The bubble

I don't know if I'll ever write down Kira's birth story. That was a tough 24 hours. I don't like to think about it, although I often do. Her birthday is always bittersweet for me. It gets easier every year, thankfully.

What I do want to write down is a remembrance of the 4 days after her birth. Kira was jaundiced and had a tough time keeping her temperature up at first. She had to stay in the hospital for those first few days. We were lucky that, at the time, my mom worked at the hospital. We were able to use a hospital room all day with Kira and it was such a gift.

My mom would get to the hospital really early to hold Kira. She would call me and say, "This girl is hungry! Are you on your way?" I'd be in the car, or in the parking lot, or running into the hospital. Kira and I would struggle through nursing for a bit, then I'd pump to get like an ounce or two of milk for a bottle feeding.

Derek and Jackson would arrive shortly thereafter and Mom would head home for some rest. We'd spend the day holding Kira under the light, trying to breastfeed, pumping, and seeing friends and family who would come to see Kira, entertain Jackson, and feed us.

Jackson would fall asleep for a nap on the hospital bed at some point. We'd all stay until late, then head home for the night. We'd do the whole thing again the next day.

I am so thankful for that time. It was like we were all safely tucked inside a bubble, figuring out who our little family was now. It gave me time to get used to the new reality. It gave me time to realize that, more than anything, I just wanted to take my baby girl home. I didn't care about Down syndrome. I just wanted her to be healthy and home.

The nurses at the hospital were so awesome. They took such good care of us. I never thanked them properly, and I feel bad about that.

I don't think my Mom knows how much those days meant to me, either. That little bubble of time was a precious gift. Mom, it's the best present you've ever given me. Thank you.

aaaaaaaaaannnnddd we're back! (31 for 21)

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31 for 21, y'all. 31 posts in 31 days in honor of my girl's 21st chromosome. And a great chance for a lazy blogger to get her mojo working again.

So, let's see. Where were we?

Kids are in school. Kira for a 1/2 day and Jackson in all day Kindergarten. Jackson had a bit of a rough start, but now absolutely adores school. Adores it in a way that is sure to get his ass kicked at some point in the future. Bless him.

Kira returned to school like the princess she is. Beauty queen waving like she was on the back of a convertible all the way down the hall.

I'm in full on PTA mode. PTA doesn't play, y'all. Serious business.

ummm....what else? Oh, we have a cat. Her name is Lulu. She rocks. She'll get her own post or two this month.

I'll leave you with first day of school pics. And a promise to do my best to blog every day. And maybe even talk about Down syndrome.

Missed y'all.

Love, W.

(Jackson showing "5" and helping Kira show "3", so I'll remember when this was!)

good morning!

I'm almost scared to say anything about it, but I'm happy to report a fever-free, back-to-as-normal-as-we-can-ever-get household! And, it's supposed to reach the 50s sometime today!! I know we didn't get anywhere close to the yucky cold that the rest of the country got, but I am so done with this weather. Hopefully, the kids and I can get outside for some sunshine this afternoon.

A couple of quick pics:

Kira looked like such a big girl before school this morning, I had to take her picture. It's not a great shot, but you can see her new purple frames. This is our second pair of frames from specs4us. They are made especially for kids with Down syndrome. The bridge is set lower, the glasses are a little wider, and the arms are a little shorter. Kira is slightly far-sighted and her left eye muscles are a little bit weaker than her right. She's been seeing a pediatric opthamologist since she was about 6 months old (I think).

And, of course, one of the most popular "new toys" around here has been this box:

Kids.

Hug your babies, y'all!

Love, Wendy

right now

This is one of those posts that will make no sense to most, but I will smile when I re-read it later.

Right now the kiddos are supposed to be "resting". Instead I'm hearing one voice sing "Old black crow, old black crow goes..." Then two loud voices "singing" ACK, ACK, ACK, ACK.

Earlier today, I heard T. Berry Brazleton on NPR quoting a study that says that interaction between siblings may be more important for a successful adult life than parental interaction.

I think I'll let them rest their way for a little bit longer.

and now back to our regularly scheduled programming

Back to the routine this morning. Kira's at school and Jackson is sleeping in, so I get some blog time. Derek took the week off following Christmas and it was so lovely to have an extended holiday. I am glad to be getting back to our regular flow of things, though. (Although, if we were independently wealthy and he got to be home all the time, you'd better believe I could go with that flow!)

I've been debating if I want to do a series of handmade Christmas posts or just one marathon one. I'm going with the marathon. I didn't get pictures of quite a few things, but I do have several pics for y'all.

All in all, I'm really glad that I did a mainly handmade Christmas this year. Crocheting into the wee hours snuggled up on my couch with a beer and Craig Ferguson on the TV is WAY more pleasurable than battling the mall.

I think everyone sincerely liked their gifts and I know I thoroughly enjoyed making them all. I'm already planning for next year, so if you're on my Christmas list, start dropping hints. (And yes, Dad, I'll have your longer scarf done soon.)

Now for the pics. First up, gifts for the kids from us.

I had originally planned for Santa to handle the puppet stage, but he totally wussed out on me. Since I created it from 12:30am to 4:45am the night of the 22nd, it was most definitely from me. It's a doorway stage that you hang from a tension rod with dowels above and below the stage opening for stability. It all folds up into a storage case. The pattern is from Bend the Rules Sewing by Amy Karol. It was super easy to follow. It calls for cutting the dowels down, but I wanted our stage to be a little wider for our doorways. Of course, middle of the night sewing doesn't lead to very good math skills, so I didn't even think about making the case longer to accommodate the longer dowels. You'll notice they stick out. Big-whoopty-freakin'-do is what I say.

Front of stage:

Back of stage:

Poorly measured (but still cute) case:

For Jackson, I did a double sided game quilt - checkerboard on one side and tic tac toe on the other. I just made it up as I went along, so no pattern really. I made a simple drawstring bag to hold the folded up board and the checkers. He loves it.

Kira's baby received a mini wardrobe of crocheted and sewed things - two outfits and three flannel/velcro sided diapers. We use sposies round here, so Kira changes her baby and then proceeds to throw the diaper in the trash. I don't know how many times I've fished those suckers back out. You'll notice that Fancy Nancy is also sporting a new sweater. I was trying out a pattern for my nephew and it was a little too small.

Santa brought painted things made by the elves, in addition to art supplies, books, puzzles, games (Twister - hilarious to watch them play this!), a scooter for Jackson, and a baby highchair for Kira.

It was a wonderful Christmas morning. My parents visited in the morning, lovely in itself, but they also totally rescued us by bringing food. In all my Christmas preparations, I neglected to think about getting to the grocery store before we left for a couple of days with the in-laws. Christmas morning found us without eggs, and almost out of milk and coffee. Derek improvised some yummy pancakes and Nana and Poppy brought cheese ball, crackers, and pies, and full tummies were had all around. Crisis averted.

Some pics of other gifts:

wrap for my grandma

various scarves and hats for my parents, cousins, and niece

Derek and the kids took over making our gift for his parents (love. him.) - he made collages of the kids' artwork, handprints, and pics through the year. We had them laminated in ledger size laminate so that they could use them for placemats. I didn't get a shot of the post-laminate creations, but here's a pre-laminate collage.

Several gifts not pictured:

My niece's dress-up kit was a big hit. I ended up doing a tutu, reversible cape, and crocheted crown. She, of course, wore them all at the same time along with 8 Christmas bows and about 79 layers of the lip gloss my MIL bought her.

I crocheted a baby blanket for our nephew. I started it before I re-learned how to crochet, so the whole thing was in half-double herringbone. It. took. for. ever. But it's really thick and great for this crazy cold winter we're having.

Ok, Jackson's up, so I have to wrap this up. Have a great day, y'all!

Love, Wendy

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

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!

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

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.

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.