Ka woop

Ka woop is how Goldie asked for more cantaloupe at dinner tonight.  She even put a little pause in between syllables. It was so cute, we kept coaxing her to say it. Twice was all we got.

Her speech therapist has been working on vocabulary with her. To be honest, I'm not sure why. Well, not really, I do know Goldie has to understand words before she can begin to use them. But, I don't know if the ST realizes how many words Goldie knows. I had also hoped to see more oral motor activities being done. I asked for a copy of the treatment plan so I can get a better understanding of what strategies she's using and the goals they are working towards. For what its worth, I really like the ST. I've been very impressed that she has high and appropriate expectations of Goldie.

In the mean time, I decided to start keeping track of just what words Goldie can say. I started yesterday counting only spoken words, no matter how hard they were to understand. I was blown away that she used 87 different words!! I had no idea she was using that many. Today we weren't as diligent, but I noticed a bunch of words that she didn't say yesterday, so tomorrow we are going to keep track again. I also think its important that most of these were said without prompting. She either initiated the conversation or repeated them after I used them in a sentence. Goldie is not a "performer" so the best way to know where she is developmentally is to watch and interact with her during normal family routines.

Card Campaign for Sarah & Joyce

SARAH'S 21ST BIRTHDAY & GRAND OPENING OF JELLEN'S HOUSE OF FABRIC CARD CAMPAIGN!!!

As someone who learned to sew at about the same time I learned to tie my shoes and would love to be 15 again just so I could go back to my job working in a fabric store and who also has a daughter with Down syndrome, this story makes my heart sing. So, please go over to ReJenerationS and read about what you can do to help celebrate!!

Missing Post?

Has anyone ever had a post disappear from their blog? One of my first posts was a few short paragraphs about breastfeeding Goldie. I went looking for it this morning and it is gone. It still shows up in my reader, but when I click on it, I'm taken to the message "that page doesn't exist on the blog ..." 

A friend sent me a link to the Breastfeeding Cafe blog carnival. Today's topic is breastfeeding in special circumstances. So, maybe its time for me to re-post or write something more detailed and informative. 

Brakes & Breaks

As a mother of four, it isn't often that I get to take a break longer than nap time.  Until, life puts the brakes on. I had surgery 6 weeks ago. It was scheduled and planned well in advance. Still, nothing really prepares you for not being able to care for your family. I always try to see the positive in everything, but it was really eluding me in the weeks and days leading up to the surgery. Of course, in the weeks since then it has only become more obvious.  My life was out of balance.

It is very easy for me to live in Down syndrome World. It's so simple to get there. All I have to do is take a seat at the station (between the family room and the kitchen) and wait for DSL express to pick me up.  Then, I simply choose from over 200 pre-programmed stops  (favorites, bookmarks).  Oh, I better not forget to pick up the mail (Yahoo groups) while I'm out! It stacks up fast.

Now seriously, I'm a research junkie. I do believe that has been a good thing for Goldie. There is a steep learning curve when your child is born with any kind of special needs. However, I think I've covered enough of that curve to warrant taking a break for a while. I wish I could say I came to this conclusion on my own, but I had some help from a too slow to use laptop. Not to mention being in too much pain to even think about sitting at my desk.

With the help of my Mom and my husband we pulled through. I'm even caught up on some of the movies I missed in the last 3 years along with having read all the books in the Twilight saga. Reading fiction was something I hadn't done since I was pregnant with Goldie. I also used the time to write  homeschool goals and objectives for  my two older girls, along with making some curriculum choices. Now that I've put the extra chromosome back in line I can keep moving forward with life, and this blog.

Feeding Blog

While scouring the internet in search of this straw  I came across a blog dedicated to pediatric feeding disorders. It's called  Food Chaining with Cheri Fraker and Laura Walbert.  I spent a lot of time reading through their posts and am very impressed, not only with their knowledge, but their insight and compassion for children. The commonsense approach (mayonnaise is not a food) is just my style. Hopefully, I can find some new ideas that will bring Goldie one step closer to drinking, and enjoying it. 

St. Pete Beach, FL 2010

If you guessed Florida, last week, you were right! We took our first vacation as a family of 6 to St. Pete Beach in Florida along the Gulf of Mexico. If we had forseen how much Goldie would adore the beach we wouldn't have put this off for so long. The water was a warm and beautiful, with no signs of the oil spill. I really hope they are spared, and someone gets that thing stopped!

It is amazing how 3 kids, ranging in age from 3 to 11, can be completely occupied for hours with nothing more than a small pail and shovel. And really, Goldie was the one who monopolized that toy. The older two found endless entertainment playing in the waves. So, this meant my husband and I could sit in one spot and actually have a conversation using complete sentences. Imagine! We were even able to talk to other adults that we met on the beach. Their children gravitated to us, so they had no choice. (The same thing happens at home with the neighbor kids. Before Hank was born, my husband once had someone tell him they saw "his son" playing outside. He had to break the news that the boy wasn't ours.)

The hardest part of our trip was getting through the airports. Tampa International gets a big thumbs up from me for being very family friendly! They put us through a seperate security line for families. Then, Southwest Airlines let us all preboard with Goldie. (in Pittsburgh only my husband was allowed to board with her, leaving me to struggle with the baby and stroller myself)

Then, the day before we came home reality reared its ugly head. I received two calls on my cell, on from my doctor and one from Goldie's speech therapy provider. I returned the call to my doctor, but decided to wait until we got home to deal with the other one. There's something that just isn't right about being put on hold while you're at the beach. The receptionist was so not impressed when I told her where we were.

Of course, it wouldn't be a vacation if we didn't bring home a virus. 5 of us are stuffy and hacking. Goldie has an ear infection and was refusing to drink or eat popsicles. Why does she do this? I really don't get it, because she was still eating.

I'm sure we were quite a sight in the parking lot at Target. Goldie strapped in her carseat with me trying to force her to drink a blue Icee. I once noticed a mom and dad trying to make their son eat Jello in a restaurant (they were getting kinda loud) and thought "how ridiculous, its not even good for you." That little extra chromosome has caused me to eat a lot of words.

Wordless Wednesday - Guess Where We've Been!