from Beastboy, Cyborg, and our little monkey. Have a spooky night!
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Saturday, October 30, 2010
Annual 21 Facts about Sean List
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!
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
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!
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!
Friday, October 29, 2010
A Case of the Naughties
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!
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Naming your Child with Down Syndrome
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.
So, if you have a child with Down syndrome, how did that affect your child's name? I'd love to read more stories!
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.
So, if you have a child with Down syndrome, how did that affect your child's name? I'd love to read more stories!
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
From our Gnome to Johnny's
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!
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!
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