Callie

Callie has been doing really well since her surgery. She never showed any sign of pain after the procedure. I gave her tylenol for the first few days just to keep any possible pain at bay, but when we asked if anything hurt, she always told us "no." I don't really understand how my child can have something cut out of her throat and never exhibit any form of discomfort.

Callie's sleeping has markedly improved. I hoped that when she started getting a good night's sleep she would stop headbutting, but that is not the case. I think she headbutts less and for shorter periods of time but it is still incredibly annoying when she does it.

(If you didn't know about Callie's headbutting, it's something she does almost every night. It's a self-stimulation thing that's possibly related to her having been a micropreemie. Some other kids do it too, but it occurs more often in preemies. It doesn't do any harm, but sure irritates everyone within earshot. She bangs her head repeatedly for several minutes on the mattress and grunts loudly while doing so. How that actually helps her fall asleep, I have no idea. Maybe it just helps her wear herself out so she's more tired. Anyway, it's something she's done for a long time and should eventually outgrow. At least it's getting better)

We have once again put Callie and Sadie in a room together. It is going very well. We have had a few instances where the girls had a screaming competition to see who could be louder and endure longer. (Sadie is definitely louder but Callie has more endurance). For the most part, though, they sleep peacefully and seem to enjoy being in a room together. Sadie can now reposition without waking Callie and Callie can puke without waking Sadie.

Callie has done better with keeping food down since her surgery. She no longer gags and vomits every time she cries. In fact, we have noticed it is more difficult for her to gag herself on purpose. Aside from all the water and juice she drank the day of surgery, she hasn't really improved in that area. She will still drink small amounts but can easily get choked if she swallows too much. Now that Sadie is feeding herself beginner foods, Callie is more interested in trying to do the same thing. She can eat a handful of puffs or easily dissolved finger foods and she will often take Sadie's if she doesn't have any for herself.

Callie recently tested out of her verbal goals for speech therapy so we are now working twice a week with a therapist on eating. Somehow we will get through to Callie that eating can be fun and pleasurable and I still think that one day she will get it. On Friday I watched her from an observation window at therapy and she was happy trying to munch on puffs and pretzels. When the therapist worked with her on chocolate syrup, caramel syrup, bbq sauce and french dressing, it was incredibly interesting to see how uncomfortable and uneasy it made Callie to try to even touch those foods.

Now that Callie is 3, we have moved her up to her new Sunday School class and she absolutely loves it. She sings, does crafts, has a story time, and plays games. There is more structure than her previous room and she is really doing well. It is still all new to her and she is pretty cautious with it all but she enjoys going and is in a great mood when we pick her up.

Callie's verbal language continues to explode and she keeps us laughing a lot. The other day Wyatt did something to make her cry and Sadie found it amusing. Callie looked at Sadie and said, "Stop laughing Sadie-bug. It's not funny. Stop laughing." ("Sadie-bug" is our occasional nickname for Sadie. It seems to be Callie's permanent name for her sister.) During bathtime, Sadie is fascinated with Callie's mic-key button. I often hear, "No, Sadie-bug. Leave my mic-key button alone. Mommy, Sadie-bug's grabbing my button." She is my little informant who will let me know when Sadie is eating paper or playing in the dog bowl or when Wyatt is doing something he shouldn't.

Christmas

We had a wonderful ending to 2010 and a great start to 2011.

All three kids were a blast this Christmas. Wyatt enjoyed opening presents for himself and his sisters, Callie yelled and squealed with every gift and Sadie tried to eat all the wrapping paper she could.

We were very low key with gifts for the kids this year, but by the time they recieved presents from two sets of grandparents, aunts, uncles, and assorted other family members and friends, they had stacks of presents to open.

Some of Wyatt's gifts were a train table, guitar/drum/keyboard lessons, a litebrite and a construction kit where he can saw and hammer and build with pretend wood.

Callie's gifts were more therapy related. She is now the proud owner of a therapy trampoline, a child sized medicine ball, and an assortment of chewy toys (associated with speech therapy). She also received a doll and gymnastics lessons.

Sadie would have been fine if we had just given her boxes and paper and bows but she did get a few new toys and clothes.

Christmas day we decided to make the jump and move Callie to a big girl bed. Callie has been sleeping much better since her surgery and we knew at some point we needed to do it. We were a little nervous about how it would go, though. We had been talking about it for a while and Callie watched as we converted her crib into a toddler bed. When bedtime came we tried it out and Callie did WONDERFULLY. She climbed in bed and stayed there all night long. We were amazed when she stayed in bed the next morning and waited for us to come get her up. Jason and I were expecting her to try to escape and pull out her feeding tube in the process but she didn't. Callie seems to like her new bed and continues to do well each night. Now if we could just keep her from grunting loudly in the middle of the night and waking up her sister...