Straws

These little clyndrical tubes have been come a necessity around our house. We are starting to become pretty creative as to what we can drink from them too.

Veggies? Hey! why not?

 

One hot Saturday afternoon Stephen and I stopped for some 1/2 price drinks from Sonic. My favorite!!! I guess I've given in to sheltering him from sugar, but hey if he'll drink it.

A little background as to why.

One of Andrew's last oral motor/feeding goals was to drink from a straw. It took him a bit to get the concept. But after making a few of my famous smoothies. It didn't take him too long and we'd practice every now and then. We decided to wean him off of a bottle which he's done for a little while now. At first it wasn't a big deal, but then this little guy decided he wouldn't take a sippy cup too well either. With the heat here in Texas I started to worry about dehydration and I went into my OCD mode. I started to keep track of his fluid intake and some days he only took a total of 6oz. (a third of what he should) with me trying everything I knew. Drinking has always been a struggle from day one with this boy. Sometimes I wonder if it will ever get any better? Not sure about that, but I knew this was the next hurdle we had to figure out.

His dr. recommended a swallow study. Surprisingly they never did one in the NICU, so we decided to go for it. This was actually really quite interesting for me. We'd hoped it would answer questions and be another piece to the puzzle. We went downtown to the hospital and they had me bring a variety of different food textures and liquids. They then mixed them in a die and had him eat/drink each one. As he did, they had a live video x-ray of everything. You could see Andrew munch his little food or drink from his bottle. The x-ray showed how his tongue worked the food/liquid and they could track it all the way down his throat. I was very intrigued at the whole process. It was great news that everything was completely normal....but that left us back at square one. Now what?

One day my sister-in-law had some chocolate milk boxes for her kids and I gave one to Andrew. He LOVED it and took more liquids that afternoon than he had in a very long time. I had to get me some of those and quick. After much experimentation, we've figured out that it really wasn't the chocolate milk part necessarily, but sucking from a straw. That's the key. Somehow it's easier for him and he has more control with a straw while drinking then from a sippy cup, even with the valve.
So we started working with his therapist on more oral motor stuff. She had some great ideas...which got me doing all sorts of research.  We went back to strengthening those muscles in the face and trying to drink from a straw. He's gottn much better the last few weeks, but this is where some creativity comes in. Here's just a sampling of what we had tried at lunch one day.

One Happy Kid!

Who knew? It's working...for now...I'm sure in a few months weeks things might change. There might be some other hurdle we'll have to get over. But for now we'll take it.  

Texas Rangers

Stephen and I got a babysitter this past weekend and were able to get away for 6 whole hours. It was a much needed date night for the both of us!

It all started with a few of these to get us in the door.

Of this amazing stadium just a few miles away from our home.

Where we scored a couple of free Texas Rangers t-shirts...although by the time we got there, all they had left were size medium. Poor Stephen...but we had awesome seats right along the first base foul line, which made up for the small shirts. Best view in the house in my opinion.

Enjoyed the wonderful company of these fine people. We brought our mitts hoping to catch a foul ball, but no such luck. We love hanging out with Stephen's aunts & uncle.

 

Saw some famous legendary hall of fame baseball players like this "Nolan Ryan" guy.

Watched, Cheered, held our breathe and yelled like crazy for our new hometown team.

 

It was a nail-biting game with both teams tied 1 to 1. That is up until the bottom of the 9th inning and last pitch of the game...where they pulled it off and hit a winning run into home plate. The anxiety and excitement of it all made me miss my good ol' softball days just a wee-bit.

To top it all off, we had awesome weather!  Better than anyone could have hoped for being the middle of August... in Texas.

And now we've got Texas Ranger spirit all throughout our house. I'm a bit biased, but don't you think this is the cutest little Ranger fan there ever was? Yeah, I thought so too.

A Big Boy

Andrew is growing up so fast! In September he will be 18 months old and starting nusery at church. That just seems so crazy and well I just don't know if I'm read for that or not....
 I was uploading some videos the other day and just had to share this that was taken a few weeks ago.

Just a few things about Andrew right now...

We are so excited that he has some language skills. He also loves to say "hi" and will greet new people, from everyone at the grocery store to people at our front door. It's pretty fun to hear him say it. The best is when he's whining and somebody walks into the room. Sometimes, he'll stop and say "hi", then get right back to whining or crying.

He also understands simple words like 'up' 'more' 'all done' 'off' and 'Bye bye'

Every morning he is soooo snuggley. It's my favorite time of the day. We'll just sit in the rocking chair, read books and sing songs.  Andrew loves to help mommy and daddy by turning the pages.

His favorite songs to sing are 'The wheels on the bus', 'how much is that doggie' and 'if you're happy and you know it' complete with hand clapping and feet stomping on cue.

He will scoot all the way down the hall to this room to find his favorite toy and the closet mirror. It's pretty fun to see all the funny faces he pulls.

He is an awesome sleeper and is pretty much like clock work. Goes down between 7-7:30 and sleeps until 7:00 in the morning and he takes two good 2 hour or longer naps. He just needs his little blanket and he can put him self to sleep. What a rockstar!

He LOVES to go for walks in the stroller.

We are excited to finally say that this guy is no longer taking a bottle or a pacifier and is completely off of formula! Woo hoo!

(Okay, so he never really had too much of an attachment to a pacifier and hasn't taken one for months and bottles have always been such a struggle that it really was no different to him. So the weaning task really wasn't hard at all. Still trying to get this boy to drink from anything is a daily battle. Straws are becoming a favorite though) What a big boy!

He's been a healthy little guy and has only had one cold since coming home from the hospital.

Lately, he likes to follow me around the house as I vacuum different rooms. He's not afriad of the vacuum, but just makes sure he knows where it is.

His top teeth are finally starting to poke through, YEA!

We love our little Andrew and are grateful for all the progress he's making! He's got a pretty determined little personality and is becoming a little tease. He brings lots of smiles and laughter into our home.

Everything is Bigger in Texas!

It really is so eye opening to be able to live in different parts of the country and embrace what each area has to offer. I'm loving it! They all have their uniqueness and things that I find interesting...it's kind of fun to take note. So indulge me as I ramble a bit...

Compared to Illinois, there's a whole new wild life surrounding our house. So far we've seen screech owls, a hawk (that flew right into our big back window), geckos, lizards, opossums and I almost stepped on this little guy. Guess he decided to come hang out on our back porch after a big rain storm.

It's already August and we still have about 2 more months of the HUMIDity & HEAT. We are surviving, and I would really have to say it's not as bad as I'd predicted it would be. Some days I think it's actually been hotter in Utah than here. Really, only the last few weeks have been consistently around 104 or so. The humidity isn't too terrible either. I was born and raised in the desert of Utah, so I can usually tell when there's even a little humidity in the air. Most days here, I don't even notice it. On the other hand...yesterday was one of the hotter days. It got up to 108, so maybe I'm speaking too soon.

Here in TEXAS, they know the true meaning of a frontage road. It took a little getting used to, but I love how easy it is to get on and off the freeways. And speaking of their freeways....the overpasses here are SKY HIGH...seriously. Sometimes my fear of heights kicks in as we're going over them and I hold on in the car with white knuckles, until we are a safer distance to the ground. Not sure if I'll get use to that one or not. :)

Traffic lights. I just had to take a picture of this. It took a few weeks of driving around for me to get used the lights being turned sideways. Guess Texas just has to be different. Anybody know the reason why? We sure haven't figured it out yet.

There are so many different little bbq places, which both Stephen and I love. We are suckers for some good bbq and we've come to the right place. Although we soon realized that there isn't enough time in the world to try them all....and everybody has their favorite place to recommend. So far we've tried a few different places and loved them all. It will be hard to pick a favorite.

Everyone is so friendly down here. Whether it is out and about doing errands or taking a walk around the neighborhood. We get stopped so many times. People saying hello and asking all sorts of questions about Andrew. One day our next door neighbor was driving away and she stopped and got out of her car to chat....much different then Chicago.

So far we have really loved it out here and have felt right at home in the great state of Texas! It's always hard to move, leave friends, make changes and start over.  But each time I know I grow and learn so much.

Exploring

We've been exploring a lot of fun new places since we've moved. Texas has a lot to offer and our bucket list of things to do while we are here keeps getting longer and longer and longer. Hopefully we can squeeze in as much as we can.

Grapevine Lake.
We decided we needed to get away one Saturday and went to explore a nearby lake. We were anxious to find a way to cool off on a sweltering hot Saturday. The lake was beautiful and did its job in finding some relief. Stephen and I loved seeing the sailboats and Andrew, of course, loved splashing in the water. All in all a great relaxing Saturday. 

Our attempt at a group picture

We loved watching the sailboats go by

Dallas Temple.

When we found out we were heading to Texas, I was glad to know that we'd be close to a temple. It's nice that it's only 30 min away. I love spending time there. I also loved the fact that it's almost exactly like the Chicago temple. Just felt right at home. 

Beautiful Morning at the Temple

Dallas Temple

The city.

I've ventured into the city a handful times already. Of course we've just been to the children's hospital for doctors appointments. So not the most exciting of trips. But I would have to say the traffic out here is not as bad as Chicago..at least for me. 

Had to take this for my brother. He works at Amegy Bank a big bank in 

Texas. I spotted it on my way home from downtown last week.

For the past month or so, I can actually get around town for the most part without the GPS...if I'm going to my usual spots grocery store, the bank, doctor appointments, Target, Costco, church...etc. It took me many months to be able to do this in Chicago...my GPS is my best friend when finding new places and exploring a new city. Although, my first trip to walmart here, I was just following the GPS and came in the back way. I was very surpised to see this! The Dallas Cowboy's Stadium right across the street.

That place is HUGE! I knew we lived close, but sure didn't realize it was just 3 miles from my house.
Just a side note...don't go to walmart when there is an event going on at the stadium.

Andrew's been exploring all over our house too. Every time I set him down, he rolls right onto his tummy and goes to explore. We LOVE this!

He wiggled around the floor so much he worked his way right out of his pants!

The dishwasher is the perfect height.

He hasn't figured out how to go into reverse and gets frustrated when he can't get out.

Now, this is usually how most of our pictures turn out. He's just too fast for me.