This Is Not

This is not an update on how the boys are eating fantastically. This is not to let you know that they are impressing both me and their EI occupational therapist for the last two weeks. This in no way is to let you know that we are only eight short weeks away from starting Feeding Clinic on April 27th, nor is it to share with you that I'm feeling pressure and great anxiety to get these boys to eat as much as possible in this very short time frame until the big guns give it a go at the clinic.

I am not going to tell you that yesterday Cameron and Evan ate a combined amount of food totaling about 1/4 of a jar of butternut squash puree, or that Cameron ate four Gerber cherry flavored puffs consecutively, or that Evan finished 4 ounces of milk in 30min. And what's more is, I'm also not going to tell you that they did it again today and combined at 1/2 of a whole jar of the butternut squash puree, Cameron ate 3 puffs and three big bites of a Baby Mummum and drank 4ounces of milk, while Evan licked a puff once and drank two ounces of milk.

I'm not telling you any of this because they have never done this much before and to talk about it would to be to jinx it. Just like when the nurses whisper about "discharge" of their teeny tiny patients, because to say it out loud and have them hear of something that resembles actually getting discharged and going home is certain to cause a preemie to have a set back, thus extending their NICU time. To talk about things as important as this is a big No No. If I were to have officially told you any of this everything we're working so diligently on would all go to hell in a hand basket for the next 8 weeks. So we will NOT be focusing on that. Because that's no big deal. Not at all.

What I will tell you is that the boys have been puking more of their formula up while sleeping than ever before, and last night Cam got really really really terrified so I think he might have choked on it pretty hard before I was able to get to him. The vomiting has been at an all time high again, and I wish I knew why. They have gone for several weeks at a time with nary a spit up, let alone Exorcist-like projectile vomits that we've been having from a deep sleep.

I will also tell you that yesterday the boys learned how to count to six and to say their ABC's to the letter F all very suddenly and in just two days. Yaaaaaay!! ::happy dance:: They are learning new words and phrases so fast, I'm not sure if I can keep track at all anymore. And they are becoming super social too, even though they are painfully shy at first. Once they warm up to you they really do love to interact with people, it just takes a long while to get there. Evan spent an entire hour sitting in our OT's lap today. He just walked over and plopped himself down on her lap without being invited. And we rolled with it and he ate while sitting on her lap, spilling all his milk and butternut squash puree on her pants.

The flavor of the week is Butternut Squash, and it must be the BeechNut brand as the boys do not seem to like the Gerber brand of squash puree at all. Still working on flavors. We know the boys love ice tea and I happily give it to them. Yes, I know, shocker that I would give my almost 2 year old kids caffeine. But when your child, who doesn't eat anything by mouth for a year, suddenly demands your beer/coffee/wine/tea/soda/soup/buffalo sauce/sushi, you will have an out of body experience filled with anxiety and joy as you watch yourself happily offer the bottle over. Go ahead, call CPS, I dare you to try and steal my joy. (I am joking of course. But I still gave them iced tea and plan on doing it again.)





















Yesterday (and today as well) were the first days warm and sunny enough to walk to the park. Here's some of the fun we had.


Evan's PT would be so proud of him too!


Only just five months ago this slide was really huge and scary for the boys. It's still a little scary for me because there is a two and a half foot drop at the end because they haven't put down any new mulch yet.

Flavors and Puffs

Today we had a very successful lunch. Actually I've been having a couple in a row, then a dry spell for a few days, then more breakthrough moments, then a bigger dry spell. At the moment we are on an upswing.

This week I discovered that Cameron is enjoying a very thick and sticky Apples & Oatmeal cereal from BeechNut (what we feed them primarily for the extra calories, assuming that they eat). He's willingly opening his mouth to the sight of the spoon and eating several bites, about four or five in a row without problem. That's the max I can convince him to do. But today was the best eating experience ever. He actually put a Gerber Graduates cherry flavor puff in his mouth, chewed it and swallowed, then picked up a second one, gagged a bit, then chewed and swallowed with some difficulty, then picked up a THIRD puff and tried to chew that one. But the third proved too much for him to deal with and he spit it out and greedily drank some milk. He also eats happily several consecutive teeny tiny bites of Baby Mummum rice cake waffers too. BEST EATING SESSION EVER!

Evan is really enjoying stage one green been puree though he won't eat more than five or six bites. And to eat those bites he will only suck it off through his teeth, and absolutely will not open his mouth for the spoon. Evan has also been licking puffs and Mummum rice cakes and taking teeny tiny bites off which is a big step.



And because many kids with such strong oral aversions have either an under-sensitive or hyper-sensitive sense of taste, we are trying all kinds of things that you might never think of, many are kind of gross. This week we are trying to give them samples of KC Masterpiece Original Flavor BBQ Sauce. And surprisingly, they did not reject it. They didn't really go back for more, but they repeatedly brought it to their noses to smell and Cameron almost put it too his lips to taste, but stopped at the last second. We'll try this for about 10 days or longer depending on their response to this, and I will track each day with their reactions on a scale of 1 to 10 using a model that hospitals use for children to show how they register pain.


Now for a few nap time stories, diaper changes and then we're all going to take hopefully a very loooong nap.

Chitter, Chatter, SHREAK, Giggle, SCREAM!!

These are the sounds I hear all day from the boys.

Evan has been babbling up a storm and imitating everything anyone says to him. He's harder to follow since he's the quiet kind and doesn't like to show off or speak loudly (not to say he doesn't love to let out piercing shrieks all the time, he may be small but his lungs are big) but we had an OT and Speech session where he was the only kid for a change and he was really hamming it up. When he says actual words he's almost timid about it, like he's treating the formation of the word like he's handling fragile glass. It's the sweetest, softest, most adorable sound and matches his stature, which is why it's difficult to pay attention to him when boisterous Cameron is screaming words left and right and demanding you acknowledge him. Evan's now added the following words to his repertoire:

Shoe - (pronounced seh-oo)
Iguana - (pronounced eh-ga-na or just ga-na)
Hug - (pronounced huh or Ah-huh as in "a hug" courtesy of the Cornelius P. Mud book we love)
Up
Down
Ahchoo - as in to sneeze
Meow - the sound a cat makes
Quack - the sound a duck makes
Neigh - the sound a horse makes
Wee wee - the sound a pig makes
Woof - the sound a dog makes
Squeak - the sound a mouse makes (pronounced eeeh)
Whoo whoo - the sound an owl makes
Oh no!
No no no no... - this is his favorite, with vigorous shaking of the head from side to side
Ear
Eye
Mouth - (pronounced Mmmm-ouh)
Chin
Cheek - (pronounced chee)
Hair - (pronounced Haih)
Jump - (pronounced jum)
Hop - (pronounced hah)
Slide - (pronounced sly)
Open
Close
Knock knock - (pronounced nah-nah)

Cameron is learning words so fast that I can not keep track at all and will probably stop trying since he's right on target with his language for now. Words Cameron says now:

Lion - with roar
Bear
Tiger
Iguana - (says this perfectly too)
Penguin
Upside down - (pronounced upsdown)
Scoot
Scooter
French fry
Orange - this took the longest time for him to say and he still gets it confused with yellow
One
Two
Three
Five - (poor number four is forgotten most times)
Sleep
Nap
Bed
Lay Down
Sit Down
Open
Closed
Open Up
Please - (pronounced pees)
Tummy
Heiny - (thanks to Dad he thinks his bottom is his heiny)
Button - (confused with bottom, pronounced buh-ton with pause between syllables)
Spoon
Fork - (pronounced forh)
Door
Wash
Clean - (pronounced keen)
Safari hat - (pronounced sorry hah)
Home
Cup
Cheese - (pronounced cheeh)
Boing - as in the sound something with springs makes when it bounces
Big
Bird
Big Bird - (pronounced Big Birrr)
Grape - (pronounced gape)

Their favorite thing to do is to climb underneath the smaller slide and in and out the tiny crawl holes, especially the hidden portal under the slide. I will hear them shrieking and laughing and then suddenly screams like someone is being stabbed to death. I come running into the room and at first glance can not find either toddler. Then I realize they are both wedged in and under the slide in the 2 foot by 2 foot by 1 foot crawl space. By the time I find them they are laughing and giggling again. We're learning the new sounds of "I'm hurt or need help." vs the "I've got myself in a position that is troublesome and I'm just letting everyone know that I'm angry about it." and both sound remarkably alike.




Can you spot my children in this chaotic mess??

There they are!











The majority of the 50+" of snow we had is gone on the right side of our street while the left side still has some left to melt.



Up high!!



The boys love to squeeze into tiny tight spaces whenever possible, so this old Little Tikes slide is perfect. Pardon my husband's singing.


How to give your toddler a workout; put socks on him and let him try to go up the slide.

Happy Birthday to Squeaker the Dragon!

You turn SIX today! We can't wait to celebrate with you!

Visceral Reaction

Visceral Reaction: characterized by or proceeding from instinct rather than intellect: a visceral reaction, characterized by or dealing with coarse or base emotions; earthy; crude: a visceral literary style.

Last night for dinner I made Gordon Fisherman brand popcorn popcorn shrimp for myself, and Tyson's brand popcorn chicken tenders for my hubby (who does not like shrimp though he's never eaten shrimp before). The boys were seated in their highchairs next to us and within two minutes of my placing my plate in front of me Cameron vomited. I am certain it was a visceral uncontrolled reaction to the smell of the shrimp which was a little bit fishy. This is the first time he's ever done something like this, but it falls in line with the symptoms of the condition of food neophobia, which my husband also has to a somewhat lesser extent. Cameron's was definitely not behavioral based, he clearly smelled and looked at the food, but did not need to work himself up to vomit, it just came out. So now we know, Cameron can not tolerate the smell of seafood, which is a shame, but maybe he will outgrow it in time. Evan had no issues with the sight or smell, but refused to eat.

Catastrophic Blizzard Damage

We had so much ice buildup in our gutters that last Thursday the gutters on the back of the house all fell down, fascia board, ice and all. The insurance company says this is falling under the category of Catastrophic Damage because there's a large number of people in the area experiencing this from the back to back monster blizzards we had at the beginning of this month. Hopefully we can find someone to come fix the damage soon. We are not the DIY kind of people for big projects like this. We learned our lesson when redoing one of our bathrooms that this is not an area that we excel in enough to take this task on. We also now have two toddlers who make us exhausted non-stop so the energy, drive, wherewithal and skill are just not available.

Can you see the worry going on in Chewie's head?


A small section of the block of ice that filled the gutters, about 25" wide and 6" deep.






Note the amount of snow on the barbecue grill with the gutter perched on top? That's catastrophic snow.


And because they're too cute, here's more pics of the boys from this weekend.




DJ Jazzy Evan playing the beats ya'll.


The world according to Evan: When you really love something, you must sit on it.


Cameron looking brainy.