Helping!!

Maryam saw Daddy shoveling rocks and putting them in the wheel barrel and decided she needed to help!

So, she and I got her shovel and wheel barrel and brought them out to where Daddy was working.

Mommy took pictures instead of helping! But Maryam sure was a good little helper!

So, Maryam's OT Melina at CHOC decided that Maryam is doing much better at swallowing purees than she is at chewing and swallowing solids. She probably got this idea from the crazy tremendous amounts of Cool Whip the girl can eat. While she was at the feeding session on Tuesday Maryam ate about 1/2 jar of Gerber 3 sweet potatoes and at her session on Wednesday ate about 1/3 jar of Gerber 3 fruit medley! Last night when we got home I gave her the rest of the sweet potatoes and in about a 45 minute dinner session with Mommy she only spit her food out 3 times! THAT'S HUGE!!!!!!
This morning I tried giving her some Cinnamon apple oatmeal and she was back to the gagging, purple turning, choking, not breathing baby I'm more used to. That is a typical reaction Maryam has to eating purees. I actually knew how to handle that! Seeing her put a spoon in her mouth and swallow food is shocking! Yeah, we do things backward in our family. The more I looked a the consistency of the oatmeal, the more it made sense. It was just way too chunky for her. I think the chunks is what set off the gag reflex which lead to the turning purple, choking and not breathing I was talking about. So at lunch I tried a food that was less chunky, a broccoli, carrot and cheese combo. She seemed to REALLY like this one! UNTIL she hit a carrot....then it was back to the gagging, well you know the rest. So, I pushed all the carrots aside and she managed to eat about 1/3 of the jar. CRAZY! At dinner time I decided to take a break and let Brett try. He fed her some chicken puree that she seemed to gobble right up! He gave her a bowl full and she ate it all! He said she only spit it out once. Talk about progress, right?
The super crazy part, aside from actually seeing Maryam put food into her mouth and swallow it, is that less than 6 months ago, there was NO WAY that we could get any baby food stuff in her mouth. Just the sight of it made her gag. I feel like I'm seeing real progress! Not that we haven't seen progress in the past, because we have. There was a time when Maryam wouldn't drink water, or put any food into her mouth....NOTHING. Now she's drinking about 8 ounces of water a day, eating baby food, chewing on burgers, fries and nuggets and asking for "a bite" of almost anything Mommy and Daddy are eating. She's come a very long way.

Tonight I tried getting Maryam down another 15 minutes earlier than last night's 9:50pm. I thought I was moderately successful. I laid her in bed at exactly 9:42. I was pleased with my efforts because that's 8 minutes earlier than last night! THEN the little bugger got out of bed and 10:07 and I had to start all over again. I finally put her back in bed at 10:35....definitely NOT a success story. So, now I have a plan. Tomorrow morning I'm just going to wake her up when I get up. No more letting her sleep in until 9:30 like she did this morning. Maybe if she wakes up earlier, she'll go to bed earlier. I guess I'll just have to wait to see. I only have 10 more days to get her on the CHOC schedule! That schedule is up and at 'em at 7:00 for vitals and in feeding therapy by 8:00am. Then after that, its go, go, go until bed time. Wish us luck!

Maryam's first trip to the movies!

We took Maryam to see Monsters v. Aliens in IMAX 3D and she LOVED it! Here are Daddy and Maryam posing for a picture in front of the marque.
Here is Maryam trying to walk in holding her super HUGE glasses on her face. How lame is it that they didn't have children size glasses for a 3D cartoon? LAME.
Here is Maryam walking inside with her glasses on, but she didn't like how dark it was, so she pushed them up for a bit.

Here is Maryam sitting on Mommy's lap. She wasn't heavy enough to keep the seat down, so she sat on my lap. I think she preferred that anyway because when she got a little frightened she just turned around and gave Mommy a big hug.

Here are Maryam and Anna chatting. The sound broke about an hour into the movie so we sat around listening to the remaining crowd play Mystery Science Theater 3000. After the theater announced that they couldn't repair it and that they'd give us our money back, Maryam and Daddy ran through the theater. Maryam LOVED it! She just kept running up and down the stairs saying "go, go, go, go Maryam, go, go, go. go, go, go Daddy, go, go, go." It was hysterical.

Handy Daddy and tools

I gave this cute little race track to Maryam for her birthday. Its one of her favorite toys, she plays with it all day and into the night. Well, in true favorite toy fashion, it stopped working.

Thankfully Daddy had tools to fix it. Maryam brought the tools she had. Daddy got her a Handy Manny Tool Box with Tools in it for Christmas and she brought out "Turner" to help Daddy "fits it".

Then she decided that she wanted Daddy's screwdriver and that he could have her "Tunna". (Turner)

They eventually fixed it. Way to go Handy Daddy and tools.

Daddy's Little Girl

Brett walked in to the room and saw Maryam playing with his shoes, so he ran and got the camera.

Yesterday was a good eating day! When I plugged her feeding tube in last night all sorts of stuff came up. I know, GROSS, but its the only way I can genuinely tell that she swallowed something. Yesterday she just seemed to "get it" a little better than other days. She swallowed different foods and drank more water than she has in a long time. Unfortunately she didn't take a nap yesterday so by last night she was pitiful. She was crying from exhaustion. It took a little longer than normal to get her down, but once I did she stayed down until 9:00am today.

College Game Day

Friday night we had Mayda and her boys over for dinner and the football game. USC stomped OSU 35 to 3 or something ridiculous.

Story Time

You can see that the girls just LOVE Brett! Unfortunately Brett still isn't feeling well. But that doesn't stop the girls from hanging all over him. And since he's not feeling well, he's laying down a lot...that just makes it easier for them to crawl all over him.

This series of pictures is funny for a few reasons. We had to take the chair and put it away when Anna is here otherwise she kicks Maryam out of it, pushes Maryam out of it, picks it up and dumps Maryam out of it or uses any means possible to get Maryam out of it, so that she can sit in it herself.

I put the chair in a corner of the computer room. As you can see, Maryam found it. But as you can also see, she's not sitting in it. I think she learned that if Anna is here she's going to get kicked out, so why bother?

The other reason these pictures are funny is Maryam's expressions in each of them. This particular book is one of her favorites. It has big foam pages and pieces of the page come out and reveal another picture. She LOVES it.
Maryam drank orange juice today! Hooray! AND she swallowed Campbell's Spaghetti O's sauce and Chef Boyardee Ravioli sauce! I only know she swallowed them because when I attached her tube the sauce came up the tube with some of the air trying to escape her stomach. I was never so happy to see something so yucky!

SDSU Game Day

We had a few peeps over to watch the SDSU v. Notre Dame game yesterday. Lou, Tom, Brett's parents, my dad, Mayda and Tyler all came over with the hopes of SDSU beating Notre Dame. They were disappointed. It was close, but close doesn't count. As Brett says, close only counts in horse shoes.

After the game the boys, the dog and Maryam went outside to play catch. She had SO much fun!!

Here she is in her SDSU jersey. Such a cutie! For the record, her socks are SDSU as well, but she's wearing PINK sneakers! LOL

The Water Gun Fight

Popop and Maryam taking their daily walk to check the mail. She has NO IDEA that there is no mail on Sunday, so she insisted they go anyway.

Here is Maryam picking up a water gun to try to join the great fight.

Here is Collin trying to show Maryam how to use the water gun.

Here is Maryam FINISHED! She came to the back patio, stood there for a few moments and then sat on her hiny and didn't want to get up unless someone was picking her up. It was cute. She just got exhausted from all the running around.
I told you the pictures would be cute!

Maryam at the Skate Park

Here are the pictures I promised! Above is Collin, Paddy and Maryam at the skate park!!! This was Maryam's first trip to the skate park. Brett said that she ran all over the place, climbed up stairs and climbed up some steep inclines.

Here she is after FINALLY getting to the top of the incline. She did good! She used everything she got to get up there, but she did it!

Here is Uncle JJ showing Paddy how to balance on the bar using his skateboard. This guy has NO fear! And Maryam of course stood there watching, probably wondering, "can I try that?"

Here are all three of them on their way. So cute. She LOVES having fun with her cousins!