Indie {31 Weeks}

Something very exciting happened this week, but it was more for me than Indie (that statement could be said about this entire Down Syndrome journey.)  Anyways, I have reintroduced soy into my diet and there has been no reaction so far!  I was slowly reintroducing soy oil, then Dave made me dinner with soy protein and I decided to go for it.  I am so excited to eat soy again and looking forward to reintroducing dairy next.  

Back to Indie, she was so cute taking a nap with Dave that I couldn't resist taking a picture. The click of my camera woke up Dave, but our little princess was exhausted so I let her sleep another hour before I woke her up too.    

4th of July

4th of July in Omaha is extreme, 3 days of neighborhood fireworks from noon to the wee hours of the night.  I refuse to buy fireworks since I feel like it is like burning up money, but we did enjoy celebrating with friends.  

All the late nights caught up with us though because the girls were in rough shape on the 4th.  I thought meeting up with the Williams and walking the pedestrian bridge would snap them out of it, but the mugginess did not help.  So I mentioned a special holiday dinner and 4th of July cake- vanilla cake from the box with some strawberries and blueberries- and it worked like a charm!  All of a sudden, the girls were working together, laughing, posing for funny pictures, and sharing poppers.  

Since Indie hates loud noises, we bowed out of fireworks this year.  Dave took the older girls to watch a big show.  They ended up driving all over Omaha then found some great neighborhood shows nearby.   And staying home so Indie could sleep was unsuccessful because it sounded like we were in a war zone.  (It really is different here!)  Now we know the sweet spot for next year- our driveway.

Indie {30 Weeks}

 6 months flew by and this little lady is still not sitting independently.  I was getting a little bummed that Indie has to work extra hard for her achievements.  I had a whole pity party going, but then I uploaded some pictures and I have to say, Indie is adorable!  I love that her smile lights up her entire face.  She doesn't care if she sits when she's 6 months so I'm not going to either.  

The zoo

We bought a zoo pass when we first moved here, used it a ton, then the older girls were over the zoo so we took a break.  We met our friends the other day and everyone was suddenly super excited about the zoo.  Perfect, I bought an annual pass and we visited today, along with everyone else in Omaha.  The parking lot was crazy, but it was easy breezy once we got inside.  We checked out some animals, passed up the splash pad because it was a tad chilly (we have clearly acclimated to the midwest), picnicked at the play ground, fed the fishies (where Eden shared her fish food with Cora like a champ), oohed and aahed over the baby sea lion, then watched an IMAX movie about National Parks.  We had some tears from our tired little ladies at the end, but overall it was a fun day.  

 This cute little lady was pooped and I couldn't resist a sleeping picture.

Indie {29 Weeks}

Indie is getting so so so close to sitting!  She can sit independently for ten-ish seconds at a time.  The first time she sat, Milan and I got super excited and started cheering for her.  Of course, she fell over then started crying because we scared the heck out of her.  Now we get her nice and distracted so she'll sit without realizing it, then silently cheer for her.  I know she is going to love sitting to play with her toys and have a better viewpoint for watching sisters!

I have been offering pureed baby foods and feeling discouraged because Indie doesn't seem to swallow anything.  Since she loves to have her little tongue out, the food just comes right back out with it.  I was ready to take a break, but Indie's OT suggested we keep offering baby food to help strengthen her oral muscles.  Today, I thought I saw some improvement with baby food and water in the honey bear cup.  The good news is that Indie is great with chewing puffs!  Eating is a process just like everything else and we will keep working on it.    

In other news, Indie went swinging for the first time while we were camping.  Judging by those cute smiley faces, I'm guessing she liked it!  

Camping

We took our renovated camper on an adventure!  Wait, nope, our camper is still torn apart in our driveway.  Oh well, we didn't let our pending projects stop us from having fun.  We went out to the campground to hang out with our friends until 10 pm then I took the girls back the next morning.  Everyone had a blast playing on the playground, throwing rocks into the gross lake, making Smores, catching fireflies (Cora's all time favorite part!), and paddle boating across the lake.  It was so fun to watch the girls and made me even more excited for our month long camping adventure in a couple weeks (yes, our camper will be done by then!)

Bridging Ceremony

Another year of girl scouts down and the girls even have most of their patches attached (go mom!).  Milan bridged up to Juniors for next year.  That will probably require a different uniform so Milan better frame this sash and all my sewing accomplishments forever.

Milan and Eden were super excited about their gift bags and have been carrying them around all week and busting out chalk, card games, and nail polish at the most random times.  Just one more way that Girl Scouts has been a fun experience for the girls!