Bread

I bet a lot of you eat bread most days....not a big deal right?  But when you are 3 1/3, have always been tube fed, and eating is sort of scary and not always pleasant.....bread is a big, big deal!

Chewing is a new thing for this little one....most of Lily’s food that she has tried has been mushy puree.  She is always trying to “grab” things off of our plate these days, like rice and spaghetti, and the OT doing feeding therapy said, “Maybe we need to follow her lead, and not panic if she tries to eat ‘normal’ food.”  As Lily was eating, I could tell several of her guys were a little nervous, given they have seen Lily choke horribly in the past on tiny bits of anything!  My heart rate was a tiny bit up as well.....but I encouraged Lily to go for it, and boy, did she!!

Tadaa!!!  She did it!!  The first time around, she ate about 20% of the piece of bread....and subsequent pieces she has take a little bit more. Lily is still pretty uncoordinated in her chewing, and takes a long time to swallow tiny pieces, but she has not choked one time!!  WOW, this is a big deal!!!

We also got a new stroller, one of those nice three wheel running kind of strollers.  I can assure you I will NOT be running along with Lily in the stroller, unless some marauding rogue pit bull comes chasing after us...but it is very nice to push on my end and Lily is very comfortable in it.  Lily and I went on a walk the other day through our little town.....I stopped and got a latte at our local coffee shop.....it was beautiful and sunny, a bit cold at 48 degrees, but that is a heat wave up here!!!  I was so, so thankful to be walking with a single stroller.....not a big double one filled more with medical supplies than little girl....and now here we are, single stroller and tiny girl going for a latte with mama, and not having to stop once for suctioning a trach....We stop now to look at big puffy clouds as Mama takes a sip of her latte.
Life is good!