Therapy Update

Tyler is making good progress with his OT for his feeding difficulties.

On Sunday, Brian shared some bacon off of his hamburger. When we were out of bacon, I offered Tyler little pieces of hamburger and he ate several pieces. He then reached for my french fry, so I gave him a small piece. He chewed it up and ate it!! He asked for more, and he put another piece in his mouth, but he didn't like it. He made a face and pulled it back out of his mouth. But he put it on his tray and didn't throw it in the floor!

Yesterday, when we were playing with peas, he smooshed with with a great flair. Then I said, "Can you hold it in your hand?" When we first started this a week or so ago, I had to hold his hand and put a pea in his hand. He hated it and shook the pea out of his hand as soon as he could. Yesterday, he picked up a pea with his right hand. He stared at his left hand and turned it palm up. He put the pea in his palm and looked at me, grinning.

Today at therapy, Tyler ate two small pieces of apple. He also ate teeny tiny pieces of egg and pea off his fingers and he stuck a Jell-O-covered finger in his mouth. He had Jell-O all over himself, his therapist, me and the wall. It would've been hard not to get some Jell-O in his mouth!

New Words

Tyler tries so hard to repeat words these days. Most are completely unrecognizable.

My favorite so far is "squirrel." He puts all his heart (and a lot of slobber) into it.

He is doing really well with the names of his favorite people. But he won't say "Mama." I guess I'm not on his list of favorites, huh?

GI Update

The GI specialist agrees with the radiologist that Tyler's Upper GI X-rays look normal.

We've now scheduled the OPMS for March 31. This is where they take a video X-ray while Tyler swallows different textures so they can tell where he's having the problem.

Please keep him in your prayers!

Upper GI X-rays

Well, I didn't sleep at all last night.

In part, I was worried about taking Tyler for his X-rays this morning.

Tyler didn't sleep much either. I'm not sure if he was worried about the X-rays or if it is that pesky fourth molar trying to push its way in.

The morning went much better than I expected. We had a very brief wait before being taken to a room with X-ray machines. Tyler was behaving very well despite being hungry and thirsty.

He looked so cute (but pitiful) in the teeny-tiny hospital gown.

He seemed to like the technician who fed him barium so the X-rays would clearly show his esophagus... at least he liked her before she held him down and made him drink that stuff.

He went to her willingly, although I think he had second thoughts when she laid him on the metal table.

Anyway, there were lead blankets under his head and his legs. The radiation comes up through the table and they were limiting his exposure as much as possible. The technician he liked held his head still and fed him the barium solution. Another person held his legs still. The radiologist watched the skeletal-looking image of Tyler's little body on a computer screen. Brian and I were behind her, so we could see the screen, too.

When he swallowed the barium, we could see a little cloud of black run down his throat and into his stomach.

Of course, he cried and cried. But it was fussing and not all-out panic, and he didn't get so upset that he threw up.

When they let him sit up and turned the lights on, we realized his little face was covered with the white barium solution. That was when he looked the most pitiful: little hospital gown, little red & tear-soaked face covered with white chalky stuff. And he was just so tiny in that large room next to the huge X-ray equipment.

We gave him some Pediasure to drink and he calmed right down. And that was that.

The radiologist said she didn't see anything wrong as she took the X-rays. She'll study them closer and forward them to our GI doctor. He should call us tomorrow or Friday and let us know if they see anything upon closer examination.

Owww-a-nenO!

Owww-a-nenO!

Translation: Now I'm Venom.

Explanation: Tyler's Paw-Paw (one of his great-grandfathers) gave him a Spiderman riding toy that has all kinds of buttons. Each button has a different sound. The horn honks. Other buttons bring about lines from various Spiderman characters.

One button elicits this very evil voice that says, "I used to be Eddie Brock. Now I'm Venom."

And Tyler grins and tries to repeat the last half of the line.

Why can't he try to say, "I'm your friendly neighborhood Spiderman, and this city is under my protection"?

Or "Mama"? Can you believe he's trying to say "venom" before he tries to say "mama"?!

More Snow Pictures!

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Originally uploaded by Tyler L.

We got real snow this weekend! Click here to check out our pictures.

I was such a great mama: I called my mama to find out how to make snow ice cream. Early in the day, I mixed 1 cup of half & half, 1 cup of sugar and 1 tablespoon of vanilla. I heated it on the stove just long enough to melt the sugar and then I put that in the fridge. I put out three pans to collect clean snow. Later in the day, we mixed it all together. What a great mama, right?

Tyler refused to try it and Brian didn't like it.

But that is okay. I loved it!

And we all had a great day, playing together inside and outside in the snow.

The Other Benefits of Therapy

When we went to Tyler's first OT appointment, Stephanie (the therapist) taught Tyler to squish peas with his finger. And then we played with pieces of an apple.

Tyler doesn't like anything that squishes or sticks to his hand. So he doesn't really like peas. At the time, he didn't like apples either. I assume he doesn't like the wet cold feeling.

At his second appointment, he played very well with the apple. And when Stephanie asked him to "Kiss the apple," he obligingly made little kissing noises by smacking his tongue against the top of his mouth but he didn't put the apple anywhere near his mouth.

A little embarrassed, I explained that he once mimicked me when I made kissing noises at him.

Brian and I loved that he would sort of blow us kisses, so we went with it. We taught him that was a "kiss."

"Can I have kisses?" I'd ask. "Give Daddy kisses," I'd say. He'd grin and *smack, smack, smack* at us.

Well as soon as we got home from therapy, I started teaching Tyler to give a "real kiss." I would kiss his toy and say "real kiss." And then I'd say, "Tyler's turn! Give it a real kiss." And I'd push the toy to his mouth.

When Brian got home that night, he got a real (slobbery) kiss on his cheek.

This evening, when we were playing with peas (our OT homework), I was teaching Tyler to brush off the "pea crumbs" that stuck to his hand. He still felt some imaginary evil pea juice on his finger and he held it out for me to clean it off.

I just kissed his finger and then put my finger to his lips for a kiss.

He held out his finger again, and I puckered up again and leaned forward.

Instead of pressing his finger to my lips, he put a chubby little hand on each side of my face and pulled me forward. He leaned as far forward as the high chair tray would allow and he pressed his sweet little open mouth against my lips.

It was the best kiss ever, except that I got a little pea juice in my ear!