Patches and Love Bites

I've now patched Maria's eyes twice and it's gone pretty well. The right eye was better than the left, which is not what we thought would happen. We're supposed to do one eye for 30-60 min, then the other eye the next day. I'm also supposed to use the steroid eye ointment again because Maria's getting more of the chalazion bumps. If they don't go away in a month or so, she'll have to have surgery again. The doc told me this steroid eye ointment can cause glaucoma so we have to be cautious with it. Great!

I took Maria to work with me all day today and she was very good until the last half hour or so. Sue, the nanny, is in Hawaii with her mom who is quite ill. She was hoping to be back today, but she needs to spend some more time there. Andy has been watching Maria 3 days/week, which is a lot with trying to work also, but it'll be fine for the short term.

The husband of a friend of mine was killed suddenly in a car accident the night before Thanksgiving, so Maria and I are going to go visit in a couple weeks. I haven't been back to the Walla Walla area in more than 5 years. It will be good to see old friends, plus Bob at the Backstage Cafe makes the best cappuccinos I've ever had--I even dream about them (really!). It'll be interesting to see how Maria does in the cold. It will be her 3rd plane ride in 2006. Pretty good for a 2 year old, huh?

We had our feeding therapy with the new therapist Thursday. She seemed pretty good, had some good ideas, many of which we won't do because of the time factor. We're supposed to work on straws and open cups and sippy cups with Maria. She got weird, like they all do, when I told them we mix up Maria's drinks a bit thinner than nectar. They don't understand that honey and nectar are the same stuff (Simply Thick), but honey is 25cc per 4 oz liquid and nectar is 10cc per 4 oz. Simple. So we measure out the liquid and the thickener, using a good digital scale, and we get a consistent viscosity of liquid. Every single feeding/speech therapist, except for Norma, has freaked about that (calmly). I'm going to try and give her an open cup with meals. Speaking of fluids--little Miss Maria has not been drinking enough again. Today is at least the 3rd day of her drinking about half of what she should be. Our pediatrician appt is Thursday to see if her weight gain is ok. Her legs sure look a lot thinner than they used to be.

Now for the love bites...as you know, Maria likes to bite periodically. And she likes to play with Kijana, the cat. The other day I heard Kijana making a noise, so I looked over and Maria had Kijana's paw in her (Maria's) mouth, and was biting it. If it wasn't so scary it would have been cute. Actually, it was pretty cute. I wanted to take a picture or a video, but Maria bites quite hard and Kijana's claws are quite sharp. Never a dull moment.