Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the Perdues!

I hope your Christmas was lovely! We've had a wonderful whirlwind of activity the past couple of weeks. I only had to pull two all-nighters to get all of my gifts completed. All but two of the gifts we gave to family were handmade. Santa, of course, delivered a mix of gifts. The elves had a hard time finding online tutorials for making razor scooters and hot wheels cars.

I'm easing back into blogging this week. I'll post pics of most of my projects through the next few days. I didn't get pics of everything, as some things were finished minutes before they needed to be wrapped.

I'll be catching up on all my blog reading and the 500+ emails waiting for me - so keep an eye out for me in your comments sections! (Tara - I saw your kitchen on down--to--earth - how cool!!)

Wishing you and yours the merriest of holiday seasons

and a new year that brings all that you hope it will!

Love, Wendy

pssssstttt.....

For a peek into Santa's Workshop, go here.

wip

Finally, some pics of something I've made! Brandie commented on my last post that she couldn't wait 'til after Christmas to see pics of the stuff I'm making. That made me think, "Holy crap! I haven't been taking pics of the stuff I'm making and giving away!" So, forgive these hastily done shots, but this is what I gave my niece for her birthday, today.

The scarf is made with fun fur, which is decidedly not fun to crochet. It's just single crochet, no pattern. I crocheted two flowers (super easy pattern found here) and stitched them onto a hair elastic to use as a scarf closure or as a hair tie. I also crocheted more fun fur around another hair elastic and attached another flower to that. I figured she could use it as a bracelet or a hair scrunchie.

I'm really pleased with how it turned out and I think my niece really liked it, too.

I'm finishing up a wrap/shawl for grandma - I'll hopefully get pics up of it, tomorrow. Apparently, scarves are in for the 9-yo set, so instead of the bag I was originally going to make for my niece for Christmas, I'm going to do a long scarf. I'm kid free tomorrow, so Santa's workshop will be open for business. I'm planning to get the puppet stage done and paint the wooden things I bought earlier in the month. I think I might post pics on my other blog and then link to this one. Jackson sees this one all the time, so I don't dare post pics here before Christmas. I figure I only have a couple more years before that one figures the whole deal out. He already informed me that the guy at the mall wasn't the real Santa Claus. He's 4, y'all.

I'm enjoying crafting this Christmas so much! AND I learned that the crochet stitch I've been doing for years is a herringbone half double crochet stitch. Dang I'm fancy.

Don't forget to check out Lily's auction for some lovely Christmas gifts. It closes on the 15th, so plenty of time for Christmas shipping!

And one last thing, during all of this Christmas madness - kiss your kids, hug your spouse, be a good friend, life is short and aren't we lucky to have all these wonderful people who love us around us every day? Blessed, I tell ya.

crunch time

Ok. 15 days. It's crunch time, y'all. Much coffee. Little sleep. That Santa is a harsh taskmaster, I tell ya.

I saw these two posts on Matsutake the other day and wanted to share them with y'all. This is so where I'm at right now.

Christmas. The holiday season is for crafters what the playoffs are for, uh, whatever sports teams have playoffs. Well, no, wait. It's like the Miss America Pageant for pageant girls, and I am putting vaseline on my teeth right now. I am not going to wake up sometime in mid-December and say, "Whoops, I didn't get anything made this year, I wasted my time relaxing with loved ones." No way! Not this year! There is no time for loved ones. There is no time for relaxing. There are Christmas crafts to be made. Break out the papier mache. It's on! I'll sleep in January. Who's with me? We'll only eat espresso and power bars. There will be no bathroom breaks. We will wear astronaut diapers (available at Michael's in the scrapbooking department). (LOVED THIS!!! Read the rest here.)

So, if you're looking for me, I'm the one with little bits of string sticking to me and the crochet blisters on my fingers.

(and I swear ima gonna get that graphic tattooed on my butt)

hello-o-o-o-o-o!

Did ya miss me? I know. I've been a bad blogger. It's not that I haven't had anything to say, just no time to gather coherent thoughts!

Quick summary of recent events:

- Kira turned three! We had her birthday party on Saturday and it was lovely. We had it at home, so it was just family and close friends (of course, that's almost 40 people right there). I think she really enjoyed it. She loved everyone singing to her and said "hooray" and "piiiiittttttty" a million times while opening her gifts. It was pretty low key and I was thankful for the chance for our old and new friends to meet each other. Pics later, when I steal them from someone else. As usual, Derek and I were too busy running around to take pics.

- Kira started school! She's in one of the blended classes. 5 typically developing kids and Kira is the third child in the class on an IEP. She's the youngest, the only girl, and the only child with Ds. The first week was a little rough, but yesterday she walked in like she'd been doing this for years. I think it's going to be a good fit for her.

- Other good stuff: We've had lots of chilling with family good times recently. Thanksgiving was lovely with Derek's parents. We spent the majority of the weekend in Shreveport with my parents and had a wonderful time. More on that (with pics!) later.

I've been busy crafting, crafting, crafting and want to share one project with y'all. I made this tutu and drawstring bag for mailing it in over the weekend:

I've donated them to the Zoromski's auction so that they can get their daughter Lily home. Lily is in an orphanage overseas. She is five years old with Ds and it is a miracle that she hasn't been sent to an institution, yet. Lily is a twin, her birth parents kept her biological sibling. You may not now it, but Michelle and Brian are also the parents of twins. Ruby's identical twin sister, Lydia, died at birth. As Michelle put it, they are a family missing a twin and Lily is a twin missing a family. Amazing.

Head over to A Home for Lily to check out all the cool items in the auction. I know Michelle, Brian, Karly, Braden, Ruby, and especially, Lily, would appreciate it!

Grab This Button

And I promise to be a better blogger. At least, I will once I get laid off from Santa's Workshop.

cute pic

"Mom, would you like to see the cute picture I took of Kira and me? Kira looks so cute in it!"

(I think the photographer looks pretty cute, too.)

batch cooking day

Derek took the kids to see his parents today and I stayed home to do a small round of batch cooking (a la Money Saving Mom). It went pretty well for my first time, I think. Definitely awesome to have the whole house to myself!

I fired up both slow cookers, the bread machine, and the stock pot on the stove top.

Final tally:

3 bags of chicken stock (2 cups per bag) - I had a couple of bags of bones from roast chickens in the freezer. I chopped up onions and carrots for potato soup later in the week and added some to the stock as well.

2 bags of pinto beans w/bacon (2 cups per bag)

1 bag of bean/bacon broth for soup later (2 cups)

2 bowls of pinto beans - 1 for my lunch today and 1 to make refried beans with tomorrow

3 bags of garbanzo beans (2 cups per bag)

2 loaves of bread - 1 white and 1 maple oat (first time making this, yum!)

4 dozen chocolate chip cookie bites (+ one rather generous hunk for the taking-a-break mama)

2 cups chopped onion

2(ish) cups chopped carrots

It was a last minute plan, so I was mainly using what we already had on hand. Next time, I'll try to do more. I just didn't want to overwhelm myself the first time! Because I was mainly using the slow cookers and the bread machine, I was able to leave and run a couple of errands and clean out the fridge - woo-hoo!

Here's a not fabulous pic:

And bonus shots of the cutie kids before they left for the day:

If anyone wants recipes, lmk. Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!

jacksonisms

A couple of days ago:
Jackson (hollering from the bathroom): "MOOOOOMMMMMM"
Me: "Did you poop?"
Jackson: "Indeed I did, and it is quite disgusting."


This morning:
Me: "Jackson, where's your sister?"
Jackson: "That's not my concern."


Brotherly advice for Kira: "Kira, don't ever fall down. It really hurts." (lesson learned after a spectacularly clumsy crash into the rocking chair - he is his mother's child.)

ARD - advice needed

We're getting ready for our ARD* meeting on the 18th. I'm attending a sort of "getting ready for your first ARD" training session next week.

Our OT (last visit, so sad) told me that if Kira starts in the blended class, to request that we have an OT monitoring Kira's progress periodically. (Assuming that Kira isn't offered OT, initially.) Laurie said that whenever we have an ARD, to make sure that we have concrete reasons for requesting various therapies, rather than just saying that we want OT (or whatever). Specifically, she said that we should request that Kira be monitored for hand strength, hand skills (grasp patterns, bilateral skills), and self help skills (eating, dressing herself, etc).


Brenda left this comment on an earlier post: Be sure to keep notes and documentation on/about all the ARDS.......keep copies of everything, phone calls, etc. You never know when you might need that data. (Thank you, Brenda!)


Beth recommended visiting classes to see what we feel the best fit for Kira would be. (Thank you, Beth!)

I'd love any advice anyone else wants to share about being prepared for the ARD. I don't anticipate having problems. I just want to be ready!

Thanks, y'all!

*ARD Meeting (Admission, Review, and Dismissal) - Annual review of a student’s special education program that includes an update of the student’s progress, a review of the current Individualized Education Plan (IEP), and development of a new IEP for the upcoming year.

WIP Wednesday

Works in Progress Wednesday

I'm finally posting some pics of recent craft projects!

Girlie tutu for Isabelle's bday party - I have enough of the ribbon to do another one of these for Kira:

Scarves for FIL and SIL bday gifts:

kind of lacy for SIL:

a smidge more manly for FIL (he actually couldn't tell the difference between the two!):

I learned how to crochet from a friend who learned how from her dad. She didn't know the names of the stitches when she taught me, so I haven't been able to read a pattern. I thought I should go back and teach myself how to crochet. Derek brought home a book from the library and I have yet to find any of the stitches I currently use in the book. So, I don't know what it is I've been doing all this time! Ah well, I can make scarves and blankets with my crochet-sort-of technique.

Current WIPs:

• I'm finishing up a baby blanket for my nephew's Christmas gift. It's crochet-sort-of.

• I'm working on a checkers quilt for Jackson. I have the squares (64 of them!) all cut out (Thank you Kam and Teri so so so so so so much for the cutting mat and rotary blade!!). I need to sew the board itself and figure out how I want to do the border. I've never quilted before, so I thought this would be a good starter project.

• I'm going to make a mini dress up kit for my niece (almost 4) - with a tutu, superhero cape, and magic wand.

That's all the Christmas I've started so far. If you're doing a handmade Christmas, I'd love to hear how your projects are going!

31 for 21 recap

I wanted to do a sort of wrap-up post for 31 for 21, even if it is a few days late. I enjoyed participating in 31 for 21 this year so much. I found some new blogs, had lots of interesting comments - even some from new readers, and really relished spending some extra time with our community.

I didn't get a post about Kira's birth story done. I've been so focused on the ECI/PPCD transition, that I just couldn't make myself gather my thoughts well enough to do a post about that bittersweet day. Maybe next year.

I didn't quite make 31 posts, but I got closer than I thought I would! Again, maybe next year. If even one person changed the way they think about Down syndrome, it was totally worth the attempt.

Thanks for reading, y'all!

Halloween pics

We went to a lovely Halloween party last night - much fun had by all! Jackson decided yesterday morning that he wanted to be a "superhero cowboy," so I spent the morning crafting that costume. Kira went as a pirate. I was a bath pouf. Derek was a hippie. There are, of course, no pics of Derek.

Hope everyone had a lovely Halloween!

So, today went well

Kira's testing today went so well! I was so nervous. We've been told by her therapists that there was a chance that she might be doing so well that she might not qualify for services. A lovely problem, yes, but one that made us very nervous. Private therapies aren't an option with our budget, so if she didn't qualify, we would be winging the next two years.

So...the cut-off for services is scoring an 80 or above on whatever the test was. She scored a 77. And I was thrilled! She gets services AND is doing really well.

We're not sure if she'll start off in a blended class or in a PPCD (Preschool Programs for Children with Disabilities) class. I'll learn more at the ARD meeting.

The school is really cool. As I've mentioned before it is just Pre-K, PPCD, and blended classes. Each class has 10 students. The blended classes are 5 students on IEPs and 5 typically developing kids. They have a little computer lab, a library, a gym, and a teeny tiny lunchroom.

The speech path at the school worked for ECI for awhile. We saw her a couple of times when Kira was one. She came into the office today, while Kira and I were waiting for the testing to start, and said, "I don't know if you remember me, but I think about your daughter all the time! I remember how great her speech was so early and how verbal her brother was, too." It was awesome hearing that, and we are very excited to get to work with her again.

The testing itself took about an hour and a half. I was amazed that Kira hung in there for that long, but she was "on" the whole time. She really seemed to enjoy it.

I feel so much better now that we're on this side of the whole thing. I'm terrified of sending my tiny girl off to school, but I'm really excited for her new opportunity.

Thanks again y'all for holding my hand these past few days!

thanks y'all

I am so lucky to be a part of such a wonderful community of people. Thank you all so much for all of the supportive comments on my last couple of posts.

I'm getting on my own nerves with the worrying, so I'm shelving it until after the testing is done. If you're the praying type, though, could you send some our way for Kira's testing tomorrow? And if you're not, I'd love some positive energy from you.

Moving on.

Up for today: much laundry, Halloween costume construction, and some batch cooking. It's a gray day here in TX, so the kids and I are staying in. They are currently eating popcorn for breakfast. Hey, it's a whole grain.

I hope y'all have a lovely day and thank you, thank you, thank you for making a mama feel so very supported!

see here's the thing

Mothering itself is a hard gig. (and Fathering, too, I assume - but I can only speak from my perspective.) You're constantly faced with "am I doing the right thing?" And the guilt, oy the guilt.

I've said before that mothering a child with Down syndrome is Mothering to the 21st degree. And it really is.

Is-my-child-hitting-milestones becomes Is-my-child-hitting-milestones-with-5-different-people-keeping-track.

And while you hope that all of those professionals have your child's best interests at heart (and we've been lucky in that respect, I think) the reality is that this is their job. And some days they don't want to be there. And some days they are thinking about their own kids. And some days your child is the hour they are just trying to get through.

And I'm having a hard time with turning my girl over. I'm sad. With Jackson, Derek and I just decided for a variety of reasons that we wouldn't do a traditional preschool. With Kira, it's this BIG DECISION that comes with more testing, and more paperwork, and new people observing and commenting and grading.

So, I worry about Jackson's future. But with Kira it feels that all of these decisions when she's just an almost three year old little girl will have such huge import on her future.

And who the hell decided that I was qualified for all of this? I know that with our kids we should presume competence, but I'm having a hard time believing in my own competence.

I'm sure that I'll look back at this post next year and realize that I was worried for nothing. I'm having a hard time right now, though.

procrastinating

I'm supposed to be filling out the paperwork for Kira's PPCD testing right now. Obviously, I'm not doing it.

I went to pick it up yesterday, and I was really surprised at how emotional I felt when I left. I almost started crying right there in the parking lot.

The school is nice. Everyone I've met is very friendly and I've heard wonderful things, so it's not that.

When I got there, I was surprised to find Kira's ECI coordinator there, too. She just happened to be in the office where I needed to pick up the paperwork. And then it was about five minutes of signing this release for info, that release for info, and three thick stacks of paper for me to take home.

The PPCD coordinator (no idea what her title is) said, "Now, it's Down syndrome, right?" and when I said yes, "Oh, we LOVE Down syndrome. We have two with Down syndrome in the class right next door! She is coming here, right?" There are, I think, 10 different PPCD programs here - most are in the elementary schools, but one is just preschool for 3-4 year olds and kids on IEPs. They have classes with just typically developing kids, classes just for kids on IEPs, and blended classes. Kira will most likely be in a blended class.

I think what bothered me was that here we are at the start of the next chapter and to the powers that be Kira is a pile of paperwork and "Down syndrome". And while I have no doubt that they will love my daughter, it's not because she has Down syndrome. She's my smart, beautiful, funny daughter not a bunch of test results and check marks on a development chart.

Throw in my ambivalence about sending her to preschool five days a week at the age of three and I'm a mess.

A procrastinating mess. Ugh.

dangit

I missed two days of 31 for 21. I spent Saturday morning and early afternoon frantically sewing, then we headed to a birthday party and then to the in-laws for the rest of the weekend.

I'll post two extra to at least get the 31 in.

Final total on the crafting this past week: 1 tutu, 2 scarves (crochet), 3 capes (1 vampire, 1 superhero boyish, 1 superhero girlish), 1 skirt for Kira's costume that turned out ridiculous, 1 pants for Jackson's costume that were way too short

The birthday party we went to was costumes optional. I really thought that everyone would be in costume, but only like three kids were. Jackson wanted to be vampire batman (?), so I made him the vampire cape. I wanted to make a sort of jumpsuitesque thing but ran out of time. So, he wore the cape, his batman mask, vampire teeth, a batman underoos shirt, and the too short pants. He spent the whole party running around in just the underoos shirt and too short shiny lounge pants (think Hugh Hefner highwaters).

Kira ended up wearing Jackson's glutterman suit from last year and her girly superhero cape that I made. Of course she spent the party in just the lime green jumpsuit. That costume has had a hard year, so once we got to the party the seams started popping open. Nice.

No one asked what their costumes were supposed to be, because I don't think they were quite sure if they were costumes or not. I don't know how this is reading, but the memory of it is making me laugh so hard I'm crying. They looked like poor little urchins running around that playground!

Now for this week:

We have Kira's testing for PPCD. I'm so nervous. I have to call and get a copy of her hearing test to take with us. And I have to go pick up the paperwork to fill out. I'm nervous.

I need to make new costumes for Saturday. Honestly, I'm tempted to just raid the dress-up box for both of them.

Anyway, hope everyone had a lovely weekend. More later.

the best part

Down syndrome New Mama had a lovely post sharing her feelings about "the best part of Down syndrome." I've been thinking about it and kept ending up with a three way tie. I love our kiddos' eyes. I adore our kiddos' feet. And the flexibility because of lower tone amazes me.

So today, Kira put on a demo of why I love two of them.

She LOVES her toes. I mean loves them like a baby doll or a blankie or something. She talks to them all the time and likes for us to talk to them, too.

Today, she was eating an apple and apparently her toes were also a bit hungry.

Kira: "Toes? Bapple? es...bapple"

She pulled her foot up even with her chest and gave her toes a nibble on the apple. Then she pulled her foot up to her mouth for a quick "tiss" on the toes followed by a hug that looked a lot like she was rocking a baby, only instead of a baby, her leg and foot were completely tucked up next to her chest. I wish I had been close to my camera. AND the nice part about it is I don't have to worry about having a back-up lovey replacement for her toes!

So, definitely LOVE the feet LOVE the flexibility.

But, oh how I love her eyes.

quick post

Sorry I don't have much time (or much to say) today. I'm busy making birthday gifts - 4 of them - for parties in the next few days. I've finished a tutu and one scarf. I have one scarf and one superhero cape left to go. And then the kids' costumes. Oy!

The scarf took me two days to finish. Kira sat with me several times and played with the yarn and pretended to crochet while I worked. It was very sweet and lovely to be able to share that with her.

If you crochet (or knit - I'd love to learn), what age did you start teaching your littles? I'm not sure how to get started with her, but I'd love to pass the creating on to my girl. And to Jackson, too, if he's interested.

Again, sorry this is short and not Ds related, I just want to make sure that I really post 31 times!

wordless wednesday

kira speak

Kira seems to be in a new language development period. A few quotes from yesterday:

- I was blogging and she came in the room and said "oll-uh". I knew she was approximating a word and not just giving me a dispatch-from-Kira, but for the life of me, I could not figure it out. Until I followed her into the living room and saw that she was trying to open up her STROLLER for her baby doll. Duh, Mom.

-Last night we were watching Dancing with the Stars (go Kelly!) and she looked up and did the sign for phone, said "i-tuh" which I think is "I talk", and said "Papaw". We said, "Kira, do you want us to call Papaw?" and she said, "NO!".

Then about fifteen minutes later, she did the sign for phone, said "i-tuh Nene". We said, "Kira, do you want to call Nene?" and she said, "es". We of course had to let Papaw know that she had no interest in talking to him.

-Monday nights are "boys night" while I watch DwtS. Boys night = hot dogs and fritos. So, last night, Kira introduced her newest word, "ot dog".

Oh, and I remember one from last week that I wanted to get down. Derek was off and I was taking a shower and getting ready to go somewhere about the time he usually leaves for work. I came out of the shower and Kira looked at me and said, "Mommy? Work?". She was totally making the connection between the getting ready and the time of day and transferring that from her Daddy to me! Of course, I had to say, "No baby, Mommy is always at work." (She doesn't say work that clearly, but I'm not sure how to write her approximation. She says it along with the sign for work and it's pretty close to the actual word.)

I know that sign language can be a hot button issue with our kids. Some parents feel that using sign language might hold their kids back from speech development. I can see that point, however in our case, sign language is a huge help. When Kira has a sign to go along with an approximation, I know right away what she's saying. Once she begins actually saying the word, the sign disappears. I think, for Kira, sign language helps to reduce frustration and encourage communication.

One more story - Kira made up her own sign to use when she wanted me to sing lullabies to her. Very quickly, she started saying "bye-bye" and using the sign with it. So, I knew that "bye-bye" was temporarily "night-night". Now she's saying "nye-nye" (no idea how to write that) and because I know right away that she's saying night-night, she doesn't use the sign. Now, she only uses that sign when she wants me to sing lullabies.

While I would love for her to have the vocabulary of her brother at this age, I LOVE the fact that she uses her limited vocabulary in the ways that she does. Watching her problem solve and figure out how to communicate is really amazing.

weekend pics and a Ds observation

We had such a wonderful time this weekend. We try to do a get together with my Mom's side of the family at least once a year, twice if we're lucky. My aunt found an awesome cabin near Lake Whitney this year. The cabin was perfect - lots of room for everyone and well stocked with anything you might need - dishes, movies, games, toiletries, etc. The surroundings were rustic and beautiful.

4 generations were represented - my grandmother, my mom and aunt and their husbands, my siblings and I and our spouses, and our kids.

My grandmother brings me to my Ds observation. I know that this isn't true of all individuals with Ds, but I do think that the chance to have a greater capacity for empathy resides in the bonus chromosome. Kira will make her grandparents crawl through fire for a smile. The second a GREAT grandparent walks into the room? She runs over for a hug. Even though she rarely sees her great-grandmothers and I know she doesn't recognize them, she knows that now is the time for a great big hug.

warning: the rest of this post is very pic heavy and probably only of interest to my family.

Mountain Man Derek

This pic cracks me up.
The guys couldn't get TV reception in the house.

This was the only spot where they could get reception for this particular game.

When the next game came on, they had to move the tv to another spot!

um...you might be a redneck if...

I'm not sure what Jackson was doing,

but based on my face he was about 2 seconds from getting in trouble.

Heading out for a walk in the woods

Our view on the walk

This pic makes me think of those shots where you see all of the paparazzi behind a star.

Jackson making rolls with my aunt

My cousin carving a pumpkin

Kira protecting her pumpkins from my cousin

She carried those pumpkins around all weekend - so cute.

cutie girl

cutie boy

Jackson learning chess from my cousin.

My sweet cousin spent about an hour and half teaching him.

lovely weekend

We just got in from a lovely weekend with my Mom's side of the family. Lots of laughter, yummy food, and not much sleep.

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. Pics coming up this week and more Ds related posts for 31 for 21.

Off to catch up on laundry and (hopefully) go to bed early!

navigation

Dear Son,

I know that you know that the Library means a lot to this family. It's where your Dad and I met. It's where your Dad works now. You were about one week old the first time you went there. Same for your sister. We go at least once a week. Sometimes we go several times in a week. It is five minutes from our house. We love the Library.

And so, dearest love, I assure you that when I put your sweet little self in the car to head to the Library, I KNOW WHERE I AM GOING. I AM NOT LOST. YES, I AM SURE.

Love,

Your Mother. And Santa.

Flashback Friday

Flashing all the way back to last Friday! State Fair pics! It was a cold drizzly day and we had so much fun.

What should we do first Kira?

Me eating

(fried butter - FIL bought an order and made me try a bite - gross but good)

Me eating

(shrimp corn dog with spicy sweet jalapeno sauce)

Me letting Derek know I'm tired of him taking pictures of me eating

Jackson eating

Faux eating

Cute shot of the kids while we were trying to get a pic of all the Perdue grandbabies

Jackson taking a break in the butterfly garden. We didn't see many butterflies, but we saw LOTS of different caterpillars. We were the only ones there, so we had the luxury of a tour from one of the docents.

Kira spent the day riding in style

Jackson and me.

I'm pushing the bag lady cart.

We looked like a caravan - two strollers, one wagon, and the cart.

Ridiculous.

Cotton candy and the starlight parade to end our day

Not one single shot of Derek, though. I'll have to steal some pics from the in-laws.

would I change it - revisited

I recently had a discussion with some close friends who also happen to parent children with funky chromosomes. During the discussion, the "would you change it" question came up in a roundabout way. This is a hypothetical question that can really divide our community, I think. And for the record, I don't think it matters where you fall, or if you even think about it. We're all families loving our kids, trying our best to do what we think is best.

So, back in March, shortly after I started blogging, here's where I stood and what I said: No, I wouldn't.

I was really glad for the chance to revisit my thoughts, and here's what I said to my friends:

For the record, I am "one of those moms". I wouldn't change it.

If we're playing the "if I could change it" game, then what I'd change is society. I'd change society to a version that accepts people as individuals, as having worth simply because they ARE, not because they meet some predetermined level of achievement that somehow equals value. I'd change society to a place where the person sacking the groceries is considered as worthy as the CEO of the grocery chain.

Ds is part of Kira's genetic make-up. In ways that I'm not even aware of, it has had a say in who she is. I think she rocks the universe.

I would take away her heart issues. I would take away upcoming struggles. I would take away prejudice. Taking away Ds wouldn't guarantee that she wouldn't face any of those things. It might, however, take away her gorgeous eyes, her amazing empathy for others, and who knows what else.

But here's the true heart of the matter: we can't change Ds. We CAN change society - one person at a time. I'm different, Derek is different, Jackson is a different person than he would have been without Kira as his sibling.

One at a time. We can change society. I'll keep my daughter just as she is.

one down one to go

God willing and the creek don't rise, I should have two napping crazies shortly. And then I should be able to get the Christmas crafting started.

On that note, I found the coolest site via SouleMama that I thought some of y'all might be interested in: Casey's Wood Products

They have natural wood blocks, balls, bowling pins, craft supplies, miniatures, and all kinds of stuff.

Warning: tons of links ahead. I don't want to post pics because I figure I only have maybe 2 more years before Jackson figures out the whole Santa gig. If he sees the pics here, believe me, he'll connect the dots on Christmas morning.

So, maybe 10 of these and a couple of these for a bowling set. I'm also thinking I'll sew up a checkerboard, tic tac toe board, and some other as yet unthought of board, plus a drawstring bag and some of these and these (depending on what I choose for game #3 - ideas?) for a portable board game set.

Check out these gorgeous beads - I think I'll get a bunch of them for a lacing bead set for K - such a lovely way to work in some fine motor practice. And they have all of these for creating little people.

I found this pattern for a drawstring play mat/storage bag thingie. I think it will go nicely with Legos or Kinex or something along those lines for one of J's presents.

Oh, I'm excited! Now, please send nap vibes toward Texas, won't you?

dear son

You are tired. You need a nap. I know this because you started crying on the way to storytime because you dropped your toy in the car and I could not do the gymnastics required to retrieve it while operating a moving vehicle in the rain.

And FYI, Christmas is coming soon. If you do not take the occasional nap. I cannot make the occasional gift. Please do not make your mother stay up until 2:00 am in the five nights preceding Christmas to make sure that you have a sufficiently joyous holiday.

Go to sleep. Go to sleep. gotosleepgotosleepgotosleepgotosleep...

Love,

Your Mother. And Santa.

31 for 21

Blogging every day is hard!

I mean I could blather on every day about something, I'm sure, but I'm having a hard time putting together meaningful posts about Down syndrome.

It's partly because I feel like I've said a lot of it before, but mostly, I think it's because we're just living life. Down syndrome is a part of our life, some days a bigger part, most days just part of it.

The other day at the zoo, while Kira and I were waiting for the gates to open and having a snack, a little girl and her mom sat down on the bench near us. The little girl was probably close to 3 and had a continuous running monologue: I'm climbing up on this bench I have a tissue I'm wiping my face we're going into the zoo we're going to see the monkeys I'm climbing down off of this bench... and then Kira broke into my conscious with: Eat Mommy...bites...moh

I had this weird moment of almost feeling jealous of the little girl's speech. All of those prepositions and contractions tumbling out of her mouth. It's not that I caught myself or corrected my thinking, but more like at almost the exact same moment I thought, "That's not how KIRA is supposed to talk right now. That's how that little girl talks. She's not Kira." Kira wanted some more to eat and she let me know.

She lets me know when she's not happy. She tells me when she is. She takes her limited, though growing, vocabulary of words, approximations, and signs and she makes it work. She works it to get what she wants, believe me. She works it to tell jokes and make us laugh, on purpose. She works it to let us know when her brother is being a selfish jerk, in her opinion.

And do you know what all of that is? That's smart. Or as Kira would say along with the sign, "mah".

sort of a post

more of a checking in, really.

Today, Jackson got to spend about 8 hours with Aunt B. I think his day went like this: went to see a live performance of The Jungle Book, McDonalds, After Dark in the Park fall festival thingy, McDonalds. As Derek says, "It's good to be Jackson."

So, when Kira went down for her nap, I took advantage of the empty house to get some gift crafting done. Much crocheting later, I finished up a gift and am really pleased with the results. I can't say more or show a pic yet, because the recipient reads my blog.

Much crochet = No blogging

I'll pick back up with 31 for 21, tomorrow. I hope y'all had a lovely weekend!

OH and p.s. Derek saw a young adult with Ds while he was at work today, so that makes up for the State Fair!