*Stretches arms out* - this much, people!
During the school holidays we were about 50% less stressed as I didn’t have to hurl Pearl out the door in time to get to kindy two days a week. Also, she was not rat-tired for the two days following. See how that frees up several days? Brilliant!
Because we were under so much less time pressure we could concentrate developing daily life. And both Pearl and Ruby leapt ahead in multiple areas.
Pearl – finally showing signs of being completely toilet trained during the day. It’s only been since July last year so the prospect is an exciting one. She has earned multiple My Little Ponies with her sticker chart for poos. She is actually disappointed if she misses an opportunity to get a sticker.
Also, I have put in *massive* work on expanding the repertoire of foods she will eat and she has made progress. Ham if cut into the shape of teddy bears! Lettuce if arranged as the antennae of butterfly cheese sandwiches! Cucumber if arranged as a salad person! Beet if boiled, pureed, and put into pink pancakes! Melon if placed in a milk shake!
I am worried that we may revert in this area as planning the meals is time consuming and creating the little masterpieces even more so. Do you know how hard it is to cut out a butterfly sandwich in artinisal bread? Being a parent is tricky.
(BTW: If you are rolling your eyes and thinking that I should just make her eat it, I would point out that it is impossible to ‘make’ someone else eat. Or sleep. All you can do is entice them and provide a routine and circumstances likely to encourage them.)
( Read more... ) Ruby – all she needed was her new orthotics to become super Ruby, able to stand unassisted (for at least a second), able to get into bear walking position (though not to move forward), able to climb like a young mountain goat, able to pull herself up independently, and all while being very proud of herself!
I think the right one may be slightly uncomfortable because she often pulls that one off and scoots around with just one shoe on. Otherwise, brilliant!
Also, the community nurse measures her as 76cm, a massive improvement over the 67cm the paediatrician recorded. I suspect one of the two has transposed the digits, because I am pretty sure she hasn’t grown 9cm in 7 weeks. Hoping it’s the lower measurement that is wrong. If she is 76cm tall she is only slightly below the bottom 3rd percentile. If it is 67cm she is way below, hence the whole wanting her to go on growth hormones.
My efforts to encourage Ruby to eat more have not really been successful but she has had a cold pretty continuously for the last two months so perhaps she is just not up for it. I have sneaked some extra fat into her diet by mixing full fat dried milk into her full fat milk (double milk! Like double cream!). Also, I have been giving her snacks of chips – probably the oddest thing a dietician has ever recommended. Now I think about it, doubly odd given that hypertension is associated with NF1.
The only area with no progress at all has been weaning Ruby. The dietician wants her weaned so she will eat more meat and fat in the day. But. First Ruby had a cold, then I had a cold, then it was Swancon, then I tried for two nights which lead Ruby to being awake for four hour periods over the night, then she had a cold, now I have a cold.
When I am better I suppose I will have to try again but frankly I see little prospect of success.
( Read more... ) However, I did use the holidays to improve some other areas of my life. Check out the back yard.
( Read more... )Note how I hacked out the brush and ten years worth of dead leaves. And then put down brickie’s sand and concrete slabs and moved the sand pit up there. What you can’t see is that I also assembled a cheap cubby house. Way to go me with the hitherto undiscovered DIY talent. There must be at least twice as much useable (playable in) space in the back yard now.
In short, we have all loved the school holidays which gave us time to do the important things in life (eating, toileting, walking and playing).