Dental and Food Update on Yaya

Well we are in continued unbelief at how our Lord is taking care of our girl. I took her to the dentist last week, Pediatric & Adolescent Dentistry, and was floored at what happened. (P.S. LOVE this dentist! Highly Recommend!) Yaya let the hygienist pick her up and walk back to the tables, she wore a sticker on her shirt (Hello Kitty, of course), she lied down and opened her mouth and got her teeth cleaned, scraped and polished, she got to drink from the water pipette thingy, picked out a rainbow colored bouncey ball in lieu of a green one and then let the dentist count her teeth and put fluoride on them!!???? WHAT! JUST! HAPPENED??? WHO STOLE MY DAUGHTER?!  She was the life of the party and loved it there. But here is the big shocker…her teeth are perfect. Yep, not a single cavity. Look healthy, look great. Oh and she has all of her teeth, none are missing despite the cleft in her gum line. WHAT? ARE YOU KIDDING ME???? We have thought we were letting them just rot out of her face for the past year, ummm, nope; they’re good. The other big news was that her teeth line up okay in the back so she doesn’t have any chewing restrictions! She has a cross bite and all but the molars make good contact so there is no reason why she can’t chew anything she wants!! Woo Hoo! I was so on edge while there that I forgot to take pictures of her, I’m not sure she would have liked me doing that anyway. So we came home and she showed off her sticker, bouncey ball, and new Jake and the Neverland Pirates toothbrush and Eden instantly wanted an appointment, as did Noah. Good thing for Eden I made her an appointment for 2 days later (that is a separate post, with pictures, poor Yaya, no pictures.)

Today I taught Yaya how to eat a sandwich; to bite down, hang on and tear it off to the side. It was a peanut butter and Nutella sandwich mind you, but she hasn’t really ever bit down into a food item and eaten it bite by bite. She had a sandwich and a half! I only attempted this because two night before I tore off a bite off a roll from Logan’s Steakhouse and she loved it and ate half the roll, not to mention ALL of Eric’s huge sweet potato and about a quarter of the ice cream brownie we got later! I’m surprised she didn’t hoarf on everything, she ate so much. She loves fruity cheerioes and pancakes with syrup. She is starting to reject some of the canned fruit, since there are so many new flavors out there for her now, she is starting to show a preference. It sorta weird,  now that she is eating solid food she has stopped eating the healthy fruits and veggies and now just eats crap like the rest of us! Welcome to America! No really, we are trying to avoid feeding her garbage like breakfast food all the time, but we had to start with soft breads to get her to eat more solid type things. She is not a big fan of pasta but will eat it. She is a casserole kind of girl though. She still doesn’t like hard crunchy food but she is at least willing to try it now. Just yesterday she ate a goldfish cracker…didn’t like it; and a mini vanilla wafer cookie…also a no go. However, she did chew and swallow both. So she is becoming a little braver. We haven’t really worked in meats yet since that requires a pretty skilled chewer for that. But I hope to introduce some chicken in a couple weeks. She has eaten ground venison and turkey in things, but no chicken off a bone or in a horrible nugget yet. I’m afraid that once she figures out french fries it will become her new favorite, since she is quite fond of condiments. It still takes some creativity to feed her, but it really feels like a miracle was laid upon this house with regards to food.  Starting July 1st we begin potty training…prayers needed please!

The Wall

This is a follow up post to the farm day…we actually had to leave Dayspring Dairy after lunch to race to a birthday party for one of Noah’s school friends from Creative Montessori. It was a rock wall climbing part at a local sporting goods store. I wasn’t sure how this was gonna go over since Noah is not a fan of the climbing wall anywhere. It is sorta strange to Eric and I since Noah is freakishly strong and would be very good at this. Plus, Noah climbs way higher in trees without a harness on. Anyway. Noah did try the rock wall a couple times but never went higher than about 8 feet up and then he wanted to come back down. Again strange because they have a free climbing short wall that Noah was climbing while waiting…he went higher on that wall without a harness on. At any rate, apparently Noah mustered up some courage and gusto and actually pulled his way to the top of the wall, it’s a good two stories high. It isn’t a small wall. Eric and I were shocked! We were so proud! Lots of Atta 'boys and high fives to be had! After he conquered the wall once, then he did it like 4 more times, but he could now do it in record time. She scurried right on up that thing. When we left the party he was very proud of himself and said that he actually really enjoyed climbing and that he’d be interested in doing that  in the future.  There is a bigger facility in the city that specializes in rock wall climbing, First Avenue Rocks, that we are going to try out sometime in the future. So proud of my boy!

While the party was going on we had to entertain the girls in the sporting goods store for 2 hours…shockingly it wasn’t really that hard. Yaya took a liking to a silver body mannequin that was disturbing. Eden had to try on shoes. Both played in the tents and flipped around on some of the climbing wall mats and tired to “climb” a wall. The stairs were the most fun and watching the boys climb also entertained them. We all got cupcakes to take home and we called the day a huge success!

Blackberry and Banjo Pickin’ Down on the Farm

So this past weekend we went to visit our dear friends Greg and Ana Kelly, who by the way, own the first sheep dairy farm in Alabama, Dayspring Dairy. It is a gorgeous property and so much fun! We went to pick blackberries…well Eric and I were going to pick them but the girls were a little needy and I didn’t dress them correctly. They really needed long pants out on the farm, so we had to carry and hold them way out by the blackberry patch and by the time we got there the girls were whiney and hot. Sooooo, Noah picked them for us. We also got to pet several sheep, lambs and dogs. There were chickens to spy on and we got to leave with a dozen farm fresh eggs in a variety of colors! (They are delish, btw) We were able to sample a ricotta based berry ice cream, and several of their homemade cheeses that are soon to hit the market. Yummm.  Eden’s favorite part was playing with her friend Sofi, they played dress up in all of Sofi’s princess dresses and then did each other’s hair. They also harassed the boys a bit too. Noah’s favorite parts were the pillow fight with his friend Everett and then playing a Wii game with him that used the pad you had to jump on with your feet. Yaya’s favorite parts were the sheep, the giant dogs licking her in the face and the Banjo playing!

Greg and Ana’s neighbors are so amazing for several reasons…they are just so kind and gracious for starters. They have this incredible garden that would rival Botanical Gardens, it has taken years to cultivate and it has the most amazing details hidden all around the paths. They also have this old home that they call the Opry House that is over 200 years old and every Friday night they play bluegrass music there. There is a stage and rows of chairs and apparently anyone can show up and play. So one of the musicians agreed to play a little for the kids. The girls really liked it. Yaya was so intrigued by the banjo pickin’ and didn’t know how to react but when he would stop playing she would sign the word, “more.” She had never heard anything like this before and this girl really loves music. She looked so serious almost as if she didn’t like what she heard but she never wanted the music to stop. She bobbed up and down a little but mostly stared. Eden on the other hand…she loves to dance…so naturally she was breakin’ it down in the garden. Noah and Everett were in a gazebo thing close by and too cool to come out and listen, but Noah told me that he liked the music as well. All in all it was a fun day at the farm.

Ella Day!

So when our friend Ella comes to visit we are all a giggle around here. We put her picture on the calendar and count down the days until Yaya’s friend from China arrives. Today was especially fun because we had a mini-early-birthday celebration for Yaya complete with cupcakes, a gift and a balloon! Yaya’s gift was a birthday shirt that had a big green number 3, Hello Kitty, and Yaya’s name on it. When Yaya saw it she screamed, pointed and did a cute happy dance! I loved that she was so excited about it. It really is so cute. Eden was a bit jealous but we assured her that Ms. Julie would make Eden a “4”  shirt for her birthday. I have to say it was a really good visit for the girls. For the first time Yaya truly interacted with Ella a little. Yaya asked Ella if she wanted to see her room and then led her to it. Yaya also showed off way more than she normally does for people. I could tell Yaya was really excited that Ella had come. In fact, when Ella first arrived, as all the girls were meandering like lost cattle in the foyer, Yaya ran up to me signing the word, “friend”, excitedly. We finally herded the girls to the play room which is where Yaya showed off her spinning skills on Noah’s rings. Yaya played more than usual with Eden and Ella but she stayed with the adults more than anything…baby steps. It was great having Ella and her Mommy and Daddy here today, wish we could have spent more time with them. They are so great to always stop by our home when they are in town. They really blessed our home today! P.S. I love that their dresses spell, “Hee”!

Sensory Room Awesomeness…

Okay so I keep talking about this room that we get to play in after feeding therapy well here are more pictures:

Above is a sound sensitive arching rainbow. You talk into the speaker and it lights up forward and backward in an arch. It also moves to the music playing in the background which is always some jaunty little French or Italian music.

 

Above are the LED rope lights. The change color with the water bubble tubes featured below. Eden hid under them once and Yaya likes to put them frighteningly close to her eyes. The bottom two shots are from a different session…notice the different shirt.

Above Yaya is walking onto the water bed in the room. The girls LOVED playing on this!

Above and below are the famed bubble water tubes! There are only two but the mirrors behind them make it seem as if there are more. there is a button switch control that has 8 different colors the children can choose from…white, red, green, dark blue, orange, purple, yellow and my favorite turquoise. The LED ropes sync up with the tubes. You can see the box just past Eden in the photos below. The white looking egg in Eden’s hand slowly changes color on its own as well. Both girls had one and liked them very much.

Below are some shots of the psychedelic colors projected on the walls that spin and morph. As well as Yaya chillin’ in a bean bag chair with her glowing egg. 

This was at the end of our session when we started turning all the lights back on. You can see it is an all white room. The bench on the left is a vibration box. So the slightest music is felt when you sit on it or touch it. The wooden board is a tactile board it has stationary beads, chains and a mop to feel.

If the pictures leave you wanting more…I will bore you with a closing video…