Hot Tea and Vanilla

Well, maybe more like Ice-T and Coco...

During a walk on High Line this week, Eliza and some friends ran into none other than Coco, wife of Ice-T! Literally!

Apparently there is a new reality show on the E channel called Ice Loves Coco. There was a film crew up on the High Line filming an episode. During the entire filming Eliza and her "peeps" were running gleefully behind Mrs. T (Mrs. Ice-T? Mrs. Ice? Not really sure here). The production folks asked if we would sign a release allowing the footage of the happy, smiling, barefoot children gleefully frolicking in the faux-river (faux, because it is an elevated rail track after all) to be included in the show. Well needless to say, we all shamelessly agreed! Then the film crew took additional footage of the kids for "atmosphere" footage.

Sooooo...

The first episode is June 12 at 10:30pm. Rumor has it we may be in an episode slated for July. So now you'll just have to watch 6 weeks of it to see if Miss E (Eliza's stage name) shows up with Mrs. T!

Oh, and on an unrelated note, Eliza ate 7 sweet peas at feeding therapy today :)

Biscuit and Cracker

Despite the name of this post, no food will be mentioned!

Eliza has two favorite stuffed animals:

Meet Biscuit:



Meet Cracker:



Where the names came from is a mystery, but Eliza was quite adamant about the names.

Eliza can tell the difference between the two and for my sake Aunt Bonnie made cute little outfits so I could tell them apart. Biscuit is a boy and Cracker is a girl, in case you were wondering.

When we went to Saba Eliza decided to bring Cracker and not Biscuit. Biscuit was to stay in New York to watch over things. When we left Saba, Eliza decided that Cracker would stay on Saba to take care of the house and keep Eliza's friends company.

Well tonight she realized that Cracker is not in New York. I am sure they could hear the wailing across th Hudson.

It could be time for yet another trip to IKEA to get Cracker's cousin Croissant :)

It's Not Just a Word.

I know some people get annoyed with me when I asked them to not use the word "retard" or "retarded." In the early years when Eliza barely spoke and would bang her head on the floor seemingly endlessly or exhibited some other non-typical behavior, I heard the word from adults and children alike (I assume the children learned it from their loving parents). When I heard the word I wanted to quite literally, beat the person senseless, but that's not really productive. now is it?

Robert Rummel-Hudson has blogged on why we should refrain from using this word as a derogatory term and the effect that using this word has on parents of special needs children and the children themselves. You can read his views on his blog.

Now do you get it?

When Are We Going Back?

Ah yes, this is Eliza's version of "are we there yet?" Ever since returning from Saba, each and every morning Eliza asks "when are we going back to Saba?" I've tried to explain that winning the lottery would be a key ingredient in this and we are investing daily in Mega Millions as a potential retirement income. A trip to an upstate casino might be an option if I could hermetically seal Eliza from the cigarette smoke while at the slots.

We had a fun Easter egg hunt with the Hell's Gate crowd. It seemed like a great idea to hide the eggs at 11pm, but we didn't factor in the morning sunshine on the chocolate filled eggs :) No one seemed to mind though.











Eliza hung out with the "big girls"



And enjoyed some cousin time.



Our vacation was a very sad time because of the deaths of two dear, dear family members. Eliza wanted to know where they had gone to. I told her they were with her Papa in the stars. So we watched our beautiful moonlit night sky each night and looked for the winking stars which was how we could tell everyone was smiling down on us.



And with this happy face, how can we not go back?

Central Park Challenge

This year Eliza Grace and I are participating in the Central Park Challenge to raise money to support YAI and Eliza's school, Gramercy School. As many of you know, Eliza was born at 26 weeks and 4 days gestation. She weighed 575 grams, or about 1 pound 4 ounces. Eliza spent 100 days in the Lenox Hill Hospital NICU before coming home.


Eliza received Early Intervention Services through the YAI LifeStart Program. Because Eliza never had the luxury of a third trimester, she was globally delayed and at the age of three had a significant speech delay, gross and fine motor function delays and sensory issues. Eliza entered Gramercy School at the age of three and a half barely speaking. She has progressed significantly, thanks to her teachers and therapists at Gramercy School and will be in an integrated Kindergarten this fall.

Eliza's Team, the 2011 Best Friends Forever Team consists of several of her friends and classmates from Gramercy who will walk together.

If you would like to support us in the Central Park Challenge, just go to HERE to make a donation.

Thanks as always for your generous support!

Oh How I Love a Good Competition

Feel like voting for your favorite Single Mom Blog (that would be me).... just go to this link and vote for Life with Eliza Grace. We are way down on the "recently added" page with only one vote so far from some kind soul :(

Feeding Update

I had drafted this post a few weeks ago in response to a request from a friend and blog follower for a feeding update. I don't have the strength right now to write about what else has happened in the past couple of weeks, so I'll focus on this one topic near and dear to my heart.

A few months ago, Eliza had started to eat small (post-it note size) peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and cheese sandwiches. She had started to eat 2 inch square pieces of waffles, a few bites of pancakes, a bit of pizza crust and a quarter of a mini bagel with some butter. In the past month or so she has once again refused these. She has lost well over a pound in a month, has taken three times as long as previously to finish a "meal" and has dropped down a size in pants back to a 3 and has those tell tale dark circles under her eyes. She and I will see her doctor in the next couple of weeks to see what has to be done. Eliza knows if she doesn't eat she will need a tube in her stomach, and she says she does not want one, but it is still not enough incentive to try to eat.

Everyone I know whose child is Eliza's age (and some who are younger) and who had feeding issues has moved on down the road. Far, far, far down the road. They eat pizza, hot dogs, pasta, burgers, freaking Happy Meals, chicken nuggets, macaroni and cheese, mashed potatoes, rice, fish, soup and ice cream (Eliza no longer eats ice cream), just to name a few. Eliza will no longer eat cake or muffins and there are two brands of cookies she will eat (one of which I cannot buy in the US). An average "meal" is two saltine crackers and one slice of American cheese. Try that three times a day and see how you feel. She won't drink formula anymore, just milk. I suppose I should be thankful it is whole milk and I can add protein powder to it. I am tired of people telling me how awful it is that their child will only eat one brand of burger or only flavor of yogurt or only a half a slice of pizza or only style chicken nugget or brand of hot dog or some magical freaking smoothie. If Eliza ate one of these things, and only one of these things, I would breathe a sigh of relief. But she doesn't, so I cannot breathe that sigh.

I am not looking for sympathy or empathy or advice. I suppose though I am asking people not to call me and email me to complain about their frustration that their child only eats one kind of pizza/hot dog/vegetable/fruit/meat/yogurt/chicken nugget. I just can't listen to it right now. Maybe someday I can reclaim my role as the Dear Abby of feeding problems, but not now.