Indie {45 Weeks}

This week, Indie has been working on crawling and has even started tolerating her knees bent underneath her.  It is usually a team effort with me holding Indie's leg in place and one of the girls singing a song with motions in front of her.  It's taken us a little while to figure out the perfect recipe for success, but it's working and this little lady is getting stronger.  

Indie {44 Weeks}

Baby girl is getting her first bottom tooth.  She doesn't let that tooth or the accompanying running nose bug her too much, I noticed her chewing on her fingers more often, but otherwise she is a happy little camper.  

Bertha Barber Carnival

The Halloween festivities have officially began around here!  The girls found some adorable costumes within their $7 budget and we all had a great time at the school carnival:  lots of games, Eden asked me to take photos with her in the photo booth, Milan worked the cake walk for the student council, Cora won an entire package of cupcakes in the cake walk, Cora had a kitty balloon made and licked everyone she liked- it was adorable until it's head popped, Milan shared some of her final tickets with Eden, and he girls scored all sorts of treasures and trinkets.

Buddy Walk

We have attended several Buddy Walks- 2 in Wyoming and 1 last year in Omaha, but this time was completely different.  While the Wyoming Buddy Walks did offer a good deal on football tickets and a fun family day, this year we enjoyed a sense of community and pride in our little lady.  We were touched that some of our good friends joined Indie's team.  Our team was relatively small, but it was amazing to be a part of such a large event with hundreds of people coming together to celebrate Down Syndrome.  We are blessed to be part of such a wonderful community and grateful for our ticket in :)

35!

My 35th birthday was one of my favorites!  One of those days that made me realize that I am lucky to have such amazing people in my life.  Here are some of the highlights....

Dave was trying to let me sleep in, but Cora was so excited about my birthday that she came into my room several times to tell me all about it.  "Mom, it's your birthday!"  Slam!  "Mom, dad bought you flowers!" Slam! "Mom, they're roses!" Slam!.  So it wasn't the most restful, but Cora had good intentions and she is awful cute.  

I rolled out of bed for homemade cards, drawings, and breakfast from Dave.  

Enjoyed a run and a beautiful day.  

Our family spent the afternoon at the zoo.  A fun and relaxing outing with gorgeous weather.  

We dropped our girls off at our friends for babysitting swap and Dave and I met up with friends for Thai.  It was delicious and one of those fun nights where we got to laugh the whole time.  I didn't really tell our friends it was a birthday dinner, just a date night, but they totally surprised me with flowers and cheesecake (from the Cheesecake Factory and it was sooooo delicious!  Hello, dairy!)  

35 is off to a great start!  

This and that

I'm going to be honest here, I like playing with my kids, but I don't like playing pretend.  I am always the mom Barbie, Polly Pocket, kitty cat, etc and it seems an awful lot like real life, with pretend whining and everything.  But, I do like going on adventures, being active, reading, and playing games.  Cora and I play a lot of games together and I am trying to savor this time together before Cora skips off to kindergarten next year.  

 The younger girls and I have settled into our routine.  Therapy is a part of our lives and it has all seemed to work out.  Indie's EI therapists come here once a week and Cora usually gets to watch a show, which she loves.  Indie also typically does private therapy once a week and I either schedule during preschool or Cora gets to play at her friend Kelsey's house, which she also loves.  In fact, I think Cora might be a big proponent of therapy, haha.  The rest of the week, we play (Indie would love to nap, but I try to push her back until preschool time.) Once in a while, we even get a relaxing day at home and I get to soak up my girls. 

5 heads of hair x every single day = a heck of a lot of hairstyling!

A fun morning with bubbles!  This time I saved some time on hair because Cora did her own haha.  

Eden was invited to watch Shrek at the Rose Theater with her friend Katelyn and had a wonderful time doing her own thing.  Milan was off at a sleepover so it was a really quiet night around here.  

Indie {43 Weeks}

While we drove 4000 miles across the country on our summer adventure, I sat next to Indie showing her how to sign "mama" over and over and over.  It worked!  She signed "mama" on September 28 when I was showing her myself in the family picture.  It makes my heart so happy!  My biggest dream for Indie is that she will be a great little talker so she can share her thoughts and ideas with us.  She has always been very vocal and now she is putting the pieces together with signing!

 I took her to a speech evaluation this week and she is on track with a typically developing 10 month old.  Indie will clap when we say "Yay Indie," splash the water in the tub when I say "splash," bang toys together when I say "bang," sign "all done" by banging her hands up and down on her tray, signs mama when I walk into a room, and I think she has signed milk several times.  She says da-da-da-da all day long and ow-ow-ow-ow by patting her hand over her open mouth.  

And let's talk about this darling book that Tammy, our Early Intervention PT made!  I emailed Tammy some pictures and she compiled this book with some simple wording.  Indie gets excited every time she sees her picture on the front cover and I think it will be a valuable language tool.  Our new therapist is the best!  

The other thing that we are working on is crawling.  Indie can army crawl for a couple of feet with the right motivation.  We have been working on bending her legs at the knee and this week she started tolerating the 4 point position for 10ish seconds.  That is big progress for us!