Progress

Today is a bitter-sweet day for us here at the Foster home. This morning we have a meeting with some people from the Up to Three program at Utah State University to sign Bailey out of their program. For the past 10 months or so, an occupational therapist from the program has been coming out to work with our little gal. Let me back up a little. Most of the two people who read this blog already know this, but to re-cap, Bailey has had eating issues. She just wouldn't eat any solid foods. When it came time to introduce solids to her, she wouldn't do it. That's an understatement; she'd gag, heave, cry, choke, etc. She had a huge aversion to anything coming even close to her mouth. She would only nurse, which was becoming a problem as time went on because she was always hungry and wasn't getting all the nutrients she needed. She was anemic for quite a while and, of course, wouldn't take the iron supplement that was prescribed -- if I forced it in, she'd promptly vomit.
Thanks to a great doctor, we got connected with this fantastic program at the university. They came out, visited with us, observed, and tested her. She was right where she needed to be or above in every area, but eating. A theory is that Little Bailey spent so much of her first year sick, that it caused some sensory issues. She had so many respiratory problems and struggled to much to just breathe, Poor Baby. So, Amy, an occupational therapist, started coming and working with us. She is amazing! She gave us so much support and so many great ideas. We just adore her.
It's been a bit of a long road, but Bailey is now doing so amazingly well. It's kind of funny to look back now and realize how much I took for granted with my other kids. They just ate. They just drank. Sure, it was messy, they had picky days, but they did it. Bailey was 19 months old when she drank out of a cup for the first time. (It was a sacrament cup at church and on my birthday. Happy birthday to me!)
Fast forward to today. Bailey is eating like a champ. When compared to most kids her age, she's still got a little way to go, but she's doing awesome! She has met and exceeded all the goals we made for her with the Up to Three program, and she did so well in follow up evaluations, that today we are meeting to sign her out of the program. It's been so good and such a valuable support to us. We are so grateful for them and so thrilled that Bailey is doing so great, but we will sure miss our Amy. I guess our consolation is that we will still have the Mii that Rachel made of her on the Wii. :)


We went to Angies last month and the kids enjoyed a free ice cream cone with their meals.



The noteworthy thing here is that Bailey was actually eating ice cream. She's actually become quite the fan. For the longest time she wouldn't touch anything of that texture or anything cold. Yay, Bailey! Hooray for progress!

Out with the old...

I'm getting a real hankering for some spring cleaning. All I need is spring. Really, though, I have a ton of projects that I'm actually anxious to do. Okay, so not so much that I'm super-thrilled and dying to do the work, but I'm excited for the finished product. One of those projects is purging and cleaning the garage. That's where the spring thing comes in. I do need a little bit of warmth and dryness to unload that abomination and organize it.


In an effort to at least start de-cluttering, I made a deal with the kids. We have some big toys that are too big to live full time in the house. They mainly stay in the garage and we rotate them in and out. I told the kids that if we sell (or get rid of) several of the old big things, that we'd buy them one new thing to replace all of the old. After careful thought and deliberation, they chose a new play kitchen. Okay, really it was a very fast, very unanimous decision. They are very excited for a new kitchen - so excited that they were okay as we sold a number of their other old things.



We got this Little Tikes kitchen back when Matt was about 3. It's been a favorite of all the kids. It was almost a little sad to see it go, but hey, new kitchen. :)

So at about this same time, we all went shopping for real furniture. Steve and I bought some very inexpensive couches in our first year of marriage which have lived in our living room (not the garage) since then. After so many years, they have seen a lot of life and are looking (and feeling) not so new. They're not in horrible shape, but it was time for new ones. Thanks to tax return 2009, this is the year for new couches.



We were amusingly and pleasantly surprised that the kids enjoyed furniture shopping so much. Sweet Matthew was helping keep an eye on the girls while Steve and I deliberated. At one point, we turned and they were gone. (We weren't worried as we new that Matt was with the gals). We rounded the corner and this found them enjoying a little entertainment.







It's been a really fun month as we've anticipated new furniture and done a little refreshening of our living room. It's also been kind of nostalgic. It's amazing how many memories are tied to furniture. I mean, as we're preparing to get rid of the old couches (anyone know anybody who needs new old couches?), we've taken quite a few strolls down memory lane. These couches were some of the first "big" purchases we made as newlyweds. We brought home each of our new babies and took the very first pictures holding those sweet little bundles on this furniture. We've sat for hours talking, laughing, crying, scheming, watching movies, visiting with friends and family... It's been a good ride. Thanks, Old Green Plaid Couch and Loveseat, thanks.