---8 months!---

Giselle is 8 months old now!

Loves:
-her brothers
-to be on the go
-bath time
-playing with her toys...and her brothers toys

New things:
-crawling
-going from crawling back to a seated position
-trying to climb us
-trying hard to pull to a standing position

Eating:
-she is eating solid food once a day and doing pretty well :)
-new food lately: sweet potatoes, pears, peas, baby yogurt

No teeth yet and she most recently weighed 16lbs 11oz (at the surgeons office on Aug 21).

---Weekend Wrap Up---

~Cook out at my parents on Friday night for a close family friend (my brothers close friend) who is in the military...home on leave. This guy is basically a brother to my own brother and I. Thankful for all the service men and women who work so hard to protect the freedoms we have here in the States. His name is John if you want to pray for him. Just finished a tour of duty in South Korea and will now be stationed in Georgia until his next assignment

~Worked yesterday and today so not much to talk about for this posting ha! Andy did bring the kiddos for lunch today and it was great! :) Giselle just smiles at everyone in the cafeteria and the boys run around and make everyone laugh!

~Mason has an OT eval on Tuesday at Parkview so please be praying about that if you have a spare moment. I will be calling the school later this week when they open for the school year to see when he can get in for an eval there so that we can make a decision on which place to go with.

2 quick updates to wrap up the week...

--Got ahold of Parkview Outpatient rehab and Mason as an appt to be evaluated for OT on July 28th!

--Giselle had her montly appt with the surgeon this morning. He said all still looks great and we can drop down to weekly dilation! She is to go no more than 3 days without pooping. If she does then we have to dilate again and if it becomes a regular thing then we will have to go back to twice a week dilation. Only reason that topic even came up is because baby girl has had a few instances of waiting 48 hours lately and this week she was on day 3 before we saw him. She did poop today a small amount so hopefully things move right along soon.

Long time no post. Oops!

We enjoyed our 4th of July! We've also been enjoying my extra days off this week and last week. Took some PTO days for the first 2 weeks of this month so I've had more days off than usual. Visiting a new (to us) playground and plan to go back there Friday afternoon I think. We've also been to the playground at my work, the book store, the zoo, and of course playing outside whenever it's not raining!

Mason's appointment with the developmental pediatrician isn't til Aug 17...that was the soonest she could see him. Called the OT dept at Parkview outpatient rehab and they were supposed to call me back yesterday...I'll call them back tomorrow and see if they can get him in sooner than the school to be evaluated for therapy. Guessing we will just have him evaluated by both the school & by Parkview and see which one will suite him better. Really praying this will work because he's been having some hard moments.

Parent orientation for Austin's preschool is next month (Aug 13) as well as his "meet the teacher" day (Aug 18)! Crazy!! I think he will do great. :)

Giselle sees the surgeon again Friday. She has been rolling all over the place and is trying very hard to crawl. Our baby is trying to be a big girl...not ready for that!

Totally forgot to do Giselle's 7 month update post! Can ya tell there's been a lot going on in our family and house life?!

Sooo what's new with Giselle?!
--she is rolling both ways and is fast when she wants to be
--she is sitting like a pro
--taking her naps in the crib now almost always (versus some in the swing and occasional crib)
--has tried oatmeal cereal, avocado and banana
--still waiting on her bald spot on the back of her head to start growing some more hair
--loves bathtime and is almost too big for her baby bathtub
--loves to people watch...with her 2 brothers being her favorite to watch :)

Basement is a stressful topic around here ha. In short summary...the carpet was not salvageable and has been apparently messed up from the first flood (meaning Water Out didn't correctly do their job). So Andy and my dad ripped that out on Tuesday night. We looked at new flooring options Wednesday and decided to just go with carpet again. Today the battery backup finally got installed after some confusion about outlets. Carpet peeps are coming to measure on Tuesday and new carpet could be installed as early as the end of the month. We are also still without TV due the the satellite dish getting bent in half during the storm. That is set to be fixed on Monday. Ugh to storms!

So on to Mason's 3 year appointment. The actual appointment went fairly well Tuesday morning. He weighs 33lbs 4oz (67th%) and is 36.5 in (26th%) tall. She said he looks great! :)

We then got to talk about Mason's worsening of his sensory processing disorder symptoms over the last couple of months. His anxiety is higher, his meltdowns are increased in both frequency and intensity, his rocking is about the same and he is now hoarding toys (doesn't play with them, just wants specific ones in a pile). He also is having a hard time coping with Austin teasing him. It's more than typical toddler stuff, trust me. It's disappointing because we were doing so well for a while and we were even discharged from therapy a little over a year ago. So a few things are going to happen. We are getting a referral to the new Developmental Pediatrician here at Parkview (actually got to speak to her nurse today and the paperwork should be arriving at our house tomorrow since they mailed it out the next day after our doc called her). Our pediatrician also wants him evaluated for OT by the elementary school that is in our district. I called them already and they don't open for the year until July 29th. If he doesn't qualify for the free (free...but essentially paid by our tax $) therapy there then we will go to the pediatric outpatient rehab here in Fort Wayne. I am hesitant to go the school route because he is so young and I've heard its geared more towards school age kiddos. I talked to our hospital OT today and she said she knows the OT at our elementary school so that is reassuring and she said she also thinks the OTs at the peds outpatient place are excellent as well so I'm hoping we will be happy where ever we end up. It is a bummer that we don't qualify for First Steps anymore since he's 3 now. Having someone come to our house was nice.

The other big thing our pediatrician is worried about is OCD. She said he is exhibiting some signs of it based on some examples and scenarios I've given her. OCD can't be diagnosed until at least age 4. She did give a recommendation of trying to get him attached to a stuffed animal or small toy to help alleviate some of the toy hoarding. The OT at work that I talked to today also agreed that it would be a great idea.

Pray for us...pray for Mason. I don't feel like my friends really understand what we are going through, which isn't their fault...they either don't have kids, have young kids or just plain don't have any experience with it.