Eye Candy

This is one of my

favorite pictures ~  Uncle

Pete, Baby boy cheeks.

Thirty one/twenty

one blogging challenge starts in 

4.  Hoarding posts now.

Raccoons & Grandparents

 You!  Yes You! Happy 

Birthday, Papa Fritz.  Sailing

 forward, unyielding.

Checking in.

I have a  gloomy half-written post in the works but couldn't finish it on Saturday because both of my children were being impossibly whiny and needy - needing lunch, needing new diapers, needing hugs.... you know, frivolous stuff.  Then I was going to finish it Sunday but we went to the botanical gardens with some friends and it is logistically impossible to be Grim when it's 67 degrees in February in Flyover Country.  There was hand holding, hedge-maze running, "accidental" flower picking, and generous dessert sharing.  There was, sadly, no photo taking, despite my new camera batteries, because my memory card was left safe 'n sound at home in my computer.  It's always something, right?

I also think there's been a lot of medical, errandy, & Grim hereabouts lately, so how about a fun quick update on my girl instead?

Reading:  No, not yet.  But she has a distinct list of favorites and knows the books well enough to anticipate the dramatic high points - when the bear sneezes in Bear Snores On, when the hippo finally joins in in But Not The Hippotamous, or when Mr. Brown makes that knock-knock sound.   When she wakes up in the morning she'll either knock on the inside of her door (funny, and clearly resourceful, but also a little disturbing in that confined child, may I please be let out way, like we've left her in there too long), or she'll sit in her chair and read aloud.  She's technically babbling, not reading, and I know I've been peering over that non-verbal cliff for a while, but she's babbling a LOT, in conversational tones, in what every speech pathologist we've met calls "pre-verbalization".  When she's babbling-while-reading there isn't a shred of doubt she's telling herself a story - she laughs, she acts surprised, she signs a bit.  In my less grim moments I'm reassured by this, and assume she'll be chatting with us (in English) in no time.  Exemplar videos were attempted but failed to meet quality control.

Potty Training:  No, not yet, but an A+ for effort.  She knows what to do while sitting there and WILL try, often with success if mommy & daddy are paying attention to her, um, cues and get her there in time.  She's even told us a couple times she's had to go - with me usually, because there's candy involved (disturbingly, the sign for "candy" and "potty" are developing a close relationship).  And once she actually grabbed Matt's hand and walked him over to the toilet (I'm going to pretend that wasn't because he missed her signing).  But... if we're not paying attention or she's busy or the moon is in the 3rd quarter, not the 4th, she has no qualms about not using the potty.  So not there yet but we're on the right path which is a fine & dandy place to be.

Pretend Play:  If I were a real blogger I'd post a video here too, of her tucking her dolls and lions and tigers in at night, or trying to feed her doll raisins or offering it her straw, or taking her doll to the potty, or trying to line them all up on the couch so they can watch TV with her.  You'll just have to take my word for it.  I made the mistake bringing THREE dolls downstairs over the weekend for her to play with but as every parent knows, 2 can play and 4 can play, but 3 always means someone gets their feelings hurt.  She, of course, intuitively understands this and became ENORMOUSLY frustrated when all 3 of her dolls wouldn't fit in the front (in the front! not the back!) of the little grocery cart she has.  I bent limbs, squished dolly ribs, counted one-two-three heads for her and was rewarded with a belly laugh, and then she marched off, content with an equitable world. 

Oh, how I long for her to keep that feeling forever.

BLOOM!

On Tuesday, before Auntie M left, we went to the Botanical Gardens.  Since there have been lots of other professional photos of flowers and garden trips on line lately (*cough*), I'll spare you my cheap camera/amateur attempts. 

Ah, hell - why not?  Here's one:

But more important are these two.  How do we feel about dressing twins in matching clothes? 

Matt, contemplating where these nice ladies could go in our backyard:

General running around, despite the heat

Want.  Along my fence.  Maybe some grape vines too. 
That would require actual gardening though. Huh.

The always fabulous Auntie M:

I love going when the lilies are in bloom - many have faintly scandalous sounding names:

We went back to the gardens again last night for a members-only picnic and music-thingy. 

Beautiful late afternoon light?  Check. 

Industrial sized bubble machine?  Check. 

Happy children?  Check. 

Extra camera batteries? 

Extra camera batteries?

...*DOH!* 

Before the camera died:

At one point my girl needed a diaper change so I was standing in the very crowded, very humid bathroom with a stinky child and 40# of gear, while waiting a questionably long time for the large stall to open up to use the diaper changing table therein.  That is the moment that a mom approached me and told me her 13 year old son had DS too.  And, bonus, we're in the same school district, which she loved.  Nice!  I'll admit I would have preferred she'd said hello while we were lolling about picturesquely on our blanket 10 minutes earlier, but I'm not complaining.  

The whole thing was also funny because I had not that very morning made a comment on Becca's blog that in a perfect world these interactions would not be so noteworthy, because those with disabilities would be as much a part of "mainstream" society (forgive the term) as various races/ethnicities/sexual persuasions are now (as compared to 60 years ago).  But it's not a perfect world - so I'm make note.  Because it's just fun to find "like".   

I also saw this at the gardens but this post is long enough, and I haven't decided what to say about it yet:

Weekend Pix

What?  It's only Wednesday!  Love love love the gardens.  It was supposed to be in the 60s, think it stayed in the 50s, but anything not in the 20s was solid grounds for celebration.  I wore flip flops! [That my toes were cold is irrelevant - that they didn't turn blue and fall off is what matters].

Where should we go next? 

 

Don't they look like teenagers here? Strolling along, chatting about their geometry class & prom.

But that's MY stroller!

I think we managed to tucker 'em out.

Someone might have a teensy little crush.

Cuteness





Part VII

Last day - at the Botanical Gardens:

Taken 4/9/10 at MoBot (again)
 

Note the unchanged expressions today:

Green Ford in the background!

OK fine - Here's the cute one:

1978 according to the slide stamp

In action

Four years ago at MoBot

4/9/10 at MoBot

 

4/10/10:  

Four years ago:

 

A long, long time ago...