Yes Jackie, there IS a blog update

We got back last night from a CRAZY fun 5 day mini vacay to our hometown to spend the holidays with our parents. It went very well, with only a FEW minor hiccups. And by hiccups i mean missed naps, sleeping through church, and eating junk food more than mommy and daddy would have liked.

Kaelyn got lots of VERY NEAT presents and some of the cutest clothes and accessories. Santa was pretty neat and got her a cabbage patch doll. Apparently he remembered that he brought ME one and had to keep tradition going! Her name is Maggie Lola and she has blonde hair! Wooo Hooo! Her auntie got her a stroller that she can't steer worth a darn and ends up running into the wall. She also got LOTS Of puzzles, which is a good thing since she seems to enjoy the 2 she has at home. She got a tea set, a few more dollies (one of which CRIES and drives her daddy up the wall) and her favorite things? WRAPPING PAPER and TISSUE PAPER. It was a hard task to move her from one present to the next. We'd have to take one away and then she'd get fussy so by the end of the day, she was DONE!

Kaelyn got to see ALL of her grandparents (except for my Grandpa S and Grandma C who came earlier in the week before our time off started) but as far as visiting with most of the people on our list, we did fairly good!

We saw an awesome light show set up at a zoo. The local rotary club put it on as a fund raiser event and it was awesome! Except for some cold feet and the worlds worst apple cider EVER, we had a good time.

JUst a quick update for now, I hope to have some pictures up later this week. Kaelyn is waking up so I had better go! It's mommy time!

Later taters~

Boogie and mommy

it's been a long time coming

Holy Smokes!! It's been a long 19 months, and a long 9 months of birth-to-3 coming and helping Kaelyn with her walking/crawling, but the proof is in the pudding! 4 days ago, someone got it in her pretty little head to pull herself up on the foot stool and take off across the living room! We have a walker!

CLICK HERE TO SEE THE VIDEO

We are so super proud of her and she is SOOOO proud of herself!! Smiling and waving and clapping.

She is getting more sure footed by the day. I'd say that she is walking 60% of the time and crawling 40% of the time. If she REALLY wants something, she crawls to get it, but mostly I think that walking is new and a novelty and she hasn't really put 2 and 2 together that it's a quick way and the ONLY way to get around. She's getting better and better every day!

Birth-to-3 was here 3 days before hand and go figure it just took that last little push from those wonderful ladies to put that last piece of the puzzle together. She always does it that way. Her crawling, her using her push toy. She did those all less than a week after their visits!

CLICK HERE TO SEE KAELYN WALKING LIKE A BIG GIRL!

Thanks for your support and Thanks for reading!!

All our love

Lara and Kaelyn

crazy day, crazy week.

So, I just realized that I FAILED to update on my truck breaking down. It was the distributor. Yep. easy peasy fix. Ended back up in the shop because the yahoo new guy at the shop didn't tune up something and it kept stalling. Stop lights, stop signs, you name it. POOF! The truck would die and then roar back to life when I would turn over the ignition. (I guess we were wrong in the assumption that a new part meant it would ALSO be tuned up. But they fixed it up, no problemo.) But anyways, we got it all tuned up and she has now found a new home. As of about 5 minutes ago, she left drip stains on the driveway for the LAST time. We replaced her (and upgraded) with a 2006 pontiac torrent. Bright blue that looks a little purple when the sun/shadows play just right. But don't tell Jeremy. He doesn't like the fact that the Torrent "might" be purple-ish. hahaha. Momma, on the other hand, LOVES it.

Kaelyn had birth to 3 yesterday and they are pretty pleased with her progress. She's taking 3 or 4 steps on her own as of when they were here. But after they left and J and Little A came over, we got her to take 5 or 6 steps all on her own. She was SO PROUD of herself! We had a great play date with them, ordered some pasta from PizzaHut and then ended the night with the husbands coming back with a couch and l oveseat from J's parents. The boys went and took Eunice on her last ride to go pick them up. It's been a crazy few weeks since my last update. Life with a toddler on the brink of full mobility is NUTS! We've been doing great with using the potty, great with walking. The sleep, lately, could use a little work, (last night SUCKED) but other than that, She's an amazing little girl.

I don't often make personal requests, but my Aunt B recently underwent surgery and has been diagnosed with cancer. She will start treatment soon and our family could use any thoughts and positive energy you could throw our way.

Much love and Have a great day,

Lara and Kaelyn

Crazy day today

So, today starts out like any other day. Get up, sit Kaelyn on the potty chair, RUN to the kitchen to put our toast in the toaster and RUN back into the potty for 15 minutes of smelling her "stinky feets" and pointing out her eyes, ears, nose, hair, belly, and previously mentioned STINKY feet. After we take care of "business", we sit down to a breakfast of toast and fruit for Kaelyn, and Cereal and toast for me. We get dressed, play on the floor, potty one more time and get some quality Skype time with my mom. We then get ready to head out to my friend friends house. I KNOW i need to get gas, but I have, according to my gas gauge, between a quarter tank and an empty tank. (1/8th of a tank i guess? I am HORRIBLE at math and even worse at fractions). But as i'm turning the corner to the gas station, my truck chugs and then DIES! So I coast into the gas station assuming that my gas gauge was broken. But that wasn't the REAL problem. I managed to coast to the pumps but I was on the WRONG SIDE! My trucks gas tank is on the DRIVERS SIDE. I managed to pull up with the pump on the passenger side. DOH! So it was so awesome of our family friend, D, to come to the rescue. We managed to maneuver the truck to the proper side of the gas pump and put in 15 bucks in the hopes that it was the problem. but nope. Now my truck WANTS to turn over, but never kicks all the way over. So we call "the car guy" Jake to come and take a look. As it turned out, my truck died less than 5 blocks from the auto shop. He comes, pops the hood, tinkers around, we try to start it with NO SUCCESS.

All the while this is happening, Kaelyn is being a TRUE champ. She had a picnic lunch on my front seat (that is now parked at the auto shop covered in noodles and parmesan cheese) and had a ball pretending to drive.

In the end, we ended up calling Jake's friend to come tow us to the shop. He thought it might be a spark plug or some such easy fix. We left my rusty trusty truck in the capable hands of Jake and the staff at our favorite place to throw money. I swear, we are making them LOTS of money the past 3 or 4 years. lol

We piled the diaper bag and the car seat and the rest of the stuff we would need into our friends jeep and headed to walmart to meet my friend J (D's wife) to print off some pics for our FIRST PAYING CUSTOMER of our hobby business of taking photographs. We were very pleased and hope she and her husband will be too!

We drove around and looked at a few cars and came home to debate dinner. In the end, Jeremy came home and the boys decided that they wanted pizza and us girls (Kaelyn, J, her daughter Little A, and I) were going to load up and go to Perkins for the Kids Eat Free deal. Man oh man, did they get their fill! Kaelyn had a grilled cheese and steamed broccoli and 2 bites of my pancakes AND a sippy of milk and half a sippy of water. Holy Smokes! She got her $4.99 meal for free and it was WELL WORTH IT. usually I just order a little extra and she can share my meal. Both of the girls ate great but the ride home was a little hairy due to the late time and the LONG day. But all in all, it was a decent day, a few stressful snags along the way, but thanks to great friends and an always happy Kaelyn along for the ride, things were half as bad as it could have been. So, since I know J reads this, THANKS SO MUCH!!! You and D (and Little A and her cuteness) are awesome friends and I owe D a sick pack of IPA! Thanks so much for being the awesome friends you are!

Thanks for reading everybody!

Lara and Kaelyn

Walking toy

Kaelyn is REALLY getting close to walking. she is taking 2 or 3 steps at a time and NOW.... She loves to use her walking toy to cruise around the living room! Up until today, she loved to play with it and all of the noisey parts, but she decided to get it in her head to walk with it! Enjoy the video!

Later taters
Lara and Kaelyn

happy weekend, sad weekend

As I sit here, at the end of a CRAZY week, I am SO GLAD to have my family. Whether is is the family I was born with, the family I met and gained along the way, or the family I created, I love you all. I started out my weekend with the first birthday of my god-daughter and pseudo-niece. I can say I was surprised to have a good time. Her mommy is one of my best friends, but I am a bit of a social hermit and I was worried about how I would handle Kaelyn being a the only non-walker there. I didn't know how many questions I would get asked by the family that was there and what their reactions would be IF I were asked. I guess it's easy to forget that there is anything different. It's easy to forget that her pint sized bff is walking and she isn't. But on the whole, the evening was great. She held her own and kept up with the birthday girl and the other toddler there.

Saturday morning, BRIGHT AND EARLY, we headed back home to visit with family and prepare for the Milwaukee Brewers game on sunday with our friends in memory of our friend. We visited with my Nana, Kaelyn had lots of fun playing with Nana's toy basket and especially loved this disney princess talking mirror toy. We went back to my in-law's house to hang out with Jeremy's brother, sister in law, and their daughter who is 4 months old. She is such a sweetie and definitely gives me a raging case of baby fever. She's a cuddler and a sweet little girl. We had dinner with my in-laws and their extended family, and as always it was a great evening, great pizza, and so far so good!

Ugh. I didn't realize it was so late. I'll have to finish tomorrow with another post. Later guys and thanks for reading!

Lara and Kaelyn (Jeremy too since he is sitting here watching me type. lol. silly man)

Special thanks

I don't have anything big to blog about, not even really any little things. Kaelyn slept GREAT until about 7 today! I picked her up and we snuggled on the couch and fell asleep to the news until 9! I can tell you one thing, I am going to miss the snuggles once she gets big enough to realize that snuggling her mother isn't a "cool" thing to do.

But Anyhoo, I just wanted to thank all of the people who I can vent to, who listen to me whine, and then listen to me brag about my sweet little girl! Whether I know you in real life, or you are one of the mom's from my "mommy group", I love you all and I'm so glad that Kaelyn has such great support and the BEST cheering section!

(and Jackie, this is my update. HAHAHAHA)

Kind of a big deal.

I've been asked, over and over and over some more, "Is Kaelyn walking yet?" or "Why isn't Kaelyn walking yet?" and the only answer I can ever give is this, "We have no idea! She was born breech, had a loose hip, she was a late crawler (at 10 1/2 - 11 months) and she also has a chromosomal anomaly."

So it could be any of those reasons, or one of those reasons, or none of those reasons. We truly don't know which of those, if ANY of those reasons is the true reason. I can honestly say that it breaks my heart to see my healthy, happy, NORMAL child compared to every other child. I write this with tears in my eyes and hope in my heart. Tears for my daughter and knowing that we have no idea what is in store for her, for us, for our future. Hope for a life lived as perfectly as she is in our eyes. A life of her own making.

We take EVERY day as it comes, never borrowing trouble and living life as if there was no such thing as partial trisomy 21. I wake up each day refusing to give in to the fear of the unknown and the anxiety of letting your mind wander to every "worst case scenario". I can easily go days at a time without thinking about Partial Trisomy 21. I can go days without SAYING anything about it. And most days that works. But it only holds out so long and then she has an appointment at 17 months for an extra hearing test, or we take her to have her eyes dilated so we can check as early as possible for any vision issues or she can simply get tired and cranky and her eyes just look so much more different than me as a baby, or Jeremy as a baby. The almond shape is so much more prevalent when she is fighting the end of the day and refuses to give in to sleep.

I try to live my life as a mother as normal as possible until I get questions about the shape of her eyes, why she isn't walking, what is partial trisomy 21? Why does she have an occupational therapist? What is "Birth to 3"? Why are you having her eyes/hearing tested? Why do you take her to St. Paul for extra check ups?

It is usually the well meaning person trying to understand, to make heads or tails of the information I am more than willing to share with them. It can be a family member, asking out of hopeful curiosity. The hardest part is that, if you didn't know enough to look at the subtle almond shape of her eyes, You would NEVER KNOW. And I know that because I have told people about Kaelyn's partial T-21 and they say "But she doesn't look like she has anything wrong with her!" and my heart breaks. Just because she has a chromosomal anomaly doesn't mean she is defective! She is simply different. I want to scream and pound my hands on their chest that she is a NORMAL CHILD! She smiles and laughs and melts your heart just like any other child. She loves to swing at the park, crawl through the grass and smiles when the wind ruffles her hair. Just because they aren't "normal" by societal standards, there MUST be something visibly wrong, right? WRONG.

My greatest hope is that someone out there might stumble upon this blog and think "I am not alone." I hope that somehow, this will chronicle her triumphs and her failures and prove to the world and to everybody that she is normal. She may do great things, and maybe not. She might climb a mountain or become a lawyer, and she just may be an "Average Joe". Even "normal" people are compared to each other and held to a standard that they may or may not ever live up to. Is that really fair? Everybody lives their life differently. It's our personal experiences that make us one-of-a-kind masterpieces. I ran across a quote this week that really put my hopes and dreams for Kaelyn into words.

"God gives us dreams a size too big so that we can grow in them. "

~ Unknown

Kaelyn may be small, and she may or may not have many hurdles against her. But how will we EVER know if we set the bar low and expect little? How will she ever have the confidence to achieve her greatest if people are constantly questioning and examining her every move and not giving her the space to be her own person?

I sure hope that the next time you see someone who looks different, sounds different, acts different, please take a second to rethink a snap judgement. That is someone's son or daughter. That person is someone's brother or sister. That person has lived a life different from yours but that makes it no less in God's eyes. That person has had struggles and triumps and deserves a chance to be judged fairly. So please, take a second before you ask that question of a mother or father who has been asked so many times. Please take a second before you judge a person and think poorly. We have no idea.

busy weekend and doctor's appointment update

Holy Moley! It's been a busy weekend! Saturday, I didn't work till the evening, so we grabbed lunch, drove to the Lions Club Game Park in town and ate under the picnic shelter. It was great. mid 70's nice breeze. Kaelyn got to see the bison (but by the time we got to the enclosure they were in the water/tall grass and not in view. Kinda Sad! ) We saw deer, and caribou! Then we went to the park and played on the swing, went on the slide a few times, on one of those rocking animals (you know the ones. with handles and a big spring so they kind of bounce and wiggle in all directions? those are the ones). Last but not least, Jeremy wanted to take Kaelyn on the merry-go-round. SHE LOVED IT!

Sunday morning we woke up at the butt-crack of dawn to go see my dad and step mom compete in The Border Battle WORS race in River Falls. It was a gorgeous day. If you were in the shade, with the breeze on you, it was PERFECT! Kaelyn loved playing in the long grass (and you can be sure I checked for ticks later). We packed a lunch and she got to play with toys and eat snacks on a blanket while cheering Dad and Tammy on! They both made the podium. Tammy finished 3rd, beating out her "nemesis" and whooping some butt! (GIRL POWER!) and Dad had a great race finishing 2nd! Grama Tammy even took Kaelyn up on the podium. I think they are trying to give her a taste of it now, so that she gets the bug. If She's like her momma, she'll end up at least giving it a try. (I raced for two years, before puberty and BOOBS got in the way. Among other things)

All in all it was a great, fun, family oriented, exhausting weekend.

Today, Kaelyn had her audiologist appointment and it went great! We have beautiful weather so we BIKED. yep. It was a bit warmer than expected but a beautiful ride. We tested great. awesome responses to sound stimulation. they want us back in 6 weeks though because she might have water in one of her ears that might have messed with her one ears' tests. even tho they were normal, she just wants to recheck. Kaelyn did NOT, however, like having them test the soundwaves (with the earphones in her

ears) but she was a trooper!!

A beautiful day here!

IT's been a rough few weeks at the Van Dreel House. Last week, we had the FLU! It started with Kaelyn waking up having puked in her crib. It was a rough night! Every half hour she was awake (or as awake as she could be being sicker than a dog and her body waking her up to be ill) and it broke my heart! By about 8am, this mommy was tired and daddy woke up to take over. He took the day off of work so that we could take care of her. She kept down pedialyte and napped a little with daddy while I crashed for a few hours. They played a little and then we ALL crashed for a nap! The rest of the day was uneventful. We were pushing the fluids and so happy to see her smiles coming back! The next day, MOMMY got sick, and then Saturday, DADDY got sick. Thankfully he was sick on a Saturday so he didn't have to miss more work! Sunday was a lazy family day until I went to work ( i missed 3 days taking care of Kaelyn, myself and Jeremy.) I love my family, but I needed to get out of the house. I needed adult interaction and a non-lysol environment!

We've spent the last week just recovering. The laundry was piling up. I washed and dryed but didn't fold laundry while everyone was sick so I had a HUGE PILE of laundry to fold. Ugh.

Kaelyn had her optometrist appointment last monday. It went awesome! She had her eyes dilated. They used the drops and we went in at 8am and she got 1 drop in each eye every 5 minutes. Between her drops and our appointment, she took a little nap and cuddled me, but the down side was that I had to wake her up for her appointment! No way was she happy! But she did awesome, her eyes look good. Nothing to be concerned about. She is a little farsighted, but most children her age are farsighted so it's nothing to worry about. (Although with so much of our family wearing glasses I am guessing it is just a matter of when and not if she will need glasses of some sort.)

We've been working on her walking and she's getting so much stronger and more confident every day! We are still using her Juppy baby walker. She LOVES to cruise the furniture still so I am so very much hoping that we have a walker on our hands soon! I have got to say that I LOVE using the Juppy because it means I can walk with her and my back isn't KILLING me after 5 feet!

We had a pretty good scare on Friday though. I logged onto facebook and saw a post from one of the local tv stations back home. They mentioned an explosion at the paper mill where my dad and my father-in-law work. It was pretty scary. Luckily, both of our dads, both of Kaelyn's Papas, were safe and had the day off! Phew! 3 people were injured, 2 were released right away and 1 was taken by helicopter to Madison with burns! It was very lucky for us that our dads were okay and we said a prayer for the families of the 3 men who weren't so lucky.

For now, I am off to make lunch and bake some banana bread. WOOP! We are teething like crazy. getting in 2 or 3 teeth right now and we are MISERABLE. Kaelyn is waking up 2 or 3 times a night! Hopefully we can bake some bread, eat lunch, I can shower and we'll take a good nap!

Tomorrow we get to shampoo the upstairs and downstairs living rooms. Our roommate moved out and we have less furniture downstairs and the carpet could use a good cleaning. I'm not 100% sure that the carpet was all that clean before we moved in! Add a year of furniture and high traffic and it's in need of some TLC! I'm Super excited. All the basement needs after the carpet cleaning is a couch and maybe a nicer tv, but for now, it makes a great big open room (baby proofed) for Kaelyn to romp around in! With the way the weather has been, though? Not sure we'll get to use it.

Have a great day! ( I know we will!)

Lara and Kaelyn

15 month check up

So we had a good week so far, despite the heat and humidity. Kaelyn had her 15 month check up yesterday and got 2 shots in the process! She's growing like a weed!

Here are her 15 month stats:

height: 30.5 inches (45%)

weight: 21 pounds 4.5 ounces (15%)

We didn't get to see our regular doctor, Dr W. because she was on vacation. GO FIGURE. She's hard to get an appointment with because she is popular and in demand. That also means she always seems rushed and part of me still doesn't like taking Kaelyn to her because it wasn't until her 9 month appointment that she even mentioned noticing a possible chromosomal issue. She brought in Dr. A to look at her and see if he saw the same "markers" that she did. He saw them as well and was more thorough in the 2 times we've seen them than all the other times. I LOVED our appointment with Dr. A and his nurse. He only saw her once other than the consult but he remembered her, made sure to ask that we were seeing birth-to-3 and checking up with the SPC Down's Syndrome Clinic. Reiterated that he didn't want her to fall through the cracks. Was so pleased with the things we had going for intervention and check ups! With the exception of her walking being delayed, she is right where she should be and even a little ahead! I told myself that this appointment would be a test of who to take Kaelyn to in the future and as we were walking out, I felt very secure in my decision to switch doctors.

As I mentioned earlier in this update, the humidity has been through the roof (70% today) and in the high 90's. Too miserable to go out in, even for a short while, so we have been stuck in the house and that hasn't been helped at all by the numerous teeth coming in and the usual "crankies" we get after shots. Here is to hoping tomorrow is a more perky day for my little lady.

peace, love, and hugs!

Lara

Rainy day

Oh lordy! I seem to have all of these grandiose ideas about blogging on a regular basis. So this is where I say to myself "I have a TODDLER..... I will blog whenever I get the time!" We had a great week last week. Just very mellow. Kaelyn chilled out with her Papa Mike and Grandma Sandy and Nanny (my mom) while the hubby and I went to our class of 2001 10 year HS Reunion. It was a pretty sad showing. our of a class of OVER 600 we maybe at MOST had 70 people (that is including spouses) show up. The food was kinda skimpy but it was nice to see a few people and chat with them. The next day we took Kaelyn down to the river front to listen to some music, visit with family and watch the fireworks. Needless to say, she was OUT like a light before they started and only woke up for the finale. We went to the parade the next morning before heading home and spent some time with my brother in law, his wife, and their precious little girl. She's 2 months old and "dangerous". The kind of cuddly newborn that makes you want another one RIGHT NOW!!

We had a few days of quiet then my mom came up for a visit. We had loads of fun. We had our July birth-to-3 visit and it went well. more ideas of what to do to get Kaelyn walking, to get her to gain more strength in her legs and more balance. We went shopping, and got an Autograph from #30 of the green bay packers, John KUUUUUUHN!!! was a pretty fun day. I worked the weekend so Kaelyn got some quality time with her Nanny (my mom). We played it mellow at the beginning of the week but picked it up again when we went to the zoo on Wednesday. We had fun but by the end of the day she was POOPED! I can't say I blame her, it was a long day. First we couldn't get the prius started for swim class. we get there 1o minutes late and BLAM! No swimsuit for Kaelyn. At that point, we just left for the zoo. We figured it was not going to get any better if we went back for the blasted swim suit. SO after all that drama of getting to the pool and NO swimsuit, I just changed out of my suit there and we left. We got home and Mom and I grilled chicken breasts on the grill and then added some bbq sauce for good measure. I never grilled chicken before and it was NUMMY! I'll have to do it again!

We had a lazy day thursday. Just hung out, made some sweedish Meatballs. YUMMMM... Watched "Hall Pass" and went to bed.

Thursday was also our last day of swim class. I was kind of hoping one of the moms would have wanted to trade numbers and meet at a park every so often but no luck there. We came home and Kaelyn napped like a pro! napped through a thunderstorm and everything! Yay!

Since swim class is over we are going to go to a play group on Friday mornings through our local birth-to-3 program. they do gross/fine motor skills, sing a few songs, have a snack, group play, sensory activities. It was pretty fun. I just want to make sure I keep it so that she is well socialized and interacts with kids of her own age level on a regular basis.

WOah! this turned into quite the blog. I just want to give a shout out to my april 2010 WTE mommies. You ladies are great! Thanks for all of the chats and many more to come!

Time to go make some cookies and wash some diapers! (i think i forgot to post on that....i'll double check later. )

Have a great day! Lara and Kaelyn

holy smokes!

It's been SO LONG since my last post! Over a month!! Kaelyn is getting bigger, faster, and smarter every single day. It's almost frightening!!

Look at her new face. Lots of people call it the "duck face" but in our family, we call it the "Grandma Mildred Face" as that is how she would scrunch her face up, after licking her lips, to give you a big old smooch. Kaelyn DEFINITELY has a little bit of great grandma Mildred in her.

Anyways, Things are going great. She getting closer to walking every day. She is less timid, and lets go a lot more and started to take steps. Whether or not it is her partial T21 or her previously loose hip, She is not far off from walking. And that alone, terrifies me. If she is fast on all fours, how fast will this kid be upright and walking? YIKES!

This week we started swiming classes. YAY! It's more of a work out for me than it is for her, but she is getting more and more comfortable in the water and even lets us lay her on her back! She's not close to floating as she still DEMANDS to be held onto (but hey, she's 14 months old!) but if i lay her head on my shoulder and her legs away from me, she does very well! And she just loves the water and her new friend Otis. Otis seems to like her too. Watch out! We have a flirt on our hands.

We also recently dived into the world of CLOTH DIAPERS. Yes, I said it. CLOTH DIAPERS. BUt so far we are on Day 2 and it's going great. They don't stink up her diaper pail NEARLY as bad as the disposables (cuz the poop gets flushed and doesn't sit and bake, i'm guessing) and i LOVE diaper changes since I have all of these fun diapers in fun colors to put on her! My only regret is that I didn't buy more!! We went with Nubunz pocket diapers and they are awesome! The one drawback, in my opinion, is that it took FOREVER to get any order information from them. I bought them on the 10th and didn't hear anything from them until the 19th. Even if they weren't being shipped right away, I had hoped i would get an order number and a reasonable deadline as to when to expect them. Once I emailed them, however, I got a confirmation number and they were shipped the next day! I stalked the UPS site with my tracking number every few hours and wonderfully, they got here yesterday before I went to work. I got most of hte parts and Jeremy is going to build us a diaper sprayer. So far all of our #2 diapers have been pretty "solid" and THANKFULLY we haven't needed the sprayer. YAY! I need to look into some diaper soaps and hopefully I can get some samples to try out and, even though i'm sure NOBODY Else reads this, I can put my opinions up and people can have a little bit more information without doing all of the work. (Cuz, HEY! I did it first!) later taters! Gonna go look up that diaper soap stuff. Have a good day!!

Lara and Kaelyn

the month of may

Kinda sucks. Not gonna lie.This month started out with an emergency trip back home. We went home on a sunday night after a call that my grandpa, or Papa as we call him, was in the ICU. His COPD was stage 4 and they were keeping him comfortable but it was only a matter of time. He passed away 2 days later on monday. I was lucky enough to be able to be there for him, he got to hear Kaelyn say "papa" (a word she learned just earlier that week) SO between the funeral and the family drama (there was plenty) it was an exhausting week. I had to come home when Jeremy came home (he only got 1 day of bereavement and I got 3) so the two remaining days were spend playing out in the yard with Kaelyn and catching up on the sleep I lost the previous few days.

From there, the next week we had a great visit with our Birth-to-3 ladies, Mary and Natalie. They taught Kaelyn how to climb up the stairs!! She is now a pro! We did it twice yesterday and in the process of trying to get a video, we needed her to do it 2 more times! She slept through the night for the first time in weeks (teething is a stinker! The tooth fairy is being a brat to us, lets just say that much.)

Sorry for the lapse in between posts, but life is crazy, having a toddler getting into EVERYTHING. I'll try to be a little more faithful in posting. in the meantime, here is a link to her video of her crawling up the stairs.

Have a great day!

Lara, Jeremy, and Kaelyn!

HERES THE LINK

One Year Old!

I can't believe its been a year since my baby girl was brought into the world! A whole year of smiles, diapers, sleepless nights, and so much more! I can't believe that I've been a mommy for a whole year now! She's been such a blessing to Jeremy and I, to our whole family and just because of her diagnosis, it makes everything that much more special. It makes us appreciate every single day, every little thing. All of the milestones and the memories. I get teary eyed just thinking about the last year!

Her party was awesome and just perfect. My mom came up a few days early to help do some cleaning, and get some stuff cooked and decorated. She had so many guests and special presents and we have so many memories to pass on to her! She got lots of music toys, especially a music set (egg shakers, tambourine, shaker, drums) and she also got a way cool wagon! We've put it all to wonderful use taking trips over to the park across the street from our house! She also got so many special and adorable outfits! We are still trying to wear them all! OH! and she got a BOX! I am in the process of painting it mossy green and "sunrise pink" lol. Ugh. It's getting late and i have to get to bed. We have Kaelyn on an awesome sleep schedule (bed by 10 and up at 8 usually) and I have minimal time to get up and shower before she wakes up! Every day is awesome and she wakes up SMILING! (Our birth to 3 Occupation therapist says she's "amazingly easy going! If I knew all babies would be as easy going, I'd have a dozen more!..... well maybe not a DOZEN, but I'd sure jump on the bandwagon for another one. I kind of want to try again, but we'll see. ENOUGH of my rambling, i'm off to bed. Thanks for reading! i might try a video blog for my next entry. we'll see how that goes!

Weaning, and other things

Well, we are officially down to one feeding a day. I am happy that we have a little extra freedom to go and run errands and just bum around town and have fun. But I am having a little bit of an issue with missing the closeness and bonding time. Like scooping her up from the crib first thing in the morning, put on the news and snuggle up and nurse her. Knowing I can do something for her that nobody else can. I am the one who nourishes her with MY body. I feel like I'm losing something that I can't get back. I know that it's best for both of us, and I know I'm not the only one who feels this way. I am sure there have been COUNTLESS other mommies who have gotten a little teary eyed knowing that our babies are growing up and they don't need us like they used to.

On the upside, there has been a little bit of tenderness but no outright pain, no engorgement. My body seems to be transitioning very well. And for that I am most thankful.

She's picking up speed with her crawling, pulling up on the sofa now. In her defense, our couch is high and rounded cushions so its harder for her. But man is she getting good! I may be losing nursing and bonding, but I am gaining a new perspective on life EACH DAY. I see a new little girl growing up before my eyes!

On a different note, my sister and mom's DNA tests came back a few weeks ago, and contrary to what our geneticist thought, My mom was not the one to pass on the genetic balanced rearrangement. SO now its either passed on from my dad's side of the family, or I am the first and it happened at conception.

HOLY SMOKES! It's 1/4 to 2! i'm jumping in bed. I'll post more later!

All of our love

Lara and Kaelyn

Guess who is 11 months old?

We are 11 months old as of the 5th and celebrated with a fun little photo shoot of our own! Woo hoo! We are under a month away from her birthday and her party! My mom made the invites and they are starting to arrive in the mail. We received our first call today. My grandma on my dads side is unable to make it. But we are home the weekend before and after the party so we will make sure to stop over for some special grandma time!

This next month is going to be amazing!

On the 16th we have ANOTHER meeting with our birth-to-3 ladies, Mary and Natalie. Those women are simply amazing. These little exercises they have us work with Kaelyn on has made such huge strides! She army crawls and then she crawls! It's hard to get her to do them now that she is crawling because she is so inquisitive and wants to explore and get into mischief.

The weekend of the 25th we are heading back home for the weekend because my brother-in-law and his wife are having their baby shower that weekend! Yay! We'll get to visit with my mom and sisters hopefully and some of the great-grandparents too!

We get to come home and clean like crazy and wait for the weekend of the 1st for Kaelyn's birthday party! I can't believe my little girl is turning one in just 3 short weeks! It seems unreal that just one year ago she was in my tummy, breech and stubborn and all over my bladder! And then she was OUT! She's here and she's thriving in the real world!

The very next weekend is TRIVIA! We participate in the world's largest trivia contest in Stevens Point, Wisconsin. It's a pretty big deal where we are from and the contest takes over the WHOLE town. It's going to be fun. Kaelyn gets to spend a whole day with her Auntie Kristin. Yay!! (what will this mommy do without a baby to keep an eye on?)

On a different note, sippy cup training is AWESOME! We are all but weaned from the bottles, doing awesome eating more and more table food. We have been weaned from pacifiers for months! She started rejecting them around thanksgiving, which is awesome!

Time sure is flying and its crazy to me. Next step is Kaelyn walking and having a fun spring/summer, her first easter (since she was born the day AFTER easter 2010) and all the rest of her milestones.

But if one more person says my headache is me being pregnant or asks me when we are going to have another baby, I am gonna scream! We are gonna wait just a smidge longer, due to the c-section and all.

Later taters! Gotta get ready to put Kaelyn to bed!

Take care and thanks for reading!

Lara and Kaelyn

March is here!

Does that mean springtime is on its way? I surely hope so. It's been a week or so since I have updated last and I think I'll just make it a weekly blog.

Last week, Kaelyn started crawling. I put a video link on my last blog entry. It's so adorable! But one thing nobody warned me about, the learning curve. Once they learn, you put them on the floor and they are off and racing! It's nuts!! Sometimes I lean over to put her on the floor and her legs and arms are already going!

I cannot believe that on Saturday, Kaelyn will be 11 months old! Party invites are in the mail and my mom did such an amazing job on them. Kaelyn will have such pretty invites for her very first birthday ever! I can't wait!

I've got quite the day of laundry ahead of me. Not only did i get 5 pair of pants (garanimals) on sale at walmart yesterday, but a co-worker of mine is through having children and gave me a HUGE TCP bag full of hand me downs! Gonna rewash them so we don't have any detergent issues, but OMG. Some of the outfits are so cute! I think tomorrow Kaelyn and I will have a mini photo shoot tomorrow for her 11 month pictures. I have heard as much yet, but I'm sure the grandmas would love something more than the Valentine's Day pictures I posted 2 or 3 weeks ago.

We've been feeding her more finger foods lately and we've been pretty successful! We LOVE macaroni and cheese, potatoes, fruity pancakes (bisquick gluten free pancakes with left over baby food puree in them) Graham crackers, cheerios, chicken, ham, turkey, spaghetti (not quite there on her own yet.) and others. I am going to steam some carrot coins and those can be her next new finger food. She also FINALLY found a sippy cup that she will drink out of and is starting to learn that she needs to tip it back to get to the bottom of the cup. We've done apple juice (50/50 mix with water) and whole milk. She REFUSES to drink formula with whole milk or breast milk with whole milk, and it doesn't seem to bother her tummy in the least. Thank the lord. Jeremy had a hard time getting her to drink her bottle on Tuesday when I was at work. She wanted either a.) the boob, b.) formula, or c.) whole milk. not a combination. luckily for this mommy, she was hungry when I got home so I could avoid the breast pump.

Odin is struggling with Kaelyn being more mobile as she loves to crawl over to him and yank his tail or pull his ears. He just kinda growls and walks away but that is by no means a deterrent for her wanting to "play" with her puppy. I was very impressed today by his behavior. He laid next to us on the couch and let her stroke his ears while she nursed. He was patient and seems to be learning that she's not going anywhere so he better get used to her. Our only REAL issue is that she thinks its okay to feed Odin. So when she gets finger food, he's put away in our bedroom. Today Kaelyn had bananas and got it on her feet. (don't ask me how, i'm still scratching my head at that) I run potty and come back to Kaelyn laughing so hard she's hiccuping. Odin is by her feet, head sideways, licking BETWEEN her toes. Too funny. Thank goodness my bladder was empty because it was HILLARIOUS!

We are battling a little diaper rash right now on her girly parts. Poor dolly hates when I lay her on the changing table because she KNOWS I'm going to have to wipe her down and put more A&D back on it. Desitin at night seems to help a little, but I believe because she is a tummy sleeper and the pee goes to the front of the diaper, a healthy glob of A&D before bed will go a long way towards being a skin protecting barrier than the desitin for this particular incident. I just hate knowing that she is so miserable for diaper changes. But oh well.

I forgot to mention that I emailed our Birth-to-3 (also known as "early intervention") lady after Kaelyn started crawling and they mailed out a few other ideas to work on for the next 2 weeks. We'll see if we can get her to sit in one place long enough to do them! Now that she is crawling, she is off like a lit firecracker!

I'm off to bed. I wanna get up early to read a little before kaelyn gets up. I baked oreo cupcakes again and need to frost them as well. But after making dinner, feeding Kaelyn, and baking the cupcakes, I decided that I could frost them later. I plopped on the floor and played with my girl and read a book on my Nook and before I knew it, she nursed, fell asleep (while nursing) and I laid her down. BONUS! Now, all I have to do is wrestle the remote away from Jeremy so I can put some news on to fall asleep to. OH! and kick Odin out of my spot on the bed. Jeremy have him a few treats when he came home after I gave such a GLOWING review of his behavior. I don't want my pillow smelling like dog breath and dog biscuits. ICK!

Later gaters!

All of our love,

Lara and Kaelyn

What a WEEK!

Holy moly. It's been a while since i updated. I feel like I should title the blog "Wow. long time no blog" or just have that be the title for each update. Being mommy to a little one is exhausting!

She had her February appointment with the Birth-to-3 ladies. They were very pleased with her army crawling and she even got into what they call a "bear walk" pose. they are going to continue to see her on a monthly basis just to make sure she stays on track. And seeing as how each time they come and give us a few exercises to do with her and she responds amazingly. Last time we got her on her knees and rocked her back and forth over her knees and soon after she was army crawling! So we saw them last week and got a few more things to try with her and what does she start this morning? CRAWLING! (click here for a video!) I got her to crawl for 5 or 6 feet at a time by having her crawl towards a box of cheerios. lol.I tried just having her follow a trail of cheerios but the dog caught on pretty quickly and ate them all up before she could get to them! Silly puppy. My mom was video chatting with us on skype and she got to see Kaelyn crawl too! And the upside is that Kaelyn went to sleep a whole hour earlier than normal! I could have gotten her to bed earlier, but she wasn't in her jammies and needed a diaper change. So that woke her up. She's getting so big so fast that it's hard to believe we are already thinking of guest lists and invites for her 1st birthday! and she kinda gets two because we go home the weekend AFTER her bday to compete in the worlds largest trivia contest (Click here for the 90fm trivia web page). I'm sure that we'll see a few relatives that can't make the drive to our place (2 1/2 hours from our hometown) and she'll get a few extra presents and maybe a cupcake! lol. Did i forget to mention the huge freaking snow storm we got on sunday! 12.5 inches of snow dumped on us in one day! The closed down the interstate and even monday morning on Jeremy's drive to work he saw so many cars in the ditch. It was probably not a good idea to take the interstate to work seeing as how the on/off ramps weren't plowed worth a dang, but he made it to work okay and he came home so we could finish shoveling out what the plow shoveled into our driveway. lol. It has certainly been a week so far and its only Tuesday! I cannot WAIT to see what else the week has in store for us!

Much love and happy winter!

Lara and Kaelyn

spring is almost here!

Monday was Kaelyn's first Valentines day! It's crazy! 10 months old and now we are closing a chapter, very soon, on her first year!! In 6 short weeks we can say Bye Bye to having a baby and say hello to having a 1 year old!! We can plan a birthday party and start thinking of walking and her first trip to the park across the street, playing on the swings, taking her on her first trip down the slide, watching her walk barefoot in the grass.

I got super hopeful for the weather to stay nice and bought a container of bubbles. Kaelyn was not much for the bubbles last summer/fall, it was more of a fun thing for Odin to jump up and chase after and catch with his mouth. Yay!

I had an AVON meeting today at a cafe/coffee shop down the street and the ladies were all enamored with Kaelyn. "She's so sweet!" "Awwww,...... what a cutie pie!" Hee hee. There is something about hearing how cute your child is that makes your day. After the meeting, we ran to walmart for some supplies for dinner and light bulbs for the kitchen. A trip to walmart is almost ALWAYS a fun time because my coworkers LOVE when she waves her chubby fingers at them. And she LOVES to chatter and jabber at people and scream at them when they don't notice her waving and clapping at them.

Kaelyn got up and did a "down ward dog" type pose this morning. So, I can only hope that means that she is getting closer to REAL crawling and maybe even cruising along the edges of furniture.

We have our Birth-to-3 assessment tomorrow. Another follow up with Natalie and Mary. It was a great time last time, to have reassurance that she is on track and doing well by someone elses standards. We'll see what they think of REPEATEDLY being told Kaelyn has low muscle tone (hypotonia) by St. Paul Children's and Kaelyn's family doctor. Just because she isn't going to fight you when you move her legs, doesn't mean she has low muscle tone, right? That's the only confusing thing.... Birth-to-3 says one thing and SPC and our local doc says another. Who to believe?

I'm blogging from the bathroom where Kaelyn is splishing and splashing in her tub. I better go and scrub her down and rinse her off. time to get ready for bed time!

I will most definitely update the blog after Birth-to-3 ladies leave.

Lots of love,

Mommy and Kaelyn

where were you when?

There are always moments in life where you know it will be a major even that, later in life, people will ask "Where were you when you found out?"

Today I was channel surfing, landed on CNN to see what was going on and amazingly there is a party on the streets of Cairo, Egypt because Mubarak has stepped down. I only pray that we can leave them, as a country, to fix their own mess and not step in with out giant "hero" complex and muck it all up for them. I mean, i'm all for stepping in when the need is there, but We have so many problems in our own country, I think we need to throw a little focus on fixing up our country before we go fixing anybody elses country!

Anyways, CONGRATS EGYPT! I was so happy to hear that Mubarak realized he was hindering (not helping) his country. Where were you when you heard?

a good day all around

Oh my goodness. I think our spell of middle of the night waking up to nurse is OFFICIALLY OVER! Kaelyn slept in today until after 9:30!! I got up at quarter after, went to the bathroom, let the dog outside, fed him, grabbed a "lactation cookie" and peeped in and she was awake and playing with the stuffed little Tigger she loves. She was smiling and happy and it was a great way to start my day off.

We putzed around in our jammies until my friend KIM had to post on her facebook status about cupcakes for her bday. Now, even though I am eating healthier to lose some weight, I still indulge every now and then. I perused the google for interesting cupcake recipes until i stumbled upon THIS GEM. I have NEVER EVER baked cupcakes or cookies from scratch. Nope. I usually get the box from betty crocker where you add egg, oil, and water. I don't want to toot my own horn, but YUMMMM. I highly recommend these DELISH cupcakes. I'm starting to make some FUN foods. To bake more, cook more, so that when Kaelyn is older, I have something to teach her besides noodles and kraft mac n cheese. lol. I am sending the majority of the cupcakes to work with the hubby since I don't want that many evil, cellulite-giving, tempting treats in the house for me to fall of the bandwagon with. I'm pretty proud that I have been able to eat well, exercise often and be healthier for Kaelyn and any future children I may have. Yay me! and Jer's co-workers get to reap the benefits!

Kaelyn had a SUPER fun bath. Jeremy ran it and made bubbles with her baby shampoo. Kaelyn's new thing is that she tried to eat the bubbles. lol. she didn't quite understand why she put them to herlips but nothing ever went in her mouth!! Super cute!! I got pictures but have to upload them. I have a sleepy cuddle bug in my arms and have to put her to bed now so I will blog more later!

OH! and I got an email from "the gene pool" support group for different genetic disorders and I am very hopeful that this will be a good fit for us.

So far away from home

I'm sitting on the floor in my bathroom with the laptop while kaelyn takes a bath. Someone's diaper was far too much for any amount of wipes to handle. So bubbles toys will distract from the head to toe scrubbing she just got. (we aren't a fan of having our hair rinsed and can't yet discern why mommy wants us to look UP when the big blue cup is over our head. )

Anyways, after a fun filled day of church and superbowl, friends and festivities, I woke up today feeling sick. HOMESICK. I see all the pics of people back home, my mom and my sisters and can't help but feel that they all grow closer by the day to each other while I am 2 1/2 hours away from home raising the start of our family and living our "married lives" together.I know it was our choice to live here and don't get me wrong, I love my home and my husband and Kaelyn and Odin. But there comes a time when you wish you could just pop over to hang out with family for the afternoon. Do lunch, drop Kaelyn off so i can get a haircut in peace. Instead a weekend usually is required for any family function because we have to drive 2 1/2 hours to get there! Then the dog whines in our ears 1/2 the way home, Kaelyn wakes up hungry, I haven't breast fed in well over 3 hours and the night we get there is a total wash. Saturdays are booked up with seeing all of our family in one day so nobody feels left out and sunday is the reverse of friday. back up to go home and then tackle the laundry from the weekend, calm Kaelyn down from all of t he excitement.

It probably would be better if I weren't a social hermit. After all, I am blogging from the bathroom on a Monday morning. Can't really go too far in the truck since it has horrible mileage and Jeremy has the car at work with him 30 minutes in the OTHER direction of the mall. I never was the best at making friends. and the ones from high school have either A) changed too much and we drifted apart or lost touch..... or B) we are close but in different states so a lunch date or hanging out at the movies is impossible. There have been friends I've made up here, but besides mutual friends, I've got Jeremy and he works and then Jen and she works 5:30 am to 2pm then takes HER little girl home to stick to their routine. And the other one I attempted to befriend, well lets just say that my husbands job "all that money" made me a bitch, my miscarriage turned me into a pity party and I was using it for attention (or some such non-sense) and I gave birth to a "F*$%ing ugly baby" so she really isn't anybody I would spend ANY time with, much less let a negative influence around Kaelyn. Ugh. I guess it's like i live in a vacuum. If there were a mommy group in the area maybe I'd get to branch out and socialize, but there's not. so its pretty pointless in hoping. As much as I'd hate to leave Jen and Donnie and our goddaughter, someday I'd love to move back home, but knowing my luck, by then everyone would have changed more and i'd be right back where i started. OY. lol Anyways, i'm sure kaelyn's hiney has more wrinkles than a california raisin so I'm gonna log off and hope that if anybody reads this, they have a good day. Embrace and love your friends and family. So you dont feel so POOPY and jealous when facebook pictures make you homesick.

All of our love (and appologies for being debbie downers)

Lara and Kaelyn

SUPERBOWL CHAMPS!

It was a great day. WOO! Kaelyn slept like a doll last night, but we had to wake her up a few hours early because we went to church. (Early service because we aren't exactly up to getting her riled up at the contemporary service our church has at 10:30). We came home, and I cut up veggies for a veggie tray for the SuperBowl party we were going to. Then I cleaned up the veggie mess (leaves and peelings and little bits of broccoli EVERYWHERE LOL) only to make ANOTHER mess baking football shaped cookies. I really DO need to get a pic of them. they were pretty cool! Chocolate frosted sugar cookies with green and yellow lacing! Yep. CHEESEHEADS BABY!. We headed over to our friends house to hang out and watch some pre-game and let Kaelyn play with their baby who is 5 months younger. She is our god daughter and the girls are, we hope, going to be best buds! :D

Once the game came on another couple came over so it was 3 couples and 2 little girls, and one dog. lol. Zeus the dog had QUITE the time entertaining us all and getting little treats here and there when someone ate carelessly and dropped something. lol. The game was sure a nail biter and both Jeremy and our friend Donnie were on the edge of their seats. LITERALLY. :D After the halftime show we had to keep the cheering, screaming and sofa-coaching to a dull roar because Kaelyn's friend was asleep. She doesn't mind the noise for sleeping, but who could sleep with 6 rowdy adults getting riled up over fumbles, interceptions and extra points? The Black Eyed Peas were underwhelming. I guess I'm not really a fan to begin with so it would have taken QUITE a LOT to get me to say I was impressed. When all is said and done, it was a good game, we are taking the Lombardi trophy back to Lambeau where it belongs. BOO YAH! We had a pretty good night. Kaelyn fell asleep on the floor in the 4th quarter and roused only to get put in the car seat and to come in the house when we came home. It was fun once we got back into town because all the fans were leaving the local bars/restaurants and the college students were walking back to campus and wearing cheese head hats and foam fingers so we drove past and honked. (Kaelyn slept through that too!) came home and did a victory dance. "green and yellow, green and yellow, green and yellow" hee hee.

Great day. GO PACK GO! oh, and Aaron Rodgers is superbowl MVP. :D

Later folks. thanks again for reading my blog. Feel free to comment and become a fan or follow this blog!

Lara and Kaelyn

p.s. I had to wash my championship shirt just a few minutes ago because at her last diaper change, Kaelyn URINATED on me. And she did it like a boy, sprayed up and everything. Ugh. Didn't want the chemicals in her pee to bleach my shirt. someone said urine bleaches clothing.

Anyways, i'm falling asleep at the laptop so I'm gonna head to bed.

Check out this song! Green and Yellow. love it.

10 months old today

We had a great day yesterday. Just chilled out, snuggled up and took a nap. I wore my bathrobe and she only wore her diaper so it was a little skin-on-skin bonding which calms her down quick and we can get some quality snuggles in! Inevitably, it ended up in a nap, but hey, she's a cutie and has this trick where one minute you are looking at her in AWE that you are a mommy to this cute little baby and the next.....ZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...... :D

She slept AMAZING last night too. Went down around 12 (yes MIDNIGHT, she's a night owl. YOU try getting her to sleep before 11 and let me know how that works. lol) She woke up a few times fussing but I went in, rolled her to her tummy and let her grump it out a little. She went right back to sleep in less than 5 minutes each time! AMAZING! No more 3am scramble over the dog and tripping over a pair of shoes to calm her down! I'll just keep up what we have been doing!. Amazingly, she loves having her crib side lowered and we are learning a little that crib mattresses are bouncy. So now, we are just eating some cheerios (Kaelyn is) and I'm having toast and getting ready to shower and head out to work. I have tomorrow off and it's SUPERBOWL SUNDAY!!! We are probably just going to go to church and hang out until we head over to a friends house to watch the game. I'm a little relieved that it's not at our house. lol. Less mess, less dishes, and less cleaning up before hand so the house is "presentable" for company. My dad and step mom have requested a QIK video from us so I suppose we will do that and a couple of pictures to celebrate her 10 month milestone after work. YAY! I just felt like doing a quick update today since it marks 10 fabulous months of motherhood. All the puke and poop and drool and sleepless nights were so worth every gummy (and now TOOTHY) grin she gives. She even claps at me. 24/7. Even when its inappropriate! (like when I nearly break my hiney tripping over the dog or when she's in her walker in the bathroom when I'm getting ready for the day and I poke myself in the eye. hee hee hee. What a doll!

Anyways, i hope to have a good update tomorrow after the SUPERBOWL!! GO PACK GO!!

busy week, busy weekend ahead

Oh lord. This week has certainly been a busy one. Kaelyn learned to stand up in her crib, making Jeremy and I put her in her pack and play over night until we could lower her crib mattress without fear of injuring ourselves. (I didn't want to imagine what 3am crib lowering would do to us. lol) She has slept TWO nights in her crib, like an angel! It appears that this mommy is getting her good sleeper back!

I work tonight and tomorrow and then Sunday We have friends coming over for the big game. WOO HOOO! Probably gonna make some Packer cookies. I tried a recipe for Black-bottom banana bars last night but they were WAY too dry, not something I plan on making again. I think instead of grilling out on "the George" we are gonna do pizza. easier on me and less mess.

Kaelyn is developing a bit of clinginess where I am concerned lately. And as much as it warms my heart, I know its a very bad habit to get into and even harder to break. As it is, we are putting her in her crib when she isn't fully asleep so she's been crying it out a little. It breaks my heart and sometimes causes me major discomfort since I am still nursing, but it has to be done, so we are giving it a try.

When my niece was here she was coloring with crayons she got from the restaurant where we had lunch. one of them made it into my laundry. (probably my fault for grabbing towels off of the kitchen table and not checking everything. lol.) So i have blue crayon all over a load of laundry. YAY! or not. lol. better go clean it out! I'll be sure to blog later! but for now, here is a picture of my goofy girl eating at her highchair! Cheerios and nanners are down the hatch and we are ready to play! Full force dont' you know? Should be a fun day! Thanks for reading and please feel free to comment! We'd love to hear fro you!

UPDATE: just got a call from St. Paul Children's and Kaelyn's thyroid function test results came back normal! Thank the lord! Wooo hooo! Now we REALLY have something to celebrate on Sunday.

what a busy busy week (or two) its been!

Sorry for the lack of updating. its been NUTS! We went home for Grandma Lucy's funeral after the NFC CHAMPIONSHIP GAME (GO PACKERS!! SUPERBOWL BOUND BABY!!!) She was 90 years old, she lived a good and full life, so it wasn't the same as most funeals i've been to. Grandpa Robert was young, Charlie and Chris were young, Grandpa David was still young. All of them were taken TOO SOON. Whether it was cancer, lung issues, killed by a drunk driver, or a tragic mistake, these peoples funerals were SOOO different from Grandma Lucy's. This one truly was a celebration of her life, because boy did she live it. We came home Tuesday night and cleaned furiously in recovery mode from the game and last minute packing for the funeral because the in-laws were coming up for to watch my husbands cousin play in a local peewee hockey tournament. And as luck (or karma) would have it, I was up on Friday morning at 7 am sick. For the record, no i am NOT pregnant. Although me feeling better by 3 was suspicious to some family members. lol. It was the first time when I was sick and Jeremy was so pressed at work that he was unable to come home to help with Kaelyn. So she had some quality time in her pack and play, nursed a little here and there, and was in general, a good baby for me. I felt SO GUILTY though because normally I get down on the floor and play with her, we listen to toddler tunes on the computer (Kaelyn has her own Pandora play list and we listen to it so often its the one that loads now every time i log in!) and we snuggle and she was kind of on her own. Not only because I was sick, but just in case it was contagious, I didn't want HER to get sick. As it turns out, I'm pretty sure it was something I ate, but for the life of me, I cannot figure out what it was that made me sick. But that's neither here nor there.

We went to the hockey tournament where Rapids beat the pants off of Altoona 4-1 (I think. ). We relaxed and went to dinner saturday night, watched a movie at home, relaxed sunday morning until they packed up, gave last kisses to Kaelyn and left to go back home. We weren't without company though because my mom, sister, and niece came up so that I didn't have to go to Kaelyn's appointment at St. Paul Children's Hospital by myself. I'm sure I would have done just fine, but I have never driven there by myself and with Kaelyn and the stroller (because its a LOT of walking from parking, to radiology, to genetics and back to parking and she's getting heavier by the day) and the diaper bag, and getting her in and out of clothes, It's so much nicer to have a 2nd set of hands to help out. As it turns out, Her renal/bladder ultrasound was awesome. YAY! She is right on track for meeting milestones timely if not early for NORMAL children, so she is beating all of the suggested times for Down's Syndrome Children. It makes me one very happy mommy. The reason that they are looking at her and following her as a Down's Syndrome child is because of the extra piece of chromosome 21. And she has SO LITTLE in what researchers are calling the critical range, we are not sure what, beyond the eye shape and other facial features will be affected. THey checked her heart, kidneys, bladder and all are awesome. They drew blood yesterday to check her thyroid and we should hear back this week or early next week hopefully. We thought we'd have to wait for a call for the renal/bladder ultrasound results, but Rebecca (nurse and in charge of DS Clinic at SPC) found us waiting in the lab lounge for her to get her blood drawn and told us it was all fine. PHEW! How often can you say that someone went out of their way to find you before you left the hospital to tell you your results to set your mind at ease!. Now we are just praying for a normal thyroid screening. Unlike the kidneys and bladder and heart (where once they are normal they never need to be tested) Kaelyn will need to have her thyroid checked on a regular basis.

I had such a fun time with my niece coming too though. We colored, I painted her nails (toe and finger nails) and we made a valentine's day present for her mommy and daddy). Her being big enough to want "CRAZY hair" and painted purple nails and to do crafts, makes me excited for the day when I can do these sorts of things with Kaelyn.

OH! I nearly forgot, all the night nursing? DEFINITELY a growth spurt. Between the 19th of December and yesterday 2/1/11 She went from 16#15oz to 17#10oz. Nearly a pound? She usually gains a pound a MONTH! and here she is growing that much in about 2 weeks? Makes me feel much better about letting her nurse as needed at night. although I think i will start giving her a breast milk BOTTLE at night because it is NOT good to fall asleep nursing a baby with TWO TEETH....YOWIE! Tonight we will hopefully have her crib mattress lowered because she learned how to pull herself up on the crib rails. Previously she tried using the cribs bumper pad and never got anywhere. lol. Last night I let her crab a little in her crib in hopes that she would calm down and go to sleep. and she was crabbing each time i checked on her. I finally got up to go to the bathroom and what do i see? Kaelyn standing up in her crib. So we pulled the pack and play out and in her room so that we could have her sleep somewhere safe until we get her mattress lowered.

Speaking of crabby, Kaelyn is starting to get fussy so I gotta go! Maybe I can get some MUCH needed cleaning done today!

Thanks for stopping by to read! I'm blogging in the hopes of SOMEDAY finding someone with partial trisomy 21 like Kaelyn, another mom or dad to talk to. It's not common, its pretty rare. If you are out there LET ME KNOW! I'm WAITING! lol

All of our Love

Lara and Kaelyn

Wow..... not sure how this day will end up

So, Kaelyn didn't sleep so great last night. Ended up getting up to nurse at 5am. I think we are gonna have a growth spurt because this is NOT typical for her. One can only hope it comes soon cuz momma misses her 8-9 hours of straight through sleeping.

So we woke up this morning, I've got a glass of tea and some lactation cookies for breakfast and Kaelyn has munched on 3/4 of a banana. I logged onto facebook to hear the news that my husbands Great Grandma had passed away. She was in hospice care due to having a pretty major stroke 2 weeks ago and they think she had another (unknown severity) last weekend. They knew at her age (in her 90's) that there wasn't much they could do after they found the blood clot in her brain. She was in and out of consciousness and my mother-in-law and her siblings and Grandma Judy all went to visit a few days ago to catch her at a wakeful moment so they could say their goodbyes and let her know how much she was loved. She was Kaelyn's Great GREAT Grandma. How many people get to say they knew their Great GREAT Grandma? We have a picture we took with Jeremy, Kaelyn, Sandy (My mother in law) and Great Grandma Judy and Great GREAT Grandma Lucy. A milestone picture for sure. Our family has had some pretty hard losses in the last 3 years. We found out before I was pregnant with Kaelyn that Jeremy's Grandpa David had cancer. He kicked it and was strong and kicking for my brother in laws wedding but shortly after it came back. He saw the ultrasound picture of Kaelyn (Whom he called "the bean") after Jeremy took it in a frame to his hospice room. Things seemed to go downhill pretty quickly. We lost him fall of 2009. 2010 seemed to be okay but in December, my uncle Roger who had moved home to be closer to family, went into the hospital with chest pains and passed away less than 24 hours later with my mother and my sister by his side. That was a hard funeral to go to, no because I knew him very well, (he was kind of distant from the family when i was growing up, for whatever reasons), but because it's the second child my Nana and Papa had to bury. And it's never easy to see your grandparents in such pain. so now, little over a month since the last funeral, here is THIS one. It's going to be hard, no doubt, but Sandy and Grandma will have us all there for support. I know we missed home, haven't been there in 3 weeks (doesn't seem like much but after 3 long weekend visits in a row, 3 weeks is HARD!) but this wasn't the circumstances we wanted to have for another visit home. Its' been pretty cool 3 weeks though. Kaelyn's teeth are more visible (she cut tooth #1 on our last trip) and she loves to wave and clap now. and she figured out how to motor herself around in her walker. YAY! I'm gonna see about taking her walker to the inlaws. and then NEXT weekend, they are in our neck of the woods for a peewee hockey tournament. SO we get to see them 2 weekends in a row! WOO! (but lemme tell ya, 3 dogs in one house can be a bit much! lets hope the weather is nice so that they can tear around the back yard and waste some energy. lol)

Well, I better get packing. Have some laundry to do. Oy Vay. What a day. But on the upside, it can't get much worse, right?

thursday..... and it's been a good day.

The birth to 3 ladies came and it was all positive news. They loved how she rolls and scoots and pushes herself up to sit from laying down. They called her "graceful" which is a twist seeing as how her daddy is a clutz and I suffered from being a "twinkle toes" playing softball but being a bit clutzy for ballet classes. They showed us a few things we can do to get her to sit up on her knees and start to crawl and we will most DEFINITELY put them into motion so that we have big strides in her crawling when they check back with us in a month. They seemed as positive as us that she's waving and clapping and pulling herself to her feet, so in that regard, I was THRILLED! They also remarked on her good natured personality, which may or may not be related to her Partial Trisomy 21. (Many people attribute a good attitude with people who have Down's Syndrome, so maybe that is one of the blessings we have been given. Don't get me wrong, she does get a " 'tude" every now and then, but she is a smiley, happy, laid back little girl who can make any day a little brighter with a single squeal!)Anyways, we also had her 9 month appointment. She is right on track from her last visit. She is keeping the same growth curve so it's a small victory considering the first month she was slow to gain weight and it left us a bit concerned. But hey, we do snacks and veggies and fruits and proteins now and..... well...... have you SEEN her thighs? Puts new meaning to the phrase "thunder thighs". We are going to try a new eye drop for her crusty eyes. (Oh joy, another 2 weeks of holding her down, pinning her arms down and forcing her eyelids open to give her drops. that was a blast over our trip back home for Christmas.) The doctor was very happy with her progress and sees no real reason for concern. Why borrow trouble before we have any reason to truly worry? She is on track and granted she may fall behind, we will take every milestone and gain in strength and intellect for what it is.... a miracle. She is our little miracle baby. She's unique in her DNA and I truly believe she is here for a reason. She was here to heal my heart after the loss of our first pregnancy and hopefully one day we will be strong enough to try for a second baby. We understand there is the chance we can end up giving birth to a child with the same genetic anomaly as Kaelyn, but there's a chance we might not. I have done so much soul searching since we found out Kaelyn's diagnosis that I truly believe God doesn't give us more than we can handle and we are each made in his image. Every child is a blessing from God. This doesn't mean we will be one of those families that has 19 kids because a large family is a blessing. Adoption is expensive and we dont want Kaelyn to grow up an only child. We always saw our family as 2 or 3 children, us as Mom and Dad, and a dog to round out the family. I know there always the option of fostering, but I'm not sure I am made to deal with some of the extra emotional and physical needs of foster children. (Please don't think of me as shallow or selfish, but not knowing for certain the impact that partial trisomy 21 is going to have on Kaelyn, I'm not even certain someone would let us foster a child in the hopes of adopting. Would they?)

Anyways, last night while giving Kaelyn her bath, I told Jeremy that Kaelyn's doctor asked what we though of having more children and in the course of conversation, i think we may have come to an agreement to try, and hope that there is another child for us in the future. We know that there will possibly me miscarriages, and pain and suffering in the process, but Kaelyn was such a gift to us, can we not try? Maybe my mind is just wandering in circles.

I've got a rather happy little girl in her walker, munching on cheerios and making new "huh huh huh" sounds. I think she was mimicking Odin when he pants hard, but who knows. its new and exciting and ADORABLE! She may not be able to say "mama" yet, but her smiles are enough for me!

I better go get ready to meet Jeremy at work to swap the baby. I still have to brush my hair and find my work outfit. (Gotta love panicking and the last minute, scrambling to find khaki/brown pants and a polo. ugh)

Anyways, hopefully i can post a picture or two. She's such a DOLL! My big girl! (i can't believe she's over 9 months old now! CrAzY!!!)

Today is as good a day as any to start a blog!

Today we have Kaelyn's big 9 month check up, along with her birth-to-3 assessment. Its pretty jam packed today. I sewed her some slippers/booties last night and need to sweep up my thread and fabric scraps from the kitchen floor and TRY to contain the mess that is our house. A dog, a baby, a hubby, and me, well we can drop a few things here and there and before you know it? BAM! the livingroom is a mess! Thank goodness for the baby gate and Kaelyn's unwillingness to crawl, cuz i think somewhere in the hallway is a bottle of febreeze just sitting on the floor.

Jeremy hasn't felt 100% the last few days and doesn't want to get us girls sick so he sacked out on the couch. I miss snuggling up to fall asleep and Kaelyn misses the snuggles and kisses when he gets home from work. We'll survive, but lets hope Daddy gets better quick. Mommy could use a trip out of the house to the library where I don't have to take Kaelyn out in the freezing Wisconsin winter elements!

We also have some sad news to report. Great Grandma Lucy is not doing so well. She had a pretty major stroke 2 weeks ago and last Saturday they think she had another minor one. They took out her feeding tube and at some point during testing to find out just how significant the stroke was, they found a blood clot in her brain. She's now in the care of hospice and seeing as how she is Jeremy's Great Grandma, that means she's Kaelyn's Great GREAT Grandma. A pretty special thing to be able to meet that kind of grandma. Kaelyn hasn't seen her since this fall due to living hours away, but our prayers are most definitely with our family right now. It's been a hectic last 3 months, with the holidays, my uncles funeral in December, new years/packers game (Jeremy saw the packers play the bears the day after new years. pretty exciting!) and we've managed a few weekends at home where we aren't sitting in the car for hours to go home, and it looks like we will be back before we know it. We aren't sure how long she'll be in hospice for, but I just hope that she isn't in any pain and is at peace.

Well, Kaelyn finished her banana slices (and made QUITE the mess in the process) so we have to go clean up and get dressed. 2 hours till Kaelyn has her birth-to-3 assessment and we go from there STRAIGHT to her 9 month appointment and from there we might as well go to walmart and grab a few things. I have an idea for the CUTEST slippers. Kaelyn has small but wide feet o finding shoes is a bit of a pain. I got this handy new sewing machine for Christmas so I have already made her one pair but wanna try another with a fun pattern! Maybe make some burp rags for my Brother-in-law and his wife who are expecting their first child (a GIRL!!) in early may. I think the girls will get along great! We'll just have to make sure they see eachother more than I saw some of my cousins. (Then again, My mom was 1 of 9. so that means we were all pretty spread out by age and by location. )

Will post an update later to let you know how it's going!

Thanks for your support and we hope you enjoy our blog!

Mommy and Kaelyn (and maybe Odie too!)