My Facebook

Claire has her own "Facebook." I don't know where she comes up with this stuff. If she asks what I'm doing or reading on the computer sometimes I'll say Facebook, so this is what she came up with. Watch the video here:

Feeding Mr. Bear

Man. If looks could kill. Click on this one to make it full size. I think she was mad about her chocolate milk being all gone. I do want to say that Claire loves her share of sweet junky and carby foods, too. One of her favorites is Spaghettios. Yes. She calls them Gobi-Os or Gobi Circles. She can't say spaghetti. If I have her repeat it, she will say spa-gobi.
This is what happens if I ask her to say "Cheese." She gets this huge goofy grin on her face and squints her eyes shut.

Notice what she is doing? She is feeding her bear bowl. The bowl is shaped like a bear, with the belly being the bowl part. I've since only been feeding her semi-solid food like her thicker oatmeal in this bowl, or it drips all over the table. She loves this bowl! Holly got it for her, and I do believe that Holly only paid about .75 cents for it!

Yummy Cheerios!

Claire LOVES Cheerios. I've tried her on the TJ brand but they are harder for her to chew. She can eat an entire little bowl of these for breakfast. She can't say the K in "milk" so she calls it "milp." If I just give them to her plain, she will ask for some milp.
She also has a preference for grown-up spoons vs. baby spoons. Man, all that stuff you think you "need" when you have a baby.

Alex and Amanda's Rehersal Dinner

Last weekend we attended Alex and Amanda's wedding. Josh was in the wedding party, so we attended the rehearsal and dinner afterwards. Claire was great all evening. My little secret if she gets fussy: pop her on the boob! And ta-da...she either falls asleep or is all better! The dinner didn't even start until 8pm, but she stayed bright-eyed and bushy-tailed for the festivities. She chowed on the Minestrone Soup, Spaghetti, and the Spumoni ice cream as well and enjoyed all of them! The rehearsal dinner was at the Old Spaghetti Factory in downtown Indy. http://www.osf.com/ If you've never been to one, you must find one in your area if you like Italian food. YUMMY!

Claire insists on wearing hats sometimes lately, so I try to find one that matches her outfit ok! Most of her hats are so outfit-specific, that they can look terrible with other ones. It's harder to eat out now as she wants to get down and walk around. She can get out of the restaurant-style buckles and stand up in the highchair, as well. Fun times!

Alex and Amanda! What a cute couple! Aww!

We told Claire to look up at the camera. She listens a little too well sometimes.

Oh well...her eyes are shut..Josh and I both look good here, though! :)

The rest of the Video Party

I uploaded too soon...oops! Ok, in this video Claire says "Boo!" for Peek-a-Boo and "Shoe"--and she calls socks and shoes both shoes. In the video below you can hear her quack (been quacking forever it seems like!) as well as neigh like a horse and the newest which is snorting like a pig which is also a little hard to hear, but watch how she sort of wrinkles her face up. She is also squeaking like a mouse and mewing like a kitten. She loves the animals so much!






Here she is in her jumper! She still loves it, although I'm afraid she's going to break it because she jumps so violently! It's funny because sometimes she will put her dolls in there or her swing and say "Whee!" as she moves them appropriately.



Here is Claire enjoying an Ice Cream Cone. YUMMY! She loves ice cream more than life itself! :) She also likes these Pedialyte Ice Pop things, which I'm sure are full of sugar and fake dye so I probably won't buy them again. One of my New Year's Goals was to buy more and more organic stuff as much as possible. It is hard though as stuff is not widely available.



Ok, I know I post a lot of footage of her in the highchair, but it's easy to film as she's not trying to climb on me, grab the camera, or poke at the light or lens. :) Plus she is distracted by the food. I can't even keep track of all the stuff she's saying anymore. Her language button basically clicked on when she started liking food around Christmas.


We tried the booster seat for a few days, but put it in the spare room, as the mess was a lot harder to clean up when it was caked all over the table. It's much easier to wash a high chair tray. Plus, she was pushing against the table and moving herself away to get down...resulting in a big mess of course.

So my stitches are so itchy right now that I want to rip them out with a pencil and then scratch them with some sandpaper. Ahh...just thinking about that makes me feel some relief! The doctor's office called. I don't have skin cancer from the mole biopsy...but the best part? No more moles on my shoulder. Yay. I know you really wanted to see pictures of my stitches too the other day. Ha!

What I already knew!

Well, Claire qualified for the First Steps program. She doesn't pull the food off the spoon with her lips like she should. She doesn't chew/munch food yet. She can bite food like a cracker, but won't mash it around in her mouth yet. She lets it sit in there until it is wet enough to swallow, then finally eats it. She also will put a lot of food in her mouth like Cheerios, but then will push them back out with her tongue vs. swallowing them. So our next meeting with them is in a couple weeks. She also will not move the food around with her tongue like she should be doing at this age. The 2 evaluators did not think she would qualify because her speech and social skills are so advanced. They basically played for awhile. They brought a shape sorter, a puzzle, blocks for stacking, etc. She just barely qualified. So any therapy we do is up to us. We can quit any time we want, but if there is some sort of program out there to help her eat better...why the heck not take advantage of it!!! I am going to continue to offer her stuff 3-4 times a day, but I'm really looking forward to some advice/tips from them. They again said, she'll probably grow out of it, some kids just start eating at different rates, but I'm ready for her to start eating a little more regularly than she does!

First Steps

So I haven't posted about half of everything that's been going on lately. I never thought my life was interesting until I started blogging! So First Steps will be coming on Friday to do a free evaluation on Claire's eating/swallowing. https://www.infirststeps.com/matrix/default.asp I think that they are going to test her for everything though, developmentally. It will be interesting to see what they do to evaluate a child...lots of playing, I'm sure...

They already came for an appointment last week to do all the paperwork, get the insurance info, etc. Claire has also been sleeping poorly lately, waking up A LOT, but I think that tonight she will be going back to normal. She has slept since I put her down about 8 and hasn't woken up since....knock on wood! But how can I not feed her all night when some days I'm lucky to get 2 ounces of yogurt or a couple crackers in her!

The JOYS of a Messy Baby

I thought I would entertain you, dear blog readers:

Claire is getting good at eating with a spoon when she is interested in eating!

Claire loves ice cream! Seriously, though...who doesn't...I have yet to meet anyone who doesn't...

Pulling my Hair Out

Ok. So here is Claire after eating some spaghetti. She is not happy. Neither am I.

This is actually how about 90% of our meals end. She cries, screams, and is just generally unhappy.

I am pulling my hair out. Today I went to see the "darling" of the ped practice we go to. I liked him much better. I realized why. Instead of playing peek-a-boo and being all cutesey-wootsey like the regular ped (female) doctor we see, he actually was professional. He answered my questions and had EXCELLENT communication skills. Poor guy had to kind of clean up the mess the other doctor left. I basically went in not too happy.

I don't think putting Claire on cow's milk and pediasure (aka: basically sugary formula for older babies) will help her learn to eat better. Last night she choked badly on a soft spaghetti noodle. It's whole wheat spaghetti, but it's well-cooked and wasn't that long. Anyway, I asked why they weren't using separate charts. He was open to plotting her growth on the chart I brought in from WHO and was going to look into it more. When he showed me her chart again, I noticed that on the right-hand side that all these different types of formulas were advertised. I actually said "That disgusts me," and pointed to the names.

He was kind of shocked, as was I. I can't believe I said that. But I'm glad I did. LOL! He explained that these were not the "1977" charts but updated ones. I said, "Well, given all those ads on the side, it's hard not to say they are formula charts." I think I was making him squirm. Since I was already on a roll, I had the audacity to say, "Isn't that a direct violation of the WHO code?" (See my post about that.) He said it might be if he were to give me that paper to take home, but the chart is just for them to keep and use as a record. So THEN I said, "OH, so it's just subliminal messaging." Yup, I was on a roll. Then I said, "I see Pediasure is listed at the bottom of the formulas, so it's basically formula?" He said he was fine with me not using Pediasure or cow's milk, and agreed that it won't help her to eat more solids.

Today we had an off day. I honestly don't think she ate more than the 1 bite of yogurt I forced in her mouth this morning. She throws so much food, it's ridiculous. I used to think Kate from Jon and Kate Plus 8 was insane for mopping three times a day. Now I know why. Messy children. I am mopping three times a day. It's not like I do the whole floor, just the big chunks of food, etc. It seriously takes an hour from start to finish. And it's not like I get the highchair spotless. I just want the major food stuffs gone. ARGH! I just don't want our carpet to get all stained and gross. I also have forgotten to wipe down the highchair and let me tell you...food grows mold seemingly overnight. ESPECIALLY cottage cheese. We are talking BLACK by the next morning. Yucky!

So anyway, back to the appointment...he basically had ACTUALLY read the chart! Kudos to him. I actually think some people have a better memory than others, and clearly he does! He referred to some of the other things in the chart. (Still gagging on Cheerios at 12 months.) So he asked how her choking was this week. Well she's choked 3 times this week. And I don't mean gagging. I mean choking. Red face. Can't breath. Spits up. Cries. Screams. Wants out of her highchair and to be done for that meal.

So I am considering looking into his advice more about getting some intervention of a speech-therapist or something to come and work with her. I'm not ready to be done nursing, and she definitely isn't either. But I am ready to be done nursing every 2 hours around the clock. I REALLY think she'd sleep better if she managed to eat a good solid dinner.

It's like she has to be in the perfect mood for eating. Not too hungry or full...not too tired or too awake/wanting to run around...and then the food has to be just right. And the banana she eagerly ate the past 4 mornings, might just find itself flung across the room, sliding down the glass on our back door.

I'm not too keen on the whole intervention thing, but really...what else can I be doing at this point?

Welcome to the World of Junk Food!

Claire enjoyed her first Reese Cup! She ate the whole thing. Yummy!

Of course she still had to break it up and play with it, too! It's part of the experience!

See, we do feed our baby. I promise I really do. :)

Our Little Devil

Claire loves to brush her hair. She has also figured out how to stand on her tiptoes and sneak my brush off of the bathroom counter. This is bad. That means she can reach anything that is close to the edges. She is too tall!

Claire loves to throw things. I wonder when this stage will stop being fun. She usually starts throwing the food on the ground before I have even finished putting it in front of her. I am not sure how much of it she eats.

Claire also loves to put things on her head, like buckets, containers, hats, washcloths, or just random clothes she can get her hands on. So I saw this headband and thought it would be funny for Halloween! It's really soft, and she likes to take it off and on.

Peanut Butter Breath

Claire LOVES peanut butter. She will pick it off of whatever I put it on, though and just eat it!

And this is how she gets peanut butter smeared all over her little face! YUMMY!

Here, you want some? It's so good! I save some just for you!

And walking update: She can walk! Today she has taken several series of over a dozen steps!!! She's got this walking thing figured out! She did this with crawling too...nothing, then ZOOM!