Since Vanessa will hardly eat anything (which sadly saves some time cleaning up) let's take a moment to document and reflect on the recent months . . . I'm sure it will provide food for thought later . . .
This morning Vanessa initiated a picnic of Character Soup. We usually play games where we match big letters with little letters. We put letters in order and find things that begin with particular ones. We sometimes work on spelling small words. She orders the numbers too, and counts on and back from various. We'll draw a number from a cup or sack and count out the same number of any given items. Today our picnic involved using our sporks to eat a soup of letters and numbers. This led to a game of letter sounds and more counting. It was yummy and Vanessa ate lots and lots.
Perhaps her way of feeding a cold is helping . . . her creativity doesn't seem to have suffered. She's also been good to take one or two moments to rest. She insists she's feeling fine but every so often she pauses, like here -- she leaned against the ottoman and stayed there for several minutes, surely causing her feet to fall asleep:
Currently I'm trying to bribe her to eat by allowing her to watch LazyTown -- her new fave. I told her that if she would come downstairs to eat cottage cheese (still one of her faves), she could watch LazyTown. She happily accepted and assured me that she would feel even better if she would eat: "Mommy, you feeling better? I'll eat and feel better too." Seems to be working.
My sporadic eating and recent aversions to many things have made her picky eating habits even pickier. Thank goodness for vitamins and her love for carbs and dairy! And you can get food in her if you're willing to play the Repeat Game over and over: "Mommy, orange juice please." "Not till you finish your cottage cheese." "Oh, OK!" She takes a bite and asks again "Mommy, can I have orange juice now?" "No, not until you finish ALL of your cottage cheese." "Oh, OK!" Two or three bites later . . . "Mommy, I need orange juice!" I think you get the idea.
And as a complete sidebar but I'm enjoying a lot at this very moment -- recently her conversations have become more interesting, beginning many with and repeating "You know . . ."
Poor Vanessa has had to accept the fact that Mommy hasn't been as much fun these last couple of months, but she's noticed my recent visits of energy and seems to be leveling back out as a result. She used to fret so much and cry when hearing Mommy get sick. She would stand behind me, patting me on the back while crying loudly "Mommy, you're okay. You're okay, Mommy." She can be so compassionate and sweet . . .
She spent lots of time these last couple of months cuddling in my lap and learning to do things herself. Her cleaning habits have improved greatly, especially for a toddler. It takes negotiating and patience, but she'll put things back before moving on to the next thing. Just before we came downstairs, she asked to go to Mommy and Daddy's bedroom to clean up the mess. She opened the door as I followed and waved her arm from left to right: "Wow Mommy. Look at this mess. Time to clean up!"
So our unique idea of normal is returning. And that's great since Mommy's workload will soon increase more . . . and the most important thing -- Daddy has been accepted to the Masters in Health Administration program at OSU! A big YAY!!!!!! We knew Daddy could do it!
This next year should be very interesting! Thankfully Vanessa has been a real trooper . . . and will continue to be, I'm sure . . .
