Saturday, October 31, 2009
updates forthcoming
I am hoping to post some "updates" tomorrow... Mike and I were in Las Vegas for a wedding last weekend and somehow the time-warp that is Las Vegas seems to have followed us back to Indiana!!! Hope everyone had a fun Halloween!!!
Monday, October 19, 2009
Why didn't I major in computer science?
Ever since our Dell laptop, which had the Microsoft Windows XP operating system, started having issues with holding a charge (to the point where it would not hold a charge at all and had to be plugged in at all times and have a book or magazine holding the part where it plugged into the computer in just the right place or it would shut down completely and then take 20 minutes to start back up) I have started to STRONGLY dislike (understatement) computers. We made the decision, after taking it to a computer repair place to see about fixing the charging issue, to buy a new computer because it was going to cost nearly as much to repair as it would to buy a new computer. The laptop we purchased came loaded with Microsoft Windows Vista operating system. It turns out, certain issues with Vista have been the root cause of the MANY issues we have had come up within the last few months that have required HOURS upon HOURS of calling technical support from our computer manufacturer, the online security company where we purchased our online security software (due to errors that could not be fixed regarding our online security software - they determined this was a vista error) and ultimately microsoft technical support (this past week). Microsoft technical support seems to have sorted out (or rather, walked me through the steps to sort out) the issues with our PC and at last it seems our computer is functioning as it should (with the exception of one error message we received this past Friday that we still have no clue what it means, but so far it does not seem to be affecting anything (I am keeping my fingers crossed). I wish we could have known to speak with Microsoft to begin with. All along, all of the tech support people have been very nice, but the steps they have taken me through have taken hours up on hours of time!!!! AGHHH!!! We are supposed to receive a free upgrade to Windows 7 (the full version is supposed to come out at the end of this month) but now I am afraid to do this upgrade, if it means the possibility of more time WASTED on working on the computer (rather than doing a million other things I should be doing or would like to be doing).
Sorry - I just had to vent... (I have seriously considered taking our new computer into the driveway and running it over a few times) I hate that I depend on the computer to be able to pay bills, check our bank/credit cards, email, blog, etc... I am so far behind on all things computer related, I will never catch up... maybe if I had majored in computer science, rather than Spanish, I could have gotten through this on my own (and/or much quicker???!!!)
Ok... enough about my computer saga...
As far as other things that have been going on --- Anne continues to run around at 100 mph with no stopping until bed time. She has never been one to stop and take a nap, and she seems to gain energy and momentum with every passing day, so she is a lot to keep up with (luckily, she is for the most part, very well behaved... although, 3 years old seems to be a lot "sassier" than 2 years old!)
Whitney is getting to be such a big girl, too! I spent the past weekend sorting through all of the clothes in her drawers and closet and packing away all that she had outgrown (sad and happy at the same time) and getting out the next box of clothes that were Anne's to see what will fit for this fall/winter. When I finally finished with her clothes, I moved on to Anne's and now both girls are set with clothes for fall/winter (at least for now) and it feels good to have some sort of organization in both of their rooms (I even sorted all of our books today - we'll see how long that lasts).
Whitney is drinking out of a straw really well (although, still not taking enough volume to switch entirely away from bottles). We are working on the straw hierarchy used by Talk Tools with the guidance of our speech therapist. Whitney is on straw #4 (of 8).
Last week our speech therapist gave us the lip block to get her mouth/lips/tongue into the right position when drinking from the straw and Whitney seems to have the hang of drinking from the straw even with the lip block on and close to the end of the straw.
Our genetics doctor suggested we start adding a small amount of miralax to her night time bottle to help alleviate any constipation issues... we had been doing this, but now after reading about Ruby's mom putting olive oil in her bottles to add calories/good fat + help with constipation, we have been doing this with Whitney and it seems to be working out very well. Whitney is also doing better with eating table food. We still have to make everything very little so she doesn't choke or gag, but she can do it. We realized part of her not wanting to eat food that was more "solid" than baby food was not ability, but ATTITUDE. She didn't like texture or the effort that it was taking to "chew" the food and swallow it. We kept working and kept working with her (often putting the textured food into yogurt or baby food fruit that she really likes) and now, she still makes faces, but she will eat things like Sunshine Burgers
(in small bite size pieces), mac n cheese (1-3 noodles at a time, depending on size of noodle), broccoli (steamed and cut into tiny pieces), carrots (steamed and cut into tiny pieces), spinach, applesauce, frozen berries that have been thawed and made into tiny pieces (I usually add this to yogurt), sunflowerbutter and jelly sandwiches, grilled cheese sandwiches, etc... It is so nice to be able to feed her some of the same things we feed Anne (Anne's food is still somewhat limited at times due to her major allergies to egg and nuts).
Whitney's therapies seem to be going well, too. Although - she has been getting up on all fours and rocking for about 2 months now, but she collapses after holding the position for about 5-10 seconds and does not move forward. She can scoot backward and roll all over the place to get to something, but she does not seem to be moving forward with crawling. I know she will get it, but it is definitely on her terms (despite our work... she LOVES to roll out of the crawling position, or any position that she doesn't feel like doing... she is a "professional" at rolling!)
We are also working more on bearing weight on her legs, which does seem to be getting better (although only for a few seconds at a time... again, when she feels like doing and for as long as she feels like doing it).
Here is a little video of Whitney from two months ago (just before her first birthday). She is pretty quiet throughout the day, but is "chatty cathy" just before bedtime :)
Sorry - I just had to vent... (I have seriously considered taking our new computer into the driveway and running it over a few times) I hate that I depend on the computer to be able to pay bills, check our bank/credit cards, email, blog, etc... I am so far behind on all things computer related, I will never catch up... maybe if I had majored in computer science, rather than Spanish, I could have gotten through this on my own (and/or much quicker???!!!)
Ok... enough about my computer saga...
As far as other things that have been going on --- Anne continues to run around at 100 mph with no stopping until bed time. She has never been one to stop and take a nap, and she seems to gain energy and momentum with every passing day, so she is a lot to keep up with (luckily, she is for the most part, very well behaved... although, 3 years old seems to be a lot "sassier" than 2 years old!)
Whitney is getting to be such a big girl, too! I spent the past weekend sorting through all of the clothes in her drawers and closet and packing away all that she had outgrown (sad and happy at the same time) and getting out the next box of clothes that were Anne's to see what will fit for this fall/winter. When I finally finished with her clothes, I moved on to Anne's and now both girls are set with clothes for fall/winter (at least for now) and it feels good to have some sort of organization in both of their rooms (I even sorted all of our books today - we'll see how long that lasts).
Whitney is drinking out of a straw really well (although, still not taking enough volume to switch entirely away from bottles). We are working on the straw hierarchy used by Talk Tools with the guidance of our speech therapist. Whitney is on straw #4 (of 8).
Last week our speech therapist gave us the lip block to get her mouth/lips/tongue into the right position when drinking from the straw and Whitney seems to have the hang of drinking from the straw even with the lip block on and close to the end of the straw.
Our genetics doctor suggested we start adding a small amount of miralax to her night time bottle to help alleviate any constipation issues... we had been doing this, but now after reading about Ruby's mom putting olive oil in her bottles to add calories/good fat + help with constipation, we have been doing this with Whitney and it seems to be working out very well. Whitney is also doing better with eating table food. We still have to make everything very little so she doesn't choke or gag, but she can do it. We realized part of her not wanting to eat food that was more "solid" than baby food was not ability, but ATTITUDE. She didn't like texture or the effort that it was taking to "chew" the food and swallow it. We kept working and kept working with her (often putting the textured food into yogurt or baby food fruit that she really likes) and now, she still makes faces, but she will eat things like Sunshine Burgers
(in small bite size pieces), mac n cheese (1-3 noodles at a time, depending on size of noodle), broccoli (steamed and cut into tiny pieces), carrots (steamed and cut into tiny pieces), spinach, applesauce, frozen berries that have been thawed and made into tiny pieces (I usually add this to yogurt), sunflowerbutter and jelly sandwiches, grilled cheese sandwiches, etc... It is so nice to be able to feed her some of the same things we feed Anne (Anne's food is still somewhat limited at times due to her major allergies to egg and nuts).Whitney's therapies seem to be going well, too. Although - she has been getting up on all fours and rocking for about 2 months now, but she collapses after holding the position for about 5-10 seconds and does not move forward. She can scoot backward and roll all over the place to get to something, but she does not seem to be moving forward with crawling. I know she will get it, but it is definitely on her terms (despite our work... she LOVES to roll out of the crawling position, or any position that she doesn't feel like doing... she is a "professional" at rolling!)
We are also working more on bearing weight on her legs, which does seem to be getting better (although only for a few seconds at a time... again, when she feels like doing and for as long as she feels like doing it).
Here is a little video of Whitney from two months ago (just before her first birthday). She is pretty quiet throughout the day, but is "chatty cathy" just before bedtime :)
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