Wordless Wednesday: Anyone in there?

Ice Cream, anyone?!

This was supposed to be my Wordless Wednesday post, but things got crazy and I never got around to it. More of an update to come soon, for now, I gotta run...ladies night out with some friends, and man, do I need it!

Just one of the gang.

Charlotte loves to be outside! She shimmies her way in and makes sure she gets to do exactly what all the big kids are doing. Who needs therapy when you have older siblings and their friends? I am pretty sure she learns more from them then any amount of time spent in therapy!








Helping Dad fix the law mower. 



Notice how she isn't looking at the camera in any of the pictures? This girl is on the move, and when she is awake, she is never sitting in one spot long enough to get a good picture. She definitely keeps us on our toes!!

If you are from around here, enjoy the beautiful weather this weekend! Lots of outside play for the kids and yard work/planting for Mike and I planned for our weekend.

Play date

We had a play date last week with some friends. Charlotte thought it would be fun to read Emily a book. Check it out, I swear Em and Charlotte speak the same language.

Best Job Ever.

Today was a great day. Thanks to these three, I get to experience what has been the best job I have ever had. Motherhood.



I awoke to Katherine excited to share the book she made for me in school, followed by a new wok and a gift card to the spa. Katherine took my order and delivered me breakfast in bed.

We spent the morning riding bikes, playing with sidewalk chalk, swinging, and enjoying the beautiful weather.




(our new garden...it is a bit small, but as Mike told me yesterday "you have to get a goldfish before you can get a puppy")














My parents, Kate & Bill, and Erin, Paul, & my new nephew, Tucker, joined us for an afternoon cookout. The kids loved getting to snuggle their new cousin!






Charlotte checking out the baby, she thought he was pretty neat. 




All in all, it was the perfect mother's day.



I hope all the mothers out there had an equally wonderful day!

To my own mother, thank you for always being there for me and my children. I have learned so much about being a good mother from you.

And to the other strong, mother figures in my life. You know who you are. Thank you. Love you.

Growth: Part 2 (Me)

I believe everyone is constantly growing and changing, even as adults. Each day we experience new things, and in turn sometimes change how we view the world. When choosing "growth" as the word to describe this past year, I don't mean to imply that we didn't grow and change during the first year of Charlotte's life, or that we aren't going to experience growth after this year. However, the amount of growth during these past twelve months has been incredible, and I feel like it is the dominating theme this year.

A few weeks ago I was in the kitchen making dinner, while the kids played in the living room. Mike had just gotten home from work, and we were talking about our days. I was telling him about something that had happened with a friend of mine, and as I described to him who I was talking about, I said, "you know, the one who has a child with Down syndrome?" He stopped me, and said, "do you realize that is how people are going to forever describe us to others?"

It is something I had never thought about before, and a conversation that a year ago would have made me really upset. However, the thought left my head relatively quickly, and my initial thought was that there are much worse things people could use to identify us by! At that moment, I realized how far I had come in my acceptance of those dreaded two words, Down syndrome, that had left me feeling so broken nearly two years ago. 

Yes, yes indeed, I have grown this year. Some of my growth is due to having Charlotte as my daughter. I feel when you have something life changing happen, you learn to cope and in the end adjust and apply what you have learned. Of course, some of my growth is due simply to another year passing; another year older, another year wiser.

During this past year, life became normal again. Doctor appointments slowed down, Charlotte was healthy, and my every thought wasn't about Down syndrome. I started to be able to look past the scary junk associated with Down syndrome and enjoy life.Yes, I still questioned choices we made as far as therapy (too much, not enough?) for Charlotte, and wondering if we are doing enough with her at home; but I am quickly brought back to reality by those closest to me who are constantly reassuring me to trust my instincts.

My relationship with my husband has never been stronger. I know it is cliche, but I truly do love him more every day. The year after Charlotte was born was incredibly tough on both of us individually, but together we were strong, and today we are stronger still. We have settled back into our crazy little life, and work together, for the most part pretty dang seamlessly, to raise our three kiddos to the best of our abilities.

I know I have said it before, but I will say it again, Charlotte has taught me to be a more patient, less judgmental person. I am learning not to sweat the small stuff (while, at least not as much!), and focus on the important things in life. I have had a few relationships change since Charlotte's birth, friendships that were once there, not anymore. This year I have come to terms with that and realized that life is not static, it is changing, and while sometimes it can be painful, it keeps moving forward and every now and then it is okay to forgive and forget.

And finally, on the eve of Mother's day, I think it is appropriate to conclude with how I have grown as a mother.  The most important job I have ever had, and it is continuously proving to be the most challenging, yet most rewarding. I have learned to appreciate the interactions between my children more and to have more confidence in my decisions regarding child-rearing. I appreciate the individuality of each of my children, and thoroughly cherish the time the five of us spend together.

So, to our friends (you know, the ones from the beginning of the Growth: Part 1 (Charlotte), the ones who have a daughter with Down syndrome ;-)?), in comparison, year two has year one beat in so many ways. Enjoy it.

Shoe Obsession

Note: No worries, Growth: Part II (me), is coming...hopefully tomorrow night. I have been working on it for the past hour and have found that exploring my own growth over the past year much more challenging than Charlotte's. I didn't want to leave you hanging though, so I thought I would throw a picture up for tonight and revisit my entry tomorrow with a fresh brain. If you haven't read Growth: Part 1 (Charlotte), please check it out!




This is where we can often find Charlotte. I think we may be in trouble, this is our second daughter who seems to have an apparent shoe obsession.

Growth: Part 1 (Charlotte)

A few weeks ago we had some friends over for a cookout. They are ten months behind us on the "Down syndrome journey", and have become very important people in our lives. Their youngest daughter just celebrated her first birthday and we spent some time talking about milestones. At one point, they asked Mike and I how we thought year two compared to year one.

It is hard to believe that soon we will be celebrating Charlotte's second birthday. I have spent time since that night pondering their question; how has year two been different? Looking back, if I had to define year one with just one word, I would choose the word survival. Year one was about putting one foot in front of the other. It is about doing what you have to in order to get through some really dark times (even if it entails eating pounds of chocolate!) and realizing that whatever you are feeling is okay and there is no timeline to feeling better.

As year two comes to a close for us, the word that best describes the past almost twelve months is growth. Lots and lots of growth. For Charlotte and for me. Tonight I will share with you how Charlotte has grown this past year, tomorrow I will be back with part two as I tackle the task of dissecting my own personal growth this past year.

Charlotte has grown...

Gross Motor: 
 My baby girl who was a new crawler at her first birthday party and just starting to pull herself up on furniture is now becoming a steady walker who's favorite activity is to climb. She toddles down the street every afternoon to meet her big sister at the bus stop and follows her siblings up the ladder of the tree fort in the backyard during outside play. She is getting quick on her feet and I feel we may have a runner in the near future.

Fine Motor:
I sat down tonight with Charlotte before bed and helped her do a three piece puzzle. I love her determination as she tries to wiggle each piece into the correct spot, and how, even if it is slightly off, she claps for herself and exclaims "ta-da." She loves to color with her big sister, and while side-walk chalk should be fun in theory, it usually ends up in her mouth. She is working hard on putting on her own socks and shoes (though this is a long way off, she is super determined!) and she is obsessed with putting on and taking off hats.

Communication:
This year, Charlotte has learned to communicate in ways that I can't put into words. She has taught me that communicating is so much more than speaking. She signs, she points, she approximates words. She laughs, she giggles, she cries, she squeals, and she screams. She understands most of our requests, and follows directions when she feels like it (she is almost two, after all!). And even though at times it saddens me a bit to think about the language Katherine and Will had acquired by age two, I know Charlotte will get there on her own time. And until then, I appreciate watching her daily growth of communication skills.

Personality:
To me, this has been the most important area of growth this year. My girl has a personality, a big personality. She is stubborn and at times sassy just like her big sister, but yet extremely flexible and funny like her brother. I see bits of Mike in her, and at times I see myself. She has has become an integral part of our family dynamic, joining in conversations at dinner time and making all of us laugh on a daily basis. Katherine is saddened if Charlotte isn't awake for her to say goodbye to before she leaves for school, and Will greets her every morning with "Hi baby girl, did you have a good sleep?" Charlotte has recently started giving hugs complete with a "back pat." She runs to the door waving and yelling "dadadadada" as Mike walks in the door from work, and is easily becomes upset when others cry or fight.

To sum it up; Charlotte is fun, cute, sassy, funny, compassionate, stubborn...sounds like a pretty typical 2 year-old doesn't it?! In fact, that is what I am realizing; "more alike than different" has a lot of truth behind it. More on that tomorrow night (or the next night, I have to work tomorrow night and I don't like to put too much blogging pressure on myself!)...

To be continued...

Spur of the Moment Fun.

Sometimes, the best days are the ones that happen on a whim. Mike and I decided that we needed a new TV bench for our living room and couldn't find anything we liked locally. So yesterday, we packed up the three kids and took a 2 hour drive to IKEA, followed by a visit to Legoland.

We stopped at an oasis on the way down to have lunch. The kids thought it was fantastic.






Normally, I don't do well with spur of the moment plans, but because it started with a trip to IKEA, I was able to be flexible.






Legoland was also a hit, and it was fun to see all three of my kids having such a good time. Charlotte hung out in the baby carrier for the majority of the visit, and even took a snooze during the 4D lego movie. (I apologize for all the off-center pictures, I wanted to put them in a collage but my photo hosting site switched their format, and I don't have time to tonight to learn something new!)

Wordless Wednesday: New favorite toy.

Charlotte is into hats lately. Small or large, winter or decorative, it doesn't matter; she loves them all.