Moos Crossing

Seven Snippets Fridays, #4

2012-02-03T09:58:00.000-07:00

--- 1 ---

It's a snow day today. Colorado has been all over the news for the monster storm that is supposed to be upon us. Some parts of the state have a lot more snow than we do though. It's still snowing, but so far, we only have about three inches.

--- 2 ---

And related to our snow day....trying to get any work done from home while entertaining a 2 year old is pretty much impossible!

--- 3 ---

On Monday we had another ultrasound to make sure that a VBAC was an option. Everything looks good with baby and his position, so that is the plan. We will head back to the doctor on Feb 29 to have my membranes stripped and hopefully have a baby soon after. I am hoping that baby waits until the next day to make his appearance though, so we don't have a leap year baby.

--- 4 ---

Monday was full of appointments. Claire also had PT, her first session since she started walking. We brought her Sure Steps and a couple of pair of shoes to try with them. These shoes were the best fit over the orthotics. They come in half sizes and an extra wide width.

--- 5 ---

Claire's favorite word right now is 'hot'. Any time you give her food she will sign and say hot, and we have to reassure her that it's just right to eat. Cute, but exhausting at times, as this can be an every bite question.

--- 6 ---

Since we didn't get enough of all the doctor appointments on Monday, Claire and I headed to her ENT on Wednesday. Both the audiologist and her doctor said her ears were pretty full of wax. She hasn't been eating too much these days, so it was worth a trip to get her checked out. The doctor cleaned one ear out, but said the other one looked good. Both tubes are still in place too. So, I guess the picky (or non-existent) eating is just 2 year old stuff...

--- 7 ---

At the ultrasound the tech estimated baby's weight at 5 lbs, 7 oz. Crazy, because that's already bigger than what Claire was when she was born.

For more Seven Snippets, visit Bringing the Sunshine!

Six Day Miracle

2012-01-31T14:53:00.001-07:00

----Reposted from A Perfect Lily

I read the words of a friend last night, and as is typical of posts written by mamas rescuing their babies from orphanages across the world, it cut me to the heart. I read it with my girl tucked safely in the crook of my arm, her golden head laying softly against my neck, and I gulped back hot tears trying to read the words out loud to Sam.

"You read it," I said, because I knew it was pointless to go on.

There is something beautiful and powerful about mamas and daddies sacrificing finances, time, and energy to rescue a child who is going to require extraordinary amounts of care and effort once they are home. There is something amazing and rare about families who will put everything on the line, including and especially their hearts, for a child who by the world's standards is broken. There is something pure and noble and absolutely right about that kind of love- the love that says it doesn't matter what it takes, I am going to rescue this child, and nothing is going to stand in my way. The love that faces seemingly insurmountable costs and mountains of paperwork and risks what family and friends will think about traveling across the ocean to save a child you've never met before, one that many people might say wasn't really "fit for life" in the first place.

So when I read this mama's account of the very first time she met her little girl- it didn't matter that I've read several dozen similar stories- they get me every time. I want you to read this account, that of a mama rescuing her daughter. I want you to listen to the words spoken by a five year old little girl...

...and if you're a parent, imagine your child saying them...

About 5 minutes in, the door opened and someone pushed our girl in the door and shut it.

She was stunned. It seemed she had not been made aware of what was happening or why, and she regarded us quizzically at first. We were stunned. The picture had turned in to a person! My mind was literally swimming, I could not remember a.single.word. of Russian. I couldn’t remember how to greet her, or how to tell her she was absolutely gorgeous, or how to say I am your Mama. Nothing. Just complete shock.

Then I remembered I had a Disney princess doll in my bag to give her. I pulled it out, and she smiled. I asked if she wanted to sit on my lap, and she did. The director and doctor began talking again, but all I could do was stare at the sweet, brown pigtails swishing in front of me. Her little hands turning the doll over, as she began to speak a little bit. She began to realize what was happening.

We were there FOR. HER.

Our sweet little Vi.

She looked up and asked me “What is your name?” in Russian. I told her “Lora. Mama.” She looked straight to Dean, “What is your name?” He told her “Dean. Papa.” She looked to the director and smiled “Mama! Papa!”

Everyone was absolutely beaming, and perhaps had just a glint of tears in their eyes.

“I kept asking for you!! Mama? Mama? Mama? When will you come??” she said, according to our translator.

Five years is a long time to wait for this.

Or this...

Or this...

I can't imagine Lily never knowing the security of having a mama to tuck her in every night, to hold her when she's hurting or comfort her when she's sad, never knowing how it feels to be desired and loved.

I can't imagine what goes through a little girl's mind for five years, wondering when her mama will come take her home, waiting for the day she will walk through the doors of her orphanage, dreaming about that elusive, imaginary angel....

Mama? Mama? Mama? When will you come??

Yesterday I received an email from a friend...another amazing mama who traveled last year to rescue not one, but two children.

Patti,
I wanted to see if you could help me out by posting on your blog about the Dirkes family. You see she contacted me today just heart broken and at her wits end. Her faith is shaken and my heart has gathered her burden. She leaves in one week. Yes, 7 days and she still needs at least 7k for this trip. Grand total is still about 17k. I am asking for your help because I was in her shoes not long ago and it is heart wrenching. It takes all you got to get through a day. The tears seem to never end. You pray there will just be one person who hears your cry. You pray until you have no words left just hoping someone will help. Patti, financially I cannot help her, I have made donations but not nearly enough to help. I have heard her cries and I cannot just sit back and hope she gets her funds. Her daughter Charlotte holds a special place in my heart; she was the one I would of chosen if we didn't choose Varvara. So, this leaves me to contact people who I know can help. Please go to her blog and see if you can help. Post a story, anything you can think of....
Ann Plummer

I went to Ann's friend's blog, and recognized a sweet little face I donated to a few months ago...and again a few days ago, in honor of another friend's birthday wish. Little Charlotte met her mama and daddy last November. They are traveling in six days to see her again, and go to court to make her theirs.

Six Days.

Six days to make a miracle happen.

Do you think we can do it?

With God's help, I believe we can.

Charlotte's mama, Kelly, emailed me yesterday, after I said I would do everything I could to help.

There are no words to thank you and the others who have stepped up and spoken out for us and for my girl. I knew this journey would give me the opportunity to learn a great deal about being a momma and about Down Syndrome...but I didn't know just how strong this community is.

Well, Kelly- you're about to find out. I say that not because I have confidence in Lily's blog, or in my own words, but because I serve a BIG God. And I'm part of a faithful and generous community, one who rallies around its own.

Charlotte is our own, friends.

She's been waiting for her mama all of her life, waiting and hoping for someone to come and take her home.

“I kept asking for you!! Mama? Mama? Mama? When will you come??”

Lily's readers have responded so many times to the needs of orphans. You've given so much to help these families find and rescue their children. Will you help me again?

Will you help us make a six day miracle happen?

Will you help save a little girl?

Because Charlotte is our own.

I know Lily's readers, and I know it doesn't even take a giveaway to move you beyond compassion, and into action. I know the face of one beautiful little girl who desperately needs her mama is enough to move you to give.
But a giveaway full of amazing prizes is always nice too:) (and thank you, Kelly, for letting me hijack your giveaway!)

Here's how it works....

1 chance=$10 donation

5 chances=$25 donation

20 chances=$50 donation

All donations are tax-deductible and go directly to the Dirkes's grant fund through Reece’s Rainbow. They can be made using the Chip-In at the top of my sidebar on the right.

Kindle Fire

Canon Rebel DSLR camera (with lens)

Petal Knot Dress from Willow Bean Creations

Custom made t-shirt from If You Say Sew

Starfish necklace from The Vintage Pearl

Pearl, bracelet, and earring set from Kay Jewelers

Insulated Tote from 31

Autographed copy of Alton Brown’s book “I’m Just Here for the Food”

Autographed “Hopkins” from Rachel Coleman of Signing Time

$150 gift card for Kimberly Wilson's TranquiliT (an amazing line of clothing for anyone who loves yoga...or comfort)

$50 gift card for Planet Jill

$50 gift card for Scentsy

$50 gift card for Hanna Andersson

$50 gift card for Target

$25 gift card for The Adopt Shoppe

$25 gift card for Wal-Mart

$25 gift card for Starbucks

$25 gift card for Olive Garden

A jar of Renee Tam’s famous toffee

A batch of oReshki, traditional cookies from Charlotte’s country

Kelly sees who donated on her chip-in, so you do not need to leave a comment to be entered to win. She will announce winners on her blog on February 6th, the day they leave to see Charlotte....

We need that chip-in (posted on Patty's blog) to be at $13,300 for the Dirkes family to travel on February 6th.

I believe in miracles.

Do you????

----Reposted from A Perfect Lily

Pregnancy Update

2012-01-24T11:05:00.000-07:00

33 weeks, 3 days.

We get to meet our little one in roughly six weeks....and while I'm excited, I'm so not ready.

I look around my house, and see mess everywhere. If I can't keep up with work, house and Claire, how the heck is another little one going to fit in? I know it will be ok, and that once s/he gets here I won't be able to imagine before, without him. But wow, I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed right now!

On the pregnancy side of things, uneventful pretty much sums it up. My belly is measuring right at 33 weeks, baby's heart rate is always mid 140s to mid 150s, my weight gain is right on track, and my blood pressure seems to have stabilized after it's slight jump a few weeks ago. We have a girl name picked out (no we aren't telling!), but haven't even started on a boy name yet.

I know you aren't supposed to compare, but I can't help comparing this pregnancy to my pregnancy with Claire. So different, and yet, so much the same.

The differences are easy to spot. With Claire, something came up at EVERY ONE of her appointments after about 20 weeks. Ds markers. Poor blood flow through the cord. Heart defect. Failed NST. IUGR. It got to the point where I honestly hated going to her ultrasounds. I would finally feel emotionally ok with whatever the new development was, and then another appointment would get close, and I was a nervous wreck again. I know the doctors were looking out for Claire and her well being, but I felt robbed. Robbed of the 'normal' pregnancy experience, and that was hard. On the positive side, I have an entire album of Claire's ultrasound pictures.

The biggest similarity between these pregnancies is that I just simply love being pregnant. Even though all the complications with Claire, I still loved the experience. I love the early muscle twitch movements of the baby, the first time you can see your stomach shift from the outside, and I even love the almost painful movements now that make me catch my breath at times.

Six weeks left and I'm not quite ready to be un-pregnant. I know I could be saying something very different in a few weeks though!

These are from our 3D ultrasound at 29 weeks, 6 days.

Seven Snippets Fridays, #3

2012-01-20T22:00:00.000-07:00

--- 1 ---

It's still Friday, but just barely...

--- 2 ---

We had a pretty laid back birthday party for Claire. Just pizza, cupcakes and us. As much as Claire loved her cake last year, she was completely uninterested in it this year. She wouldn't even take a bite, just smooshed the frosting in her hand, and then wanted a napkin. It's official, she has her dad's nonexistent sweet tooth.

--- 3 ---

We had our 3D ultrasound a couple of weeks ago. It really was the strangest appointment ever. With Claire, every ultrasound we had was checking on her, checking fluid, checking blood flow through the cord, etc. This appointment was just for fun. No measurements, just pictures of Bob (that's what my belly/baby combo has been named, and no, we aren't really naming him/her Bob). The one thing the tech did say was that this baby has a lot of hair too!

--- 4 ---

Darren and Claire are gone this weekend. Instead of something fun, it's going to be me and the computer all weekend, getting our taxes done. Blech!

But tonight it's just me and my Nook. And Facebook. And Pinterest.

--- 5 ---

Look how dark her hair was! (5 weeks old)

--- 6 ---

Claire has discovered pockets, and she LOVES them. She looks pretty darn cute with her hands buried deep inside them, but the combination of pockets and a new walker is just asking for trouble!

(terribly blurry cell phone pic as we were headed to school and missy couldn't stand still at all)

--- 7 ---

If you haven't read The Human Bobby by Gabe Rotter, you should. Super fast read and a whole lotta crazy going on. It's one of those books that I've had rolling around in my head for the past few days since I finished it.

For more Seven Snippets, visit Bringing the Sunshine!

Happy 2nd Birthday Claire!

2012-01-13T10:24:00.000-07:00

Two.

How in the world is my baby two already?!?!

4 days old

It seems like just yesterday we were wondering exactly how Down syndrome was going to change our lives, and today Down syndrome hardly enters into our daily thoughts. We love, work, play and celebrate just like every other family.

12 days old....going home from the hospital

Some parts of our lives may be slower, but others are just as busy and hectic as anyone else's. In other words, normal.

3 months

Ordinary.

8 months

And the more ordinary days, months and years we have, the more I know that no matter what struggles and challenges Down syndrome throws at us, we can handle it. I love that Down syndrome isn't our focus anymore.

14 months

Claire is.

Happy Birthday my sweet Claire

Seven Snippets Fridays, #2

2012-01-06T09:53:00.002-07:00

--- 1 ---

In case you missed it....Claire is WALKING!! In other milestone news, she reached another one this week that I am *almost* as excited about. She can nod her head. Sounds crazy, I know, but I have been working with her on this FOREVER. And, it's the cutest nod too. Very deliberate and even used appropriately a couple of times, though mostly mimicked.

--- 2 ---

Target featured an adorable little boy with something extra in an ad recently. What I love about this is that Target didn't make a big deal out of it. They didn't expect praise for including this little boy, they just did it. Actually, our Ds community has more more to say about the ad than Target does.

ETA: The media has taken this story and run with it, and that, unfortunately puts a damper on my excitement a bit. It was one thing when parents were pointing out the ad, but all the media attention put a spotlight back on the differences of Down syndrome, when the beauty of the ad was in having those differences not mentioned.

--- 3 ---

Thanks to my mom (love you mom!) I realized I do look pregnant this week. Mom told me I was looking very pregnant, and I kept disagreeing with her. Then, a couple of days ago I saw my reflection in the kitchen window, and thought "holy cow, you're huge"! Don't get me wrong, I love being pregnant, but I do hope to avoid the comments about how huge I am as I've still got two months left. Hopefully it was just the shirt I was wearing....

--- 4 ---

Claire will be 2 next Friday. How in the world is she 2 already??

--- 5 ---

One year ago...

--- 6 ---

Our winters are DRY. Claire's lips are constantly chapped and cracked. I'm trying to keep them covered in chapstick and aquaphor, but it doesn't seem to be helping much as missy is always chewing on something. (She's getting her 2 year molars). If anyone has some other suggestions, I've love to hear them.

--- 7 ---

When I was pregnant with Claire, I had issues with preeclampsia right at the end. My blood pressure is already starting to go up this time around. I'm hoping for a VBAC, and really need it to stay down, as the doctors won't induce on a VBAC due to risk of rupture. I have another Dr appt on Monday, and hope my blood pressure stayed the same or has gone down!

For more Seven Snippets, visit Bringing the Sunshine!

Walking!!!

2012-01-05T10:18:00.000-07:00

sorry for the terrible photo...she just doesn't sit still anymore :)

I've put off posting this for a few days. I didn't want to jinx Claire by saying it too soon. But it's official.

Claire is WALKING!

Something just clicked for her the day after Christmas, and she started walking everywhere, unprompted, while carrying things.

We rarely have to remind her to stand up and walk, it's just how she gets around now. I did catch her sign 'stand up' to herself yesterday after she tripped one time though. :)

This is definitely the best Christmas present I have ever received!

Seven Snippets Fridays, #1

2011-12-30T07:12:00.000-07:00

--- 1 ---

I love this blog, and most especially the friends I've made through it. However, I haven't ~~made the time~~ taken the time to keep up with it like I really want to. So, in an attempt to be a better blogger, I'm going to try some new things. I'm not sure that adding features, like this post, will help, but a for a procrastinator like me a deadline is always a good thing! I'm also going to try the 365 project this year. A picture a day posted on my new blog. I may be getting in over my head....

--- 2 ---

If you are part of the Down syndrome/adoption community on Facebook, you've probably seen this video of Mia's story posted many times. If you haven't seen it yet, please watch it. This is a segment that ABC World News did on Mia's adoption from the Ukraine.

Hidden Angels: American Families Saving Children With Down Syndrome - ABC News

This link includes the video and the more in depth article.

--- 3 ---

The end of the year always means 'best of' lists, and the highlight of these lists for me are the best books lists. I'm not going to point you to the publishing world's best of list, but rather a blogger who has never let me down. When I need any kind of book recommendation, especially audio, I look to Sandy.

The Best of 2011 - Books
The Best of 2011 - Audiobooks

--- 4 ---

Last Christmas...

--- 5 ---

Claire had a repeat swallow study and hearing test a few weeks ago that I neglected to blog about. The Ped at the Ds Clinic wanted another swallow study as he thought she still might be aspirating, even though, as I understood, we were cleared for thin liquids with the study about 6 months prior. They couldn't get her to drink very much (always the story for our swallow studies), but they didn't see any aspiration or penetration, so we are cleared again for thin liquids.

Claire also had another booth hearing test done, as she wasn't responding to some frequencies last time. Maybe she just had a cold, because everything checked out perfectly with this test.

That means all of her two year appointments are finished except for her well checkup and her thyroid and iron blood work.

--- 6 ---

My pregnancy is just flying by. 30 weeks tomorrow. Once again I love being pregnant, but this time around has been such a different experience. I know a good chunk of that is the lack of complications, some of it is also 'been there, done that'. (There's a whole blog post in me on this subject...) We have our 3D ultrasound later today and I can't wait to see our little one again.

--- 7 ---

I hope that this new Friday feature will mean that I'm actually posting here at least twice a week. A big thank you to Andi for hosting (the link to her awesome blog is below). If you don't know Andi, definitely stop by for a visit. One of my favorites is her Kelle Hampton post.

For more Seven Snippets, visit Bringing the Sunshine!

Christmas

2011-12-29T09:50:00.000-07:00

I was afraid that Christmas morning was going to be too rushed. We had breakfast, presents, church, and cooking to get in before we left the house at noon.

It worked out perfectly though. Everything got done, and we had some time just to relax and play a bit too.

When Claire headed into the living room she made a beeline for her new chair, just like I knew she would.

After rocking a few minutes she was ready for presents.

This year opening presents went much smoother. The wrapping paper stayed out of her mouth, and she would hand off each scrap of paper from the present without being asked.

One of my goals with presents this year was to find things that she needed to be standing to play with. While she can use this tower while sitting, I hope it's easier while standing.

Just being silly...

And the aftermath

When we finished at our house, we packed up and headed to my sisters. My brother and his family was in town from California. It was the first time they'd been home in two years. The house was filled with people and lots of good food.

But Claire only had eyes for her newest cousin.

From there we headed to Darren's parents. More food, family and a few games of cards.

Darren's mom talked us into letting Claire stay with her for a few extra days, so little miss will finally be home again tonight.

Except for undecorating, another wonderful Christmas is behind us.

Merry Christmas

2011-12-24T14:21:00.001-07:00

Wishing you a very blessed Christmas, from our home to yours.

Blue Santa

2011-12-19T09:28:00.001-07:00

On Saturday we took Claire to see Blue Santa. I knew this event was sponsored by the police department, but was unsure if anything else was different about this Santa. Turns out, he was in a blue suit.

Claire wasn't terribly thrilled with Santa. Though I'm sure it wouldn't have mattered if he'd been in a red suit...

The visit started with tears and a desperate hug around dad's neck.

It ended with her sitting on Santa's lap, but she was never thrilled about the situation.

Actually, looking at these pictures, Santa doesn't look all that thrilled either. Must have been an off day for everybody!

WW: My girl and her Daddy....

2011-12-07T09:30:00.002-07:00

Six

2011-12-06T09:49:00.001-07:00

Yesterday Danila turned six.

Nobody celebrated her birthday. Nobody gave her gifts, or even stopped to give her a hug.

The reason nobody celebrated this sweet girl's special day is because she has Down syndrome, and because she was born in Eastern Europe. A place where people with disabilities are written off, discarded, hidden away, orphaned.

Danila has been waiting for a family for far too long. And unfortunately there are many things working against her being adopted.

First is her age. Six. Hardly old, but old enough that some people won't want to take a chance on her. Maybe she'll have too many orphanage behaviors, maybe she won't bond with her new family, maybe she'll be too delayed.

Sure, it's possible. But it's also possible that she is wishing day in and day out for a family. For someone to love her. To celebrate with her. To wipe away her tears when she cries. She deserves a family.

The other thing working against Danila is money.

International adoption is expensive in the best situation, and Danila's region is far from ideal. Her region requires 4 trips and costs on average $40,000.

$40,000 to save one little girl.

Even if a family is willing and financially able to care for her when she gets home, not many people have $40,000 sitting around.

Danila has over $12,500 in her grant fund. A huge grant, but still a long way from her $40,000 ransom.

Please help me celebrate Danila's birthday.

My friend Julia is holding a giveaway for children who have been passed over too long, and Danila is among them. Please click here....look at these faces. Donate a minimum of $5 to 2 or more children and you will be entered into a giveaway with over $600 in prizes. If you donate $35 or more, you will also get an ornament with Danila's picture on it.

But that's not all. My friend Patti is also holding a Pure Love giveaway (click here). When you donate on Julia's blog, you also get an entry into Patti's giveaway, with over $1000 in prizes.

$5 doesn't seem like much, but trust me, it all adds up. The Angel Tree is Reece's Rainbow biggest fundraiser, and this is the last year Danila will get to be a part of it. Please help her grant fund grow, as this is her best chance at finding a family.

Girl or Boy?

2011-11-29T10:35:00.001-07:00

Since we aren't finding out the sex of this baby I constantly have people ask me what I think we are having.

Let me preface this by saying I was SURE Claire was a boy. To the point that I was buying boy clothes for her. And we all can see how well my mother's intuition worked!

This time around I honestly don't have a feeling one way or the other.

For fun I decided to see what some of the gender predictors say we are having.

The Chinese chart says we're having a girl. (This one was right with Claire, and with my sister's new baby)

The baby gender predictor says it's a boy. (Based on parent's birthdays and month of conception)

The Old Wives Tale predictor goes so far as to say we have a 71% chance of having a girl. (This one asks 15 questions about how high or low the baby is, if you are craving sweets or not, and the baby's heart rate.)

This ----->If you suffer from acre during pregnancy, you will have a girl... is another vote for girl. But no morning sickness means boy. (I didn't have morning sickness with Claire either though).

And lastly, for my mom, since she says the baby's heartbeat never lies....it is always over 140 which means girl.

Either way, I know Claire will be a great big sister!

Mess Free Toddler Breakfast

2011-11-18T10:14:00.000-07:00

Pretty much impossible, right? Unfortunately (for both Claire and I), that has to be my goal in the morning, or else I'd never make it to work.

We've been working with utensils for a while now, and Claire is pretty good with the fork. She needs a little help getting a bite loaded sometimes, and a little redirection when she gets carried away stabbing a bite, but she has no problem getting the fork to her mouth.

The spoon still needs some work however, and I take the blame for that.

I've said before, I'm not a big fan of messes and I still haven't gotten any better, so Claire's spoon practice has always been fairly controlled. Claire has started protesting all my control, and REFUSES help now. We had almost an hour long meltdown the other night after Darren tried to help her with a spoon full of applesauce. :(

Luckily for me, oatmeal sticks to the spoon pretty well, and so far she hasn't needed a bath before I go to work!

Little miss is also sporting a wanna be black eye. It's mostly a scratch, but there's a little bit of a line that looks like she bumped it too. It happened at school, but whatever it was didn't cause tears, so nobody is quite sure what happened. Oh well, the first of many I'm sure!

Ultrasound and Echo

2011-11-08T09:04:00.001-07:00

On Friday we had a busy day of appointments for baby. We didn't do the 20 week anatomy scan with our OB as we knew we wanted a more detailed ultrasound. We also waited until 22 weeks so that we could check out baby's heart at the same time.

I had very mixed feelings going into the appointments. I wasn't really nervous that the doctors would find anything. With Claire, I always had a feeling that something was going on with her, and I've never felt that with this baby. But at the same time, I'm not really sure what to do with a typical baby. Sounds crazy right? Everybody worries about having a baby with Down syndrome, as I did with Claire, and now a typical baby freaks me out a bit.

We started out with the ultrasound. This was the same group of perinatologists that we saw with Claire, and I've always liked and felt comfortable with them. The tech got caught up on our history, asked how Claire was and commended us on continuing with our pregnancy. She said most people wouldn't have done that. I responded that most people would have missed out then, as Claire is awesome. I always wonder how people take these comments. If they think that I'm just saying that because she's my kid and I have to, or if they can tell that I really mean it.

We gave our usual warning that we don't want to know sex of the baby and then got started. This tech moved a little faster through the measurements than some of the others we've had. Maybe she had more practice, or maybe it was that everything was measuring where it should be and she didn't double check herself as much as they did with Claire. She spent a lot of time on baby's heart, but said it looked structurally sound. When all was said and done, baby is growing perfectly. S/he is a few days a head of schedule and estimated at 1 lb 2 oz.

When the doctor came in (not the one I'd scheduled with, she was called out) he started out by mentioning that he noticed we declined screenings. He went on to offer the new MaterniT21 test. I declined again. We are not concerned about Ds, and with no markers on the ultrasound we are even less concerned now. He took a quick look at baby, mostly the heart again, and said that everything was good.

We go back at 32 weeks for a follow up ultrasound as I'm hoping for a VBAC, and none of the hospitals in our area do them. They will make sure there's no reason I can't do one, and then we'll figure out when Claire and I have to move up closer to the hospital. None of the doctors are comfortable with us being 2 hours away.

Since the ultrasound looked perfect the echo was a bit anticlimactic. I really like the echo tech as this office, even though we don't see her often. She's done both of our fetal echos and a couple of other echos for Claire. The echo took about an hour and we chatted through the whole thing. There wasn't the scared silences like our last fetal echo.

After the echo was done with met with Claire's cardiologist for literally five minutes. He said the structure of the heart, all of the vessels and the squeeze of the heart are all perfect. There is no need for us to come back, not even after the baby is born, unless I get nervous. We aren't planning on any follow up echos for baby, but will be requesting a pulse ox test for him in the hospital. It's such a quick, painless way to rule out congenital heart defects that it will be done.

So, all is well with baby! I am a bit sad that I won't have all the ultrasound pictures with this baby that I did with Claire, but at the same time, it's awfully nice not to have to fit more appointments into our full schedule.

All Things Halloween

2011-11-01T10:30:00.000-06:00

Last year we skipped carving pumpkins. Claire was little enough that she had no interest in them, and I don't enjoy the carving enough to want to clean up the mess.

This year was different.

Claire LOVED playing in the pumpkins. She dug right in and couldn't get enough of transferring the pumpkin pulp to the bowl. Towards the end, when the inside of the pumpkin needed to be scraped out, Darren would try to help and would be immediately be pushed aside.

Claire was the cutest little Nemo last night, but she wasn't as much of a fan of the costume as we were. She HATES anything on her head, so the hood didn't last long.

Instead of trick or treating we went to church for the Fall Carnival. Claire loved all the kids in costume, the bouncy house and slide. We let her bounce a little on the edge of the sumo pit. The bounce houses were a little too busy for her, but she had a great time.

The Great Pumpkin Patch

2011-10-17T09:59:00.000-06:00

I love fall in Colorado.

The skies are bright blue, and the weather is warm enough (usually) to play outside without too many bulky layers getting in the way.

This weekend was perfect fall weather, and a great day for the pumpkin patch.

When we took Claire last year, she was fairly unimpressed by everything. The animals didn't catch her interest and getting pumpkins was just an opportunity for us to make her sit in the dirt.

She still wasn't all that interested in the pumpkins this time either, but she loved the lambs.

21 months and 19 weeks

2011-10-14T14:12:00.000-06:00

Things have been busy in our world, but not blogging exciting, just plain busy.

Me: I'm at work four days a week now. I miss my extra time at home with Claire, but I'm grateful that I had 21 months of only working three days a week. It also means that my one day off during the week is packed with EI appointments, phone calls, shopping and anything else that comes up. I'm adjusting to the new schedule, though I do feel more hurried and scattered, if that's even possible. Claire doesn't mind the change at all. She LOVES going to school/daycare, and can't get enough of her friends and the teachers.

I am just finishing up with a Hanen class too. The class focuses on communication, not speech exactly, but teaches you how to interact with your child in a way that encourages them to take turns and have "conversations". The program teaches you how to modify daily routines and play times to give your child more opportunities to communicate. It's been a great class, and I'm glad I took it, but it's held two hours from home, on a weeknight. Yet another long day! I have one more class left and I'm bummed that it's over, but can't wait to have that evening at home again.

Claire: Little miss is just doing wonderfully. We are still celebrating her first steps, and we've been practicing whenever we have the chance. She's taken a few more steps, but nothing quite as spectacular as in that PT appointment. **Edited to add: Last night I set her in the middle of the floor again and quite a few times she would walk between Darren and I with 3-4 steps! :)

We are at a break in Claire's extra appointments, and that is very welcome. I have a hearing re-screen set up for December, but otherwise nothing until her 2 year old (!!!) appointments in January. We are busy enough with her weekly EI appointments and monthly private therapy that I don't have the energy for much else these days.

Claire's signing vocabulary continues to grow. She has over 35 signs that she uses on her own, with quite a few more that she will mimic. Earlier this week I had the opportunity to meet the school district's teacher for the deaf and hearing impaired children. I asked her about sign language resources in our area (there aren't any) and she offered herself! She loved Claire, and was so excited to see her signing. We are in the process of getting our IFSP modified, but then this gal will meet with us once and month just to teach us new signs. We already have plans to go to the park and the grocery store to practice signing. I am so excited for this opportunity!!

Clairey just cracks me up. She is such a hoot and the things she comes up with never cease to amaze me. Her newest "trick" is to ask for milk. We walk to the kitchen, open the fridge and she immediately goes for the cheese, yogurt, or whatever else looks good to grab. Apparently I need to teach her some more food signs. :)

New Baby: First of all, this baby doesn't have a nickname yet. Claire's was Pip and we called her that all the time. Nothing has really stuck this time around.

We declined the 2nd trimester blood work, and instead have a full days worth of appointments set up in a couple of weeks. We will have a very through level two ultrasound (with the same doctor we saw with Claire) and a fetal echo (with Claire's cardio). We know both of these doctors well, and feel very comfortable with this decision.

One of the biggest perks to being pregnant again is feeling the baby move so much earlier. This little one's wiggles became noticeable around 15 weeks, and Darren was able to feel him/her (see why we need a nickname!) last week.

I've been feeling great, except the muscle cramps that showed up last week. I know a lot of it is all the time sitting. Between my desk job and all our travel time in the car, I just get stiff. I've been getting up and moving, consuming bananas and drinking lots of water, but if anyone else has other suggestions, I'd love to hear them.

Last night I realized I'm almost half done being pregnant and we haven't even thought about names. Since we won't find out the sex, we need to have at least one boy and one girl name. Darren still likes our boy name from Claire. I was undecided on it when she arrived, and for that reason was glad she was a girl. Since we had a really time agreeing with Claire, this is something we need to start thinking about!

And to finish things off, a kiss from Claire. :)

(Please ignore the beer can in her lap. Darren decided if she was going to rummage in the fridge every time it opened she might as well carry his beer to the living room.)

Steps!!

2011-10-11T09:50:00.000-06:00

Yesterday was a crazy, busy, hectic day, but it was the most amazing of days too.

I've been trying to schedule as many of Claire's out of town appointments on the same day as possible. These days include a lot of travel time, and it makes sense to have a full day. Yesterday was filled with four appointments, five hours of drive time and one very exhausted and sore mama when we finally got home.

One of our monthly appointments is PT. Our PT, Pat Winders, is amazing. To say Claire is resistant to PT is an understatement. If you can get her to try an activity three times, that is success. Pat is always coming up with new ways to keep Claire happy and engaged. Some days are better than others.

Yesterday was great.

One of the bigger gym rooms was open and Pat thought a change of scenery might help. We played on the slide, climbed on the foam steps and had a great time without Claire realizing we were even working. Between all that playing, we set Claire up to take independent steps. This has been the focus of our PT sessions for at least the last four months.

Claire stood, with Pat kneeling behind her for support, and she walked to an exercise ball propped against a mirror.

These weren't the lunging, did her feet move before her hands touched type of "steps" we've been getting for a while. These were actual, not touching anything, countable steps!!

I needed a day like that. I've been so overwhelmed with work, appointments and pregnancy hormones that tears have come easily lately, and they haven't been happy tears.

As Pat and I were talking she mentioned that Claire's standing balance was so much better,and she wondered if we'd be able to stand her in the middle of the room and have her walk to us. Not really expecting her to do it, I stood Claire in the middle of the floor and she took four steps to me. Now those tears were happy tears!

Usually PT ends with Pat and I talking, and with Claire staying as far away from Pat as she can possibly get. Pat makes Claire work hard, and it's rare that she leaves a session happy. Yesterday's session felt different to me, and apparently it did to Claire too. For the first time ever at the end of a session, she crawled over to Pat and gave her a big hug. I thought Pat was going to cry a few happy tears too. :)

I hope this is the breakthrough Claire needed. Physically, she'd have been able to walk months ago. This has not been a strength issue. She just hasn't wanted to walk. Now, I don't think anything can stop her.

*****

Just a few pictures from our time at the park last week.

Dancing the Night Away

2011-09-29T10:37:00.000-06:00

Last weekend we went to Kansas for a wedding. Most of Darren's extended family is there, and we hadn't been back since I was very pregnant with Claire. This was finally Claire's chance to meet the aunts, uncles, cousins and Darren's Grandma.

She was a trooper through the drive (I think the new car seat really helped!), and did well with all the unfamiliar faces. She warmed up to the aunts pretty quickly, but the uncles were another story. I don't think any of them got more than a high 5 all weekend.

The highlight of the weekend for Claire? The reception. Missy has always loved music. It's doesn't matter whether its a catchy commercial or the song from Monday Night Football. Her arms come out and the dancing wiggle starts. That night she danced to everything from Elvis to Lady Gaga. Clairey just wanted to be moving, so we danced!

The day after the wedding we stopped by Grandma's farm to check the cows and get a 4 generation picture before heading home.

We had a great time, and it was nice to get away from home for a little while!

Prenatal Testing After Down Syndrome

2011-09-16T10:29:00.001-06:00

When I was pregnant with Claire we debated on having any prenatal screening. In our area first trimester screening isn't offered, so the first time any testing was mentioned was the second trimester blood work. My doctor mentioned that at my next appointment they would take blood. I informed her that I was undecided if we were going to do the testing. She said she preferred to have it done because it can give an indication of problems like preeclampsia and IUGR, in addition to screening for Down syndrome.

I went home and we talked about it for the next four weeks.

In the end, I had the blood work done, and it came back with elevated risk (1/80) for Down syndrome. This test led to extra ultrasounds, NSTs, and eventually prenatally diagnosing Claire's heart defect.

It also led to a stressful and worrisome pregnancy. My doctor, more so than the high risk doctors, seemed to be looking for problems. And if you look hard enough, you can likely find something wrong.

For us, there were both good and bad outcomes of the screening.

I am very thankful that Claire's heart defect was diagnosed prenatally. We were able to change delivery plans, and she was born at a hospital with a NICU. If she'd been born in our small, rural hospital there is a good chance that she would have been transported to a larger hospital. And I, recovering from a c-section, would have been left behind. That would not have been good on this mama's heart.

I am also thankful that the increased risk of Down syndrome (increased to 50/50 chance after her heart defect was diagnosed) gave us a chance to educate ourselves, family and friends. I wanted the birth of my first child to be a joyful occasion, and it was. For the most part, we didn't have the uncomfortable silences, the stares. People, us included, weren't shocked by Down syndrome. And while I sure there were whispers and comments, we didn't hear them.

My biggest problem with the screening, as I mentioned above, was that my doctor seemed to be looking for problems. I know she was being cautious for the sake of our baby, but this did not make for a relaxing pregnancy. We were always having ultrasounds (these I loved!) and tests, and new problems were always cropping up. I would finally get used to a new "problem", then it was time for another doctor appointment, and some new issue had to be dealt with. As much as I loved being pregnant, I hated this cloud of doom hanging over us.

So, here we are again, deciding on the second trimester blood work. And I think I'm even more undecided this time around.

On one hand, we are already classified as high risk. We will see the same doctors as last time for a detailed level II ultrasound and fetal echo around 20 weeks.

But then again, Claire's heart defect wasn't found until we'd had many ultrasounds, at 29 weeks.

The screening tests aren't always accurate, but even if they are, I don't think I want the "what if" hanging over my head. I'm not scared of Down syndrome, but Claire has opened my eyes to many other disabilities. And there are many things I don't think I'm cut out for. Enter the worry I don't want in my pregnancy.

Hopefully that doesn't sound hypocritical. I didn't think I was cut out to be a parent of child with Down syndrome either, but we are good. I know I will be able to take on whatever challenges may come our way, but that doesn't mean I want to worry about that for the next five months.

So, with writing all of this out I am leaning towards no second trimester blood work. My next doctors appointment isn't for ten days though, and I'm sure I will change my mind a hundred times before then.

Because I'm curious, what did you (or would you) do for any subsequent pregnancies?

*****

And just because I hate posting with no pictures, one of Claire before the weather turned COLD.

Blog Maintenance

2011-09-13T11:35:00.000-06:00

I moving my blog roll to a link under the header. I think this makes it a little more visible to those who want to look for other bloggers, and it will also cut down on the clutter in my sidebar.

While I am going to the work of moving everybody, I decided to group the blogs by state. I LOVE being able to meet other bloggers in person, and being able to easily see which state people are in could help bring people together.

This isn't going to be a quick process, and I will be adding new blogs as well as deleting some that are no longer updated.

If you like to be added, just leave a comment. I know where a lot of my bloggy friends are, but if you could leave your state too that would really speed things up on my end. Thanks!

Playdoh Fail

2011-09-08T20:28:00.001-06:00

This weekend I was feeling inspired. I had big plans of all of the new things Claire and I were going to try. We were going to make a light table (got all the parts, just never got around to it), draw masterpieces (which we did. And did you know that if you stick a marker up your nose you will have colorful boogers the next day?), and were going to have a fabulous playdoh playtime.

I used the recipe from Pudge and Biggs. It was easy and quick.

Now don't get me wrong, I wasn't expecting Claire to really get cutting out the shapes or rolling snakes, but I thought she might enjoy sticking her hands or other toys into it.

Nope.

She was only interested in eating it.

Okay, I'll give her a bit more credit than that. Looking through the pictures she really did play with it some, but her priority was shoving as much into her mouth as fast as she could.

After that last blocked bite, our playtime ended with a spectacular meltdown.

*****

Thank you for all of your congratulations and questions about how I'm feeling. I was blessed not to have morning sickness with Claire, and have been just as lucky this time around. That's not to say I didn't have days where I feel blah, but those seem to be pretty much over. My fatigue is better too, but there are days I'm still taking advantage of Claire's naps and grabbing a little shut eye too.

Claire's Big, Exciting News!!

2011-09-02T08:52:00.001-06:00

Since Claire is so thrilled, I'll let her tell you all herself....

Once we got inside, we got a smile and a hammy face, but I think she is a bit unsure about what's going to change in her world...Or else she just didn't like being outside. Could have been either one!

*****

Yesterday was my second drs appt. It was the usual, weight, blood pressure, pee in a cup. Then it was time to hear the heartbeat. The time I couldn't wait for, and that I was also dreading.

The dr got the doppler, and looked....and looked....and looked....and looked.

She left to get another doppler, and I stared at the ceiling and tried not to freak out.

Came back with the second doppler and looked...and looked.

Went back to the first one as the second one wasn't picking up many sounds at all.

And finally, that reassuring thrum of a heartbeat filled the room and I relaxed.

*****

And for those who are going to ask. No, we are not finding out the sex of the baby ahead of time. You'll know when we do, sometime in March!

Bubbles

2011-09-01T14:34:00.000-06:00

Claire is in LOVE with bubbles. The bottle is on top of our refrigerator, and every time we walk in to the kitchen, she asks for bubbles. With a sign and the word! I just can't refuse, so we head outside.

We blow a few bubbles, but as much as she loves them, Claire has no attention span. And about two minutes later, she's off.

Across the yard

Stopping at the flower bed (to play with rocks. The flowers are not interesting at all)

And down the driveway (That first picture reminds me of Mowgli in the Jungle Book!)

She tires of the driveway quickly, and crawls to the front door to go back in.

And ten minutes later is asking for bubbles again!

Monday Morning Trouble

2011-08-22T08:52:00.000-06:00

Claire recently discovered how many things there are to ~~destroy~~ play with in the bathroom. She's spent time in there each morning with me for months while I get ready, and emptying the drawer was the worst of her destruction.

Until she discovered the toilet paper.

We were running late this morning, so I'm just glad the lid to the toilet was down, because yesterday it wasn't....And no, I didn't get pictures of that. :)

Home Again

2011-08-09T21:46:00.000-06:00

Well, that was a longer blog break than I intended to take....

So first a little catch up. The day after my last post (weeks ago!) Claire had her annual eye appointment. Since we were coming off of the trauma of a blood draw and a haircut, there were the expected tears. Still we managed to get her eyes cleared for another year. She is slightly far sighted, but the dr didn't expect that she would need glasses until she was school aged, at the earliest.

.....

We got home last night from vacation. And while I wasn't ready for vacation to be over, there is still something so comforting about pulling into your own driveway after being away.

Claire did great on both flights, even though she was awake the entire way there. It was a little difficult to keep her occupied, but since one of the ladies in front of us said she didn't even realize Claire was behind her, I think we did ok :)

We spent the last few days with family in Michigan, and had a fabulous time. As expected, much of our time was spent on the lake or in the pool. As much as Claire enjoys the bath I knew she would love the pool, and she didn't let me down. We were in the pool for hours a day, and most days she would have happily stayed in longer. There were lots of pruney fingers and toes!

The ear plugs didn't really work. I don't know if we were just doing them wrong or what, but they lasted, at most, ten minutes. I wasn't planning on throwing Claire in the water (and we didn't), but when she was blowing bubbles or leaning forward in the floaty for a toy, the water did come awfully close to filling her ears at times.

Claire was funny with the floaty ring. Sometimes she couldn't get enough of it, and other times (sometimes only two hours later) she refused to go in it.

Besides swimming, there was lots of lounging around, chatting....

and just enjoying the view.

And since I did a terrible job taking pictures while we were gone, that's all I have for photos...

In addition to the pool, we also visited the Edsel & Eleanor Ford house. The house and the grounds were beautiful. The house, though quite large, really felt like a home, even though it was filled with beautiful antiques and artwork.

We also took a boat ride down the river to Detroit. I wish I had brought my camera for this. The difference between the residential neighborhood we stayed in, and the city of Detroit was amazing and sad. The sheer number of abandoned buildings and open space in the middle of a city is hard to imagine unless you've seen it.

While it was back to work for us all today, we had a great, relaxing vacation. I think this was one of the few vacations where I didn't need another vacation to recover from the one we just finished.

First Haircut

2011-07-26T20:24:00.001-06:00

Today was Claire's first haircut.

And there are NO pictures of this not-so-fabulous occasion.

Claire is usually pretty easy going, but I think I had a few too many things going for her this week. With the shots and the blood draw recently, she was completely opposed to someone she didn't know in her space.

I got her settled in the chair and she cried, no howled, through the whole two minute ordeal. We got her bangs trimmed, and some of her long top hair evened out with her shorter underneath hair. It's not quite as short as I'd like it, but it was as good as it was going to get.

And that reminds me....she has an eye doctor appointment tomorrow. I wonder how that is going to go??

New Signs

2011-07-25T20:27:00.001-06:00

I'm typing one handed this morning because there is an exhausted little girl sleeping in my lap. This morning was her annual-ish blood draw. It went ok, but not quite as good as last time.

This time Claire started crying the moment we got near the table. I'm sure it didn't help that she had to get some immunizations last week. It took three of us to keep her still enough, but we got the blood we needed.

*****

Claire continues to learn new signs, with two more picked up over the last few days. Instead of just asking for crackers hundreds of times a day, she now asks for 'book' (combined with a very good approximation of the word!) and her signing time videos. She will get settled into her watching spot and sign 'signing' along with a few yells and some pointing at the TV if don't get the video started soon enough for her.

I never figured I'd be one of those parents to let their kids watch TV at such an early age....but it's educational, right?

*****

Claire got another slide for the back yard this weekend. While I like the other one, it wasn't something that she would be able to do on her own for quite some time. This past weekend I found exactly what I was looking for. The steps are more like steps, instead of a ladder, and there is a platform that she can position herself on to go down the slide. Once she gets to the platform Claire is on her own. She scoots herself forward until the slides down. The only thing she really needs help with is getting to the steps (only because she keeps trying to climb UP the slide....) and just a bit of spotting as she gets on the platform. She can do it just fine on her own, but she seems to feel a little more comfortable with a hand on her behind as she climbs up.

*****

And 10 hours after I started this post, I'm finally ready to hit publish....sometimes I wonder where my days go!

Signing Time, Wheat Harvest and Lots of Appts

2011-07-20T12:24:00.002-06:00

First of all, fellow bloggy peeps...I miss you! I've gotten behind on both reading and commenting and I feel so out of touch.

*****

This past weekend we got to meet Rachel Coleman of Signing Time fame. We are all huge fans and when we found out she was going to be in Denver, we knew we wanted to be there. The show was held in a beautiful park. The park had tons of water for the kids to play in, and if we'd known, we would have come better prepared. There were both fountains and a lazy river type water feature.

It was HOT. We covered Claire in sunscreen and fed her (and let her spill all over herself) tons of water. I felt so bad for Rachel in her sweater though. The poor girl had to be just miserable.

During Turtle Rock Rachel accidentally invited everyone up on stage. She went with it and everybody had a great time dancing around.

After the show we got to meet Rachel and Hopkins. Claire was not a fan of Hopkins and kept glaring at him over my shoulder. My camera was on some strange setting and this was the best of the pictures. Some of the ones with Rachel, Claire and I would have been cute, but they ended up totally blurry.

*****
After the Signing Time show we headed to the farm to "help" with wheat harvest. This year harvest was very late due to all the rain we've had this spring. Claire got to climb into the combine with her uncle, but was pretty unimpressed with the whole process.

Claire preferred the mower to the combine. Daddy let her drive, and she was happy to practice her car noises.

*****

Claire turned 18 months last week, and our calendar is full of all of her appointments. Today was her well baby and she weighed at a whopping 21 lbs 5 oz. Next week is her blood work and eye appointment. We were supposed to go back to her ENT too and have her tube checked, but her dr was able to see that it is clear and open, so we're going to skip that one. After we get all those appointments completed we'll head back to the Sie Center to make sure everything checks out.

Even though Claire isn't toddling, she feels like a kid, not a baby anymore. She is such a little sponge. And she is constantly on the move. The only time she will settle down and snuggle is when she is very tired. These quiet times are the best. She tucks her arms in and just melts into your side.

This handful of grass didn't end up in Claire's mouth. Which may sound silly, but I keep hoping we are reaching the end of that stage. And then she finds paper, or cardboard, or anything resembling paper, and she can't get it into her mouth fast enough. Maybe I need to feed her more fiber...

Claire's new favorite sign is cracker. She signs cracker from the moment she wakes up until she falls asleep. While I know she loves her goldfish crackers, I think part of the appeal is that the signing actually does something. She was like that when she learned to sign milk too. She didn't really want a drink, but loved that she got something from us. So, I keep telling her she's doing a great job signing cracker, but unfortunately, that's not what we're having for breakfast.

Other than that, things are good. Just busy and good.

Save the Date!

2011-07-19T18:55:00.000-06:00

It's time for the annual Step Up for Down Syndrome walk. This year it is Sunday Sept 25, and it will once again be held in City Park. If you check out the slide show from last years walk you will see some familiar faces there!

We'd love for you to walk with us this year. Our team name is Bear's Buddies again, and I will be sending out an email with registration info soon! If you get tired of waiting for my email, you can find our team and register through the link above.

Projects

2011-07-09T19:58:00.001-06:00

Claire and Darren left bright and early for the farm today. Which means I'm on my own...all weekend!

And today I've learned that my attention span is now as brief as my daughters.

This morning I had big plans. I was going to clean out the kitchen drawers. They are dirty from the new cabinets going in. I was going to clean out the hutch in the dining room. I was going to have all the laundry folded and put away, and have the grocery shopping done. And once all of the projects were done, I was going to have a little ME time. Catch up on blog posts, check in on facebook, maybe watch some TV and of course, read.

So far, I've done one load of laundry and one load of dishes. I have one kitchen cabinet, no drawers, cleaned out. I did manage to clean out the spice cabinet. Some of those bottles haven't been used since we moved in to this house and it was time for a purge. I ran a few errands. And in between all those small projects I went to some garage sales, watched the House season finale, finished a book and started another one, and worked on getting some Uppercase Living projects put up in the house.

All in all, a fairly unproductive day. If I'd been able to stay focused on one thing for more than thirty minutes I think I would have gotten a lot more done....

Oh well, there's always tomorrow for all my big plans!

Odds and Ends

2011-07-07T19:31:00.001-06:00

This post is going to be a bit of a mishmash...sorry, that's what happens when I don't get around to posting like I want to.

*****

Last week I took Claire to her 1 month ENT follow up on her tubes. We met with Audiology first. The audiologist said she didn't do well with her booth test. When we had the booth test done at Children's they had 2 people. One to do this noises, and one to redirect her attention in between. This time there was just the noises person. I tried to focus Claire forward in between, but don't think I was very successful.

After the booth test the audiologist asked how severe Claire's trisomy was. I know most of you understand how frustrating this question is. I gave my usual blurb, but the audiologist just wanted to know how delayed she was, so that she could see if her responses were what they should be. I know what she was getting at, but still...

If you watched Claire during the test, you could tell she was distracted. The noises weren't catching her attention. She was MUCH more interested by the dog. She was saying and signing 'dog' even when the dog wasn't barking. I know this had an effect on the test.

The audiologist finally decided to do a different test. The right ear passed easily, but the left didn't. She finally came to the conclusion that the left tube must be blocked. The ENT confirmed this, and we are back to using drops (when I remember...). The left ear was the one with all the gunk in it, so I'm hoping the drops clear up the blockage soon.

The frustrating thing with the blockage, on top of Claire still not hearing clearly, is that this means another 4 hour round trip drive to the ENT for a 10 minute appointment...

*****

I don't use the word 'hate' lightly, but I have hated our kitchen counters since we moved in, over 5 years ago.

The orange and green tiles are not pretty. They are rounded, rustic tiles and because of this the counter tops aren't flat. The people who put them in decided they didn't want to mess with cutting tiles, so the grout lines are THICK and are constantly stained.

Day 0

Right now, my kitchen is torn apart (it's really inconvenient not to have a kitchen sink!). The counter tops went in yesterday, and the back splash went in today.

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

By tomorrow, my kitchen will be done! (except I think I might want to sand and re-stain the cabinet doors)

*****

Claire seems to have hit a bit of a wall with walking progress. I think I've been a bit spoiled with her and gross motor stuff in the past, and now I'm feeling frustrated. Sitting, crawling, pulling to stand and walking with support all came pretty easily. Yes, we practiced, but those were things she wanted to do, and she worked hard to make them happen.

I don't mean to say she isn't working hard now, but I don't think she sees the point in walking. She likes it when it's on her terms. She'll grab her walker and take off, but if I ask her to walk with me, it's about a 50/50 chance that she'll cooperate or melt down. Crawling is easy and fast, so why bother walking? Our PT is pleased with her progress, but I feel like we've been stuck at the same place for months. I really thought once she got her legs under her and started cruising and walking with support that independent steps would easily follow, and they just haven't. I know she'll get there, but I'm ready to feel like she is doing things with me, instead of me always doing things for her, and I think walking would help with that.

*****

Claire discovered her tip toes (even though she's not using them here) and things that used to be out of reach are now in range....it also allows her to get a little closer to Rachel while she watches Signing Time. :)

*****

Claire is in love with the girl in the dish washer. I've given up trying to keep the finger prints washed off.

Garage Sale Finds

2011-06-27T08:58:00.000-06:00

I never used to garage sale. We have too much stuff in our house as it is, and I don't enjoy sorting through other people's junk.

But for Claire, I've made an exception. Most of her wardrobe is from garage sale and thrift stores. Kids outgrow clothes so fast, that I can usually get practically brand new clothes for next to nothing. And that makes me happy!

Darren found a slide this weekend. I'd missed out on one the weekend before, and I was so excited he was able to snag one.

Claire REFUSES to go anywhere near the ladder, but will slide down on her own. She gets a little out of control, but is ready for more when she hits the bottom.

signing more

******

In unrelated, but super exciting signing news.....last week we really worked on 'cracker'. She was getting it down, but we haven't had the chance to practice for a few days. Last night she was eating dinner and I was sitting next to her eating crackers. Completely unprompted, she signed cracker and pointed to what I was eating!!

******

This is my favorite garage sale find so far. The people left the batteries in it and it corroded, so it doesn't make noise, but the chair is the PERFECT size for Claire. And, she can get in and out of it on her own, which is what I was hoping for.

Clicking

2011-06-24T09:39:00.000-06:00

I'm always proud of my girl and all of her accomplishments, but this week, so many things are just clicking for her.

I got her a weeble tree house this week. There is a conveyor with a crank to get the weebles to the top of the slide. She had the crank figured out in minutes with minimal hand over hand instruction. Even though she can work the crank, she tends to get impatient before they make it to the top, and they usually end up ~~placed on~~ thrown toward the slide.

Claire has been walking with two handed support for months. We've tried one handed, but she's always turned and looked for that second hand. We had PT last week and got her walking with just one handed support, and now just a few days later she doesn't even need to feel your legs behind her to feel comfortable. She's not completely stable with one hand, but I think we'll have independent steps soon!

But even more exciting than the stepping, is all of the signs that have been pouring out of Claire. She has a few that she uses spontaneously and appropriately (milk, dad, all done, dog, eat) and some that she uses with prompting (more, baby) but this week she has been mimicking so many more. We've seen hat, cracker, nice (she's been seeing this one a lot as she's in a hitting/scratching/rough phase), water, all gone, sleep. I'm sure there are more she's using too, and we are either missing them, or we aren't understanding her approximations. I'm excited for the burst in communication as she has been getting frustrated lately when we don't understand what she's asking for.

These pictures don't really have anything to do with this post, but I've been meaning to post about Bear's buggy for almost a year....Darren claims this buggy is Claire's, but I think she was just a convenient excuse to get it.

Heart Day

2011-06-10T14:18:00.000-06:00

Yesterday was a big day. One year ago we handed our not quite five month old baby to a surgeon. One who obviously cared about her and loved healing hearts, but never the less one who was going to forever scar her tiny body.

Claire blew through surgery and recovery with the strength we have come to expect in all she does, and we were home in just three short days.

Last summer was quiet. There were restrictions that came along with open heart surgery and we laid low. We had fun, but it was low key fun.

This summer will be different. We have big plans.

This summer we are going to swing higher, splash harder and soak up all the warm weather activities we can.

We started our summer of fun with a hastily put together BBQ last night. There were bubbles, chalk, good friends and lots of food.

*****

Last night before the BBQ, on what was supposed to be a completely joyous day, Claire had an accident, and it was my fault. We live in a bi-level, which of course means stairs. I came in last night in a rush, and either didn't close the gate at the top of the stairs at all, or else I missed getting it latched completely. Either way, she found the open gate and fell down the stairs. I heard the thump and my heart dropped. She didn't start crying until I got to her, and she honestly looked more surprised than anything at first. Once I picked her up the tears started, and we sat on the floor and cried together. After she quieted down we moved arms and legs and all seemed well. I know she's ok, she was fine at the BBQ, but today the guilt hangs heavy and tears keep pricking my eyelids.

*****

I'm not very good at asking for help. I get overwhelmed and tired, and still feel the need to do it all. The problem is, doing it all seems to mean not doing any of it well. (See above if you skimmed...)

In an attempt to make things more manageable, I'm asking for help. Or rather, I'm paying for help.

I've never enjoyed cleaning my house. When there are other things going on (and aren't there always?) it's an easy chore for me to ignore. But my filthy house is just one more thing that is bringing me down right now. Yesterday was our first cleaning. The house felt better, but I know it will take another time or two to reverse all the damage my lack of cleaning has done.

*****

We have our summer vacation book and I am SOOOO looking forward a break. I know where a lot of my bloggy friends live, but not all of you. So, if you are in Michigan, send me an email (email link is in the upper right corner) as I'd love to meet you in person while we are there.

Suited Up

2011-06-08T11:01:00.000-06:00

This weekend was hot and muggy and Claire needed to cool off a bit. The new water table is (mostly) set up, but even without all the attachments attached Claire was happy.

Distracted by the box...

This face means it's time to head in...

The perfect follow up....

2011-06-07T07:22:00.001-06:00

to the comments that hurt.

Found posted on Missy's blog.

See Me For Me

When you look at me -

What do you see?

When you look into my eyes
Do you see beautiful blue,
sparkling with joy, delight
in my accomplishments

Or do you see that "almond shape"
or "brushfield spots"?

When you look at my hands
Do you see them reaching
for toys, writing the alphabet,
throwing a ball, doing a
meaningful job

Or do you see a "simian crease"?

When you look at my face
Do you see the resemblance
to my parents, that I have just had
my hair permed

Or do you see a "flat face" or
"epicanthal folds"?

When you look at my behavior
Do you see my feelings of
pleasure and anger, my desire
to achieve, my frustration in
being treated like a baby

Or do you see the "stubbornness"?

When you look at my development
Do you see me playing with peers,
participating in sports, growing
into a productive adult

Or do you see "low muscle tone" or
"the eternal child"?

When you look at my family
Do you see loving parents wanting
to challenge me to my ultimate potential,
sisters and brothers who have a better
understanding of the differences in us all?

Or do you see a family torn apart by my
difference, constantly in crisis, unable
to accept, never to feel the joy of
having a "normal child"?

What Do You See?

Look At Me.

Look Closer.

See Me For Me.

Written by :
Donna Roll
Dedicated to
Mary Ellen Graham
Founder of the DSAGC.

The comments that hurt....

2011-06-05T13:05:00.001-06:00

A couple of weeks ago there was a woman on one of those daytime talk shows that made some nasty comments about people with disabilities in general, and specifically about Down syndrome. I don't watch much TV, let alone daytime shows, so I missed them comments themselves, but from the posts that popped up all over Facebook, I can imagine the things she was saying.

And for the most part, those people don't hurt me.

Usually, I feel sorry for them. When they choose to broadcast ignorant, hateful, disrespectful words, to try to bring others down to make themselves feel better, I feel pity.

Those people are on the outside. They don't understand acceptance and love, and they probably never will.

I expect ignorance from people who don't know anyone with Down syndrome. I was there. Before Claire my assumptions of what life with Down syndrome would be like were inaccurate, outdated and just plain wrong.

I expect more from people who are part of our lives though. When someone actually KNOWS Claire, has seen this smile and the joy she radiates, and all they can say is "her life is going to be so hard...", that's when I feel like I've failed.

Seriously? That's all you've got to say? Nothing about her hard work, perseverance, or determination?

Nothing about her great smile and contagious laugh, or about what a little charmer she is? Or about how easy going she is, or even the stereotypical comment about how happy she is all the time? (if you'd seen any of her recent temper tantrums, this comment wouldn't pass your lips)

Nothing about how great it is to slow down and really celebrate the accomplishments and milestones that usually fly by so fast?

Nothing??

So, to the person who made the comment about Claire's hard life....Open your eyes. There no reason to think Claire's life is going to be any harder than yours. Her extra chromosome doesn't mean hardship and despair, any more than your typical chromosomes mean things will always be rosy for you. You have an amazing PERSON in your life will be able to teach you so much, if you give her the chance.

****

I know this post is preaching to the choir, but since I don't know which of my acquaintances (or friends?) made the comment, this is where I get this off my chest....

One word....

2011-06-01T19:54:00.000-06:00

busy.

swamped.

exhausted.

crazy.

That is me and my calendar for the next three weeks.

My full calendar started this past weekend with an awesome visit with my aunt, who was in town to run the Bolder Boulder. My dad and aunt came our direction to visit for a bit, the next morning we headed their direction for some race festivities, and then the following day Claire had tubes put in her ears.

We didn't get to see much of the Bolder Boulder, but did get to see the elite runners and some of the memorial day program. Sky divers brought in flags for each of the military branches, and the Stars and Stripes.

Claire's tube surgery the next morning was as quick a process as everyone said it was! Her surgery was at 9:00 and we were on our way home by 10:30. She slept a lot of the day, and was a bit crabbier than normal, but really she did great with the whole thing.

Claire's nurse (in the background of the first picture) was awesome. He and is wife are both nurses, and they do foster care for medically fragile children. Claire's other nurse had an adult daughter with Ds. It was great to visit with both of them.

Claire went to daycare today, but I ended up picking her up early. She was out of sorts and over tired, and came home and slept for almost three hours. That is an insanely long nap for her!

The next few weeks are packed with dr appointments, therapy and work so there may not be too many exciting updates....except for Claire's first Happy Heart Day, which is next week.

Sorry for the crappy pictures. The only camera I had with me this weekend was my cell phone.

Thank you for all of the birthday wishes, and for making it through what turned out to be kind of a random update!

Tubes Scheduled

2011-05-24T14:07:00.000-06:00

On Claire's 16 month post I mentioned that she'd had her follow up visit with the ENT, and while there was fluid in one of her ears, he was comfortable waiting on tubes. Over the next week something I heard in a seminar rolled around in my head. The speaker said that "any fluid in the ear is significant." He said that if the brain is hearing inconsistent sounds it will affect speech, and that if the brain isn't hearing correctly there is no way for the sounds to be reproduced correctly. I realized even though the ENT might be comfortable waiting, I wasn't.

So, even though I hate to have Claire sedated again, she will be getting tubes a week from today.

You would think after we'd been through OHS, tubes would be no big deal (and they really aren't), but I'm still nervous. I just don't like "procedures", even though I know this will help with her speech. Claire is such a jabber box, and is trying hard to say words, but most things come out sounding like dada. I hope this gives her the boost she needs to get all those words out.

And since my recent posts have been sadly picture free...here are a few for those missing Claire's sweet face!

showing off her teeth

being silly with dad

her new hat (which is an infant size and is STILL too big on her)

Bear and her bear

A Fine Line

2011-05-17T09:49:00.000-06:00

Last night Claire and I were playing with her coffee can and links. I cut a wide slot into the coffee can lid and the links fit nicely. It's pretty much a homemade version of the Piggy and coins.

We've been working with this toy for about a week or so, and while she would humor me for a few minutes she just wasn't all that interested. Until last night.

Last night she got the can and tried to open it. When I helped her get the links out, she immediately grabbed them and aimed for the slot. She knew what she wanted to do, but couldn't quite get them in the slot. With a little hand over hand practice, she started getting closer and closer until she could get them in the slot herself. By the end of the night she was easily getting the links in the slot.

But that fine line? That fine line is knowing when to help, and when to let her struggle. A few times last night I waited too long to help. Claire got frustrated and the links went flying across the room. Some kisses on her baby and a song soothed her, and she would voluntarily return to the can and the links. But there were also times I helped too soon. Once I picked up a link she missed and tried to hand it to her. That link went flying too.

Other times I let her struggle, somehow exactly the right amount, and the success was sweet, and it was all hers. Quite a few times last night she would try to get a link in the slot, and it wouldn't go immediately. Instead of getting upset, she would use both hands to reposition her grip on the link, and would try again. Completely unprompted. There was lots of clapping and cheering at our house last night!

I want Claire to be independent. I want her to be confident to try things on her own. I constantly remind people (especially Darren) not to do things for her that she can easily do herself. But last night was a good reminder for me. A reminder that help isn't all bad. We all need a helping hand at times, but the grin on her face when she got it all on her own, was amazing!

16 Months

2011-05-13T10:57:00.001-06:00

I meant to do this update post along with Claire's 15 month appointment, but with the car and computer trouble it slipped past me. So, a little bit of bragging about my girl!

* Claire is pulling to stand on everything. She's been doing this for quite a few months, but recently added vertical surfaces like walls.

* Claire is a speedy, crawling machine. She loves to be chased down the hallway and just giggles like crazy. She's started doing a half bear crawl sometimes, with one leg kicked out.

* Signs: milk, dad (occasionally), dog, all done (all the time!), eat

* Will point to things and people she wants. Claire is great at pointing to her straw cup when she wants a drink while eating.

* She will follow directions like stop, come here, say goodbye (wave), blow kisses. And she will also give you a look when she ISN'T going to follow a direction like 'stop playing with the blinds'.

* She is pretty much weaned from the bottle and completely on straw cups. Sometimes it seems like she isn't drinking enough and I'll give her a bottle, but she'll only drink a few ounces that way too.

* Claire is a great eater, but still resists feeding herself sometimes. The slimier the food (green beans, squash) the more she resists. She doesn't have any problem self-feeding things like meat, grilled cheese and string cheese.

* Teeth: She has 10 teeth in with 2 more on the way. On the top she has, the 4 middle ones and the molars. On the bottom, the 2 middle and the molars. She just started getting the other bottom middles. The bottom molars, especially on one side, have been slow to come in and she has a sore in the corner of her mouth from the drool and something (usually her thumb) always stuck in there.

* Claire's hearing is great. She knows that when the front door opens Daddy is home. She also knows the sound of the bathroom door, and rushes to join whoever is headed that way.

* Yesterday we had the follow up appt with the ENT. Her left ear still has fluid and isn't showing ear drum movement, but her right is great. After talking with the ENT, he is inclined to be a little conservative and not do tubes yet. He didn't want to do them too soon. Any thoughts from experienced tube moms?

All in all, Clairey is doing great. I'll have to add pictures a little later as the squirmy worm on my lap is done sitting still!

Mother's Day Tradition

2011-05-09T20:50:00.001-06:00

Our Mother's Day tradition started way before I was a mom.

And actually has nothing to do with me at all!

Our Mother's Day weekend is all about making our COWS mothers again.

For whatever reason (maybe a conspiracy by all the guys???) we always spend Mother's Day weekend AI'ing (artificially inseminating) our cows.

The days start early. We are in the corrals by 6am heat checking the cows. Since this involves standing around watching the cows mount each other I skipped the photos. You're welcome. We then sort off the cows that are in heat. If they are sorted in the morning, they will be bred that night. We heat check and sort off a group of cows each morning and night for about 4 days. We finally sit down for dinner around 8pm, which makes for some long days.

Last year Claire was only a few months old, and she stayed inside pretty much the whole time with Grandma.

Mother's Day 2010

This year, since she's a big kid, she helped heat check. I strapped her on, and off we went! We didn't have a hat for her at the farm, so we had to improvise...Claire didn't mind the cows at all and enjoyed being in the middle of the action. She would make it about 30 minutes in the carrier before she was tired of being constrained, and needed some time on the floor to play.

yes, my eyes are closed...

And just a few more pictures because she looks so cute!

signing 'dog'

kissing the dog

***********

And since this is not a traditional Mother's Day post, here is probably more of what you were expecting. My friend Patti put together a beautiful post. I was excited to be included as one of an amazing bunch of moms who answer the question As a mom, what do you wish others knew about Down syndrome?

Toffee

2011-05-05T09:39:00.000-06:00

I posted this a couple of times on Facebook, but if you missed those, you really don't want to miss out on your last chance to get some of this toffee.

My friend Renee is adopting Paisley from Russia. They will be traveling on their first trip soon, and still have some more funds to raise. To help with the fundraising, Renee opened Paisley's Pantry.

Her first Pantry offering is White Chocolate Toffee, and to say it is amazing is an understatement!

My jar arrived last night.

This morning the toffee is half gone.

And I was the only one home last night...

No, that doesn't say much about my will power, but it does say something about how delicious this toffee really is.

Friday, TOMORROW, is the last day to order this treat. It comes packaged in a jar, ready for gift giving. It would be perfect for end of the year teacher gifts! I've also been told it freezes very well, but I don't think any of my toffee is going to see the inside of the freezer.

Just click ORDER THIS TREAT and you will be sent to Renee's blog for all the details.

Trust me, you will only be sorry if you miss out on this toffee!

Easter Pictures

2011-05-02T22:04:00.000-06:00

I think I'm probably the last blogger to get Easter pictures posted...but better late than never!!

The day was windy and cold. Claire wasn't AT ALL interested in crawling around for the eggs, and instead was quite happy banging a couple of them together. But she was happy doing it!

Day 17: What’s in your purse?

2011-05-01T21:22:00.000-06:00

For those of you that have been paying attention...my 30 days are up and I'm barely halfway through the topics. I think it's official. I am not a good daily blogger.

My purse...I just had to buy a bigger one (mine's white). Yes, I carry too much stuff in it, but Claire's stuff takes up quite a bit of room too.

It always contains diaper and wipes. A straw cup. Some sort of teether or toy.

My wallet. Checkbook. A pile of wadded up receipts that haven't been entered into that checkbook...

Nail clippers and files. A wide assortment of lipsticks, glosses and chapsticks. Mascara. Lotion.

Coupons...that I may or may not remember to use.

Cell phone (which also doubles as a book).

And even with all that stuff I carry with me, it always seems something is missing....

Day 16: Describe My Dream House

2011-04-27T06:49:00.001-06:00

I know some people can describe their dream houses very specifically. There is only one feature that is certain on my dream house.

A giant wrap around porch!

I'm thinking something like this....

I love the porch and the varied roof line.

I found this house on another site...and discovered it was a remodel of an old house. Quite a transformation!

And I discovered a new food blog, written by the owner of this house. All in all, a very productive google search!

Swallow Study and Weaning

2011-04-26T11:21:00.001-06:00

On Friday Claire and I headed to Denver for her third swallow study. It had been six months since her last one, and we were hoping that she'd outgrown the aspiration. If she was still aspirating we were hoping to have her drink more than a swallow or two. For her first two studies, she would take one drink and then refuse any more of the stuff since it tasted so bad. We were never really able to get her to drink once we thickened the milk to make sure the consistency was right for her.

This time they had a new product that was apple flavored. We started with Claire's yogurt and that went down just fine. I haven't been worried about solids, so this wasn't a surprise. We also gave her a small piece of cookie, and this was swallowed whole. It was pretty hard, so that's what I was expecting, but it would have been nice to see her chew. I forgot her string cheese in the car though, so there wasn't anything else for her to chew on, and we did the milk next.

We started with thin liquid in her straw cup and she did great. She took a few swallows in a row and there was just very minimal penetration and no aspiration at all. With her bottle she was still aspirating on thin liquids, and had pretty significant penetration even with it thickened like we have been. So the verdict is thicken in the bottle (even more than we have been), but unthickened is fine in the straw cup. The SLP thought it was the speed which she was able to drink by bottle, and the angle of her head that was causing the aspiration.

I'm not totally convinced that she doesn't need her straw cup milk thickened too though. She will often get a little 'junky' sounding after she drinks, and I think I will continue to thicken it just a little bit.

So onto weaning from the bottle! I've wanted Claire off the bottle for a little while now, but also didn't want to lose all my snuggle time with her.

For the last 10 days she hasn't had any bottles during the day, and hasn't had night bottles in about 4 days. This morning I was going to skip her morning bottle too, but she insisted. :) When we were eating breakfast I would offer her straw cup, but she kept pushing it away and signing 'milk'. We finished her morning milk in the bottle and will try to skip it again tomorrow. She's done so well with the transition this far that I think she'll off the bottle completely within a week or two.

Sorry for the lack of photos...we lost power last night, and I still haven't pulled the Easter photos from my camera. Hopefully tomorrow!

Hodgepodge

2011-04-20T21:35:00.001-06:00

I've gotten off track with my 30 days of posts...and have some other stuff that I need to post about or I'll forget, so bear with all my randomness...

* Claire's 15 month appointment was last week and all is well. She is still growing right along her 50th percentile curve, and she weighs in at 18 lbs 10 oz. Of course she started crying before they even gave her the shots, but the rest of the appointment was spent charming all of the staff. She is still solidly in her 6-9 months clothes, with a few 12 months.

* My computer at home is acting up. It's 2 years old, gets used only for our book keeping, the internet and photos, and yet something bad is going on. Some days it won't even start. This weekend it took about 15 times of restarting and patching/repairing to get it going. I'm in the process of transferring photos off it so that if it does crash I won't lose them.

* I have a super cute video of Claire blowing kisses that I've been trying to transfer to my computer so that I can post it. But since my computer issues started when I tried to install the video camera software I've been hesitant to install the software at work. Don't want to break the work computer, and they have most of the video sites blocked...

* We bought a brand new car a month ago. I don't go into big decisions quickly and this has been in process for years. I also can't make a decision...Anyway, that brand new car has been in the shop for 2 of the 4 weeks I've owned it. To say I'm unhappy is an understatement! I have the car back, but the bluetooth still isn't working right. It's not the end of the world, but I'm peeved that there is anything wrong with my brand new car.

* I went to an awesome Ds symposium this past Saturday and came away with some great tips for school and IEPs. I still need to get my notes together for a post though...

* Claire has turned into a ham. When you bring out the camera, this is what you get...

Day 15: Share a Bible Verse

2011-04-15T22:40:00.000-06:00

I had a different post planned for tonight. One about Claire's 15 month appointment, complete with a cute video, but my computer is not cooperating AT ALL. So, I'll just continue with these posts until I can get the glitches figured out...

Day 15: Share a Bible Verse

I shared one of my favorite verses (Isaiah 41:10) the other day, but another verse has been running through my mind a lot lately.

Paisley, being adopted by the Tam Family

I follow many Reece's Rainbow families. Adoption, especially of a child with Down syndrome, has been on my heart a lot lately. These children have been abandoned, left behind simply because they have Down syndrome. Because they are like Claire. And that hurts my heart. These children need and deserve families.

The international adoption journey is hard. While I haven't done it myself, I've talked to other families, I've seen them frantically fundraising. And I know that adoption is a journey of faith. And until, or even if, I am able to join them on a similar journey, I will support these families as much as possible.

Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. Hebrews 11:1

Day 12, 13 and 14

2011-04-14T12:36:00.000-06:00

So I didn't manage to blog everyday. And this time I don't even have a good excuse like I didn't last time...

Day 12: Something you don't leave the house without

My phone. Before my phone my answer would have been a book. But my phone is able to be a phone, my calendar and a book all in one! Our library has ebooks available for checkout, and now has an app so that I can read them on my phone. This finally means that I will always have a book with me for those long waiting room visits at the doctors office.

Day 13: A photo that makes you laugh

We call this her hammy face. :)

Day 14: A website you love to visit

While facebook and babycenter are favorites, I'm going to have to go with Google Reader. I don't know if this really counts as a website, but it is BY FAR the place where most of my online time is spent. After Claire was born I found an amazing support group on babycenter, and from there met many moms who blog.

Through these blogs I have friends all over the county. Friends that I refer to by name on a regular basis, even though most of them I've never met. Friends who celebrate with us, friends who understand my fears and friends who love Claire, just as I love their kids!

Day 10 and Day 11

2011-04-11T21:55:00.000-06:00

Day 10: Something you're afraid of

It may sound trite, but I'm always afraid of losing those close to me. After Brian's accident if anyone was more than a few minutes late getting home it just about sent me into a panic attack. I knew in my head that more than likely everything was fine, but my heart was just scared. These days I don't worry as much, but I'm still particular about checking in when people reach their destinations.

What I did learn from Brian's accident is to make sure you tell your friends and family that you love them, and what they mean to you. Don't leave fights unfinished. To this day I'm so grateful that my last words with Brian were "I love you. See you tonight".

Day 11: TV shows that your currently addicted to

I won't call it addicted, but I do love reality TV. I always watch Survivor and Amazing Race, but I've also been watching America's Next Great Restaurant and Top Shot. I don't usually watch cooking shows, but Next Great Restaurant is interesting because everyone eats in fast casual restaurants (think Chipotle or Noodles) and I love seeing what concepts work with the investors.

Top Shot is on History Channel and this is the second season. It's hosted by Colby (of Survivor fame) and follows typical reality show format. It starts with a team challenge, then moves to individual. The contestents have challenges each week. Some speed and accuracy, some just basic marksmanship. The remainder of this season will be intesting as all of the contestants left have a military background. The show is now casting for season 4.

Day 8 and Day 9...Playing Catch Up

2011-04-10T21:53:00.000-06:00

We spent the weekend at the farm, and that means cows instead of internet access! So, I'll be playing a little catch up for the next couple of days.

Day 8: A Place You've Traveled To

When I was growing up we had the opportunity to travel to some amazing places. We stated traveling to English speaking places like Kauai and Australia, and then traveled to some more exotic locations. All of this travel lit a fire in me, and if I could I would travel a lot, especially internationally. (Aunt Susan if you need a traveling partner, please let me know!) One of my favorite locations was Venice. The buildings, the history and the food were all amazing. We walked and walked though the winding streets, ate gelato, and rode the gondolas. Of all the places we've traveled, I've love to go back to Venice and see if it is as amazing as I remember.

Day 9: Your Favorite ~~Quote~~ Verse

Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. Isaiah 41:10

When I was pregnant with Claire and struggling with her heart condition and the near certainty of Down syndrome my dad send me this verse, and it really spoke to me. Whenever I was having an especially bad day this is the verse that I would repeat over and over. It ran through my head constantly during my c-section, and has been a comfort to me on many bad days since.

Day 7: Favorite Books

2011-04-07T22:33:00.000-06:00

As you could tell from my earlier post, I love books!

I always have. I remember going to the bookstore when I was a kid for a new book and barely making it to the car before the book was open and I was reading. Now I accumulate books much faster than I could ever read them.

Even with all the books in my house I easily have a favorite.

Outlander by Diana Gabaldon

To get a couple of things out of the way, first if you've read the book, no my Claire wasn't named for the Claire in the book. I liked the name long before I read this book, but the association didn't hurt. Second, if you go to Amazon and start reading the info on the book, one of the first descriptions of this book you will see is "600-page time-travel romance". Don't be put off by this!

Yes, the book is long. Yes, there is a little time travel, but more than anything I hate this book being described as a romance. I don't read romances. To me those are the bodice rippers with Fabio on the cover.

Outlander is different. There is romance, there is sex, but the context is different from other "romance" books. In Outlander it's all within an ACTUAL relationship. Romance, sex, arguments, laughter. All of the things that we all experience in our relationships.

In addition to being set in the fabulous Scottish countryside, Outlander is meticulously researched. There are so many layers to this book that it really doesn't get old, even after many readings. And, if you prefer audio books to print versions, the UNABRIDGED audio read by Davina Porter is amazing!

Day 6: A Random Picture That Makes Me Happy

2011-04-06T21:33:00.000-06:00

About a month ago Claire participated in a photo shoot through Tiny Hope Project. Tiny Hope was started by a local photographer and is sort of a spin off of The Littlest Heroes Project. Tiny Hope isn't just about the pictures, though, it's about advocating and celebrating too.

And while these photos aren't exactly random, and while there will be more than 'a' photo posted here...I don't know how you can look at these and not be happy!

Day 5: A Song That Means A Lot To Me

2011-04-05T21:42:00.000-06:00

There are a few songs that mean an awful lot to me. There is the song I danced to at my wedding (Making Memories of Us by Keith Urban), and the song that ran through my head constantly in the days leading up to and following Claire's heart surgery (What Faith Can Do by Kutless), but I decided to go with the song that came to mind as soon as I saw this day's topic.

This song will ALWAYS remind me of Brian. For months, even years, I couldn't hear it without crying, but these days I can smile knowing that Brian is in a good place.

Day 4: (Not So) Weird Hobby or Collection

2011-04-04T22:49:00.000-06:00

Well, I don't think any of my collections are all that weird, but I do have a couple of them. (Sorry for the poor pictures. It's getting late and I'm tired, but I'm not going to fail on this challenge on day 4!)

First is my BearFoot collection. I think I got my first one about 10 years ago and have slowly added to the numbers over the years. Right now I have about 40 of them all together, but here are a few of my favorites.

My second, and largest by far, is my book collection. I have 4 book shelves in my house FILLED with unread books. 3 of the 4 shelves are double stacked and I have no idea how many books are on the shelves. I don't have much time to read these days, and it might honestly take me the rest of the life to read the books that are in my house right now!

Both of the these collections are going to be down sized. Our annual library sale is coming up soon, and I am purging my shelves of those books I know I will never get around to reading. My bear collection needs to shrink too, as you call tell by the dust in the pictures!

Day 3: Photo From My Wedding

2011-04-03T21:16:00.000-06:00

If I'd started this challenge just a few days earlier I could have posted this on our anniversary, which was March 31.

I'd originally planned on posting more than one photo, but I can't find the candid photos from our wedding. They are safely on a flash drive somewhere, I just don't know where....It bums me out because there is a great one of Darren dancing with his grandma.

I scanned this photo while I was at work the other day, so it's the only one I have ready for this post.

This is one of my favorites from the wedding. It was taken at the end of the night, when everything was winding down. It was a perfect day, and this was the perfect ending.

Day 2: Random Photo of My Day

2011-04-02T21:38:00.000-06:00

We spent the weekend with my mom and dad, and today we came home a little earlier than planned. A lot of our day was taken up with driving home, and a nap for me (Claire didn't sleep well last night, so neither did I), but we were still able to get some play time in.

Claire's OT brought some new toys over for her. My favorite thing about new toys is to see which parts she really enjoys and picks up right away. This is a toy where you hit the ball from the top, it rolls through the toy and comes out the bottom.

Right away Claire has figured out that the pink ball is the easiest to drop down and she goes for it right away. Her other favorite part of the toy is the first ball. It's clear ball, with smaller ball inside and makes quite a racket when she shakes it. She takes all of the balls off the top of the toy, shakes them, and throws them aside until she finds the one she wants. It's a small thing, but I love seeing how her mind works. She is one smart cookie!

Day 1: Meaning Behind Your Blog Name

2011-04-01T10:32:00.000-06:00

I created this blog before Claire. I pictured it as a place to keep family and friends updated about what we were up to. Just like the moose crossing sign marks paths traveled, this Moos Crossing was going to be a place to journal our travels. I never expected to have much to talk about, or to actually have anyone really reading this, but that extra chromosome changed all that. I thought about changing the name, to more reflect Claire and Down syndrome, but never did. Now I'm glad I didn't change the name. This blog is still about US and our path through life, which just happens to include a little extra!

Day 0

2011-03-31T09:40:00.001-06:00

You may have noticed I've been a bit of a blog slacker lately. Truth is, I love blogging, but I am a HUGE procrastinator. HUGE. I have posts rolling around in my head that I've been meaning to write for months. One comes to mind from November...If I don't write them right away it just doesn't happen. Which brings me to a side note regarding email. If you send me an email and don't hear back from me in a day or so, it's unlikely you will get a response. More than likely the email has been buried by new email and I've forgotten about it. But I digress...

To help me get back in the swing of blogging regularly, I'm going to give a 30 day challenge a try. I didn't quite make it through the 31 for 21, but I came close. So here is the list for the next 30 days, borrowed from Shelley.

Day 0: The 30 Day Challenge Explanation and Description
Day 1: Meaning behind your blog name
Day 2: Take a photo of a random part of your day and tell us about it
Day 3: Photos from your wedding
Day 4: A weird hobby or collection
Day 5: A song that means a lot to you
Day 6: A random picture that makes you happy
Day 7: Favorite books
Day 8: A place you've traveled to
Day 9: Your favorite quote
Day 10: Something you're afraid of
Day 11: TV shows that your currently addicted to
Day 12: Something you don't leave the house without
Day 13: A photo that makes you laugh
Day 14: A website you love to visit
Day 15: Share a Bible verse
Day 16: Describe your dream house
Day 17: What’s in your purse?
Day 18: Photos from around your town
Day 19: Something you miss
Day 20: Nicknames
Day 21: Favorite Movies
Day 22: Share the oldest photo that’s saved on your computer
Day 23: Something you fear
Day 24: A photo of somewhere beautiful
Day 25: 3 things you hope to accomplish by the end of the year
Day 26: Something that stresses you out
Day 27: Your favorite poem
Day 28: A photo of the inside of your car
Day 29: 5 things you are thankful for
Day 30: a picture from today

Will you Tweet for Reece's Rainbow?

2011-03-29T09:38:00.000-06:00

We really haven't fallen off the face of the earth...just have been very busy. We spent the weekend at the farm, and that means the only internet access was on my phone. Phone service can be spotty, so that means I was pretty much offline for the weekend. That's not a bad thing, but it does mean I come home to a reader over flowing with blog posts!

I don't use Twitter much. Blogging and Facebook take up plenty of my time as it is. But, for Reece's Rainbow I will make an exception.

Patricia Heaton (the actress from Everybody Loves Raymond) has tweeted an amazing offer for RR and all it takes is you clicking the follow button.

Are you following @ReecesRainbow on Twitter? @PatriciaHeaton is donating $1 for every Reece's Rainbow follower up to $10K! Help kids find families! PLEASE SHARE and follow on Twitter!

World Down Syndrome Day

2011-03-21T00:01:00.001-06:00

Today, March 21, is World Down Syndrome Day. Down syndrome occurs when an individual has three, rather than two, copies of the 21st chromosome. It is also known as Trisomy 21.

Today is a day to celebrate everyone with Down syndrome.

Forty five countries around the world partnered with Down Syndrome International to create this video for World Down Syndrome Day!

Enjoy all the beautiful smiles!

Messy

2011-03-18T13:34:00.000-06:00

Some nights a big mess at dinner time makes me crazy. I will try to clean up Claire after every couple of bites just to keep the final clean up to a minimum. Last night Claire wasn't interested in eating unless she was feeding herself. So we just went with it, mess and all!

And even though Claire is good at self feeding last night wasn't her best showing. Way more of the food ended up on her or on the floor. Oh well, we'll just consider this meal fine motor practice.

Celebrating without Qualifying

2011-03-09T09:40:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was our monthly trip to Denver for appointments. Claire had PT in the morning and audiology in the afternoon. Her hearing test went well, and there were no major concerns, just a bit of fluid in one year, and we will follow up with an ENT.

Before audiology we had PT with Pat Winders. I know I've mentioned Pat before and how much I love her. She passionate about her job and she loves the kids she works with. But my absolute favorite thing about Pat is that she celebrates Claire without adding a qualifier.

I've had people say things like "Claire is doing so well...for a baby with Down syndrome" or "she is the cutest baby with Down syndrome I've ever seen'. And while these may seem like compliments, they really aren't. It's sort of like saying someone is smart...for a girl.

But with Pat there are no qualifiers, just genuine happiness. She understands.

Claire is amazing, beautiful and smart. Period.

Climbing on up!

2011-03-07T20:01:00.000-07:00

One of our assignments to work on from PT is climbing stairs. Since our house has lots of stairs, you would think this would be easy for me, but I just haven't been working on it with Claire. One of our sets of stairs is topped by a gate. The other set is usable, but leads to a tile landing filled with shoes. It requires a little rearrangement, and really isn't all that comfortable to be crawling on. So I've been slacking.

This table in our living room is one of Claire's favorite places to play. She will sit in front of it, with her legs underneath, and the surface is just the right height to play. For the last couple of days she's been standing in front of the table to reach for things on the second shelf. She is determined to chew on the stone coasters we have. And while her teeth are sharp, I'm pretty sure filing them on coasters isn't recommended.

This morning Claire was standing by the table and helping herself to the coaster on the second shelf. I moved the coaster to the top shelf, and stepped back. I expected her just to get back down on the floor since there wasn't anything left to play with.

Instead, she decided that she needed to go up! And with perfect form, she climbed on to the bottom shelf of the table and started to stand up to reach the top shelf! While I was super proud and really wanted her to be able to complete her mission, she was wearing fleece pj's. And those slippery feet and the wooden table just wasn't a combination I was comfortable with.

I guess this means we really should be working on climbing stairs, since she's obviously ready, but we also need to keep working on how to get OFF the furniture safely too.

In other exciting news, Claire can identify a nose! She doesn't seem to realize that she has a nose, but she is good at pointing them out on others.

03.02.11

2011-03-02T21:00:00.001-07:00

I know today is almost over, but this campaign is important to me. I've mentioned it on this blog before, you may have had me say something in person to you. Yes, I am talking about the R-word again.

When you use the r-word, whether you 'mean it that way or not', it is a direct insult to Claire and all other people with intellectual disabilities.

I am tolerant of the word if it is used in ignorance, but once I've explained that the word is hurtful I EXPECT friends and family to remove it from their vocabulary.

I found this post today from a mom who decided to battle the r-word on twitter. While I'm not surprised about the responses she got, I am sad. So for those who have made a change in the words you choose because of Claire, THANK YOU!

A Day to Save Olga

2011-02-28T06:04:00.001-07:00

I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. John 14:18

Today is Olga's day. I am pretty sure Olga has never had a day where she was the star. But today is different. Today there are mamas who will probably never meet her, yet are spending the day blogging, sharing her beautiful face on Facebook, and we are PRAYING.

Olga has a family coming for her, yet they still need help to bring her home. International adoption is always expensive, but some areas are more costly than others. I know many of you have blogged, donated and prayed for Olga before, and today I'm asking for your help again.

My friend Patti has a way with words, so I will leave you with her post for Olga.

***************************************

Dear friends,
So many of you already know this beautiful little face....

Olga turned five last month. She has spent the last five years in an orphanage in Eastern Europe, without the love of a mommy and daddy- simply because she arrived in life exactly as God designed her. One chromosome too many, and her fate was sealed from birth.

Sealed, because in Eastern Europe, babies who are born with Down syndrome are deemed unacceptable at birth. They are discarded as cast-offs of society, and when they turn five they leave the only home they've ever known...

And I wish I could say that for most of these children, leaving that home meant going to a place of safety, a place of happiness, a place where they would finally know the love of a family...know what it meant to be cuddled or sung to or read to, tucked in at night, prayed for, loved.

Instead, they are taken to a place that most people wouldn't leave their family pet.
A place of living hell, where they will never know the tenderness of a parent, never know the security of being raised in a family, and there they will stay, one ugly, pain-filled day at a time...until they die.

I read a post last December that stayed with me to this day. It was called from baby dolls to bedstraps.
The blog author wrote about Elizabeth, an orphan on Reece's Rainbow who had been transferred to a mental institution, waiting for a family to step forward for her. Her words still haunt me.

I wonder where she thought she was going as they led her out of the orphanage that day. Did she think that maybe it was finally her turn? That they were taking her to her forever Mommy and Daddy?

And when they instead took her inside that dreadful place, when they shaved her head and tied her to a too-small metal crib

when they turned their backs and

walked

away…

when they left her confused, terrified,

in a room where the wails of schizophrenic adults echo through the cold air

what was going through her young mind?

Did she wonder if she was being punished?

How long did she hold out hope that this was only temporary?

That any minute, they would come and take her back to the baby house

to her baby dolls and teddy bear,

to her best friend, Angelina?

Did she long to free her arms from the restraints

to cover her head with her hands to drown out

the scary noises

the scary sights

the scary smells?

That could be my Lily….

It could be your child.

And what if it were?

What if you woke up one morning

and by some hellish, twilight-zone twist of fate

your child wasn’t still tucked into that warm bed down the hall,

what if your child was trapped

across the dark sea

in that nightmare that is

the institution?

What

would

you

DO?

Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering toward slaughter. Proverbs 24:11
Elizabeth is being rescued today, thanks to the efforts of that blogging mama, and others like her.

Olga is being rescued today, thanks to so many of you...you gave so much and created such a large grant that a family was able to step forward and start the process of adoption.

The Abells have done so much already, towards rescuing Olga. I can't even imagine all the paperwork and prayer and emotion and finances that goes into an international adoption. They have done numerous fundraisers, and will continue to do so until they can bring Olga home.

Through the help of so many, a grant of over $13,000 has been raised for Olga's adoption. That grant is set aside for the final travel costs and fees that it will take to bring Olga home. It will take every penny of that and then some.

Right now the Abells are in need of raising the $7,000 that is needed to submit their dossier for Olga. Without that dossier we don't even know if Olga has been transferred yet. Here in America you just pick up the phone and ask these questions. But here in America we don't tie five year old girls to cribs to keep them from climbing out.

The Abells need to submit that dossier as soon as possible- at the very least to find out if she has been transferred already- because I know an army of prayer warriors who is going to want to know that piece of information as well. And at the very most, it could be able to hold Olga at the baby house until the Abells can rescue her. I wish I could say with certainty that she won't be transferred- truthfully we just don't know that.

Olga has been so heavy on my heart for months- friends, I want you to know that I DO trust that God has a plan here.

I prayed like crazy for a way to help the Abells. I truly believe that there is a network of people who love Olga here in blogland...a net that is woven by God and is stretching out across this blessed country we live in, and even beyond to generous hearts in other nations. I really cannot express enough how thankful I am to be a small part of what God has already done for Olga, Peter and Kareen. But I don't think our job is done.

Olga needs us.

I don't want her to spend one more forsaken day in that place than she has to.

We're not doing a giveaway here today. I don't even think we need to do one- I know so many just have a heart to help and to give, and prizes were never the real reason we all gave anyway.

So I'm just asking- for one day- for you to do whatever you could to help Olga. Whether that's $10 or $20 or even a hundred...if you are able to help raise this money for the dossier, please do so HERE...

This is the link for the Family Sponsorship Page on Reece's Rainbow...every single dollar goes to the Abell's adoption fund, and every single dollar will help.

We're calling this A Day to Save Olga, because there are about 17 of us blogging mamas who have set aside this day to blog, post on Facebook, pray, give and spread the word to SAVE OLGA.

Will you help us?

I know you will:)

Love,

Patti

Swingin'

2011-02-25T11:31:00.000-07:00

This time of year the weather in Colorado can be hit or miss. Today we have snow, but on Wednesday we had bright blue skies and lots of sunshine. It was a perfect day for swinging at the park!

Darren has the BEST dimples and Claire inherited one of them. We always joke that she got one cheek from me, and one from Darren. But I'd never been able to capture that dimple on film until she was swinging.

And the next time we go to the park, we are taking the video camera instead. Claire is a little dare devil and the higher you push her, the more she laughs. I need to get it on video!

Today I Learned Something About Down Syndrome

2011-02-24T09:09:00.000-07:00

This post has been all over Facebook, so you may have seen it already.

But if you haven't read it, please take a minute to do so.

When we found out Claire had Ds, this is what I was worried about. People who would take one look at her, and instantly write her off.

And while things won't change over night, I rejoice each time someone really does learn something about Down syndrome.

Blissfully Uneventful...

2011-02-22T09:37:00.000-07:00

Things have been quiet around here. Pretty much just work and home, work and home, with a few PT/OT appointments thrown in to keep things interesting.

The weather is finally warming up a bit and Claire and I have been able to get out for a few walks and to the park. I'm ready for winter to be over though. I'm tired of the dreary days, and I'm tired of taking pictures inside, which explains the lack of photos on this post. I haven't had my camera out at all lately.

Claire is now on round 4 of antibiotics. A few days after finishing round 3 the goopy eyes and green snot came back yet again. This round finishes in a few days and I'm hoping the sinus infection, and the thrush she now has, are finally gone!

Claire is feeling great though, and she is moving all over the place. Her crawling is getting much faster, and she is pulling up on more and more things. For a while she only pulled up on the ottoman by the couch, but now she has branched out to include the gate at the top of the stairs and the bath tub. She is also cruising, taking a few steps in both directions on the furniture. We've been practicing walking while holding onto our hands, and she is doing much better with this too. At first we'd only get a step or two, and now we are easily up to 10-12 steps.

Darren has been busy at the farm, and has been gone most weekends. This time of year we are calving heifers and cows, and with the cows we are getting 10-12 calves a day. With that many new babies in a day it is easy to get behind on tagging and moving them.

I haven't been doing much that is exciting, mainly working on our taxes in the evenings. Which isn't fun, but is necessary. I still haven't found much time to read lately, and I really miss that. But, I did find that the Overdrive system with the library (where I check out ebooks) has an app for my phone! That means that I can always have a book with me and I may get more than one book a month read.

Love Is In The Air!

2011-02-14T09:36:00.001-07:00

Now, I've never been a huge fan of Valentine's Day. It's just always seemed overdone and commercial...but after seeing what Claire was up to with these...

...I'm starting to see things a little differently. How can you help but to fall in love with this handsome man and all of his beautiful ladies!! Thank you Erin and Grady for putting together such an awesome post!

Once upon a time...

2011-02-13T13:11:00.002-07:00

...I had a living room floor, instead of an obstacle course of toys.

...I was able to sleep in. This morning, even though Claire was gone and I could sleep in, I woke at 5...and at 6...and at 7.

...I had all my Christmas decorations packed up by New Years. This straggler will be packed up this weekend.

...I had the time, or took the time, to read. Two years ago, I read 130 books. Last year, 30 books. And this year, if my pace continues, I'll be lucky to read 15.

...I never brought work home with me. Now that I work part time, a huge pile of papers follow me home at least once a week.

...our third bedroom was used only for storage. Now it's my favorite room in the house.

...I could stay awake long past midnight. Last night I only made it to 10:30.

...I didn't know what Veggie Straws were. These days I have to keep myself from eating them all so Claire has some for ST.

...I didn't have this girl to keep me on my toes, always busy and on the move.

Ds Center Visit

2011-02-11T11:43:00.001-07:00

On Tuesday Claire and I braved the snow, cold and icy roads to go to our appointment at the Sie Center for Down syndrome. I'd given myself extra time to get there, but we still ended up just making it to the appointment on time. The trip ending up taking about 40 minutes longer than it usually does.

Prior to the appointment I'd faxed Claire's medical records, and I'd talked to the program coordinator a couple of times also. This was wonderful because we didn't have to spend any time the day of her appointment going over her records or history. The appointment started with the usual dr office things, weight, temp, blood pressure, etc. The overall appointment took 3 hours, one hour each with PT, ST and the Dr.

PT: Claire sees Pat Winders monthly, so this was just our normal appointment with her. Right now the three skills we are focusing on are cruising along furniture, taking supported steps and climbing the stairs. All of them are hard for Claire, so we are only able to practice a time or two before she won't cooperate anymore. Claire cruises decently to the left, but really fights going to the right. Her right leg planted firmly on the floor seems to make her feel safe, and she hates picking it up to take a step. When we practice stepping we usually lean her over a surface (like a rubbermaid tub) that can be scooted along the floor. This gives her something solid for support, but it's still easy to move, so that she has to take a few steps.

I need to find some way for Claire to practice climbing the stairs. We live in a bi-level, so one set of our stairs leads to a tile entryway. Not real comfortable to climb onto, but manageable. The other set of stairs has the gate at the top, so it doesn't work for climbing at all. Pat and I were discussing this and she wondered if pet stairs (to help little dogs get onto the couch or bed) might work...Has anyone ever tried this???

ST: Our usual ST, who we see privately, just had a baby. After skipping appointments over the holidays, it had been quite a few months since Claire had seen an ST. I was very glad to have one available through the clinic, and she knows Talk Tools as well. Since Claire's last ST appointment, she started drinking from the straw, and my main question was to make sure she was doing it correctly. Turns out, she isn't. While her mouth is closed, she is taking too much straw into her mouth and is suckling it with her tongue, instead of using her lips.

Dr: Dr Hickey was very personable and very easy to talk to. We chatted about Claire's general health and specific concerns I had as well. Claire has been struggling with sinus infections all winter. She finished her third round of antibiotics last week, but after about 48 hours, her eyes and nose starting oozing goop again. So, last night we started round 4. Dr Hickey thinks it is just winter and that once we get through the miserable weather, she should get over all this stuff.

We are also transitioning off the bottle slowly, and are down to 2 a day. As we make this change, I wanted to be sure Claire was still eating and drinking enough. Dr Hickey said average milk consumption should be around 16 oz a day. She is easily getting that between her bottles and the cup, with some water as well. For meals, he said about a tablespoon or two of each food, with a couple of options offered. I'd given an example of her dinner the night before (2 beef ravioli with sauce and some green beans) and he said that was a great portion size.

The other nice thing about the Ds Center is that it's great to have someone else help keep me organized on what upcoming appointments Claire needs. We have an audiology screening next month, we will repeat her swallow study this spring, and then she will have her vision tested at 18 months. After all those appointments, in 6 months, we will have another appointment at the Center.

For Co People: I've had some people ask about seeing Pat Winders for PT. Her schedule gets booked FAST (we already have appts through July). If you want to see her for a consult, and are interested in the Center, that may be the best way to see her. Right now, the Center's schedule is fairly open. We scheduled our appt for a little over 2 weeks out because it matched up with other things, but we could have gotten in sooner. If you want to schedule an appt, here is the info.

My Shadow and Pure Love

2011-02-03T11:43:00.003-07:00

Clarie has turned into my shadow. If I am working on dinner in the kitchen, she is happy just to play underfoot. But once I start moving around the house she does her absolute best to keep up with me. She is becoming quite the little crawler, and is wearing a path from the living room to the kitchen, with a few detours every now and them to the bedroom or bathroom. Just the other night I left her in the living room to run her bath, and when I turned around to go get her she was waiting in the bathroom doorway!

There are kids, though, that aren't able to practice their crawling skills by following after mom. In fact, they don't have anyone that answers to mom. Peter is one of those kids. He has spent his whole life in an orphanage. He doesn't have anyone to encourage him, to love on him and kiss him. And unless a family steps forward for him soon, he may not have the chance to know pure love.

He turns 4 later this month. In his orphanage, 4 is the transfer age. Transfer to an adult mental institution.

Andrea, from Reece's Rainbow, had this to say about Peter "I wish I had a suggestion about Peter....I have been advocating for him for YEARS. Nothing short of a full grant is going to do much for him, I'm afraid."

A full grant is $20,000, and that is the amount that Patti has set to raise for him.

And you, yes YOU, can help!

A small donation to Peter (or Olga or Kareen) will enter you to win some AMAZING prizes. And to help Peter know Pure Love!

Please pray for Lois's family. Sweet Lois lost her battle with cancer this morning.

Brrr!

2011-02-01T09:31:00.000-07:00

Today isn't just cold, it's hunker-down-and-don't-even-leave-the-house cold. Unfortunately for Claire and I, today is a work day. My pickup was started LONG before we had to leave the house, and Claire was as bundled as she could be and still fit in her car seat. This morning at 9am (when I took her to day care) the temp was -12, with a wind chill of -39. And that my friends, is cold! I hope it is much warmer where ever you are!

Feeling Much Better

2011-01-30T21:22:00.000-07:00

Claire's third round of antibiotics finally did the trick and I have my crazy, smiling girl back again! I think all that down time when she was sick gave her an amazing energy boost. She seems to be transitioning to one nap, and there are days that one nap is only an hour long. Most of the time she does ok with this, but sometimes she is CRABBY by dinner time. Her milk consumption is still way down still too. I'm not sure if there is still from being a little congested, or if she just doesn't need as much milk with all the food she eats.

We are going to the ENT in a couple of days just to get her checked out, but until then, this is Claire's new favorite face to make. Part silliness, part smile!

Fighting Germs

2011-01-26T11:49:00.001-07:00

For the past couple of weeks Claire has been fighting a battle with germs, and with a score of germs 2, antibiotics 0, the germs have been winning. Claire has a sinus infection that just won't go away. We just started round 3 of antibiotics, and she is finally feeling better. To rule out any weird stuff we are going to the ENT next week.

I'm way behind on blog writing and blog reading, but today I'm glad to have something other than a sick baby to tend to!

The Twins

2011-01-20T21:49:00.000-07:00

One of our heifers decided to give Claire an awesome first birthday present. She's now well on her way to a herd of her own!

ONEderful Updates!

2011-01-17T12:36:00.001-07:00

It was just about a month ago that I last posted about Claire's accomplishments, and I already have so many new updates to share for her ONE year birthday.

12 month stats: 17 lbs and 27 inches. Both right about 50th percentile on her chart.

Teeth: Holy cow is pretty much what sums up this update. One month ago Claire's first tooth was just making its appearance, and now I can see SIX teeth.
1: bottom left center
2: upper left molar
3: upper right molar (this one still isn't all the way in and seems to bother her the most)
4: bottom right center
5: upper right second tooth
6: upper right center (the last 2 were just discovered in the past week (5) and yesterday (6), so they aren't through yet either)

Feeding: Claire has been completely off purees for about 4 months now. She just hated them so we moved to table food. She is a great eater and will try almost anything. Sweet potato and yogurt top the list of favorites, but I will feed her pretty much anything off our plate, as long as it isn't too spicy.

She self feeds things like puffs very well, but has a little trouble with food if it is much smaller (like corn) or too soft (like sweet potato or green beans), because then it's fun to squish it, rather than eat it.

She has been drinking out of her straw for a little over a month and does well with it. Except that she gives us a very strange look when we give her milk, instead of the water she is used to, with the straw. I am planning to start the transition from the bottle to the cup this week. I still have about 3 months worth of breast milk in the freezer, so we won't transition to cows milk for a while still.

Gross Motor: We have a crawler!! A full on hands and knees crawler! Which means I need to officially baby proof. Around Christmas, Claire would crawl forward a time or two, then drop to her belly and army crawl/stretch to get what she wanted. About a week after that she started crawling on hands and knees when she wanted something specific. In just the last few days she's figured out that she can crawl just to crawl. She will usually start out with a destination in mind, but I love to see her get distracted and discover new things. She's also figured out she can crawl after us, and has made it from the living room to the kitchen.

Claire is also pulling to stand from the ground. She can do it on the ottoman with the lip to hang onto, or in her crib. She hasn't figured out how to reposition her feet once she pulls up, so she winds up in some pretty precarious positions if you aren't watching closely. We have another PT session with Pat Winders tomorrow, and I'm excited to have her answer some questions.

Speech and Signing: Claire does a lot of babbling and is using more and more consonant sounds. We get a lot of ma, ba, da and la sounds. She has used dada for Darren a few times when he walks into a room, but it's not consistent yet. I think she also has her first sign. We use milk, all done, more, mama, dada and few other with her constantly. Recently, there have a few times we've asked her if she's all done, and have gotten a very emphatic hand shaking in return!

Fun Stuff: Claire is the master of peekaboo and patty cake. If she even hears the words patty cake the clapping starts. It makes me laugh though, because the won't clap through the whole song. She seems to stop and wait for help with the 'patting and rolling'. The 'throw it in the oven' part is a little hit and miss too. Sometimes she'll do it on her own, and sometimes she won't. Her ring stacker and toys where she can push the buttons are hits these days too.

The Birthday Cake

2011-01-14T22:17:00.001-07:00

was a hit! You know how some kids won't touch their cake? That wasn't Claire! She jumped right in with both hands. When it was over and done with, I was surprised with how little mess there was...I think more of the cupcake made it IN her rather than ON her.

Claire has a thing for my camera strap, so this blurry, lunging baby is in a lot of my pictures.

We had a little drama near the end of the cupcake experience. Claire managed to get about half the cupcake in her mouth at once, and she protested once we removed the huge bite...

I'm thinking that the fact it was past her bedtime could have contributed some!

Happy Birthday Claire!!

2011-01-13T10:24:00.000-07:00

Sweet girl, where has the time gone? It seems like just yesterday I was still pregnant and we were anxiously awaiting your arrival.

Your first few days were a blur of doctors, sleepless nights, and your first heart surgery. Things calmed down once we got home and we quickly settled into our new roles. Kisses in the morning and books at bedtime.

We celebrated rolling, sitting, and most recently, crawling. Teeth have appeared, your hair has grown into the cutest pigtails, and your smile lights up the room.

Your first year has been an amazing adventure, and I can only imagine all of the fun we have ahead of us.

Happy First Birthday Beautiful Claire!!

I felt bad...

2011-01-10T10:00:00.000-07:00

Recently a friend used the r word. It caught me off guard coming from her, and I wasn't ready with a request not to use the word. The social situation we were in didn't offer me an opportunity to pull her aside, so I let the moment pass. This was a good friend, though, who I see frequently, and since I needed to address the issue I sent her an email.

I cried as I wrote the email. I felt bad because I know 'she didn't mean it that way'. She would never do anything to intentionally hurt me or Claire, and yet she did. I explained to her that when someone says 'don't act like a retard', what I hear is 'don't act like Claire.' The word is never used as a compliment, it's always an insult. And I felt bad that I had to send the email.

And then I felt bad for feeling bad because I stood up for my daughter.

Last night we talked. She apologized for using the word, that she didn't mean it that way, and that she didn't even know she'd said it until I pointed it out. She said that she cried herself to sleep the night she got the email. And I felt even worse.

Then she thanked me.

She thanked me for the humbling and eye opening experience. She said that as she cried herself to sleep that one night she thought about all the times, in the years ahead, that I would cry. All the times that people would, intentionally or not, hurt me or hurt Claire.

And I felt so much better.

Not because she cried, but because she thought about what I'd said, and she got it. This is someone who will not only consider the words she uses, but it wouldn't surprise me if she doesn't correct others for using the word also. Her eyes are open, and even though we both felt bad, it was worth it.

Thank you, thank you!

2011-01-08T16:53:00.000-07:00

Now that year end craziness has subsided, the totals have been calculated. This year, from Nov 1 to Dec 31, Reece's Rainbow Angel Tree raised over $305,000!!! This is QUADRUPLE what was raised in 2009. So, thank you! Thank you for donating to Celine, Olga, or any of the kids on Reece's Rainbow. Every donation helps bring children home.

During this year's Angel Tree, 30 children had families commit to them. In 2010, 153 children came home to their forever families, and already 2011 looks like it will surpass that figure.

While the big fundraising push of the Angel Tree is over, there are still many children that need help getting home. If you can, please consider donating to a child who is still waiting for a family, or to a family who is doing the final fundraising before they travel to bring home their child.

Wordy Wednesday: Little Cowgirl

2011-01-05T14:41:00.000-07:00

In our neck of the woods, Stock Show is a big deal. Before kids, going to stock show really meant a couple of hours actually at stock show, with the rest of the night getting caught up with friends at the bar. These days, most of our friends go to the rodeo, do a little shopping, and rarely make it to the bar. Even though we won't be going this year, Claire couldn't resist showing off her cowgirl attire.

And yes, that is dust all over Darren's hat and food all over Claire's shirt. :)

The First Big Change of the New Year...

2011-01-03T11:35:00.000-07:00

...is Claire's!

Today she started her new daycare. For the past 8 months or so we've had a sweet Grandma type gal watching her and one other little guy. It has been a perfect situation. The other mom and I have been friends for years, and the kids are 1 week apart in age. Since it's always been just the 2 kids they've gotten lots of love and snuggle time.

This winter our daycare Grandma decided to take a 2 month vacation. Which meant that we needed to find someplace new for the kids. Living in a small town means that there aren't too many choices for daycare, and all the in-home day cares where I would want her to be, were full. There is one daycare center in town that has both an infant and toddler room. And it just happened to work out that they had 2 infant openings right at the time we needed them. So, the kids were able to stay together!

There are some benefits to the new center that I'm really excited about. Claire hasn't eaten any baby food for about 3 months, and it's been hard to send table food to the old daycare for her. Since the new place serves lunch she is able to eat with the toddler room. While she's been growing well, I think this will help put a little more weight on her as we transition her off the bottle.

I'm also excited about the interaction with the new kids and the staff. While I loved our daycare Grandma, she didn't spend a lot of time on the floor playing with the kids. There are a couple of kids who are just learning to crawl too, and I think having kids at, as well as above, her gross motor level will be beneficial.

This morning when I dropped Claire off, she did perfect. She doesn't have any separation or stranger anxiety, so I know for sure I was more nervous than she was! I talked to the director just a few minutes ago, and all is well, just as I knew it would be!

Reflections

2011-01-01T15:18:00.000-07:00

First of all Happy New Year! We had a quiet New Year's Eve at home last night. Winter finally made it to Colorado. We had snow, wind and bitterly cold temperatures. We had planned an evening with friends, but Claire came down with an awful sounding cough Thursday night, and we didn't want to take her out. We spent the evening curled up on the couch, staying warm, and just enjoying our time together.

And 2010? Wow, what a year!

This time last year I was 8 months pregnant. We were getting so close to meeting our baby, and while there was excitement, there was also fear. Fear of the known and the unknown. We knew she had a heart defect. We knew she would need open heart surgery before she was 6 months old. The unknown was Down syndrome.

And to top it all off, I was nervous about having a baby, ANY baby. Growing up, I'd always said I didn't want kids. And now, here I was, just weeks away from having a baby. The first time mom nerves went into high gear...what was I going to do with a baby? what if I was a terrible mom? what if I wasn't ready? what was I going to do if my baby really did have Ds?

When I got pregnant, my constant, never ending prayer was for my baby to be healthy, happy and whole. I didn't think that was too much to ask for. People have healthy kids all the time. Instead, my child had health issues and a disability. I felt cheated. Surely there was someone else more qualified to have a child with special needs.

And then she was born. And I was in love. Totally, completely in love. She was here, beautiful and perfect. My fears were calmed. I could do this.

Just doing this, turned into loving this.

Loving each and every accomplishment, celebrating every milestone. Cherishing the tight hugs and the open-mouthed, slobbery kisses. Laughing with my daredevil as we fly through the house, and hang upside down. Loving every bedtime book. Setting up the tower of blocks, just to happily knock them over again and again. Each smile brightening my day.

The last year has had some challenges. Days have been busy, the house has gone uncleaned. Therapy and doctors appointments pile up. Finding balance between work and home has been hard at times.

But through it all, I wouldn't change a thing. I wouldn't change the friends I've met, the things I've learned. Most importantly, I wouldn't change Claire.

Christmas Pictures

2010-12-30T17:05:00.000-07:00

Starting in on presents

Discovering how delicious wrapping paper is

Excited to find there really is something under all that wrapping paper

and then distracted by more paper to chew on.

This one is just the right size!

And it's yummy too

Snuggling with the new toys

Playing with dad

Bows are the best crawling motivator ever! I think I'm going to leave some out...

The Fam at my sis's house

Mimi and the girls

My niece Ali turned 1 a couple of days before Christmas so we also celebrated her first birthday

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-24T15:39:00.001-07:00

Merry Christmas! I hope you all have have a wonderful time with friends and family over the holiday weekend!

Yesterday, we finally got Claire into see Santa...and she was fairly unimpressed. We plopped her on his lap and she was quite content to just hang out. I was a little afraid she would start pulling on his beard, but she didn't even try.

Today we've spent the day doing odds and ends around the house. We had lunch with friends, and will be going to church tonight. We will spend Claire's first Christmas morning at home, then will start making the rounds to see the grandparents. It will be a long weekend of traveling, but we are thankful our family lives close enough that we are able to see them all.

To Tide You Over...

2010-12-18T15:21:00.001-07:00

I've been a blog slacker lately. Things have been quiet, so I don't have much to blog about. But thats not a bad thing...

The only update I have is that Claire is actually getting not 1, but 2 teeth! We joke that she is going to be a jack-o-lantern because one is in the usual spot in the lower center, but the other appears to be an upper eye tooth.

And to tide you over until I have more to say, one of my favorite recent pictures.