minute, put her to bed, and collapse into bed myself for a quick nap. But it doesn't happen. I can't nap. I always just race through the things I need to do and what I'm NOT getting done by resting. I get so mad that I can't go to sleep that I end up more agitated every minute. I laid there for about an hour and closed my eyes even though I couldn't sleep. We've got so much to do still today! I need to get some energy!!

1:10 pm: M comes in from work for lunch. I get out of bed. I've made no lunch obviously, so he has a pudding cup and some pretzels. Thank goodness he's not a foodie. We chat a minute. He gets Braska up because speech will be here in a few.

1:30 pm: Jocelyn comes for ST. Braska plays and cooperates some. She's not much for mimicking on command yet. But she had a good time. She likes Miss Jocelyn. M heads back to work at 1:45.

2:30 pm: We leave as Jocelyn does, heading out to the realtor's office. I had texted my sister Rachel to pick me up some food on the way to meet us there since I hadn't had a chance to eat yet. She came along to corral the kiddo while we visited several places.

2:45 pm: We met up with Sandra the realtor. Headed out on our tour of 6 places. We ruled out 3, I'm on the fence about 1, and we like 2. That's not bad overall. Houses in this price range are going quickly here, so a few that we had wanted to see had already sold over the weekend. I was pleased we found a couple standouts at this price point. It was really hard to actually walk through places that we were considering. I love looking at houses. Love it! But we are downsizing, and that's proving to be more of an adjustment than I expected. We loved our 2-car garage, but no more. We loved having 2 baths, but no more. We loved our spread out room for us and guests, but no more. It will be fine. We'll have room to be, but it will be an adjustment for sure. Not to mention the pool....... but it's ok. It really is. It'll be less for me to keep up with, and I like that. I actually was pleasantly surprised, as were Rach and Sandra, at the good places we saw. I was afraid everything would require a great deal of work, but two of the options are just about turn-key. That's important since we're trying to get all this done and moved in by 8/31...the end of our short-term lease in the apartment.

5:15 pm: Back to the realtor's office. We head home. I collapse and hand Braska to M. The local DSA meeting is in 45 minutes, but nope...just can't do it.

And from that point on, my mind races. I'm replaying every bedroom, bathroom, kitchen, finishes, carpet, neighborhood, etc. I'm betting there won't be much sleep tonight. My brain doesn't have a turn-off switch when I need it. So I pray God will show us "our house" just like he did 4 years ago, clear as day. I gleaned a few little hints today, so maybe more will come. We go back tomorrow night, me and M, so he can take a look at the top 3. My hope is for a clear choice or more rule-outs.