King Tom's Kingdom

This new thing called eating dinner continues for Hope.  This week, we started her on green beans, which she doesn’t like as much as the squash.  Sweet potatoes are up next, and we’re hoping that because of their sweet flavor, consistency and similarity to squash, Hope will like them as well.

We had some questions about feeding issues, especially with a child with a cleft palate, so met with our team at Children’s Hospital yesterday. They assured us she’s looking good and is growing well.  Her next surgery will be scheduled for early next year.  After that, they usually start speech therapy, since babies with cleft palates have issues with speech because their mouths aren’t able to make certain sounds.

This past week has brought a bunch of firsts for Hope.  She went on a swing and down a slide over the weekend.  We heard her first ga- and ba- vocalizations today.

We call Hope our action adventure girl.  The Civee says Hope lives life like she’s on fire.  There’s never a dull moment when she’s awake and in a good mood.

Now that she’s six months old, I’ve been told to expect firsts on a near-daily basis.  But I don’t mind if she just hangs out and enjoys life.  But knowing Hope, we doubt she’ll sit still.

I’ve mentioned before that the Civee and I really like artichokes.  Unfortunately, it looks like we’re going to have to learn how to share.

Over the past few weeks, we’ve been feeding Hope food (real food) as we take our sup (special thanks to my over-the-shoulder editor for that word choice).  Hope started out with rice cereal and oat cereal.  We added a vegetable to the oat cereal, starting with peas, then moving on to avocado, and last week, squash.

Each day, Hope’s eating skills grew–where the first few days, it seemed as if she ended up wearing more of her food than she ate, pretty soon, she was getting most of it in her mouth.  And it also seemed as if she enjoyed each food progressively more.  When we started the squash, we really got the feeling that she enjoyed her food- possibly for the first time getting more out of the vegetable than the oat cereal.

So The Civee and I decided to start her on one of our favorite vegetables- an artichoke.  While I stuffed and baked an artichoke for the Civee and I, I steamed some artichoke hearts and pureed them for Hope.  We gave them to her along with some squash, totally bypassing the oat cereal for the first time.

Unfortunately (for us), Hope really enjoyed the artichokes.  And I don’t think we’ll be able to keep them from her for much longer.  As I’ve mentioned before, she’s crawling all over the house making us put our childproofing plans into place a lot sooner than we expected.  Not only is she crawling now, but she’s also starting to pull herself up to things.  Yesterday, I saw her crawl up to a toy basket and pull herself up, curious to see what was inside.

She’s strong, she’s coordinated and she’s smart.  It’s going to be tough to hide artichokes (or anything else) from her.

On April 13 of this year, The Civee and I had a baby (The Civee was the one who did all the work, but I’ve been told I helped a lot).

Now today, a half-year later, that baby is still alive and growing.  It hasn’t been entirely easy, but it’s been a lot of fun.  After being warned before her birth that being born with a cleft lip and palate might mean she would face struggles, especially with development, we’ve been amazed at how healthy and happy she is.  Rather than the stories we heard of a cleft baby who struggled with eating eat, we can’t stop her from eating (since a few weeks ago, she gets nearly all of her food into her mouth and her repertoire now includes avocado). Her first surgery is out of the way, her splints, stitches and stents are off and it’s hard to tell that this little baby has been through so much already.

But for a six-month-old, she’s thriving.  She doubled her birth weight.  A month ago.  She can crawl.  Across a room.  And she laughs.  At my jokes.

We have a feeling she’s going to be standing soon and after that, there will be no stopping her.

The Civee and I (and Hope) couldn’t have made it this far without the support of family and friends who have helped out, both in person, and through their long-distance assistance.  We appreciate everyone listening to us talking about her (yeah, I know it’s kind of annoying, but with Lost and 24 off the air, I need something to write about).

And to wrap things up, we have (surprise) another video.  It’s just Hope playing around (with me providing some encouragement).  Nothing too exciting, but it’ll give you an idea what she’s up to.

This morning, Hope had an appointment with her pediatrician.  The Civee took Hope to the office and I met both of them there.

(For those interested, she’s growing well and the pediatrician was impressed with her expanding set of motor skills.  We were advised to start investing in gates).

As I was saying, I took some time off from work to accompany the girls to the doctor’s.  The Civee and Hope got there first.  As I walked in, I saw The Civee holding Hope and filling out paperwork.  While The Civee’s nose was buried in the paperwork, Hope looked up, saw me and smiled.  She made a noise and reached her arms out to me before The Civee even noticed.

There are still a few hours left in the day, but there’s not much that will beat that.

Also, this weekend, we (along with Grandma) took Hope to the beach (Lake Erie, not the ocean, unfortunately).  She really enjoyed trying to crawl on the sand.  Because she’s teething, she wears a bib most of the time.  That isn’t a cape around her neck.