RowanEmilia.com

Shawn is visiting Houston and a plethora of photos are forthcoming! A couple of my favorites from yesterday

And she know it! The eating is going great.  Her feeding therapist has started using food to bribe her to do more speech related therapy. How awesome is that? Rowan will demand Cheerios or Puffs and pitch a fit if you don’t give them to her. She’s eating pasta, scrambled eggs, peas, green beans, cheesy toast and blueberries. Lots and lots of blueberries. The only purees we give her are the ones I have on hand to make my life easier.

The pediatrician is totally on board with taking the tube out as soon as Rowan can drink enough liquid to keep hydrated. That’s really the only stumbling block now. But Rowan is drinking more and more every day so I’m not too worried. She’s doing it! She really is!

Fascinating paper!

Crawling isn’t even the most exciting thing going on in Rowan-land. Rowan is officially eating! It’s crazy.  It’s like a switch turned on and she just decided that eating is a worthwhile thing to do. She started taking down jars of baby food and is now eating mashed table food. All within three weeks! Rowan will even feed herself Cheerios and graham crackers. I hand or spoon feed her most of the time, though, because she throws EVERYTHING.

Rowan’s feeding therapist is very impressed with her progress. Last week, Rowan yelled at her because the therapist was too slow with the butternut squash! I can’t quite believe that Rowan is really eating. I keep thinking that Rowan will refuse to eat like she’s done in the past. But her therapist doesn’t think so. She feels we’re past that..because Rowan really likes her food.

Several times today, including with witnesses, after remote controls and lollipops.

Clear sense of the necessities of life.

Some choice shots of Rowan visiting the Valley for Thanksgiving weekend.

Rowan is kind of sick right now. She has a lot of congestion and a cough. But as you can see, that isn’t stopping her. Poor Sophie.

Here is the princess before PT on Thursday. She is feeling a little under the weather so no Halloween parties for us today. But we will definitely be taking more pics of Rowan in her costume. Hopefully we can finally get some good pictures of Sophie in her costume…as Darth Sophie.

Rowan, aka Peanut, is now officially a toddler. She’s not actually toddling yet, but who cares? Rowan is doing great. She’s willful, feisty, stubborn. She loves to “dance” to the opening credit songs of the Twilight Zone and NCIS. She will laugh and wave whenever Hugh Laurie is on TV. Rowan is also a huge flirt. Not shy at all. She will smile and wave at anyone. Recently we were  waiting for a chest Xray. There was this poor man in the waiting room who was obviously in pain probably due to broken ribs. Rowan got him to smile and babytalk to her. Ridiculous! She is a charmer for sure.

Of course, the downside to this stubbornness is that Rowan is not eating at all. She just shakes her head whenever I offer her food. We’re back in therapy for it. One of the things I keep remembering is something Rowan’s PICU nurse Trent said. The day after her heart surgery, Trent said that he had a feeling that Rowan isn’t going to be the type of person to do something just because we want her to. She will do it when SHE wants to. That’s been the truest thing anyone has ever said about her! Once she decided to be mobile, she was. I have a feeling the eating thing will be the same way.

Health stuff: Immunology? “She looks great, I’ll see you in a year.” Cardiology? “She looks great, I’ll see you in 6 months”. We are being cautious now that we’re in cold/flu/RSV season though. I’m not taking any chances!