Happy Birthday, Allie Rae!

Eight years ago on a very stormy night my sister delivered a precious little girl named Allie Rae. Allie grew and grew until she was the most adorable toddler. She never ran out of fun things to play with.

She loved her baby brother with all her heart.

And, of course, she loved her fur friends too.

At her second birthday party, she was a picture of delight as all sorts of fun gifts were showered on her.

She made the cutest faces.

And seeing that she was such a big girl now, she helped herself to her own birthday cake.

As a two year old, Allie took immpeccable care of her little brother.

She loved to climb and smile.

And she was the best helper in the kitchen!

She pretty much bathed herself.

And no challenge was too great for her.  A toddler proof cover on a doorknob was no reason to slow down!

Because of course, evverything has a key.

She was the perfect picture of fashion!

At three, her silly bones were obviously growing just fine!

She was capable of taking care of her own spa pedicures.

And loved getting her little face painted.

She gave her little brother the best hugs when he needed them most.

She loved to give her dollies a ride in the fresh Vegas air.

And helped her younger brother learn to ride his bike.

At Christmas time that year, Allie, Aiden, and their Mommy got to come visit me and Uncle James.  Of course, Christmas in Texas is rarely white, so we spent lots of time outside.

Allie's adventerous spirit has us all laughing and playing in the leaves.

Beautiful, beautiful girl!

I love her sassy little grins!

And, of course, I'm absolutely proud to have been the one to teach her how to balance a spoon on her nose!

The year Allie turned four, I got to surprise her in Colorado.  It was so fun to see her reaction!  I had missed her!

Of course, she was as cute and spunky as ever!

Later that year was Uncle Mike and Aunt Lissie's wedding.  Allie was an awesome helper!

I absolutely love this sweet photo of her and her Momma.  It is one of my longtime favorites!

At five, Allie showed off wonderful big cousin skills with Ian.

She made him giggle and laugh.

And took him on new adventures!

Ian loves his big cousin.

She is always there for him.

And has got him walking in the right direction!

If you look carefully, you can see both Allie and Ian are concentrating so hard that their tongues are sticking out! That's one and six year old focus for you!

At seven, Allie (and her funny brother) continued to show awesome big cousin skills.  Allie started developin some great singing and acting skills too.

She is a princess like her Momma.

And most definitely a Daddy's girl.

Now, at eight, Allie has turned into a beautiful young lady with an amazing personality and a heart as big as Texas (even though she doesn't live here anymore...sniff, sniff).  I am beyond excited to get to see her next month!  Happy 8th Birthday, Sweetheart!  We love you tons!!

So Proud!

Today was a big day for Ian!  While he has come really far in so many areas, food textures remain a big problem.  The poor guy has lots of allergies too, so between textures and allergic reactions, he sticks to his safe foods.  Black beans topped with shredded cheese are a sure bet.  Everything else is give and take on any specific day.  

I went to a wonderful seminar recently where one of the presenters talked about oral motor skills needed for eating.  Unfortunately, her wonderful expertise costs $130/hr and is recommended for one hour three times a week for starters.  Definitely not happening on our budget right now.  So I've been doing a ton of google research and learning about different methods for working on oral motor skills and for getting sensory kiddos to eat.

With school being over and Ian having improved so much in receptive and expressive speech skills, I decided this was the week (month, year, whatever it took) that he was going to learn to like pearsauce.  Babies-R-Us sells cool little pouches with pureed pears, bananas, and mangos (and other flavors that Ian can't have).  I got a bunch of the first three on sale recently and introduced the pear one as a "pear snack" to Ian.  

Let's just Ian thrilled with Mommy's new exciting pear snack until Mommy wanted him to put it in his mouth. Our convo went like this:

Mommy: Oh look!  Mommy got you pear snacks.  Yummy!  (Mommy sets kitchen timer for five minutes.  Conventional methods say to let timer end the battle, not the parent or child.)

Ian: Pear snacks!

Mommy: Ok, look...here's how you open it.  Then you take a lick (showing him).  It tastes good!

Ian: IDONWANIT!  (I don't want it)

Mommy: You have to take one lick.  Then you can have a Skittle.

Ian: Candy!  I like it!

Mommy: Yup.  You can have one candy.  But first you have to have a lick.  (Moves pouch towards Ian.)

Ian: NONONONONONONO!  IDONWANIT!

Mommy: You have to take one lick.  (Grabs child who is trying to run away and puts him in restraint hold with one hand.  Grabs pouch with other.  Tries to force between clench lips. Realizes she needs a third hand to squish cheeks to open mouth.  Decides to screw conventional methods and uses leg to pin child instead, freeing the hand to presses child's cheeks to force mouth open.  Gets a teeny tiny bit of pears in child's mouth.)

Ian: ppppppbbbbbbbbthhhhhhhhhhhhhh!  (Spits pears all over self and Mommy.  Twists, turns, fights, pushes, tries to get out of hold.)

Mommy:  (Getting a major workout, feeling grateful that she is wearing an old t-shirt.)You have to swallow before you can have the Skittle.  (Wipes pureed pear/drool mix off chin and shoves in mouth before lips can clench.)

Ian: pppbbbttthhhhhhhhh!  NONONO!  IDONWANIT!

Mommy: Do you want a Skittle?

Ian: Yeth.

Mommy:  Then you have to swallow.  Go gulp (makes swallowing sound).

Ian: (Turns, twists, resists, spits.  Gets pears shoved back in mouth.  Finally gulps.)

Mommy: Yay!  You did it!  Here's your purple skittle.

Ian:  (Eats purple Skittle.  Resumes battle over second lick.)

Mommy: After this lick, you can have a red Skittle (cause those are more motivating, you know!).  (Lets child out of restraint hold to turn off timer that is beeping in the background.  Child did not know what it was for anyways.)

And so our battle ensued.  Ian finally took three licks, probably swallowed nothing, and swiped a fourth Skittle.  

The next day I was at work, so it was Daddy's turn.  I had explained the method I ended up using and told Daddy to do whatever worked for him.  Daddy had the same fight with the first lick.  Then he got the brilliant idea to tell Ian that he would scrape it behind Ian's top teeth so Ian wouldn't have to taste it.  For some strange reason, Ian agreed to this.  We still can't believe Ian let him do it this way (especially since Ian would still taste it)!  But it worked!  Ian took that bite with much less fuss.  And then he took a third and fourth bite!  We also upped the ante by rewarding with pieces of a gluten-free, dairy-free chocolate bars from Whole Foods.

Today, I sat down with Ian for pear snack time.  He told me he wanted a spoon.  So I asked if he wanted a bowl too and he did.  After squeezing about eight bites worth into the bowl, I gave him about half a toddler spoonful.  And he took it just fine!  Of course, he wanted his candy bar piece right away.  I think he was proud of himself though.  He was dancing and twirling with a big grin as he ate his piece of candy bar.  We repeated that seven more times with each bite becoming progressively larger.  The last bite Ian took was a very full toddler spoonful and he did great!

A little bit later, he was hitting his balls off of his new t-ball set and turned to me and said, "Yummy pear snack.  Yummy chocolate."  I am so proud of him!!!  (And of me and Daddy for surviving the first two rounds!)

Later on tonight, James opened a can of chili for his dinner.  Ian came closer to inspect it (normal) and then asked what it was (normal).  James told him it was chili ketchup and Ian said he wanted some (somewhat normal).  James gave him a bite and he actually ate it (not normal at all)!!!  Ian is notorious for being interested in our food and even sometimes saying he wants some until it is on a spoon in front of his mouth.

I can't even begin to say how proud I am of Ian!  We have really turned a corner and hopefully all of this good eating will continue!  Granted, we still haven't made it through one pouch of pears yet, but I have hope that this might go a little easier than I had expected.

Fun with Noah

We had been so busy over this past semester that we hardly got to see Noah and Libby at all.  We had really missed them and were super excited to get to see them twice this week!

On Monday, Noah came over to play.  He and Ian had so much fun with Ian's new car track.

Watching the car go under the bridge.

At one point, Ian handed the car to Noah and said "here".  Noah was so quick to respond with "thank you!"  Ian then said "welcome!"  It was the cutest little display of manners!

After playing with cars for a little bit, we headed to the pool.  The boys had picked roses to give to their Mommies with Noah's guidance.  (Libby and Josh - watch out!  Noah is gonna totally sweep some little girl off her feet one day!)

Taking a break.  Ian pointing to his friend and himself.  He was so happy to have Noah there to play with!

Then today we got to go to a new water park with Noah and Libby.  It was amazing!  Just the perfect size for our little boys.  It wasn't too big, there was fun stuff to do, and the boys loved it!

Playing with the water works.  Noah was extremely brave and walked under all the big waterfalls and went down the slides right away!

The sun didn't come out until a little later, so it was a tad chilly.  We dried off after a bit and went to take a snack break.

The boys loved their Icee Pops!  (And sweet, sweet little Noah has yet another flower in his hand for his Mommy!)

Noah teaching Ian the finer art of flower picking.

Then we went back in the pool for a while.  After going down the lazy river, a bunch of slides, and under lots of big waterfalls, Ian needed a little break.  He curled right up in his towel in the sun.

Then it was time to play in the pool again.  After a bit, we took another snack break.  Both boys are yelling "banana" here!  I love it!  They are so cute together!

Noah and Libby, we had a blast with y'all!  Cannot wait for our next adventure!