There was a good reason that my kids came home shivering in their underwear yesterday. I buckled them in that way, for starters. And I let them go play in the river without swimsuits.
Days like this where everybody had fun and nobody cried (for long) and I did it on my own… well, I feel like Superwoman! But… unlike Superwoman, I did not do anything embarrassing with my underpants.
Just your feet kids. No… up to your knees. Actually – get as wet as you want!
I left Jordan’s shoes on for stability on the rocks. And we had fun in the shallows.
The playground was not nearly as much fun as the river. Mostly because I spent my entire time taking bark chips out of the mouths of these two or running after Jordan.
Jordan… stationary for a moment.
In other news, Carolyn is standing and balancing without holding on now and then!
You are a superwoman, even without spandex! Great pictures. Dad
When I read about Jordan putting the bark chips in his mouth I thought how totally opposite Sophia is — she won’t let you put anything at all in her mouth except her bottle and yogurt. She will fight you and twist and turn just to keep anything from touching her mouth. We have to see a feeding specialist weekly and she works on just getting tiny crumbs in her mouth and if we are lucky she will eat some yogurt. I don’t want her to eat bark chips, but I sure wish she didn’t have such an aversion to anything going into her mouth.
Sharon – Jordan was just that way too! He has changed so much in this area. For a week or two after we had him, we could put food in his mouth, and then that was it. I called him “yogurt boy” for awhile since that’s all I could get into him. What worked for us (you know, over the course of 1 1/2 years) was backing off and only offering things he wanted to eat. I had to hide nutrition in yogurt in all kinds of interesting ways! I think this is why many people like g-tubes and the like… so you can introduce foods without the stress. So if you can back off and just do “easy” foods for awhile until her wall lowers bit by bit… maybe one day she will eat a puff and you will all cheer! (We did!) It was just January when Jordan ate his first bite of cookie. It wasn’t much later that he started putting toys in his mouth. And dirt. That boy will take dirt any day over food!
This gives me a little hope for Sophia as I have been very discouraged. She literally won’t let a crumb in her mouth — just yogurt and a thickened bottle. I guess it just takes time. I often wonder what she ate in the orphanage — don’t you?
I can’t get most things into Jordan’s mouth STILL. He has to recognize it as one of “his” foods. I think he has a fear of gagging, but I don’t really know. I mean, he accepted his first bite of cake without forcing it the other day! Who turns down cake!? 🙂 I tried to get a noodle, a ripe blackberry and a bit of watermelon between those clamped lips but just get cheek as he whips his head around and runs away. Even if I restrain him, his lips are clamped… even if I get it onto his tongue, he spits it out. I don’t ever force it into his mouth any more. Sure, sometimes I get that one taste in there, but infrequently and I’ll even help him take it back out of his mouth again (usually with a cloth napkin – bites hurt!). I do not want to put him back on the defensive with his mouth again. Having a completely “defensive” mouth is hard! For Jordan, I just had to back off and slowly, ever so slowly add unnoticeable changes from yogurt. Now he recognizes crackers, dry cereal and cookies. Cake, fruit, pasta, vegetables… everything else is unacceptable still. BUT – he eats normal soups now! http://breezysunday.com/blog/2013/08/07/jordans-updated-blended-diet/
Jordan ate a soup out of a bottle while in the orphanage but nothing else. Some things you can mix in yogurt to make it more complete but she probably won’t notice (after running through a hand blender or something): scrambled eggs, whole grain flours, soft cooked carrots or squash, peanut butter, oatmeal. Since Jordan only accepted things “like yogurt” I made myself a menu of homemade meals that were balanced and calorie rich… but yogurt like. They are NOT appetizing to me, but Jordan liked them and they were rarely refused. Here’s a link to the recipes: http://breezysunday.com/blog/2012/12/22/high-calorie-blended-meals-blendtec-recipes-for-jordan/
Thanks so much! I had no idea that Jordan was as difficult to get food in as Sophia. I have been reading your blog for quite awhile but I guess I didn’t realize that he had such an aversion to food. I was starting to feel like Sophia was just never going to really eat anything except yogurt and a feeding tube has been mentioned to me several times. Now I have a little more hope. By the way, Jordan looks so good now — he has really changed. Thanks so much for the info.
Umm.. you’re superwoman every day.
🙂