First Monday, post-discharge

So, I made some changes here and they seem to be helping.  Either that, or Sarah has given up the fight.  I don't know.  I ran the pears through a food processor because I couldn't get them small enough with a fork.  Breakfast was oatmeal (maple and brown sugar, a familiar flavor), pears, and yogurt.  She began to devour the yogurt before I could start her video and go over the rules.  I guess she was hungry.  Anyway, I started her video and after she was done her yogurt, she went for the pears.  I was shocked, considering she's been fighting pears so much.  She ate them beautifully without fussing, spitting, gagging, crying, or any other negative behavior.  I was very pleasantly surprised.  After she was done her meal, I let her finish the yogurt (it was a 6-oz cup of regular yogurt, and the cup I used to serve it was 4 oz).  Then I packed her lunch and put Chef Boyardee Spaghetti & Meatballs in it instead of Spaghetti-o's like I've been doing.  I asked Sarah if she liked this idea, and she said yes.  I fork-mashed the meatballs and cut the noodles small and placed them in her thermos.  I also packed strawberry applesauce, yogurt (regular, not kids'), and pudding.  I e-mailed her teacher to let her know of the change and ask her to have her staff just praise her for eating it, watch her for choking (unlikely it would happen or I wouldn't have sent it), and not to comment if she refused to eat it.  Thankfully, it wasn't a problem and all that came back home was an empty thermos.

At dinner at home, she did great.  She actually brought me a can of beefaroni and asked for it for dinner.  Very interesting.  So, obviously I went for it.  I gave her beefaroni for dinner, as well as peaches that had gone through a food processor, and sweet potatoes.  She did great with all of it, although she was apprehensive about the sweet potatoes.  She looked like she was about to refuse them after the first or second bite, but she got them down.  It took extra prompting to get her to take her bites, but she didn't have any negative behaviors.  I was so proud of her.

The crazy thing is Sarah begged for cucumbers afterward!  Daddy diced up a cucumber and gave her some and she ate a fair amount of it with ranch dressing.  It was really cool.  She also asked for pretzel sticks, although she only ate maybe half of one.  I suspect she may have been tired of chewing at that point.  It was funny, though, she kept hollering at her father whenever he grabbed one.  She'd say "That's mine!"  Who knew Sarah of all people would decide she wants pretzel sticks and that they're hers?

Here's hoping this continues and Sarah has this crazy refusal out of her system.

Oh, and on a similar note, we are going to Applebee's with Grandma, Grandpa John, and Great Grandma for Easter lunch.  I spotted Kraft macaroni and cheese on their kids' menu.  I know she's had it before at OT.  I am going to wait a little longer to see how things go here.  We're supposed to wait two weeks before trying a new food.  I'm going to give it a shot when our two weeks are up as long as Sarah is behaving herself in general otherwise.  Hopefully she'll eat it okay as she seemed to like it at OT.  Gosh, if she eats that, it means I can order her stuff at a restaurant from the menu.  Wow!  I've never been able to do that for her.  Cross your fingers that she likes the mac and cheese.  I initially told the clinic no because we don't eat mac and cheese in general, but now I kind of wish I'd agreed to it because it is so readily available on kids' menus.

Here is a video her Dad took of her at hockey this past Saturday.  She's actually skating by herself in parts of it.  Go Sarah!