15 of 31 - SURGERY time!

See those two huge lump looking things in the back of Katie's throat?

Yes, those are her tonsils.

They are monstrous, and have apparently caused Katie to have "a hideous sleep study", as her doctor said.  Hideous as in, an instance of apnea every 90 seconds. 

Those bad boys are coming out on Thursday, along with her adenoids.  Here's hoping for just one night in the hospital for my girl!

14 of 31 - Gigi's Birthday

Let's start this post by saying I probably win the award for worst daily blogger....it's the 22nd day of the month, and I'm doing my 14th post.  I will get all 31 up by the end of the month!!

We got to celebrate Gigi's birthday the day after we went to the circus.  (Gigi is my mom.)  We also started my new craft.  And I may be slightly obsessed with it.  We are making a hand embroidered family tablecloth.  I originally read about it at the doctor's office in an old issue of Country Living.  I have since looked online like a madwoman for other examples, and I cannot wait to see what ours will look like.

Of course the kids were more than happy to write all over the new white sheet tablecloth with Sharpies.  David even, unknowingly, gave me my first hand embroidery challenge when he started to write his name, then crossed it out.  Um, we can't really do that.  I will do a little heart or something over the crossed out part.

I love that Henry wrote "Henry vs. Mario".  He is o.b.s.e.s.s.e.d. with Super Mario, and it is so perfect and fitting that he captured that on the tablecloth.

My mother wrote a short book.  She'd really like to test my skills. You know, since I've embroidered by hand like four times.  Why not take on a project like this?

I love to see people's handwriting, and I know that I will be so thankful to have this years from now when my children are grown.

I think that lots of times people think my "family tradition" ideas are lame, but thankfully they all play along!

I'm going to start sewing it this week.  I'd like to have the birthday part all sewn by Thanksgiving so we can use it then too.

We had a yummy lunch of chili, salad, and my mom's famous pull apart bread.  

Then we all played outside for a while, throwing the ball for the dogs, playing with the chickens, playing baseball, and just running around.

Gigi requested Key Lime cake, so naturally I was more than happy to provide it.

I am so lucky to have my parents live here.  They love my children so much, and my children adore them.  I can't imagine how much I would hate it if they still lived in Massachusetts.

We had a great day together.

Happy birthday Gigi!

Day 13 of 21 - A/K/A The Busiest Day of Our Lives

Yesterday we all got up at o'dark thirty and made our way to the Middle Half.  Last year, you may remember, we had a Run for Katie team running the half.  This year?  Katie was there!  It made me a little emotional to think about it at the race!  First we lined the street to cheer on the runners of the half marathon.  Then it was show time for David and Henry!

The kids who ran the fun run (1 mile) could wear costumes, and there were several spirit awards given out.  David dressed as Superman, including a cap, and Henry dressed as a ninja.

Jack isn't big enough to participate yet, because you have to be six to run.  He's so, so ready though!

The boys were ready!  They got up so early, and were very enthusiastic and excited.  And they were so cute cheering for the runners as they passed us.  They loved to see the wheelchair racers and couldn't believe that they were racing in wheelchairs.  Henry asked if you had to need a wheelchair to participate in that part. . . Um, yes.

I love these boys!!

Finally they were off!  

Chris, Katie, Jack and I hung out on the corner and waited to see them come back around before we made our way to the finish line.  Katie was so great cheering the kids on, yelling "Yeah!!" as they all ran by.

David finished a little before Henry did.  He was tired!

I absolutely love this picture of Henry finishing.  He was not first (or even close) but he was not last, and he did it.  He was SO proud of himself, and he should be.  I love his enthusiasm and his sweet heart so much.

David won a spirit award!  I think Henry was a little disappointed that he didn't win one, but he was a very good sport about it.

After the run, we piled into the car, picked my sister up, and headed to the circus!

We go every year to the Shrine Circus, and it's fantastic.

Henry seemed a little bored with it this year, but I know he liked it.

We have learned from years past about the plethora of glowing crap.  We brought our own Dollar Tree glow sticks and masks this year, and everyone was quite satisfied.  Jack asked a couple of times for a glow light saber, but he got over it quickly.

They loved the masks.

I loved that they were $1.00.  Not $20.

The elephants are my favorite part of the circus.

Katie's favorite part was. . . everything.  She sat mostly with Chris and my sister, and she would tap Vanessa on the arm or the leg and point at every.thing.  She was clapping and screaming, pointing and yelling.  She loved it!!

And, just in case that wasn't enough overstimulation for the day, we went to our fabulous OT's fall fundraiser after the circus.  For real.  We were gone from 5:30 a.m. until 9:00 p.m.  And everyone was really well behaved!  

Katie love, love, loved riding the horses at Ms. Dana's event.  And I think the people who had the horses loved Katie.

All of the kids really enjoyed the horses.  David did a great job.

Jack looks so little up there!!

I'm sad I didn't get a picture of Henry.

I think this is one of David's favorite parts of seeing Ms. Dana.  

It got dark quick, so I wasn't really able to get many pictures.  We had a great time playing on the farm, riding horses, and going for a hayride.  And we were all exhausted when we got home!!

12 of 31 - Katie at Gymnastics Class

This is a PRIME example of why inclusion is so, so important for children.  Watch her looking at the typically developing children and doing what they do and imagine how that translates into the classroom??

Day 11 of 31 - How is it Different?

A lot of people want to know how having a child with Down syndrome is different than having a typical child.  For us right now, the answer is that it's really not that different.  I should preface that by saying that we are so fortunate that Katie has zero health issues that are often coexistent with Ds.  So really, the differences are very few.

She is still, at 5 years old, learning to speak.  That is one obvious difference.  However, her speech and general communication abilities are improving every single day.  She goes to speech therapy three times a week, and the therapy has had a dramatic difference.  Our family has no issues communicating with her, and her teacher has expressed the same.  Katie makes it very known when she is happy, sad, excited, angry, frustrated - you name it!

Katie wasn't potty trained until after she had turned 5.  That's an obvious difference, as all of our boys were trained by 3.  I have no idea if Katie would have been trained earlier if she had always been in our family, as I know several people with children who have Ds and were not adopted who are potty training well into age 5.  It wasn't a big deal for us, and she really almost trained herself.  She was ready.  She does still wear a diaper at night, because she doesn't stay dry all night yet.  That will come!

She goes to a special education class this year.  Katie is in a special ed Pre-K class and she has an IEP.  However, her classroom is really just like a typical Pre-K classroom, it just has fewer students.  Her teacher and her teacher's aide are fantastic.  We are SO fortunate to have them this year.  I love them, and it will be so difficult for us to have a new teacher next year!  Katie absolutely loves school, and a large part of that is because of her teacher.  I would love for K to be in a typical classroom next year for Kindergarten, so we're working hard toward that.

At school Katie gets speech therapy, occupational therapy, and physical therapy.  She also gets private speech and physical therapy throughout the week when she's not at school.  I guess one difference in parenting a child with Ds is the number of therapies she needs, although we've been through that with another one of our children who doesn't have Ds! 

At this point, there is really no difference for us.  Now obviously as our children get older, go to college, and move out we will certainly see a difference.  However, we are going to work hard to get Katie into a post-graduate program at Vanderbilt University and will teach her and encourage her to be as independent as possible.  I fully expect Katie will have friends in school, go to football games, complain about homework, get a job, and all of the other things that *normal* kids do.  Her normal will be what we make it, and I see no reason why that needs to be different than David, Henry, or Jack.

Day 10 of 31 - Katie's First Field Trip

Katie went on her first field trip last week.

Her class went to a local pumpkin patch.  Jack and Chris were lucky enough to tag along.

First her class ate breakfast together.  K is in the black shirt and striped pants.  Chris said it's hilarious to watch her at school. She is apparently all business.

Next they had a visit from a puppy.  Jack and Katie were so excited!  Then she got to ride the bus to the farm and Jack and Chris drove.

Katie's favorite part was brushing the sheep.  She's still talking about it!

She loved the animals, and she was able to pet several.

Looks like we have a farm girl!

We'll definitely have to go back with the big boys.  Even Chris loved it!