I don’t have any pictures of the kids yet; Liliana’s made the living room a mess and Damien’s been napping a lot this morning, so there’s been no time to snap up any good pics!

Anyway, yesterday was Liliana’s occupational therapy, and her OT was very happy with her progress. She saw Liliana put a graham cracker in her mouth, and even though Liliana wasn’t taking any bites off of it, she observed that Liliana was putting it further back into her mouth at each try. I had put a small amount of custard into a bowl for Liliana’s spoon feeding, and she ate it all. We gave her a second helping, which she ate half of, and we had to motivate her to eat more by dipping graham crackers in it. She didn’t finish the second helping, but the feeding was successful.

Liliana’s been tasting a lot of different things; she’s tried cherries (both dried and fresh), pork, cheese…but she hasn’t been able to chew on anything. I tried showing her how to chew with the pork and she started to chew, but not with the food in the right place! She had the pork on her tongue instead of at the sides of her mouth. I told the OT about this, and she suggested getting those mesh bags that babies can chew on. I think it’s a good idea, especially since Damien could start using them as well. Some of the reviews on Amazon say that they use frozen bananas, pieces of apples or pears, and I’m sure I could put in frozen mango.

These popsicle molds also look promising. Liliana’s been eating these slow-melt popsicles that Grandma gets, and on Wednesday Liliana ate more of the popsicle than she ever has before. Her periactin might actually be working now and increasing her appetite! Anyway, this would be a good thing for Damien too to help him work on his hand-eye coordination. Apparently, each popsicle mold holds 1 oz, probably the best amount for Liliana to try. I could see both the kids using these outside on a hot summer day!

Let’s see…Liliana’s been steadily getting new words like window, shirt, and pants. I drew a bear for her yesterday and she recognized it as being a bear. It’s kind of surprising how kids can tell the difference between animals just by the shape of their ears; I’ve drawn her cats, dogs, bunnies, and now a bear, and she’s been able to correctly identify all of them, even though they have the same face with slightly different ears.

This week Damien’s started eating peas and applesauce. He’s even eaten a kernel of corn, though I don’t know how.

Damien has been getting more active every day. He can now take steps with Daddy’s help, and he loves it.

So…baby pictures later. Have to feed Damien!