Shut the front door

"Shut the front door!" Those are the exact words the came out of my mouth.

Let me back up a bit. Today, the boys and I went to the apple hill field trip put on by his group therapy center. Both the boys had so much fun. Karter got to run around with one of Karsen's favorite therapists, while Karsen and I got to chat it up with some friends while playing in the hay. After playing for a while, Karsen got hungry (as expected), one of the workers was walking around with some snap pea crisps, which Karter loves, but Karsen is still on a feeding strike and will still not feed himself let alone chew on any form of a cracker. Well, Since Karsen blew me away and fed himself with his spoon numerous times, I figured I'd give it a shot. One dip of it in his baby food (I'll explain more why I did this later), and handed put it in his mouth. I then handed it to him, and what do you know? Karsen popped that sucker right in his mouth and started chewing and eating it. I looked at one of his therapists that has been working on his eating with me and said those exact words "shut the front door!" I could not believe it! Not only did he do it that once, he ate another snap pea crisp right after, with no choking. That's right, I said it, NO choking! I'm still in a little bit of shock and still waiting for him to take a few steps back and stop doing it again, even though 99% sure that wont happen. I'm so proud of him and can see the light toward some freedom for me and fun eating for him. 

As if today weren't fabulous enough already, Karsen decided to blow me away once again. I put his sippy cup of water in front of him, just so he can get accustom to seeing it, therefore leading to using it. Well, He decided it was time to try himself. It's taking a lot of effort for him to get the bottle up to the right tilt point but he got water out of it once. Now, I don't expect him to start grabbing his sippy on his own by any means, but it's a start, a huge one. 

Just a few weeks ago, we had Karsen's 6 month evaluation. It was a rough day for me, you can read about that day if you haven't read it already. We set up Karsen's new goals for the next 6 months, two of them, which were big ones, were self feeding and also able to hold and use his own sippy. I think we're well on our way! Good job little man! You are constantly proving people wrong, and making me so proud!

*Feeding therapy tip: When you're trying to introduce something new, like a sippy or juice or a different spoon or food, make sure to keep one thing the same, something they are already use to. So, since Karsen wasn't use to the snap pea crisps, I dipped them in his baby food which he is very comfortable with.