In other news. It's summer, it's hot, and I love it. Mostly, I love it because I hide indoors until the heat subsides enough to make a jaunt outside bearable for longer than 10-15 minutes at a time. Avarie and I frequently go for short walks to the end of the block and back or sit on her tiny bench on the front porch eating popcicles and watching the birds fly from tree to tree. We venture to the store or the park a few times a week, nothing monumental. All in all, we are a generally a laid-back pair, however, upon review of our recent daily activities I've concluded that I've morphed into an overly boring, tired, pregnant mom. EW. Sorry Aves, we're living life in the slow lane this summer.
Avarie is still a BUSY, creative, adventurous, smart, and very determined little girl. I love her personality. She keeps me constantly on my toes, whether I want to be or not. Most days, lately, I have not wanted to be. These are the days I notice that she gets WAY more amped up than ususal. Getting in to EVERYTHING (especially things she knows, beyond a shadow of a doubt, are forbidden) and teasing me to no end. Yeah you read that right, she teases me. She even lets me know she's teasing me by cheerfully chirping, "I teasing Mommy!! (giggles) Mommy getting grumpy gills*!" She then makes a mocking grumpy gills face at me.
*For inquiring minds, grumpy gills live on both sides of one's neck and can only be removed by kissing, tickling, or nose nuzzling them away.
Thankfully, her Mother Gothel phase has seemingly come to an end, I hope. For a week or two, every time I corrected her behavior in any way, shape, or form, Avarie would call me Mother Gothel, as in, the evil, kidnapping, spiteful mother from the movie Tangled. She would then sing, "Mother knows best", whenever put in time out. At first I thought that Avarie must not realize that by calling me Mother Gothel she was effectively insinuating that I share similar evil traits with said antagonist, she is only just barely 2 after all. That is, until I questioned her a little more about dear Mother Gothel. She told me, in no uncertain terms, that, "Mother Gofel is Punzle's meeeean mommy!" Glad we cleared that up.
Avarie is getting pretty good at the whole potty training thing these days. We haven't had to change a poopy diaper in over 2 weeks at this point. No one is complaining. The need to pee is a little harder for her to control/recognize. Up until this week I have just had her in pull ups and I try to take her to the potty every 20-30 mins and she stayed dry as long as I remembered to take her. It's the remembering part that is hard for me. So this week, I've had her in dresses with a nakey booty everyday and I keep the timer on my phone set for 20 mins. When the timer goes off, we drop what we're doing and head to the potty. She is doing great! She's only had 2 accidents so far and luckily, both of them were outside :) She gets the choice of 1 jelly bean or 1 cinderella fruit snack every few times she goes in the potty to help keep her motivation on the up and up. Hopefully, we'll rid ourselves of daytime diapers before the summer ends.
Update on Ave's feeding disorder situation...it seems (knock on wood) that our situation has come to an end!!! She has been slowly and steadily improving over the last year or so, but we saw a marked improvement since we moved into our new house in May. We haven't had any uncontrolled, unearthly, exorcist-like vomiting in months AND Avarie eats like a champ these days! She eats regular meals and snacks with gusto and generally always eats a healthy amount. I've finally stopped mentally calorie counting, like a crazy person, to make sure she's getting enough of her daily intake and I feel comfortable trusting that she will respond to her appetite appropriately on her own. WHEEEEEEW!!! I think back on the really dark days of dealing with failure to thrive, constant vomiting, refusal to eat, feeding therapy, constant Dr appointments, weight checks, and the looming threat of having to put in a surgical feeding tube and it all seems like a distant nightmare now. I am so glad that she is doing well and learning to listen to her body's hunger cues on her own! Adam and I marvel daily at her progress and feel so lucky to have had the support of awesome family, friends, and care providers to help Avarie thrive, and thrive she has!
Some eye candy to wrap things up...
1 comment:
I can't believe how smart she is! And I can't believe how wonderful it is that she doesn't have any eating problems anymore. That's pretty much a miracle. I'm so glad for you.
Post a Comment