Showing posts with label Montana. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Montana. Show all posts

Thursday, October 4, 2012

Montana II; 4/31; (5-4-3-2-1HIKE!)

Even though my dear sweet sister has NOT sent me the rest of the Montana photos, (*a-HEM*), I have a few leftovers I'll share.
I have read over & over parents describing these breakthroughs.  They take a therapy break, something clicks, and suddenly babies go from crawling to running in a week.  I won't say that I haven't seen breakthroughs - my girl's independence in the pool this summer, her brother's reading last school year - but I've also walked the thousand steps with them to get to the edge of the cliff so it's never seemed magical   [I promise there will be no baby bird leaving the nest metaphors].  

What about a baby on branch metaphor?  
A year or so ago Matt's aunt gifted us her gently used very, very nice dining room set.  The set with the fabric chairs.  Yes, I know, two young children, two dogs... fabric chairs?  There is not enough scotch guard in the state to make this a good idea, but our old set was one wobble away from kindling so we were pathetically grateful.

Saying thanks.  Or sleeping.  Hard to tell. 
Although I frequently lament my lack of time for in home mommy therapy we DO work on stuff.  Infrequently and randomly, it's true, but we do.  However I've never pushed drinking from an open cup.  I've been told they do at school and daycare but it reportedly involved special therapy cups that I've never even considered putting on my long, long of Things To Eventually Think About.   And, you know, there were those fabric chairs.

Then we went to Montana for the weekend.  And I forgot to pack The Girl's uber-special 4-pack for $2.99 plastic cups with straws.....  Guess who totally doesn't need a special cup with a lid and a straw?  This girl.

You know what else she can do?  Eat cereal.  Not the dry Cheerios we've so abused her with she actually cries upon the sight (what kid doesn't like Cheerios?!) - but real cereal, in a bowl, with a spoon and milk, just like her brother.  She's quite insistent about it actually, which eliminates frosted mini-wheats as a snack food forever - where the hell's the milk, mom?  
I'm not going to tell you we recycled all the plastic since returning home.  Turns out that although she is perfectly capable of drinking from a regular glass cup without spilling, she's also still in that awesome stage where she enjoys Milk Art.  Intentionally created Milk Art, executed with a snicker, while staring you straight in the eye.  Stinker.  But a stinker not to be underestimated.

Not spilled milk.  


Tuesday, October 2, 2012

Montana!

During the blogging desert that was August, we went to a family reunion up in Montana.  I'm not sure what we did the rest of the month but I'm pretty sure I can get at least 2 more posts out of this one weekend, so that sort of counts, right?  Maybe even 3 if my sister sends me the photos I took on her camera (hint! hint!).
Montana is a breathtakingly beautiful state, complete with real life bears in the woods AND dinosaurs in the airport.  What more could a kid ask for?

Oh, actually seeing a bear?  Sorry, buddy!  Will a T-Rex do? 

We DID see family.  Lots & lots of family.  Lots of family I've never met before and whose names I had a hard time remembering.  Have I mentioned that I'm not the most social of creatures?

But we also got to see Family, and that was priceless.


Of course, no Xxxx family get together is complete without a little drama.

Don't we all look HAPPY?  


No parental units were pushed.  Promise. 

But even despite the pits, there can be cherry pie.

Like quiet afternoons by the river



And newfound long lost 5th cousins.
And forts. 

And brothers and sisters.

And wild flowers. 

What's all this have to do with Down syndrome, you ask?  Didn't I announce 31 for 21 only yesterday? 

Nothing.  And every
thing.  Joy in unexpected
places, in family.