Hollyland

Today was a low key day. We had some bananas for breakfast and Holly explored her new play area. I am not sure that she really acknowledged that the tree was gone but she was happy to have the extra space and dug right into her toys.

She quickly went to and found the nearest thing that could get her into trouble. We forgot to put up the special thing that keeps the blind strings short, so after finding the string, which I put up she then discovered the blinds themselves. I guess the good thing about her getting herself into trouble is the good physical therapy it provides I mean seriously look at that neck extension, no its not 90 degrees, but it is certainly at least 45.

Holly did not want to take her nap and didn’t fall asleep until almost 11:45 so I had to wake her at 12:30 when Katie arrived. It took her a bit to warm up to her being here and she was done earlier then usual. We played with the big bouncy ball and crawled through the tub. Katie decided to let us keep the tube here for a couple of weeks since Holly is the only patient she is using it on. Joel and I have come up with some fun ideas that I am sure you will read about in the days to follow.

After therapy we had lunch #1 which consisted of Banana and Squash, later we had some snacks. I always forget to give her snacks to chew on because I am afraid of the gagging so ideally I need to do it between food and bottles. During therapy I was eating lunch, some left over Pizza and she was very interested in my food so I gave her some of the crust to chew on. Over protective Daddy protested, but Katie backed me up and thought it was a great idea. This reminded me I should try with actual baby snacks today.

So we had some Puffs, a Wagon Wheel, a Teething Biscuit, Some mini Crackers, a Zwieback toast, and these new Strawberry Yogurt Puffs that melt in your mouth. She did pretty good munching on them, as you can see here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4HErh3LehY

Once she was done I gave her some Apple Vanilla and then we played some more. She was getting very fussy and grumpy and fell asleep around 5:45 for her second nap. I decided to let her sleep since her morning nap was cut short and since she had Night Terrors a few days ago. She ended up sleeping until 8:15 and woke up so precious like a little gopher.

Daddy was excited to get a little bit of Holly time. She woke just as we sat down to eat dinner, so Joel played with her and let me eat first. She was being clingy though and wanted Mommy. She was happy if I was sitting on the floor with her and would crawl over and stand up next to me if I was on the couch.

She did get to bed a little late, but it wasn’t terrible. We tried putting her down twice, and I even made her an 8th bottle, but she didn’t want it. In the end I gave her a teething rind which soothed her and she fell asleep. I wonder if it is a sensory thing, as the teething ring is freezing cold, I mean it is basically ice and she likes to put it on her face and especially on her ear, it doesn’t seem to bother her at all. So those of you with kids who have SPD any input please comment.

The other thing I am curious about is the biting. So I realize that FX Kids tend to like to chew on things, thus the chewlery and damaged collars. But Holly does a few additional things. 1st she grinds her teeth, which drives me crazy, but isn’t the most worrisome. 2nd she likes to chew on wood, but also metal. She loves to chew on Metal, like the bottom of my Sigg Bottle, is it the coolness? The sound it makes when she crapes her teeth on it? And 3rd she likes to pull on her teeth, like she will put a string in her mouth that goes behind her four bottom teeth then pull it out on either side. Or if she is chewing on like a baby food lib, she will put the lip behind her teeth then pull it out. She also has some toys she does this with.

Is this Dangerous? Will she Damage her teeth? Have your kids done things like this? Is she trying to get more sensory input? I was talking to Katie about this today and she said that swinging happens to provide the same input at biting, so we put her down on a quilt and each held two sides and swung her side to side. The first time she look terrified and I was ready to give up, but we tried slower one more time and the second time she liked it, so we did it two more times. Weather it helped or not, who knows. Thoughts?