Cute Things

McKenna has started patting her chest with her hand. It's adorable. It's like a gorilla, only she does it softly. She squeals and she she does a growling noise that is almost scary sounding, but it's so cute.

She grabs her feet and sucks her toes, or at least attempts to. She gets really excited and starts breathing hard trying to get them in there.

McKenna picks at everything. She finds hairs wherever she is and grabs them, pulls on them, wraps them in her fingers...they are her favorite toy. Discusting, but fun to watch her hunt for them. And she does the same with fuzzies, crumbs, or anything small.

Keaton stands on his own, without holding on to anything, and gets the biggest grin on his face. He is so proud of his accomplishments and looks at you as if to say, "hey, look at me, can YOU do this?"

He loves books and will go off to the side of the room and spend twenty plus minutes flipping through a book and looking at pictures and is so proud of himself turning the pages.

Keaton loves reaching up to touch the light and fan in the ceiling when daddy is holding him, and he thinks dad is the coolest for letting him do it. He claps when he drinks out of his sippy cup by himself, or when he looks at an object you tell him to look at, like tree or ball.

And he is the cutest eater. He tries to chew with his front teeth and puckers his lips trying to get the food to stay in his mouth. And if the food starts to fall out, he uses his entire palm to shove it back in...as if his fingers couldn't put it back in.

I have the cutest, most funny, adorable, loving and beautiful babies in the world. Grateful for our blessings!

Opening Her Mouth

What a blessed evening yesterday. I went to feed McKenna as usual and put the food on the spoon (apples and blueberries) and not thinking just put it in front of her mouth and held it there waiting for her to open her mouth. I was on the phone so a little distracted. And, to my surprise she opened her mouth. A fluke, right? No, she did it again, and again, and before I knew it McKenna opened her mouth for over fifteen bites. She spit out the food, or a good portion of each bite, but I don't even care because her mouth opened. And I think that I have heard that a lot of babies spit out food when you first start feeding them, don't they? they have to learn to swallow it and how to actually eat. Opening the mouth is the first step.

Then this morning I nervously put the sppon up to her mouth to see if she would repeat the same thing and open her mouth...SHE DID. Not only for breakfast, but for lunch and dinner too. And normally I feed McKenna 30 "tastes" each meal. Breakfast and lunch though McKenna opened her mouth for 40 bites. That is huge.

I feel so grateful for God giving McKenna this progress. We really have been discouraged lately and this is just what we needed. Now if we could just get her to swallow the bites, and to eat even half of a jar of baby food. And a food that is higher calories. She has to eat 120 calories every four hours. The jar of blueberries and apples, and the jar of pears are only 50 calories for a stage 2 jar. So we would benefit from her eating bananas or chicken or something like that.

Thanking God today. Excited to see what he allows her to do tomorrow.

Milestones

What a great week of growth for the babies. Keaton took his first step yesterday. My mom was here visiting and standing Keaton up and told him to walk to me. He moved one foot forward. Did it two different times. I think that's considered his first step, right? Even though it was only one foot? Either way, I was so proud of him.

We still struggle to get Keaton to eat without puking if there is any texture or if the food is too thick, but this week Keaton ate a half of a banana for my sister, without it being diced really small. He also ate some spinach quiche I made, diced tomatoes, a few french fries and a couple bites of a McDonald's cheeseburger. I was smiling ear to ear and so grateful. And Keaton is holding his sippy cup on his own and has even learned to tip his head back to get the milk to go in his mouth. He is usually still too lazy to drink it on his own, but we are working to encourage that more.

McKenna has had a great week too. She has been talking and making more noises this week, and even started her B's. So she now says mama and baba. She is currently mouthing papa but hasn't fully gotten the noise out.

During McKenna's evaluation Wednesday toward switching therapists she rolled from back to belly for the first time. I was so proud, but knew that she really only did it because she was SCREAMING for a solid hour and just so mad. But then tonight, of course while Kyle is outside mowing and nobody is there to see it but me, McKenna rolled back to belly, belly to back, and then back and forth multiple times. I was screaming for joy with her. It was so encouraging to see. I really needed that!

McKenna's bites and retching have not improved, but hopefully this week the motility specialist from KC is suppose to call and give a phone consultation. I am sure he will say he needs to see her, but hopefully we can get some kind of direction or answers via the phone.

Now if I can just get McKenna to turn into sitting position on her own, push up on her elbows/hands/knees on her own and for long periods of time, crawling, belly creeping, walking, babbling, eating, stop retching...the list goes on. But again, grateful for the steps forward today!