Wings to Fly

James' respite attendant gave us information about a great therapy center nearby (http://www.wingstoflytherapy.com/).  With birthday money in hand we went to check out their open play hours in the sensory room.

James loved the ball pit, but he was a little bipolar about it.  One minute he was giggling, having a great time, and asking for "more" (we were covering him with balls), but then he would whine and want to stop.  It was an interesting couple of hours.

Time to stop for a bit.

Ready for more.

He really enjoyed the slide into the ball pit.  He did really well climbing the ladder stairs up.  He has a hard time bending his knees.  He really had to think about it so the climbing was a little slow.  But, he liked the slide so much that he would hold our hands and walk all the way to it.

Climbing.

One, two, three, "go!"

At first he hated the trampoline, but when James saw another boy jumping on the trampoline he giggled his head off and asked for more.  Erin (James' attendant) took him back on to bounce.  He was pretty bipolar there, too.  He really enjoyed sitting, facing her, and bouncing, but would tire quickly.

Done.

 Rita was pretty good the whole two hours.  She enjoyed watching.

There were other great things like a perch swing, "tent" swing, and lots of fun mats.  We didn't get to check out the other room because it was in use, but it was wonderful to have a James-friendly play area!

This was our last day with James' attendant, Erin.  We'll miss her!

With love.

Picking Peaches

We tried the peach orchard a second time and James did much better.  Either he was in a better mood or he felt more secure sitting in his stroller versus the wagon (or having Daddy there made a huge difference).  Poor Mark pushed that stroller up the big hill.  James thought Mommy climbing the trees was hilarious.

Picking zucchini

Taking care of those incoming teeth!

His favorite part - putting peaches in the bag.

Kissing the fruit.

We are hoping making food from start to finish (picking, preparing, eating) will inspire James to eat.  He was pretty grumpy the day we did our cooking project with the peaches we picked, but he tolerated it for a little while.  He likes to use the spoon to stir.

Love the apron his attendant, Erin, got for him.

He got upset pretty quickly.

NOT interested in the cobbler we made.

We hoped all sitting down together to try the cobbler would encourage him to try it.  We got really excited to try the food James made for us.  No go.  He still has serious aversions to solid foods.  His OT encourages him to kiss food to help his comfort with bringing foods to his mouth.  Even if he refuses to accept the spoon in his mouth, he will kiss it.  

Kissing the spoon.

As you can see, sometimes he will try the food, but usually spits it right back out.  But, it is wonderful that he at least lets it in and gets some of the taste.  I really think the ability to chew is there, he is just scared.

With love.

James and Jesus Had a Fight

Happy Feast of the Annunciation!  And happy birthday to Aunt Laura!

I always enjoy going to Mass during the week, but James wasn't in the best mood today.  I took him out of the pew to calm down and we sat near St. Louis Marie de Montfort.  James looked at him, said "hi", and gestured to hug the statue.  I let him lean in for a hug, but he had a last minute freak out and lunged for the crucifix St. Louis was holding.  He turned back to snuggle with me and Jesus' arm came with him.  Yikes!  I panicked, especially because the usher was sitting next to us.  Luckily, the arm was connected by a peg so it was easy to fix, but I was pretty embarrassed.  By the time we left the church, though, I was ready to laugh about it.  I let the office staff know in case Jesus' arm needed further help.  We'll have to work on James' relationship with Jesus.

With love.

Sick Toddler

James is pretty sick, but finally getting better.  Thought I would share a few cute pics.

James got a lollipop at the bank and knew just what to do with it.  I was impressed that he actually sucked on it, score one for putting food in his mouth.  We went to Wegmans immediately after the bank and he held on tight to that lollipop.  Eventually, though, it disappeared.  We couldn't find it anywhere and I felt bad, thinking someone would step on his half eaten lollipop.  Luckily, we found it:

It is hard to play on the floor because James only focuses on his parental jungle gyms.  :D

When James isn't sick and the kids actually get up around the same time I'll plop Rita in the crib with him.  They are really cute together now.  They really like lying side by side and looking at each other.

James and Rita hanging out at the World Equestrian Games Prep Trials.  Our animal-fearful James actually liked the horses.

And these were just too cute!

With love.

Standin' Time

We have been waiting for MONTHS for James' stander to be approved and delivered.  In the meantime we borrowed a stander from Early Intervention, but there weren't many activities he could do in the stander.  The stander didn't have a tray for activities so we had to resort to movies.  Of course, that was fun, especially considering Grandma Nona sent fun Disney Sing-a-longs for Christmas.  But, we wanted him to be in the stander as much as possible to strengthen his leg muscles and make him comfortable with the idea of standing the majority of the time.  Our physical therapist told us that typical standers have nice, large trays so that James can play with his toys while standing.  We started the process of getting our own back in January.

Well, we FINALLY GOT IT!  It is amazing!  James really enjoys using the tray to play.  It was a little hard to transition from watching movies in the stander to playing, but he is doing well.  He does think that the word "stand" means "movie", but if we distract him and find new, fun activities he has a great time.  He seems to do better with focusing on his activities now that they are at his level, not on the floor, and that he can't kick the tray over.

Not only is it much more fun, but his posture looks so much better.  The advancements of this stander versus the loaner helps keep his knees bent correctly and his feet flat on the ground.  James compensates for muscle weakness by locking his knees into place which means his muscles don't get a great work out, but in the new stander he doesn't have this problem!

He is getting so much stronger and having so much fun!  His new favorite stander activity is cooking!  I am so excited that we can do more food activities, that he is enjoying it, and trying new things.

With love.

It Happened One Night

Rita and James had a great time last night.  This cracked me up so much I had to share.  Sorry we don't have snapchat, Mom!

With love.

Chef James

SO much is going on, but here is a small snapshot of one part of James' life.

We have made very little progress with actual consumption of food, but we have been doing lots of food activities.  This covers a span of several months with the earliest videos first.

Mark made a garbanzo pancake cake for my birthday as I had strict sugar and grain restrictions to cure Rita's yeast infection.  We though James might like it, especially the coconut cream "icing."  Not so much.  At least he didn't throw it!

It is tradition in my family that the youngest child gets the pancake batter at our weekend pancake breakfasts.  We tried it with James and he liked it.  I think it was the spatula.  :D

James likes to visit Daddy at work.  He enjoys demanding a smell of our wine.  It is surprising that he wants to try it!  When we don't offer food or drink to him and just enjoy ourselves he shows greater interest.  Our life is not as picture perfect as the following picture looks.  We were waiting for daddy to finish work so we could go to a late Saturday Spanish Mass so that Daddy could get up to work a 12 hour shift at 5 the next morning. :D

In the hopes of associating fun with food we bought a watermelon to use as a ball.  Everything was going great until my brilliant idea backfired.  James was traumatized when we cut it.  But, we tried!  And it was good therapy.  Check out his muscles in the dishwasher picture!

We are visiting lots of farms and farmers markets to expose James to food (and so that we have awesome food to eat!).  A couple weeks ago we went to a farmers market and James enjoyed bagging the veggies and carrying around his basket of produce.  I wish I got a picture!


Now that James has his own stander (more on that to come) we can do new activities!  I hoped to get him interested in food by dubbing him my sous-chef, but the standing situation was difficult.  But yesterday James made ice cream!  And then ate it!  It wasn't extremely cold when we were done which may be why it didn't bother him.  The following picture progression cracks me up from his obvious displeasure that a spoon is being put in his face to his surprise on discovering that it actually tastes good!

With love.