If you've been following life in the Land of Noa, you may recall that we've had problems getting her to drink... well anything! Even now, after somewhat recovering from the no-drink stance she took in Idaho, it's still a struggle to get liquid in her. Currently she will drink only Pediasure. AND only if it's really full. AND only if Mommy holds it for her (sometimes Yvette or Jes, but mainly Mommy). How does she know if it's full? She takes it from you and weighs it thoughtfully in her hand, and then returns it to you so you can present it to her. And really, just one or tow sips may empty her cup to an unsatisfactory level.
Of course to look at this video, it's hard to believe this is the girl who flies into a rage at the suggestions that she try "one sip, just one, just ONE." Yeah, in the bathtub she will drink so much water that we've had to stop giving her baths in the evening because she will then proceed to wet her bed 2 or 3 times during the night! I thought about getting her one of those pet dishes with running water, but really we don't want to start that. In the long run it really won't help. What we want is for to drink like a human!
Some of you may ask, why don't you just stop trying. She'll get thirsty. The problem with this common sense point of view is that it doesn't work in this case. First of all, because Noa only drink pureed food, she gets liquid in her diet. Not as much as she should have; but it's enough to live on and enough that she doesn't get thirsty. So for now, the bathtub is her giant glass of water.
Hard to believe that summer is over and Noa is already back in school. Wow, that went fast!
Noa's had a great summer. As you can see, she continues to make progress with walking. Notice how she is really just holding on to one of Ben's pockets! It's a great strategy - and saves Mommy and Daddy from having their arms ripped out of their sockets though unless she has one of us on either she tends to do go off course and crash into us (which, to be honest, I think she rather enjoys).
One of the things I really love about this video is the woman with the walker who just zooms right past us! Really gives you an idea of how slow a go it is when we're out walking together. It's great fun and it's really nice to be able to take a walk that exhausts Noa more than it exhausts us, but we're certainly not walking with her to the store to do some grocery shopping - we just don't have that kind of time!
The other great thing in this video: if you turn up the volume you can hear that the woman, as she passes, says something about how great Noa is doing and I say thank you - and then Noa, having heard this, also says thank you. And then she signs thank you, thank you. It's pretty cute.
Last week we walked like this with Noa to St. Vartan's Park which is 5 blocks away (a long haul!!!) and the bagel place is on the way back. It wasn't too crowded so we decided to see if she could stay sane while Ben got our bagels. Noa and I stood near the door where they have a few bar stools. Noa was kind of fidgety, but then her hand found a barstool and she began spinning it. I asked her if she wanted to sit on it and she said yes (she's getting very good at actually saying the word yes), so I picked her up and put her on the stool and she figured out how to spin herself around. She ended up having a great time. Sure, she didn't stand still or stand in line, but she found something to entertain herself which was a huge step forward for her.
Other fun - we took a quick hop up to Boston for a couple of days. I'll post more about that later. All in all, I think Noa really enjoyed her short break between summer school and the start of Fall but when I told her she was going back to school, I have to say she was very happy - and has been happy to be back at school. And so we're all off and running. Hopefully the more regular schedule that comes with the Fall will offer me the opportunity to catch up with posting here!
