Breakthrough!

Hallelujah, praise the Lord...she eats!
Finally!  In what has been an ongoing "spoon struggle"...Macy (now 9 months old) has finally opened her mouth, retracted (rather than protruded) her tongue and ENJOYED food!  Real, non-liquid formed FOOD! 
Mommies, daddies and many therapists later, the trick wasn't necessarily fancy spoons/special textured brushes or cutting edge advanced techniques afterall.  Turns out what this girl needed (at least today) was a little "Grandpa Intervention".
My dad wanted to tag along for Macy's private OT appointment today (as he is going to watch Macy in a couple weeks while Joe and I take a quick trip to Vegas, so he wanted to become re-familiar with some of Macy's day-to-day goings-on).  He also had lunch with us today and took a stab at feeding Macy.  His idea was to, in true Garry fashion" get a little messy!  Forgo the fancy spoons, no need for bowls, just plop the food right down on the tray, roll up her sleeves and let her "go to town".  And "GO TO TOWN" she did.  It took her (and ME) a few minutes to be okay with the messiness, but after figuring out that this was fun she was shoveling it in by the fistfull.  Grandpa even made it fun by dipping his finger in the action and "airplaining" it into her mouth.    Yippee, way to go MACY!  I guess I'll need to be a little more laid back in regards to wanting things tidy...looks like we'll be stripping her down for mealtime for a while...
Check out this cute video below of Macy enjoying herself and the FOOD!   :-)

In the video below...after playing for a while, we try the spoon...and she did very well...actually opening her mouth and allowing the spoon to get past her tongue and enter her little mouth.  impressive!

Now, while I still want her to be able to spoon feed while following the general fundamental rules/proper table manners, I have come to the point of accepting the fact that "she just needs to eat!  She has seen growth chart declines the last three doc visits...this girl needs to put on weight!
I will continue with this new "messy" strategy for as long as it takes.
But. we will still continue to keep our appt. with the Feeding clinic at Children's Hospital which is scheduled for Friday.  I am very interested in getting their feedback and recommendations, as Macy still has issues with feeding in general.
Plus, McKenzie is looking forward to Friday as she gets to attend "Kids Camp".  This is a special place right there at the hospital for kiddos to go while their siblings receive treatments, visit docs, etc...What an awesome concept!  Plus, it's free, even better!

I'd like to give Grandpa Lee full credit for this, but I've got to also believe that:
A) our practice and exploration with different tools/techniques has contributed slightly as well as
B) the custom foam cutouts that Lucy (EI OT) made allows Macy to sit more securely in her high chair allowing her to focus/concentrate solely on "oral motor/eating"
and
C) she is 9 months old and perhaps her little brain finally decided to communicate the following message to her mouth to "EEEAAATT!"  Sometime's there's got to be a "cognitive click".  :-)

Here's a little phone pic of Melissa (private Speech Pathologist) and Macy getting acquainted with the Q  :-)

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Speaking of breakthroughs.  I am getting very close to marking down in Macy's baby book her first time SITTING!  She did it for Grandma Lee the other night and again the next day for a few seconds...all by herself...no propping.  I want to see her do it for a full 10 seconds a couple times back to back before I count it as "official".  I'm "tough" like that  :-)
Soon very SOON!  Stay tuned.
That is if she doesn't STAND first.  She is getting very close on the "standing front" too!

Pictures at the Park!

We were invited to a "portrait party" - thanks Steph!!  It was a beautiful fall Nebraska day...

Because the party was rained out last week, I was SOOO looking forward to playing at the Lanoha Arboretum yesterday while Lisa, of Lisa Johnson Photography, caught our candid family "moments" with her amazing photographic talents.

here's a link to her fan page on facebook  -   she does great work and I can't wait to see our photos in a couple weeks!  Hopefully there will be at least one or two that are "Christmas Card" worthy  :-)

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While we were waiting for "our families turn", we snapped a few "ametuer" pics of our own...here are  some of them...but seriously, I am super anxious to see Lisa's as hey will be 90x awesomer  :-)

the whole "put-the-camera-on-the-ground-titled-with-a-rock-set-the-timer-and-run-trick"  not bad.  :-)  

I know...we're dorks, but hey...we were having FUN!!  so there  :-)

enroute to our next location

Now, we took some pics of Lisa (our photographer taking pics  :-) )

 FUUNN!!  Our entire shoot lasted just 20 minutes...quick and despite the look on Macy's face here, painless... 

Now we wait for the good ones...thanks Lisa, Can't wait to see them  :-) 

NIGHTHAWKS!

Thanks to D.A.D.S (Dads Appreciating Down Syndrome)...we were invited to a pre-game tailgate party at Joe Bananas and were given free tickets to last night's Innaugural UFL game...the Omaha Nighthawks scored a TD in the final 6 seconds of the game to beat the Hartford Colonials by 1 point in front of a sellout crowd of 24,000 fans!  What a game!  And a WHAT A GORGEOUS NIGHT!  The weather could not have been any more perfect.

I still can't get over how surreal it was to see a football game being played in this gem of a BASEBALL stadium.  Plus, what made it even more confusing was the fact that my "not-so-sports-inclined" 3 year old kept calling it a "BASKETball" game.   haha  But it was awesome and turned out to be a great venue.

heading to the game...this will probably be the last time we step foot in the beloved "Diamond on the Hill" Rosenblatt  Stadium.

McKenzie thought it was pretty cool to see all the big fast cars driving below  :-)

"WHY do they keep HONKING!"

my family!  Macy's first and last time at Rosenblatt

Macy yelling at Mckenzie to TURN AROUND and look at the camera

okay Macy, practice what you preach...look at the camera haha!  :-)  oh well, it's as  good as it's gonna get!  LOL

Cory making Macy smile

Jagger with his dad (Dale).  It was fun that our whole ODSPN group (of about 100) were all able to sit in the same section!

Macy was easy peasy and actually slept through most of the game...which was fine with me...a sleeping baby is a lot easier than a hungry, tired, restless baby  :-)

 I went to my first concert when I was about 10 or so.  We saw "Chicago" at some huge park in Houston, TX.  Joe went to Nitty Gritty Dirt Band when he was about 13 years old...they were playing at the Fremont City Auditorium...And now, our girls can say their first concert experience was NELLY who sang/rapped during halftime of the Nighthawk game at Rosenblatt Stadium.  It was awesome!  and very loud  :-) 

shortly after the show, both girls konked out for about 10 minutes or so.

My friend Jeff, his dad and younger brother Cory (Cory is 17).

Steph takin' a pic of Jagger...yes, I am that person who takes pictures of people taking pictures

McKenzie scanned the crowd and found her best friend (Cousin Anna) and all was right in the world!

Sprite, feel free...I give you permission to use this image in your next print ad.  If you don't see a rise in soda sales after putting this face on your next campaign, then I don't know what will!

oh Jagger,  you are just too sweet, I can't get enough of you  :-)

As you can see by Macy's adorable expression she had a blast!

The whole, long walk back to the car was just like this...Macy staring up and giggling at me.  I could not help but want to just watch her...it's a surprise I did not fall on my face as I was wearing heels and not paying attention to the uneven ground below in the dark streets on South East Omaha...

 I leave you with this cute video of "Jagger the Rockstar" dancing to Nelly!