23 Months!

I seem to be getting worse and worse with this blogging thing.  Is it the fact that I have an almost 2 year old (gasp!) and a 5 month old?  The fact that there's always laundry to be done, dishes to wash, toys to pick up?  Birthday party plans/projects to be done/made?  I'm pretty sure that this all contributes to my lack of blogging.  But more than anything,  I'm finding that I have less and less to talk about.  I figure, people aren't all that interested in what we do every single day.  Or in the 500 pictures I take a week.

Both kids are growing up at lightning speed.  Kennedy is 23 months old today.  In one month, we'll have a 2 year old!!!  She's learning more and more by the day.  Her motor skills are increasing like crazy.  She now insists on carrying things up the stairs, walks with pillows the size of her, runs, climbs, etc.  She finds something new to get into every day.  Today we caught her carrying around a container of guacamole and an onion.  And I don't mean from her play kitchen.  Her receptive language is growing by leaps and bounds.  She is signing and imitating more and more, and we're starting to see more progress in her expressive language.  We could not be more proud of her.  She is at such a fun age.  Except when she grabs her brother's face.  Or has a tantrum because I won't share my turtle mocha with her.  But even when she has a tantrum, she's adorable.

I guess what I'm getting at is that our life is normal.  There are days I don't think about Down syndrome.  We're getting back into our therapy routine.  We love our developmental therapist and she was very pleased with how well Kennedy is doing.  Even on the days I do think about Down syndrome, it's just that.  The same way I think about grocery shopping or paying bills.  Just a part of life.  It's not what defines Kennedy, but it is just a part of who she is.

Here are some photos and videos from the past week or so.

Hey dad, can you teach me more about football?

Yeah, I know, I'm a big boy now.

My first train ride!

I love to feed my babies.

 Why is my baby's milk orange?

Hey sissy, come play?

Sitting at my table. Outside. In short sleeves. And 3 days later it snowed.  

 Hey mom, I'm going to take this sample of diapers upstairs.

Chillin' at the mall.  In my skinny jeans and boots.  

I love you brother.

Ssshhhh...It's 1am.  I'm playing with sissy's toys while she sleeps.

Driving a convertible at the museum. Dad, can I have one?

Fake food is good. 

Best Friends

We always knew we wanted to have kids close in age.  When Kennedy was born we thought we would need to delay our plans to have kids close together.  We quickly learned that life wouldn't be all that different.  Being pregnant and taking care of a very dependent child wasn't always easy.  And having children 17 months apart has it's challenges.  Some days I feel like I need to clone myself.  But I wouldn't have it any other way.  The smiles, the snuggles, hugs and kisses make it all worth it.

Caleb is definitely growing up fast.  He's nearly 5 months old and weighing in with only a pound or two difference from his big sister!  He's also hitting his milestones much earlier and with much less effort than Kennedy did.  Sometimes it makes me sad, because I realize even more just how much harder she has to work.  But we're getting to a point where they interact and are starting to play together.  Kennedy adores Caleb, and takes every opportunity to give him kisses.  She loves to help him bounce in his jumper and she will go crazy dancing for him.  She's not the only one.  Caleb idolizes Kennedy.  He will stare at her and screech, jump and bounce while she eats.  He always smiles at her and tries to get her attention.  I can tell they are already best friends.  I remember the first time I took them both to the pediatrician by myself.  It was like a train wreck.  Kennedy was sick, and Caleb was hungry and sick of being in his seat.  It was a screaming mess.  I thought I was going to lose my mind right there in the office if I didn't grow a few extra arms.  The doctor told me that it would be hard, and Kennedy wouldn't get every bit of my attention anymore, but that I was giving her the best thing I could, in giving her a brother so close in age.  She also told me that they will teach each other a lot.  And I can definitely see that will be true before I know it.

Some days I don't get to shower until 11pm.  Some days my husband comes home to a house that looks like a hurricane came through.  Some days I don't put a bite of food in my mouth until dinner.  But every day I look at my babies and I am so thankful for the wonderful bond that they already have.  I don't have any siblings, so I can't say what that bond is like.  Seeing them interact with each other just melts my heart and puts a smile on my face.  While I'm sad that Caleb is growing up so quick, I'm also excited to see their relationship continue to grow.  I'm looking forward to seeing them play together and share new experiences.

Stair Climber

Any time Kennedy does anything new, it's a huge accomplishment.  She works so hard to perfect her milestones and we celebrate them in a grand way.  Well, today at the pool she gave me the shock of my life.  I should preface this by saying, we've never really worked on climbing stairs.  We've used the stairs as a tool to help her pull to stand when she was shorter, but we've never worked on climbing stairs.  Because, quite honestly, that's not something I was ready for her to be able to do!  Needless to say, today when she climbed the stairs and got out of the pool I was shocked.  We were sitting in the water, on the steps, playing and splashing.  She pulled herself to stand, and proceeded to climb up the steps, and out of the pool.  Then she crawled across the patio, not seeming to care that the pavement was hot or scratchy!  I wish I had my phone with me to record it, one of the many times she did it.  But unfortunately, I don't usually keep it on me while I'm in the pool.  I'm pretty sure our pool monitor and probably all the other people there thought I was nuts, making such a huge deal out of her climbing the steps and getting out of the pool.  But like I always say, we celebrate every milestone!  And this was a big one considering we've never worked on it and I wasn't expecting it! 

Even though I don't have any video of miss stair climber, I have some really cute pictures of her enjoying Grandma Grace's beans and rice!

Ooooh these were yummy yesterday!!!

I hope there's more than this.

These are so good!

Give me more!

 

 How come you don't make this for me?

More Milestones!

Kennedy has been on a roll lately with learning new things, and I'm so proud of her! We have been using a sippy cup for awhile, and working with the straw cup. She just had no interest. The straw cup was a really fun toy, but not much more than that. Still, I've continued to offer it to her.

Tonight, at dinner to my surprise, she went to town, sucking the milk from the straw cup!! We came home, I refilled it, and gave it to her again. She loved it. And she as very excited and proud of herself. Moshe also figured out how to blow bubbles into the milk. Oh Kennedy...what is mommy going to do with you!

Catching Up! (again)

Look who's decided to join the world of blogging after nearly a week? I swear, that wasn't a planned break. But I can't promise there won't be more. I was so proud of myself for keeping up with the blog for the longest time, and I've really been slacking lately. And it definitely isn't for a lack of things to say! I've had about a million things I could write about, but not the time or energy to do it. I'll get better, I promise. Some day.

Kennedy becomes more and more of a toddler every day, and I'm absolutely loving this age. She is exploring everything around her and learning so much. Although she isn't talking in full sentences or using very many words yet, she gets her point across and she is definitely understanding what we communicate to her. If you ask her to come to you, she will. Tonight, I asked her to go see daddy and she went off to hunt him down in the kitchen. She is understanding more and more commands, especially when it comes to play time. When I ask her to choose a certain toy, or a certain color ball or block, she does. When I ask her to put the ball in the toy, she does. And when you tell her good job, she claps for herself. It's really adorable. One of her favorite games is to follow you all over the house, playing peekaboo behind random walls or pieces of furniture. It's apparently the most hysterical thing. Ever.

Our transition with Physical Therapy providers has been wonderful. Kennedy really enjoys working with Miss Holly, and mommy enjoys the fact that Miss Holly comes to our house, instead of us driving 40 minutes each way. We're hoping to incorporate speech therapy in the next week or two, and if I'm really lucky I'll find someone privately who will also do in-home therapy. After all, will I get anywhere on time once Caleb is born?

Kennedy also had her 15 month well baby appointment this week. I'm happy to report that we are holding on to the typical growth charts at 29 inches and 18lbs 11oz! She's still a peanut in comparison to most kids her age. In fact, 95-97% are bigger than her. But regardless of what size other kids are, my little girl is getting so big! She checked out perfectly and the doctor was really pleased with how well she is doing with her milestones and how well she eats!

Here's a few cell phone pics from the week. I promise, better pictures soon to come.

Mommy, I love pool days. I'm a Florida girl. Just check out my tan.



Mom!!! Don't take a picture of me eating my cookie! And I can't believe you brought me to the store with my piggies looking like this.



Sometimes you just need a late afternoon cat nap.



This really isn't the same as the big pool, but I guess I'll deal. But mom, if you're going to keep getting in, we're going to need a bigger pool!

Celebrating Accomplishments

I've always been a firm believer in celebrating what Kennedy can do and not focusing on what she can't do, but finding fun activities to work on developing those skills. Kennedy is amazing. She has accomplished so much in her 15 months and she has worked extra hard to accomplish these things. I could not be more proud of her. She has overcome things that most people aren't faced with in a lifetime. She is happy, healthy and thriving. She may not be as advanced as some kids her age, but she's Kennedy. She will learn these things and she will do it on her own time, just as all children do. No matter how much I work with her, no matter how much therapy we do, she will only do them when she's ready. It doesn't matter if I have the best therapists in the world. If Kennedy isn't ready, I can't make her walk or talk tomorrow. But I can give her the tools she needs to develop those skills and when she's ready to say more than mama or dada she will. When she's ready to walk, she will. For now, she's content with her version of crawling. And let me say, she gets around pretty quick! There is nothing to feel sorry for. I have a beautiful and amazing little girl who is the light of my life. Her smile and giggles brighten every day and makes even the worst times better. My life isn't what I expected and it isn't what other people think it is, it's so much better!!

Motherhood is not a competition. It's not about whose kid does what first or who is more advanced. All children are special and their accomplishments deserve to be celebrated whether they have typical chromosomes or something a little extra. I've said it before and I will say it again. I've never seen a college application that asked at what age you were walking and talking. Call me biased, but Kennedy is one of the happiest babies I've ever known. She laughs and smiles 99% of the day and she knows that she is loved. She has touched the lives of so many people in the short 15 months since she made her arrival, and I know that regardless of how old she is when she walks or talks she is going to continue to do amazing things and touch the lives of many. We will continue to celebrate what she does do and not dwell on what she doesn't. We will use the resources available to us in the most efficient way possible. We're in the middle of big changes when it comes to therapy and I'm really excited to utilize some new resources. And most of all, we will continue to parent the way we have for the last 15 months. After all, she is healthy, happy and thriving. We've got to be doing something right!

(It's rare for me not to post photos, but I promise, I'll have a bunch tomorrow!)

Midnight Milestones and Other Antics From Kennedy

Kennedy is growing up.  Becoming much more mobile.  She learns more and more every day.  This is such a fun age, but she's also getting hard to keep up with!

She has started escaping from play areas...  I caught her trying to get out the front door yesterday.  Good thing our house is mostly baby proofed....

 I didn't do anything.  I didn't try going anywhere.  I'm not guilty at all.

Last night I went to bed, and just as I was getting comfortable and dozing off, I felt something on my hip.  I rolled over to see Kennedy sitting on the bed with a huge smile on her face.  Two minutes before that she was sleeping on her belly.  She then continued to show me over and over how she could now go from her belly to sitting up.  I always say that we celebrate all milestones and I could not be more proud.  But practicing this from 11pm until 1am was a bit extreme.  Hopefully we all get a better night of sleep tonight.  (Though, for that to happen, I'm pretty sure I should be sleeping not blogging.)  

What else has Kennedy been up to?  Let's see, she has 3 ball poppers.  The most annoying part of all of them is that the balls fly every where, and I used to have to chase after them constantly.  Now that Kennedy is mobile, she is willing to fetch them, when they bounce out.  However, she has discovered the art of throwing balls.  She laughs every time she foes it and then waits patiently for you to retrieve it and throw it back.  Okay, so maybe she isn't very patient.  This afternoon she was standing and eating Cheerios off the ottoman.  When the Cheerios were gone, she got down on the floor, then laid down, and rolled over, in search of any lost Cheerios that she may have dropped.  It was a pretty silly sight to see. 

I'm pretty sure I dropped a few mom.

Did they go UNDER the ottoman?

Must. Find. Cheerios.

Turning Toddler

That's it.  Kennedy is officially turning into a toddler.  Minus the toddling part.  The things she's doing are insane.  For example, attempting to climb out of the grocery cart and her high chair, all in the same week.  She's more and more mobile by the day, though she does not like to be on her knees.  She's perfectly content scooting or rolling.  And when I say scooting, I mean she either scoots on her belly or on her butt.  The girl can make it across the room in no time, on her butt.  My house is quickly becoming baby proofed, and Hurricane Kennedy can tear apart her toy room in no time.  Including her alphabet puzzle mat.

This is not something we're used to around here.  So as my good friend pointed out today, we can officially celebrate the "I can't take my kid to a restaurant without her touching everything" and the "My kid is a menace in the grocery store" milestones.  After all, don't ALL kids do these things?

In addition to all these new milestones that keep mommy and daddy on their toes (and completely exhausted), Kennedy has really started to pick up a lot of other things, like pointing.  She's playing with more and more with purpose and has really mastered the "point" of many of them.  We're always reading books, and the other day I asked her "where's the dog?" on each page of her book.  This smart little cookie pointed to the dog on every single page!  I could not have been more proud.  The moment actually brought tears to my eyes.  There's always a reason to celebrate anytime she hits a new milestone, but the cognitive milestones are definitely my favorite!  It's really amazing to know that she understands us, even if she's not speaking more than mama, dada and lots of babble.  And not 30 minutes later, she was standing at the ottoman playing with her blocks.  She dropped one.  With one hand, she held on to the ottoman, bent over, and picked up the block with the other hand.  I sat there, holding my breath, waiting for her to topple over.  She's done this before.  Usually when I'm holding onto her, and she can bring herself back up.  But anytime she's attempted it, with out my assistance, she falls over.  To my surprise, she stood back up and resumed playing!!!!  Seriously, I was one proud mama on Thursday.

I promise, next week I will have some really wonderful photos to share.  I'm determined to be better about pulling out my camera again.  In the meantime, you're stuck with random iPhone photos from the past few days.

Hey mom! What's going on?

 Seriously, this smile melts my heart more every day. 

Yes, I'm wearing bunny ears.  I'm cute and I know it.

Making Progress

This is a tough subject to write on, because I have to admit, I'm a little bitter about it lately.  Kennedy is doing amazing.  She's rocking it in PT and EI and I'm really seeing a lot of progress since we've started private therapy services.  That said, she's still a long way from walking.  I'm okay with this.  She's happy and healthy and that's what's important to me.  She went through open heart surgery, and came out on top.  In the grand scheme of things, does it really matter when she walks?  She WILL eventually walk.  But I've been feeling a lot of pressure lately.  From people in the grocery store, from friends, from family.  "Is she walking yet?"  "When will she walk?"  "She's so close to walking, she's just going to get up and go."  It's like she turned one and the world expects her to just get up and go.  For a lot of kids, they do just get up and walk.  But for children with Down syndrome, it isn't that easy.  They have things working against them.  Like low tone, short limbs, stretched out ligaments, etc.  She can't just "get up and go."  She can't reach a lot of things to pull up on, even if she wanted to.  She's a champion stander, but she doesn't understand shifting her weight to walk yet.  And she is not yet standing unassisted, which needs to happen before she walks.  These are all things we work on in therapy.  We work really hard.  Kennedy works really hard, harder than "typical" kids have to work to achieve the same thing.  This is why it's so much more special when she achieves these milestones. 

But as a mom, it's hard.  Deep down, I am perfectly content knowing that she will eventually walk.  And that she's doing amazing, for her.  But I hate when other people compare her to other children.  It's not a fair comparison and it's not fair to put unrealistic expectations on her.  I know people don't mean to be hurtful, but as a parent, when you work so hard, and when you see your child working so hard, it does hurt.  A lot.  It's hard enough to see children younger than her doing things that she's not ready for.  I don't expect people to be experts in Down syndrome.  And the strangers, most of them have no clue that Kennedy even has Down syndrome.  But it's very hard to be challenged and have your every word critiqued when it comes to your child.  This is true of any child, not just children with Down syndrome.  Though I think it tends to happen more when you're dealing with a child with special needs.  Of course I hold Kennedy to high expectations.  I want her to be able to achieve everything that other children do.  I want her to walk, ride a bike, read and write.  And she will do all those things, but she's going to do them when she's ready.  All the therapy in the world cannot make her do them sooner than she's ready, it can only aid her in learning what she needs to in order to reach the next milestone.  She's happy and she's healthy.  That is what is important.  In fact, I'm pretty sure I've never met a happier baby.  She has touched the lives of everyone she meets, and I know that she's going to go far in life.  When she's 20 and doing whatever it is that makes her happy, it won't matter whether she walked when she was one, two or three. 

Hey mom! Pick me up!

I'm stuffed, I can't eat another bite of pasta. Take me home to bed.

It's good to know that if I sleep past ten I can get brunch.

So what's the plan today mom?

Milestone Madness

It seems like Kennedy decided this week she'd start hitting all sorts of milestones.  This weekend it started with the Cheerios.  Today she started clapping!  We've been working on this for awhile now, and she's been putting her hands together, but tonight it all started to click, and she did it over and over again, and even when we asked!  Then she was sitting on the bed next to me, and she decided she would use my legs to pull herself to a stand!  Of course, standing on the bed isn't all that easy and she plopped down on her butt pretty quickly, but she still did it - and completely on her own!  She tried again, but only made it to her knees.  Either way, I'm so incredibly proud of her.  And did I mention that her smiles and giggles melt my heart more and more every day. 

Here's some pictures from our trip to the park today.

Mommy I really love to swing!! 

Can I have a park in our yard for my birthday?

I guess mommy's letting her guard down with germs.  She never used to let me lick poles.

Family Day and Cheerio Master!

In trying to take advantage of all the nice weather and activities in Florida, we decided it was the perfect day for Kennedy's first trip to Busch Gardens.  It's a little ridiculous that it took us 11 months to do this, since we live practically around the corner.  I can't even tell you what a wonderful time we had! 

Kennedy's favorite part was definitely the Sesame Street film.  She's never seen Sesame Street, and typically I'm pretty against her watching TV, but I may just make an exception every now and then for some Sesame Street.  I wish I could have recorded the way she reacted, because it was absolutely adorable.  Unfortunately we were in a theater and it was dark.  She was standing on my lap squealing and screeching, arms flying and reaching for the screen, and she was dancing around like crazy.  I've honestly never seen her act so crazy!  In fact, I don't even remember what most of the show was about, because I was so busy watching her!  She loved to see the animals, and even got to go on her first carousel ride! 

As I've said numerous times, when you have a child with Downs syndrome you truly appreciate and celebrate every single milestone, no matter how big or small it is.  I'm proud to announce that Kennedy has made huge improvements this week on her fine motor skills!  We've been working very hard on her pincer grasp, and her favorite thing to practice with is Cheerios!  We have ALMOST mastered it.  But what she has mastered is feeding herself Cheerios!  She's using her middle finger and thumb - so I suspect that she'll start using her index finger pretty soon!  Either way, I can't tell you how proud of her I am.  When she started "feeding herself" Cheerios, she used to go face first into the pile.  Then she moved to grabbing handfuls and shoving them in her mouth.  This is a HUGE accomplishment! 

I'm so excited about this Busch place you keep talking about mom!

Mommy, those alligators aren't going to get me are they?

Is it time for the show to start?  I can't wait to see what this Sesame Street stuff is about!

Well this is different....I don't have one of these at home.

Mommy, these things are funny.  Look at their big noses!

Mommy, I'm exhausted, I'm going to nap while you and daddy eat.

What are THOSE?  And why are they so loud??

Well this is different, I'm not sure what to make of this Elmo guy.

(Don't mind the poor image quality, I was taking pictures from behind the B.G. photographer...and mine still came out better!) 

I got hugs from Elmo!

This Big Bird character is interesting.  I got his finger.

I really think I like Elmo.  He's short like me.

Okay, okay, I'll look at the camera.

Mom look!!! There's that Elmo guy again!

Hey mom - look, I've got a Cheerio in my hand, headed right for my mouth.

Look!!  It made it in!

I really like tacos too.  Can I have more please?