Oliana and the Baby Food

Oliana has made huge accomplishments these past few months. Eating baby food was just one small feat for her. It may seem small for most people, but for a blind baby it was huge!! Not only can she not see her food or the spoon coming to her mouth, but she doesn't see other people eating and doesn't know that that's what everyone else around her is doing. For the first week that we tried she would just clamp her little mouth shut and wouldn't open for anything. Then after that she would push her tongue out and want you to put the food on the tip of her tongue, which, needless to say, didn't work very well. Finally, Seth just started prying her mouth open and shoving the food in her mouth. He would pry it open and say "open your mouth Oli" and put the food in. It sounds harsh, but it worked. After about a week of that she finally got it and all we had to do was tap her mouth with the spoon and say "open your mouth Oli" and she would. Now she loves her baby food! Good thing she catches on quick. She even grabs the spoon with her hands and puts it in her mouth to try to feed herself now too. She reaches her hands out to find my hands and when she finds them she finds the spoon and then takes over. Its quite neat to watch her figure it all out. She also has learned that I put the bowl of food on the tray. She puts her hands on the tray and finds it and has great fun playing in her food.

We started reading braille books to her. I read them and guide her hands across the braille as I read. At least I do sometimes. Sometimes she does it herself. I sit her in my lap and put the book on her lap so her arms and hands are free to roam the pages and she wishes. I put her hands on the pages so she knows right away that we are going to be reading a braille book and you should see her. Her little hand just starts waving back and forth back and forth across the page. Its the neatest thing. We only have a few braille books, but I would say that they are definitely her favorite.

Our latest trip to LA was exciting too. She got a flat conformer, or one without a peg in her right eye this time. So she's got flat ones in both eyes now. So nothing sticking out of her eyes anymore. They look really good. Her right eye is so much bigger now. It's almost the same size as the left. Our ocularist, Beverly, said that she should get her prosthetic eyes at about a year of age so only 5-6 more months to go!!!!! YEAH!!!! She's going to get green I think. Just like her Daddy.

One more piece of exciting news. She's just about sitting up. She can sit for about 10-15 seconds before she falls forward. Almost though. I'll keep working with her. Kekoa said her name for the first time today. He called her O-ee. How cute!! He's shown much more interest in her now that she's doing a lot more. He's always giving her his toys or his blanket (and he doesn't ever share his blanket with anyone). He still likes to kiss her and hug her. He's always very nice to her. I'm sure that will change once she starts taking his toys!! I'll hear "Mom O-ee won't share" HA HA!!