shapes

From about age 2-6, Valerie hardly ate anything well except chicken nuggets and french fries. It gave me so much anxiety, I had her in the Dr office multiple times per year. I definitely took her to McDonalds way more than I should have, but honestly, she would not eat! I then got baking stones to make her favorite combo at home- just as crunchy, but not as much fat... not that I had that to worry about. She was 45 pounds and 45 inches for three straight years and even had visible "6 pack" abmoninal muscles, so I always bought her the cutest bikini I could find. So So SO cute!! I really was confused, I have ALWAYS loved to eat. Not her though, she did not like ANYTHING except chicken nuggets and fries... not even snack-type of things. I started accumluating lots of interesting cutters- cookie cutters, sandwich cutters, vegetable cutters... and getting really interesting drink containers for her to take to pre-school and regular school to encourage eating. That still didn't work. It was not until about age 10 that she started eating more.

Asher eats. In fact, he is a great eater BUT! He has a condition stemming from prematurity with swallowing, his reflex is to push things out with his tongue, chew, take a deep breath then swallow. That actually chokes him. It used to be ANYTHING but purees (and often those too), would make him throw up. We started having to spoon feed him in the bathtub because it was 99% of a chance he would vomit.

My goal this summer is to get him off purees and have him on regular toddler-appropriate food. Also! We dont "DO" fast food at all anymore- unless we are on the road. He has had one chicken nugget ever... but the boy LOVES fries.

Anyway, he is getting so much better! This week, I started digging out my supplies for my baby Valerie lunchboxes and have enjoyed making shapes for him.

One of the crazy things is how much he LOVES cheese. He asks for it "please! Cheese!" all the time.



I also let him have brownie batter mix for the first time this week. I am a little funny about that kind of thing because of the potential of infection from raw eggs, but this was a special recipe and the threat of salmonella was less.















He loved it so much, honestly, it was adorable to see. He was totally thrilled- see his hands at his mouth? He does that because of the "pushing out" he does with his food- he has to push it back in sometimes. Poor baby.

That being said, it is the ONLY thing we have had to deal with from his prematurity. It could have been blindness, deafness, SIDS, or cerebral palsy. All of those things skyrocket in probability when a baby is premature...

I am so grateful he is perfect and that the swallowing is the only issue. It reminds me of the scariness that was his entrance into the world, and has definitely shown Matt and I patience. Every meal, we feed him still and it is at least a 30 minute job. We love Asher and Valerie so much.

Krissy is at 25 weeks. It is nothing less than a miracle. She has been in controlled pre-ecclampsia for 3 full weeks now. How insane is that?!

My brother is in Afghanistan and has stood out amazingly in his role there- he is a computer guy there and he sets up networks. He was immediately promoted when he was able to fix something that had been messed up for weeks in 6 hours and now he is the personal IT person to someone very, very high up in the chain of command. That gives Jennifer (and ME!) such peace because he is going to be fairly well-protected. I dont really know how to express it well, but I worry about him and every time I hear of roadside bombing, I just want to throw up.

Valerie is doing well, she is excited about Twilight and I am not, but I am really glad she has something she LOVES, we all need that. She is loving the freedom of summer. I love that she is so active. She is so much less-awkward than I was at her age. I am so grateful for that too. Nothing hurts more than feeling so unwanted and isolated as an adolescent. She has friends where ever she goes and that is a wonderful thing.