Summer is Almost Here!

My brother, Douglas, loves me! And look at the dirt on his pants...ugh!

Stander time!

Look at that gorgeous curly hair! I love it, but it is so tough to manage right now. Alayna still wears a pony tail nearly every day. Tangles and more tangles.

Our pretty little princess wearing her Lexi's old teletubbies p.j.'s. Yes, I kept tons of stuff and it is wonderful.

Love the smiles!

Summer is almost here and we are counting the number of school days left! We are all very ready for a break from the alarm clocks and the normal routine. Alayna continues to grow and make advancements. And even though they may be small strides, they are huge to us.

This girl can eat!

First of all, boy can Alayna eat! She has made huge progress in this area and I'm thrilled. Here is a sample daily menu for Alayna: breakfast - entire bowl of oatmeal and a yogurt with milk or juice, lunch - vegetable, pudding and maybe 1/2 banana with milk or juice, snack - yogurt with graham crackers and finally dinner - vegetable, fruit parfait cup, 1/2 banana and milk or juice. Alayna's variety of what she eats is still pretty limited, but I was so excited to learn that she will finally take a bite out of a banana and chew it. It doesn't pop right back out anymore! She is doing a good job trying to maneuver it around with her tongue and keep it in her mouth. Last weekend she took a few bites of a grilled cheese and again I was so excited that I had to text Dana to tell him. Since she has been eating more she has decreased her intake on liquids and isn't as fond of her milk as she used to be. She'd rather have a bite of something! Her mouth is usually always open like a little bird waiting for her food. Alayna also enjoys eating banana-nut cheerios for breakfast. However, we have to put them in a baggie and crush them with a rolling pin. She can't eat them quite yet whole without gagging. We also use graham crackers a lot and smash them too. We add them to yogurt and baby food (fruits) to help thicken them and give them a different taste. She loves it!

Neurology Update

Dana took Alayna to Iowa City last week for a neurology check up. She hasn't had an seizures for quite a long time that we've witnessed anyway. The doctor said everything looked good and she recommended Alayna keep the same dosage of 45 mg of phenobarbital per day. We go back in 6-9 months. So, no news is good news!

Sitting and Standing

Alayna continues to stand in her stander each day for 30 minutes at a time. I admit that sometimes it is difficult during the work week and she misses her "standing" sessions once in a while. There is only so much time in a given evening and with 3 other very active, busy children our schedules are crazy. Alayna's sitting is getting so much better! She can initiate sitting straight up by herself and give those postural muscles a workout. She is also recognizing when she is falling backwards because she will laugh or smile and her expression says "oh, yeah I forgot to put my hand down." But she is definitely doing much better balancing on her own and playing with a few toys for longer periods of time. We are getting there!

Sleep and Teeth

Alayna went through another bad spell of sleeping awhile back. It was a bit rough right after spring break, but since then it has been pretty good. However, just in the past few days she has been waking up around 3-4 am crying. Poor thing. I do think it is her teeth again. The doctor told me they are like wisdom teeth and come up and then go back down. I put orajel on her gums last night, but the thing is you have to be quick and completely awake and on cue to do this. And at 3:30 am I was not! You see, she got me last night and bit my finger and when she clamps down she doesn't let go. Remember, she has no clue she is biting anyone. It's just an instinct to clamp down. And so, it turned into a waiting game of when is Alayna going to give me my finger back? Oh, I thought I was going to wake the entire house. It hurt and it still does today! Once I gave her some motrin and layed down with her on Alexis's bed, she relaxed and stopped crying. Thankfully we were only up an hour and both back in our beds by 4:30 am. Tonight she gets the motrin BEFORE bed!