Jack is *gulp* 10. TEN!!

My baby. My sweet, little, "I'm gonna eat your toe-ies" baby boy is 10! Two whole digits!

I can't believe it.

He still loves Toy Story and his favorite buddies are Woody and Elmo. He still hangs out with his blue blanket and it goes to bed with him. He wears his glasses daily, without complaint. He mostly uses the bathroom appropriately, but has wet accidents very occasionally and #2 accidents about the same. He's usually wet in the morning and wears a pull up every night. He writes letters fairly well but still doesn't read or write words without mimicing. No math either. He loves kisses at bedtime but tries very hard to pretend he doesn't. He likes school but his behavior has gradually gotten more non-compliant. It's very hard to get him to do anything that isn't his idea.

I think, at the time of his birth, I was still coming to grips with the reality that we would have a child with special needs. I had no idea how much I would love him. Deep in my soul, I need him like I need air, love him. Even when he is at his worst behavior-wise, one sad look and I absolutely melt. It's pathetic, actually.

I will add pics to this post. Didn't get any decent ones yesterday. Hopefully this weekend I will get some good ones!

Frozen on Ice

We were very lucky to have the opportunity to go see Frozen on Ice! Allan and I took Madelyn, Jackson, and Dasha. I had heard that since it’s a Disney show all the little girls dress up like their favorite princess so of course Dasha had to have something cute to wear! I didn’t want to spend a bunch on a costume because I didn’t think she would get that much use out of it. I found a pretty dress that she can wear later as a sundress but since it’s winter I got some cute leggings to wear underneath (she already had a cute white shirt).

Jackson got a cute Olaf shirt. Madelyn gave our little princess a mini makeover with some pretty blue eyeshadow to match big sis.

(Notice the lack of front teeth! Dasha lost one last Mon night, the 23rd, and the one came out Thurs night, the 26th!) Some of the outfits that little girls showed up wearing were AMAZING. M and I both kept pointing out different dresses we saw.

We bought the tickets months in advance. So of course, the day of the show turned up and cold and wet and we had a lovely snowstorm as we were driving downtown to get there!

I was snowing pretty heavily by the time we got there and we parked a couple of blocks away so by the time we got into the big auditorium we were a little tired and kinda wet and pretty cold. We warmed up and found our seats and everybody was pretty excited.

We got to see Mickey and Minnie Mouse, Buzz and Woody, Nemo and Dory, Snow White, Cinderella, Ariel, and their princes along with lots of other fun and favorite characters. We saw the story of Frozen, acted out on skates on ice! There were remote-controlled props and amazing lights. We loved every minute! We had a magical experience and I think I spent as much time watching my babies have a great time as I did watching the show. It was awesome! I spent a lot of time thinking how much my mom would’ve loved it too.

Happy kids, ready to head home!

New Stuff

There's LOTS of stuff that's going on, that's happened, that I'm thinking about, that will most likely go unblogged because life has been busy.  Catching up here might very well be impossible!  But I can try to post a few catch up things so here goes!

Andrew - He's still selling shoes part time and going to college locally.  He's going to be attending UMSL (University of MO at St. Louis) for the next few semesters so wishing luck to him!  He bought himself a pretty little car last year:

Madelyn has had a super busy couple of years.  She danced with her high school dance team her last 2 years in high school and had a blast.  She also worked at a local pizza place and joined the winter drumline team at school her senior year.  She graduated last May with honors and went off to Truman University in Aug.  She and boyfriend Charlie will celebrate dating for FIVE years this coming March!

Tyler is now a sophomore in high school!  He's addicted to computer games but he gets good grades, is a great big brother to Jack and Dasha, and helps me out whenever I ask.  Nothing wrong with that!

Jack and Dasha.  They are both sweet, and subborn, and good little kids.  They are together at school and enjoying their teachers and classmates.  They aren't making the progress I would like to see but there is some.  Last year they both were in a dance class and had a big recital the day before Madelyn graduated.  We decided to take a break from that this year but we are missing it.  Dasha started cheering through the Upward program at a friend's church.  Last Sat was her first game to cheer at and I think she had fun!

So many more things to write about but I guess there will have to be another post!

Tonight we eat banana splits

Today Jack got off the bus.  He came in, took off shoes, put away backpack, and went to the potty, as usual. He was wet, as is common.  After clean up, he seemed very reluctant to get re-dressed.  So I put him back on the potty.  He sat and sat and sat and sat.  And got up.  And hallelujah - there was poop, right there, WHERE IT BELONGS. One giant step forward in potty training.  Tomorrow, there will be 2 or 3 or maybe even 4 steps back.

But tonight, we eat banana splits for dinner!!!!  Jack is sooo excited!

Mother's Day

As usual, my Mother's Day mostly sucked. But this year (finally! Only took me 20 years) I was expecting it so there wasn't much disappointment. The only time I got to play the Mother's Day card was when Jack announced he pooped in his pants and I was like "Mother's Day! I don't have to clean him up!". But as it turned out there was no poop so I kinda feel like I wasted it. I did get a Spongebob card that the kids' signed and it was cute! Allan made breakfast (like usual for a Sunday) and added hash brown casserole which was delicious. Andrew and Madelyn both made a point to wish me Happy Mother's Day which was nice. I know they love me. All of them.  I just think of all the times I try to make special days special for them - birthdays, holidays, special occasions. I say it would be nice to get a gift that I didn't pick out or a dessert I didn't make. But no. Never happens.

And I don't even have my own Mom to celebrate or commiserate with.

No bitterness here. Nope, none at all.

Down syndrome

(Written waaaay back in March when I was getting ready for World Down Syndrome Day on 3-21!)

Do I hate Ds?

Do I consider it a blessing?

Do I care that my children can’t run fast?

Do I care that they will learn slower than their peers?

Do I care that they share certain physical characteristics with other individuals, around the world, that we aren’t even related to?

Nope.  (Not always, anyway.)  However,

The problem is :

There are some health conditions that people with Ds can be more suseptible to (we are lucky – our littles are very healthy with the exception that D take a pill daily for her thyroid).

Their mental cognition is slower, so right now I have a 7 yr old who isn’t potty trained (we’re getting there, it’s just taking a loooong time and I’m impatient) and the 6 year old is doing great except at night.  They don’t read yet.  And the big problem - they run away from me in parking lots and stores and EVERYWHERE.

I am ready for them to be more like typical 7 & 6 year olds, in that I wouldn’t have to worry about them walking out the front door and away from the house.  I would like to not have to hold their hands when walking out in public every second.  They are getting bigger and stronger and more resistant to hand holding but seriously, they run and run fast if I let go for a second to open a door or get my keys out of my pocket.  It’s hard to do things, go places, run errands with one of them and nearly impossible with both.

And I want them to read and write, be able to add and count money and tell the time.  I’d like them to be able to live as independently as possible when they grow up and those skills are essential.  Maybe they will; It’s impossible to know right now.  Right now they don’t have these skills. 

We are seeing progress; it’s just slow.

Would I change them?  Trade them?  Wish them away?

Heck no!  No, no, no!  I might wish away the cognition issues but overall, I couldn’t love them more.  When we have a fit, or something takes a long time (like putting on socks) or they are picky about a shirt or a show, I have to remind myself that they are little kids!  My older kids certainly had their own opinions too.  So I feel lucky, because I have my older kids, who threw fits, and had opinions, and who didn’t (don’t) always make the best choice, and they are turning into awesome people.  So I remind myself that we have plenty of time and lots of these issues are people issues, not only Down syndrome issues.

Puppy!

Occasionally I will look around craigslist.  You never know what you might find that you need!  I generally look at dressers and tables and cars.  Awhile back, I found myself looking through the pet ads, even though most of them generally make me sad.  When I decided to switch Holly’s dog food I did a lot of research on what to get for her and found out she’s a senior dog :(.  She is 12 but still playful and active.  Anyway, that’s what started me looking at dogs – not so much to get one, just to look like I do at cars.

One night I was scrolling through the ads and a picture catches my eye (I wish I had saved it.)  I showed it to Andrew and Madelyn.  The eye catching part was that this puppy looks just like Holly did when I found her!  We all agreed on that.  So I called the lady and asked what the adoption would entail (she runs a rescue) and among the details, she said she could meet us at a park so we could check out the puppy in person.  I asked Allan if we could and promised we would not bring home a dog without his permission – and I truly meant it.  Off we go to the park and every one of us fell hard in love with this crazy bouncy ball of busyness!  She’s so stinkin’ cute!  We call her Luna (Andrew because he has a fascination with all things universe-related and me and M because of Luna Lovegood, you know from Harry Potter!).

Meet Luna:

Isn’t she just so precious?!?!

That was months ago, like 9 of them!  Yep, I am seriously behind on posting but trying to catch up.

Luna is now a year old, and house trained, and completely awesome!  We are still working on basic training, like come, and stay.  She doing great with sit and not chewing on non puppy toys.  She was so hyper and crazy I have decided it’s just going to take time.  But she’s so dang cute and cuddly and smart.  She’s a great dog!  As far as being Holly’s best friend, not so much.  But they get along okay so I’ll keep trying.

They suffer together (hahaha),

and they share my lap occasionally.