Odds and Ends

This morning Chloe was late to school because she was drawing her teacher a picture.  Her "stick" people are improving from a large circle with legs to actual stick people with arms and hair.  In the picture below, her teacher is the largest person holding a yo-yo, then Chloe is holding two yo-yo's and then a one-eyed monster (doesn't every picture need a one eyed monster?) Above in the sky is a bubble machine and the monster is standing next to a tower.  I just love three-year old imaginations:)  One more day of preschool until she graduates to the four year old program! She is also starting to write her name in lower case letters.  her "H" is changing from upper case to lower case and there are three lines to the letter "E" rather than a million.

After 11 years of driving my Passat, we decided to buy this (see pic below)-  I said I would never buy a mini-van and look what I did!  We are now proud owners of a 2011 Toyota Sienna in salsa red.  Negotiating is no fun but after several months of looking at new and used vans, researching, and visiting a million dealerships, I think we found a good deal.  The dealership offers free manicures, car washes, oil changes, loaner cars, shoe shines, etc... for the life of the car.  I told the sales guy this was not going to sell me on buying this car, but it is certainly a perk!!  We usually drive a car until it dies, so I anticipate I will be having free manicures for a long, long time.  Don't worry, we kept my trusty Passat and I will still be driving it:))  Going down memory lane... I bought my Passat during my first year of teaching, while living at home with my parents.  Benji was still my "boyfriend"- I had my Passat before engagement, marriage, children, our first house, and our dog.  Wow... so much has changed since I bought my car that is still going strong after 11 years:)

Wyatt had his GI appointment today.  Usually we see the GI doc in October, but Wyatt gained about 6 pounds in a year and I was afraid he was getting too big... especially since we control all his food input.  The doctor said Wyatt is "under tall" - just a nice way of saying he is too big! He weighs 34 pounds, about four pounds more than Chloe and he is 35 inches tall.  So we are decreasing his calorie intake from 30 cal to 24 cal.  His total volume of 1200 ml a day stays the same.  Currently he is feed all night long at 75 ml/hr and once an hour at 60 ml bolus.  However, it is our hope to have him eat like a normal child about 3-4 times a day.  So we are experimenting with different bolus volumes with the end goal of four bolus' a day at 120ml.  and feeding him about 9 hours at night.  We are also weaning him from Prevacid over the next month.  Dr. G said we are doing everything right.  He said we should continue to concrete on his physical therapy and get him walking, and then concentrate on eating real food.  He also said it VERY GOOD that Wyatt will put any type of food in his mouth and chew it- that he does not have an oral aversion.  Eventually, hopefully he will swallow.  We should continue to offer him breakfast, lunch, and dinner just  like we always do.  Overall, a very long day but a good one!