When autumn leaves start to fall

My Grandma Beiting makes homemade goetta (it's a Cincinnati German thing). Anyway, I decided to see if Gabe likes it...how could he not?...it's delicious. He took 4 or 5 good bites and then I think he decided he'd rather play with it and get it in his hair. We're playing around with different textures for him. He tried meatloaf and mashed potatoes last week and did pretty well. I made more potatoes for this week. We're also working on regular oatmeal. He starts off doing really well with it, but I think he tires out quick with the thicker texture, so I'm trying not to concentrate on volume. He still doesn't want to drink from a cup. I think he's aversed to thin liquids. But I did get him to drink out of my water bottle and he did great...I don't get it. We are getting good sounds out of Gabe. He's mimicking us with b's and m's. We're also doing lots of sing-a-long songs with hand gestures. He is now consistently putting his hand on his head for "5 Little Monkeys" when they bump their head. We are also working on "Itsy Bitsy Spider". He likes grabbing for my hands when I do the motions. Gabe has recently been putting his 2 thumbs together. We thought that maybe it was "more", but his "more" sign is more obvious with all his fingers involved...this was just the thumbs. We think we figured out tonight that he wants more "itsy bitsy spider" and is signing the spider going up the web. He seemed so excited that we figured it out...at least I think that's it. I'll have to keep trying tomorrow.

Justin and I have been a little discouraged lately with Gabe's gross motor skills....or lack of I should say. He rolls on and off his belly, but not consecutive rolls and he generally hates his belly. He refuses to crawl. He can push from lying to seated and pull from sitting to standing with minimal help. He just isn't mobile at all. He screams with physical therapy to the point where PT says he's acting like we don't make him work...but we do. We work with him alot. True he is our only child and he is not in a daycare environment, but he definitely is not held all day. We let him cry till he calms a little before picking him up. I just don't know what to do. Our year eval with our early intervention team is coming up soon and I'm trying to think of a new way to approach physical therapy. Gabe has been through so much over the past year and I think he's come a long way. It's just hard when other kids his age are running all around him and he doesn't even care if he has to sit there. He doesn't even really lunge for a toy out of reach. He likes kneeling, so I thought we could work on that. He also seems to get less mad in other rooms of the house like his bedroom, the staircase, etc. Maybe we could move around the house more. Also, Gabe loves being outside, so maybe we could do some sessions in the yard. Our OT is having us work on some vestibular sensory things thinking maybe he just is fearful of falling and feeling off balance. We are also putting him in these spandex mermaid pants to help decrease his base of support while sitting and help with rotation. I know it will come, I'm just trying to think more creatively because the hour long screaming sessions are no fun.

Happy Heart Day Gabe!

1 year ago, Gabe had open heart surgery. What a scary time that was. We love our strong little man.

Buddy Walk

The Buddy Walk was this past weekend. The first hour was great and then as soon as we started walking, it rained. Oh well. Thanks to everyone for walking with Gabe. He had a great time...even if he was asleep by the end of it.

Last night I went out to dinner with the northern KY mom's group. It was so much fun. It's nice to talk to other mom's who have been through it or are going through it, especially when you feel like you're kinda in a rut. We laughed alot and it was a great night to be outside having drink and eat yummy food.

Buddy Walk Saturday

Gabe loves the laundry basket.

We have had a busy 2 weeks around here. Last week, Gabe started refluxing really bad. We had changed to a new formula the week before and he had been doing fine up to that point. He was heaving and b/c of his Nissen, he can't throw up. He started sounding really congested and his eyes were watering and he would cry in his sleep. I had even called the pediatrician to get Pedialyte instructions while I was waiting for the GI RN to call me back. After 3 days, it magically disappeared. I think it ended up just being a stomach bug. He's back to his old self and eating great. I've started pureeing what we eat for dinner and giving it to him. Gabe loves spaghetti and mac and cheese. Our speech therapist was watching him eat and determined that what looks like tongue thrusting is actually not. Gabe has control of the back half of his tongue and swallows well. The front half is just really weak. You can sometimes even see the tip shaking like muscles do when they are exhausted and have been worked out. We will continue to do exercises to make Gabe's tongue muscle and jaw stronger. That's the good thing...it's about strength and coordinating movements....we don't have to correct a wrong behavior as would have been the case if he was tongue thrusting. He's back up to about 16 Tbsp a day, but he is now taking pureed or stage 3 baby food. He's actually starting to look a little chunky. Hopefully when we go back to GI in Oct we can back off some of the tube feed.

Gabe has also been very clingy to mommy lately. Don't get me wrong, it's awesome being #1, but he screams for babysitters and won't let others hold him. He just looks around the room for mom and dad and starts sobbing and signing "mom". He just gets so worked up. Even when I come home, he won't let me leave the room b/c he thinks I'm going to leave again. I know it's a phase and the Pediatrician even said that it is a good sign for later in life that he won't be a kid who runs off in a crowd, not caring where mom and dad are....at least that's what I'm telling myself.

The Buddy Walk is Saturday...hopefully it doesn't rain.

long day

Gabe had outpatient surgery today. He had an orchidopexy (procedure to decend testicle and close hernia from ascended testicle) and they did a bronchoscopy to make sure his airway was still strong and growing well. Everything went great. He'll be in some pain for awhile and there is definitely some bruising, but he's been in a good mood overall. It was hare to hand him over. Even though it was a minor outpatient procedure, Gabe has been having major stranger danger and cries whenever mom or dad passes him off to someone else. Plus, I just hate that surgical waiting room. The lady that announces names when the doctor is ready to talk to you is very sweet, but her voice just brings back heart surgery memories and my stomach twists into a big knot. Other than that, Gabe is still doing well. Feeding is about the same. As far as motor skills, Gabe loves standing. We're working on going from seated to standing. He still hates being on his stomach and crawling. As far as speech goes, we've finally started getting some "b" sounds. We had a fundraiser for Gabe's Buddy Walk team on Monday night at Hofbrauhaus. Thanks to everyone who stopped by. It was nice to see so many friends and family. 15 more days till the Buddy Walk!

Don't you just want to eat him up?

The Buddy Walk is less than 1 month away. Sign up now to walk and/or donate to Gabriel's Angels. If you are busy on 9/11, join us at Hofbrauhaus on 8/23 for Gabe's fundraiser. We have a long way to go to match last year's total. Tell your friends!

www.syssolutions.com/fr/DSAGC/2010Buddywalk/Gabrielsangels

horses, horses, horses

Gabe is doing well. We've been really busy lately with all the comings and goings of summer. I started making baby food for Gabe. I'm adding olive oil and butter to foods to help bulk Gabe up. He likes the stronger flavor. He definitely likes the fruits. The vegies are hit or miss. He spits the chicken at me, but pureed chicken is pretty gross. He's getting use to the different texture and I feel like he's gained a ton of weight this past month. Thin liquids are still a slow process. We have a new speech therapist covering while our's is on maternity leave. She's really good and commented on how happy she was with Gabe's communication. We're not getting the sounds that require your lips to go together (m, p, b), but we are pretty much getting all others. The best thing is that Gabe has a conversation with you. He'll make noises back and forth and take turns with talking. He'll study the movement of your mouth and try to mimic it. He gets very proud of himself when you tell him what a big boy he is. We're working on standing and he gets better everyday. He is able to do it with very minimal support for a couple seconds. He's still not a fan of crawling. Today was the Down Syndrome Association of Greater Cincinnati's family picnic. Gabe loved the swing. They even had pony rides.