Olivia had a few birthday parties on her social calendar. I just adore the themes that these creative mammas come up with -- what little girl wouldn't love a Unicorn Dance Party. And, of course this is what you would wear!
She has a sweet little group of friends that I'm happy she can celebrate
And while Olivia was with her friends, I planned a little park play-date for Eric and one of his friends, Hannah. Its the first time he has ever had a playdate with one of his school friends and he LOVED it!
Another first for Eric was his first time getting caught climbing. I am pretty lax on letting Eric be alone in a room because I think of him as compliant and cautious. So I was SHOCKED to walk in and see him like this.
We have been enjoying these little traveling pop-up experiences that have been coming to town. We went to Candytopia last summer and we hit up Color Factory recently with our friend Sadie. It was strikingly similar to Candytopia but the kids both loved it.
We were very happy to have Olivia to ourselves on Sunday and we took advantage of the nice weather and played outside
My parents came over for dinner and by 7:30, this little one was DONE!
And, I wanted to quickly document this mainly so we would remember later on. As I’ve mentioned, we have really been struggling with Eric’s eating—specifically his refusal to eat. He is still gaining weight based on his consumption of a half gallon of milk/day, but some recent bloodwork confirmed that he’s lacking some pretty basic nutritional requirements.
So, we went to an appointment with the specialists at Texas Children’s. It was an interesting appointment because it was a very clear visual representation of how deeply uncomfortable and anxious this child is with food. When we walked in, we were introduced to 2 therapists who would be doing the evaluation. There were several puzzles set out on the table and the therapists greeted Eric and asked him if he wanted to come sit and do a puzzle. He immediately agreed and happily sat down and began doing the puzzles. I quickly realized this was designed to occupy Eric so I could talk to the therapists. After I walked them through Eric’s history, the therapists sat down and tried to engage with Eric to develop a rapport with him. It worked and he easily warmed up to them and began telling him about the puzzle he was working on. Then they asked me what food I brought (I received instructions ahead of time re: bringing foods Eric will/will not eat.). As soon as I pulled out the lunchbox, Eric’s mood visibly changed. He pushed his chair out and came around the table, climbed on my lap and laid his head on my shoulder. He initially wouldn’t look at the therapists when they asked him to try the food. But, these ladies definitely showed off their professional knowledge by patiently convincing Eric to “crunch his cracker like a dinosaur.” He ate 2 small saltines. Then they wanted to see him use a spoon so they asked him if he could teach them to take a bite of yogurt. Eric was not falling for any of this. He opened the lid of the yogurt and then came right back to my lap. The therapists were asking him to smell or touch the yogurt, to which he politely responded “No thank you. No thank you.”
Then, one of the therapists took the spoon and smeared the yogurt on the table making the letter “E.” Eric’s eyes got big as saucers and he looked at me and said “Do we put yogurt on the table?” in the same voice I use when I ask him things like “Do we throw balls in the house?” or “Do we climb on the table?” She told him it was okay and then ask him to touch it. Another no thank you. She asked him to smear it with his spoon. He reluctantly put his spoon on it for a minute and then was right back in my lap.
So, they saw first hand his attitude towards food. The good news is, they assured me they successfully treat 100s of kids a year with these issues. We will start weekly occupational where Eric will join up with a group of 2 other kids with similar issues. While he’s working with that therapist, apparently the parents are in a room with a double-sided mirror watching the kids and being coached by our own therapist on do’s/don’ts and tips/tricks. So a simultaneous parent-child therapy if you will. I think this will be good for him and my expectation is that these therapists can figure out what’s going on and help us. I have some pretty serious nerves about the logistics of getting to these weekly appointments with our already full schedules, but hopefully we can make it work.
I mean, I don't think there's anything we wouldn't do for this snuggle-bug!
No comments:
Post a Comment