What an adventure this evening has been! It was that time,.....time to convert the cribs to toddler beds! The babies started climbing out at 18mths and we coerced them into stayting in at night for a few more months until Cade could stand it no more! He was flopping out at bed time and nap time over the last 3 days! It was worth the pain to him! I was so scared he was going to get hurt really bad, so Jamie took the cribs apart this evening! There was much dancing and squealing going on as soon as they realized what was happening! Annabelle jumped up and down while singing "happy happy happy" over and over! Cade just danced and squealed! We let them be a little crazy hoping the novelty would wear off and that they would be exhausted! Those little stinkers were tucked into bed at 7:30 and didn't give up until right at 10pm. agh! Round 1: Jamie opened their door to find Annabelle whispering loudly, "Cade"! Then they discussed the artwork that hangs on the wall that was painted by their (great grandmother) Ma Carrie! Round 2: Jamie peeked through the cracked door to see Annabelle tiptoe across the floor to pick up Cade's pillow that had fallen on the floor and give it to him. She went back to her bed, but the game was on. Cade hurled the pillow and she was up and running! Round 3: "need wa wa"! Round 4: Jamie opened the door to find Cade in Annabelle's bed and Annabelle in his! They must be fascinated that they've never been in eachother's beds before. Round 5: Sitting up talking! At this point I decided to lay on the floor and monitor the events for a while. Those stinkers would pick their heads up to check and see if I was still awake every few minutes! I don't know why they were having a hard time going to sleep, I could barely keep my eyes open! After 45 minutes, I left and told them to go to sleep. Shane checked in on them and they pulled the "wa wa" trick on him! After my shower I went back up and they were finally about to give up and in their own beds! Whew! At 10pm they were finally out! I can only imagine what will happen when they wake up in the morning! I should probably get some rest so I have a chance of getting up before them! I do have to admit, it was a bit sad to see that chapter of their little lives pass! Jamie commented that I will really be upset when Abigail's crib is taken down! I don't even want to think about it! She's already growing too fast as it is!
So many funny stories to share! I'll have to get back on tomorrow! Goodnight to all!
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Saturday, March 19, 2011
Wonderful Saturdays of Spring :)
Whew, what a fun day! We started by heading out to the Touch a Truck event in Downtown Kennesaw! The City and many local construction/ service businesses brought out their firetrucks, ambulances, and construction equipment for all the children to touch and see!! It was really neat, but did draw a larger crowd than we had planned on! Barbara Bradley (BB- an adopted grandparent) told us about it and went with us! It was so great to have her with us! She was wonderful at helping juggle the twins and Abigail as Shane wasn't with us! Annabelle was a little frightened by the horns, sirens, and lots of noise. Cade was overwhelmed by the huge crowds and all the activity. They went into a "watching, stay close to us mode" but did seem to enjoy looking at everything! We wrapped it up in 45 minutes and headed to Chic Fil A (the twins favorite lunch place:) They ate and played on the indoor playground! It sounds like a small thing, but Cade actually climbed all the levels of platform stairs and went down the slide by himself! Annabelle has been doing it for a while but Cade only does it when we go with him. It was great to see him go up and then appear grinning at the bottom of the enclosed slide. He scotted off and clapped his hands and exclaimed, "yay"! He knew he had accomplished something by himself! He was so proud! We were too!
Anoter wonderful part of our lunch time was that our friend who manages that Chic Fil A, had been wanting us to meet one of her employees for a while. We finally got to! She was a beautiful blond haired, blue eyed, articulate teenage young lady who attends a local high school and has done very well there. She is heading off to college in Tennesee in the fall! What was even more wonderful about her was that she has Down Syndrome!! Amber was amazing! She looked us in the eye, shook our hands firmly, and told us about herself and her job! There was no evidence that she struggled with any serious deficiencies...at all! She is succeeding in all regular classes!!! Wow! We are very optimistic about Abigail's future, but honestly, it's hard to know what to expect and what is realistic to hope for! We have promised ourselves and Abigail that we won't treat her any different and that we will allow her to progress as she is able ( and of course, we'll be adding in as much therapy as possible in every area that she will welcome)! But it was really neat to see a young lady who is doing so well and even going to college at a special school that far away from home! I really want to meet her parents and chat! I may have to start working on that one! What a blessing!
We came home and all got a nice nap! The twins were pooped after all he walking and then playing! They awoke, eager to get back outside! They love being outside! Yesterday evening, we had a ton of kids in our yard again playing with them! We had to keep them in and make them eat a very early dinner! They were waiting at the front door while I cleaned up from dinner! We got Abigail's blanket and toys all situated on the grass, and out we went! They loved it! I laughed so hard when I heard 5 year old Alexis scream " the babies are outside!!!" to all the other children as she rode her bike down the street! In no time, we had several kids back in the yard wanting to read to Abigail and play with the twins! Cade and Annabelle eat it up! Abigail just wants me to stay in sight! Which brings me to a neat thing that happened in physical therapy Thursday...
Melissa, the therapist, had finished working with Abigail, and had brought some fun things to show Cade! I needed to go get Cade up from his nap, but also needed to feed Abigail a bottle. Melissa offered to feed her while I went upstairs. It was going well until Abigail couldn't see me anymore. She started screaming!!! I could hear her while I got Cade up and changed him. He wakes up slowly, so it was hard to rush him to let me get back downstairs. When we started out over the open bannister and staircase, the baby caught sight of me again and stopped crying and started sucking! I sat down and held Cade while Melissa finished feeding Abigail! Melissa looked up at me and said, "That was typical for babies to do.....but not for a baby with Down Syndrome"...I just sat there for a minute recalling that all my babies have gone through some separation anxiety...then being grateful that Abigail did too! ;) little things! ahh!
On a funny note, Annabelle is on to us! We have given the twins older remote controls to vcr's, etc..to play with! Cade holds his in front of the TV and wonders why it won't work. Annabelle however, came running to us the other day holding one saying, "needs batties" she knew the back casing was off and that there were no batteries in it! ha ha! We smiled! Also, Jamie was working on the treadmill last night and had been using the flashlight ( Its a huge, heavy maglight that we keep in the drawer in the kitchen) Annabelle has never touched it before. She "held" it to help Daddy while he worked! When Daddy said that he was done, Annabelle ran to the kitchen, opened the drawer, and put the flashlight in. We hardly ever take it out, so it amazed me that she knew where it went. She likes things in their place. ;)
She also still thinks all food set before her is hot and that she must blow on it! Too bad she didn't have that "blowing" figured out for her birthday cake last month! ;) It cracks us up to see her do it! Cade looks at her kind of funny!
His favorite word is "no" even when he means "yes"! Such a typical 2year old! He is trying to be more independent. He must've walked up and down our huge hill in the front yard 20 times fetching his truck ( and struggling to walk back up with it) even though several older kids were offering to help him. He would say "no" whenever they got near him or the truck. They all snickered.
Tomorrow we're supposed to have pretty weather again so I'm sure we'll be back outside!
I'm forgetting so much, but will update as the old brain has something trigger it! lol Goodnight to all!
Anoter wonderful part of our lunch time was that our friend who manages that Chic Fil A, had been wanting us to meet one of her employees for a while. We finally got to! She was a beautiful blond haired, blue eyed, articulate teenage young lady who attends a local high school and has done very well there. She is heading off to college in Tennesee in the fall! What was even more wonderful about her was that she has Down Syndrome!! Amber was amazing! She looked us in the eye, shook our hands firmly, and told us about herself and her job! There was no evidence that she struggled with any serious deficiencies...at all! She is succeeding in all regular classes!!! Wow! We are very optimistic about Abigail's future, but honestly, it's hard to know what to expect and what is realistic to hope for! We have promised ourselves and Abigail that we won't treat her any different and that we will allow her to progress as she is able ( and of course, we'll be adding in as much therapy as possible in every area that she will welcome)! But it was really neat to see a young lady who is doing so well and even going to college at a special school that far away from home! I really want to meet her parents and chat! I may have to start working on that one! What a blessing!
We came home and all got a nice nap! The twins were pooped after all he walking and then playing! They awoke, eager to get back outside! They love being outside! Yesterday evening, we had a ton of kids in our yard again playing with them! We had to keep them in and make them eat a very early dinner! They were waiting at the front door while I cleaned up from dinner! We got Abigail's blanket and toys all situated on the grass, and out we went! They loved it! I laughed so hard when I heard 5 year old Alexis scream " the babies are outside!!!" to all the other children as she rode her bike down the street! In no time, we had several kids back in the yard wanting to read to Abigail and play with the twins! Cade and Annabelle eat it up! Abigail just wants me to stay in sight! Which brings me to a neat thing that happened in physical therapy Thursday...
Melissa, the therapist, had finished working with Abigail, and had brought some fun things to show Cade! I needed to go get Cade up from his nap, but also needed to feed Abigail a bottle. Melissa offered to feed her while I went upstairs. It was going well until Abigail couldn't see me anymore. She started screaming!!! I could hear her while I got Cade up and changed him. He wakes up slowly, so it was hard to rush him to let me get back downstairs. When we started out over the open bannister and staircase, the baby caught sight of me again and stopped crying and started sucking! I sat down and held Cade while Melissa finished feeding Abigail! Melissa looked up at me and said, "That was typical for babies to do.....but not for a baby with Down Syndrome"...I just sat there for a minute recalling that all my babies have gone through some separation anxiety...then being grateful that Abigail did too! ;) little things! ahh!
On a funny note, Annabelle is on to us! We have given the twins older remote controls to vcr's, etc..to play with! Cade holds his in front of the TV and wonders why it won't work. Annabelle however, came running to us the other day holding one saying, "needs batties" she knew the back casing was off and that there were no batteries in it! ha ha! We smiled! Also, Jamie was working on the treadmill last night and had been using the flashlight ( Its a huge, heavy maglight that we keep in the drawer in the kitchen) Annabelle has never touched it before. She "held" it to help Daddy while he worked! When Daddy said that he was done, Annabelle ran to the kitchen, opened the drawer, and put the flashlight in. We hardly ever take it out, so it amazed me that she knew where it went. She likes things in their place. ;)
She also still thinks all food set before her is hot and that she must blow on it! Too bad she didn't have that "blowing" figured out for her birthday cake last month! ;) It cracks us up to see her do it! Cade looks at her kind of funny!
His favorite word is "no" even when he means "yes"! Such a typical 2year old! He is trying to be more independent. He must've walked up and down our huge hill in the front yard 20 times fetching his truck ( and struggling to walk back up with it) even though several older kids were offering to help him. He would say "no" whenever they got near him or the truck. They all snickered.
Tomorrow we're supposed to have pretty weather again so I'm sure we'll be back outside!
I'm forgetting so much, but will update as the old brain has something trigger it! lol Goodnight to all!
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
busy busy
My goodness! time has been flying since I last I blogged! So much is happening in our world!
Darby has been in Argentina now for about 6 weeks! Oh how we miss her! Her boyfriend, Jared, went to visit her last week and they had a wonderful (adventurous) time touring around! He was so sweet to carry lots of things to her from me! I couldn't let her go through a spring without thin mint girl scout cookies, or peeps! lol! The poor fellow probably packed more of her forgotten items than he did his own clothing and stuff! ;) The babies still love seeing her on skype (mom does too)! Can't believe how she's growing through this! Most young adults are a bit nervous about navigating downtown Atlants, and she is surviving in the heart of Buenos Aires (population 15million) knowing not a soul upon arrival! I'm so proud of her!
Shane is still enjoying football practice almost daily and is still so involved with the babies. ( and teaching them not so great habits, I might add) ;) He is so funny! Can't believe he'll have prom and all the other spring events coming up soon! he'll be 17 next month too! Goodness, hard to believe it! It's a gift to watch him become such a amazing young man!
and the twins......ha ha! Someone told them for sure they have now turned 2! lol! More little pushes and spats as well as hugs! I can't begin to get all the funny stories in here! Anyway, Sometimes Annabelle just has a stressful moment here and there and needs to be held! ;) She will all of a sudden come up to her Daddy and say, "hold me"! Which of course he does...with a big grin! The other day, he was at work and unavailable so she walked up behind Cade and said it! He looked at her and then wrapped his arms around her and held her for a minute or so! She then ran off to play and all was well! Such a female! I'm taking notes and have tried the "hold me" with outstrecthed arms to Jamie as well, but for some reason it seems to work better coming from Annabelle! LOL! She's also very caring and demonstrative! We have a book ( 10 Tiny Kisses) in which there is a picture of a baby crying on the first page! She holds the book close and kisses the baby every time we read it! It's so cute! She has a funny little sense of humor too! Jamie will ask her something and then say, "maybe"? She will then play right into it and say, "maybe not"! They are quite the little comedy routine!
Cade Man has a new love! On my......it's Nascar on a 52" flat screen! Jamie flipped to the Daytona 500 a few weeks back and we thought the little guy was going to have a heart attack! He stood up on his toes, stiffened his entire body, pointed to the TV, and said "Oh, oh, oh, Car, car"!!!!! We laughed hyterically! Cade was glued to it! Oh my! He has not been using as many words as Annabelle ( she's speaking in full sentences- sheez) so the speech therapists will be starting back up with him so he can tell Annabelle what he's really thinking! But again, he can do many things she can't so I'm sure they will have different strengths always! I think all women are given the ability to verbally communicate early on! :o!
Miss Abigail!..ahh! Can you hear and feel the smile coming across my face! That baby is my therapy! She is doing so great! She giggles when I blow on her tummy and neck! I love it! I have maintained my routine of rocking her 3 times a day. ( 2 times for naps and then bed time) She falls asleep in the first 5 minutes, but its heaven! The world just stops. I don't worry about being productive..the twins are napping..I don't even answer the phone! It's just sanity time! She's kind of now starting to want me to just lay her in her bed to go to sleep, but its hard for me to give it up! She has mastered the sitting a while back and now she has started the sweetest thing!! When she's sitting and I start to sing, she sways. Not a little sway, but a big sway back and forth to my voice! Oh, I melt!!!! When I stop singing, she stops swaying! ha ha! Sometimes she will sing and sway! ;) Last week in therapy, she stayed on her hands and knees in a crawling position for a long time and started practicing reaching for a toy with one hand while in that position. She seems motivated to get ready to think about crawling. We are prepared that she can throw a roadblock up and slow progress in therapy down whenever she gets the idea, but so far she seems very willing to keep trying and working! She also leaned to the side (while sitting) and grabbed the tiniest string ( the size of angel hair pasta) that was attached to a toy and used it to pull the toy to her and play. Our therapist told us that was amazing for her age and that it was such a good sign for cognitive and fine motor reasons! yay! So proud that she's driven about getting what she wants....well she is an Anderson, not sure why I'm surprised! ;) The rest of us certainly do our share of trying to get what we want! Lol! I'll deny that later I'm sure! ;) I think one of her most exciting recent accomplishments is cutting teeth! !!! I was so excited to find her first tooth around the end of her 9th month and the second came 10 days later in her 10th month! Wow! We were told that it most likely wouldn't happen until way after her first birthday. Many babies with Down Syndrome dont get them until 14-17mths. It was so exciting! We know the road ahead will be filled with difficult challenges in her little life (as well as victories) , so forgive me for being so proud, but I do plan on cherishing every little wonderful step she makes!
We have been enjoying some pleasant evenings outside in the neighborhood again! Thank goodness for the nice weather! Its so much better when the twins can get outside and play! They both say "pay pay" when we tell them its time to stop for a nap or bedtime! ;) Funny little toddlers! Its good to get to spend time with the neighbors again too! Love doing life with the group we have here on Waldenbrooke Ct. Annabelle cracked us up the other day when she chased after Samuel ( the blond haired, blue eyed, very cute, 3 yr old, youngest Newton across the street) and said, 'Samul, hold me"! He ran far and fast as he didn't understand that all she wanted was a hug! He later told his mommy that he was too little to hold her! ha ha! I'm telling myself that she was associsating him with having a brother and that surely she won't chase a boy ever
again! ;)
There's so much more, but I must go cook dinner. I've had this up all day working on it! whew, its hard to get things completed! ;)
Darby has been in Argentina now for about 6 weeks! Oh how we miss her! Her boyfriend, Jared, went to visit her last week and they had a wonderful (adventurous) time touring around! He was so sweet to carry lots of things to her from me! I couldn't let her go through a spring without thin mint girl scout cookies, or peeps! lol! The poor fellow probably packed more of her forgotten items than he did his own clothing and stuff! ;) The babies still love seeing her on skype (mom does too)! Can't believe how she's growing through this! Most young adults are a bit nervous about navigating downtown Atlants, and she is surviving in the heart of Buenos Aires (population 15million) knowing not a soul upon arrival! I'm so proud of her!
Shane is still enjoying football practice almost daily and is still so involved with the babies. ( and teaching them not so great habits, I might add) ;) He is so funny! Can't believe he'll have prom and all the other spring events coming up soon! he'll be 17 next month too! Goodness, hard to believe it! It's a gift to watch him become such a amazing young man!
and the twins......ha ha! Someone told them for sure they have now turned 2! lol! More little pushes and spats as well as hugs! I can't begin to get all the funny stories in here! Anyway, Sometimes Annabelle just has a stressful moment here and there and needs to be held! ;) She will all of a sudden come up to her Daddy and say, "hold me"! Which of course he does...with a big grin! The other day, he was at work and unavailable so she walked up behind Cade and said it! He looked at her and then wrapped his arms around her and held her for a minute or so! She then ran off to play and all was well! Such a female! I'm taking notes and have tried the "hold me" with outstrecthed arms to Jamie as well, but for some reason it seems to work better coming from Annabelle! LOL! She's also very caring and demonstrative! We have a book ( 10 Tiny Kisses) in which there is a picture of a baby crying on the first page! She holds the book close and kisses the baby every time we read it! It's so cute! She has a funny little sense of humor too! Jamie will ask her something and then say, "maybe"? She will then play right into it and say, "maybe not"! They are quite the little comedy routine!
Cade Man has a new love! On my......it's Nascar on a 52" flat screen! Jamie flipped to the Daytona 500 a few weeks back and we thought the little guy was going to have a heart attack! He stood up on his toes, stiffened his entire body, pointed to the TV, and said "Oh, oh, oh, Car, car"!!!!! We laughed hyterically! Cade was glued to it! Oh my! He has not been using as many words as Annabelle ( she's speaking in full sentences- sheez) so the speech therapists will be starting back up with him so he can tell Annabelle what he's really thinking! But again, he can do many things she can't so I'm sure they will have different strengths always! I think all women are given the ability to verbally communicate early on! :o!
Miss Abigail!..ahh! Can you hear and feel the smile coming across my face! That baby is my therapy! She is doing so great! She giggles when I blow on her tummy and neck! I love it! I have maintained my routine of rocking her 3 times a day. ( 2 times for naps and then bed time) She falls asleep in the first 5 minutes, but its heaven! The world just stops. I don't worry about being productive..the twins are napping..I don't even answer the phone! It's just sanity time! She's kind of now starting to want me to just lay her in her bed to go to sleep, but its hard for me to give it up! She has mastered the sitting a while back and now she has started the sweetest thing!! When she's sitting and I start to sing, she sways. Not a little sway, but a big sway back and forth to my voice! Oh, I melt!!!! When I stop singing, she stops swaying! ha ha! Sometimes she will sing and sway! ;) Last week in therapy, she stayed on her hands and knees in a crawling position for a long time and started practicing reaching for a toy with one hand while in that position. She seems motivated to get ready to think about crawling. We are prepared that she can throw a roadblock up and slow progress in therapy down whenever she gets the idea, but so far she seems very willing to keep trying and working! She also leaned to the side (while sitting) and grabbed the tiniest string ( the size of angel hair pasta) that was attached to a toy and used it to pull the toy to her and play. Our therapist told us that was amazing for her age and that it was such a good sign for cognitive and fine motor reasons! yay! So proud that she's driven about getting what she wants....well she is an Anderson, not sure why I'm surprised! ;) The rest of us certainly do our share of trying to get what we want! Lol! I'll deny that later I'm sure! ;) I think one of her most exciting recent accomplishments is cutting teeth! !!! I was so excited to find her first tooth around the end of her 9th month and the second came 10 days later in her 10th month! Wow! We were told that it most likely wouldn't happen until way after her first birthday. Many babies with Down Syndrome dont get them until 14-17mths. It was so exciting! We know the road ahead will be filled with difficult challenges in her little life (as well as victories) , so forgive me for being so proud, but I do plan on cherishing every little wonderful step she makes!
We have been enjoying some pleasant evenings outside in the neighborhood again! Thank goodness for the nice weather! Its so much better when the twins can get outside and play! They both say "pay pay" when we tell them its time to stop for a nap or bedtime! ;) Funny little toddlers! Its good to get to spend time with the neighbors again too! Love doing life with the group we have here on Waldenbrooke Ct. Annabelle cracked us up the other day when she chased after Samuel ( the blond haired, blue eyed, very cute, 3 yr old, youngest Newton across the street) and said, 'Samul, hold me"! He ran far and fast as he didn't understand that all she wanted was a hug! He later told his mommy that he was too little to hold her! ha ha! I'm telling myself that she was associsating him with having a brother and that surely she won't chase a boy ever
again! ;)
There's so much more, but I must go cook dinner. I've had this up all day working on it! whew, its hard to get things completed! ;)
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