Sweet M & M

2011-07-28T23:32:00.003-04:00

I am really having a rough time lately; just with life I suppose. I am and always have been a caring person. A friend of mine is going to be adopting a little boy from another country who has Ds. She is a really caring person as well and always posts different children who really need families. EVERYTIME I see these posts, I bawl my eyes out. I can't take it. I wish I could just take every child and give them to a family. This world has really become a terrible place. Since when is it ok to leave children to die?! Since when is it ok for a little baby to be in a crib all day and have no one to hug or kiss her when she cries?! Since when is it ok for little kids to live in an institution without a family?! My heart seriously hurts just thinking about this.

2011-06-22T21:16:00.002-04:00

Emily is such a peach ; ) She is quite the little girl these days...tantrums and all. I think we have hit the terrible twos and it is really great...not! If she doesn't have a nap during the day, I have a heck of a time with her at night. She whines and cries over nothing. The fact that she doesn't talk that much doesn't help either. Half the time I can't figure out why she is crying and what she wants. On a good note, she has started to eat on her own with a spoon. Of course she still needs help at times to scoop up the food, but all in all she does great! Pictures will be posted hopefully this week. We are also thinking of signing her up for the toddler Special Olympics...should be so much fun! I think she would really enjoy it. Other then the eating with a spoon, nothing new has really been happening. Hopefully I will have a more interesting blog at some point.

2011-06-09T23:14:00.002-04:00

Wow how time gets away from you. I felt like I was doing so great with keeping up on the blogging...then I look and see I haven't posted for 9 days. I guess that is what happens when you go back to work after 8 weeks of maternity leave...time is minimal.

Emily, in the past two weeks or so, has grown so much. I cannot believe how much she is doing now. She is saying so many words now and tries to copy words that you say. The other day my mother and I both heard her say Brooklyn perfectly, two times! She says Iley for Riley and Austin (she's been doing this, not sure if I mentioned before). She just got one of the two teeth that were coming in. She has so many cuts, scrapes, and bruises that I joke with Al saying that her teachers probably think that we are terrible parents. Have you ever tried to keep a 2 year old on their feet? Especially when they love to run...on sidewalk! You can tell them to stop running, but you know how a 2 year old listens....not well.

July 12th we go to her transition meeting with our school district. We our transitioning her into preschool and get to work on her IEP. This is exciting to me. I was a little anxious at first, but now I am just excited. This means that we have gotten this far! She is going to be 3 and she is SO GREAT! She is such a typical little 2 year old...tantrums and all!

On to the other kids. Brooklyn is growing so fast. She is now 9 weeks and weighs over 10 lbs. She has rolled from belly to back two or three times. She still cries a lot, but the dr. just put her on a med for reflux to see if that helps. Austin's last day was yesterday. He was in the 4th grade excel class doing 5th grade work. he finished with excellent grades and we are so proud. He is getting so old. He has even started finally playing outside with friends. Yes, he has been attached to me hip for 10 years! He even slept over a friends house a week or two ago...first time ever. Riley's last day was today. I cannot believe she is going to be in 3rd grade. It is just too much for me to think of how old all of my kids are getting. I still feel like I am like 20 years old.

On a side note, has anyone ever read the book HEAVEN IS FOR REAL? I highly recommend it. It is not long and is a pretty fast, easy read. I don't remember ever going to church as a little kid until I started in a catholic school in 6th grade. After I graduated 8th grade, church stopped. I had my son at the age of 19 and started going again because I really wanted to get him baptized. Then, eventually, church stopped again. I started thinking about heaven and God and just wondering if it were all real? There are so many different beliefs in this world, how did we know who was right? Then, the other day my mom recommended the book I mentioned. It is about a little boy who goes to heaven during a surgery and lives to tell all about it. The things that this little talks about and mentions, just couldn't be made up by a 3 year old. He even talks about things that his parents were doing while he was on the operating table. Al says that the father (author of the book) could be embellishing his story a bit. TRUE, however, it is such a happy story and it made me feel good. It's just nice to have happy thoughts and something that I can believe in. The book doesn't say anything about how you HAVE to go to church to get to heaven. You pretty much just have to think like a child....innocence. Read it and you will see how great it is.

Heartless

2011-05-31T22:15:00.003-04:00

I am taking a break from writing about Emily specifically.

How are people in this world so insensitive and heartless?! It is one thing when someone doesn't realize that certain words offend some people, and when they are told, they stop. It is a whole other thing when people use words to be hurtful. The main word I am referring to is the r-word. For those of you who do not know...the r-word is the word retard. I don't even feel comfortable typing it. I am not going to sit here and act high and mighty, because God knows I have used it in the past (not to hurt anyone). I didn't realize what I was saying actually meant something so much more. Having Emily has opened my eyes to a ton of things. I am by no means making excuses, but when I used to use words like that, it was meant to be used just like you would use the word "dork". I didn't know any better, but once I learned, I stopped. I would have NEVER used it to be mean to another human being purposely. These people that call others names just to be funny or to be mean...were they not taught by their parents that that is not acceptable? I don't really remember my parents ever directly telling me not to be mean to people, but I learned through their actions and whatnot.

There is a local radio show here in Ohio in which the r-word was used. Not only was it said, but the host pretty much in a nutshell said that people with disabilities should not be allowed to work and that they are incapable of learning (especially people with Down syndrome)? I did not personally hear the show, so fogive me if I am a little off on what was said. Many people emailed the show and the radio station that day. Of course, they danced around the issue and said that that was not what was said...blah, blah. It is just sad to think that this is what Emily and other will have to face in life.

On another occassion, there was a roast for movie director Quentin Tarantino, in which an actress made a TERRIBLE joke(well, what she thought was a joke). She made the comment that he has 'produced more retarded things than Sarah Palin’s vagina.’ I mean really?! Are you that ignorant? Not only are you saying something terrible about Sarah Palin, but you are throwing a little child into the mix?! This actress has a show on television...which I will NEVER watch.

I don't want to sit here talking about all the bad. Many people are not like this. The two people above have no hearts and no brains, it is good to know that not everyone is like this. This girl has more heart and is so much smarter then the two people above put together, and she is only in middle school! It is people like her that make me realize that Emily will make it in this world. The good outweighs the bad. She also helped me realize that my other children will be the same as her. Emily has helped them see the good in people and has really made them open their hearts. While I watched this girl, I cried and cried and cried some more. The funny thing, is that I was mostly crying because I could see Austin and Riley up there giving this same speech.

On top of this great story, there are two other great stories. Judge Milian refuses to let a woman use the r-word on her show without ripping her a new a**hole. Good for you Judge Milian! I knew I liked you. Also, during the show GLEE, there was a public service announcement to end the word. This announcement not only talked about the r-word, but it also mentioned other offensive words. This was a huge step for those of us who are trying to spread the word!

If you would like to learn more about spreading the word, visit www.r-word.org.

I know many people use the r-word because they just don't know any better. They don't mean to be offensive. That is why people are trying to spread the word to end the word. With education and knowledge, we will succeed!

Fun Times

2011-05-29T23:43:00.002-04:00

Well~we've decided that Emily's problems are not the snickerdoodles. She has not had a snickerdoodle since the last post, but the red dots and whatnot are still there at times. The other day she woke up and her face had such bright red patches...I was a little worried. I took her to school on Thursday (25 min away) and as I was sitting in the parking lot, I called her teacher and told her I was turning around to go home. I looked at Emily in the mirror and her eyes were watering, her nose was a faucet, and the red spots on her face were getting way bigger. Since that day, that has happened every time we have gone outside. ALLERGIES I am sure. I have allergies, so she probably does too. We started her on Claritin for kids (advice from a family member) and she seems to be better. Today we went to the zoo and I, of course, forgot to give her the meds and it was terrible. The zoo was fun though...and she had a great time. She loved getting out of the wagon to see the animals, but hated getting back in. Al pulled the wagon with Emily and occasionally Riley (when she was too tired to walk), while I pushed Brooklyn in the stroller. On a side note...you would be so surprised how many girls were named Brooklyn there. When we named our Brooklyn, Brooklyn, the only one we knew of was Brooklyn Decker, the model. Now...we hear it EVERYWHERE! Oh well, I guess we picked a great name : ) As we were leaving the zoo Emily was actually falling asleep in the wagon. Weird...because she rarely ever sleeps. She was sitting straight up and her little head was just bobbing up and down with her eyes closed.

After the zoo we went to my parents. We have a little plastic pool that we just bought and Emily and Riley went in it. Emily was so cute in her bathing suit and she loved the water. They went "swimming" for about an hour and then they wanted to blow bubbles and color with chalk. Emily did all that and then rode in her motorized car...although she doesn't hold onto the wheel and bumps into everything. The sky started to get really dark and it looked like it was going to storm, so we sat on my parent's porch until we went home.

All in all...everyone had a great time and it was a great day!!! Pics to follow

Snickerdoodles

2011-05-25T22:40:00.003-04:00

Today was a great day. It was supposed to rain, but it actually held out until later in the evening. Not sure what is up with Ohio lately having tornado warnings, but it is getting a little crazy! This maternity leave has been pretty crappy. The weather has just not cooperated as much as I had hoped. Today, the girls and I went to the mall with an old friend of mine who I haven't seen in a LONG time. All we did was go into one store, but it was fun seeing her and her little boy who I haven't seen since he was about 3 months old. Oh, how time flies. After the mall I took the girls to my parents house. My mom has been giving Emily snickerdoodle cookies lately. Last week, before their vacation, she had given her a few and I noticed little red patches all over her face for a couple of days. I figured it was just because her nose had been running. I also figured her nose had been running because she may have allergies...though this has not been confirmed. My parents went on vacation and the red patches went away. They came back yesterday and again, my mom gave Emily a cookie. When we got home the red patches were back. Today, she ate 1 1/2 and the red patches got worse. I am starting to think that she may be allergic to the cookie. Not sure what she is allergic to in them, but it must be something. We are going to let it clear up and then give her another cookie and see if it comes back. It doesn't bother her, so I guess that is good, but who is allergic to snickerdoodles?! I guess it could be worse.

On a good note, I may go back to work on Tuesday, but I may stay home for 2 more weeks. I haven't decided yet, but it would be so nice to stay home : ) We'll see!

Until next time...

Today

2011-05-23T20:59:00.003-04:00

Well, my maternity leave is coming to an end. I really do not want to go back to work. For the most part, my whole leave has been crappy weather. I LOVE LOVE LOVE being home with the kids. i wish it would have been nicer so I could have taken them outside more. Al and I are trying to figure out what to do with them when I go back. He is on nights at the moment. Before Brooklyn, he would come home from work and stay with Emily until nap time, then they both would sleep and that was pretty much his sleep for the day. Now that Brooklyn is here, it is going to be rough for him since she doesn't have a set nap time and she has been awake more often now. We have looked into daycares, but the cost is ridiculous! I cannot believe that sending your kids to daycare is sometimes more then a mortgage. We are talking about me just quitting my job. Of course, I have no problem with that ;)
On to Emily...we were brushing her teeth today and I noticed that she is getting 2 more molars. That could explain why she hasn't been eating too much...it may hurt just a bit. She is still saying mommy...although, she doesn't say it without me telling her to. She is so cute when she does say it though. For some reason, she whispers it.
Yesterday we went to Al's brother's house to visit. They had not seen Brooklyn yet. They have two little boys that are not too much younger then Emily. It is nice to see the way she interacts with other kids. We were outside for awhile and she was running around in the grass. I told her to chase her cousin and she did, but when she reached him she kind of just stood there...didn't know what to do. It was cute. She climbed up the little slide a bunch and actually knew to lift her feet up when she went down so that she wouldn't get stuck.
Today I took the kids outside at our house. Brookyln and I hung out on the back patio in the shade, while Austin played with Emily in the grass. They were kicking a little ball back and forth. Emily can kick for the most part, but it looks funny when she does it. I posted some pics before this of them outside. Tomorrow she has school. She loves going and absolutely loves her teachers. Her class actually just got a helper. Much to my surprise, it is an older girl who has Down syndrome. I am not sure how old she is exactly, but Emily seems to really like her. The first day she was there, Emily walked in and went right up to her and waved and said hi.
Not much else going on....until next time.

KIDS

2011-05-23T20:46:00.003-04:00

A Day of Fun

2011-05-21T21:39:00.003-04:00

Today we took the kids to a fun place that had bumper boats, go karts, laser tag, etc. They had a lot of fun. Emily and Brooklyn stayed in the stroller most of the time, but they didn't seem to mind. Riley and Austin had a blast and didn't even fight once! brooklyn slept the entire time with the exception of the time she needed to eat. Emily ended up having an explosion of pee in her diaper...and when I say explosion, I mean everywhere! As a parent, you pack the diaper bag and go over it in head again and again to make sure you don't forget anything. Well, I did this today, but who would have thought I needed an extra outfit for my toddler?! Of course I brought one for Brooklyn and thank goodness I did. Emily (32 months old) fit into Brooklyn's (6 weeks old) dress. Of course it looked like a shirt as opposed to a dress, but it worked. I am just happy that we were leaving soon anyways. Before the fun happened, we had Riley's soccer game. Usually we bring the stroller for Brooklyn and Emily, but we forgot this too at that time. It would figure. But, it all turned out well. Emily ran around and Al chased her the whole time, but she pretty much stayed in our area.
Emily said Mommy again tonight and this time Al heard it, so he knows I wasn't making it up :) It was awesome! I have waited 32 months for this moment and it was oh so worth it! Today was day two of the toddler bed. Emily stayed in bed and only talked for about 10 minutes this time and then she was out. I am really hoping this continues.
Until next time...

One more thing

2011-05-20T22:20:00.002-04:00

I forgot to say that Emily finally said Mommy today! She said mama in the past (along time ago), but stopped saying it. I have tried and tried to get her to say it again. today I had her sitting on the sink to brush her teeth and she said Mommy. I said, "Did you really just say Mommy?" She said it again. Then I lifted her up off of the sink and she said it again and threw her arms around my neck to hug me. I almost started crying right then and there! How exciting!!

The Joys of Being a Parent

2011-05-20T20:33:00.002-04:00

Al and I have started to try and potty train Emily this past week. It has gone pretty well, but I will admit that it is very hard to keep up on it with a 6 week old. I have been putting her on the toilet every 20-25 minutes (the advice of a friend) and it works for the most part, but not always. We have had many accidents. Today was the worst of all. Al was at his softball game and it was just me here with the two girls. Brooklyn has not been in a very good mood today, so she started screaming and I started to feed her. During that time, Emily decided that it would be fun to poop in her underwear :( Not sure if you know or not, but cleaning that up when they have underwear on is much harder! We've also decided to try the toddler bed again. We tried awhile back and it went so well the first two or three days that it almost seemed to good to be true. Little did we know, it was. After day 3, she would get out every time we put her in. Now, I am a huge fan of the show Supernanny so we tried everything she says to do. Emily was just too much. She is very stubborn and if she doesn't want to do something, she won't. We would be up and down, up and down, a million times a night. This was seriously going on for hours! Supernanny probably would say to stick with it, but me being pregnant at the time proved to just be too much so we went back to the crib for awhile. Tonight we decided to try again. Why I decided tonight, since Al was at baseball, I don't know. It went great though. I peeked in once and she was trying to get out, but I told her to put her head down. Then I peeked a few more times and she was just leaning against the wall...but sitting. Finally, after about 30 minuets I went in and she was out like a light. Again, this may be too good to be true, but we will see. I think I am a bit crazy for having a 6 week old and deciding to potty train a toddler and get her into a bed, but it will be worth it in the long run.
On another note, we got a call form Emily's service coordinator and we will be meeting with the school district in July to start the IEP (Individualized Education Plan) process for 3 year old preschool. This process is usually scary for parents, and I would be lying if I said I wasn't overwhelmed in the beginning when I thought of this, but not anymore. I will update everyone in July.
On to Brooklyn-for the family members that don't see her often. She is 6 weeks and 1 day. She is eating like a piggly. I can't wait until her appt to see how much she weighs. She is starting to smile :) and coo at you when you talk to her. Although, this is rare because she is usually crying. She is starting to notice her toys that hang above her head. She follows them with her eyes and we have even seen her grab for them a couple of times. She is filling out a lot and is just developing quite a personality.
Austin and Riley are doing well. Austin will be going into 5th grade next yr and Riley will be going into 3rd. I cannot believe how fast they grow. They are both getting great grades and as I mentioned before, are great helpers with the two little ones.
Well...off to tend to the baby...

Time goes too fast!

2011-05-19T23:55:00.002-04:00

I know I have not written anything since August. How horrible! Time just goes by too fast. Life has been a little crazy, and I have been so busy. Al started a new job, and I just had another BABY! Her name is Brooklyn and she is now 6 weeks old. I'm taking graduate classes and I am still working, although I am currently on maternity leave. Our household has been so hectic, I feel like my head is constantly spinning. I would like to give an update on little Em. She is doing so great. She pretty much has a whole mouth of teeth. She says a few words, that only we understand of course. She signs a lot and has finally started to be able to use the sign without being prompted. If we ask her a question, she will say yes or shake her head no. She started the two year old preschool program in our county in October and couldn't be doing better. She loves going there and has never cried. The first day, they let us come in and asked if we thought we should stay for a bit to get her used to it. We said we knew she would be fine, so we left. She did not cry once. She takes a bus home, which is the cutest thing ever. She gets her therapy, art, gym, music, and class time in school. We are very lucky that our county offers this program at no cost.
Emily is walking of course (not sure if I mentioned before). I think it was August when she really started walking. She loves to play and she loves to read books. We bought her a play kitchen for Christmas and she cooks up all the food and brings each individual piece to us until we are covered in plastic food.
All of the kids are so good with Brooklyn. Riley and Austin are great helpers. Emily doesn't pay too much attention to her, but does like to get close to her sometimes. It is very cute.
Me-I am doing alright. I still have my moments where I worry about Emily's future. Not sure how some parents are always positive...it is hard. How could you not worry?
I am sure I forgot a ton, so I will try and write again soon. I am going to try my hardest to keep up on the blog from now on. We'll see how that goes

2011-05-19T23:52:00.000-04:00

More UPDATES!!!

2010-08-04T21:39:00.002-04:00

Yet again it has been a long time since I have written anything. Life just gets in the way and my mind is elsewhere...sorry. People may not even read Emily's blog anymore, due to my lack of writing anything, but I will write anyways. A lot has gone on since the last time of course. Last time I wrote that Emily had two bottom teeth and one top one coming in...well, now she has both top, both bottom, 4 molars, and is now getting two more on top and one on bottom. Needless to say, she drools like crazy and is not the happiest child right now. She is now crawling like crazy and pulling herself up. She is also cruising along furniture at this point as well. She hasn't quite gotten the walking part yet, but I know it is coming. She gets up on her feet and has her butt up in the air and her hands on the ground, but just can't get all the way up yet. Once that happens, it is all over for the Goldie household. She is still signing and is now VERY interested in the Baby Signing Times DVDs. Elmo's World and Signing Times are about the only things he likes to watch at this point. She says da for dad now, duh for done, and baba for cup. Once in a awhile we will get a ma out of her, but it is rare. She used to say baby and doggy, but that hasn't happened in awhile either. She is almost 21 months and definitely has the attitude of a 2 year old already. If she doesn't get her way, it will be no way. She isn't such a great eater anymore, but she will eat a lot at times. We are teaching her to use the spoon and fork and it is going pretty well. We help her poke the food with the fork and then she puts it in her mouth. She is now sleeping completely through the night again...thank goodness! I thought I was going to go crazy for awhile there. Her therapy is still going great. The speech therapist is amazed at her noises and sounds and talking. Speaking of noises, she now barks like a dog when you ask her what a dog sounds like and she moos like a cow. Back to therapy...the PT thinks that she is ready to walk, she just has to want to do it. The OT teaches her how to feed herself with utensils, and how to use both hands to achieve something, etc. All is going well really. At home we try and teach her her colors and shapes, so we will see what happens with that. If you ask her how old she is, she will hold out 1 finger...too cute! As far as the bottle goes, we have completely gotten rid of them at this point. She still makes quite a mess with the cup at times, but she is getting better. I am just happy there is no more bottle...I thought that would never end. Well...that is all I can think of now, and like last time, sorry for jumping all around : )

2010-03-24T12:34:00.000-04:00

It's hard to get good pictures of her these days. Either her eyes are closed or she is moving too much...oh well.

Lots of Updates

2010-03-24T12:12:00.003-04:00

I am home from work today because yet again, I am sick. While sitting here I realized that I haven't been on here in a very long time. Emily is doing so great. We moved into a new house (well side by side) back in January. Her and Riley are sharing a room and it is actually going pretty well. Emily is still going to therapy...but now she is pretty much going weekly. She has started speech therapy as well, but is so vocal without it. The therapist is pretty stunned at how loud she can get and how much she is constantly making noises and sounds. She knows how to crawl (army crawl) now and gets into everything. She can now get from belly to sitting without any troubles. She is also pulling herself up to her knees...just can't get her to go all of the way. She is one stubborn girl. During therapy, they put her on a mini treadmill to help with the bending of the knees and walking, but she fights it of course. She can sign about 7 different signs at this point. Some are not exactly right, but we know what she is saying. We are convinced that she says a few more words, although she doesn't say them all of the time so who knows. She likes to crawl around the house and get into the dvds, get into any open door, and she loves to throw things down into the play room from the banister upstairs (we live in a split level). She still only weighs maybe 22 pounds if that...she is very tiny. She can put things into other things and stack her blocks up. She loves Elmo, but what kid doesn't. She has started to watch Signing Times more, but still not that interested. As for her glasses, she is not a big fan anymore. Trying to keep them on her now is very hard. Her brother and sister love her more and more each day and love trying to teach her new things. She smiles every time they walk into the room. She loves to wave to anyone and everyone that will look at her. Once she starts waving she doesn't stop :) She likes to pretend feed Elmo with her spoon and a pretend bowl. At therapy, she had a little baby doll that she fed and put to bed...can't believe she did that. She has the two bottom teeth like I mentioned before, and now the top one is about half way in. Hope I didn't miss anything...I know it jumps around a lot but I wanted to make sure I updated on everything.

New Year

2009-12-31T00:20:00.003-05:00

Christmas is now over and the overwhelming feeling that I had is gone. Having three kids is a but much when it comes to Christmas time. Although one is only 14 months, the amount of presents for 3 is too much to handle! Emily has started to do a lot more than before. She is still not crawling exactly...but she is still doing the army crawl and has now resorted to a butt scoot to get around. For the first time today, she went from belly to sitting. Of course she was with my mom when it happened, but she called me as it was happening to let me know. The things that happen when you run to the grocery store :) I still think of Emily as a little baby...maybe because she is so tiny, or because she doesn't do as much as a typical 14 month old...who knows. It's like I have a baby, but a baby that has a one year old attitude. She is not right on track with most of the gross motor things, but she has the attitude of a typical one year old. When she doesn't want something or doesn't want to do something, she screams...and let me tell you...it is a scream that is ear piercing. She has finally started to pick up food with her fingers. She was doing it before, but it was hard for her to get it into her mouth. Now she is doing great with it. The smaller the food, the harder it is, ,but we work on it daily. She started to try and pull herself up today. She got about half way up. As far as the sippy cup goes, that is still a no go. We have tried the sippy cup and the sippy cup that has a straw. She knows how to suck with both, but to get her to swallow is quite a task. We will be moving this weekend, so it will be very busy, but I will post pictures as soon as everything is up and running. Hope everyone has a nice New Year!

2009-12-17T22:33:00.003-05:00

It's one week away from Christmas and I am just about done with everything I need to get done. Emily is learning new things everyday. She is amazing in every sense if you ask me : ) She is still not really crawling, but kind of doing an army crawl type thing. She is back to being great with the glasses...no more pulling them off thank goodness. She is still saying daddy and baby and now doggy on occasion. She has started to play in the bathtub which is so cute. Today she splashed me quite a bit and was just having a blast. We are moving in a couple of weeks, so we have been very busy to say the least. Emily is now going to therapy more often and she just started speech therapy. With the therapies, the holidays and the moving, things have been crazy. She will be going to the doctor in a few months to check her heart one more time. As I have mentioned before, her heart has two little holes in it and we need to see if they have closed yet. If they are not closed this time, he will discuss with us the possibility of heart surgery. According to him, they will not have to do open heart. They can do a procedure in which they go through a small hole in her pelvic area. I will keep you updated. Well, I better get some sleep...one more day of work left this week! Happy Holidays!!

And we have words!

2009-11-30T21:56:00.005-05:00

Emily has started to say words! At first I didn't really think that she was saying anything. I figured she was just making noises that sounded like words. Then, the other day I realized that she is really saying BABY and DADDA. I was a little hesitant about the word baby, but she will repeat it when you say it and she says it when she sees a baby or anything little (she said it to a small dog). She doesn't say it every time, but she says it a lot. Who knows if it really is baby, but it sure seems like it. She is doing pretty well with her glasses. Over the past week, she has started to pull them off more. I really thought we were in the clear with that since she didn't do it up until last week. It is really a pain. She pulls them off so that they are hanging around her neck and then she puts them in her mouth and licks the lenses. We have been going through a lot of cleaner. She did the treadmill again at therapy last week and Al said that she actually did a lot better than the last time. She has started to crawl a little. Well...I wouldn't exactly call it crawling yet. She pulls herself forward with her arms and hands, but instead of pulling her legs up and getting on her knees, she straightens her legs and pushes on her tiptoes. She has also started a little yelling thing. Well, she has always done it, but just not as much. When we are in the car or when she is alone on the floor she lets out this yelling noise that I swear lasts forever! As she is doing it, I sit there wondering if she is ever going to take a breath. I wonder if she is just getting aggravated that we don't know what she wants, or if she just getting a 1 year old attitude : )

2009-11-17T18:52:00.002-05:00

As you can see I just posted some pictures of Emily. Some are a little blury....she ever stops moving, so it is a it hard to get a good picture of her. Today she had PT and Al said that the PT put her on the mini treadmill to work on walking. Oh was she not having any of that. he said all she did was cry. She is big on "standing", but try and get her to move her feet...no way. You would think her feet were glued to the ground. She is now going to PT twice a month AND they made an extra appointment for just the treadmill. We'll see how that goes I guess.

Emily's New Glasses!

2009-11-17T18:47:00.000-05:00

2009-11-17T18:45:00.000-05:00

These are from about a month ago

Update

2009-11-16T21:45:00.002-05:00

Ok...I know that I said I would post pics of Emily in her new glasses (which by the way are not called PolyFlex...they are called Mira Flex..oops) but I have been ridiculously busy and lazy at the same time. She is doing so much better with the glasses. It amazes me how they know that little babies need glasses, but she obviously did. She seems to notice a lot more. The glasses themselves have been wonderful! Everyone says that they are too cute, which I would have to agree. The PT even took the information for them and a parent at therapy was brought into the room to see them and get the info. I don't know how well they will work for her in the future as she grows, but for right now they are perfect : ) She is doing so great in all of her therapy sessions. Right now we are working on crawling and "cruising". The cruising is for when we put her standing at the table. She likes to do that and can stand for quite awhile, so the PT figured we could try the "cruising". She gets pretty crabby when it comes time to work on things like that. In fact, she has quite the little attitude. She likes to let out a loud scream if she doesn't get what she wants. It makes for a great time when you are trying to get her on her knees. Hopefully I will find the time and energy to post a pic of her in her glasses tomorrow. She is growing so much : )

2009-10-20T21:08:00.002-04:00

Glasses

2009-10-20T20:48:00.002-04:00

We took Emily to the Eye place on Saturday. The people there were wonderful! We walked in with her prescription and got helped right away. There were no forms to fill out, no questions to answer, nothing! She came out and spoke with us personally. She knew right away that I had called her earlier in the week and she knew we were looking for the Specs 4 Us/Erin's World glasses. She pulled out a couple of pairs to try on Emily, and we all decided together that they were just not for her at this point. They just looked a little goofy because she is so little. I then told her about the cute hard plastic pair that we had seen at the other place, and how big the arms were on them. She pulled out a pair of glasses that were called Polyflex (I think). They were hilarious...but cute at the same time. They are made out of a flexible plastic/rubbery stuff. You can bend them and twist them and drop them and they will not break. She showed us all of the colors and told us which ones didn't look so good and we decided on pink (of course). She took our insurance card, took the prescription, asked my address and phone # and that was it. I would recommend this place in a minute. Besides the glasses, we got Emily's 1year pics taken on Sunday. This place was great as well! They let you bring in different outfits and they let us bring in a cupcake for her to eat while in her diaper and a birthday hat. It was so funny. She got so excited, especially when Al put a little in her mouth. After she got one taste of it, it was all over. After this post I will post the pics from that day. The place was called Portrait Innovations...well worth it. Of course, we went a little overboard with the purchasing of them, but they do have very affordable packages. Other then those two things, we did nothing to interesting this weekend. Riley's soccer game was cancelled because of rain and Austin played football and actually had a few tackles. Well...I am going to post the pics now. Hope everyone has a good night!

Update

2009-10-17T00:17:00.003-04:00

I have had many requests for some updates on little Em....so here goes (sorry been really busy). Emily is now sitting like a pro. She can even look back at you and not fall over! It is very exciting and such a relief to have her sit. She used to get so aggravated on her stomach, and of course we could not hold her at all moments of the day. Now we have to work on crawling. The PT gave some suggestions on how to help her reach that milestone, but she has not been so cooperative. She will get up on her knees for a second or two at times, but then just falls back down. She has this new way of getting around that involves her being on her back and kind of jumping up off of the ground, which in turn, makes her go backwards. It is quite cute, but not so cute when it comes to diaper changing time. I mentioned in the last post about her needing glasses, which has not happened yet. We went to a place the other day, but they said that the glasses that we likes could not be sized. What?! All of the other glasses looked horrible. The pair that we liked had arms that went like a inch past her ear, and they said that they couldn't cut them down. You would think that they would be able to do that, but whatever. We are going to a new place tomorrow to see what they have. This new place carries the specs for us, but they will not be free (which sucks). This place seemed to be more knowledgeable about Ds and glasses in general, so I am hoping that they have a pair like the ones we liked...and that they can size them. I am sure that glasses on a 1 year old always looks a little funny, but most of the glasses we tried on her looked ridiculous. Maybe they were all too big, who knows. Emily's birthday is coming up soon. I cannot believe that I have been blogging for so long. I cannot believe that Emily is going to be one. I cannot believe that almost one year ago, Al and I got the news that she had Ds and we just about lost it. Now, for the most part, I pay no attention to the Ds (with the exception of the therapies). Due to a busy schedule, we don't really go to the play groups anymore, and I don;t go to mom's night anymore. We have been so busy with the kids. It is so easy when kids are little because they have nothing to do. When they get older, it is like you are constantly running around with them. Between Riley and Austin, we have gymnastics, soccer and football. Football and soccer ends soon, so we are pretty happy about that. Riley just turned 6 in Sept, and is doing great in 1st grade. Austin turns 9 this month and is in the excel program at school and is doing wonderful as well. Emily will be 1 this month and keeps us on our toes. Well, I will post again Saturday or Sunday after Emily's eye appointment.

It's Official

2009-09-22T21:01:00.003-04:00

So it is official....Emily needs glasses. I knew she did, Al knew she did, we all knew she did...we just didn't think that she would need them right now. Her pediatrician didn't seem too concerned about our concerns since she is still so young, but I just knew she wasn't seeing very well. When she was only a couple of months old, it was almost as if she was always looking past you. She never focused on you and if she did it was for a second or two. Within the past couple of months, she is focusing a lot more and seems to be able to see farther, but still not as good as she should be. After her 9 month checkup, her Dr. finally referred us to someone who has experience with children with Ds. Al took her today and her tear duct is blocked yet again (which we knew), she has a slight lazy eye and doesn't see very well. According to him, if she wears the glasses now, it will help correct the lazy eye and obviously help with her vision. As for the blocked tear duct, it happens all the time because everything is so small. He gave a prescription for some drops and mentioned a procedure that he does sometimes to help open it up for good...but we don't need to think about that right now. So as for the glasses, I looked online at the Specs4Us site and am hoping that insurance will cover them (not sure how all of that works). For those of you who do not know, Specs4Us is a site which has glasses made especially for children with Down syndrome. These glasses were created by a mom in our area. She has a daughter with Ds and noticed the need for a special type of glasses to fit our children's faces/noses. Hopefully we can get them soon. The Dr. wants to see her again at the end of Dec. to see how she is doing. It is going to be quite the task to keep them on her I'm sure, so I will keep you all posted as to how that goes.

2009-09-12T21:19:00.003-04:00

Oh how Emily is growing! Like I said in the last post, it is so hard to imagine that she is going to be one. She is so teeny tiny for a one year old. I find myself sometimes having to remind myself that she is not a little baby anymore and that we can try things with her that we tried with our other children at age 1. As I am sure I have mentioned in the past, Emily is now on stage 3 food and even some regular table food. She loves green beans...of course they are cut up. We also found out today that she loves french fries with ketchup. She chews very well now, so we have been slowly introducing different foods that we eat. She cannot have big chunks of anything yet, but she is getting there. She is sitting up much better than the last time I wrote about it. She still tips over once in awhile, but not much. Life is so much easier now that we don't have to carry that crappy car seat everywhere. It is not easy carrying a 20 lb baby around in that thing. Not only is she sitting in the cart now, but now she is sitting in the highchairs when we go out to eat too. I think it makes her feel big because she gets so happy, bangs the table and smiles a lot. There is still no crawling, but it has to be coming soon. She can pivot all the way around when on her belly. She is still not napping too well which is horrible for Al, but he is managing. Every couple of days she will take a 3 hour nap for him which is nice. Other than that, not much is going on with little Em. As all of you know, she will be 1 on October 29th. Riley just turned 6 and Austin will be 9 on October 22.

Summer is over

2009-08-27T19:40:00.006-04:00

The kids went back to school this week. Riley started yesterday and is now in the first grade. We talked to her on the phone last night after school and she was very happy. Her favorite part of the day was recess! Who would have thought?! She said she had a lot of fun and met a lot of new friends. Austin's first day was today. He transferred to a new school to be in the Excel gifted program, so I was a little worried how it would go. When he got home he said he had a good time. He met some new people, played at recess with two people that I guess came from his old school and already did work today. He likes his teacher which is a plus. As for me, I started my new job today. It was rough being away from Emily for the whole day, but I knew she was in good hands with her dad (he now works 3rd shift so that he can watch her during the day). I was a little worried that he may just pass out during the day from sleep deprivation, so I of course, had to call him every so often...but it went well. She had PT today and did great again. She gave us some ideas on how to help her crawl. Emily was way crabby at the end. She didn't want to cooperate or do anything. I told Al that that is a typical 1 year old attitude...lol. I cannot believe that she is almost one. I try my hardest not to compare her to other babies or to her brother, but it is really hard. I think back to Austin's first birthday party and I remember it like it was yesterday. I can remember what he was doing at that point and Emily is not doing any of that. It is kind of nice because I don't have to chase her all around, but at the same time, I want her to be there. Actually, I couldn't even imagine her walking right now anyways. She is so teeny, it would look hilarious. I can't compare...I know that....I am trying not to. She is her own person, and Ds or not, she will do things at her own pace. She has been working really hard and has accomplished a lot in her 10 months of life and for that I am so proud and happy : )

2009-08-18T11:50:00.000-04:00

Summer Fun : )

2009-08-18T11:49:00.001-04:00

Accomplishments

2009-08-15T20:57:00.003-04:00

Up until today Emily has not been able to sit up on her own for more than 5 seconds, but today she was doing so great! She is pretty much sitting up, but now we just have to get her to realize that she can't throw herself backwards because she will fall and that she has to catch herself if she starts to tip over to the side. Once we get her to realize these things, she will be doing just fine : ) As for the crawling, still nothing...but that is ok. People always say that they wish their baby would crawl or walk, and then when they do...it is all OVER. You have to chase them around the house and make sure that they are not getting into anything. With Emily not crawling yet, it makes it much easier on me. Not that I don't want her to reach that milestone...I just like the fact that I can leave her on the floor while I run into the kitchen or to the bathroom and I know she isn't going to make it far. Other news, Emily has been on stage 3 food for awhile now and is doing great with it. Today I tried to give her Graduates...but only the macaroni. She did so well with it. She opened wide for every bite, she chewed very well and she swallowed like a champ then waited for more. She is about 9 1/2 months old for those of you who can't remember. She is already wearing 12 month clothes, although she still fits in some things that are 6-9...but not many. She is finally holding her own bottle (Thank goodness). I thought I was going to go crazy! It was getting so hard for me to feed her if we were in a store or restaurant, but now it is so easy! Who knew?! And finally...the big news is that she sat in a cart today on her own! WOO HOO!! I seriously have bruises all over my arms from holding that car seat and carrying into stores to lift it up into the cart. Today we figured since she was pretty much sitting up that we would try it. People were staring at us like we were crazy because she is so little. It looked like we had a 4 month old sitting up in the cart. You wouldn't believe the stares that we got. Oh well...she sat up the whole time very well...except for the part where she was letting out that loud screech that she does when she is getting upset or not getting her way...at that point we had to hold her. Man...the girl is not even ten months and knows how to work us already.

2009-08-06T14:00:00.003-04:00

Austin started football this week so needless to say, we have been way busy. This is his first year and I didn't realize that it was almost an everyday thing. I figured one practice a week and then a game....nope....so far, four practices this week. Riley's gymnastics is almost over but then starts again soon after. Austin starts school in a couple of weeks. He is starting at a new school in their Excel program, so he is a little nervous. Riley will also be starting soon and will going into the first grade. CRAZY how fast they grow up. Emily is doing great. There is still no sitting or crawling or pulling up....but at her 9 month appt., the doc was pretty confident that she will be doing all of those things by the age of one (which makes me happy). As of Monday she weighed almost 17 pounds and was a little over 27 inches long. Pretty much in the 90th percentile in both. She is still clapping on command and occasionally just out of the blue. She has finally started napping just about everyday...great for me :) Our Buddy Walk team page is finally up and running. Not getting the response from family members that I expected but that is ok...we are getting there. Our Buddy Walk out here is on August 29th at Progressive Field. We are very excited to participate and meet lots of new people. Emily is fighting the nap today so I need to go and get her...until later...

Can she get a round of applause please!?

2009-07-21T14:33:00.002-04:00

Today Emily had her second speech evaluation. Her first one was when she was almost 3 months old so there wasn't much done, but this one was great. I loved watching her interact with the ST. The ST evaluated her against a 6-9 month chart (she will be 9 months next week). She was pretty much on track with the chart with the exception of a few things that we have to work on. We still have to work on waving bye-bye, the clapping and object permanence (ex. looking for a toy under a blanket). I told the ST that we have been working on all of these and that we would continue. I have been working with Emily on clapping and waving for so long now. The ST reported that Emily is doing so well that she will not start therapy yet and will be reevaluated when she is 1. She believes that at that point, services will probably be started. She was very impressed that Emily is already on Stage 3 foods and that she can deal with the chunkiness of the food. So...getting to the meaning of my title. We drive home and Emily eats and I attempt to give her a nap (which didn't work today). After letting her cry for a few minutes to see if she was going to sleep I went to get her. I brought her downstairs and started playing with her and helping her clap. Then, I said, "Clap, clap, clap" and she clapped! I thought maybe it was a fluke so I said it again and she clapped again! We did this probably 6 times just so I could see that she was actually understanding what I was saying. This was such an exciting moment for me...I actually teared up. She is growing so fast : )

2009-07-08T15:50:00.003-04:00

Again, I have not blogged in awhile. I guess I have been busy...and there hasn't been much to post. Now that I am posting today, I can't remember what I have posted about already so sorry if it is redundant. I know have told everyone about Emily's pinhole where her tooth is coming. Well...the tooth has popped out a little. If you put your finger in her mouth it is very sharp, but the tooth is still mostly under the gum. She has been pretty fussy throughout the whole thing. Not all day everyday, but there are times throughout the day where she just can't be messed with. Other than the tooth, she has been developing quite well. I don't think she is right on track with a typical 8 month old, but she is pretty close. As of now, she can sit unassisted for a few seconds...not everytime, but sometimes. She has started to put a lot of weight on her legs. We hold her up and she stands with little support. The only thing is is that once she locks her legs, there is no bending them until she is ready. Right now in therapy we have a few goals set for Little Ems. One is for her to be able to move forward on her belly. Another one is for her to stand holding on to something (other than me). Another is for her to pick up her puffs with the pincer grasp (using the thumb and forefinger). Right now she picks up the puff with her whole hand (palmar grasp) and tries so hard to get it into her mouth. Hopefully with all of our hard work and hers we will accomplish these goals. She is just getting so big and has so much personality.

Always Smiling : )

2009-06-27T19:10:00.000-04:00

Teeth!!

2009-06-27T09:48:00.002-04:00

Emily is getting a tooth! I have felt a lump on her gums for awhile now and she has been drooling like crazy, but I didn't see anything coming. As of Thursday, her gum has a hole and I see a tooth. Now we are just waiting for it to officially pop out. I am very excited that she is getting one so soon. I will post a pic when it is visible : )

2009-06-23T20:39:00.001-04:00

Sorry for all the pics all at once again. I have been so lazy at uploading them. Hope you enjoy them though : )

More Summer Pics

2009-06-23T20:32:00.002-04:00

Fun in the Pool (First Time)

2009-06-23T20:27:00.001-04:00

Summer Pics

2009-06-23T20:22:00.001-04:00

Look how high she is!

2009-06-23T20:13:00.002-04:00

More Exciting News

2009-06-22T12:59:00.002-04:00

I haven't had much to update on in the past couple of months...but today I do! Emily's pediatrician at her 6 months checkup told me that in the summer I could start giving her cheerios, pudding, applesauce, etc. I was a little weary about the cheerios, so I have decided to go with the puffs that dissolve first. So...I went out this weekend and bought a container of them (strawberry apple to be exact). Al and I put her in her highchair and put some on her tray. She noticed them a little, but still couldn't really figure out how to get them to her mouth. I picked one up and put in her mouth. She moved it around a bit and then it somehow got stuck on her face : ) I tried again and this time she actually made chewing motions and it was eventually gone. I then put one in her hand to see what she would do and she tried to get it into her mouth but couldn't...so again I helped her. She is now loving the puffs! She still can't really pick them up on her own, nor get them into her mouth if she does manage to get one in her hand...but, we don't mind helping her a bit. Not only is she eating puffs now, but she is signing milk! Does she actually know that she is saying milk....probably not, but that is a sign that I do to her all the time and now she is doing it...that is all that matters. When she does it I do the sign for milk and say, "Milk...yay!" Then, on top of the signing of milk, she has also started to say dadada and nanana. She does is randomly and mostly when she is getting aggravated...it is hilarious. Actually, another hilarious thing she does occurs when she gets way excited. She makes this little coughing sound...her arms shake like crazy and her mouth goes outward into a little point....HILARIOUS! I will have to try and get it on video. She is really progressing developmentally quite nicely. Her tooth at the bottom still has yet to erupt, but I know it is in there somewhere. The lump on her bottom gum is getting bigger, but still no tooth. I know that my posts lately have been so scattered and are probably hard to follow...sorry : ( It's hard when you have a baby who does not like to be on her own.

2009-06-16T15:13:00.002-04:00

Nothing really new over here. We have been pretty busy with cookouts and parties with family. Sunday we took Austin and Riley to Kids Day at Progressive Field to see the Indians. They got some pretty cool Sizemore reversible jerseys...which are huge on the them...but still cute. We sat in the all you could eat section which turned out to be way worth it. We got as many nachos, pop, water, popcorn, peanuts and hot dogs as we wanted. If you have ever been to a game you know how great this is. As for Emily...she stayed home with my parents. We are very excited because Emily is crying less when she is around our family members. Al's mom is so excited, because Emily has finally started to go to her without crying. That means maybe a little mommy and daddy time for Al and I. Before, we could go nowhere because Emily was having some sort of stranger anxiety. We do not see Al's parents enough, so it is understandable. We saw grandma and grandpa like 3 or 4 times within 2 weeks to get her used to them and it worked! As for Emily doing anything new...not really. Her back seems to be getting stronger. She can sit on my lap and sit up on her own for a second or two...sometimes. She has PT next week and she goes back for her speech therapy evaluation...so we will see how that goes. I will keep you updated.

Updates

2009-06-10T22:46:00.003-04:00

I have been a slacker when it comes to the blogging world and I apologize. I have just been so busy, it kind of slips my mind. We bought a family pass to the zoo so we have been spending a lot of time there. The kids love to just walk around and see all of the animals. I will post some pictures once I get them uploaded. Our local zoo has a dinosaur exhibit which is pretty cool. The dinos move and makes noises. The T-Rex is absolutely huge and roars so loud...it actually made Emily jump once today. There is really nothing new going on here. Austin's last day of school was Tuesday...Riley's last day was last Thursday. We are taking the kids to the Indian's game on Sunday because it is kid's day. They get a Sizemore jersey...and we are sitting in the all you can eat section. We get all the peanuts, nachos, pop, hot dogs, etc. that we want! If you have ever been to a sports game you know how great of a deal this is. Emily is still at the point she was the last time I blogged. Her back seems to be getting a little stronger, but still not sitting up or anything. Right now we are working on her being on her belly and pivoting around to get a toy. It's a little hard for her, as she loves to lift her head and legs up (almost as if she is skydiving). I think she is getting a tooth because she is drooling like crazy, biting everything and I feel a bump on her gums...but we will see. I find myself always comparing her to other babies and I really need to stop that. My friend has a girl who is not even 6 months and she just started sitting up on her own. Why do I continue to compare....it just makes me crazy. Anyways...Emily has been drinking from the bottle pretty much since she was born. We had bottles that were more expensive and had the really wide nipples (thinking it would be more like the real thing and wouldn't confuse her). She is still on the Slow flow nipple and even then she drools most of it out as she is drinking it. The Medium flow isn't an option because the whole thing runs down her face. So, I had a coupon for Target on a Gerber feeding accessory and decided to buy a bottle. Their bottles are only 99 cents, but the nipples are SO small. I thought for sure it would never work. Emily took it like she had been drinking from those forever! The slow flow nipple worked so great...nothing dripped down her face. The medium flow dripped a little, but barely. I could not believe that we were spending 3-5 dollars on a bottle that really didn't even work well for her when we could have spent 99 cents on one that is great. We also changed her formula once again...this time to Similac Sensitive RS....she has been on the regular Sensitive before, but this one is specifically for spit up (Emily spits up ALL the time). She has only been on it about a day and a half now, but so far I think it is working like a charm. She is only spitting up 1-2 times after each bottle. We are hoping that this solved the problem, but we are going to give it a couple more days. Sorry that I am all over the place in this blog. I will try to stay on one topic next time.

2009-05-28T13:54:00.001-04:00

Riley playing with the camera

Austin on his Communion Day

Good Times

2009-05-28T13:46:00.000-04:00

Pretty Girl : )

2009-05-28T13:23:00.001-04:00

"Cardiologist...say it isn't so! "

2009-05-28T12:51:00.004-04:00

When Emily was born, we were advised by her pediatrician to make an appointment with the cardiologist...which we did right away. We took her to the Cleveland Clinic and were told by the doctor that she has two small holes in between the upper chambers of her heart. The doctor felt pretty confident that these holes would close on their own. He said that lots of babies have these small little holes, but nobody ever notices because not every baby goes to a cardiologist when they are born. This was a great thing. He said that he would see us back in 6 months to check her heart out again. That is where yesterday comes in...it was the day of her 2nd checkup with that same cardiologist. I took her back into the room where they did the EKG and all the other stuff that they do. Then, of course they put me back into the waiting room. Finally, they called me back to weigh Emily and check her length, then put us in a room to wait for the doctor. I ended up waiting for over 45 minutes! Come on....he was right next door talking to another family....why 45 minutes....I heard him come out of that room 15 minutes after he went in and I was told we were next. Really?!?! Emily was getting fussy and was way tired. She finally fell asleep on my shoulder probably 40 minutes into the wait...then the doctor walks in talking loudly and wakes her up! He tells me that the holes have not gotten any smaller and that the right side of her heart is very dialated meaning that there is too much flow going on. He said that if it was in the lower chamber then she would need surgery right now, but since it is in the upper we can wait until she is about 4-6 years old. He wants to see her in 12 months to check again, but as it looks now, she is going to need it done. He stressed that he could probably go through the groin instead of doing open heart surgery, but sometimes having multiple holes is difficult to do through the groin...SCARY!! I don't want her to go through this...I don't want to go through this. I am just hoping that this is like a routine procedure where we are in and out in no time...a girl can hope right!?

7 months and counting

2009-05-20T22:11:00.002-04:00

I cannot believe that Emily is almost 7 months old! It feels like she was just born, like we just brought her home from the hospital, like I just started this blog about our lives. It is pretty crazy. She is doing so amazingly well in all aspects of life. Her therapies have been going so well, she now goes to PT once a month and OT once every 2-3 months. We started her on stage 2 baby food which she is doing so well on. It was kind of funny today because the OT asked if she has any issues with keeping the food in her mouth when fed by a spoon. She was wanting to know if her tongue is pushing the food back or out. I told her that Emily pushes food out with her tongue, but only the food she doesn't like. Give her some fruit and she keeps every drop in her mouth. The OT thinks this is hilarious...as do I. Her PT says that we can start using the Jumper and Excersaucer with her because she thinks it will help her straighten up more. We got the Excersaucer out today and put it outside int he shade today and she loved it. We only kept her in it for a few minutes just to get her used to it. She started whining after 5 minutes anyways. She never likes to stay in one position for too long. She is very stubborn like that : ) This weekend we are going on our first camping trip. Well, not really camping overnight or anything, just to a campground for the day. Al's mom and step-dad have a camper and there is a huge party Saturday in West Salem so we said that we would bring the kids and enjoy the weather...hope it is nice.

6month checkup

2009-05-13T19:50:00.003-04:00

Emily had her 6 month checkup the other day and it went great! She weighs 13 pounds 9 ounces (75th%)...which doesn't seem like enough to me...but according to the doctor, she is gaining nicely. She is about 25 inches long or so which is in the 90 or 95th%. He thinks she is developing wonderfully. He said that we could start her on Stage 2 food and in the summer we can start letting her *test* actual food such as applesauce, ice cream, cheerios, etc. How exciting is that?! Not sure if I mentioned before, but the PT told us that she saw a little weakness in her back right underneath her neck. She gave us a few things that we could do with her to help strengthen that part, which in turn will help her sit up and whatnot. We have been doing all of those things for the past couple of weeks and have really seen an improvement. Her spine is not so curved anymore when you try and sit her up and she can sit up pretty straight when helped. With the weakness in that part of her back/neck, she wasn't really able to lift her head up enough when she was on her belly. Now she seems to be lifting her head like a pro. Even with all of these accomplishemnts, I still find myself comparing her to other babies...whether they are typical or have Ds. I can't help but do it for some reason. Hopefully that will end with time.

Funny girl

2009-05-08T12:08:00.000-04:00

New Pics

2009-05-08T12:07:00.003-04:00

Attitude

2009-05-05T23:07:00.003-04:00

Emily has definitely found out that she has a voice. For the past two days she has been so loud! She is not crying, just making noises....but really loud noises. It is very cute, but gives me a headache. Aside from the headache, it makes me so happy to see her do something new. She has not only started to be loud...but she has also started to give a little attitude when she isn't getting what she wants. I know it sounds a little crazy since she is only 6 months, but it is what it is. She will be talking and cooing, and then get a little aggravated. If you are not paying attention to her, she will let out a short, LOUD, screeching sound. She will continue to do this until you pick her up or talk to her. It is really funny that someone as little as her can let out such a loud screeching sound. It also amazes me that she is only 6 months and is already doing that. She is just like her mother : ) She knows what she wants and wants it when she wants it.

2009-05-01T14:21:00.000-04:00

2009-05-01T14:17:00.000-04:00

Did she Know?!

2009-04-28T23:05:00.005-04:00

I was talking to my mom the other day about the ultrasound that I had with Emily and it got me thinking. Here's the story...my mother, Al, myself, and Austin all went in to finally get a picture of the little one that was living inside of me. The lady was very quiet and seemed very shy. I remember walking out and saying something to Al about how she seemed very quiet. Anyways~she does the ultrasound...measuring all the limbs and the head and everything else that they do. Emily was hiding her sex from us so I had to get up and clear my bladder so that it could finally be revealed that she was a she. The lady told us that it was a girl and Austin started crying (so sad...but cute) because he wanted a brother. The lady kept trying to talk to him to get him to be happy but nothing worked. She gave us the two pics that she had taken of Emily...one of her face and torso and one of her feet crossed. We left and on my way home, she called me and said that she forgot to get the length of the femur and asked if I could come back. I told her I lived about 30 minutes away and was already close to home...it would have to be another day. She said that that would be fine but she wouldn't be there that day so the girl that would be on duty would have to do it. That was fine with me and I went back either the next day or a couple of days later. I never thought anything of it until I delivered Emily and went to my OB for the 6 week checkup. I went in and began to tell my doc about how I just wasn't feeling right. She immediately said, "Do you want to try some Prozac (sp?)?" I thought this was a little weird since I didn't really say anything else yet...but that is a whole other issue. Anyways~she continues to do what she needed to do and then finally asked me what the problem was. I explained about Emily and a few other things and she looked at me and asked, "Did you know before hand that she had Down syndrome?" ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! Would she or would she not already know that? Shouldn't she know if I knew before hand? So that got me thinking. Did she know before hand and didn't tell me then couldn't remember if she told me or not? Did the ultrasound technician know and was just too scared to tell me? Did she notice that the femur was a little short (I know babies with Ds have shorter limbs a lot of the time)...so did she just want to measure it again? All of these things are just running through my mind. So today I was talking to someone I know and this person said that they were telling someone that they knew about all of this. The person that they were talking to said that they were told that their baby may have had Ds and one of the things that they noticed on the ultrasound was the shorter femur! At this point, I am fuming on the inside wondering why this woman would not tell me if she knew. Has she done this to someone else? Who gave her the right to make other people's choices for them? Not that my choice would have been any different, (I chose not to have the amnio because I knew no matter what...I would have the baby) but there may be some other woman out there that wanted a choice and didn't get one. If I would have been told I could have prepared myself and did the research ahead of time...so that when Emily was born, I would be able to just enjoy her without the scared, overwhelming feeling of shock that I experienced that afternoon on October 29, 2008. Oh well I guess...I can't go back. Maybe I wasn't supposed to know....maybe the lady didn't even know. Who knows.

Our New Ohio State Fan

2009-04-27T15:12:00.000-04:00

Update

2009-04-21T10:36:00.003-04:00

Sorry for all of the pictures...but I haven't posted in awhile. I cannot believe that little Emily is almost 6 months old. That is half a year! It seems crazy to me. She is growing and developing so fast, I feel like I am missing it all...and the sad thing is that I am home with her all day. I get to see everything she does for the first time, but it is just going too fast. Last night we went to a playgroup and there was a new little baby there. I couldn't imagine Emily ever being that small. It really wasn't that long ago. I knew she was growing, but you don't realize how much until you see a newborn or you look at the clothes that they wore when they came home from the hospital. Emily's newborn clothes were too big on her in the beginning and now she is wearing 6 months...CRAZY! Anyways~this past weekend was absolutely beautiful here in Cleveland. We took Emily outside a lot. Her sister Riley started gymnastics on Saturday and had a great time. I loved watching her. At first she wouldn't even attempt to do a somersault or kart wheel (SP?) on her own, but at the end she did both! Very exciting! Austin, as you can see in the pics, finally got his hair cut. Who knew all it would take was a pack of Pokemon cards?! He starts swimming tonight and is very excited to learn how to dive. Then in August he is going to be playing tackle football. They are all growing up before my eyes. Until later...

2009-04-21T10:31:00.000-04:00

2009-04-21T10:30:00.000-04:00

Emily's brother Austin....before and after

2009-04-21T10:29:00.000-04:00

Look how long I am getting : )

2009-04-21T10:28:00.001-04:00

Silly face

2009-04-21T10:27:00.000-04:00

2009-04-21T10:25:00.000-04:00

I love my feet

A few Pics

2009-04-21T10:22:00.002-04:00

Beautiful weekend outside

2009-04-12T13:39:00.001-04:00

HAPPY EASTER

Playgroup and other random stuff

2009-04-07T12:30:00.004-04:00

So we went to a new playgroup last night. There were a couple of families that go to the other one as well, but for the most part, they were all new families. It was really nice to meet all of these people and their little ones. Although Emily is not old enough to crawl/run around with the others, she enjoyed the noise I think. Other than the playgroup, nothing much has been going on. I do have a question for the other moms on here about teething. Is there sometimes a delay in teeth eruption in our babies? I don't even know what the typical age that teething starts is. Emily has been drooling so much lately and has just been way fussy. She wants to bite on everything that comes in contact with her mouth and let me tell you...it hurts! She pulls everything to her mouth. She has not been sleeping very well lately. We finally got into a little routine of a short nap during the day and sleeping throughout the night, but now, there is no napping AGAIN...and she has been getting up in the night. Could it be teething?
Oh...We took the kids to see the Easter bunny and get their pics done with him. This year, our local mall didn't have such a good bunny. To make matters worse, in the picture, the older kids look great...Emily has her hand right over most of her face. It seemed like the bunny was a high school kid because he/she was very timid about holding a baby. I was kind of upset that I paid 20 bucks for a pic in which you can't even see Emily. Oh well..it's over now. At least when she gets older she can still see that we took her. I can't wait until it gets warm for once! I thought it was finally starting to and then today happened. In our city we have gotten about 2 inches of snow. It was snowing pretty hard from yesterday until about an hour ago. I just can't wait to finally be able to take Em out for a walk. I can't wait for her to be able to wear the closet full of summer clothes that we have gotten her. I can't resist shopping. Everytime I go to the store and see a cute outfit I feel the need to buy it.

Rolling Over

2009-04-03T14:43:00.002-04:00

Emily rolled from back to belly a few times when she was only a month or 2 old...but never did it again after that. Belly to back...yes...all the time...but back to belly...nope. Wednesday I went to go teach and Al stayed home with her. Well, when I got home he told me that she rolled back to belly like 3 times! I put her on the floor and just watched. A few minutes later, she was over!! I was so excited, I just started yelling. Again today, I put her on the floor next to the little piano that lights up and sings and within minutes she was over. She is doing so much now. She is starting to laugh a lot more now and she is trying hard to hold her bottle now...but her hands are still so small, she can't hold it up...but she tries : ) She has started to eat cereal as everyone knows...and now she is also eating squash, carrots, sweet potatoes, green beans, and bananas. She loves to eat! Tonight or tomorrow we are going to try and take her to see the Easter Bunny. We will see what happens...it is very windy and rainy here.

On another note...to my other blogging friends...have you seen the new link on your dashboard...monetize (I think that is what it says)...where you can have ads on the sides of your blogging page and you get paid. Has anyone done this yet...is it real, is it a good idea?

Stop the "r' word

2009-03-30T22:30:00.002-04:00

So tomorrow is the day...the day that many of us will be spreading the word. I read another mom's blog today about how she, at one time, used the "r" word casually at one point in her life. I have to say...although I am not proud, I too have used the word before...a lot. When I used it, I never once thought that it may be offending someone. I didn't use it to purposefully hurt anyone. I used it just as someone would use the word dork or nerd and I thought it was ok. Now that Emily is here...and I am not proud to say that it took her being born for me to realize...I feel angry when I hear it used. Emily is by no means "retarded" in my book and I am not happy that that is the word that many people will attach to her at some point in her life. Family members who are reading this, who may not know about tomorrow, please spread the word. If you hear someone use the word...just let them know that someone out there may be hurt by that.

2009-03-23T22:27:00.002-04:00

Sorry some of the pictures are side ways...my computer was going so slow! By the time I realized that they were sideways I was not about to go back and fix them and wait for them to upload again. I will try and do that later.

2009-03-23T22:18:00.000-04:00

She looks like a frog

2009-03-23T22:11:00.002-04:00

These are two of Emily's favorite toys

New Pics

2009-03-23T22:06:00.000-04:00

Emily holding her head up a little

2009-03-21T21:23:00.004-04:00

Emily ate carrots yesterday....and LOVED them. She is growing so fast, it is amazing. Gosh, if I knew what I know now, I NEVER would have reacted the way I did when I found out about Emily having Ds. I basically freaked out and got very scared and very emotional...as I am sure everyone read about in my very first post. At this point, she's doing everything that Austin did at 4 1/2months. She is already lifting her feet up to her face, she is flipping over, she is eating cereal and carrots off of a spoon, she is holding her head up like a pro, She does an excellent job when it comes to tummy time, she's grabbing at toys that are hanging in front of her, she tries very hard to transfer her play rings from hand to hand, she laughs, and she smiles one of the biggest smiles I have ever seen. For my family who follow this blog, I want to let you know that the Buddy Walk is going to be in August of this year....we hope that you will join us in the walk at Progressive Field!

The Doc Made Our Day!!

2009-03-13T20:52:00.004-04:00

Emily's doctor appointment went GREAT!!! We got in there and they weighed her....she weighs 11 lbs. 10 oz. which is in the 75th% on the Down syndrome chart. She was over 25 inches tall which is off the charts he said. He asked all sorts of questions about things that she is doing and when I told him everything, he was so surprised. He said that she is moving along at the same pace as a "typical" child and he expects that she will continue to progress quite nicely...SURPRISING! This appointment completely made my day. I know that in the future Emily may become delayed, but at this point I am focusing on how she is doing at this very moment. Al and I are so proud of her for what she has accomplished.

Oh....and Kim...Emily does sleep throughout the night for the most part. I actually have to wake her up at 4:30 to feed her because if I don't she will sleep 13 hours! That's funny that you say she finally took a nap today....so did Em!

2009-03-13T10:46:00.004-04:00

In a couple of hours Emily has her 4 month checkup...yep, that's what I said...4 MONTHS! I can't believe how fast she has grown. I feel like it was yesterday when I had her and was being told she had Ds and when I began breaking down. Now, it has been 4 1/2 months. We have all come to terms with the Ds and the fact that Emily will most likely be delayed. We are working our hardest to help her stay on track and not fall to behind. The tears have all dried up and now I am on a mission to make sure Emily has a normal life and that she is treated no differently than her brother and sister are.

In the past 4 1/2 months Emily has mastered the art of sucking on a bottle, she has found her hands (she has the cutest way of sucking on her thumb), she has started to eat cereal (and eats it like a champ), and she has found her feet. She is doing so well with moving too...sometimes I have her with her head one way and I look at her 5 minutes later and her head is the total opposite way. She amazes us everyday! She still hasn't mastered the art of taking naps, but things could be worse I guess. I will say that one thing she has taken on is yelling. I know it sounds weird that a 4 month old would be yelling, but I swear she does. If we put her in her bed or on the floor and she doesn't want to be there...she yells. No tears, no crying, no nothing...just plain yelling. Emily has grown so much and I can't wait to see what the doc says today. Wish us luck!

My little sister.

2009-03-05T20:34:00.004-05:00

This is Emily's big brother Austin. One thing I don't like about M & M is she vomits on my school clothes. But what I do like about her is I get to feed her, hold her, and what I like the most is just having a little sister.

I Have Feet!

2009-03-03T12:08:00.003-05:00

It's been awhile again...I have been subbing a lot more lately and I have been sick with an awful cold (which I still have). Taking care of a 4 month old and being sick has been pretty rough. Especially trying to not give it to her. So this past Friday the 27th, Emily discovered that she has feet! She has been pulling them up and playing with them. It is quite amazing since the PT and OT said that she has low tone in her stomach. I would think in order to pull your feet up you would need to use your stomach. She has this V-Tech spinning toy that makes noises when you touch it...it's her favorite toy to play with so far. It started out that she would just stare at the lights on it, then it went to her actually grabbing the animals and making it make noise, now it has gone to her pulling her feet up and using them to push the animals. I can't believe how flexible our little one is. Everything else has been going great. Austin has become even more helpful with his sister and Riley has actually become more interested in her. Before, she would say hi to her and then go play. Now, she wants to hold her a lot and like to give her toys to play with. We still have not told Riley about Emily but we have told Austin. Austin is very noisy, so I figured he would eventually hear us talking about it and then question what it is. He understands for the most part. I think we will wait to tell Riley for a little while longer until she can understand a little more. Well, all is good here as you can tell. I will keep you updated on Little Em...she goes for her 4 month on the 13th..that should be exciting!

It has been a long time

2009-02-24T21:16:00.002-05:00

Gosh...how time flies (I realized I have not written in about 8 days). This past week Emily has had her first PT and OT appointments. PT was first and her PT Rita was great! Emily was tracking with her eyes and lifting her head like a champ. She would grab the rings that were put in front of her face and then try and put them in her mouth...although she just kept hitting her nose. Rita said that she did so well she doesn't need to see her for another 4 weeks. OT went just as well. Her OT Laura did such a great job with her. Emily really liked playing with the rings that she had hanging over her head. She was just doing such a great job. Laura said that she doesn't need to see her for 3 weeks. I just can't believe how much our little peanut is growing. We also went to our second playgroup yesterday. It was fun...although many of the people that were there last time did not come this time. Emily's brother Austin came with us and had a great time. Well....until later

Just Hanging Out

2009-02-16T21:16:00.001-05:00

2009-02-16T21:15:00.000-05:00

Emily started to grab for the toys today!

2009-02-16T21:10:00.002-05:00

I know doctors recommend that babies do not start eating cereal until about 4-6months, but Emily was just never satisfied! I swear AL and I were feeding her like every 2 hours and she was never done. This past weekend we started to feed her 1TBSP of cereal in 4TBSP of formula so it was really watery. She did so well and was able to take it off of the spoon and really didn't push it out of her mouth at all. We only gave it to her twice this past weekend, but it seemed that when we did she was content for much longer. For anyone out there who is saying, "But she is not even 4 months yet!"...Emily will be 4 months on the 29th and on top of that, I think you should go by your baby and not the doctors all the time.

2009-02-16T21:09:00.001-05:00

Emily was able to sit in her Bumbo for a few minutes without falling over...she did so well

2009-02-15T14:28:00.002-05:00

Can you tell they are all related?!

Update

2009-02-10T19:43:00.001-05:00

The PT called later today as well and Emily is eligible for services. We setup 3 appointments for her and I am very excited to start seeing what my little one can do.

2009-02-10T11:26:00.004-05:00

First I wanted to let everyone know that the OT called today and Emily is eligible for services....yeah! I kind of didn't want her to be eligible so that I could tell everyone that she is doing too great to be eligibile, but then on the other hand, I knew she would eventually be delayed in something and I am happy that they are starting her now.

Secondly, I had a doctors appt today and of course little Emily went with me to keep me company. This was the third time we were there in the past two weeks. Each time we walked in to the back, whichever nurse was taking care of us would talk about how cute Emily was and then continue on with my vitals and whatnot. Today was different for some reason. The nurse was an older lady and she was immediately smiling when she took us back. She began talking about how cute Emily was which I expected. Then she asked if she had respiratory problems (Emily was eating and you could hear that she was stuffed up). Instead of just saying yes, I said, "She has Down syndrome". Why I said this I have no idea...did I know deep down that she knew? I usually do not just come out and tell random people about it. The lady immediately said, "I asked if she has respiratory problems, I know she has Down syndrome, I was a labor and delivery nurse for a long time. After seeing so many babies, you just know. You don't need to tell people that Emily has Ds, just say that she has Trisomy 21 and leave it at that...let them figure it out." This caught me off gaurd. I think I was more stunned that I had told her about Emily when really it had nothing to do with anything we were talking about. I could have just said yes she has breathing problems and left it at that, but I didn't. Like I said earlier, it is almost as if I knew she knew. She couldn't believe how great Emily looked, how strong she seemed, and how she just stared at me intently. She talked to me about the importance of early intervention and how important it was to apply for every service that she was eligible for and I explained that I am way ahead of her. We continued to talk for a little bit about her daughter who teaches special needs and other things...but then she said I was all done and she looked at Emily and said, "You are perfect! You are going to have a wonderful normal life because I can tell you have a great mommy who loves you and is going to do everything possible to give you a wonderful life (May not be word for word but you get the idea)." I was speechless...I said thank you so much to the woman and walked out to my car and immediately burst into tears. I don't know why I was crying...I guess because as much as I say that I have come to terms with all of this and I know she is going to be fine, I still have worries. The past couple of days have been horrible for me emotionally so I needed to hear that from someone. Did God know that I have been a mess the past couple of days and give us that particular nurse for this very reason? I wonder. Family members can tell you a million times about how fine it is and how great you are going to do with all of this, but they have to say that...they are family. When a stranger who knows nothing about you or your child tells you these things, I just think it helps. I am not sure what this nurses name was and I may never see her again and I am sure that she will never see this blog, but I want to thank her.

2009-02-04T12:24:00.001-05:00

She spotted herself

2009-02-04T12:22:00.000-05:00

Emily's first bow!

2009-02-04T12:12:00.002-05:00

Update

2009-02-04T11:51:00.004-05:00

So...I have not written in awhile because nothing too interesting has happened since the last post. Emily is still doing pretty much the same things that she was doing before with nothing too new. She IS trying to grab at things now. I can see it in her eyes when she spots something hanging above her that she wants. She lifts her arm and it kind of just shakes in the air...it's almost as if she can't figure out how to get it to the toy. When I hold her, she studies my face very intently...she knows who I am, I am sure of it! I have been signing to her a lot at this point. When she is looking at me I say and sign mama and Al has been signing and saying dada. I do a couple of other ones to her but I try to use it when it makes sense. If I am trying to get her to play with her toys, I sign play or if I am teling her I love her, I sign I love you. We are going to be starting the baby signing times videos soon...I think she would enjoy just hearing the music at this point. For those of you who don't know what it is and would like to see, you can visit www.signingtimes.com and click on baby signing times on the left side. Then if you click on one of the DVDs you can see a preview of what it is...it is really cute. Anyways, Emily is smiling much more now and looking at her toys that we place in front of her. She has not been sleeping through the night as much as before, but I am handling it. Her napping during the day has gotten a little better, but not much. She goes to her pediatrician this month for her 4 month checkup and we are excited to see how much she weighs now. At 2mths she weighed 8lbs 15oz...but I know, she has to weigh more than that at this point. I will keep everyone updated. As for Riley and Austin, they both did very well on their report cards (not sure if I said this in another post). They are both getting along with each other very well still and they help a great deal with Emily. She is lucky to have such great siblings!

2009-02-04T11:47:00.001-05:00

This is how I put Emily to bed...

2009-02-04T11:44:00.000-05:00

...and this is how she woke up!!

Play Group

2009-01-27T18:56:00.004-05:00

Yesterday was Emily's first play group and we had a blast! We met so many new families. Even though Emily is too young to actually play, it was nice to see the other chidren interact with each other and with us. It was also nice to see some of them signing and to see the differences in every child. We will definitely be going back. The moms and dads were great and loved Emily. Some of them asked us questions and gave us advice and told us about their children. It was nice to have someone tell you what their child "does and can" do. It was also great to see each child do those things. Sometimes you get a little discouraged and aggravated when you are constantly told what your child will probably not do or what they will be delayed in. Thanks to all the parents that attended the play group.

MRDD Evaluation

2009-01-27T18:37:00.006-05:00

Today was the day we have been waiting for. We took Emily to have her team evaluation today. Their observations were actually kind of surprising to us. At every pediatrician appointment so far we have been told that she is low tone. I never thought to ask where? I just thought low tone was low tone everywhere. Little did I know...she is not low tone everywhere. As you all know, Emily can be on her tummy and lift her head pretty well. Once they started talking about the low tone in certain areas, I figured there is no way she could be low tone in the upper half of her body...she lifts her head to well. I also figured that she couldn't be low tone in her legs because they seemed strong to me. So that left me wondering where in the world she was low tone. The evaluators played with her (and she loved it) and examined her. Their conclusions were that her legs are indeed strong and do not have low tone. She does have low tone in her stomach (which I didn't even know was possible) and low tone in her shoulders (this is the part that blew my mind). How could a little girl who lifts her head like a champ be low tone in the shoulders? She uses her shoulders to push herself up so I just figured that meant she was strong. Then they started to explain why they believe that and it all makes sense. When Emily is on her back her arms go straight out...when she wants her hands in her mouth she pulls them in, but it is almost as if her arms get stuck for a second. She has to work hard to bend her elbows. It all makes sense! They also explained that when she is on her back her stomach kind of goes flat which is also an indicator of low tone. I have noticed that, but just figured it was a baby characteristic. The PT and OT used many different toys that made noise and Emily looked at most of them and followed them when they were pulled away. She had a little trouble holding the ring in her hand for more than a couple of seconds, but I told the OT that she holds fingers for a long time. She tried with her finger and Emily held on pretty well. The PT noticed that Emily preferred to look to the left a lot. She said that her neck muscles were beginning to get a little tight and that we needed to make sure she is looking to the right a lot as well as straight up. They told us a few things that we could do at home to help with her shoulder strength and to get her to look the other way. All in all we are very pleased with Sherri from Help Me Grow, the ST, the OT and PT. They are not sure if she is going to be eligible for services just yet (she has to have a 25% delay), but if she is not, they will re-evaluate her in a month to see where she is at that point. Our county has a great Help Me Grow program and we are very happy with everything.

Enlightenment

2009-01-21T20:32:00.005-05:00

Emily was sleeping so well up until a few days ago. When she was a newborn we actually had to wake her up to eat. The doctor said that she doesn't have the fat deposits needed to sleep the whole night so that we needed to wake her up every 4 hours...that was fine, we did it. The doctor also said that when she was a month old we could let her go 5 hours then when she hit two months old we could let her sleep as long as she would sleep. We stopped setting the alarm at her two month mark and that first night she slept 13 hours! Of course, this was just way too long so we started setting an alarm to wake her up after 9 hours or so. Life was so good when she would sleep. I felt like one of the luckiest parents around...I felt spoiled. Then, a few days ago she decided to wake up twice in the night and at least once or twice the following days. Yesterday she went to bed around 7:30 or so and woke up at 3 then at 6:30. I would normally be able to handle all of these feedings if I wasn't so used to the "good life" that she has so graciously given me the past three months. Gosh...I hope she begins to sleep again.

Anyways...I just received the book "Gifts" (it was mailed to me by Libby from "Blessing and Glory")...Thank you so much Libby. I began to read it today and of course the tears started rolling just from the first couple of stories. The things that all of these parents talk about are exactly the things that I felt and still feel about Emily and about Down syndrome. Emily is no different than her brother or her sister. She smiles just like her brother and sister did, she coos just like her brother and sister did, she rolls over (earlier than her brother and sister did), and she brings joy to our lives just like her brother and sister. She may need a little extra time to learn to sit up, crawl, walk and talk, but who doesn't need a little extra time to learn something new at one point or another in their lives? Emily is more like her brother and sister then she is different. This is something that I have read over and over again in blogs and books that talk about the lives of children with Ds. It makes me sad when I think of my first reaction to Emily's diagnosis. I just sat there and said nothing. Then I went home and just cried and cried to myself. I shouldn't have been crying wondering how we were going to survive or crying over the fact that she will be different. I should have been crying because God chose us to be Emily's parents (which I eventually did realize). He knew we would love her and He knew we would be ok and He knew that she would be entering into a family who will focus on what she can do rather than what she can't do.

Thank you

2009-01-20T20:23:00.005-05:00

Thank you to another mom for commenting on my post about screaming Down syndrome...she said that you are only yelling it if you are putting it in complete caps. The only reason the S in syndrome is not capitalized is that Down is the last name of the man who discovered Down syndrome. Syndrome is not part of his name so it is not capitalized...thanks for the info.

Emily is doing great! She is beginning to laugh when you talk to her and play with her. I am so proud of her. She is now looking at us like crazy. The women from Help Me Grow are going to be so happy. She is now tracking with her eyes when you put something in front of her and move it. She is also very interested in her mirror that we hang on her crib. Al was putting her to bed and said that she looked right into it and was laughing. Earlier in the night I had it on the floor in front of her and she was just staring at herself contently. I took a pic that I will post tomorrow. I also took a video of her rolling over, but I can't get it to download so I have to figure that out. On top of the staring and tracking and playing in the mirror, she is also interested in her hands now. As all of you know she has been sucking on her hands for awhile now, but she now has discovered that she can look at them as well. We caught her with her hand up in front of her face and she was studying it intently. It is amazing how fast they grow.

2009-01-18T20:38:00.001-05:00

Emily must have been having a funny dream.

Surprises

2009-01-18T11:46:00.003-05:00

WOOHOO! This morning Emily woke up around 8:30 (I know...I am lucky). Al put her on the bed next to me while he went to make a bottle and Emily was looking at me like crazy! She was smiling and making little laughing sounds and following my hands when I moved them from side to side. She did this for a long time until Al came in to take her. I am so excited! Let's hope that this lasts. Not sure if I mentioned this in the last post or not but Emily is definitely showing the signs of teething. I looked up teething on the internet and saw that they may show signs way before they get the tooth, so she may not be getting one...but she sure acts it. She is drooling like crazy and she is fussy and when you put something in her mouth she just bites down on it and keeps her grip and stops crying. I wonder how long they could show symptoms before the tooth comes...hopefully not too long.

2009-01-17T15:38:00.001-05:00

Emily's new little track suit...gotta love the clearance section!