Weekend Update

This week has been a pretty slow week in the world of Sweet Pea, but her mommy and daddy have been keeping all too busy.  It's a shock having both of us working again!  Don't get me wrong, I am very happy, but it is definitely more complicated and there certainly aren't enough hours in the days.  We do the best we can and we thank Grandma for helping out so much!

Here is a video of Sweet Pea babbling...she doesn't have an indoor voice at all!  There are some times that she sounds like Donald Duck...or maybe Daffy Duck?  We are hoping that the ear tubes will only help with progressing her speech skills.



Here is a video of Sweet Pea showing off that she can now eat puffs...little pieces of food that dissolve faster than cheerios would in case she tries to swallow them whole.  I'll be honest...this was by far the best she has ever done it and it was our first and only attempt at catching it on video so I'm glad it worked out so well.  She does enjoy these and we give them to her after dinner while we are still trying to finish our meals.  It helps her work on her fine motor skills and keep her occupied so mommy and daddy can actually get a little food in themselves too.  Oh, and maybe it will allow us time to practice that thing the doctors call chewing...(see last post) since we don't do a ton of that here.



Mommy went to a meeting of our local DS support group and heard a lawyer speak that is a client rights advocate at one of the local Regional Centers (they provide all our early intervention services).  It was good information that hopefully we will never need to utilize on what to do if we need to appeal a decision about Sweet Pea's services.  Basically, if she is ever denied services that we believe she needs, this might be what we have to do to fight for her.  We have had great luck with our Regional Center so far (knock on wood) and we hope that it doesn't change, but it is good to be prepared just in case.  It's also nice to see some of the other parents as they have been an unbelievable source of strength for us.

Mommy was also lucky enough to go out with a really good friend and have a great talk.  Even though we live close together, we don't get the chance to get together very often.  I've missed her and it was wonderful to spend a few hours with her.

This morning we took Sweet Pea to see an optometrist who specializes in vision therapy.  I'll try to write more about what we have learned about this type of therapy in another post soon.  The doctor is going to mail us some information on things we can do with Sweet Pea now to help her dancing and lazy eyes.  Eventually we will probably start doing regular therapy with him, but for now we will just see him every 6 months and do some things at home to help while she is still really young.  He mentioned that crawling is so good for her and to not force walking earlier than necessary.  We had already heard about the benefits of crawling from many different therapists for how many muscles it involves, but his point was slightly different in that it helps integrate the two sides of the brain because you are using both sides of the body in coordination.  That solidifies my decision to have a conversation with our PT on Tuesday to stop having her focus on the standing (which Sweet Pea DETESTS) and start working on the crawling.  It's been something that I've been having an internal argument about and this last reason makes me finally decide to speak up.  Sweet Pea is already starting to get the idea of crawling, but she could definitely use some assistance in getting the right form.  Currently she is just digging her toes into the ground and stiffening her legs and lurching forward a small amount.  It's good that she gets the concept, but we need to get her bending her legs.

This afternoon Sweet Pea and I attended a baby shower with Auntie, Cousins and Grandma and we finally got a picture of the 3 grandkids together.  Not the best, but it is certainly better than the others we took!  Trying to get a baby and 2 very active boys to look at the camera at the same time with a smile was never going to happen.  Sweet Pea and I love these boys and they definitely love her.

Sweet Pea did tackle another milestone...she is banging things together!  Here is a video taken tonight of her banging two blocks together.  OT & Infant Stimulation have been working on this for a while, but she has gotten it.  We are so happy for her and I do believe that she is quite impressed with herself too!