Crazy Weather of the Midwest

I think the weather in the Midwest has gone mad.  We have had weather in the 50s the beginning of the week and then in the 20s by the end of the week.  The beginning of the week we had massive downpours and flooding.  This morning we awoke to our world coated with a sheet of ice and tomorrow it is predicted to be 50!

Assuming...human nature?

So I was wondering...is making assumptions just part of human nature?  When we look at someone in the grocery store that is wearing dirty clothes, hair raggedy, and unshaven, do we assume he is someone how is less than us...someone who has less than us...someone who doesn't care?  When we walk into the next aisle, we see a mother with 5 kids running crazy and pulling items off the shelf, do we assume that she is a bad parent who has no control over her children?  At the check-out, we see a well-dressed business woman, do we assume she has it all and her world is perfect?  Is it automatic to make assumptions?  Why do we do it?  I had an 8th grade history teacher who wrote the word "ASSUME" on the board the first week of school.  If you haven't seen it, he explained when you assume something you make and A** out of U and ME.  I admit I assume a lot of things in any given day.  I assume what my husband's answer is going to be when I ask questions, I assume how people will react to my daughter with Down syndrome, I assume all sorts of things. 

My point....when my husband and the neonatologist came into my room 10 months and 3 weeks ago, I assumed that the doctor was going to give me the worst news of my life.  I assumed when he said Down syndrome that our life was over.  I assumed that it would be the worst thing that I had ever gone through.  I made soooo many assumptions that first 24 hours.  For some reason, I assumed I was going to raise this shrinking violet that was going to sit in the corner, not be engaging, and would lead us into a life of being hermits hiding from embarrassment.  (OK...that might be a slight exaggeration, but I think most of you get what I'm saying).

Here is my shrinking violet and a few of the things that I "assumed" she would do by 1...or in some cases...ever.

I think she sits straighter than her brothers ever did.

I assumed she wouldn't have a sense of humor and enjoy taking her socks off...to drive her mom crazy :-)

Or make "squishy" face to make me laugh

I assumed she wouldn't stand and play

I assumed she wouldn't crawl.

I assumed she wouldn't "actively" be a part of our family

I assumed she wouldn't even attempt to feed herself.

I assumed her brothers wouldn't love her as much as a typical child.

I assumed I couldn't love this beautiful little girl as much as I love her brothers.

How, on earth, could I have been so incredibly wrong?? 

Thank you, Hailey....for showing mommy that she indeed did make an A** out of herself. 

(I'm apologizing, in advance, I will be reflecting a lot over the next couple of months as we approach Hailey's first birthday and the anniversary of her open heart surgery)

Mommy Forgetfulness...

 I find it amazing that I have now had three children...they all go through the same phases/stages but yet, I'm still surprised when Hailey enters a new stage and say, "oh I forgot about that".  Hailey went from struggling to move 3 inches this week to moving across the floor into another room, behind furniture, into everything in the time that you turn your head to pick up something or run into another room.  I forgot about children's curiosity and they seem to be born with knowing what is forbidden (and that is what they head for first!)  I guess that is why women continue to have children....we know labor is painful but we forget the pain :-)

We had a low-key weekend.  Brayden had a full social schedule and the rest of us entertained one another.  Here are a few pics from the weekend.

Ready for big brother's game.

One last squishy face :-)

Basketball games and church can sure wear a girl out :-)

This one is blurry because she moved faster than I thought she could!

Hey guys...let me play!

C'mon...please?

No, really...I want to play!

Hailey seems to have gained a new sense of humor.  She now thinks almost everything is funny and frequently looks at us and cackles like she thinks she is funny too.  She is more into the boys and their toys (but, of course, they would rather go in another room most of the time.)  Fortunately, Hailey's appetite is still going strong despite the 2 teeth that are trying so hard to move through her gums.  She is down to only eating anything remotely close to baby food in the morning.  Partly, because we don't have a lot of time and partly, because she needs her to eat her daily dose of prunes.  Knock on wood, she hasn't refused much.  I think her favorite food is still beef stew and anything Mexican.  She is still quite found of Chipotle.  I figure I will keep giving her everything until she hits that dreaded toddler stage where she starts refusing foods (that is one stage I remember with both children!).

We are still working on moving from army crawling to 4 point hands and knees crawling.  We are doing a lot of kneeling and reaching (sides and center) to keep building core strength.  We are also doing a lot of sitting and reaching.  Clapping is getting closer.  Hailey has a habit of when we ask her to do patty cake, she will grab our hands and clap our hands together.  She also does this when we ask her how big is Hailey.  She raises our hands for "so big".  I'm getting so frustrated with a straw that I'm ready to recruit someone else to teach her.  Sorry, if that makes me a bad mom, but it is wearing my patience :-) 

Hard to believe that baby girl will be one in 40 some days!  She has a lot of big appointments coming up in the next couple of months.  She has another follow up audiology appointment.  My mommy heart can't take many more of these that are "inconclusive".  I'm requesting if she fails this one again that they try to do the ABR while she is sedated for her echo in February to check her heart.  I'm praying they can do them both at the same time.  I'm very much against having her sedated an extra time for her ears.  We know she can hear...we just don't know what she can't hear.  So we have hearing, cardiology, ophthalmology, follow up at the Down syndrome clinic, a 12 month well check, and then an eval for our EI services.  These appointments always make me nervous...her ophthalmology, cardiology and audiology are a given.   I'm always terrified of bad news or something I missed medically and that I'm a bad mom because I didn't "know" it.  Her appointment at the DS clinic and her eval for EI can have the same "bad"mom feeling but more along the lines that I "didn't" do something or "didn't" work hard enough with her.  The mommy-guilt can be overwhelming and the feelings after eval can be raw.  For now, I'm going to celebrate the the strides Hailey is making and live in the moment.  I can't change the outcome of the appointments so...let's start party planning!  1 here we come!

Big brothers, you have been warned...She's on the move!

The girl is on the move.  It is not what most would call an army crawl...I think it most resembles an inchworm at the moment but it is forward motion (she's been going backwards for almost 2 months) and I'm celebrating.  She's worked hard for it!  She'll get to creeping eventually, she loves to get on all 4s and rock back and forth.  She occasionally even brings her knee up.  We'll keep working on it and she'll get it (more than likely when she decides...not her momma!). 

Yesterday, L came for our weekly therapy session.  We worked on other things and decided to pick up with the army crawl again.  We tried to entice Hailey with everything...ipod, ipad, cell phone, toys, big brother, etc.  Hailey would just sat herself up, smiled, and said with her eyes, "Ha!  I don't want to crawl but I've mastered sitting and I'll show that off!"  We played that game for what seemed like forever.  Somehow through the session, Hailey took of her socks...surprise, surprise.  I tossed them aside.  They caught Hailey's eye and there she went after them!  I was giddy...then I wanted to hit my head against the wall because we tried everything to get her to move (or so we thought!).  L left happy...although she did admit that she was getting frustrated that Hailey was being so stubborn.  Hailey, of course, was forgiven once she moved forward for the socks! 

Trying to entice her last night with her socks again.  In true Hailey fashion, she wasn't going to give into the socks a second time!

Yeah right, mom!

Well...maybe.

Hmmm....do I really want it?

Nope, not worth the energy!

Today, Hailey didn't seem thrilled that I wanted her to do it again but the trooper that she is, gave in.  That will happen when mom is offering Cheerios and won't give me my bottle until I crawl to a few!  Don't worry, I only held up her bottle for about 15 minutes :-)  And...yes...I did clean the floor and don't generally encourage my children to eat off the floor!

But mom...they are so far away!

Yay!  I got one!

Mom, this really is hard work.  Do I have to keep doing it?

Really...this is hard!

OK...maybe I'll go for one more.

Ahhhh....my last one!

Did you see that?  I did it!!!!

Aren't you going to cheer?

I let her take a break the rest of the day.  It really did wipe her out!  It was very cold so we snuggled this afternoon and spent time with the boys.  I have to share this photo because it is soooo funny!  I asked the boys to help get Hailey's pjs on this evening.  They seemed to think it was hard work.  Ha!

Tonight, we found out might be Hailey's biggest motivator to be mobile.  Her brothers and their stuff!  The boys were playing Connect 4 Launchers.  I looked over to see this.....

The girl found what she wanted!

She got it!

And she is happy about it!

 
I'm pretty sure that nothing will be safe now and I LOVE it!  Thank goodness the boys' legos are now upstairs (and I have a feeling stairs are a long way off)!  She tires quicker than the boys did when they started crawling but she has determination and she will get stronger.  I'm so proud of my little peanut!  She has worked so hard to accomplish something that comes so easy to most children.  There are days I feel bad for pushing her so hard but the above smile makes me realize, it is working and it is worth it!

On another note...winter has hit.  Here is our weather from yesterday and it was bitter, bitter cold today.  It's supposed to be in the 40s next week so we'll live with it :-)