August 16, 2008

Back to baking...

I had some baking to catch up on this evening so I made Amish Friendship banana and blueberry breads. I also made homemade salsa with the tomatoes and green peppers from my garden :o) mmmmm, good stuff.
Things are going great! "A2" is a little lower functioning than we had thought but she's just a honey and is so cute and sweet. She loves to be held and to give hugs. They had said that she used sippy cups but I can't get her to touch one so we are back to bottles for a bit until we can get her back on them. She doesn't finger feed so she has to be spoon fed but we'll work on that also. They had said that she was 45 lbs but I knew the first time I held her that she wasn't because "P" is 45 lbs and "J" is 35 lbs. I finally weighed her and she's only 35 lbs! She's very thin but so is her little brother and he's well fed. I think it's because they don't stop moving and burn a lot of calories. We'll do our best to fatten her up but I'm friends with her brother's adoptive Mom and it sounds like it's a lost cause, lol.
The kids are really loving her and so are we. She's already becoming a Daddy's girl. She doesn't have very good vision but when she hears Daddy's voice she'll go right to him with a big smile on her face. She's sleeping well and seems to enjoy her bed. She didn't have a lot of floor time or toys at her foster home so it's different for her to not be in her wheelchair all the time. We don't use the chairs in our house so she's been scooting around on her butt and exploring everything. She's finally figuring out what to do with the toys :o)
It's so shocking to see "P" with her because she knows that she's a special needs person too. She'll go to her and give her a toy or hold a book for her. "A2" will try to crawl on "P" and she'll just sit there and look at me like "what the heck"? It's funny seeing "P" being the "big" sister and being the higher functioning one. I think I have another Mother Hen on my hands, lol.

4 comments:

  1. I love hearing about how "P" is mothering "A2" that is just sweet as can be! If you fatten A2 up any, boy I'd like to know your secret!!!! lol! Truly! I would love for Joshua to get some more fat on him, his PT says it would really help him to be more stable to walk. I try and nothing has worked yet. I am thinking of trying him on phase one of the feingold program. I was reading about it after following your link, and I really think it would be worth a try to see if it helped any of his bowel problems that I haven't figured out yet. Guess what? The bottle sippy cup trick you told me about is working with Joshua!! Thank you Wise One. ;-) I think after a few days he'll not need to start with the bottle. I was so excited! Keep loving those babies. I miss you guys!

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  2. How could the foster parents have been so off about her? Was it just because they had so many kids and couldn't keep track of all the stuff on each of them? While it's great that A2 and her brother have happy, healthy homes now, I wonder greatly as to how they (and any child for that matter) ended up in foster care.
    It's great that P is getting the chance to be the "bigger" sister here; I predict that you will see changes in her soon because teaching someone else how to do something is the best way to learn it yourself.
    You now have a kid the size of F! F is like 38 lbs and 7, so believe me, I know all about trying to fatten up one of those kids (and you know all of the struggles we've been through to get to the bottom of this one). I think you are absolutely right about the "not staying still long enough to hold onto calories" theory. That's the way F is. You've seen her; no stopping! Good luck and if you come up with the "fattening secret" let me in on it!
    While I appreciate why A2 may have been in a wheelchair a lot in her foster home, I think it's fabulous that you have the ability to let her free range...LOL. It makes me sad to see kids like P and A2 treated like a "wheelchair unit"--all kids, no matter what their abilities should have the experience of free ranging in a safe environment.
    On that note: There was a young man (probably in his late teens or early adulthood, I'm bad with guessing ages of adults...LOL) with his mother at the local grocery store who had Angel traits and his mother had him following her, always nearby but allowing him the right to look at things and smile at people and "free range". It made me smile and feel good (and I'm sure she thought I was an idiot too, because I was grinning from ear to ear at his enjoyment of the grocery store). While I am probably the furthest thing from an expert on this topic, not having a child with Angelman's, I just can't help but have the conviction that inclusion in all aspects of life is critical. I've never understood the thinking that children or adults with special needs "need" to be kept separate from the rest of the world. Ridiculous. I'm learning all kinds of ways that inclusion works out from you and from Emilie's blog. But that's just my $1.50.
    Have a wonderful weekend and congratulations again on your wonderful new girl!

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  3. That's so awesome that it's working for Joshua! It sure worked for "P". I'll have to try again with "A2" one day soon and see if it works to get her off the bottle and onto cups again. Wish me luck!

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  4. I'm so glad to know you made it home safely and that you're in love and that things are going great. What a sweetie!! And another Mother Hen on your hands? That's actually pretty cute!

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