Picture blitz

Random pictures, taken off the camera. Enjoy!
Eleri in her Pixie Dust sweater


Rowan being super goofy in orange tights and a viking hat.


Niall at the top of the slide


I told them, don't go yet! Don't make me eat shoes!


Eleri tried nutella (yes) avocado (no) gerber meat stick (no)


Niall is a wonderful big brother


Eleri in her Easter dress and shoes


Loki putting up with baby love


Loki disappeared and we found her later sleeping in Niall's bed with him

Because dressing him as a hippy would be a copout

It's Retro Day at Sterling Montessori, part of their "spirit week" activities. Rowan wanted to go as Elvis, but I didn't have anything that I could turn into a leisure suit. I did, however, have a pair of courderroy pants that were almost out at the knees. And Elvis was born in 1935... So, Rowan is wearing what little boys wore when Elvis was born.

I love it when a craft comes together.

And I had to take the opportunity to do this NOW, before he's too old to let his mom put him in kickerbockers. When he actually thinks my skills are cool. ;)

Because he asks me almost every single day

This is how much time there is left until a certain excited someone starts kindergarten.



Yes, he will be going to Sterling. He can't wait. 5 months is an eternity.

The Pixie had a weight check this morning. She's now 17lbs 11oz, up 10oz from 3 weeks ago. We're still waiting on hearing from the therapy people. I plan on calling them in the morning if I haven't heard back from them by tonight. It's easier to catch them in the morning. If I called now, I'd get voicemail and have to call back in the morning anyway.

I also stopped by the YMCA this morning and picked up a scholarship application. Joining the Y is not in our budget (when did it get so expensive to join the Y?) but if we can get a scholarship we might be able to swing it. I am a pro at filling out paperwork by now, so wish us luck in qualifying. The boys need swim lessons and I'm not patient enough to teach them when they just cling to me like little barnacles.

That's the news so far. We'll be digging up the yard pretty soon to try and fix the drainage issues. The floor is all done except for the trim and a couple of thresholds. John did a fantastic job.

Make up

I haven't been posting. Maybe this will make up for it.

Loki

It's hard to take pictures of the dog. Cameras make her nervous. What doesn't make her nervous? Food. Food does not make her nervous. But cameras... cameras and following and saying, "Loki! Loki! Good dog, Loki!" makes her very nervous. Which is funny.

Feeding therapy

So today we had the evalution with the feeding therapist for Eleri. I had to take in foods she likes, foods she doesn't like, her cup, her bottle, spoons, etc... plus a 3 day food diary so they could see what she's been doing here at home.
The feeding therapist said that it looks like we're trying to feed her all day long. Well, ya! We are. The ped had me so frazzled with trying to get weight on her I've been offering her food every 2 hours to try to get her to gain.
She also tried a few different things, and watched her behavior, and probably some things that I didn't know she was doing like watching the two of us together. So she thinks that Eleri would benefit from feeding therapy and she'll make the calls and file the paperwork to get the ball rolling with that. It should take about a week.
In the meantime, she had some things she wants us to try.

• Night wean her again, so that she wakes up hungry
• Stretch out the times between when we offer her foods, so she's going longer without eating/nursing.
• offer her things on forks and spoons, even if we usually wouldn't use them... like ball up a piece of cheese and put it on a spoon. Be silly with it. Pretend that it's our food and she can't have it, put the spoon on her leg, etc.
• No more putting food where she can get to it if she wants it. It goes in the high chair at set times and that's it.

She said that she wants us to try to increase the volume that Eleri will take at one time, and the way to do that is to space things out. I had been night weaning her before, but stopped when the weight issue cropped up because I figured she needed the calories. She wants me to go back to that because Eleri wasn't gaining, but she wasn't losing either, and now that she'll take the instant breakfast and flax seed oil, we need to try to get her eating in normal patterns.
She said that Eleri is the type who would happily nurse every two hours around the clock. Boy did she get that right! We're going to try to change that, and going to try to help her associate food with yummy and that nice feeling of a fully tummy.
So that's where we are for now. We'll be trying these tips while we wait for her to start regular feeding therapy.

While I was knitting

John was working his little booty off installing floors.
He only has a little bit more to do, and has done a fantastic job. I'm so happy!

The view from the kitchen. The planks against the fireplace are for that last bit of hallway.

The view from the front door.

The view from by the tv.

The view from by the corner by the purple couch.

Yes, it still needs baseboards, because apparently the ones the builders installed were made of styrofoam or something, because they snapped in half when we tried to take them off. But that will come. Look! No carpet! Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!