Belated Merry Christmas!

I think the ornament hanging next to Truman is probably the last one on the bottom two set of branches on our Christmas tree. Of course, it's been removed, too, since the time of the photo. In fact, most of the ornaments from the bottom of the tree have been living in a pile on the coffee table since well before Christmas. I am sure there are others under the couches, in toy boxes, behind shelves, and other sundry locations now. The tree has definitely been fun for Truman and positive from a therapy sense because he learned yesterday how to use the light button and turn the lights on and off over and over. Considering that he's learning cause-and-effect--one of our therapy goals right now--we didn't stop him.

Truman was royally spoiled over the holidays by his parents and other relatives. A few new favorites are his new activity table from Santa, his hardwood floor-worthy push toy from Gramma and Daddy Davis, and his Cookie Monster guitar from his Uncle Chad and Aunt Teri-Rae. He also seemed to enjoy having some new people to play with, but was clearly glad to be back at his home when our travels were done.

As we predicted, we did not make it through the holidays travels and visits without illness. Truman appears to have caught something else and is congested and hoarse and not sleeping as well as usual. He doesn't appear to have any fever, though. Traveling with a baby and being off of the routine is heinous by the way.

Eating and drinking continue to be very challenging. I think he made it the week of Christmas with only one or two vomiting episodes, but he had a doozie of one in the car on the ride home from West Texas on Sunday and another at the dinner table yesterday. He seems to be making some real progress in his willingness to try various finger foods off the table, but he is still nowhere near making a meal of such things. Mostly he tastes them, chews them a little, and then drops them on the floor. But hey, not automatically dropping them and not throwing them all up is big progress. This past week, he has actually eaten a few bites of sausage ball, chocolate cake, smoked cheddar, ham, Kashi cheese crackers, and rice pudding. He has also tried, but not really eaten, green beans, pinto beans, black-eyed peas, home fries, pita bread, cornbread, baked beans, and Yorkshire pudding. I am sure there are others, but the moral is, we are seeing improvement in the table food area.

However, the drinking issues continue to get worse. I think yesterday's milk consumption by bottle was somewhere in the neighborhood of 4 ounces. His Aunt Suzanne got him to take a few sips of water from a cup after he repeatedly asked for it by grabbing her glass. Being home for the holidays, I was able to keep him hydrated with brief nursing sessions, but now that I have to be back at work, I won't be able to do that for about 10 hours of every day. We are really pushing yogurt to try to get keep him hydrated through alternate means. But of course, that means he's not getting nearly as many fruits and veggies because he will only eat so much. His overall food volume is also down a lot with his refusal to drink. There are also times when it is clear that he is hungry, but too tired to eat. It used to be that these times were perfect for bottles and nursing because he could fall asleep as he filled his belly. Now, I feel like there are times when he goes to bed hungry. That really breaks my heart but we can't force him to eat.

We are getting very worried about him how the lack of liquid and lower food consumption will affect his health and development. Truman has a general check-up next week to re-evaluate nutrition and for a slightly different OT evaluation. Hopefully, we can start to get some answers or at least a plan.

In fun news, Truman has two more teeth coming in on the bottom, so he'll have a matching set on top and bottom soon.