Lots of firsts!

So this week has been full of ups and downs. Thankfully, not in any dramatic way but still it is frustrating and depressing.

Today was sooo much better!!

I dropped Cade and Gracie off at summer school, which in case you think I'm a super mean moma is only 2 days a week and only 8 classes in all! They both make good grades but they don't like to do the work and summer break only makes that worse!! Anna thinks I'm the meanest ever since I make them go!! She always loved to read and didn't mind sitting for homework so I never sent her! And technically it is called Bridging Academy so they do work from this past school year and some from the next year! Now that that is out of the way here is what happened today! lol

We dropped them off and headed to Target. In my defense, there isn't much open at 9am! Once there I remembered that I'd forgotten ibuprofen for me (I had a headache) and some for Asa (he seemed to act better after a dose yesterday...I know I'm grasping at straws to find a reason for his grouchies!). We bought these things and dosed us both up and were about ready to head to PT when my phone rang. Asa's PT had to go home sick so we didn't need to be at the therapy center until 11:30. So we headed to the little deli at Target.

At this point it is close to 9:30am and Asa still won't take his Pedisure from the straw cup. Anna got an icie and I had a sugar cookie! Nice breakfast, right! I "helped" Asa take a bite of cookie and he was hooked! He had several pinches and that spurred him to drink the Pedisure! Well, half of it at least! I could live with him eating a few pinches of cookie and 1/2 cup of Pedisure for breakfast!!

Fast forward to 11am and since Asa wasn't so gung ho for breakfast I gave him a dose of Reglan trying to get him primed for feeding therapy! We get to therapy at 11:30 and he was ready for the second helping of his breakfast Pedisure! His therapist had a Gerber graduates meal ready for him to try! Like chunky vegs and chicken with green beans and everything. New tastes and textures! I was excited but Asa was watching that plate!!! First I "helped" him try a bite of a Gerber yogurt bite. He even let Mrs. Jill put one in later. By the end, he put two bites in on his own!!! So that is one huge NEW event!!

But back to the plate! Jill mushed it up good so it was blended and soft. To start things off she gave him a green bean on his tray! HA! Of course he didn't self feed that but he didn't gag when he touched it either! She even put a piece in his mouth. He made a face and rolled it around for a while...until part of it fell out and the other part came out when he sneezed! :) Then I "helped" him take 2 bites of the chicken and veg. blend. He didn't gag but he wasn't too impressed either! Not long ago he would have been gagging so badly!! On the third bite he did gag and gag but didn't get sick! Again, this is progress!! So 3 bites of the Gerber graduates!!! Such a huge thing for Asa!!!

Then tonight Asa was in his highchair while we got supper ready and he was playing with a package of cheese crackers with peanut butter. Barry opened it up and gave him one. He played for a while and then without any prompting, he put it in his mouth!!! He ended up sucking or licking off a few pieces!! He never crunched the cracker but he sure did enjoy licking all over it!! He actually played with 2 crackers and had at least 2 bites in his mouth, not to mention the little pieces that he got down. WOW!!

But wait, there's more! We had taco salad for supper and I had bought an avocado. I'm the only one who likes them so I don't usually buy them but I had one so I chopped some up on my salad. I let the kids try some, they hated it...unless you count the bite Cade tried and claimed to LOVE so the girls would eat it, then they all said it tasted like grass!? Anyway, there was a little left and since it is a high calorie, good fat source I used my little chopper to blend Asa some up! My plan was to save it for tomorrow but seeing how happy he was made me want to try it tonight so he could cry, fight, gag and puke before bed! Fun right!! He opened right up since he was still gumming on the cracker. I put the first bite in and waited for the gag and fuss! Instead I got a happy, open mouth ready for more!!! Seriously!! He liked it!! He ate all 2oz that I have blended!!! Who'd thunk it!

Soooo to recap... Asa self fed a new food (yogurt bites), had 3 bites of very textured food (Gerber graduate meal), initiated and self feed another new food (cheese cracker) and tried a new blended food (avocado)!!! Plus his 3 bottles of Pedisure for the day!! This from a kid who was sooo resistant and ill yesterday!!! I'm soooo excited!!! See all the exclamation points and lots of oooo's on this post!

Ahhh, I go to bed even more thankful than other nights. It just makes my heart happy to have one of these little progressions in skills, much less all of them! As I gave Asa a bath tonight I cleaned around the Mickey button (feeding tube) and was so thankful to have that little thing sticking out there! How much we relied on it in the last 18 months. How thankful I am that we haven't used it in 2 1/2 weeks. I don't think it is going anywhere soon, we haven't seen what happens when Asa is sick and his motility grids to a halt again, but I don't mind it hanging around and cleaning once in a while! You just never know where you'll find a blessing! In a feeding tube, in a yogurt bite, a cheese cracker or in an avocado!


Oh and speaking of random blessings...Anna and I stopped for lunch and ran into a person I've come to call friend who is such a great support and lifts me up so often by her kind words! We ended up sitting together and talking until we had to go get the kids from Bridging Academy...yep, she is proud member of the mean parent group!! :) Thanks for the chat at lunch Marsha!!! We should make it a regular thing!!