Yes, We're Still Here

Bad blogger.  Bad, bad, bad blogger.  What can I say?  I'm at a point between my life is far too chaotic to blog and my life isn't nearly exciting enough to blog.

So, I'll start with an update.  Kennedy is doing amazing, as always.  She has been rocking speech therapy and we are seeing huge changes in her communication skills.  New words and new signs show up all the time.  She actually has a few that I've had to look up when she does them!  One of her new words is butt, she was very proud when she learned that one, but thankfully the use of it is tapering off.    She is our little super star and she's very happy that her "baby brother" is getting to be so much fun.  She absolutely adores him and they are so cute playing together.  Caleb, is a giant.  He weighs about one pound less than she does.  He is FINALLY starting to eat solids.  Yes, that's right.  It took my "typical" child 9 months to decide that he would just the rest of the world with eating solids. When Kennedy was a baby, everyone warned me that we would have feeding issues, need feeding therapy, etc.  It was quite the opposite.  She took off with solids, just before 6 months and never looked back.  Who would have thought that we would have multiple conversations with the pediatrician about our "typical" son who should have no feeding issues.  Ironic, huh?

The things doctors say?
This should be a blog post in itself.  But since I've been such a horrible blogger, I felt bad posting a month later, with a random vent about the medical field.  Today was Kennedy's Opthalmology appointment.  I went there with great anxiety, over how I would amuse her for 2 or more hours while we went through the whole process.  Thankfully, the iPad came through.  Kennedy made a friend in the office, and they danced together to the ABCMouse letter videos.  I'm sure her mother was just as thankful as I was that the kids made quick friends and amused each other.

Of course, there was some anxiety that we would be told she needed glasses.  Yes, I know glasses aren't the end of the world.  But the task of keeping glasses on a two year old...especially my crazy, determined toddler who has a mind of her own.  The assistant got the drops in her eyes, Kennedy and her friend Jillian played, and all was going well.  Maybe I let my guard down a little.  I was immediately unimpressed with the physician.  Especially when mid-exam he called out to the assistant to write a script for glasses.  He then proceeded to *yell* at me for the way that I was attempting to hold her for the exam.  Demanding that I need to get control of her, and hold her the right way, because clearly she can use her arms to push the equipment away.  Oh, and don't forget - she's half my size so I should have no problem controlling her.  He was also incredibly rude to his assistant.  At one point I told him he had 30 seconds to finish his exam, or I was leaving.  When he told me that she would need glasses, and I questioned the difference of opinions between our last Ophthalmologist, he explained his reasoning by saying, "Because this is how I do things.  And I know it's not what you want to hear, but it is what it is."  Wow.  Great response, huh?  Then he mentioned that we should get her plastic frames.  His words were, "They aren't cute or stylish.  But she's two. She doesn't need to be either."  He continued to tell me that he would give me a prescription of the drops used to dilate her eyes.  And that I should dilate her eyes 2-3 times a day to make her vision blurry, which would trick her into wearing the glasses.  EXCUSE ME?????

And that was pretty much when I left.  I have no intentions of going back.  I've made an appointment with our physician in Florida, and we'll be seeing her next month.  If Kennedy does need glasses, then we'll deal with it, and do our best to get her to wear them, with out using eye drops, which could have harmful effects, to trick her into wearing them.  And if she doesn't wear them, well, then so be it.  Some day she will get used to them.  It is beyond me how some of these physicians can work with children.  Or adults, for that matter.  

And here are some of the many many many photos from the past month.

It melted my heart, watching her walk next to daddy and Caleb, while pointing and quacking at the ducks.

Diva Fabulous!

Here ducky, have some old stale bread.

Where's more bread mama?

Talk about backing him into a corner...

At least she snuggled him after he got rescued.

Mama, I'll help you cook.

It's finally warm!!!

It gives a whole new meaning to, "stay out of the cabinets." 

Big girl - loving the slide!  It may soon replace swinging.

The two of them together brings me so much joy.

 Warm weather is the only thing that could make this better.

Look mom!!!  They are wearing a hat!

I'm a beach girl!

Keep walking Grandma.

 This wagon is the best!

Caleb, it's just a bubble!

Seriously? How are they old enough to be doing this?

Summer = Ice Pops.

Messy Smiles and Constant Battles

Today was an exciting day in our house.  Kennedy made her first real attempts at feeding herself.  Of course, I had to help by putting the yogurt on the spoon, and putting the spoon in her hand.  But she did amazing getting the spoon into her mouth!  Of course, I should add that in the process, we ended up with yogurt E.V.E.R.Y.W.H.E.R.E.  She was so stinking adorable though.  I could not have been any more proud, as always. 

I normally have really good captions for her photos.  But these tell it all.  She's so proud of herself when it was all said and done.  That smile could not be any bigger, and I could not get enough of it.

She also had pasta for dinner.  She had a little more trouble feeding that to herself, since it kept sticking to her hand and getting wrapped around her fingers. 

And here is a video of her showing off her skills!

Notice the towel over her high chair.  The cover was being washed after the yogurt incident earlier in the afternoon.  It's a really good thing Kennedy likes bath time too!

Things have been going amazing.  Kennedy has made a great recovery from surgery and is just nailing her milestones lately.  I couldn't be more proud of her.  Of course, I'll admit, I've been waiting for the other shoe to drop.  After all, things can't just go smoothly, can they?  Well, today it dropped.  I finally got a return call from our service coordinator for Early Intervention.  I left her a message, explaining that while we feel we're benefiting from the services our Early Interventionist provides, I wanted to discuss the integration of speech and occupational therapy.  To make a long story short, and in an attempt to prevent my blood pressure from skyrocketing again, I'll give you the highlights.  

• She told me that Kennedy's scores on her evaluation were so good, that she doesn't need services.  This is the same eval that was done when she was 6 weeks old.  She's 7 months old now.  I see something wrong with this.
• When I asked about a reassessment, I was told, "Well, we could bring you back in.  Or I could come out to you and do an assessment.  I'm not really sure what to do."  
• She offered to give me an Early Interventionist.  When I asked her what Amanda was, she asked me "Who is Amanda?"  (I know I don't frequently discuss Amanda any more, but she is our Early Interventionist!)
• She asked me how to spell speech.  Yes.  Speech.  You didn't read that wrong.  I almost fell over laughing.  I know that not everyone is the best speller, but when you work with children who have delays in speech, and you work with speech therapists, you would think you could spell the word!    

So the fight is back on.  They don't want to provide additional services because she doesn't need them.  Down syndrome is a qualifying diagnosis.  It doesn't matter if she "needs" them.  We have a meeting to discuss it next week.  Stay tuned.  I'm sure there will be some sort of fireworks.

Doing It Again

Kennedy has once again set out to prove people wrong.  They warned us before starting solids that Kennedy would likely have a hard time with it, because babies with Down syndrome don't usually "get" the whole eating thing.  They don't understand the opening their mouths, what to do with their tongue, and how to swallow.  So I went into it pretty optimistic, but didn't have high hopes that it would work out well.  Well, Kennedy has once again proved them wrong.  She's rocking the solids!  We have now worked through carrots, peas, sweet potatoes and are on to apples.  So far everything I have made has been a success, except the apples.  They came out terrible, so we're relying on Gerber for the time being. 

She LOVES to eat.  She clearly takes after her mommy and daddy.  She opens her mouth for more, she has a pretty good handle on what to do with the spoon, and can get the food off the spoon, and swallowed.  Every now and then she's not sure what to do with her tongue and it pokes out, along with a little food.  But she doesn't even get very messy.  Any residual food usually comes from blowing raspberries with a mouth full of food!  And ladies and gentleman.  Last night, for the very first time, Kennedy actually banged on her hand on the high chair try because I wasn't heating up the next round of food fast enough.  Yes, I said the next round.  She ate an entire 2.5 ounces of sweet potatoes last night, in just one sitting.  I was standing in the kitchen warming them up and talking to Marlon.  Clearly I wasn't moving fast enough for her and she was going to let me know! By the way, she's now eating about 2 ounces of fruit for breakfast and 2 ounces of vegetables for dinner!!!  And still maintaining the 30 ounces of breast milk a day!  Way to go Kennedy! 

The following pictures were from her first taste of apples! 

Oooohhh....what did you make now mom?

Bring it on!!  I'm hungry!

YUM!  I'm going to lick this off my lips!

We're also working on things like sitting up - since we can't do tummy time.  Of course, we have a long way to go, and since Kennedy has short arms, even the tripod sit is hard.  So we use pillows.  And we practice on the bed.  Where we can't get hurt when we topple over.  Here's some photos of how we're doing.

Sometimes we eat our hands while we sit....

Sometimes we sit really well and smile for mommy!

And sometimes we fall face first.  Exhibit A of why this is done on the bed.