Sunflower Stories

Vintage Poncho Wearing Sisters

2011-01-19T23:39:00.005-06:00

*Rubs hands together gleefully!*

I dug through a huge box of old photos and came up empty on my search for the vintage poncho wearing sisters, so I called my mom. She said she thought she had that photo and she'd take a look. Forty-five minutes later she called with the news that she found it and would get copies made for us. Me, being the oh-so-impatient one, hounded my dad to scan it and email it instead. Imagine my delight when I checked my email one last time before bed and found this prize waiting in my inbox! (click on it to enlarge!)

Yayyyyyy!!! Thanks, Mom and Dad, and SORRY! to my big sister, Ann, and my younger sister, Tanya! Have to share it. It's the.best.vintage.photo.ever. I am guessing it was taken somewhere around 1978. We are standing in my elementary school gym, possibly at a craft show or something. I was in Brownies then, so it might of had to do with that. Oh my goodness, it makes me grin so big to see this photo again!

Acoustic Birthday Ballad

2011-01-19T10:11:00.004-06:00

Sean's favorite song to sing right now is "Happy Birthday to You." He loves to serenade each of with this happy tune. If it actually happens to be someone's birthday that he knows, we will call them up and leave a singing telegram via voice mail. The other day, he stepped it up a notch and played guitar while singing. He's Daddy's little rock star!

(video embedded)

A Poncho for Roo

2011-01-16T11:37:00.005-06:00

Growing up as the middle daughter of three girls, I have many memories of my sisters and I dressed in matching, handmade items crafted by my mother's hands. One piece in particular stands out as a favorite: the crocheted ponchos she made us, in shades of brown and orange. A child of the 70's, a girly girl, and the perfect garment for skipping, dancing and twirling. I might have to sift thru boxes of photos to see if there are any of us in the ponchos.

When I started knitting, one of the first patterns I looked for was a poncho for Eleanor Ruby. I found the Knitting Pure and Simple Children's Poncho over a year ago, but wasn't sure if my skill was ready yet. Then I found a beautiful yarn that I had to have to make into something lasting for Eleanor to enjoy. Two skeins of Mosaic Moon Mountain Meadow Worsted yarn in the Selah colorway arrived with it's coordinating aqua trim back in October. I had to sit it aside for months while I worked on Christmas and birthday gifts.

I decided that my first garment of the new year would be Ella Roo's poncho. I was pleasantly surprised by what an easy garment it was to knit! I made the 2-4 year old size and didn't make any major changes to the pattern. Only thing I think I did was purl the first row of the hood so I had an easy marker for measuring the length of the hood as well as adding a design element to the neckline. I also picked up four extra stitches on the hood because I thought it spaced the stitches out better than the recommended amount.

I worked on it a few hours a day for 11 days until I had it completely finished. It's beautiful, a perfect fit, soft, warm, and just what I hoped for. It warmed up to 22 degrees today, so Ella and I took a short walk in the sun with her favorite baby and her sparkly new shopping cart from Nana. I hope this is the first of many fun memories for her and her poncho.

Finished piece

Finished piece in action

ONEder Fund Video!

2011-01-14T15:20:00.002-06:00

Sit back and enjoy this wonderful collection of photos and video clips of our beautiful kiddos with Down syndrome! The Pay it Forward: Rock the ONEder campaign continues to grow. Kelle Hampton's words from the heart and narration in today's video compilation is breath taking. Catch Sean shaking his moneymaker at the 5:39 mark!

Snow Day and Mountain Lady Meatloaf

2011-01-11T10:39:00.006-06:00

We finally got our first snowfall of the winter! It started coming down Sunday evening and snowed all night and thru the day Monday. I think we ended up with about 4" of soft, fluffy, pretty powder. Not bad enough to cancel school, so both boys went to school while I stayed tucked home with Ella.

I bundled Eleanor up to go out once and she lasted just a little while before she said it was too cold. She outgrew her cute pink snow boots from last year, so she wore a pair of Sean's hand-me-downs. Hee hee! They were a bit big, but she did alright in them.

After school and a snack, the boys got geared up and we all went out again. It's too bad we don't have a hill to sled on or pretty woods to take a quiet walk through. They just stomped around in it a bit, made some snow angels and tried to make snowballs. It wasn't wet enough to make snow balls though, so they just chased me and threw handfuls of snow at me. Silly boys!

We came back in and changed out of wet clothes, then Sean helped me get supper in the oven. My Grandma Eleanor's Mountain Lady Meatloaf is just what our cold day needed! I made a side of Mac & Cheese and some early peas to go with it. My sister, Ann, asked me awhile ago to write down the recipe for her, so I thought I'd just share it here. Enjoy and stay warm!

Mountain Lady Meatloaf

1 1/2 lb lean hamburger meat (I use the lean sirloin so there's not much fat)
1/2 lb ground sausage (the plain kind, no spices added)
1 (10 3/4 oz) can of tomato soup
8 to 10 saltines or Ritz crackers, crushed fine
2 T pickle relish
2 eggs, well beaten
1 t crushed sage leaves
1 tsp salt (I usually omit this since the crackers are salted)
1 tsp fresh cracked pepper

Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl, make sure to really work in the sausage as it likes to cling together. If it seems to dry, add a bit of catsup, if it seems too wet, add more crackers. Dump into bread loaf pan and shape into a loaf.

Bake for 1 1/2 hours at 325 degrees. Remove and let rest 5 mins, then very gingerly pour off any fat into your empty soup can so the fat can be thrown away. Turn meatloaf onto a platter and slice. Makes about 5-6 nice big slices.

*My Grandmother noted on her recipe, "The left over meatloaf is good cold, for sandwiches. The meatloaf should have a crisp brown crust. This is a favorite recipe of my son, Dale."

I *heart* that lady!

Rock the ONEder

2011-01-09T13:48:00.007-06:00

Friday afternoon, I was just skimming Facebook and caught a request from Kelle Hampton: "Short notice, but if any D.S. mamas are willing to share photos that they wouldn't mind being shared on the blog, please e-mail the best photo of your beautiful child in the next twenty minutes to kellehamptonblog@comcast.net, and please include the name of your child (I'll only first names) and a short written statement that you give me permission to post. Epic fundraiser starts tonight in honor of Nella's b-day!"

Epic doesn't even come close to describing the magic that is happening on Enjoying the Small Things since Friday night!

I had no idea that emailing a photo of Sean would include him in the most amazing out-pouring of love and acceptance that I've ever seen! It gives me chills.

So if you haven't had a chance to read her post, Pay It Forward: Rock the ONEder yet, please do. And if it inspires you as much as it has inspired so many, make a donation in honor of Sean, beautiful Nella on her first birthday, and the other 400,000 people living with Down syndrome in the United States.

Kelle's amazing photography, love for life, dedication to her family, motivation and pure joy inspire me every time I click onto her blog. Thanks, Kelle, for taking center stage and singing loud!

The Nap Mat

2011-01-07T12:44:00.003-06:00

Generally, Ella takes her afternoon or mid-morning nap on the family room couch. It's much easier for me to get her to sleep and lay her there than to try to carry her 28 lbs up old creaky wood stairs to her bedroom and hope she doesn't wake up. Works for me. However, my mom gave us a down-alternative comforter for our king size bed for Christmas. When all three kids were home ill, we opened it up and made a little nap mat on the cushy carpeted floor. They napped on it, snuggled on it, watched tv, etc. while resting up.

It makes such a cozy little nap mat, I'm not in a hurry to put it to it's rightful use.

Last Doll Dress: The Poppy Dress

2011-01-05T10:27:00.004-06:00

I was able to pick up some buttons to finish off the last baby doll dress last night. I love how these buttons pop against the purple dress! So cute.

This was originally a pattern for a doll cardigan to fit Waldorf dolls, called the Poppy Cardigan. I made a few alterations to change it into a dress because, at her age, I figured Ella would get frustrated with putting a cardi on a doll.

I used Cascade 220 Superwash wool to make the dress. It's a soft, machine-washable wool that drapes really nice.

I knit the pattern as directed until after the split for sleeves. At that point, I joined the sides and knit it in the round for an inch. Then I did one row of increasing every stitch (kfab) to double my stitches for the skirt. I knit until it was about 6" long, then knit the garter stitch hem. The total length is 6 1/2" from center neckline to hem edge.

I'm pleased with the look and fit of the finished piece. Ella loves it, too!

Stripey Doll Dress

2011-01-04T10:57:00.005-06:00

A fun, simple, summery dress for baby dolls. This stretchy knit dress is easy for little ones to put on their babies and a quick knit. It was designed to fit a chubby 15" doll, but you can continue in pattern to make the length longer for larger dolls or reduce the length for shorter dolls. Finished garment is 6" long from center of neckline to edge of hem.

Materials: 1 skein Patons Kory Stripe Sock Yarn, set of US3 double-pointed needles, US3 16" circular needle (optional), US6 DPN, stitch marker, tapestry needle for weaving in ends.

Abbreviations:
k: knit
p: purl
sts: stitches
kfab: increase by knitting into the front and back of the stitch
m1: increase by taking the left-hand needle and pick up the bar between the stitches from front to back. Use the right needle to knit this bar through the back loop.
bo: bind off

Gauge: 6 stitches/inch and 8 rows/inch.

Cast on 72 sts onto 3 of your DPNs, place marker and join in the round, careful not to twist sts.

Rows 1-6: Knit in 2 x 2 ribbing

Row 7: Knit all sts

Row 8: *k1 m1* all the way around

Rows 9-15: knit all (you can switch over to the circular needle for this part if you want.)

Row 16: BO 36 sts, k 34 sts, bo 36 sts, k 34. I used my US6 dpn to bind off so it is a nice loose arm opening.

Row 17: place maker, rejoin, k 34, rejoin, k 33, k2tog.

Rows 18-23 k all (will need DPNs as it is too snug for the circ now.)

Row 24: *k4, kfab* all the way around

Rows 25-31: k all

Row 32: *k5, kfab* all the way around. You can fit this on circ's again.

Rows 33-39: k all

Row 40: *k6, kfab* all the way around

Rows 41-46: k all

Row 47: *k7, kfab* all the way around

Rows 48-54: k all

Row 55-61: work in garter stitch by alternating between first row purled, next row knit.

Row 62: bo all sts, weave in end.

Finished! This yarn can be machine-washed in cold, lay flat to dry. It is a self-striping yarn, so it's fun to see how the colors work out as you knit it. Any self-striping, fingering weight yarn can be used to produce similar results.

ETA: This pattern is in the library on ravelry: Stripey Doll Dress. Add it to your queue!

Note: This is a free pattern, please give credit to Deborah Minner for the design by linking to this page if posted online. Thank you!

December Recap 5: Close Encounters of the T21 Kind

2011-01-04T10:19:00.003-06:00

When we are home, just motoring around town doing our thing, we rarely run into other people with Down syndrome (aka T21.) We see Sean's classmate at school, but that's about it. So when we are away, I always have my T21 Radar on to notice other families. This trip was no exception.

Encounter 1: Orlando airport, Budget Rental Car waiting area.
A woman walked by with her cocker spaniel and waited just across from where we sat with the kids while Doug got our vehicle. My kids didn't want to go see the dog up close, so we watched from a distance. A 14-ish year old boy walked up to the dog with his 3 year old brother, who has Down syndrome. I watched his big smile as the dog wagged his tail and grinned back at him. He sat on the floor in front of the dog to play with him. All was well until the dog jumped up and licked him on his forehead, then the boy decided that was enough and reached up to brother to take him away in tears.

I watched them head back over to mom and then Sean wandered off that way, too. We worked are way over to them and said hello. The other mom was happy to meet Sean and talked to him at length.

Encounter 2: This was a mere brush, but at Magic Kingdom there was a boy older than Sean, maybe 10ish, with his parents and they seemed to be 2 groups ahead of us on several rides that day. Didn't chat with them, but I liked seeing how their child reacted to all the stimulus of WDW. The previous day, Doug said a similar aged boy with Ds was in line for the Rock & Roller Coaster ride. He said he really wondered how he handled that ride as it was fast and a bit scary. No way would Sean go on a ride like that, but maybe as he gets older he'll be interested?

Encounter 3: Lunch at Freddy's Frozen Custard with my family, New Year's weekend.
Sean wanted to sit at a different table than the rest of us, so Doug moved over to sit with him. A family of three, their daughter being a young adult with T21, sat at a table between our two groups. I watched them and saw them watching Sean as they ate. When Doug and Sean finished, Sean wanted to go sit outside at a picnic table, so Doug came over to grab their coats. Sean walked out without him and I guess the mother thought he was leaving on his own, so she hopped up and went after him to reign him back in.

I had to laugh, because Sean & Ella herding is such a second nature thing to Aidan and his cousins, as well as us. I guess that instinct doesn't wear off as our wandering ones get older!

I love that T21 Radar.

December Recap 4: Christmas Day at Disney World

2011-01-03T16:34:00.006-06:00

Our Christmas Day started at Magic Kingdom.

This time, we got the double stroller and a special needs pass. We learned the thanks to the American's with Disabilities Act, Sean and 5 of his friends could use a special pass to get into rides more easily at WDW. The pass allowed us to wait for rides in the FastPass lane, rather than the extremely long regular line. Ride operators worked our group into the ride in alternate with people in the regular line. We did still wait a bit, but not nearly as much as the previous day. We were also able to use the stroller as a wheelchair if there was a long line and Sean needed to sit until it was our turn. That said, it was an extremely busy day at Magic Kingdom, we later heard that they had to close the gates at 11 am as it was full to capacity by that time (100,000 people.)

The first thing we saw after getting our pass and stroller was a street parade with some of our favorite characters: Woody, Jessie, Mr Incredible and Frozone. I lifted Sean high up to see everyone and he beamed with excitement and waved so hard! It literally brought tears to my eyes. We worked our way through the crowds towards the castle to find a ride to start with.

First stop was the famous Mad Tea Party tea cup ride! Doug, Aidan, Sean and I rode while Grandma and Grandpa watched with Ella. Sean covered his ears the whole time, but said he liked it. Aidan was disappointed that we wouldn't let him spin the cup too fast.

Next we took Sean and Ella to the Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh while Grandma and Aidan rode Dumbo the Flying Elephant.

Doug and I rode the carousel with the three kids, then the six of us went on It's a Small World together.

We had a horribly long wait to get some lunch, then we walked up to the Toontown section. By the time we got there, Ella was sound asleep. The boys explored a bit, then we decided to take the train back to the entrance and go back to the hotel. The kids wanted to swim in the big pool at the resort before we had to leave Orlando.

The kids absolutely loved playing in the resort pool. They had little life jackets so the kids were fearlessly jumping in and going down the water slides.

We had to drive to Okeechobee after that, so we packed up the kids and our things and headed down south aways where we spent the rest of our week. We had cool, windy weather the rest of the week so we didn't get to do as much outdoors as we wanted. It was nice just being lazy and watching movies or playing games with the family. We did take a day trip to hit some fabulous outlet stores in Fort Myers.

Our flight home went fairly well, though we got in late so that made an exhausting day. We were glad to see that we didn't have an ice or snow covered van to clear off at 11 pm.

It was a neat experience, for sure. Disney certainly has a lot more to do than we could take on in a short time with young kids. I hope we can try it again in several years when they are older. I saw so many other things that I'd like to do there.

December Recap 3: Christmas Eve at Disney World

2011-01-03T15:35:00.007-06:00

We flew to Orlando, FL on Dec. 23rd and went to the Caribbean Beach Resort at WDW that evening. The kids did fairly well traveling there, we had a fully charged dvd player, i-Pod and PSP to keep them occupied. Hey, screen time has it's uses in tight spots! For a change, our kids weren't the loudest on the plane. :)

I didn't take any photos of the resort, but did get some video at the pool on the last day there. The resort was big and comfortable, we had rooms overlooking the beach so the kids got to play in the sand several times. The weather was a lot cooler than it had been when we went to Florida the year before, so that was a bit of a bummer. Still, you can't beat walking around in long sleeve shirts, no bulky down coats, in December!

Christmas Eve Day is my niece's birthday, so we let her choose which park to go to that day. She picked Hollywood Studios. We all met for breakfast then rode the bus to the park together. Sean and Ella loved the bus ride almost as much as the Disney rides and sang Wheels on the Bus the whole way there. We rented a double stroller and headed to the Pixar Section to ride the Toy Story Mania attraction. Given the huge amount of love all the kids, especially Sean, has for Toy Story, we knew that this was a MUST DO event. What a wonderland!

The wait for the ride took around 45 minutes and proved to be very difficult for Ella (she kept wanting to climb all over the displays) and Sean (they had the theme music running rather loudly and Potato Head talked to people.) Once in the ride, they forgot all about it and had so much fun. It didn't take Sean long to figure out how to fire the Buzz Lightyear laser at the targets. He rode in a car with me, Aidan and Grandpa rode in a second car, and Doug, Grandma and Ella rode in the third. Doug earned the highest score, with me in a close second.

Our second stop was to meet Woody and Buzz. When we got in line, the doorman said is was about a 20 minute wait. The kids had fun posing with the photo props, but as we got near the front of the line Sean started wandering ahead to have a look. Grandma followed him up and kept trying to talk him back into our place, but Sean was just mesmerized by his heroes. He just stood there and stared in awe. The Disney photographer talked to Janice and told her that Sean should have a special pass so we didn't have to wait in long lines. She told a co-worker to bring us to the front of the line and let us go next. By the time we got up there, Sean was hand-and-hand with two of his favorite people.

From there we had some lunch, then Grandpa and I took the little two to the Honey, I Shrunk the Kids Playset and Doug, Grandma and Aidan went to the Muppets 3D Show. By the time we met up again, Ella was getting very tired and Sean was asking to go home. We decided to take them to see The Cars display and then Grandpa was going to help me get the little two back to the hotel for some nap time/down time. Sean is a huge fan of the movie Cars and would of loved to see them up close. Unfortunately for him, they were automated displays that rev their engines and talked. It was so loud he refused to be on the same side of the street as them, let alone go up close.

Doug, Aidan and Grandma stayed until the park closed at 5:30 but were only able to get to two more attractions: The Rock & Roller Coaster, which scared the beejezus out of Aidan, and the Lights-Motors-Action Stunt Show, which was a huge hit in his eyes! They didn't take the camera with them, though.

We met up together for dinner that evening at the restaurant at the resort and then flopped exhausted into bed.

December Recap 2: Early Christmas at Home

2011-01-03T15:07:00.005-06:00

Since we were leaving for our Florida vacation and wouldn't be home Christmas Day, Aidan had me email Santa at The Portable North Pole Website to ask if he could visit our house early this year. Luckily, Santa balanced out Sean and Ella's good behavior against Aidan recent naughtiness and made the trip for us. LOL

Aidan's highlights

Sean's favorites

New loves for Eleanor

One thing we suggested to family and have had fun with is new games for the kids. We got several different ones to play.

As for me, my husband surprised me with a Flip Camera, so I will hopefully take more videos in 2011. Yay!

December Recap 1: Finished Christmas Knits

2011-01-03T14:28:00.006-06:00

A Drop-Stitch Scarf for my sister, Ann, knit in Nurturing Threads Wicked Rainbow yarn.

A swing top dress I designed & named The Violet-Elizabeth Dress, based on two other patterns. This was made for my friend's daughter, Alena. She just turned two, so I had Ella try it on for size. I used Classic Elite organic cotton & merino wool blend yarn for it.

I also made Hudson Hats for each of my kids.
Aidan's is made out of Mosaic Moon cestari wool in the Woodland in Spring colorway.

Sean's is made out of Retro Baby gaia organic bulky wool in the Rumple colorway.

Eleanor's is made out of Nurturing Threads aria organic merino wool in the Enchanted Lotus colorway.

I made a manly waffle-knit hat for Doug with inexpensive acrylic-wool blend Plymouth Encore yarn.

And, lastly, I made two more doll dresses for Ella's babies. I need to sew buttons on one and the other one I designed the pattern for so I will list that separately. Phew! My needles were hot in December! :)

Belated Holiday Wishes!

2011-01-03T14:14:00.003-06:00

Poor, poor, neglected blog! December was a whirlwind as I tried my best to do as much as I could in as short of time as I could. I had lots of knitting projects I wanted to get finished, we took the kids to get photos done for Christmas, and then we took a 7 day trip to Florida over Christmas week.

Today, the boys should be back in school, but instead they are home due to illness. All three kids have a respiratory illness and had to start antibiotics. I was hoping to use their napping/tv vegging time to blog a bit. I will try to break these down into sensible posts, but beware there will be more photos than text as I have a lapful of kiddo right now! :)

Two Special Visitors

2010-12-12T19:13:00.005-06:00

The kids got to see two very special people this weekend, Santa and my older sister, Ann. Ann and her husband, Blake, came out for a weekend visit from Wisconsin. They narrowly missed blizzard weather to spend some time with us. It's been bitterly cold and crazy windy all weekend, but I suppose that's still better than a blizzard!

We take the kids to visit Santa in his little glass house in the park every year. Sean rushed right in to go first and just loved on Santa!

Aidan went next, and I caught this coy smile when Santa said, "Have you been a little naughty this year?"

Ella wasn't willing to snuggle up to a stranger, so she let Daddy sit near him. :)

We drove halfway to my parents house to meet up with the family. I thought a lunch together and some playtime at the mall would give us a chance to catch up, but the mall was busy and the two littles took off in opposite directions every second they could. Did get to take a few pics while waiting for our food.

Mom (aka Nana) and her first-born, Ann.

Ann with Aidan and cousin Adam (my sister, Tanya's son.)

And then Sean took this one of Ann, too cute!

I wish we could get out to Wisconsin to visit them sometime, but not in the winter! :)

Wordless Wednesday: School Christmas Concert

2010-12-08T09:23:00.002-06:00

(Video of Sean "singing")

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Salt Dough Ornaments

2010-12-05T15:45:00.000-06:00

I decided it might be best this year to make a toddler-friendly tree in hopes of avoiding broken glass ornaments. The kids and I spent a couple of days working on a batch of Salt Dough Ornaments to use this year. I wanted to venture from the usual ribbons and orbs, and instead bought inexpensive strands of beads and some glittery snowflakes to accent our homemade treasures. The kids really loved each step of the process.

Cutting out the dough

Painting the ornaments

Decorating the tree

And enjoying the finished result!

Classic Salt Dough Ornament Recipe

Ingredients:
2 cups flour
1 cup salt
1 cup water

Directions:
1. Mix salt and flour.
2. Add in half the water, then gradually add the remaining water.
3. Knead until the dough is smooth, this can take up to 10 minutes.
4. For flat dough ornaments roll out the dough on baking paper
Or be creative and make odd shapes and wreaths (takes longer to bake)

Create:
Use cookie cutters, cut-out templates, or just use your hands.
Dust dough with flour and begin to add details to the ornaments with a toothpick, popsicle stick, and knife.

Don't Forget:
Use a straw to make a hole so you can hang the ornament.

Baking: Time varies based on thickness of ornament
Temperature: 325 degrees
Time: 1 1/2 hours - or until dry

Decorate: Let cool before you begin
Paint with acrylic paints
Glue on beads, buttons, or any fun accessory

Preservation: Making them last a long time
Coat with acrylic varnish when everything is dry

*** Color Variations ***
- Substitute coffee for water - great for gingerbread people
- Add food coloring to make dough a unique color - white, blue, red, etc...

Wordless Wednesday: Bedtime

2010-12-01T09:44:00.001-06:00

2 More Dolls Dressed!

2010-11-29T09:16:00.005-06:00

Finished up another knit doll outfit last night, so I thought I'd update progress again.

This outfit was made using the yarn leftover from my Hudson Hat giveaway. I barely had enough to get it done! The pattern I had for this set was terrible, in fact is was missing directions for the sleeves and pants. Plus the calculations were off in several places, requiring me to rip out (aka "frog") sections a few times until I reworked the pattern. Backtracking caused me to take a week to finish it, but the end result works out. Now Dolly has a cashmere sweater set. :)

Speaking of that yarn, Cindy posted really fun photos of Johnny in his hat on her blog. What a sweetie!

I also knit a dress for Ella's Cabbage Patch doll. This was another pattern that I had to make some changes to in order for it to turn out right. Plus I had to learn how to crochet a hem, so it was neat to learn a new skill.

One more doll outfit left to make, but first I need to finish up a scarf I am working on for another person. I also hope to get Hudson Hats made for my three kids by Christmas. I think it might be a close call this year.

Letter to Santa

2010-11-28T17:22:00.003-06:00

Translation:
"Dear Santa,
I hope you can read my handwriting. I wish you a happy Christmas and I hope you aren't so busy but I was wondering if you can bring me a snowman kit, stacks of pumpkin pies, and a real robot. Thank you. I love you very much. Aidan R. M."

Oh, and he drew his own stamp & labeled it, "Me, Snowman and Santa"

A Feast in Photos

2010-11-26T19:16:00.004-06:00

In Thanksgiving

2010-11-25T07:37:00.002-06:00

In honor of Thanksgiving, I decided to re-post my guest blog from A Little Bit Downsy on to my blog, to express how thankful I am for the community of families touched by Down syndrome. We all come together, from different parts of the world, with different beliefs, and join as a family to help each other. Many blessings to you!

Goodland, Kansas, population 4,948, is the county seat of Sherman County in Northwestern Kansas. The town is just 4.4 square miles big. It sits just 17 miles from the Colorado border, but is 176 miles from Denver, the nearest major city. The closest major city on the Kansas side is Hays, 212 miles away. Goodland is known for it's vast open fields of sunflowers and wheat.

In a small rural community such as this, it's very easy to feel alone. The nights are quiet, the days pass slowly. Socializing is most likely to occur in the aisles of Wal-mart. Everyone knows you, knows who you dated in high school, where you went to college, and which bank you use. The same doctor delivered most of your classmates and if you have a cough, he'll whip up a special syrup for you to take. "Newcomers" are defined as someone who moved into the city in the past 15 years, versus being born there. And it takes years to branch out past relatives as friends when you are a newcomer.

When my husband, Doug, and I decided to move to Goodland, we knew we'd go through an adjustment period. We were so used to our busy social life in the town where we graduated from college. Our life had been so hectic and stressful, we relished the idea of a calmer way of life. We comfortably made the transition, learning to eat most meals at home, instead of at our favorite restaurants, watching videos on Friday night instead of going to see live bands. Enjoying family gatherings with his parents, watching football or basketball together while our baby crawled around the house. We slowly started meeting people through golfing at the country club, and participating in MOPs. This was way before the days of Facebook and high speed internet. We rarely used the old lap top computer at home with it's painfully slow dial up internet connection. Occasional trips back east to visit my parents gave us time to catch up with friends.

So when our second son, Sean, was born and later diagnosed with Down Syndrome, our support network was scattered and loose. Of course we had the love and support of our families, but we searched for the strength from others like us. Other parents of children with Down Syndrome or other disabilities. Since our local hospital wasn't able to meet Sean's medical needs, we went to Denver to see specialists. The Mile High Down Syndrome Society offers great resources to Colorado families, but since we'd be returning to Kansas, they didn't have information for us. We got a few pieces of paper printed off and stapled together telling us medical facts about Down Syndrome and included a list of online resources to read.

When we returned home and connected with our family doctor, he referred us to the Early Education Service Center that would offer therapy for Sean until he was old enough to go to school. One of the first things we asked them to do was to connect us with another family. Unfortunately, we learned that he was the only person under 18 (that's as old as they had service information for) in the entire northwest area of Kansas that had Down Syndrome. Their service covers 13 counties, a total of 12,000 square miles, and Sean was the only person with Down Syndrome in that area at the time of his birth. Talk about feeling alone.

We were sad, scared, uncertain, uneducated about Down Syndrome and we felt like the only people we'd ever known in this situation. We grasped at straws to think of who else might offer us advice. I had a vague memory of a person I once did a committee work with that had a daughter with Down Syndrome, so I did track him down and email him a couple of times. My dad surprised me by telling me that his first wife has twin boys one of whom has Down Syndrome from a prior marriage. and that he had lived with them during their marriage. I'd always known of his first marriage, and the twins, but had never realized one had Down Syndrome. I pulled out the old 35 mm photos from the late 60's and closely looked at the faces of two six year old boys. Yes, I could see it now. They looked to similar, but one was slightly different.

Yet we still had no one close to us, no one raising their child the same age as us, no one to ask questions that ran through our minds and we were afraid to speak aloud. We pulled out the pages from the Denver hospital and looked at the resource list again. We wanted to find people, not facts. We wanted stories and photos, not statistics and charts. One caught my eye: www.downsyn.com a parent-to-parent support website, it said. I plugged in the old lap top and slowly watched the pages load. The peach colored backdrop, adorned with cherubs, appeared.

I.found.home.

Any and every question I could think of was asked and answered. Photos, videos, stories, resources, reviews, opinions, SUPPORT. Warm open arms. Suddenly, we were no longer alone and I was so thankful. I leaned on downsyn.com for support so much of Sean's first year of life. It was the lifeline we needed in addition to the love and support we had from our families and friends.

When Sean was 12 months old, we finally saw another person with Down Syndrome in person. We had gone to a nearby small town to visit their fairgrounds. While watching some horse riders performing various cowboy competitions, a family with a teenage daughter with Down Syndrome walked past us. They stopped for a few minutes just rows away to watch the horses. Doug and I no longer watched what happened in the arena, but instead intently observed the family in front of us. We stretched to hear them, to hear her talk, to see what they said, to wonder what their life was like.

A glimpse into our future?

How desperately I wanted them to turn around, look into Sean's eyes and see that he was a part of the T21 club! Instead, they moved along and as much as I longed to chase after them, I held back.

A few weeks later we went to the Mile High Buddy Walk and completely surrounded ourselves with families like ours. The experience was overwhelmingly emotional and moving. Months later, we moved to our current city and joined a Down Syndrome support group that meets just an hour away. We quickly met other families and built in-person support.

No matter where you are and what stage of acceptance you are at, there is always help out there. There is comfort in those connections. I hope each parent that feels alone can make a connection.

Images of Goodland, Kansas, used in this post were found on google images. I left watermarks as they appeared and thank these photographers for capturing the Western Kansas beauty!

Thankful we are not Alone...

2010-11-24T15:26:00.003-06:00

I guest blogged at Just a Little Bit Downsy today!

"No matter where you are and what stage of acceptance you are at, there is always help out there. There is comfort in those connections."

Thanks for letting me blog-crash, Tiffany!

My Breastfed Daughter wants to Bottle feed her Babies

2010-11-24T10:12:00.004-06:00

Playing with her baby dolls is Eleanor's favorite thing to do. She likes undressing them and giving them pretend baths in her play kitchen sink. She uses her doll brush to make their hair pretty. She wraps them in old receiving blankets and rocks them to sleep. They take turns sitting on her potty chair and making pretend tinkles. Nothing is funnier than seeing her lay her baby down on a prefold diaper and watching her carefully attempt to attach it with a Snappi! Her babies also enjoy horse back rides through the house on her shoulders while she yells, "Yee haw!"

Dolly goes with us on car rides to get Daddy and the boys or shopping at the grocery store. Sometimes she takes Dolly for a walk in the stroller, with her purse hooked on her arm, cell phone and keys tucked inside, and a wave "Bye bye, Mama. I goin' shoppin'" Other times she snuggles them in her doll sling for a trip around the yard.

Recently, she discovered a new way to play with Dolly. I've been babysitting in the two-year-old room for the local MOPs group. Usually, we have about 5-6 girls and one or two boys in the room. Luckily, there are plenty of baby dolls for all the girls to have one. They work on taking turns pushing the dolls in the two strollers or on the one swing. They cook up snacks for their dolls in the play kitchen and they remark on their stinky diapers. But there's a new toy for Ella to use with her dolls at MOPs that she hasn't had at home. Doll bottles filled with fake milk or orange juice. It didn't take long at all for Ella to follow the other girls' lead in feeding and burping the dolls with bottles. After a couple of times at MOPs, Ella was quick to secure one of the three bottles for her baby to use each session. I sat back and watched her holding and bottle feeding her baby. So odd to see from a girl that never had a bottle or pacifier!

I didn't make a big deal about it at MOPs and figured it doesn't mean much, she only plays with them there. At home, she tends to nurse her babies or uses the little cups from her tea set to give them drinks of "water". Lately, however, she's been wanting a bottle for her Dolly. She found a small bottle of cleaning fluid Doug uses for his guitars, I think, that has a pointy tip like a bottle on the cap. Instantly, Ella began using it to feed her baby. Then Aidan decided to wash out a small chocolate milk bottle, removed the label, and gave that to Ella to use as a bottle. I had to take the cleaning bottle away from her because I was worried about her getting it open.

I am starting to see how important she thinks a bottle is to her favorite form of play.

Most people wouldn't think twice about whether or not a child played with a bottle and a doll. To me, it matters. I've consciously avoided bottles and bottle imagery in reference to children and babies for many years. I actively avoid baby congratulations cards or wrapping paper with bottles and pacifiers. I feel like it sets up bottle feeding as the norm in baby care instead of as a secondary tool. It's very important to me that my children are raised to believe that breastfeeding is the normal way to feed a baby. I want them to see bottles as just a tool to feed babies when mother is not available. I think it shapes them for how they will parent in the future. I want my son supportive of his partner breastfeeding and I want my daughter confident in her ability to breastfeed her children, should they have them.

Doug isn't on the same page as me regarding toy bottles. Maybe because we bottle fed expressed milk to Sean in addition to nursing. Maybe because he thinks I'm just making too big of a deal of it. Maybe he's right. Or maybe I am.

Right now, I am confident that she does know what breastfeeding is and how it helps babies. While playing dolls with the other girls at MOPs, Ella's doll fell out of the swing. She exclaimed, "Oh no! Baby hurt!" ran around the swing to pick up her doll, immediately lifted her shirt and held her doll to her chest. "Baby needs Ni-Ni!" she said, while kissing her doll on her head, in full view of all of her friends.

While the bottles may be a fun way for her to give Dolly a drink, breastfeeding is what Dolly needs for comfort. Maybe Santa will put a toy bottle in her Christmas stocking after all.

Weekend without Daddy

2010-11-20T12:32:00.006-06:00

The best thing to do when Daddy's gone is keep busy with fun, out-of-the-ordinary activities. So Friday evening, the kids and I had a PJs, Pizza and Movie Slumber Party. I piled lots of blankets and pillows on the living room floor, got Papa Johns delivered and ordered Cats & Dogs: the Revenge of Kitty Galore on cable. It's pretty rare that we all sit down together and watch a movie, so it was really fun for all of us. And the movie was pretty funny, too.

After a fairly good night's sleep, I made eggs, sausage and toast for us for breakfast then bundled us up to go see the Annual Holiday Parade. The last year we went, it was super cold and we barely lasted 15 minutes before the kids wanted to sit in the car. This year it ended up being much warmer than I expected, so they didn't complain about the temp at all. Sean had problems with the loud noises, but managed to enjoy some of it. After an hour, Aidan had filled his coat pockets as well as mine. Sean was beginning to get restless, wanted to go sit inside the coffeeshop instead of watch the parade, so we didn't last until the end. In all, it went a lot better than I expected, especially since I some how managed to get a kink in my back and can't quite more very well.

I might try to get them to a park after lunch and naptime this afternoon. With it getting dark at 5:30, it really puts a crunch on our outdoor playtime. It's up to almost 60 degrees so I want to get out before it turns cold next week!

P.S. I searched back in my blog to find the link from when we took the kids to this parade before and I think we might of skipped it last year. When I found the previous year's post about it, I had to laugh because Sean is wearing the exact same outfit today that Aidan wore when we went when he was 6. Hee hee.

Happy 8th birthday, Aidan!

2010-11-15T09:18:00.004-06:00

Today my first born is eight years old! What an amazing boy he is!He's hard-working, clever, caring, energetic, funny, sensitive, and loving. While we may have days where Doug and I fondly look back to when his favorite activity was pushing his toy jeep around the block as fast as his chubby little 2 year old legs could move him, we also have our days where we appreciate how much he is learning and and how independent he has grown. He can frustrate us so quickly with his need to test boundaries and question authority, yet he can make us so proud when he steps in to lead his siblings in play or working on tasks.

The past eight years have flown by so fast and it is almost impossible to imagine that in eight more years he will be on the cusp of adulthood. One thing that he is excited about this birthday is that he is legally aged out of car seats. He started calculating how many years until he can ride in the front seat and how many years until he can drive. Oh my! Thoughts like that make me want to curl him up close and hang tight to age 8!

This year we celebrated his birthday with family from both sides, a rarity with all of the traveling Doug's parents do and all of the extra-curricular activities his cousins do. He chose a few friends from school to take to an indoor inflatables place, called Jumping J's. They had a blast jumping and sliding, as well as playing arcade games and "cosmic" mini-golf. What a fun group of friends! Sean and Ella had just as much fun as the big kids, Ella jumpied herself to the point of exhaustion.

Today, Ella and I are baking chocolate chip cookies and taking them to share with his class this afternoon. His Grandpa Larry called this morning to ask if he could give Aidan a ride to school on his motorcycle. What a fun start to his 8th year!

I Pledge Allegiance to the Flag- by Sean Minner

2010-11-12T11:42:00.001-06:00

He knows all the words, they just have a hard time coming out clearly. ABC's are getting clearer now, though. :)

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

The Buddy Walk-inspired Hudson Hat

2010-11-11T16:06:00.003-06:00

I finished this up last week for Cindy at Life with Five Leggs and got it in the mail to her Monday. I'm really happy with how it turned out, this yarn is so incredibly soft! The Hudson Hat pattern was easy to follow and worked up pretty quickly. I'm motivated to make three more before Christmas for my kiddos!

I took a few photos of Sean wearing it before I washed it to get an idea of the fit. I used the child-size pattern and am wondering if the toddler size would fit too. It's very stretchy.

This week I've been knitting a dress for my friend's daughter and trying to pull together plans for Aidan's 8th birthday party this weekend. The kids have Friday off of school due to the end of the trimester. We have family coming in that evening and big plans for the party on Saturday. Lots of photos to come of that!

Wordless Wednesday: Aidan's Timer Function Fun

2010-11-10T09:12:00.003-06:00

Hello, November! Time for Baking Season!

2010-11-03T16:18:00.001-05:00

Ahhh, beautiful November! Weather is changing, leaves are dropping, pumpkins greeting us on the porch. Perfect time to start fall baking and cooking!

Today I made up a batch of Lisa's Pumpkin Bars. They are quick to bake, make the house smell like Thanksgiving and are absolutely yummy! Here's the recipe for you to try.

Pumpkin Bars

Combine in a large bowl:
4 eggs
1 cup veg oil
2 cups sugar
1- 15 oz can pumpkin

Sift together in a separate bowl, then add to above:
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg

Mix it all well, then pour into a greased jelly roll pan (aka baking pan with sides.) Bake at 350* for 25-30 minutes. Cool, then cut into bars.

You can eat it plain or sprinkle powdered sugar on top. Have it with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream. Heck, its' even good for breakfast! Enjoy!

Are you ready to see the winner???!!!!

2010-11-01T08:27:00.001-05:00

My yarn is ready, my needles are set...

so who's the winner of my Something Snuggy for your Buddy contest to celebrate 31 for 21? Well, I posted 36 blog updates this month and, minus the replies I made, I had 87 comments to choose from. Awesome!

I used random.org to select a winner and number chosen was: Comment 44 (sorry, I couldn't figure out how to make a screen shot to post)

Cindy said...

Hurray for Grandparents!!! I love that picture of her hugging!! :)
October 24, 2010 6:50 PM

Congratulations to Cindy from Life with Five Leggs!!!! Let's figure out what size you want and I will get started on your custom Hudson Hat! Thank you to everyone that left comments this month. I loved the feedback and I loved meeting new readers. I added several new blogs to my blog roll and that is always a great part of the 31 for 21 Challenge- meeting new families.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Down Syndrome Awareness month! I promise to keep blogging as we go into the busy holiday season. November has a lot of the calendar for us: we are hosting a church family super club, we have Aidan's 8th birthday party coming up, Doug is playing guitar at a rock show in Lawrence KS, then there's Thanksgiving. Plenty of photo/blog ops ahead. :)

Editing to add: Tiffany made a huge effort to keep me motivated this month- she left a whopping 19 comments here and daily comments on facebook. I'd like to offer a runner-up prize of a gnome hat to you, if you'd like one. I will link to some colors to choose from. They are less expensive to buy yarn for and quicker to make, but still very cute! :)

Happy Halloween!!

2010-10-31T18:45:00.003-05:00

from Beastboy, Cyborg, and our little monkey. Have a spooky night!

Annual 21 Facts about Sean List

2010-10-30T22:00:00.001-05:00

I love reading these on other blogs each year, as well as looking back at my old ones. Here is 2009, 2008, and in 2007. Let's see if I can think of 21 for this year!

1. Sean is very ticklish! I love to hear hm giggle just because I run my fingers across his back.
2. Sean's favorite treat is Dairy Queen ice cream cones. He only eats the chocolate soft serve ice cream in a cake cone. We've tried to get him to eat other ice cream, but he doesn't usually comply.
3. Sean loves alligators and sharks. He likes books about them, toys, movies, and songs about them.
4. He got two stuffed alligators for his birthday and sleeps with one of them.
5. Sean likes to jump on trampolines/bounce houses, but only if no one else does at the same time. His balance isn't strong enough to handle others bouncing.
6. Sean loves playing matching games. We lay out memory cards and he likes making matches out of them.
7. Puzzles are a big favorite, too. We still give him wood puzzles to work with, because he occasionally chews on cardboard pieces.
8. He loves to watch his brother play video games on the Playstation and he plays several games as well. His eye-hand coordination has really grown by playing games.
9. We are convinced that he will develop some type of performance hobby. He has a really good memory for acting and re-creates scenes from his favorite things.
10. He likes to navigate his way around youtube, clicking on Disney Cars clips, Mater's Tall Tales, and Spongebob Squarepants clips.
11. He likes getting his hair cut, doesn't mind hair washing too bad, but really hates having it combed. We keep it short so it doesn't get too crazy looking in the morning.
12. He really really really dislikes having his nails clipped.
13. He's on his third pair of glasses this school year. He does pretty good wearing them at school and out of the house, but at home he takes them off immediately.
14. He can pedal his trike, but would rather scoot it with his feet.
15. He can sing the ABC song, but we are still working on letter recognition.
16. If you sign a letter he will say it faster and more accurately than if you show him a letter.
17. Sean likes drinking Dr Pepper, so after church he gets two quarters to buy one to drink with his brother during coffee hour. He puts the money in the machine and selects it all by himself.
18. We don't give him any soda during the week, so I think it's a feature of church that he looks forward to.
19. Blowing out candles is a huge joy for Sean. On birthday cakes, in jack-o-lanterns, at church, or any where he goes.
20. I love the slap-slap-slap sound his bare feet make on our floors. It just makes me picture his cute, little, flat-footed, gap-toed feet when I hear it.
21. Sean gets keeps getting better with age! More fun each passing year!

Fall Festival at School

2010-10-30T07:32:00.001-05:00

Aidan and Sean's school celebrated their Fall Festival today (they don't "do" Halloween, but it sure looked like a Halloween party!) The kids didn't have to wear their uniforms, instead they could wear jeans and an appropriate favorite tee shirt. Ella and I arrived to attend the party right as all the classes paraded out to the playground to show off their favorite shirts to each other. The principal led them in a game of Instigator, which they all seemed to enjoy.

When we returned to the classroom, Sean's teacher warned the class that there was someone strange hiding in the room. The principal joined her to see who was inside. It was a witch! A narrator read the kids the book Humbug Witch while the witch acted out the story.

All the kids were so quiet and attentive!

Ella got very scared of the witch and burst into tears so I held her until the story ended. Now when she looks at the photos, she says, "Ella cry!"

After the story, the kids got to drink a glass of the witch's brew and eat the pumpkin cookies they made earlier.

His teacher had a couple of games planned for them to do, so Ella and I walked down to Aidan's class to see him. We showed up just in time to see him have snacks. Then it was time to pack up and go home.

When we got back to Sean's room to get him, the were playing a Hot Potato game using mini pumpkins. Sean did not like the happy laughing and music, so he was sitting alone with his hands over his ears. :( My poor baby. I sat with him to try to relax him and another mom said, "He is just so cute! When I saw him on the first day of school, I said I want to scoop him up and take him home!" (Uh, thanks for the warning, lady!) After the game ended, Sean's teacher gave him a mini-pumpkin to take home and that cheered him up.

The boys brought home lots of fun goodies and candy from the party. They are super pumped to go trick-or-treating!

A Case of the Naughties

2010-10-29T10:02:00.004-05:00

Late last night, I read the post by Tiffany on her blog, Just a Little Bit Downsy, about her daughter having a bad afternoon. I was way too sleepy to comment on it then, but I thought about it as I drifted off to sleep. Gave me time to decide I'd like to touch on it here.

For the most part, Sean is becoming pretty easy-going and doesn't get into as much trouble as he did as a toddler. However, he has his triggers, just like anyone else does. Things that set him off and bring out the grumpy, stubborn, and naughty parts of his personality. Doug and I have gotten really good at reading his signs and try to work with him to avoid his triggers. Mainly because when something sets him off, he doesn't understand us when we try to reason him out of the situation. And if we can't talk him out of, he turns into wet noodle boy that won't budge.

Here's some typical Sean cause and effects.

Cause: Loud noises, such as screaming children, over-crowded areas, fireworks, sirens, loud music. Effect: covers his ears, will not move, screams "no! too loud!", crying until removed from situation. This makes it hard for him to go places like the school cafeteria when it's full of students talking, even the Buddy Walk is difficult for him.

More recently, he has been lashing out at Ella because she likes to shriek at the top of her lungs. He's started hitting and pushing her away from him when she does that. Obviously, we don't approve of her shrieking, because it hurts every one's ears, but we also don't approve of Sean hitting someone because they are too loud. We are actively working on teaching both of them appropriate behaviors.

Cause: being asked to do something (like get ready for school) when he's still tired. Sean is a slow riser, but if we get him up too early then he doesn't get enough sleep and drags on even more. Effect: stubbornness, refusal to cooperate or independently do what is asked of him, snappy. Sean isn't at the point where he just willingly gets ready for school every day. Some days are better than others and some days are much worse than others. In general, it's a daily struggle to get ready on time. We do a lot of the process for him. He won't feed himself in the morning (or he'd do it at a snail's pace) so we spoon feed him. He likes to refuse to go to the bathroom, so we take him to the potty and sit him on it every morning. Once he goes, he's fine to take care of business and move on. He just doesn't want to do things on our time schedule. Same goes for teeth brushing, he will do it himself, but needs us to prompt it. Sometimes he dresses himself, but most of the time we help him. He's very capable of dressing himself, again it's a time thing.

Cause: people that won't do what he tells them to do. Effect: he reflects that behavior back. Example: he likes to walk down the front stairs with me, wants me to follow his step pattern. If I don't he wont's walk down the stairs and I have to physically carry him to the car. He makes up lots of walking rules, wants people to follow his way or he won't do it. He has to be the one to open the door first. Lots of crumbling behavior when people don't do things his way.

This is one that we really work on. We don't want to constantly bow to his will and do everything his way. We need him to learn that everyone has their own pace and way of doing things. Yet, on the other hand, we really can't make the world move at his pace. Concepts like let's hurry, we're going to be late don't matter to him. I'm hoping that eventually he outgrows this and understands more about time.

I think so many discipline issues are based on communication. When you have a child with limited communication skills, it's understandable that you'll have more behavior problems. When I get discouraged about this, I find myself looking at older kids/adults with Down syndrome and how they behave for inspiration. I clearly remember thinking "I am never going to be able to make it through a grocery shopping outing with this child!" Yet, now he is a great shopping companion when we are one on one.

Like with all children, I think the motto "this too shall pass" applies. I hope so, that's many a mama's mantra!

Naming your Child with Down Syndrome

2010-10-28T08:00:00.000-05:00

I thought of this topic the other day while reading a blog post at The Bates Motel. Totally not related to what I'm going to talk about, but the title of the post made me think of it.

Occasionally, I see discussions on Down Syndrome support sites about why they named their child the name they did. Some parents didn't know prenatally, named the baby in utero and stuck with it. Some parents did know prenatally and chose a name based on that knowledge, usually because of it's meaning. And then there is a third version where parents had a prenatal name, didn't know baby had Ds, and then decided to change it at birth when they found out. Some times that change was made out of inspiration, hopes, and dreams for the future of the baby. I'm often so proud of parents that have a prenatal diagnosis and chose to honor a loved one by naming the baby after them. I guess, because to me that shows how proud they are to continue their family tree though this child that may seem so different than all the other branches. A father that names his son with Down syndrome Junior seems to be such an amazing statement of hope and pride. It's very rare that I read of the opposite- a beloved name no longer seeming "worthy" or "fitting" of the unexpected child.

In our family, naming sons was a difficult task for us. We were not interested in doing the junior route, Doug isn't exactly a popular name anymore. Male family names we could of used were either too popular within our families or in general, or just not to our tastes. So we went the 1000 Baby Names Book route. Circling, sharing, and vetoing until we came up with possibilities we liked.

Aidan's name wasn't too hard for us to agree on. It wasn't very popular the year he was born, in fact it wasn't even in the top 50. We were surprised to see it skyrocket to the number one male baby name in just a couple of years after his birth! His middle name is Riley, chosen because we liked how they sound together and it coincidentally was also the name of the county he was born in. Doug liked that his initials spell ARM, he figured it would look cool on a Pac Man high scores screen.

Since we didn't find out Sean's sex until birth, we were less solid in his name. We were very sure on our girl name, but the boys names were wide open. I was pushing for Jared, Joel, or Sebastian. Doug didn't care for those. Somehow we both thought Sean was a good choice. It was a nice Irish name to go with Aidan. Short, didn't lend itself to mean nicknames. Easy to spell, so we wouldn't have to go around constantly spelling it for people like we do Aidan ("With an e or an a?") His middle name, Patrick, seemed like a great balance to the first name. We did toy with other options, including a nod to our family names, but in the end chose Patrick.

Since we didn't learn of his diagnosis for a few weeks, it never crossed our minds not to use it or to re-think it's meaning. As we got used to him and how his name fit him, we learned that it wasn't as easy of a name as we thought. Spelling questions always come up. We like to reply, S-e-a-n, like Sean Connery. Or P-Diddy. :P We only had it mispronounced once- a nurse at a doctor's office kept calling for "Seen? Seen? Is there a Seen here?"

As he's grown older, it definitely fits him. I love that it is short and easy to spell. He's been "reading" his name for quite awhile "S e a n. Sean, that's me!" It took Sean a long time to be able to say his name himself. Most of the time it comes out pretty clear now, but sometimes it still sounds like "On." When Aidan was a toddler, he started calling him Seanie and it's really stuck with us. We all call him Seanie. His preschool teachers asked Aidan, and us, to please call him only Sean as they didn't want him to be confused about his name. They told him he was a big boy and they want to use his big boy name. Phooey. We have tapered it down and call him Sean about 70% of the time.

Ella has only recently started calling him Sean. For some reason, for many months, she called him "Nice" or "Nicey" Doug thinks it sounds like Seanie backwards. It amused us to no end, and even Aidan started calling Sean, Nicey. I shot a little video of Ella saying it, to save as a memory of her special nickname for her big brother. Now that she's stopped calling him that, I kind of miss it.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

So, if you have a child with Down syndrome, how did that affect your child's name? I'd love to read more stories!

Wordless Wednesday: Sean's Gnome Out-takes

2010-10-27T07:04:00.000-05:00

From our Gnome to Johnny's

2010-10-26T17:53:00.003-05:00

Last night, I posted a link on facebook to a hat pattern that cracked me up. During the course of talking about it there, a new friend mentioned that she'd love a gnome hat for her kids. I did a search for a free pattern, that happened to use yarn I have and had no plans for, and ta-da! A fun gnome hat was quickly knit up today while I waited in the dentist office, enjoyed toddler naptime, and watched the kiddos play after school. Renee, I hope your little gnomes enjoy it as much as my models did:

Gnome Sweet Gnome

"Always" Happy Gnome

and Full of Angst Gnome

I will wash it up tonight and mail it out as soon as you send me your addie. Happy Halloween!

Less than a week till we pick a winner!

2010-10-26T10:03:00.002-05:00

Don't forget that your comments put your name in the hat to get a custom-knit Hudson Hat! :)Something Snuggy for your Buddy!

Making Jack-o-Lanterns

2010-10-26T09:57:00.004-05:00

Random Seanies from the Week

2010-10-25T09:00:00.003-05:00

Just some bits and pieces about Sean from the past week. Never enough to write a lengthy blog, but fun to remember anyway.

~One of Sean's ears was draining pretty bad last weekend, so we started the week off with a trip to his pediatrician and meds for an infection. (He has tubes, got them last year, they are still in place, this is the 3rd infection he's had with them.) Sean is really good about taking antibiotics, but is not a fan of the ear drops. I'm wondering if it's time to see the ENT again. Sean's usually such a good patient (with the exception of anything that requires sticking tape-like things on him.) He even used to be really good about giving blood, up until the last draw he had this summer. Even as a newborn, he would make a little cry when they first pricked his skin, then he'd just calmly sit through the rest. I remember it being very unnerving to a tech once! Some kids that have to see a doctor so much more frequently have a strong fear of them, Sean's the opposite, he's the pro that knows the routine!

~We showed up for school one morning last week at the same time as a girl that looked like she might be in kindergarten. I asked Sean if he wanted to say hi to her and he did. I asked her if she was in the same class as Sean and she said yes. Once inside, she asked me if she could walk Sean to class. I asked him if he wanted to and he said yes, so they held hands and headed down the hall together. He glanced back over his shoulder with a wave and big smile, "Bye, Mom! Bye, Aidan! See you later!"

~Friday night, Doug and I had a bottle of wine with dinner. Sean peered at Doug's glass of wine and Doug offered to let him smell it. Sean took a sniff and a little light bulb went off in his head. He pinched his thumb and index finger together, then lowered his hand into the glass of Merlot, dipping his fingers in the wine. He pulled them out and licked his fingers, saying "Amen."

~Saturday, after we picked up Grandma from the airport, we all went out to lunch together at an upscale burger/steak place. Sean's favorite thing to munch on at a restaurant is french fries, so we ordered a side of fries for him. They brought out a huge plateful of shoestring-style fries, which Sean loves. Given enough time, he'd eat the whole mound, but he eats very slowly, one fry at a time, dipping each bite in ketchup. Grandma snuck a fry off his plate and nearly lost her hand when he snapped, "No GamGaw! It's MINE! Sean fries!"

~Sunday afternoon, we came home from church and there was a message on the answering machine for Sean. It was one of his kindergarten classmate's moms. She said her son was asking her all day if he could call Sean and talk to him on the phone. She left her number, so Doug called her back and they gave the boys the phone to talk to each other. Mind you, Sean's phone conversations tend to be a mix of words, gestures and babbling, he often talks about what he's doing/playing with/looking at. I'm sure it was an interesting conversation! How funny! I don't even know which kid this is, I think I will have to have Sean's teacher point him out today at pick up time.

Grandma's Home!

2010-10-24T15:18:00.004-05:00

After a six week stay in Florida with Grandpa, Grandma Minner flew home yesterday. The people in Florida think she's crazy for going North for the winter, but there are at least three little people in Kansas that are very happy to have her home. Hopefully, Grandpa will join us soon, too.

A special thanks to our friend, Jan, who was able to recover these photos after I accidentally deleted them from the camera! You rule!

Pumpkin Pickin'

2010-10-23T07:59:00.004-05:00

One of our favorite parts of fall is the fun and excitement of Halloween. The choosing of costumes and the picking of pumpkins. For the last several years, we've enjoyed making a trip to a local farm for our pumpkins. The kids have had so much fun at Harvest Farm in past years, that I think we all look forward to our day there each October. This year, Doug and I had to make the tough decision to cut it out of the October budget, in lieu of the fact that we had several other out-of-town trips and expenses to cover instead.

That didn't stop the boys from being excited about selecting pumpkins this year. Every time Sean's seen them at the grocery store, he's been asking for us to get some. He got a pair of flannel jammie pants with pumpkins on them and has insisted on wearing them every night. His last four books from the library have had pumpkins in them. He picks pages with pumpkins to color first in his coloring books. He has me drawing pumpkins on his MagnaDoodle daily. He has a fine eye for spotting pumpkins on other people's porches.

So, yeah, the boy wanted pumpkins. Doug and I took the kids to do something I never thought we'd do....

we went to Wal-Mart for the sole purpose of selecting pumpkins. Not quite the photo op I had in mind, but we thought we'd take a couple anyway. There was a huge stack of hay bales, which of course my kids climbed up.

Only to be immediately told by WM staff to get down for fear of injury...

Sigh, well, they might not have had all the fun they are used to at Harvest Farm, but they did pick out 4 big pumpkins to bring home and it saved us a good $50. I'm hoping to hold off carving them till Sunday afternoon, so they don't look rotten by Halloween.

The Marshmallow Lesson

2010-10-22T07:44:00.001-05:00

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Who's kids are these?

2010-10-21T16:55:00.003-05:00

oh em gee, theses are some goofy school pics the boys took! Aidan, with his zipped-lip grin, is trying to hide his shark front tooth. (He has an adult tooth coming in faster than a baby tooth is coming out.)

And, I can honestly say, I have never seen Sean make this weird chin-jutting, eyebrows-popping face before! LOL

Good thing we only pre-purchased the $10 package!

Speech & Down Syndrome

2010-10-21T11:18:00.000-05:00

Saw this wonderful article posted today on Facebook and just had to share it here. Deborah Yost wrote about Understanding Speech Difficulty for Down Syndrome today and her example to teach others how difficult it is to speak due to complications caused by Down syndrome is so helpful!

I think when the boys get home from school today, we will have to do a little video demonstration for the blog. Aidan has often asked "When is Sean going to start talking like me?" What a great learning tool this will be! I will share the results tomorrow.

Wordless Wednesday: Wildcat

2010-10-20T09:05:00.002-05:00

Two Dolls Done, Three to Go!

2010-10-19T07:30:00.000-05:00

I decided to squeeze in some of my Christmas knitting projects this past week. I tried out a few patterns and came up with outfits for two of Ella's five "dressable" dolls. Here's what I have finished so far.

First, Ella wearing the gorgeous longies I bought knit by another knitter. She wouldn't hold still for a good photo today, so this is about the best I could get.

The knitter sent the remaining yarn to me and I had enough to make this cute set. (Laid my phone there so you can see the scale.)

And the dolly that it fits.

Next, you remember the Elizabeth Tunic dress I made for Ella in the spring.

I had enough yarn leftover from it to make a matching dress for her Cabbage Patch doll. I have more of it still, so I might making something else with it for the dolls.

Making doll clothes is so fun and instantly gratifying. It's going to make it hard for me to go back to knitting full-scale. Ha ha ha

Hippotherapy for Children with Down Syndrome

2010-10-18T13:42:00.006-05:00

Sean's teacher emailed me a few photos from the last session he had at the Reins of Hope hippotherapy center.

I'm just so glad to see how much he is continuing to enjoy his sessions there! I grew up riding horses every chance I could during my summer trips to visit my grandmother in the Colorado Rockies. Being able to share a passion for horsebacking riding with Sean is such a dream. In a few years, we will both be able to go on trail rides together through the mountains.

For now, his time on a horse is not a means for sight-seeing, but rather an opportunity to strengthen his core trunk muscles, coordinate his motor planning skills, and teaches him concepts like left, right, stop, go, front, back. It's also a great vocabulary-building tool.

Best of all, it's therapy that makes him happy!

While looking at the new photos, it made me want to dig up old photos from when he first went as a toddler. He was a petite boy, just 30 months old when he began. He went from only walking with a walker to independently walking within a few months of hippotherapy.

A cute video of an early session.

Some photos of Sean after he started walking. He'd get so excited when we pulled in to the stables. He even mastered opening the gates.

If you can get your child into hippothereapy, I'd highly recommend it! If you don't have a child that needs therapy, but have time to volunteer, you can look at The American Hippotherapy Association to find a therapy center near you. Most hippotherapy services are run on a volunteer program and fees for riders can be covered through medical card insurance, the public school system, or on an income sliding scale.

Daddy's Alter Ego

2010-10-17T07:25:00.001-05:00

This weekend, Doug got to launch a new project band. He's been the go-to guy for area bands when someone wants to put together a fun tribute band for a couple of random shows then retire. To date, he's played lead guitar in a KISS cover band, a Guns & Roses cover band, and a Jesus Lizard cover band. The shows are always a total blast to go to, grown men dressed in costumes and taking on persona's of famous rockers, playing to hundreds of music loving fans that know the words to every song.

The new project is called Pryo-Maniacs and they play hair metal hits of the 80's. Months of traveling to rehearse, countless hours of learning the songs and listening to them again and again, all came to a conclusion Friday evening in front of a jubilant crowd of 650. I didn't get to attend the show, due to my plans for the LLL conference, so I had to just enjoy the photos and thoughts shared by friends on Facebook. I hear videos were shot, so hopefully those will be shared soon, too.

I'm glad he got the chance to do something he loves and is passionate about. There's talk of a second show sometime in the future, so I will try my best to catch them then.

A Gentle Weaning: Sean's Story

2010-10-16T06:54:00.001-05:00

In August of 2006, I wrote an article for an online baby blog in honor of World Breastfeeding Week about my experiences breastfeeding Sean. It was the first time I openly discussed many breastfeeding experiences I've shared with my children: struggles in the beginning, painful decisions about my hopes as a mother, tandem nursing, and extended nursing. I later adapted this article and submitted for the now well-known book, Gifts: Mother's Reflect on How Children with Down Syndrome Enrich their Lives. Our story was out there, and at the time it seemed like it was near the end of that relationship.

It wasn't the end at all, I continued to walk the fine balance between my desires to mother-led wean my babies and my belief in child-led weaning. We had good times and bad times nursing, but mostly we just took it day by day. When Aidan weaned, it was with a bit of a nudge, a suggestion implanted peacefully and then nurtured by him in his time. When he was ready, it was a gentle process over so smoothly that it felt right for both of us. Three years later, he has a hard time imagining that he nursed as long as he did. He really doesn't have distinct memories of it, it seems to have just faded away. He knows that he breastfed, he knows he breastfed along side his brother, and he sees it as the biological norm for feeding babies. What was once such a significant part of his life is now just a warm memory.

Sean has always been the most pleasant toddler to nurse. In fact, I'd dare say that once we overcame his early rough start, he was the nicest baby to nurse as well. He never played the typical distracted baby games: constantly switching sides, or latching on then popping off unexpectedly to see what was going on around him. No biting stage, no twiddling the other side in search of Tokyo radio stations. No loud shouting for milkies in public places or yanking at my shirt. Just gentle, peaceful, pleasant and respectful. The ideal nursing child.

Between that easy-going personality, his difficulty gaining weight, his lack of a balanced diet, and his susceptibility to illness.... well, it just was a no-brainer to let him nurse as long as he wanted to or needed to. I was happy when he night weaned, around 2 1/2-3 yrs old (with Doug's help, thank you, Doug, for taking over night wakings!) I was happy when he easily tapered off his requests to nurse as he aged. From age 2.5-3.5, he nursed about 3x a day. From age 3.5-4.5, it went down to 2x a day. From 4.5 years old until he weaned at age 5 years, 11 months, he only nursed once a day. He'd often skip days the last year, sometimes even a couple in a row, all on his own accord. He only asked to nurse briefly every morning right when he woke up. Our morning ritual included him climbing into bed with Ella and me for a snuggle and "nee nee", as Ella re-named it.

With his sixth birthday approaching and Kindergarten looming, I started thinking about weaning. After the boys made the transition to sleeping in their own room, I decided that we should see if Sean would be willing to let go of his morning milkies. We gently talked about it, wondering what he understood and if he could comprehend that it was going to end forever. He didn't seem to really understand, but we were usually able to distract him first thing in the morning so that we could phase it out of the routine. He had mornings when he'd wake up tired from a restless night and would be upset with the distractions. Most days it went well and we moved on with the day.

Before either of us knew it, a month had passed since he last nursed. Every now and then, he'd ask and I'd tell him, "Sean's such a big boy! He's all done with milkies, just like Aidan. Only Ella has milkies now." Then we'd have a hug or go get him a drink or something else. He is completely comfortable just snuggling with me in the morning or skips it all together to come downstairs for breakfast with Doug and Aidan. He's still a slow riser, prefers to be eased into the morning, but we have found new ways to make that transition.

I'm so proud of him for letting go of so many "baby" qualities this year: no diapers for a year, no co-sleeping for a few months, no more nursing, and lots of new progress on table foods. I can't wait to add "no more baby foods" to that list, but I think I see the pattern. When he's ready, it happens and he soars.

I love you, Sean, and will always treasure our milkie memories.

Breastfeeding your baby with Down syndrome

2010-10-15T07:04:00.004-05:00

Today I am going to be busy preparing for a presentation I am giving with another person at tomorrow's Kansas La Leche League conference on the subject of breastfeeding a baby with special needs. I am so delighted to have this opportunity to give information to people in the lactation field about something I am so passionate about. Since I can't give my presentation to everyone that might need it, I thought I'd put just a few of my favorite internet links about the subject here so others can find some help on their own. I hope you enjoy reading the links and feel inspired! Tomorrow's post will be a related personal story that has been in the drafts folder for a long time.

Have a wonderfuLLL weekend!

SPECIAL ADVANTAGES OF NURSING YOUR BABY WITH DOWN SYNDROME

Helping Babies who have Down Syndrome Learn to Breast Feed

Ask Dr. Sears: Babies with Down Syndrome

Dr. Sears FAQ on Down Syndrome

KellyMom Resources about Down Syndrome

Breast Feeding a Baby with Down Syndrome: Finnian's Journey

More Alike than Different!

2010-10-14T07:00:00.000-05:00

Wordless Wednesdays: Zonked Out!

2010-10-13T07:00:00.000-05:00

Prenatal Testing & Research Funding for Down Syndrome

2010-10-12T13:57:00.004-05:00

Warning! Stepping on my soapbox...

I've touched on both of these subjects in the past, here is what I said when we were asked about prenatal testing during my pregnancy with Eleanor and here is where I talked about how I felt about the March of Dimes' funding research. Of course, those subjects come up again and again.

This week, I read an article posted on my favorite mothering website/magazine about new prenatal testing soon to be available that is supposed to be definitive testing via blood sample, as opposed to the current blood screenings. Whenever I read of these advancements in early prenatal detection, the underlying purpose always seems to scream out at me: FIND OUT IF YOUR BABY IS DEFECTIVE EARLY ENOUGH TO GET RID OF IT BEFORE YOU GET TOO ATTACHED! They like to sugar-coat it and say, "we want mothers to have time to "prepare" for the birth of their special needs child." B period S period

If they want mothers to prepare, than they should give them immediate resources that are balanced, up-to-date and accurate. You know, like the information required thanks to the Kennedy-Brownback law. Sadly, the medical field just absolutely does not do this. They immediately ASSume that prenatal testing= terminate if there are problems and then try again. So they offer up the termination choice first and if asked to offer other options, most just fumble around and claim not to know how to provide resources. It's not that hard! Google: down syndrome support and they can print off a dozen reliable sources immediately to take to the appointment when they deliver the news to expecting parents. Time and time again, support groups have contacted medical care providers and offered them brochures, books, phone numbers, etc for free to pass on to new parents. Yet time and time again, parents that eventually find the support say, "My doctor didn't tell me there were support groups. My doctor didn't tell me anything about life with Down syndrome. My doctor recommended termination. My doctor scheduled the abortion for me before he delivered the news."

And, thus, roughly 90% of prenatally diagnosed pregnancies with Down syndrome in in termination.

The majority of current research marked "for Down syndrome" is directed at early detection. Ways to "catch it" as soon as possible so the parents can end the pregnancy. See, if that termination rate gets high enough, then Down syndrome will be "cured". The reality is, there is not and never will be a cure for Down syndrome. Science can't genetically alter fetuses after conception.

Instead, we need to make sure that the research money raised or nationally budgeted by the government for Down syndrome is instead used to focus on improving the well-being of life WITH Down syndrome. Look at ways to improve heart defects, Alzheimer's, pulmonary disease, cancers. These are all condition that affect the life of people with Down syndrome as well as others. Put the money into early education, provide therapy for more instead of trimming the budgets to once a month. Send teachers to inclusion seminars. Help parents find and fund the resources they need to adapt their homes for their children.

Stop focusing on erasing Down syndrome from society. As I read on Facebook several times this week:

Oh my gosh... There is a cure for Down syndrome, its called ACCEPTANCE! Who knew...

We love Playgroup!

2010-10-11T18:58:00.003-05:00

It's hard to imagine that our little playgroup is still going strong after three years! Some of the original kids have grown up and gone on to school, so they only attend in the summer. Several of us have had new babies, so there are new young ones to grow up in the group. I can honestly say that I look forward to going every time we meet, I get so much out of our time together that the hour and a half just speeds by.

Our last playdate was at the local zoo. The number of families that attend varies each time, but it's always a good mix and Ella is so excited to see her little friends.

All the kiddos together.

Little farm girl!

This female turkey gave them a talkin' to when they walked near her man. :)

Buddy Walk Photos and a little Video!

2010-10-10T10:10:00.001-05:00

We always call it the "Buddy Carry" and this year Sean got a little walking done, a little riding in the jogger, and a little carrying.

Hey! Would you look at that, a picture of me! :)

The boys geared up with horns to start the walk.

Playing the games is definitely their favorite part of the Buddy Walk. They love getting the little prizes.

Aidan had quite a nice shot here- you can just catch the football exiting the tire on the other side. Sean played this game twice and tossed it right in, too.

Gotta love the putt-putt! Both boys got it in the hole on the first try. Ella gave it a go with Daddy's help.

All three had fun riding the cool trikes.

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Sean and Aidan both got in the firetruck.

Ella was too distracted by the balloon arch to notice the firemen.

They played several others games as well and climbed in the inflatables that were set up. The "walking a mile" part was a bit of a disaster, per usual, so we took a short cut half way. The lunch lines were overwhelming, so we just had a drink, played a couple more games, then went to lunch at Carlos O'Kelly's.

The weather was perfect yet again, it's such a pretty place to have the event. Each year it gets bigger and bigger, which is nice to see the huge support for the DSSW. Unfortunately, it also makes it harder each year to go there to connect with other families. You basically just have to focus only on your group to keep the little ones safe and don't have much of a chance to mingle.

I guess we just need to get to more of the monthly meetings to see people and try to hit the smaller, fun gatherings they organize. It was cool to see some of my blogging friends, even if it was just a wave from a distance!

It's Buddy Walk Day!

2010-10-09T06:44:00.001-05:00

Gorgeous weather predicted and a large turnout planned today for the Down Syndrome Society of Wichita's annual Buddy Walk.

Due to other major events Doug and I have on our calendar this month, we weren't sure if we'd be able to go this year. So for the first time, we did not do any fund raising or gather up a team. Other than making the 150 Buddy Walk medals we provide the walk each year, we actually got to take it easy this year. I hope we have a nice relaxing day and get to catch up with our friends from around the state.

See you there, fellow walkers!

Preparing for Kindergarten Transition: All Systems Go!

2010-10-08T07:00:00.000-05:00

Time for a long overdue post and it's a long one! The resolution of my months (okay, I admit it, years) of worrying about how Sean would adjust to attending grade school. I had so many fears about how he would be accepted, whether or not he'd make friends, how'd he manage the long school day, would he eat there, will he continue to grow and learn new skills, would he be able to manage his school uniform, etc.

I am so, so, so entirely pleased to say.....

it's all good.

Never underestimate our children!! (That goes for me, too, sometimes mom and dad need reminders as well.)

Let's see, let me tell ya about how Sean's kindergarten experience has been going.

1. Communications with his teachers has gone pretty well. Since we live close to school, Sean does not ride the bus. Therefore, Doug or I see his teachers twice a day and can exchange verbal updates. He has two folders in his backpack, one from the mainstream class and one from the resource room class. Almost everyday I get papers from them. Projects he's working on, class schedules, notes about how his day went.

So far we've only had one disagreement about their procedures. Since all of the children wear uniforms, it can be hard to quickly recognize kids that might need extra help on the playground. We were asked at the beginning of the year if it would be okay if Sean wore a bright orange safety vest during recess until the various recess helpers had time to get to know the kids. They have used them in the past as a way of quickly keeping an eye on kids that might wander off. My initial reaction was "Absolutely not!" I saw it as a way to separate him from his peers and felt it was unnecessary. Then Doug and talked it over and thought, "Well, we want to make sure he's safe there. Wearing the vest would make it easier for them to watch him." We went back & forth on it over a weekend. Finally we concluded a compromise, no vest until Sean shows that he is attempting to leave school grounds and merits the extra "flag" so to speak. The school was fine with our decision and it doesn't seem to be a concern anymore.

Sean had a few bumps on the playground already this year, but they were not due to lack of attention from the recess teachers or his paras. Just normal schoolyard accidents- he took a soccer ball in the head & bent a pair of glasses. He skinned his knee one day and was furious that they put a band aid on him. (He hates stickers or band aids.)

2. Eating at school has gone exceptionally well. The first few weeks I packed his Goodbyn lunchbox with the slim variety of table foods he likes to eat. Currently that list is: plain sliced wheat bread, hot dog buns with ketchup (gross, I know!), fresh oranges cut into bite size pieces without rind, whole banana, applesauce, occasionally yogurt, sometimes blueberries, carrots or fresh broccoli with ranch dressing to dip in, animal crackers, and shredded lettuce salad with ranch dressing. If the school had a meal with french fries or tator tots, we'd let him buy a hot lunch that day so he could eat those. The boy goes to town on tots & fries.

I put money on his lunch account for him to buy a white milk for lunch every day. After the first month's funds were used up, the lunchroom clerk suggested that since he qualified for reduced lunches that I just let him buy a hot lunch every day and then send a couple things in his backpack to go along with what he might eat there. She said that he'd been doing really well trying some of the hot lunches and thought he might try more if he could get it every day. So we've been giving that a go. I'm never entirely sure what all he eats each day, rarely does anything come back in the his backpack.

They have an afternoon snack in the classroom every day and his teacher says he's been doing fabulous with that. She said she started a game with him, "one for you, one for me" and they eat a snack together until Sean has five bites of whatever they have that day. Awesome!

When he comes home, he is immediately hungry and eats a big after school snack, dinner and sometimes a bedtime snack. I think he's weight is being maintained, but haven't had a chance to get him weighed since school started.

3. Adjusting to the school uniform has also been surprisingly not a problem. He willingly wears his uniform every day. He can't tuck his own shirt in yet, but is capable of pulling his pants up and down & using his belt. We have a Myself Belt for him and it works just great for him. We bought Sketchers Z-Strap shoes for him because they are popular in his age group, easy for him to fasten, and fit with his shoe inserts.

We only had one potty accident at school and it was totally our fault. He has a camel bladder and will hold it all night and all morning for a very long time until he absolutely must go immediately and don't stand in his way. We have to prompt him to go in the morning before school otherwise he would gladly hold it until later (were talking no peeing for a good 13-14 hrs.) The morning he had an accident, we'd forgotten to prompt him to potty before school, and when he got there he was suppose to met with his new physical therapist for the first time. She was ready and waiting on him, so he didn't have time to settle in the class. She took him to the gym to work and apparently he told her he needed to potty then couldn't hold it long enough to get to the bathroom. I got a call to bring in spare shoes for him because every thing was soaked. (I had given them spare clothes at the beginning of the year.)

Now we are adamant about making sure one of us has seen him potty before we leave the house.

4. Sean's adjusted to the longer school day fairly well. He is there from 8:10 till 3:30. They only had a 15 min rest period in the school day, but recently cut it as the kids were doing well without it.

His teacher keeps a fairly tight schedule in the class and gave us a list of how the day is spent. 4 hours of his day is spent with the mainstream class and 3 hours is spent in the resource room. Sean's time in the resource room is spent focusing on the academics he needs to work on.

5. A wonderful part of his resource room education is a once a week trip to Reins of Hope for hippotherapy! We are so glad he gets to have this experience again. He did hippotherapy for 6 months when he was almost 2 1/2 until he turned 3. When he started hippotherapy he couldn't walk independently. When he finished it, he could easily walk from the car to the fence gate and into the arena! It is so beneficial for building core muscle strength. I need to ask his teacher if I can sneak out there to see him and take some photos.

6. And, lastly, just a brief recap of Sean's first Parent-Teacher Meeting as a kindergartner. I spoke with both teachers at once and they unanimously stated that they were extremely pleased with how he is doing. They feel he handles the transitions of the day very well and is very willing to do whatever task they ask of him. He's making friends and bonding well with his classmates.

The only concern that came up in my meetings was one regarding his older brother. Aidan has always felt the personal need to take on responsibility for his brother and sister when he is around them. He constantly checks on them and keeps tabs on what they are doing, he tries to direct their behaviors. Well, Sean and Aidan share some recess time together after lunch and Aidan was stepping right in to watch over Sean. Granted, he plays with him and invites his friend to play with Sean as well, but primarily he was telling the adults that he was in charge of Sean. It was obvious to the teachers that Aidan had a lot of anxiety about Sean's well-being. They wanted to reassure him that Sean was okay and that they were keeping an eye on him so Aidan should just enjoy his recess with his friends. Apparently, Aidan was also encouraging Sean to play superheros together, complete with pretend karate chopping each other. Big no-no at school.

Our decision was to encourage Aidan to relax about Sean, trust that the teachers care about him and will watch out for him. We told him that Sean is going to school to learn how to make friends with other kids, too, and that he needs recess time to play with kids his own age. We told him that it's okay to say hi to him and see how he is, but that it's important that he let Sean play with his classmates, too.

I think it helped. I'm confident that Sean is doing well there. I went to have lunch with them one day and stood by the fence watching them play for awhile at recess afterwards. Aidan saw me right away and ran over to say hi. I asked where Sean was and Aidan ran off to find him. A few minutes later, Sean came running over with two girls he was playing with, they said hi to me, then Sean said "Bye Mom!" and continued to play chase with the girls.

Yeah, he's doing alright.

Sniff, sniff, drip, drip

2010-10-07T21:57:00.000-05:00

Yeah, that's me today. I have a cold and have been going to bed early and napping with Ella. Afraid I don't have the mental clarity to write a lengthy post today. Hopefully it will pass soon!

How I Spent My Summer Vacation: Lots o' Knitting

2010-10-06T06:00:00.002-05:00

I kept my hands busy this summer! I found myself staying up late knitting and watching reruns on tv after the kids went to bed most nights. Plus, the drives back & forth to visit my family or going to Wichita gave me nice knitting time, too. Here's my finished pile for the summer.

First up was an Elizabeth Tunic and matching shorties set for a church friend's new daughter. What fun it is to knit tiny pieces! I used cotton yarn for the first time, Bernat CottonTots Solid. The trim is Country Red and the body is Dollhouse Ombre.

I gathered up scrap yarn in boyish colors and knit a pair of wool Sheepy Pants shorties for a cloth-diapering friend's one year old. Here's why we like wool with cloth diapers.

A pretty Oriental Lily dress was next for my friend's daughter's first birthday. I used a superwash wool, Cascade 220 Paints, for it. I LOVE this pattern! I've got to make another one and this yarn was so nice to work with, too. I didn't take very good photos of it before I mailed it, but luckily my friend sent beautiful action shots! I also whipped up a little toy fishie out of the leftover yarn.

I started an Elvira dress for Eleanor, using fingering weight hand-dyed wool by a local dyer. I lost my steam on it, though. and set it aside for a bit. It's a pretty start, though.

I made a Ruffled Summer sweater for Eleanor as a quick break project in between working on the Elvira dress. I knit it a size up to last till next year. This is made with Plymouyh Yarn Encore Worsted.

And, lastly, I made a pair of Sheepy Pants longies for Eleanor to wear this fall. These were knit in the Baba Sienna colorway on wool Peace Fleece yarn.

I feel pretty good about what I got accomplished over the summer, especially since I didn't expect to get more than a one dress for Ella done. I was able to start going to Knit Nite at my local yarn store on most Tuesday evenings while Doug stayed home with the kids and I think that really helped keep me motivated. It was so nice to get out and hang out with other women in a relaxing atmosphere.

For this fall/winter, I have a few things I hope to make (roughly in this order):

1. Children's poncho #243 for Ella with this fabulous yarn from Mosiac Moon. Have the yarn and the pattern is in route to me.
2. Make the Hudson Hat for my 31 for 21 comments winner. :)
3. Possibly finish the Elvira dress.
4. Knit a dress for a friend's daughter's 2nd birthday. Already have the yarn and pattern, but it's a surprise. Birthday is in December.
5. Newborn or small dress or longies for a friend's baby. Have the yarn, haven't decided on a pattern yet.
5. Knit the boys something for Christmas. Either a Hudson Hat or this vest #256.
6. Knit some doll clothes for Ella's dolls as her Christmas gift. I'll use up yarn I have for that.
7. Not likely to happen, but would like to try knitting socks after I get thru this list. :)

How I Spent My Summer Vacation: Bathroom Renovation

2010-10-05T07:00:00.001-05:00

I mentioned earlier that we had a big fat water damage mess to deal with in our upper bathroom and it prompted us to do the huge renovation it's needed since we bought our house 5 years ago. We've had problems again and again with the plumbing leaking in that bathroom and ruining the kitchen ceiling below. Plus it just wasn't well-suited for us, it only had a tub in it so Doug and I had to shower in the small downstairs bathroom every day. The deco was lacking, to say the least.

Before photos:

We had a large construction dumpster delivered to the house right before 4th of July weekend. We had one week to rip out the old flooring, fixtures, and remove the lath & plaster from the walls. Demo is one of the boys' favorite part about our home renovations.

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

The pretty, classic, antique claw foot tub that came out of the bathroom only sat on our front porch for a week before I found a buyer via Craigslist that wanted it for his home in Joplin, MO.

We hired a plumber to come in and install lines to where we wanted our new shower/tub to go. Once he dug into that project he found major complications with all of the existing plumbing in there that would only cause us to keep having leaks. He also saw that the floor joists for the room had been cut away so deep in some areas that it was only an inch thick! Eeeks! So we had to have a building inspector come and advise how to get it up to code, then made the repairs needed and then the plumber installed entirely new plumbing to the whole room.

Finally we got to the point where Doug could build the new wall, sheetrock the room and install the subfloor.

We had professional tilers finish the floors and tile around the shower.

Walls were finished and painted, new baseboards cut and fitted. The plumber returned for a day of hooking up the sink, showerhead and toilet.After two long months of work, it was finally operational! We still need to cut & install the crown molding around the ceiling and a little bit of baseboard, then paint those. However, it is usable now and great to be in!

After photos:

How I Spent My Summer Vacation: September

2010-10-04T06:00:00.002-05:00

September is a always busy month in our family. Four family birthdays, the full swing of school, state fair and the last minute crunch to finish up summer projects. Kansas has notorious weather that tends to turn from 100 degree heat to 40 degree "fall" in the blink of an eye. It seems like we are constantly rush, rush, rushing to get things done before October hits.

Sean's 6th birthday started out the month. Normally, we have a nice organized gathering of as much of the family as we can and then try to include a few friends. This year, his birthday fell on Labor Day weekend and everyone had plans to be elsewhere. We had a small pre-party with Doug's parents, then on his birthday we just had a family day that included a trip to the YMCA to swim and out to Dairy Queen for ice cream cones (his favorite treat.) Sometimes keeping it simple is just as much fun as the big events.

Next up was the annual Kansas State Fair. We love going to see the exhibits and enjoy the rides. This year was even more fun as the kids were old enough to get excited about more aspects. Three of us had our art exhibited, so it was neat to track them down and see them displayed.

Aidan with his Pointillism-inspired collage (middle row, second from top)

Sean and Ella in front of his self-portrait.

I entered the dress I knit for Ella in the hand-knitted garment competition, but didn't place. I also didn't get a photo of it there because I had kids running in different directions in the Domestic Arts building.

On the evening we went to go on rides, Aidan ran into a classmate at the fair with his mom. She offered to take them around to do big kid rides while we took Sean and Ella to do little kid rides. Ella got a kick out of most of the things we tried.

We had an unfortunately incident involving the giant yellow slide this year. Doug and Aidan planned on riding it, but when we got there Sean and Ella also insisted they wanted to ride it. I tried talking Sean out of it, as he really didn't like it in the past, but he was determined to go. Um, yeah, not a good idea. Poor thing barely weighs 38 pounds and since Doug had to hold Ella on his lap, Sean had to ride solo next to them. He almost got air on the the first drop, so he freaked out and tried to turn over to his tummy to hold on to the burlap sack. His face smacked down on the slide rail and left a doozy of a bruise for days. He was in tears by the time he got to the bottom and says he will not do that again! Eeks. He didn't even want to walk near it the rest of the time we were there.

After we had our fill of the Fair, we made a quick trip up to visit my family for a weekend. We wrapped up the month by finally putting together the yard sale I had wanted to do all summer. I talked about it for months and slowly sorted what I wanted to purge out of the house. Aidan wanted to set up a lemonade stand for the sale and Doug was happy to fulfill that wish by building a magnificent lemonade stand out of leftover lumber from the bathroom renovation. He put a lot of work into it and Aidan really loves it. He had it open for business the day of the sale and then asked to set it up the next day too. We were so touched by the generosity of people who stopped to buy a drink and treat from him. He's hoping to get a couple more days of business before it gets too cold. I guess we will store it in the garage after that so he can use it again in the spring.

In addition to the fun stuff we did this month, I finally faced up to some dental problems I'd been neglecting. I had to get a root canal done at the end of the month and will need to go in for a crown and some fillings soon. Pregnancy was really hard on my teeth each time, but this time it was the worst. Actually, it's probably because I had areas that really needed a crown in the past but didn't get it. Instead those areas got worse and now it is no longer optional. I'll be so glad when it's all done, but just dread the time getting it fixed. Eye on the prize, right?

Well, that catches up most of our summer! I have a blog's worth of knitting projects to share and one with the bathroom renovations.

How I Spent My Summer Vacation: August

2010-10-03T06:00:00.000-05:00

Phew, August was a super crazy month!

We kicked it off with lots of fun celebrating Eleanor's 2nd birthday. It was so fun to see her really enjoy everything about birthdays. We went out to lunch that day and got ice cream cones, then had Doug's parents over in the evening for dinner, cupcakes and gifts.

A few days later, we went to spend the weekend with my family where we celebrated her birthday again with them, as well as my nephew's birthday. We went to a great new water park near them and had a fun time together.

We had several weeks of mad-rush-before-school-starts activities. Our bathroom reno was in full force, so we had workmen at the house most days. My mom came out for a week while I caught up on appointments for myself.

Right before school started, we took Sean to see the pediatric cardiologist for a check up on his heart defect. It was a mostly good news appointment. While we didn't hear what we hoped for (that his heart is completely healed), we did hear that there has been a little improvement. He has an Atrial Septal Defect (ASD) that used to have an Atrial Septal Aneurysm on it. That's right, I said used to have... it's GONE! So yay for that news! The ASD has not changed in size or in how it is affecting his heart performance. We don't have to bring him in for another heart check up for FIVE years! Woot!

What makes this all especially good news is that it combined with the fact that this time Sean was very very very unhappy to go through the testing. I had to hold him down to get the leads attached to him and the only way we could get him to lay still for the echocardiogram was to have him lay on top on me, while I held him and comforted him. I don't know why he was so against it this time, he was always compliant in the past. I seriously hope he outgrows it before the next check up because by age 11 he will be way too strong for me to hold. He put up such a fight getting the leads on that I didn't have the heart to fight him to get them off right away. He kept the "buttons" on until the next day when Doug and I held him down long enough to rub off the adhesive with some baby oil before giving him a bath. Poor little man!

There wasn't a whole lot of time left to enjoy lazy days at home. The boys had to make the most of their time together, with each other and with their little sister.

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Before we knew it, it was time for the first day of school. Oh my goodness, my throat was tight watching my two boys walk into school that day! I want to pull them close and stop time, yet at the same instant wanted to applaud them as they bravely walked in with their heads held high. All my worries about Sean eased when the principal greeted him at the school door with, "Hi there! How are you today?" and my Seanie replied, "Happy!"

It doesn't get better than that.

Something Snuggy for Your Buddy!

2010-10-02T14:19:00.008-05:00

Each year I've participated in the 31 for 21 Challenge, I've sent a gift to a reader at the end of the month. This year, it's something very special and very fun that combines two loves in my life: Down syndrome Awareness and knitting!

I searched through hand-dyed yarns and found a perfect yarn for my giveaway, this gorgeous fiber dyed by Laines Magnifiques in their French Provencal colorway. It's a blend of superwash merino wool and cashmere, so it's so super super soft and heavenly. A beautiful, subtle color combination that coordinates with the traditional Buddy Walk logo.

Photo credit: Laines Magnifiques

Once I ordered it, I started looking into what I could make it into that would fit a variety of sizes and appeal to many. A pattern came to mind that I haven't knit yet, but wanted to, The Hudson Hat. A generous knitter friend offered to purchase the pattern for me and donate it to my cause. I think that makes it meant to be!

Photo credit: The Mad Hatter.

The yarn is in route to me and I will knit it to the size the winner chooses after I draw a name on Nov. 1st. I expect it to take me 2-3 weeks to knit, so it will be done before the Christmas holidays, should the winner wish to give it as a gift. This pattern can be knit in Newborn, Infant, Child, or Adult size, but please note that I will have to add coordinating solid colored yarn to the larger sizes in order to have enough yarn for the pattern.

So how can you win this lovely prize? Simple! Leave comments on my blog posts this month. For each post you comment on, your name gets entered in the drawing. And since the whole point of 31 for 21 is to spread awareness, I'm offering additional drawing entries if you let me know you shared a post on Facebook or on your blog. Just make a note in the comment section that reads, "I linked you today!" If you found an old post you'd like to share, that's fine with me. If you comment on it, I will get the notification and count that entry, too. Please make sure I can email you if you win!

Spread the awareness, share the love, enter to win something very snuggy for your buddy!

How I Spent My Summer Vacation: July

2010-10-02T06:00:00.001-05:00

If you are wondering how I can possibly remember what and when we did stuff this summer, I'll let you in on a secret. Doug and I unload all of our digital photos into files marked by month & year, so I open up the July 2010 photo file to see what we did that was photo worthy. Granted, we usually do other things that I may forget to bring my camera to, but I try to get pictures at major things as well as take a few for fun here and there. It really helps my aging brain keep track of things, lol.

That said, July was a slim month in the photo file. The month started off with crazy heavy rains continuing from June. In fact, flash flooding covered many blocks of the city on the 4th of July. Fireworks plans kept getting shifted and delayed, which resulted in people dragging out their front yard fun longer than usual. Sean is absolutely terrified of fireworks, so we have spent the last several years just staying holed up at home in the evenings around the 4th to try to keep him comfortable. We did go over to our friends' house for a cook out during the day and the children just loved getting soaked in the flood water. (sidenote- eeeew!)

I had a Mommy Meltdown on the 5th when the new neighbors across the street from our house launched a loud and lengthy celebration with explosives directly under the our bedroom windows until 10 PM. Yeah, I turned crazy lady and went out in my jammies to yell at them. *shakeshead* Too many nights of tolerating the disturbance reached it's peak.

We had a nice visit with my mom in July. She came to stay with us to help me get the kids in for their annual physicals. She brought my nephew, Adam, along so that was extra fun for the kids. I can't tell you how much of a blessing it has been for her to be retired. She has helped us out so much with the kids this past year. They just adore her and never get tired of spending time with her. I really need to work harder at taking photos of her with the kids, because it will be so nice to have physical mementos of this time with her too.

At the end of July, we went to a family reunion with extended relatives of Doug's. It was nice to see everyone gathered up together and get to know some of the distant cousins. Unfortunately I didn't assert myself and ask to do a group photo of everyone. The best photos I got were just of the kids playing on the playground outside. I hate when I miss opportunities like that. I guess I just got too distracted with these little goofballs.

The kids had some weird bugs that month, too. Ella had a bad allergic reaction to something, coincidentally on the same day as she had vaccinations even though the doctor says that it wasn't caused by the vaccines. Her face and a bit of her chest broke out in a rash that took several days and Benadryl to ease away. Sean got a yucky sinus, ear, and eye infection that required meds. Aidan had a stomach virus that lasted a day but amazingly didn't spread to anyone else. Summer illnesses are just so unfair, aren't they?

Ella has a persistent interest in viewing photos of herself on the digital camera, so I end up with lots of little portraits of her and sometimes the boys. Two favs:

Gosh they are growing up so darn fast!

How I Spent My Summer Vacation: June

2010-10-01T00:01:00.001-05:00

Going to do a series of backtracking posts, to bring the blog up-to-date. If you are a Facebook friend, this might be boring. :)

I mentioned in my early summer posts that we kicked off the summer with some big renovations to the house. We tore down our old fence, watched builders put in a new one. We had our old roof replaced, due to water damage. We had water damage occur over Memorial Day weekend that prompted us to do interior renovations to our upper bath (will post that later.) All the house projects really ate up a lot of our time this summer, but we squeezed in as much fun as we could here and there.

The boys went to a summer school program, 4 days a week from 8-11:30, at their elementary school. It was a great opportunity to acclimate Sean to the school, his teachers and a few classmates. They both seemed to enjoy going and doing the activities there. They got to go on field trips to the library once a week and could eat lunch at school, too. It only lasted 6 weeks, but was a nice way to keep them busy and interested in learning.

Aidan played coach-pitched baseball again this year. I can't say that he loves baseball. He does a fair job playing it, but it gets so hot here in the summer that he just wasn't enthusiastic about being out in the heat. We liked cheering him on and watching him play. Here's our boy making a nice hit:

Aidan also worked on getting wealthy via Tooth Fairy Funds this summer. I think in total he lost 3 teeth. I think his college funds might all go to dental care.

Last summer, we tried to have Sean play t-ball and he really didn't care for it, so this year we decided to sign him up for swimming lesson at the YMCA. Talk about finding his niche!!! That boy is a natural swimmer, he just loves being in the water and is excited to try anything the instructors suggested. I was very proud of how he did and we will definitely keep it up.

Eleanor's favorite sport this summer was Act Like a Crazy Monkey and Injure Oneself. She pulled a doozy in June, standing on the toilet lid, leaning over to the bathroom sink, resulting in her slipping off and whacking her chin on the counter. End result, she bit her tongue in half and she got her first ER trip. FYI, there's not much they can do for severed tongues. Stitches dissolve rapidly and the tongue eventually heals itself. Scared the beejesus out of me. Knock on wood, that was the worst wound she came up with, but her legs look like a dot-to-dot puzzle due to all the skinned knees, bruised shins, and mosquito welts.

We celebrated Doug's 40th birthday in June with a camping trip to Tuttle Creek Lake. We went up with family on both sides, lots of tents, an RV, lots of friends, and plenty of yummy local brewery beer to chase away the 100 degree weather. Doug really enjoyed his celebration and the kids all had fun sleeping in a tent for the first time.

Going along with the theme of sleeping in new places, Aidan and Sean successfully have transitioned from co-sleeping with Daddy to co-sleeping together in their own room! We've gently encouraged them to several times in the past to try sleeping in there and it never went well. This summer I got the brilliant idea to put the two twin beds together and try again. Ta-dah! Happy little snuggle bugs! Most nights they make it all night long in there. Occasionally Sean wakes with growing pains and goes to Doug's bed so Daddy can rub his legs. One part of this that really made us proud is that Aidan no longer needs us to lay with him until he falls asleep. Sean still usually falls asleep on the couch while they watch their before bed cartoon with Daddy, so Doug carries him up and tucks both boys in after it's over. Aidan just says goodnight and puts himself to sleep without disturbing Sean.

Doug is very happy to have lots of room to spread out at night. I am still sleeping with Ella in her room as she still wakes through the night and is rather unpredictable in her sleep positions. Last thing I want is her flopping off the bed at night. She's an independent little bug and likes her space at night, so I think she will be ready to sleep alone much younger than the boys were.

Well, there wasn't any photos of me the month of June. Ha ha, guess I was the invisible woman that month. I have finished knitting from then, but I'll just do one summer knit post to share all that. Onwards to July!

Hellllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllo, Blogland!

2010-09-30T10:11:00.003-05:00

Yeah, baby, look who's back! Wow, that was the longest blog break I've ever had. Trust me, there was a good reason. Summer was swamped with remodeling projects, kids, swimming, baseball, traveling, knitting, and a newly-turned two year old that likes to pry mommy's hands off the keyboard when I try to type.

With the boys in school all day this year, you'd think my blog time opened up, but I've been using my baby free breaks (aka nap time and bedtime) to knit more. I miss keeping up with my blog and my blogging friends, so I am going to give the 31 for 21 Challenge another go this year. I have recapping posts to do so I will try to get some of that done. Some days may be slim, but hey it's all for fun, right?!

So welcome back to Sunflower Stories! Hope you like the new look and new features. If you are a new visitor from the 31 for 21 group, nice to meet you! Leave a comment so I can visit you, too.

Wow, what a busy month!

2010-06-30T09:20:00.005-05:00

In my last post, I told of our fence project and the upcoming, unexpected need to reno our upper bath. Well, I am happy to share that the fence is done, perfect and beautiful!

Our landscape plan is to build raised beds for a vegetable garden along the garage wall.

The bathroom project is still in the early stages. We booked a plumber and selected new tile flooring. This Friday a dumpster is being delivered to our house so we can start gutting it. Oh joy!

One additional thing has happened... We had to get a new roof on our house! After weeks of heavy rains & high winds, the ceiling in the master bedroom turned into a waterfall during a storm. Apparently there was substantial hail damage and it needed to be completely replaced. The roofer we hired moved quickly and worked with our home owners insurance to get our claim processed fast. It took two very long days for their team to turn our roof from this (older photo, took it when we last did landscaping)

to this.

Our landscaping is a mess, we let it go since we knew we were going to be doing so much exterior work and didn't want to waste money on plants that would get injured. We plan on getting the exterior painted and the porch railing rebuilt next year, so we will hold off on landscaping until that is finished. Wish we could get on a Curb Appeal show and get it all done in one whack for free, lol!

Goodbye Ghetto Fence!

2010-06-10T08:57:00.007-05:00

Things have been crazy already this summer. We decided this spring that we really needed to tackle replacing our fence in the backyard. It's sorry, "homemade", broken, unsecured condition just wasn't safe for the kids to play in. A previous owner slapped this thing together out of salvaged pieces and it sure looks it.

The driveway gate is a struggle to swing open & shut, has a latch set on the inside right at an easy height for Sean and Aidan to open (not good) and too low for me to reach to open from the outside (not good.)

The smaller front gate has no latch at all so it's usually tied shut with a piece of rope. Unless a repair man/meter reader comes by and leaves it open.

The back gate is two parts: a lovely cattle fence that Aidan has been teaching Sean how to climb over.

And this funny looking thing that secures with a loop of clothesline wire and is often smothered by fence foilage.

So what part of this rickety system is fencing? well, that would be these slapped together bits of barn siding patched with 1 x 2's and supported with steel posts intended for chain link fences. One side is smack dab next to the over-lording neighbor's deck.

The other side is being strangled by the other neighbors' overgrown, wasp-enticing ivy.

Initially, we thought Doug would build the new fence. He did a fabulous job on our deck 2 years ago, but we learned from the experience that it takes a whole lot longer to do when he has to do it alone while I try to keep the kids out of danger. So this project we decided to scrap enough money together to have it hired out. We're saving a bit by preparing the yard for the builders & hauling off the old fence. Last night, Doug got one side done and it so nice to see that ugly thing out of here! It really gets me excited about the finished result.

Unfortunately, in amidst all this planning, we've had a new project pressed upon us. We spent Memorial Day weekend at my parents' house so Doug could work on building railing on their deck. I hadn't made arrangements for a cat sitter, so I just filled up several bowls of food & water, plus turned the tub tap on a trickle so she'd have plenty to eat & drink. When we got home, we walked into our kitchen and the ceiling was dripping wet and a puddle was covering the kitchen floor. Doug ran upstairs to see if the bathroom toilet had over flowed or something, only to see that the tub had filled with water & was draining into the overflow drain.

The drain is suppose to connect to the tub drainage system, but apparently it isn't. I hadn't checked to see if the tub stopper was up and the tub had created a huge problem from just a little trickle of water! I had no idea such little water could fill up a tub so fast.

We filed a home owner's insurance claim and will probably spend July and August replacing the tub & plumbing, bathroom floor, and the kitchen ceiling. What a nightmare! Granted, that bathroom is on our reno list (it only has a tub, no shower) but it isn't very close to the top due to the expense. Dang thing just got bumped up, all for the sake of a thirsty cat.

So, yeah, I guess that's how we will be spending our summer vacation. Good thing I didn't pay for us to book a trip to Colorado like I wanted!

One More Knit

2010-05-27T17:21:00.004-05:00

Not much time to type these days, sorry! If you haven't added me on Facebook and are a regular reader, I'd be happy to add you! Just easier to jot a sentence at a time than several.

I finished up a pair of capri pants for Ella a week or so ago. I think I'm going to shy away from anymore pants for her as she seems like she will potty learn sooner than later. I've been collecting pretty sweater & dress patterns for her instead. She looks stinkin cute in her little pants, though!

First Day of Summer Vacaton

2010-05-27T17:10:00.001-05:00

so we had our first dip in the new blow up pool. Last year, Ella was afraid to get in, so far this year I can't keep her out!

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Mother's Day and a Knit

2010-05-19T14:35:00.006-05:00

My computer had a mean case of internet germs so I was without my best girl for awhile. I was demoted to sharing computers with Doug and Aidan while mine was gone. The good part of that was that I got to kick butt on my knitting projects!

In less than a month, I was able to knit a size 2T dress for Eleanor. I'm in love with the results! The pattern is by Alligator Knits and is called The Elizabeth Tunic. I used hand-dyed yarn from Mosaic Moon in their Spring Sunrise colorway. I was so excited when I finished it that I had Ella try it on after her bath that night, before I even washed it. What a relief that it fits! My plan is for her to be able to wear it through the fall with a long sleeve shirt under it and jeans when she's taller. Hopefully we get a lot of wear out of it.

She wore it to church the weekend after Mother's Day since we missed church on Mother's Day thanks to me being sick. I've tried to have Doug take a photo of me with the kids each year on Mother's Day. We missed it last year but it is fun to look back on the ones we have.

2010

2008, very pregnant with Ella.

2007, little stinkers!

2006, first one at our current house.

2005, We went to ride an antique carousel in Burlington, CO. We are all three in this one, but can't really see Sean and me.

Better one of us!

2004, pregnant with Sean! We went to a park to play.

2003, We got confirmed in the Episcopal Church that day.

In 2002, I was just a few months along with Aidan and my Mother's Day celebrations were just beginning!

Wordless Wednesday: Preschool Graduate!

2010-05-19T14:34:00.001-05:00

A Trial Run with the Goodbyn Lunchboxes

2010-05-06T15:14:00.005-05:00

After researching ideas for helping Sean eat at school when he gets in Kindergarten, I decided to invest in a Goodbyn Lunchbox for him to use. I was looking for something that would be easy for him to manipulate, that wouldn't produce trash like disposable packaging, and that would be very kid-attractive. The other option I had considered was Laptop Lunches, which I've eyed for years but hadn't purchased. The pro's to Goodbyn is that it is a single unit piece so we don't need to keep track of lots of lids and boxes, plus Sean doesn't have the fine motor skills yet to open that type of packaging.

I wanted to get our Goodbyn's now so that we can work on using them over the summer and encouraging Sean to eat what we pack in them. I also bought one for Aidan to use on the occasional days he'd like a cold lunch so that he can serve as our peer role model. Siblings are nice that way. ;)

The order arrived very quickly and the boys were eager to start decorating their Goodbyn's. The only guidance I gave them was the suggestion to spell out their names on them, just in case anyone else happens to use a Goodbyn. Other than that, they both just had a blast designing their own boxes.

We went on a field trip with Sean's class to the zoo shortly after getting our Goodbyn's, so the night before the trip I decided we should take their lunches for a Goodbyn test drive. I put together lunches based on what we had in the fridge.

Here's Aidan's (top row: teddy grahams, pears & spoon, dried cranberries. middle row: ranch dressing, water bottle/napkin. bottom row: cheerio snack mix, ham & cheese "man" sandwich, carrot sticks.)

And Sean's (top row: yogurt, applesauce. middle row: water bottle/napkin. bottom row: ranch dressing, sliced bread, carrots.)

If I would of planned it earlier, I would of filled the drink boxes with water and put them in the fridge the night before to use as a cooling element. Luckily the weather wasn't that hot and everything was a good temp when we ate. I did learn that I need to make sure each cubby section is snapped down tightly all the way around, because there was a gap by Aidan's ranch dressing and it spilled over a bit. I also should put a straw in for Sean to use because he thought it was more fun to tip the water into his bread section than it was to drink it. I hope to gradually change him from yogurt cups to just eating yogurt/applesauce directly out of the box so he doesn't have to have help opening those.

The verdict: Goodbyn's hold a lot of food! The boys enjoyed picking things out to eat. Sean did pretty good for a first run: he ate several bites of carrot dipped in ranch, a couple bites of bread, a bite of applesauce, and half the yogurt. He was pretty distracted by all his classmates and the setting so he didn't venture into the meal too excited to eat. Aidan ate most of his food, we packed a bit much for him.

I've found a couple of Goodbyn blogs to follow and gleam ideas from: Goodbyn Lunch Ideas, a British working woman's blog, Leslie's Bento Blog, and Fun with Lunch.

Wordless Wednesday: Cars

2010-05-05T15:27:00.002-05:00

Tie Dye Party!

2010-04-29T10:07:00.005-05:00

I hosted a tie dye party for our playgroup yesterday morning and it was such fun! I didn't get any photos of the process, but have some of my finished pieces to share. I was too busy with 7 adults, 11 kids under 7, and 8 bottles of permanent dye to take time to grab my camera. :) Here's info about the process, in case you want to host one at your home!

Supplies & approximate cost
plastic tablecloth or shower curtain to cover table $5 or free if you have one
old towels to absorb spills free
several packets of different colored Dylon dye $2.30 each
condiment bottles to mix & apply dye $1 each
table salt to add to dye $2
latex gloves for each dyer $2 for 10 pairs
bag of medium sized rubber bands $2
box of plastic wrap $3
100% cotton shirts price varied from $2-$5 each

Preparation & Process
1. I asked everyone to pre-wash & dry their items at home & bring them to the party.

2. Lay plastic covering on table & spread out towels on top.

3. The bottles I found held 1 1/2 cups water and the dye instructions say to add one packet to 4 cups. We put 1/2 a packet of dye into the bottle, then filled it with warm tap water. Put lid on, cover tip & shake to mix.

4. You are supposed to add salt to the dye before mixing & I totally spaced that off! The salt open the pores in the fabric to make it accept the dye. Thus resulting in brighter colors. Our colors are faded slightly because I forgot this step.

5. Wet the shirts in cold water & wring out. Fabric should be damp, not dripping wet.

6. Determine what pattern you'd like and fold/twist shirt, then secure tightly with rubber bands. Tight bands make stronger white lines in the pattern. I watched several youtube videos to get pattern ideas: like this one for hearts and this one for spirals. There are tons of great videos on this subject.

7. If the kids wanted to try applying the dye, they donned gloves and went at it. Most of our kids were too young to care, so the parents did them instead. Be sure to dye both sides!

8. Wrap item in plastic wrap to set the dye and travel home. Wait at least 4 hours or up to 24 hours before unwrapping. Rinse under cold water until water runs clear, remove bands & rinse some more. Put in washer. I did a short cold water pre-rinse, then a regular cycle hot wash with a little detergent. Dry on hot to set colors. I recommend washing/dying 2 complete cycles separate from other clothes to make sure the dye is all out and won't run. After that, it's fine to wash with regular clothes. Dylon dye usually stays good and doesn't bleed like other dyes.

9. If you get totally into this, professional dyers use Procion Dyes because the color intensity is very strong. That process involves a couple more steps and those dye are not usually available locally. Dylon dye is often sold at hobby stores like Joanne's, Hobby Lobby, and Michael's.

10. Now your one-of-a-kind shirt is ready to wear! What says summer more than a bright tie dye!?

A Little Dance Party

2010-04-25T00:53:00.001-05:00

Gotta love Aidan's request, "Promise me you'll put it on Facebook!"

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Ummm, Whose Kid is This?

2010-04-25T00:20:00.003-05:00

'cuz we are pretty darn sure that our Boy Who Eats Nothing can't possibly be knee-deep in a ketchup-soaked hot dog!

*please note that while vast quantities of ketchup and bun were consumed, the dog remained safely unharmed in this snarf fest.*

Saturday Salads: Taco Salad!

2010-04-24T23:05:00.000-05:00

This is a slightly modified version of Doug's parents' recipe for taco salad. I LOVE it so much, you've got to try this one! It makes a ton of salad so make it for many because it doesn't keep well. I try cutting it back for just 2 but it's hard to make it small.

Taco Salad

1 pound browned lean ground beef
1 can black beans, rinsed
1 whole head iceberg lettuce, shredded
3/4 bag corn tortilla chips, slightly broken
2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
2 tomatoes, diced
small can sliced black olives
a couple of green onions, sliced fine
1/2 bottle Western or Russian flavored salad dressing

Brown the beef while you prep the rest of the ingredients. Drain fat if needed, then add rinsed beans to pan to lightly warm. Combine other ingredients in a large mixing bowl, then add in meat/bean mix. Toss well with salad dressing to coat.

Serve with sour cream, salsa and/or guacamole.

One way I try to make this smaller, I reserve half of the ingredients and refrigerate them separately to use the next day for lunch. Then I just mix it up the next day before serving.

Preparing for Kindergarten Transition, Phase 4: The IEP

2010-04-21T14:18:00.006-05:00

This morning, we attended our IEP (Individualized Education Plan) Meeting to determine Sean's academic placement for Kindergarten. We had planned for a long meeting, but it went surprisingly fast thanks to the fact we had already met once to go over the testing results. Sean's teacher invited Sean to the meeting so that he could meet his new team members and he ended up choosing to snuggle up on my lap, then Daddy's, for the whole meeting. He was so quiet and shy!

We were notified that Sean is to attend the school we chose, with the teacher we chose. He will be at the same school as Aidan and have Aidan's former teacher, who we really are happy with. We also met the resource room teacher and the speech pathologist for the school. Sean's new teacher encourages as much inclusion time as possible for Sean, so he will be in her room at least 50% of the day. His pull out sessions will be for speech and academic focuses. He will start and end each day in the mainstream classroom. He will be there for art, language group, music, PE, recesses, social studies and science. His resource teacher will focus on his writing skill development and early math skills. While he is in the mainstream class, he will have an aide to assist him as needed.

Some of our concerns we addressed: uniform requirements, assistance for lunch, and potty independence. We heard very reassuring feedback on all of these issues.

The school dress code is khaki pants with a belt and a polo shirt tucked in. With Aidan, we were able to find pants that fit him loose enough that he could pull them up & down without buckling & unbuckling, yet the tucked in shirt helped keep them up. I'm hoping they fit Sean the same way. The teachers said that the kids all wear their uniforms as specified throughout the school, but are given the freedom to take off the belts in the resource room if needed. They said ALL the kindergartners need help most of the first year with buckles, buttons, zips, and tucking.

We brainstormed some ideas for adjusting Sean to eating more at school. I suggested that I could purchase milk in cafeteria style cartons to practice with Sean over the summer. He gets a lot of his calories from milk but is very specific about the container he drinks from right now. *ducking head* He prefers sippy spout cups still for milk, but likes juice or water from straw cups. I'm hoping to boldly ban sippy cups this summer and focus solely on straw cups and open cups for Sean and Ella. I think it will just be easier if I get rid of all of them and neither uses them. Well, easier on Sean but not so much my floors.

My other plan is to transition Sean to non-purees for lunches this summer. I think I can get him to eat a lunch consisting of a banana or blueberries, yogurt or applesauce, and hopefully either a small salad or a bread & cheese sandwich cut into bites. The kindergarten room has a mini-fridge I can use for the yogurt. I am planning on ordering these lunchboxes to help him eat independently.

My concern on potty independence is that Sean often waits till the last second to go to the bathroom and I was worried his clothes would slow him down causing accidents. He also uses a potty ring at home because he is so small he needs the added support. The resource room bathroom has a potty ring available, so that will be helpful. Of course, I'm hoping he's like Aidan and just waits to take care of that at home.

The IEP goals for the next year seem very attainable in most areas and the team even suggested that he may meet many of them earlier than a year so we will add more as the year progresses. Reading them gave me some ideas on things to work on this summer.

Due to budget cuts, he does not qualify for summer school at the preschool. His kindergarten teacher suggested a program at their school called Summer Scholars with run for a month in July, 4 days a week, 1/2 day. We are going to look into that for Sean as I think it will be a helpful way to acclimate him to the school. It's possible that Aidan can attend the program also, but we need more information on it.

We wrapped things up in just an hour and took Sean back to his class. I'm feeling much more comforted in this step now and excited to see how he will adjust next year.

Horray for Spring!

2010-04-16T22:03:00.003-05:00

Decided to lift the dampness of winter and welcome the sun of Spring with a new bloggy look. The header photo is courtesy of our wonderful local photographer, Kalene Nisly, of Blue Muse Photography. She did a fabulous photo shoot of the kids for Easter. I got our order in weeks ago and still need to get them in the frames. Hopefully seeing my header will remind me to get that task completed. I love Kalene's work!

Preparing for Kindergarten Transition, Phase 3: Pre-Registration Night

2010-04-16T10:07:00.003-05:00

Last night, Sean and I went to pre-register him for Kindergarten. He was very exciting to get to go out with Mommy by himself, but a bit confused about where we were going at 5 pm. I had dressed him in shorts and a polo, and he generally only wears polo shirts to church, so he thought we were going to church (he holds his hands to receive communion as his sigh for church.) I told him, "No, not church, we are going to do some papers for school."

Well, he heard school and started crying, saying no! Apparently he didn't want to go to school twice in one day. I reassured him, "no, we are not going to your school. We are going to a new place."

The district set up the Pre-Registration for all the schools in the gym at the high school, which happens to be right next door to the YMCA. So then Sean starts getting excited and signing/saying "Mama! MAMA! Swim! SWIM!" Poor kid. "No, Sean, not swimming today. We will go swimming on Friday." More tears.

Finally we walked into the gym and he saw all the crowds of people lined up at tables, but what made him the most excited was that he saw his preschool classmate Fischer running around playing with other kids.

And Fischer saw him. He came running over to Sean & saying "Hi Sean! Hi Sean! Hi Sean!" Sean was so surprised to see him & gave him a hug and a "Hi Fischer!" (Fischer and Sean have been classmates for 2 years and Fischer is one of the few kids Sean calls by name.) Fischer brought his big brother over to meet Sean. Sean was interested in the brother's DS game. I chatted a bit to the boys as I tried to fill out forms. Fischer asked if Sean could play with them off to the side with other kids & I said sure.

I sat there, jotting down answers on the forms and frequently glancing up to check on the boys. Sean had the biggest smile on his face, just playing with the other soon-to-be-kindergartners the same silly games of chasing and spinning and pseudo cartwheels. One of the gang.

I moved from the table to stand in line to turn in my forms and the boys found their way back to me. Fischer's mom was done and they were about to leave. Fischer asked if Sean could come to his house for a playdate that night. I told him we had plans later but would like to try another time. His mom said she'd get our phone number and set something up because Fischer would really enjoy having Sean over.

An invitation! To his first playdate. On his own, not just as Aidan's sibling. Not as a babysitting arrangement. My heart swelled.

Next, Sean and I had to go other to the magnet school table and fill out a transfer request. His future teacher was manning the table and tried to talk to Sean, but he was more interested in trying to climb up the stacks of folded bleachers. We discussed the upcoming IEP meeting and she said she didn't know if she'd be there yet.

I called Sean over to say hi to the principal, whispering "shake Mr. P's hand and say hi, Sean" Sean marched up to him, hand extended then got distracted by Mr. P's silky tie so he reached out to touch and shake the tie instead of Mr. P's hand.

Mr. P didn't seem to mind having his tie petted and asked Sean his name. Sean ignored him and wandered off to play on a cart dolly, then came back to ask me if we could go up to the 2nd story balcony.

I said our goodbyes, see ya at the IEP and took Sean upstairs for a walk about then we headed home. This was definitely the least painful step of the transition process!

iPods as Communication Devices & other random ideas

2010-04-12T16:40:00.005-05:00

So, I have a few misc things to blog. One is an idea I thought of awhile ago and have been thinking about since. Here's my thoughts, bullet style. :)

* Aidan got an iPod Nano for Christmas and one of the features it has is the ability to record short videos as well as voice messages. Loads of fun for the boy that has made over 75 videos on our cell phone, but also a possible tool for Sean. See, occasionally his school has used their digital camera to film Sean's feeding therapy. We've gotten a dvd copy once in the past 3 years to show us how they work with him. I got the idea that maybe we could get a Nano for Sean's teachers to use to record sessions/helpful tips on and just send it back and forth in his backpack.

A modern day version of a communication folder or notebook that would allow us to see actual video of things he is doing & how to do them at home.

One of the biggest challenges of having a speech delayed child is that we can't ask him, "How was your day, Sean? What did you do today at school?"

They send home a generic slip of paper with boxes checked off that really offer little information on Sean's actual day compared to the rest of his class. If I saved them, I'd have a pile of paper reaching the ceiling that says "snack time: tried it? y/n liked it? y/n". 99% are checked no and no, by the way.

We've discussed if this could possibly be something worked into his IEP for next year. His preschool teacher thought it sounded like a possibility, but we haven't bought one yet for Sean's exclusive use.

* Speaking of IEPs, Sean's has been scheduled for April 21. The school district Kindergarten pre-registration is on April 15, so I think I need to go to that, too.

* In news not related to Sean, his little sister is a wild woman! She looks totally toddler now with double scraped up knees and shin bruises from ankle to knee. This weekend she climbed on the porch swing and wedged her chubby thigh between the seat & back, resulting in me needing to pry it out & now has fine bruises in a linear formation.

* In related news, Sean and Ella have both learned how to unlock the front door handle. EEKS! I returned home one morning from taking Aidan to school to see the front door wide open and both of them swinging on the porch. Doug had been in the shower when I left. We now have to chain ourselves in to keep them from running out front all day.

* Aidan's school is having their Spring Concert tomorrow night and we are excited to go see him perform. He's happy that he has a line to say during the show and has memorized the words to their songs. I never knew there was a second verse to It's a Small World !

* All three kids have had massive growth spurts this winter. Aidan has gown up a clothing and shoe size since the beginning of the school year, so I took him shoe & uniform shopping last weekend. Ella is getting so tall and also moved into a new shoe size. But most surprisingly is that Sean has gained weight for the first time in YEARS! He's up to 38 pounds now, whereas he's been stuck at 34 for a couple years. He's also grown taller and I think I might fit in size 5 pants by Kindergarten.

* We found out about Sean's growth spurt due to a trip to the doctor for a nasty ear infection last week. It's cleared up now and I hope the tube is still securely in place. He had so much drainage the doctor couldn't see the tube last week. Yuck!

* We are debating on summer plans for the boys. Trying to decide on if Sean will do summer school. If Aidan will do coach-pitched baseball again. We want to get Sean in swimming lessons, he is such a fish and so in love with going to the pool.

* We also need to decide if we are going to go somewhere do something special for our 10th anniversary & Doug's 40th bday. Both events occurring this summer.

* We need to plan a start date for our summer building project- tearing out the ratty old fence and making a lovely new wood privacy fence.

Yeah, I guess that's enough for now.

Our Cafe is Now Open for Business!

2010-04-10T20:40:00.004-05:00

Cafe manager, Aidan, carefully chooses a healthy, fresh special of the day under the watchful eye of his head chef, Sean.

Our friendly waitress prepares the kitchen for the day's feast.

Your meals are made to the finest standards and the dinner theatre is free!

We even have a selection of delicious ice creams to top off your meal.

Aidan's motto is, "Service with a smile!"

Thank you, Nana and Papa for the fun new kitchen! We promise to keep a table reserved for you!

Saturday Salads: Chunky Chicken Salad

2010-04-10T07:26:00.001-05:00

2 boneless grilled chicken breasts, cut into cubes
2 stalks celery, sliced
about 30 grapes, cut in half
small handful of chopped walnuts
about 1/2 t dill
a few cracks of fresh pepper
a few shakes of salt
1/3 cup mayonnaise

Combine & chill. Serve on whole wheat bread or stuffed in pita pockets with a bit of lettuce.

Variation:
use dried cranberries instead of grapes and pecans instead of walnuts for another yummy version of this salad!

Party like you're turning 39!

2010-04-08T09:00:00.005-05:00

Last night, Doug arranged to have his brother babysit all three kids (he hadn't kept shy Ella before) while he took me out to dinner! He came home from work with a bouquet of flowers, a birthday cake for after dinner, and a silly gag gift (a Popeye tee shirt.) We had a great dinner at Il Potrillo where I enjoyed a Margaretta and ate shrimp & scallop fajitas. My sister called while we were waiting on our drinks and we both panicked that it was a call from home already! Instead it was a "Happy Birthday" serenade.

Curt said all three kids were great for him and they seemed content when we got home. Aidan helped Doug fill the tiny cake with the entire box of candles for my cake inferno.

Made a wish with the help of Sean.

Curt suffered from smoke inhalation. Or did his eyebrows get singed?

Sean surprised us all by taking several bites out of the cake! No, worries, we just ate from the other side.

We are planning on a dinner party and hotel night in Manhattan in a couple of weeks to celebrate with my parents, sister and nephews. Lucky me, blessed to have so much love in my life!