Our sweet little peanut

Rachel has made some big improvements with her eating over the past few days. Her therapist told me to always keep mealtime pleasant and to start with a food I know she'll like and eat. After she has that food, I give her something that is a little lumpy. I've been thickening her food with potato flakes or adding little lumps of rice crispy cereal. I also found some Earth's Best 3rd foods that are a little lumpy and she's been eating them. I'm so excited that she is accepting some of these foods. She even ate peaches over the weekend. She loves it when I crush cheerios and toss cut up bananas in them to make a sort of "breading." So a couple of days ago, I tried this with peaches. At first, she was kind of mad at me because she was expecting banana! But then the look on her face went from "HEY MOM" to "Hey YUM."

It has really been difficult working so hard with her, but it has been so worth it. Seeing her eat more food just warms my heart so much.

Over the past couple of days, she's started to refuse milk bottles too. She just wouldn't drink it and would throw the bottle away from her. Then this morning she surprised me by picking up a milk sippy and drinking the whole thing. Of course that was all she would drink all day. Well, other than a couple of sips of water here and there. I'm not even bothering with bottles right now. I'm going to keep offering her a sippy. I know her therapist didn't want me to stop bottles, but Rachel is refusing them so it just seems pointless.

We haven't had her evaluation for development yet, but Rach is now climbing on to the couches and is also climbing up the stairs in the house. She's been watching Sophia and Morgan climb the stairs at bedtime so a couple of days ago, we let her try and she did it. She was wobbly and slipped a couple of times, but she kept trying. She's also standing on her own now. She'll pull up to standing next to me and then let go and stand on her own. I realize that we are a little behind a lot of other kids, but with my girls walking on their knees so early on, I think that delayed their walking. I do look forward to having the development evaluation though. Sophia made such huge progress when we did it for her, and I know Rachel will too!

I couldn't be more proud of her!