Penny feeds herself Oatmeal!!

. . .And she is starting to get really good at this too. Barely a mess! I am so proud and impressed with her.

All in a day's hard work

Penny is executing her military crawl with such perfection; I am afraid she will be recruited anyday. She is so funny, she will get on her elbows, belly, and legs and with one arm in front of the other, and some help from her hind quarters she inches along the floor. I don't believe her belly gets a millimeter off the floor, but it certainly gets her around very effeciently. She can transverse our living area in a matter of moments. :) I just love her so much. Her PT is very proud of the progress she is making. She has been pulling her self to a standing position for awhile now (maybe a month) but she needs to be in a sitting position first and to my knowledge she has not figured out how to get into a sitting position.

She is doing very well with mealtimes too. I like to give her an opportunity to feed herself with a spoon often. Scott doesn't approve because of the mess, but how else is she supposed to learn? She likes sandwiches, peanut butter and jelly and grilled cheese being the only two she has tried. She also likes Gerber graduates ravioli. She will scarf that stuff man! She likes ice cream and yogurt. A whole world of possibilities opened up just a few weeks ago when she turned 1.

I am still working with her to say "mama" she just doesn't want to. After I say it a few times, she starts to respond with "blah!" Oh well, she will get there when she is ready. . .

"So Much Time and So little to Do. . . "

Penelope will be 11 months old tomorrow. Sheesh how this year has raced by. I know that I may be little biased because she is my daughter, but she is the cutest, smartest baby I know! I am still in awe at how well she drinks from a straw. Scott went out and bought her sippy cups last week, but I explained how the speech therapist would disapprove and that she needs a cup with a straw to work those oral muscles. So, the great man that he is, he went back to the store undeterred and bought her a sippy cup that has a stiff straw that goes right to the bottom of the cup. Mind you, this is not a bendy straw. It is completely vertical. She took one excitable look at it and placed her mouth around the straw and began to drink. I admit, sometimes she drops the cup and then tries to drink out of the handle, or the bottom, or the rim, but mostly, she gets right on the straw on her own and goes to town. I think sooner rather than later I would like to cut her down to 2 bottles a day, one at bedtime and one when she wakes up and is the most hungry. But for now, my 20 lb, 11 month old monster can eat or drink as she pleases.

We have also been experimenting with the kind of food that she eats. She loves baby Gershwin pickles of all things. She also loved the vegetable beef that I made for her in batches to freeze. I am debating whether or not to make more, we are giving her table scraps more and more. . .

Her last PT visit on Thursday went super as well like usual. We are working on her stepping by guiding her to walk all over the place. She does seem a little more interested in cruising, but she forgets a lot that she has a left foot! Her right foot goes up and down like a reflex, but her left leg likes to stay put. She flat out refuses to be put in any position that would coax her into crawling. She is very happy rolling around "thank you very much"

Oh and Scott is convinced she says "Mama." I'd like to say I believe him. She is so cute with the "dada" and the "Baba" it is about time I get some play too!

Am I doing this right? - You know, parenting?

So, on my long list of items to worry about with Penelope, I have had to add feeding skills. I have read that the low muscle tone thing typically makes it difficult for infants with T21 to eat. Appearantly, the low muscle tone, or hypotonia, makes it hard for Penny to coordinate the muscles in her mouth and therefore, it is hard for her to bring the food to the back of her mouth and swallow. There are a lot of muscles that need to work in concert to accomplish this seemingly simple feet. Alot of children with T21 also have an aversion to textures. Hard things like crakers can cause terror in some children. I don't think that is a problem with Penny. She likes to take carrots out of my hand and shove them into her mouth so she can teethe on the cold vegetable. I finally introduced puffed rice. I put it in front of her so she can decide whether or not she wants to try out a pincer grasp. She sitll rakes the puffed rice with her fingers and spreads them over the place. I know she is working things out though and she will get it -- sooner rather than later.

I just have concerns because when we give her pureed foods, the quasi-liquid seems to just slip out of her open mouth and drip all over the place. Then there are the much loved raspberries she blows in the air, spraying food all over the place. I love food showers!! However, when we add a bunch of rice cereal to the puree to give it an almost oatmeal consistency, she does really well it. I have concluded that it is because the texture just sticks to the inside of her mouth, so she has no choice really but to swallow it. I guess she doesn't like the sliminess, but then, can you blame her. My concern with adding the rice cereal just makes me wonder, am I cheating?