Friday, December 6, 2013

Christmas tree shopping

It's finally Christmas time!  Woot woot!  It's my favorite time of year, and I have to say that Christmas stunk it up good fashion last year.  It was a bust.  Aubrey was in the hospital, Adam had to work and was sick, and I was just bummed.  We didn't do anything Christmas-like--no decorations, no light tour, no tree, nothing. So, this year, we had our tree up by December 2!  We went tree shopping last weekend and decorated the same day.  We put the tree up on a table so destructo-baby can't reach it to pull ornaments off or pull the whole thing down.  She can reach the tree skirt, and that's already been pulled off an uncountable number of times.  That's ok.  She likes touching the tree, and I'm just glad she's here to wreak her own special brand of cute Aubrey-havoc.  Adam is working Christmas day ("what a surprise!" Keli says, sarcastically), but Aubrey doesn't know which day is which; we'll just have Christmas another day.

Helping get the ornaments out

 

I had to take her to the hospital Tuesday for her barium swallow study.  She's still aspirating with the regular thin liquid, and they think she aspirated with the next thickness up. So, the speech therapist said to stick with the thickness of milk that she's been getting; it's obvious she doesn't aspirate with that because she hasn't had any respiratory problems or illnesses.  We want to keep it that way through the winter months when all of that is being passed around; we don't want her lungs compromised in any way so she's more susceptible to what's out there.  The therapist said we could thin applesauce down with some juice to make it the correct thickness and see if she likes that to drink.  She also wants us to try to get Aubrey to learn to use a straw in a cup. She said sippy cups aren't good for babies like her because children tend to tip their heads back when they use them and that opens the airway even more; her airway already doesn't close quickly enough, so we don't need that added to it.

Mischievous pirate Aubrey with her straw-sword

PT/OT is still going...ok.  Aubrey still cries during it, but she's doing what the therapists are asking of her.  We're still working on that fine motor skill of picking food up with two fingers and actually getting it to her mouth; she's doing better, but not quite there yet. We're also working on making her shift weight from foot to foot while standing...she doesn't really like that too much.  She's standing straight up on her own now, not holding on to anything, but she doesn't go anywhere yet.

The wonderful banana: fruit snack inside, super awesome toy outside

One year ago today, Aubrey weighed 2lb 10oz.  I still can't believe how awesome she is.

-Keli