This month, my update is a big ol’ fat dose of normal y’all. We like normal… we like it a lot.
Ellie had decided that she has no time for the crawling
business that we so desperately tried to get her to do for the past ten-ish months. She found a new way of getting around, and it’s
the most adorable thing I think I’ve ever witnessed.
AmIRight? I mean, we
are still encouraging her to get on all fours and work on her strength in that
manner… but she’s discovered that she can scoot her little butt all over the
house this way, and there is no stopping her.
It’s a real treat to watch her when there is music playing (say… Frozen
playing in the background) when she has somewhere to go. She’s scooting with her bottom half and
dancing with her top half… I can’t even.
So between her army crawl and this (we call it the booty
slide), she’s everywhere. And it’s
awesome. She’s working on pulling
herself up to standing, and she’s really doing quite well with this. We try to get her to cruise along furniture,
but she usually just likes to stand and dance.
This kid LOVES music.
Ellie is taking the world of food by storm these days,
too. Well, we had about a week where she
wouldn’t eat for us at all. Straight up –
she refused. I’d never seen a kiddo take
total control of a situation quite like this.
Our boys were always so hungry that they didn’t have time to try to
control the whole eating atmosphere… they just ate. The first night she did this, we bumped up
her tube feeds so that she was still getting calories, but then we realized
that she’s not underweight, per se, and with any other toddler – they’d just be
extra hungry at the next meal. This
worked a bit, but she was obsessed with turning her head to every food we gave
her, spitting out her bites, and really working this control business. Thank God for therapists. Ellie’s OT gave us suggestions on how to take
control back of the situation… and just like on Super Nanny, those suggestions worked
like magic. The first few days were
painful, but that’s it. Two days of us
doing feedings our way… and she was happy to adjust and eat off of the spoon
again without much trouble. So thankful
we have a team to support us when we want to pull our hair out. Less stress for us, no more tears from her…
happy family and nurses!
After this bump in the road, she just took off with what she’ll
eat for us, and you’d think that we’d never before seen a toddler eat by the
excitement we have with each new step.
The first time she picked up a cheese curl and put it in her own mouth I
about cried. Feeding therapy is a lot of
work… a lot of work y’all. Work we had
no idea existed before we had a tube fed kiddo.
New textures are scary… and biting things, well, that just didn’t
happen. Ellie was excellent at picking
up food and throwing it on the floor, but she NEVER put food in her own mouth...
until just recently.
Once she realized that this food we let her have was yummy
(has to be better than baby food), she slowly let us experiment more and
more. In the past month, she’s taken on
soup with crackers, cereal with milk, cheese curls, veggie straws, and cut up
sandwiches. She’s eating sandwiches,
folks. I know, I know… lame story for
most of you… but this is a big deal. And
a big fat dose of normal for us… we like it when we can soak up some normalcy
around here. So this food business is
really promising right now.
We have no idea what else is on the horizon for this little
bug in the near future, but she sure makes our days exciting… and taking on the
smallest of things (like eating a sandwich) feel like a real adventure.
Our happy girl
Taking a walk with momma
The boys came back from spending twenty days away from
home. They were traveling with my
parents… and came back very tan (totally jealous) and full of stories of
lizards and alligators and swimming pools and bananas. We missed those little boogers so very much,
but love that they had a chance to hang out with their grandparents. Mom and Dad came home with an endless list of
funny stories about things the boys did, too.
Ahhhh, I love those little kiddos.
For all of the times that we ask them to sit and be quiet, though… what I
missed the most was the noise. The first
few days, I ended up turning the TV on so that there was some background noise
in our house. As much as the chaos makes
us crazy, it’s also so much a part of our lives that we feel lost without
it. Ask Brandon… I barely cooked for the
man while the boys were gone. I like
cooking… but it’s so much more enjoyable when I have someone push up a chair
next to the counter and ask to help stir or help crack eggs. This never ends well for the kitchen, but I
love those little hands that love to help.
Today, I about flipped my lid because there was a banana peel and the
yolk of a hardboiled egg mashed into the floor under the table after
breakfast. Later in the day, there was
glue stuck to about everything at the table… but they were making me pictures
and then wanted to glue flowers to their pictures for me. How could I be mad about that? They are so messy and so busy and so full of…
LIFE.
The boys on the Gulf coast with my dad
Playing in the pool... while it's 35 degrees at home
This week, their preschool hosted a Night at the Ballpark
where all the kiddos were invited to play wiffle teeball on the school
grounds. They gave them each a colored
hat that matched their team and made sure that each child had the opportunity to
play. There was music and hot dogs and
so much fun to be had. Remember that
their school has a healthy mix of typical and non-typical kiddos, so they even
had one of the fields play on an area covered in blacktop. This way, the kids in wheelchairs had no
problem playing along with all of the other kids out there. I watched this and my heart was overwhelmed
with joy. I love that this is the school
that our boys are attending… but above that, I loved that all of the kids there
that night… they all were able to experience a big ol’ fat dose of normal. Every kid got to hit, every kid got to field
a ball. Parents sat around on blankets
and lawn chairs and enjoyed a beautiful night as their kiddos did something so
simple, so wonderful… so normal. It was
awesome! I look forward to the day when
Ellie will also attend this school and I’m sure I’ll be even more aware of how “normal”
they make everything feel.
Kaleb up to bat
Lance up to bat
Giving 5s
So as we wrap up this glorious Saturday and get ready for
Mother’s day, I wish all of you a big fat dose of normal tomorrow. I know that Mother’s Day is a hard one for
some… and a huge celebration for others.
I’m not wishing anything over the top or extravagant. That’s not what is important at all. I promise that what is most important is what
is mundane, what is simple, what is normal… spend your day focusing on that and
celebrating, cherishing the little victories and normal moments left in your
weekend. We love you all dearly – thank you
for continuing to follow along.
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