Both kids did some really interesting things today that I just had to share.

Damien has been doing weird things with his mouth that he hadn’t done before. He’s been putting his bottom lip inside his mouth, not sucking on it or anything, but at least he’s gotten better at eating solids. I was able to give him a meal today of rice cereal and sweet potatoes, which he seemed to like. He had about 3 spoons of it, so not a large quantity, but at least he didn’t cry!

The past few days I’ve been able to give Liliana some spoon feedings as well; she’s gotten her tomato vegetable soup, green peas (baby food), and yogurt. She sometimes shuns the spoon completely, opting to go with a finger instead. The other day, I tried giving her a graham cracker with butter on it (the occupational therapist suggested graham or Ritz crackers for Liliana, and the nutritionist said to dip everything that’s crunchy-solid into butter); she shied away from it and I ended up eating it. Since graham crackers and butter are the 2 main ingredients in a graham cracker pie crust, it tasted really good. If Liliana ever started liking and eating that combo consistently, she would really start to pack on the pounds!

Anyhow, Liliana accompanied me on a trip to the grocery store. We went and picked out a few apples; it was fun for her to recognize and say the word “apple”, but not fun when she started gagging and throwing up! The only thing I had was one of Damien’s onesies in my bag…thankfully, the store wasn’t very busy. After the apples we went and got some bananas, or “nanas” as Liliana says it. I think a guy gave me a weird look for saying, “Yes, Liliana. Nanas! Er, bananas!”

So now the point of my story is coming up. Tonight Liliana went to where we store the bananas on the counter. She pointed at them and said “nanas”, and since it seemed like she wanted one I gave her one to hold. She went off to where Sean was and tried eating the banana while it was still unpeeled. I peeled the banana and gave it to her. She grabbed it and was holding it, and then she started taking HUGE bites of the banana!

Her first bite she was just moving the banana around in her mouth a lot. It looked like she was chewing it, but it wasn’t really happening. Once she was done tasting it, she spat it out! Then she took more bites. And spat those out too! So when she took a bite and then spat it out immediately onto my dress, I said that was it. I took the banana, said “All done!” and walked away with it. She started throwing a tantrum. Yes, it’s very fun to just spit food onto your clothes and everyone else’s clothes.

I gave her a small popsicle, and she seemed placated by that…until she tried to give it to me and dropped it onto the floor. Another tantrum.

Oh yeah. I had to buy some Pediasure because I’m not exactly sure when we’re going to be getting Liliana’s formula. I’m trying to get her formula through Apria, our medical supply company, instead of WIC. I called GI about sending a prescription for the formula, and they sent the script for the wrong kind (they did Peptamen Jr 1.5 instead of 1.0). I called and left a message for GI about the prescription change; hopefully they redid it with the correct formula.

It would be nice to get all of Liliana’s formula that she needs. We already get the max amount of formula from WIC, and I often have to supplement with Pediasure. With WIC, I also have to go to their office every month to sign for the formula. With Apria, it would get shipped to the house with just a phone call, but first we have to get insurance to approve it. The Early Intervention nurse and occupational therapist say that even if our private insurance were to deny it, Medical Assistance would pick up the bill. I sure hope so…

We are supposed to get a sample case of Peptamen Jr 1.5 sometime, but I don’t know what I’m going to do if I can’t get Liliana’s formula for another week. Right now I won’t be able to get it from WIC because I would have to get a new prescription on their specialized WIC form (the script is good for 6 months and I’m supposed to renew it this upcoming appointment), and I really don’t want to go through the trouble of this WIC script if I’m just going to get it from Apria. So complicated.

Okay, it’s late and I’m tired (can’t you tell from my rambling tone?). Happy Father’s Day!