More Updates

I think we're enough past sickness to actually give details that are not related to diapers or snot. Although, I will mention that we've been to the doctor three times in a week - two visits were for multiple people - and have a running total of 1 case of asthmatic URI, 3 cases of pink eye, 1 case of an intestinal "bug" (it's a very technical medical term), 1 case of non-asthmatic URI, and, 1 yeast infection/diaper rash. Bring the Lysol, folks.

Annie finally has her therapist and we could not be more pleased. She had her first session last Thursday and we have an answer. Annie's problems are in her lower jaw and tongue. Where most people have a line down the middle of their tongue - which shows muscle tone - Annie's tongue is soft with no line. She essentially has no muscle strength or tone in her tongue. She cannot move her tongue side-to-side or up-and-down. My initial concern is speech but we're working on mastering the bottle and eating from a spoon. When she eats from a spoon, food gets stuck in her cheeks because she has no tongue strength. Annie rolls both directions but still lacks core strength. We're feeding her in a completely upright position now and that is a challenge for her. She's eating in her bumbo which helps but she's so concerned with where her bottle is that she's constantly looking all over. Annie's therapist also likes using a binkie but said the ones we have are not good for her because they allow the binkie to hang in her mouth and do not encourage Annie to suck and develop strength. SOOOOOOOOO, we are also introducing a new bink. She's not very keen on them because she has to work really hard. It's pathetic, though, because as soon as you put the new binkie in her mouth she just sucks for dear life and then stops and lets the bink fall out. Then she looks at us like she's thinking, "GEEZ, what was all that about?". In short, it's going to be a process but she will hopefully come out ahead.

Emma is getting very excited for Halloween. She's very proud to tell everyone that she's going to be "Finderella" and that Annie's going to be a pumpkin. I found Emma the CUTEST Cinderella glass slippers that have lights in the heels. I really did get them for her but only because they didn't have them in my size. We made Halloween cupcakes this weekend and Emma had a blast.