Sarah's Birthday Party

Wow, can you believe my baby is turning 2 this Wednesday?  Where has the time gone?  She is growing up so fast.  We had her 2nd birthday party on Saturday.  This was her first party with friends so we kept it small to see how they would do before we have a bigger get together.  We invited two of her friends from kindermusik and one that lives down the street.  All of them have Down syndrome and are close in age.  I am so happy that she has friends that are close with the same diagnosis.  We also invited 2 other friends, but they were sick and not able to come.  We hope we can have a playdate later this week with them.  The kids had lots of fun playing.    Then we opened the presents.  All of the kids got in on the fun.

Then we had some lunch and of course CAKE and ICE CREAM!!!  Sarah loves Winnie the Pooh, so that was her birthday theme.  Everyone had a great time.  Sarah napped really well after the party.  That night we played in the balloons.  Of course both kids wanted the same balloon at the same time.    I think Sarah got the balloon!  All in all in was a great day!

You might disappointment me.

I overheard the following conversation between Elijah and Nana last night.

Elijah:  I go to soccer tomorrow. 

Nana:  Do you have a soccer game?

Elijah:  No, not a game.  We go and play and listen to the coaches.  We have to do what they say.

Nana:  Oh, I am coming to your house Friday and I will be there for your first game.  I am going to yell Yea!  Go Elijah, kick that ball.

Elijah:  No, you might disappointment me and I will miss the ball.

Nana(trying hard not to laugh) Oh, well then I will do it softly.

Elijah:  No, the other kids might hear you.

Nana: Oh, ok I will wait and cheer for you in the van after the game.

Elijah:  Well, not too loud the other kids might hear you and get disappointed.

Obviously he meant distracted not disappointed.  He is so cute trying to use big words.  I don't know what is up with this and why he is thinking about being distracted.  Guess we will have to see.  He is growing up so fast.  This morning he showed me that he no longer needs a step stool at the bathroom sink to reach.  I think he grew a foot over night.  I figured he was fixing to have a growth spurt.  He has been eating us out of house and home. 

Sarah is still on the mend.  The doctor called on Mon to tell us she cultured positive for salmonella.  I was so upset.  We narrowed the timeline down to the Thursday we traveled to IN through the Saturday we traveled back.  Needless to say we only ate breakfast at home during these 3 days.  More than likely she got it at one of the restaurants we stopped at.  I was livid at this point.  We did decided to treat Sarah since she tends to get things so easy.  She was over the diarrhea by Saturday, but I wanted to make sure she was really over it.  I am going to take her back for another culture after the antibiotics to make sure it got all of the salmonella.  They said salmonella is really on the rise and for the most part they can not figure out where it is coming from.  Scary to think it is so rampant.

The kids start school(Mother's Day Out at church) next week.  I am so EXCITED!!!  I know my excitement is more than the kids, but I am trying to control it. 

Wordless Wednesday/Special Exposure

My loving children...

Decorating Sarah's Big Girl Room

Ok, we have the toddler bed, so now what to do about her room.  I decorated the nursery about a year before we got Sarah, so it was generic.  We actually decorated it basically the same as Elijah's nursery(different house).  Yellow and white and Disney theme wallpaper boarder.  I have always loved Disney and had tons of stuff to use in the room that I had collected.  Now I want Sarah to have a girly room.  I found this quilt at Tuesday Morning .  I am thinking about painting the walls a pale yellow or soft sage green, maybe I could even use both colors.  I then found these curtains and curtain rod on clearance at Walmart. Thought they went perfectly with the quilt.  What do you think?  I then found the cutest ladybug and flower pillows in the Kohls ad in Sunday's paper.  Hope they sale these.  The lady bug is perfect!  I am getting so excited about doing her room.  I will post pictures when I complete it.  My mom is going to help me with her room next week when she is here.  It is going to be so much fun!!!!

Sarah's Big Girl Bed

Well, we finally decided Sarah needed to go to a toddler bed.  She has tried to climb out of the crib several times recently.  I got the bed Saturday and set it up on Sunday.  I figured I would let her play in it a few days, then use it at nap times for awhile, then make the move for night time use.  Well, Sarah had other ideas.  I put the bed together and moved the furniture around.  Sarah climbed in the bed and said nite-nite.  She had just gotten up about 1 hr prior to this, so I thought she was just saying it was for nite-nite.  She continued to say nite-nite.  She then laid down and shut her eyes and waited. I asked her if she wanted her music, "yep" was her reply.  I turned on the music and then asked her if she wanted the lights off.  She opened her eyes then and just looked at me.  I turned off the lights and she giggled. I shut the door(we always shut her door when sleeping, she is such a lite sleeper).  She stayed in the bed.  Elijah and Daddy were gone during this and returned about 10 minutes later.  When she heard them she started giggling and I could tell she sat up in bed, so we went in.  She started telling Elijah it was her nite-nite.  She was so proud of her new bed.  She refused to sleep in her crib last night.  She had to sleep in the toddler bed.  I was a nervous wreck.  We did put an additional side rail up and I am so glad we did, she was at the bottom of the bed last night we I checked on her prior to going to bed myself.  She has used the bed all day today and tonight after supper while I was cleaning up she tried to climb back in and play.  I had to move the side rail and she got up and sat and played for about 30 minutes in her bed.  She is so cute.  I am so sad, my baby is growing up way too fast!!!!  I also took down the wallpaper border between the yellow and white paint.  The room looks so bare without it.  I will post tomorrow about my plans for her new big girl room makeover!

# 7

Yep, #7.  This is taking forever!  Will we ever finish?  I am so tired of this and all of the fussing and whining that goes with it.  Hmmm, I bet you think I am talking about our code brown situation.  Could be, but thank God we did finish that on day 6.  Sarah has not pooped since Saturday morning.  She is almost back to normal.  She even pitched a good two year old temper tantrum this morning because I made her bite her breakfast bar instead of breaking it into bites.  She lost.  I just ignored her and she came over and bit the bar and ate it.  lol, what an attitude! 

Ok, back to what I was talking about.  Can you guess what it is?  It involves a hard pointed surface breaking a soft tender surface.  Yep, a tooth!  We finally have a front top tooth!!!!!!!!!!  It has taken us over a year to get 7 teeth.  At this rate, Sarah will graduate high school with her baby teeth.  We have two bottom front teeth, all 4 first molars, and now a top front tooth!  Sarah can bite in the front instead of using her molars to bite once this tooth comes completely in!!  Irene, Sarah's feeding and speech therapist, will be so happy. 

Here are a few pictures from Sunday right before Grandma left.  Sarah was asleep, so I did not get any pictures of her with Grandma this time.

Code Brown Update

Well, the code brown seems to be under control. Sarah is more herself today. She is eating better and in to everything! She is still having 1 or 2 loose stools a day and still has a bit of blood in them, but much better. She is a bit pale and tires easily. Sorry I have not updated much, we are just exhausted here. Grandma is going to keep Sarah for us tomorrow while we go to church(Doug and I are teaching Sarah's Sunday school class!). After church Tim is going to come and get Grandma and take her home. Elijah is already sad. He will miss Grandma. Next week will be busy I am sure. I will try to post pictures later. I cut the kids hair this weekend. They look so much older with a hair cut! I have also found some great deals on things for Sarah's big girl room that I will share in the next few days. Her room is going to be so cute!

Update on Sarah

Just got back from the doctor. Sarah does have blood in her stool. Apparently this is going around. The doctor said they had 22 stools with blood on Monday. She said it could be bacterial, or salmonella. They are culturing it. For now we are back at home. We are on a special complex starch diet. Sarah is not too impressed with it. We are also continuing to force fluids. Mostly this has to run its course. If there is bacteria or salmonella or something else they will call me with further instructions and possibly medications. We are praying it is just the bacterial thing going around. Sarah is sleeping now. Continue to pray for her healing. Also please pray Elijah or no one else gets it. The doctor was surprised Elijah did not have it. Guess that obsessive handwashing kick I taught my son is paying off. He can not stand to have dirty hands like his mommy. Sarah's therapist think I have OCD due to my handwashing fetish. I think it is just 18 years as a nurse, I saw way too much!lol!

Prayers Please.

Sarah's diarrhea has increased tonight.  She is still running about a 100-101 fever.  The last 2 poops have me worried.  They are mucous and have red streaks in them.  She has not had anything red in days.  My gut instinct is blood.  Doug thinks it looks like blood too.  Not a bunch, but some none the less.  The on call doctor said to bring her in to the office in the am.  I know I will be up all night checking on her.  If I see more I am taking her straight to Vandy.  I am not going to wait until morning.  She is acting ok and is actually drinking some tonight.  She also ate some supper.  I have the diaper for them to test in the morning, man do I pity the nurse having to open that diaper.  Her poop really is foul smelling.  Please pray for Sarah and for the doctor to just say mommy is over-reacting.  I am so praying for the over- reacting diagnosis!

Rewind...replay from yesterday.

Yep, still dealing with poop.  Sarah decided to explode around 4:30 this morning.  When I say explode I literally mean it.  Poop covered her bed, the crib railing, the wall.  Not good, especially at 4:30am.  I am not a morning person.  I cleaned up Sarah and the worse of the room and put Sarah in my bed.  I then prayed for no more poop.  I really did not want to clean up my room too.  Sarah slept until 7, then got up drank one sip of pedialyte and went back to bed.  At 9:30 I checked her diaper, it was still dry.  Hmmm, wonder if it was wet at 4:30 when she pooped?  I changed her at midnight and it was wet then.  She was crying and tossing like her tummy hurt so I went in to check and went ahead and changed her.  So either from midnight or 4:30am she has had a dry diaper.  Not good.  She is lethargic.  Will not lift her head or any body part.  Ok, now I am concerned.  I called the pediatrician, and they tell me to take her to the ER and get fluids.  I start to change her and wipe her off to put on some clothes.  She peed.  Just a dribble, but pee.  I then got her to take a few sips of juice.  So I called back the doctor and we decide to force fluids and give her to lunch to have a good wet diaper.  Man did I push the fluids.  She took about 6 oz and had a small wet diaper.  Yippee!  The doctor said to keep watching her and if she goes 6 hours without peeing or is lethargic go to the ER.  She is suppose to be on the BRAT diet, but my hmmm, angel would not eat any of those items.  I did get her to eat mac-n-cheese and drink 4 oz more of pedialyte!!!  She is napping now.  Please pray that she does better this afternoon and will drink and eat for me.  Also, pray for no more poopy.

Blow Out

Hmmm, not the tires on the van, but Sarah's diaper this morning.  Man, I have never seen so much poop in all of my life.  Not to be to graphic, but to paint a picture of the scene if I may(stop now if you are squeamish).  I smelled the deed when I picked her up this morning.  I really did not  think she had pooped.  Sarah has a hard time pooping(I know TMI).  She poops once every 2-3 days and then only if she is on the potty and strains, no matter the consistency.  She just has low muscle tone.  So back to this morning.  I laid her on my bed to change her diaper, remind you I still think it is just a wet diaper and she has gas.  As I remove her pants(why didn't I put her in a gown last night?), the poop went flying out of the pants on the bed, on me, on Sarah even more.  She had poop all the way down her legs.  Her pants did not feel wet when I picked her up so it must have run when I picked her up.  Needless to say I am gagging at this point.  As I begin to clean her up, she poops more.  Watery poop that goes everywhere.  Ok, I am really gagging at this point.  Not fun.  I got us all cleaned up.  Cleaned up the bed, the floor, the bathroom floor, the cloth diaper.  Why, Oh why does my child have to be allergic to disposable diapers?  She has not had any further diarrhea today(Praise the Lord-reminder to self-need to reread the blessing post from the other day!).  She now has a fever and is very fussy and whiney.  My baby feels bad.  Please keep us in your prayers that we have a speedy recovery and no one else gets sick.  I am having flashbacks from our last illness where everyone got the stomach bug at the same time and we were remodeling and they wanted to take out my washer and dryer.  In fact this was the last time Grandma was at our house, hmm maybe Grandma is the problem!  I think Grandma is having second thoughts about visiting us.  I think she is having flashbacks too!  Sorry no pictures today, brown is not our best color!

Weekend Happenings

Sorry I have not posted in awhile, we went to Grandma's this past weekend.  Grandma came home with us, so she will be here this week.  We had a great trip.  The kids actually were ok.  We set up the DVD players again, but did not hook them together.  Both kids got to watch their own movie and that seemed to work better.  Sarah enjoyed Baby Signing Times and Wiggles and Elijah enjoyed Hermie and Clifford, and others.  Mommy and Daddy went crazy listening to two movies were very happy that they did not have to hear whining and crying.  Friday we had a party for Elizabeth and Amanda's 21st Birthday!!!  All of the family was there and we had a great time.  Here are a few pictures of the kids playing with Grandma's toys.  The second picture Sarah is feeding the baby a bottle.  She moved before I got the shot, but this was her favorite thing to do.  Guess I now know what Elijah can get Sarah for her birthday!! While we were there we went to Walmart and they had booster seats on clearance so we got one for a great deal.  We wanted one for our trip to Fla so we could get everyone in the van.  I really did not want to put Elijah in a booster seat this early.  I wanted to keep him in the car seat with a 5 point harness until he was grown, but for some reason all of his friends parents have already put their kids in booster seats.  All I have heard is Abbe and Abigail have big seats.  He had to, of course, use the booster seat immediately.  Here he is in his big seat.  Yes I had tears in my eyes, he is growing up TOO FAST! We now have the seat belt adjusted so it does not hit him so high.  I hate to admit, but I really am liking this booster seat.  He can buckle himself in and out without help.  It is much easier and faster. 

NOTE TO ELIZABETH:  Grandma says she loves you and sends kisses!

Daddy and Sarah time!

Sarah is into EVERYTHING!  She is a mover and shaker.  Always on the go.  She climbs out of her bed, climbs up the stairs, tries to climb the gate, unplugs her nightlight, climbs in the cabinets and pushes all of the dishes out, plays in the toilet water, pulls all of the toilet paper off the roll and shreds it, and more.  You can not take your eyes off her or she will find something more interesting than the million toys we have!  Last night, Elijah and I went to church.  Elijah has choir and mission friends on Wednesday nights. While we were gone, Sarah decided to give her daddy a run for his money.  She is normally better for him than me, but not last night!  Doug was vacuuming for me and so Sarah did not have his undivided attention.  She took immediate steps to remedy this situation.  She climbed in the cabinet and pushed all of the pots and pans out.  Daddy found her and took her out and replaced the pots and pans and moved Sarah to her room to play.  He then went back to vacuuming.  Sarah decided a more drastic action was needed.  She crawled into the dining room, around the table and to the plants.  The dirt looked inviting and she wanted desert, so she took a big bite.  Not as tasty as she thought so she tried to spit it out.   No luck.  Great now she would have to show daddy so he could help.  Daddy immediately picked her up and started wiping her mouth out and giving her water to rinse with.  He then took her downstairs and gave her his undivided attention.  Ahhh, finally the response she wanted, but was the cost worth it?  Who knows, guess we will see! 

Special Exposure Wednesday

Sarah taking her first independent steps!

Still working on the video for the post below!!

SHE DID IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sarah took her first independent steps tonight!  She took three steps several times!  She was so excited.  Maybe not as excited as ME!!!!  Here is a video of her success.  WARNING:  You might want to turn the volume down a bit.  I was kinda loud and enthusiastic in my praise.  My baby did it!!!  I told those skeptics she would walk before she was two.  SHE DID IT!!!!!

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Praise God from whom all blessings flow

The last week has been a bit rough for me.  There have been several situations that have really tested my faith and God's plan and purpose for my life.  I do not want to go into details of the situations, but I do want to share what God taught me during this.  For over a year we have been trusting God more and he has been showering us with blessings beyond our comprehension.  There has been one area that has been our thorn.  A simple thing really, but now a major ordeal.  We trusted God and took a path that we knew would be bumpy, but he told us he would provide, trust him.  So, we did.  We stepped out in faith and allowed God to have full control.  Things were going along wonderfully then a bump.  A bump that stopped us, caused us to look around and say ok God what was that?  Do we pursue this, or not?  Both Doug and I felt we were to pursue it.  During this time, we were able to share God's peace to several people and that God was in control and His plan would work out for the good of all concerned according to His plan.  Then we hit the bump again, but this time the bump had grown and appeared insurmountable.  I was shaken.  Shaken more than I had been in a long time.  I could only cry angry tears.  Anger, I hate to admit, towards God.  WHY GOD???  We did what you told us, we were faithful, why are you making this so hard on us?  I knew deep in my heart that God was in control, but I was confused.  I was scared of the what ifs.  I was angered because we were wronged of no fault of our own, but a simple mistake of someone elses that effect our lives tremendously.  A simple mistake, a stroke of the pen not made, an honest to goodness mistake.  Then Doug shared an article he read that morning in the  In Touch magazine(he is several months behind on these magazines, but again all in God's timing.  What we needed at the moment).  The point that hit me the hardest was, "What may seem to be a grave disappointment can also become a doorway to blessing."  Hmm, ok God you have my attention.  What are you saying?  The article went on to say, "Too often, we judge God's blessings by the way they affect us.  We fail to consider that He has a plan and knows its outcome."  Anything that forces us to turn to God and cling to him is good for us.  "In some cases, you may not know until much later the good He is working in your life through times of brokenness and discipline.  However, He knows, and I believe if you will allow Him to work, He will bring good out of the even deepest tragedy."  That insurmountable bump began to crumble.  Then Sunday morning came, we went to church.  We sang songs.  Songs of worship to a wonderful God, then I looked at the bulletin and the next song was.....you guessed it, Praise God from whom all blessings flow.  I was broken.  All I could do was cry and ask God's forgiveness.  He has never forsaken me, yet over a bump I questioned Him.  Some relationship I have.  God throughout the next 24 hours showed me that He was in control and He would not forsaken me.  That bump has continued to crumble and I know that God has overcome the bump.  "The good things in life are not for sale.  They have already been bought with a price far too great for us to pay, but not too great for God's Son.  His death on the cross not only paid for our sins; it also purchased for us the right to enjoy every moment God gives."  Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

Post deleted.  

Official mini-van driving, soccer mom

Today Elijah signed up to play upwards soccer.  This is a church league.  The kids all get equal playing time and are rewarded for their efforts.  The program will teach him the game, good sportsmanship, and biblical teachings.  He is so excited.  Today they had evaluations.  Basically the kids do some basic maneuvers to determine their playing ability.  They will then form equal ability teams.  I being the good mom took the camera to capture this moment in time.  Yep, you guessed it.  I forgot to take the camera out of the diaper bag until the evaluation was over.  lol.  I would forget my head some days if it was not attached!  I did have Elijah pose for a few pictures, just pretend these are motion pictures!  Here is one of him after the evaluations.  He was tired. Sarah got to enjoy the swings!  Doug got recruited to help coach.  Wow, what a day.  Elijah had to practice soccer as soon as he got home.  He is so cute talking about it.  He wanted Doug to

pretend being his coach and then he had to be the coach.

She finally figured it out!

For months, ok almost a year now, we have been trying to get Sarah to walk behind a push toy.  She has not been able to do it.  She leans too hard on it and it moves too fast and she falls.  Today we were using it in therapy to get her to walk holding just one hand.  She reached out and grabbed the toy and took off.  She walked all the way across the room and back and more.  She was so proud of herself.  She was grinning from ear to ear and giggling.  I was jumping up and down with joy.  I am so proud of her.  Now that she can do this, I think her confidence on walking will go up and she will be walking soon.  I would love her to walk before her 2nd birthday!  One more month.  She can do it!!!  Here are a few pictures I got of her walking: 

We have a climber!

I was awakened a little after 6 this morning to the weirdest sound.  I could not figure it out.  At first I thought is was Sarah shaking her bedrails trying to stand-up, but it was different.  Then I hear Sarah grunting(she does that sometimes when she is doing something hard).  Then I hear her fall and began to cry.  I rush in the room and she is lying on her back in the bed crying.  I think that she just fell trying to stand.  I comfort her and then put her back in the bed and tell her it is too early to get up(I don't do good if I get up before 7a.).  As soon as I closed the door I hear her stand up, so I peeked in.  Sarah stands up, then uses her feet to climb the rails of the bed like a monkey.  I stopped her as she put one leg over the top of the rail.  Great, now she can climb out of her bed.  I was hoping to keep her in the baby bed at least 6 more months, maybe a year.  I can not remember what we did when Elijah did this.  I know we tried several things and ended up putting him in a full bed with rails around it and then about 6 months later Jennifer gave us the car bed they had built for Tyler that he had out grown.  The sides of the car come up higher than the mattress, so he has rails.  He is still sleeping in this.  He is a roller, so I am not ready to change.  I don't think Sarah will stay in a toddler bed.  I think she will get out and crawl to the door.  Maybe, just maybe this will be like other things she does.  She will do it once or twice and then not do it again for awhile.  Oh please, let this be what happens!!!  We will see what happens at nap.  Hmm, guess I better start looking at toddler beds.  Her birthday is coming up, sounds like I will be redoing her bedroom for her birthday present!

A's Birthday Party

The kids had a great time at A's birthday party.  They were so worn out when we got home.  Sarah took 2 naps this afternoon.  They both love the inflatables and Sarah especially loves the slide.  After having fun in the inflatables we had pizza and Hello Kitty cake and ice cream.  Here are a few pictures of the fun:

Conversation with Sarah

We are working with Sarah on pacing with her speech.  This will help her to talk at a normal rate and pattern.  Here is how the conversation went.  Dashes are used to emphasize the pacing.

Me:  (pointing to myself)  mom-ma, (pointing to Sarah) Sa-rah, (pointing to her doll) ba-by. (pointing to Sarah)Who is this?

Sarah: (shakes head no)

Me: mom-ma, Sa-rah, ba-by(pointing appropriately). 

Sarah: ite(right) yeah.  Puts her hands up in the air and then claps for me.  lol

At this rate, we should have the pacing down by college!!(Yes, God willing I am planning on college for Sarah.  I will not allow the Down syndrome to define her or what she will accomplish).  Sarah has said her name a few times last week, but is refusing to say it now.  In her own time.  She is standing on her hands and feet more and more now.  She is also getting braver about walking and will "hold" onto the wall to walk now.  The kids have a birthday party at pump-it-up today for A who is 4 today!!  I will try to remember the camera and get some pictures to post. 

Please remember a precious baby today.  Emma is having open heart surgery this morning.  She was adopted from Ukraine this spring.  The surgery is very risking for this precious angel.  She also has Down syndrome.  For more info or updates, please click on her picture to the right here on my blog.  Thanks.

Who needs toys...

when you have a laundry basket!  With the millions of toys that we have, my children decide the laundry basket is more fun. 

Today we took Elijah and Sarah to play at pump-it-up.  They had a great time, but within the hour Elijah was whining that he was tired and wanted to go home.  He can be so whiny.  Sarah cried because we left.  Can not seem to make both of them happy at the same time some days.  Sarah also, while in one of the inflatables, got on her hands and feet(not knees) and then lifted both hands off the mat at the same time.  She looked at me with the biggest grin, and then did it again.  It was only for a second or two, but she did it!  Of course today is the day I forget to take my camera.  My girl is learning how to get into a standing position without pulling up!!!!  She is going to be walking soon!  I will post pictures when I am able to get them!  Have a great weekend!