Random Catch Ups

Okay, I know it's been an entire month since my last post. I don't know why I just wasn't in the bloggy blog mood. So I'm going to do a random update post for now to play catch up.

I made the tough decision to discontinue Rachel's feeding therapy. Between her feeding therapist and I, we just weren't very pleased with what the behaviorist was doing and decided that Rach just needs a break from all of this. She has shown a little bit of progress over the past year, but not enough for us to justify putting her through the exercises. We still have access to services until her 3rd birthday so if we think she would benefit from future feeding therapy, all I have to do is say the word and it's back. I communicate with the feeding specialist by phone and email. I'm currently reading a book about toddler/childhood feeding. One is "Child of Mine, Feeding With Love and Good Sense." I also just ordered a book called, "Just Take a Bite." I'm hoping that by taking a step back, we will see some progress. In the meantime, meal times around here are still sometimes an adventure but we're hanging in there and she is healthy and growing. That is what is most important.

Remember when Sophia jumped our of her crib on my birthday? Well, Rachel jumped out of hers a couple of weeks ago. Morgan is our good daughter and has never tried to escape. LOL! Anyway... I freaked out the day Rachel jumped out. She fell so hard and pulled the curtains in their bedroom down with her. Not cool! I put in a call to a local baby specialty store to see if we had any options for crib tents. I bought tents about a year ago but ended up returning them because they didn't fit on our cribs. Well, my prayers were answered because there is a larger new tent out for convertible cribs. I rushed down to the store and bought three. It took a little bit of adjusting to. The first night, Sophia thought sleeping in a tent was the coolest thing ever. Morgan pretty much didn't have a reaction, and Rachel....well she hated it. However, the next night, she did just fine. Now they all like to zip the tents closed themselves. I think it gives them a sense of security. I certainly feel better knowing they are safe in their cribs and won't be trying to jump out. We (mostly meaning me) just aren't ready for the switch to toddler beds at this point. I'm hoping to keep them in cribs until they are at least three.

One of our favorite family things to do now is to have dinner and play time at the mall when Bob gets home from work. I'm so happy that Bob finally decided to join us for a meal out. I've been taking the girls to the mall food court for lunch for over a year now and they have always done pretty well. I think we've had a few meltdowns here and there, but it's mostly been good. The first time we did this as a family, I was so nervous. I knew that if the girls had a meltdown and didn't eat well, Bob wouldn't be coming back out with us for a while. He doesn't like the attention that we get when out in public so it's taken him a long time to come to terms with it. The girls did great at dinner. I was a proud mommy. We then took them down to the toddler play area and played for almost an hour. They are doing so much better around other kids now. We're learning to take turns and NOT steal other toddlers' sippy cups. haha... I'm so excited now that we actually get to go out for dinner now. There are nights when I don't want to mess up the kitchen and we're all aching to get out. I think Daddy really enjoys watching his girls run around the playground too. Plus, it's air conditioned!!!!

Last week, my friend Dainey and her daughter Shannon, went to the zoo with us. We had so much fun. I only used a double stroller and let the girls take turns walking around since we had 3 adults to 3 toddlers. Rachel prefers the stroller, but the other two loved running around. There was one time that Sophia was scared by the chimpanzees though. The chimps are behind a glass wall and one sort of ran at us. She didn't know that it couldn't get her. She screamed and reached for me. I felt so bad for her. She really didn't understand that there was a wall there. Other than that one incident, it seems as if they are really starting to enjoy seeing the animals. They point at them and say what they are. Although..... all of the ducks, birds, and well....anything with wings..... was a "chicken" according to my trio. They were cracking us up saying, chicken, chicken, chicken. They also had their first ride on a merry-go-round. If I can figure out how to get the picture off of my phone and onto my blog, I'd post a pic. I already uploaded it to my FB page. They loved the ride. At first, it was obvious they were scared. But one the ride got moving, they were full of smiles and giggles. It's so nice going out with good friends. Dainey and Shannon really love our girls. I met them when the girls were just 4 months old and they came in as volunteers to help us in those early days. They have been a huge blessing to our family. In fact, we consider them part of our family!

So what else... Oh the girls have a new speech therapist. We're pretty much back to our full time therapy schedule. They are still receiving OT, physical, and speech. Their old speech therapist doesn't work for the county anymore so we were assigned a new one. I met her last week and adored her right away. In fact, I think she is a much better fit for our family. The girls age out of this program at 3 years old. At that point, the school district takes over. We are just finishing up their 2 1/2 year assesments tomorrow and will have their transition meeting pretty soon. That's the meeting where I find out what services the girls will qualify for after we age out of the current program. I'm nervous about it. Also, I've really grown attached to our current team and will really miss them six months from now. I think the girls will too.

Now it's time to toot my own horn. I have 2 weeks left of the 12 week trainer program that Bob bought me. I'm very proud to say that in 3 months, I've lost 35 pounds and almost 10 inches from my body. I'm a few pounds lower than my pre-pregnancy weight. It's happened so fast but it's been such hard work. I'm working out about 4-5 days a week and really sticking to my diet. Well, 98% of the time I'm sticking to the diet. haha... A girl has got to have a glass of wine or dinner out once in a while. Bob said he may be able to buy me another 8-12 weeks with the trainer since I'm making such good progress. I had such a tough physical struggle after having the girls. It's hard to believe that just three months ago I had surgery and had been experiencing constant abodominal pain for over a year. I even got tired easily at the grocery store and my legs would be killing me by the end of the day. Now I can run a 10 1/2 minute mile and I even have a teeny bit of muscle tone on my arms, which is totally new for me. If I don't end up buying more sessions, then I will likely join a gym so I can continue this healthy path I'm on. I'd really like to lose another 25-30 pounds!

So that's it for now. We had a fun overnight trip to Monterey a couple of weeks ago. There are lots of fun pictures and stories to tell from it so I will try and post that really soon. Hopefully, I won't be stuck in blog la la land anymore.  And... I'm too tired to proof-read this so please excuse any mistakes for now.