I Like to Eat

That's my girl!

Audrey loves to make a liar out of me. Anytime, I try to show someone a new thing she is doing, she doesn't do it. When I try to get her to say something, she doesn't. When I tell someone, a teacher, a therapist, a family member of concerns, she does something to change the concern. Audrey had a Barium Swallow study done in February and it came back that she had laryngeal penetration with some aspiration, we had a follow-up done in late June and it came back with similar results. So, we were advised to get her in for VitalStem Therapy and she needed it three times a week for six weeks. The VitalStem is supposed to build her laryngeal muscles and help her stop aspirating as well as help her get solids down her throat. Well, it has taken me since the end of June to work everything out with this therapy group called Therapy 2000. They are one of the only in-home therapy groups who are licensed to do VitalStem Therapy for children in our area. If we didn't have this group available, we'd have to go to the hospital. And, unfortunately that is not something I believe I could work out with my company. Anyway, so it has taken me several weeks to start this process and get our insurance company to approve these sessions... Tomorrow we have our initial evaluation with a speech therapist licensed in VitalStem Therapy. We shall see how it goes.

...but, guess why Audrey's making a liar out of me. She ate some pasta at her daycare yesterday - some non-pureed pasta. She's eating more and more puffed rice cereal, yogurt melts, graham crackers, you know... anything. Tonight, I ate some Mac 'N Cheese for din-din and gave her about 5 bites and she got them down no problem. She has been feeding herself more too.

Shawn gets a little freaked out when Audrey's messy like this :-)
He's a bit of a clean freak! Not me though, I say bring on the mess!

You know, I wonder if I said that she can't crawl then maybe she'll say to herself "Oh Whatever Mom, watch this..." and then she'll be all over the place.

Today, I left work early to take her to the pediatrician's office. Her right ear has been draining for a couple of days and the ear drops we've been using hasn't stopped it. I felt like she had an ear infection and if the drops hadn't stopped the fluid, I was thinking oral antibiotic should. Also, she's been pulling out her right hearing aid a lot too. She's a little stinker! At the doc's office, we were playing in the room just the two of us and she was having a great time. But, when Dr. Porter stepped into that office, she got really quiet and reach up for me very quickly. He attempted to check her lungs but she kept pushing the stethoscope away from her chest and then she pushed out that bottom lip as far as she could and started crying. She is really starting to get a little nervous around strangers. When we were leaving, she did say "bubye" to the nurse and receptionists. All three of them were really surprised to hear her repeat "bubye" - Proud Momma Moment for me!!

Audrey and her PT Lori - She is stretching her side muscles.

She's eating her braces - anything and everything goes into her mouth
right now because she is teething.

Yes, that is a Jonas Brothers t-shirt. No, Audrey is not a fan,
but my 7-year-old niece Madi is and she wore this shirt about 5 months ago.

You can't tell it, but Audrey is playing her new favorite game
which is to trick us into thinking she's about to fall backward and
then she catches herself... it's pretty funny!