Life... still life getting in the way

Long time no blog, huh? An update from the last blog, all is well. Our school year recovered from the tough patch and ended well. A few hiccups along the road but oh well!

Kaelyn had ureter reimplantation surgery in January. Basically her ureters came into the bladder at the wrong spot and in the wrong angle. Our surgeon was amazing. Came and took out the catheters personally! Such excellent bedside manners. We couldn't have been happier. She went home on time, healed up fantastically. We really couldn't be happier. This summer we did a 4 week summer program through parks and rec and it was awesome. She still wants to go back!

Little sister Aria is doing great too! We put up bunk beds in december to give them more play room in their room and, knowing that Kaelyn had surgery coming up, Aria sleeps on the top bunk. She's SUCH a trooper!! She finished up her first year of 3k at our churches preschool and just thrived. It really is a different experience from when we had Kaelyn there. I didn't have the worries because Kaelyn was shy and didn't talk much, would she make friends? With Aria I worried if her bossy, STRONG personality would shine bright and make her friends or if it would come back and bite her. But she fell into the routine wonderfully, made friends (she still talks about this little boy, we'll call him B, and how he LOVES hot sauce. That friend moved away and she is kinda bummed. But she's got 4k to get ready for, and I am just crazy in love with her sassy bold attitude. Well, Mostly.

We finished our first year of girl scouts (daisy troop leader here.!) and loved MOSTLY ever minute. (who loves cookie season? not me. I froze trying to separate cookie orders for 5 girls. lol) But really, it was great. and I had the added bonus of being there to buffer and help Kaelyn.

Hubby and I also celebrated our 10th Anniversary!! Love it! We've made it a decade married! And in this day and age with so much loss and divorce, I consider it an accomplishment! Go us!

OH! and Big news. I joined Origami Owl as an independent Designer! larav.origamiowl.com Just in case you want some pretties. lol. It's awesome. I've been LOVING ever minute! I can't wait to see where this takes me!

Also, I met a momma (and her family too) and notice her beautiful son, who has down syndrome also. But he has mosaic down syndrome! It was so fun and warmed my heart to make a connection with a momma who knows what it's like to have a kid who has DS, but doesn't quite fit the mold! They are just a little extra special! We added each other on facebook so we'll see if it turns into a friendship or just a sounding board. I'm optimistic though!

Well, I guess that's a good update. Better hit the hay so we can take a load of brush to the dump tomorrow. On the upside, our trees look good and I wont eat the branches when we mow the lawn!


All our love, Momma and the girls

spring break trip to Sea Life at MOA

Transformer made completely of Lego's at MOA

Girls on a fake sea turtle at Sea Life

Life gets in the way

Holy smokes. I TRULY am not good at remembering to publish new posts! Not at all!
Last month we had a trip to Mn Childrens in St Paul to get an xray/ultrasound. All good there. NO scar tissue due to her bladder reflux. Wednesday we go in for a RNC procedure to see the ureters. Pretty big deal for Kaelyn as they use sedation and last time it was a MESS! She was a swinging pedulum of emotion. Happy, sad, mad, hysterically laughing, confused and back around in no particular order. And that was for our 30 minute drive home. This time we get to walk around Mn Childrens for an hour and wait for our urologist appointment. I'm hoping she sleeps this crud off. Cuz man, we have a hour and 15 minute drive home. AHHH. We'll need to eat on the way home, maybe in the cafeteria, as I'm not sure I trust Kaelyn with food in the car when she's all pumped full of goofy-juice. Thankfully we'll have Daddy there along with Aria. When she's sick/feeling unwell she just wants her sissy. So hopefully that will work in our favor.

School is going well. We really have found our groove. She is thriving in her class and loving her bracelet. She gets stickers for each part of her day (math workshop, word work, free time, etc) and if she gets 8 or 9 of the 11, she gets a roll of smarties for the drive home. It's awesome how much more she enjoys school, how much more she is participating and coming home with a good attitude! We enjoy after-school Kaelyn much more when she has a good day at school.

She's had her first party (Halloween/Juliette Low's Birthday) for Daisies and her first meeting! Thursday is another meeting and I love how her troop rallied around her last time and said "She almost got her smarties! She was so close! You had a good day Kaelyn!!". I was so apprehensive at first, but this is starting out to be a good thing for her, socially.

Little sister, Aria, is thriving at our little preschool at our church. She loves her friends, her teachers, and the crafts. ESPECIALLY the snack time with friends. "I like to eat with my friends mom!"  It is a completely different experience with Aria. Kaelyn was shy, didn't talk much, and I was never sure how much she actually got out of her time at preschool. Sometimes she seemed overwhelmed by the noise and busyness of it all. Aria can talk so much more (and is a social butterfly) so it feels like she's going to a completely different class. I know its the same (even the same age group/class) but with two different kids and abilities, its two TOTALLY different experiences. But one thing hasn't changed. I love the teachers there and I'm so glad that Aria gets to learn about her "friends" God and Jesus in such a loving and fun environment. (Big hugs if you guys are reading this! Probably not, but all the same, you all are amazing!)

Well, looks like my miniature garbage disposal (aka Aria) need some lunch! Thank you for reading and leave a comment if you'd like. And if you are a parent of a kiddo like Kaelyn... Send a message! I'd love to hear from you!

All our love (and hope for the future)
Lara, Kaelyn, Aria, & Daddy too!

Another positive postf

So last week we had a FULL week of positive school days! SHe's earned all of her smarties! (side story, she has a bracelet with her day broken into 10 parts and if she earns the designated amount of stickers ( i think 7 or 8) she gets a roll of smarties at the end of the day. She's been getting 9 or 10 and happily eating them on the 3 minute drive home! It's been great!

On another note, we are HAPPILY planning our halloween costumes. Kaelyn is going to be a bat. Aria is going to be a "ghost fairy". Yep. Pictures to follow. But I now HATE tulle with a passion! WITH A PASSION!!!

I saw the "stats" page before I saw that someone in Germany and France read my last post! Pretty Cool! Hey guys! I'm so glad for the people I've been connected with through this post! Several parents of kiddos similar to Kaelyn. We all are on the same road. The Unknown Road. So go forth! Have a great day! I know we are on the right path. The happy (for now) path.

Lots of love from my family to yours,

Lara

a turn around!!

I'm not sure what has changed. But Friday and today have been GREAT days.  Kaelyn's SPED teacher even helped her leave me a voicemail on Friday. The majority of the voicemail was "hip hip hooray! We had a good day!"  And today her teacher stopped and told me that whatever we were doing, to keep it up. It feels good to have turned our school time around in a positive direction. I think part of it might be the essential oils too. We haven't really modified any of our routines, or our diet, or anything else huge. The EO is really the only big change. I don't know if its all in her head or if it is truly and really helping, but if we can keep up the momentum until she builds up a solid routine and confidence, I think it will only help in the long run.  We'll see how the rest of the week goes, but I see a light at the end of the tunnel!

Rough Waters

We are having a rough go of things, as of late. So that is partially why there hasn't been an update in more than a few weeks.

Kaelyn is having a rough time transitioning at school.  I don't know if the pace is too much or if the class size is overwhelming. (she was in a class of 9 last year, its 18 this year.)

She is getting pulled to the special education room for extra help more than anticipated and she's started to pout/shut down a bit too. The shut downs lead to more time in the special education room too. It's frustrating because I've been told that they are at their "wits end" and "scratching our heads to find a way to help her". So the next plan of attack is an Educational Psychologist. Hopefully they can figure out a way to help her as it sounds to me, from a mothers stand point that they just don't know what to do any more and are baffled. And that bothers me as She's barely been in school a month (just a little over if I check the calendar, I'm sure.) and she's disrupting her peers and her own education and nobody is happy. Her teacher's seem frustrated and floundering and I think it may be rubbing off on Kaelyn. I dunno. We are at a standstill. I know mainstream is working for so many kids and I hate to see Kaelyn so defeated every day when I pick her up. SOMETHING has to change. And I dont even know what. Or where to begin.  I dont think this week helped with her having a test in another city on Tuesday, and when she gets stressed she doesn't go potty. So she had the worst time of having a tummy ache that we FINALLY got taken care of last night. But darn it. Is it too much for a mommy to hope that our kiddos have an easy time? Or if they have troubles, we just want them to be lesser than they are! For her to have an easy day once in a while so that the teachers don't cringe (I'm guessing) when they see my little red car roll up to drop her off in the morning.

Staring at their salt-water tank in the radiology lab at Mn Children's St Paul.

School so far

So, it's time for another update! Back to school season is just the ticket for a new blog post.  Kaelyn is now a full fledged, card carrying member of the kindergarten crowd!

She has a teacher she likes, she's made a friend, enjoys breakfast at school ( today it was cheerios, applesauce and chocolate milk. the other day it was fruit, milk and cheerios. I think they let her pick and she just happens to love cheerios) and she is doing okay with the hot lunch process. I will admit I was worried about how I would help her remember or wear her lunch p.i.n. but all kindergartners have a lanyard with their 5 digit number on it and she hasn't expressed any upset over the routing, so I call it a win. I've now gotten her to school and dropped off on time both days and picked up on time.

I will admit I was nervous as I am NOT a morning person. Never have been. I am a night owl. I love the quiet of the night and all of the little things that I can get done while everybody else is sleeping. But if I indulge my inner night owl, the mornings are hard and I am crabby.

On a brighter note, little Aria started preschool at our church today. She thoroughly enjoyed it and even cried a little at the thought of having to *gasp* go home!! But Mrs. B promised painting and the possibility of the playground So, along with a bribe of caribou, we are all good. She is anxiously waiting her next day and being able to see all of her "new friends". We were tremendously blessed to be able to send her to our churches preschool. Kaelyn went there at 3 years old and while her confidence and speech didn't set her up for great social activities, I was able to witness moments of sweetness from many of her classmates and she enjoyed herself immensely. She just happened to be a wallflower and people watcher. Aria is another story altogether. She is a social butterfly, a chatty, bubbly, curly haired ball of energy. My two little girls are so different but alike in so many ways. I can't wait to see how each of them benefits (in their own way) from 3k!

Anyhow, Thanks for reading my little ol' blog and following our crazy journey. We love you to pieces and thank you for any and all kind words. They mean the world to us! Have a great day!

Lara and the Fam.

(and shout out to Auntie L for the kind comment on the last blog! WE LOVE YOU!)

Almost back to school!

Hello! How are you? We are great!  We are anxiously awaiting back to school.  Kaelyn has her storm trooper backpack and we are waiting to get Aria hers. Things have fallen perfectly into place and we are able to send Aria to preschool! She is going to 3k at our church where Kaelyn also went for 3k. I can't wait for Mrs Tammy and the crew to welcome Aria to her first EVER day of school! And Kaelyn.... I am so TERRIFIED of sending her for the WHOLE DAY! We are currently looking into ways to get her to remember a lunch pin (number. Yes i know what PIN stands for. lol) and how to get pants without snaps and buttons so she can go to the bathroom on her own! This whole mainstreaming things has a way of raising my heart rate and stress levels! I hope there are kids there who "get" her. Who see her sweet smile and her silly attitude. Would it be so wrong to get another re-do of her friends J*?  She was so sweet and Kaelyn had a fast friend before she even made it to school!  Oh well, I am sure it will all come together, it's just the stress of the unknown. How will it go? Who will she get for a teacher? When will I get any information on Daisy Girl Scouts!? I am very excited for that. I think it will be a very good way to help her socially and make more friends in her peer groups. Plus, this momma was a girl scout. I can't wait for her to experience all of those things herself! Camp outs, earning badges, making friends, THE song about friends from girl scouts.... I'm just so exited.  There are so many changes, and hopefully it all goes off without a hitch, but I am SURE we will get through any and all bumps in the road!


Aria is now BEGGING to get taller and older and lose her teeth because she saw the special gift Kaelyn got. She is begging to get bigger. She is so SURE that she is growing. She wakes up each morning and after her impromptu naps saying "Mom, Did I grow Big enough?" and I just want to squeeze her and tell her that she will BEG for the years back later. She wont want to be an adult and she will want time to slow down. Just like momma does now. But she is 3 and is convinced that she is Tip Tucci (from the movie "Home" ) and that she is one day (soon) going to have a red car named "Slushious" that will run off of 3 flavors of slushy and fly through the air.


We are also working on overnight potty training with Kaelyn. She sleeping in underwear (on a pee mat.) and we take her potty before bed and I set one alarm overnight (usually 2am-ish) to take her again. We've had some good success. 2 dry nights in the last week and all others were just damp or dribbles. Only ONE soaking wet night, and that was after the migraine from HADES evening and I was not waking up for that. I wasn't able to handle it. She is loving going to bed in her big girl undies. It was a really big blow to her and her moods when Aria finally got to wear underwear to bed. Her little sister, once again, beating her to the punch. But we are catching up. Aria sure pushes her further and harder than we ever could. And it works in the best of ways.


Anyhow, thanks for suffering through my rambling post. The summer is coming to an end and I'm mostly sure we have everything down pat.  The only thing we are waiting for is preschool paperwork! And payday so we can finish our back to school shopping! Hopefully I can go to sleep now. I didn't realize it was 12:43 in the morning!!


Have a great day! I know we will!
All our love,
Momma and the girls.

*name changed. yep. didn't think to ask her momma! If you are reading this T, Whatcha say? lol

MILESTONE!!

So its been a long while, AGAIN, since I last updated. Summer has kept us busy. Even if its just a day spent goofing around, playing tag and trips to the library,  we are having a good summer! We've gone to a small local zoo to see the animals. Highlight of the trip? The SNOWY OWL!! They've been pretty into watching the netflix show "Puffin Rock" and a snowy owl is as close as we are going to get to seeing an Arctic Puffin. (The BIG zoo has a tufted puffin, but after showing the girls the pictures, they decided it is NOT the right kind of puffin. SOooo, the search continues.) We LOVED the animals, and especially the HYENAS. Aria even asked me, "Mom, why isn't the hyena in the outlands? Is the Lion Guard doing a bad job?"  Ha ha ha! Out of the mouths of babes!

We've had a pretty good struggle getting Kaelyn to understand that she is NOT going to have her same teachers next year. She is getting mainstreamed into the school for our neighborhood and not the 4k school. So she wont have Mrs Wendy or Ms. Billie. She LOVES those ladies and constantly says "I need to see my Wendy" or "Billie would be proud for me!" She even mentions her pt/ot and speech ladies! But we've gone to her new school, been to the playground and played several times and we've done the "meet the teachers night".  I'm sure she'll adapt well. It's just a matter of "getting over" the old teachers who loved her so well and taught her so much!! We've gotten a storm trooper backpack (needs to have a bow added to girly it up, but we've got time for that) and we've gotten our list so we are ready to start REAL shopping! The last 2 years was an early childhood special education program for kids with other needs than a typical 4k can provide. It was state and locally funded so we just needed  a backpack and a notebook! This allowed me to have extra funds for a teacher present for the ladies she loves so much, but now comes the hard part. SUPPLIES!

In other news, Kaelyn had a HUGE milestone...... SHE LOST HER FIRST TOOTH!! It was just sitting there and it NEEDED to come out so her daddy just kind of flipped it out! There was a little blood, but she was so excited that she had to call one of her grandmas on skype, RIGHT AWAY!  And luckily Grandma Sandy answered and was so excited for her and proud that she let her daddy help her get it out. But this momma was NOT prepared so i had to make a late night run to walmart for a few small things for a special "first tooth" gift from the tooth fairy. And the tooth fairy also told her that there would only be money treats from now on. (left the note on the bag.)

MY BABY IS GROWING UP!

It seems like just yesterday my OB was scolding me for sending my husband to work if I thought I might be in labor. Like it was just yesterday that we brought her home, introduced her to Odin, genetics testing, birth to 3, first steps, first words, first days of school! WHERE HAS THE TIME GONE?! I'm feeling a little emotional that there are so many things making her seem so much bigger than I think she really is. Bigger than I am ready for her to be! I know that she HAS to grow up. But darn it, IT SUCKS!

Well, this momma better be off to bed. I'm sure the girls will be up at the crack of dawn begging for their peanut butter toast and to watch "Home" again. (BUSTA LIME!!!)  We are hoping for a break in the high 90's heat wave going on. Not even the rain that we got TWICE today could cut the heat. It just made it more humid.

As always, thank you so much for reading. For being a part of our Journey. Its not one we asked for, but we are making the most of this crazy ride! And thanks to all of you who I have met because of this little ol' blog. (I am glad each and every one of you has reached out! I'm glad I have you moms/dads to reach out to if needed!)

All of our love and many happy days to you!

does anybody still read this?

I know I've had the pleasure of being connected with more than one parent of a kiddo with "extra 21" as some have put it, but I wonder if I'm doing this as a way to network or just some personal catharsis. It's just been something on my mind. Could just be the weather getting to me or simply the crazy last few weeks I've had.

We went home in April to compete in the worlds largest Trivia Contest, as I mentioned in my last post. That crazy schedule, lack of sleep, lack of ROUTINE, and we hit a snag with Kaelyn's behavior the last week or so. Even spilled into her classroom and she ended up needing to get PICKED UP from school as she flat out REFUSED to get on the bus. What could have make our usually perky and compliant little munchkin such a crankerpotamus? (yes we use that word quite a bit). As it turns out, it was her birthday gift. The kids Kindle, filled to the brim with educational stuff. She would get VERY upset when the battery would need to be charged. She would get very upset if she couldn't match the letter or get the app to work properly. I did a quick google search and found something that MIGHT be the answer to our problem with her 'tude. I simply typed in "screen time making kids crabby" and it the page at the top was an article from psychology today. The hubby and I decided to take away her tablet, and sisters too. If Kaelyn got a hold of Aria's learning device (Kaelyn's old one) what good would it serve? She'd still get screen time! So we took them both away friday and they went all weekend with nothing more than sending some funny snaps to their aunts and uncles. It was only a hunch but it was worth a try, right? So we went to bed Sunday night and HOPED that maybe it would result in a POSITIVE change in her teachers note and that would make her an overall better behaved monster. And guess what? IT WORKED! They had to redirect her attitude a few times, but she ate her snack, she transitioned well, and she got on the bus! (last Tuesday was really the only issue. But let me tell you, I was holding my breath after school on Thursday as I didn't want to have to drag Aria out again to go get her! I'm so glad that we've gotten to the bottom of the problem. We're going to SEVERELY limit screen time to weekends and road trips. Maybe we can integrate some after school time as a reward but that will be a long time coming.

In other news, the girls have really taken to bike riding. Last year (or was it the year before?) we got Kaelyn a little mermaid bike with training wheels. The red radio flyer trike was too small and it was time she upgraded. What we FAILED to take into consideration was that she is ALL TORSO. We got a bike too big for her little legs, so I managed to score a smaller bike a few weeks ago and BAM! She rides so well! She has speed and confidence. This also allows Aria to get in some time on the little trike and learn some gross motor skills and coordination! It's been an overall emotionally draining couple of weeks.  Couple that with today (the 2nd of May) being the 5 year anniversary of my Papa passing away, and I'm just a candy coated ball of feelings.  It's nothing some quiet contemplation and prayer wont fix. And some snuggles from a SUPER sweet pair of beauties won't hurt either!

Have a great day and hug your kids. Even when they drive you crazy, they are your heart and soul!

Take care and Much love,
One crazy and tired momma

IEP wrap up and other minutae

So, our Iep and transition to kindergarten meeting went well. We got to see the school a little bit, find out about how they plan to structure the day and the schedule for her to get pull out services (adaptive PE) and address her strengths (perfectionist, knows her skills, shapes, colors, abc's) and her weaknesses (perfectionist, leans on the classroom Para too often, avoids classmates to engage Para and teacher in classroom, etc) and we got to take a tour of the special education room where she would get pull out services for speech and OT if we need to amend that into the IEP, but the goal for now is to keep her in the classroom as much as possible so she can get the socialization she needs and learn from her peers as much as possible.
We left our IEP meeting last week and drove back home to participate in the "World's Largest Trivia Contest". It was much fun and a tradition that I've participated since my birthday. (which is in April, as is trivia, so it usually lands close to my birthday). Our team came in 11th place. 3rd or 4th 11th place finish in 5 years. 54 hours of trivia, 8 questions an hour, the length of 2 songs is all you have to call in your answer.
We also celebrated my Nana's 90th birthday with a party! Family came from all over and celebrated her and the amazing life she's lived and the strong family she has built. She's an amazing woman that I admire deeply. What woman doesn't admire a gal who can birth 9 kids without drugs? That takes some guts!
I also got to visit with my dad! It is always nice to catch up. First time we've seen him since Christmas. I traded in some genealogy stuff my dad loaned me for some family pictures. its awesome. I'll have to scan some in and post a few. I love how beautiful they are!
OH! and Kaelyn and I shared the most DELICIOUS Dairy Queen cake and had some family over to my in-laws house for our first ever joint birthday! I think its pretty neat that I have a kiddo born so close to MY birthday and Jeremy has Aria, who was born 3 days after his birthday. Groovy, right?
We're home and safe and sound and after a crazy morning/afternoon (i'll blog more about that later, when I've had time to process it a little more) we're ready to snuggle in for the night and just enjoy our little family!
Thanks for Reading my little blog!

Lara

New laptop!

With two active kiddos and a hubby who loves his computer, it's hard to find a time or place to sit down and update! But alas, with tax money comes the great idea to buy an acer chromebook and it arrived all neatly wrapped yesterday. I am sure after the purchase of our EXTREMELY heavy kitchenaid mixer that our mail man was very happy to have a lighter package to deliver. That poor man must have hated us a few weeks back!
Life in the house is crazy as usual. Kaelyn and Aria are over spring cold/allergy issues and I no longer find kleenex in the strangest of places.  We've gotten a taste of warm weather and we are NOT happy about the sudden chill the weather has given us! But we'll manage, I suppose. Just more board games and netflix and time with the tablets.
Kaelyn just celebrated her 6th birthday and is happy with her new outfits (she's wearing her sparkle jeans and star wars shirt to school) and her favorite so far is the kids kindle. She had outgrown the apps on her Nabi tablet and it was so hard to get learning apps from the amazon app store or google play so we gave the old one to Aria and she has a Kids kindle. She's got phonics and math apps and also a few fun ones, but honestly, she plays the learning ones more! We do limit their time on the tablets so that they get artsy time and free play time where they can do what they want. Hot Wheels or puzzles or dolls or playing with their kitchen toys. But it's hard to say "no screen time" when that is a great way to engage her and let her study/practice in a way that engages her. She's a little techy and there is NO denying it!
Kaelyn was also super pleased to spend the morning of her birthday voting in our states primary with me, we did lunch and then dropped her off at school. Even though she rides the little bus and is belted in, I didn't trust a bus full of kids as the best way to transport her cupcakes for her class. So she got to have a purely fun morning and show off her classroom to her sister, and show her sister off to her teachers! I think if Aria had her way, she would have stayed with Kaelyn all day and been happy as a clam.
We had friends and family over for pizza and cupcakes after school and it was just family and friends. Well, it's the family we've made for ourselves here away from our family back home. Our friends are "aunt" and "uncle" to the girls and likewise, we are "aunt" and "uncle" to their kid.  If you can't have family where you are, you make your own. I can honestly say that though i'm often homesick and sad to think about the cousins my girls aren't seeing as often as we'd like and the milestones that we are missing in our nieces and nephews lives, the "family" here in town is amazing at bringing me back to reality and that someday we will move back home and my family in town will be the family I miss and want to see. So thank you to my "made" family, you all know who you are. And thank you to my bio family who skype and call and email the girls and keep us all in the loop. It makes being away from you all that much easier.
Next week is a pretty big week. Kaelyn has her IEP/transition to kindergarten meeting next Wednesday. We get to meet her kindergarten teacher and put together our game plan for ....eek...KINDERGARTEN!! I have enough of a hard time saying i have a 6 year old. let alone have her gone the WHOLE day. I have so many worries where that is concerned. Will she do well all day? can we keep her constipation under control? minimize accidents? How will she do with lunch? Hot or cold lunch? Will we drop off at the front door or walk her to her class everyday? We dont qualify for bussing since we live to close to school so that is just another logistic. Trusting Kaelyn's education to my trusty rocket. (The girls watch "Little Einsteins" and since my car is red, we call it "Rocket" and they try to tell me to go "adagio" or other such music terms that I have long since forgotten from 10th grade band!
Oh lordy. More rambling! How did we get from IEP to little Einsteins? Who knows.
Next weeks is the "Worlds Largest Trivia Contest" back home and we participate each year. It also means lot of family time for the girls. They get to see the grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles, and see the Trivia Parade. See www.90fm.org for more information. It's really a great time for all and a super way to fund raise for the local college radio station and keep this program around for the students who wish to pursue a media degree that might otherwise be unavailable as anything with music and the arts seem to be cut lately.
We are having a cupcakes and family party next week so Kaelyn's grandmas and grandpas can sing to her. (that is her favorite part) and hubby is pretty psyched that he ordered me and Kaelyn an ice cream cake from DQ! I'm just ready for 5 1/2 days away from work (retail sucks lately as our department is short on people and long on work) and put my feet up and relax. I also need to track down time to visit my grandmothers and get a birth certificate from one for my DAR application. I only need my mom and grandmothers birth certificates and my application will be complete. Following in my great grandma Ruth's footsteps. Although I will admit, it seems to be something more common among an older demographic and I feel REALLY young to be in DAR but someone has to keep tradition and they do so much good!

well, i'll be off for now. For someone who hasn't updated in over a month, this sure seems long winded! lol. I hope you all have a good day and enjoy any warm weather you may get! We didn't' send it as we can't seem to get rid of it!. hahaha. Well take care. I'm off to go snuggle toddles. she seems to need a good amount of snuggles lately. I'm chalking it up to a growth spurt and being happy with whatever snuggles i get!

More next time!

Mom and the girls!

Still not good at updating

Hey all. It's apparent that life is way crazy and I'm HORRIBLE at updating this thing. It's been a crazy few months since I've last updated.

Kaelyn had a massive "UTI", but after an ultrasound and VCUG (the after effects of which were funny and sad as she had sedation and was goofy as all get out) we found out it was likely a kidney infection due to her VUR. Basically her ureter to one kidney is too short and too wide, and if she drinks or eats certain things it can cause her bladder to spasm and reflux the urine into her kidneys. Sooo..... Long story short It knocked her on her fanny for a good 4-5 days, she missed school, had multiple appointments and we now give her prophylactic antibiotics. Which are NOT cheap because they have to be liquid. What 5 year old swallows pillform meds? None I've met, Even if it is cheaper.

The kidney infection came the week of Aria's 3rd birthday. It was much fun! We got to see out of town family (Grandma Sandy came to help us out while daddy was away for a work training out of town) Cousins came over, friends, aunts, uncles. We had a BLAST and she got a bit spoiled. But hey, you only turn 3 once, right? We followed up with the holidays (crazy as usual) and New Years, which we hosted. Great fun but a "sweet song" caused some damage to the foot stool mechanism on one of our couches. Funny story and my awesome father in law helped fix it this last sunday! WOO HOO! (word to the wise, if you are in western wisconsin, don't buy furniture from Rassbach's Furniture. Poor customer service to say the VERY least).

Our 2016 has been very uneventful. We had one suspected UTI/Infection but it turns out it was most likely something she ate that caused spasms and discomfort and with her learning delay its probably difficult to verbalize the difference between hurt/pain and discomfort. All in all, I'm a pro at catching pee. Very important life skill.

We've had a good month of February too! Kaelyn met all of her IEP goals for PT! It's all good! We also had our first trip to the hair salon due to a DIY hairstyle kaelyn tried to give herself. It wasn't as bad as some, but enough we needed a trim to even it all out and not look like my child purposefully had a redneck-ified mullet!

Aria also traded in her toddler bed for a twin and is now also POTTY TRAINED! 24/7, awake or asleep! Which gives me hope that one day Kaelyn will learn to wake up at night when she has to go potty. It upsets her that she still wears pull ups to bed and Aria doesn't. It's a struggle that has resulted in a few melt downs. Thank GOODNESS for my diffuser and putting in some "Panic Button" essential oil blend and doing some breathing. Cuz lordy almight, this kid is getting strong. Just a reminder of the differences between the girls are more evident as they grow up! And boy are they growing!

I've got a few bonus kiddos here today and I'm WORN out. Aria had a good bug tuesday and was sleeepy and whiney and more than a little emotionally needy yesterday so not a whole lot got done and after a night of waking up every few hours with her, we slept a LOT. which is funny because I do NOT feel rested. I feel worn out and crabby. Here's to me, screwing on my happy face and probably bailing on my weekly dinner with the ladies. because I'm just too darn tired. Unless I make some coffee and take a nap while Kaelyn is at school and Aria and the bonus kids take a nap too!

Shout out to a new aquaintance and fellow chromosome mom, Elysia, who found my blog and sent me an email! Welcome to the club and thanks for the email! Hope to hear back from you soon!

Anyways, I better cut this short as the peace and quiet in this house is short lived and the littlest extra is now awake and requiring cuddles!! (and who doesn't love baby cuddles?)

More later!

Lara and the girls!

Here is a picture of the girls at the Mall of America Build a Bear. We visited during one of our trips to get her silly kidneys checked out at SPCH!

Kaelyn's recent revelation

Today, I was browsing the internet while I waited for the bus to drop Kaelyn off at home. I was reading an article on today.com (click this link to read the article) and heard the little yellow bus RUMBLE up the street and forgot to close it down. You see, Kaelyn LOVES to browse my facebook, make new friends for me, delete some old ones, and try to play all these games. Safer to have it closed than have to re-add a cantankerous family member.  While I was fixing up her snack, she looked at the monitor, pointed to the first picture and said " "hey. It looks like me!". It kind of struck me as odd that I never wondered if she would identify with someone with Down Syndrome.  Looking at her, especially when she is tired, her eyes are more prominently almond shaped. Her geneticist said that since she didn't have the full 3rd copy of the 21st chromosome so she wasn't going to use the label/diagnosis of Down Syndrome because they had no way of knowing what would be effected. I have NO problem with the label/diagnosis either way. She is charted on the Down Syndrome growth chart, milestones are judged the same. A lot of how we deal with her, her health (yearly thyroid tests) her education (delayed speech) is the same as if she had the full copy of chromosome 21. But I don't think she's ever been around another person that looked like her, in that way. I guess I need to do a little reading, a little research and see how we can handle these questions in the future!

In other news, we've had a busy summer, Went camping, adopted a dog from the local humane society, and Kaelyn is on her 2nd year of 4k! She's loving her school, her teachers (shout out to Miss Wendy and Miss Billie!) and is growing in leaps and bounds. Her speech is coming along quite nicely and her sentences are getting longer. She can express what she does/doesn't want, what she feels ("I need to hug you mom!") and just be a silly girl. Aria is turning THREE soon, and got her first haircut yesterday. She was so good about it! I'll drown you all with pictures next time. I'll just post this one here.  We had so much fun camping!  Thanks for reading and sorry I haven't posted in so very long! I think my dad (Shifty Sven)  blogs more than me! 

Major slacker updating here

Oy. to think that my last post said "I wonder what i'll do with all of my free time?" Clearly from the lack of posts, i've kept plenty busy. Papa D commented on my LAST post so it was a bit of a kick in the pants to do another one. Almost like I was put on notice. SO thanks dad!
Cold and flu season has started at our house. We've all been turned into booger monsters and we are deeply contemplating an investment in the Kleenex corporation. DANG! We've gone through a lot of kleenex and lysol. We are all on the mend and happy to report that our consumption of snot rags has decreased.  While we had our miserable colds, we had a plumbing incident where apparently the previous owners flushed some sort of shop rag and it blocked our main pipe out of the house. We had to call a plumber with a snake (which was HUGE) and rent a carpet cleaner to hopefully suck all of the water out of our carpet. For a good week our house smelled wet and musty but the carpet/pads seem to be drying. It was just a rough couple of days, that is for certain.

Kaelyn is still doing well in school. Only 2 or 3 accidents in a whole month and usually just off of the bus. She knows all the names of her classmates and enjoys the themed weeks they've had. One was "Mary wore her red dress" (click it. )its the cutest song the first 300 times you listen to it. And the fun part is that Kaelyn is starting to show a lot of interest in singing along to music. Her current favorites are "All about that Bass" (radio version to edit out the cuss words) and we also like Fancy by Iggy Azalea and Shake it off by Taylor Swift. She knows certain parts from those songs and sure sings them loud. Kaelyn also enjoyed the Pete the Cat Unit where it was based around "I love my red Shoes".

They recently had Fire Safety day at school and did Firetruck art and saw a firetruck! She was so proud of herself to show me the art they made and said "Like Tammy!" (Papa Dustin, when you read this, be sure to tell the Mrs!)

This last week has been super busy. We had company come up on Tuesday night. My mom, sister Chelsea, and nephew X came up to visit for a mini-vacation before Aria's 2nd birthday party this last saturday.  The cousins enjoyed so much time together, playing and cuddling and watching movie. And it was very nice and so appreciated to have my mom and sister here to help with the pre-party cleaning and food prep. We got to go trick or treating together and Kaelyn was Doc McStuffins, Aria and X were matching monsters. It was very cute. I'll have to pull the pictures off of my camera and add them into my next post. The kids did well in the chilly weather and X walked most of the way. Such a little bundle of energy he is.  Saturday was little sister Aria's 2nd birthday party. Someone must have mentioned how much we like art because man oh man did she get art stuff! We are all set for a long and blustery winter indoors. We even broke out the paint dab markers and did some letter art because the girls wanted to do art and it was the first thing they grabbed. We have squeezie paint brushes, the dot art markers, regular markers, crayons, color books, paper, homemade scented glittery play doh (thanks Auntie Jen! We can't wait to bust that stuff out very soon), play doh fun factory (so you can squish allof those FUN shapes. Aria also got clothes, a new jacket, stuffed animals (webkins). But I think the hit of the weekend was her very own Grandma Nancy blanket. Kaelyn sleeps with the one we got at our baby shower and is unwilling to share her "Nancy blanket" so GG Nancy sent my mother in law to the party with a blanket for Aria and she sleeps in her own bed now (as opposed to climbing into Kaelyn's bed) and we are all much happier for that.

Yesterday was just a day to tidy up a bit. My mom, Chelsea, and X left yesterday and my girls were so sad! But Kaelyn cuddled up with her daddy while i took the birthday girl to urgent care thinking she had an ear infection. Nope! Turns out she's just full of wax that needed help to get itself out. So now we are going to do some mineral oil drops as suggested by urgent care and hope that she doesn't have issues like I did when I was little.

Well, Here are a few pictures to tide you over until i can get a hold of the Halloween pictures.

Thanks for reading and come back soon!

Lara, Kaelyn, and Aria (and daddy too!)

first week of SCHOOL!

Goodness me. Nobody ever warns you about how hard it is to put your baby on a bus and watch it drive away. But we did it! We survived! Kaelyn did great and made a friend on the bus who turned out to be a classmate! YAY!
Here is a few pictures from her first week of school.

 She wasn't really into the thought of going to school. 

at least until she made a new friend! That turned her whole experience around!

 Reading her book and waiting for the bus. A new favorite. "Round is a mooncake". Definitely on our list of fun book!

We had an accident right off of the bus on Wednesday but yesterday was good and she has come home with a few new phrases and uses the names of TWO of her class mates! *not going to use their names w/o parental permission. but rest assured, it is SUPER cute!*

So now I am at home on a cold rainy day, Aria is napping, Kaelyn is at school, and I'm running out of stuff to clean! I organized my bathroom closet, I'm getting caught up on laundry, I've mopped my kitchen TWICE this week. Heck, if I wasn't catching up on laundry, I wouldn't have so many clean towels to put away. I'm terribly afraid to see what happens the next 3 days that there was no school! 

On the flip side, I am missing my girl and being alone is NOT so fun. If I keep up on my cleaning I will need to take up some sort of hobby. Aria naps the whole time! Without the kids messing up the house behind me, I get stuff done! Maybe I will even blog a little more reguarly! Or with a little peace and quiet I could podcast a time or two! Who knows!

I made the mistake of keeping Aria up to see Kaelyn off to school the other day... NO BUENO. She cried "MY KAELYN" right up until she fell asleep. After that I made sure to wake her up so that she could see that her sister was INDEED going to return home on the yellow school bus. 

To sum up the week, school is going great! Kaelyn made a friend or two, she likes her teacher, and riding the bus was not the terrible event I feared it would be! I give a gold star to all of us! 

If I may ask a favor, and i dont do it often, My nephew was born early a little over 2 years ago and gets sick pretty easy. They think it may be an auto immune issue. If you could say an extra prayer for him that his numbers go up to where they need to be that would be awesome. All of these doctors visits are hard on any parent but especially so for a single momma. Little man loves his cousins and my girls love him just as much in return and we hope for a happy and healthy winter. If enough of us bend the ear of the man upstairs, who's to say it won't happen?

Until next time!

Lara, Kaelyn, and the rest of the nutty bunch!

Preschool? wow.

Hey there guys! Look at this? two posts in less than two weeks!

We are creeping up on the start of the school year and looking back at the picture I took before 3k? Kaelyn looks so grown up! She's grown by leaps and bounds, despite still being behind her peers, but that doesn't make any of her achievements any less precious or monumental. She jumps, she is no longer terrified of playground slides (although the tunnel slides still bother her at first, she still gives them a good go!), her speech is improving, her pretend play is improved a hundred fold. She now names dollies and stuffed animals. Aria's cabbage patch dolly is named "Mary" and since daddy tried to name HERS "Gertrude" she now just calls her "Trude" yeah. great huh? :D And today she named her stuffed puppy from her "bonus grandma" Wendy, "Rudy". I'm sure its because of her new found love of Doc McStuffins.(and Sherrif Callie, although she calls her "sherrrf Callie" its still stinkin adorable).

Aria on the other hand. What a little pistol! Unlike her sister, she has NO FEAR. And her speech is also growing  and improving. I think her and Kaelyn are helping eachother with their vocabulary and expressive speech. She's starting to want to dance to music, learning to clean up after herself and is more affectionate every day! Just seeing how these 2 are is amazing! It's very touching to see that they are so connected and bonded to each other. When one is sad the other rushes to hug her close and give a smooch. It really warms my heart. Lately she has been crawling out of her toddler bed at naptime to fall back asleep in sissy "kaynin's" bed. Seems like we just put her in that bed and already she is trying to rush this whole "growing up" business and get her own twin bed? I call shenanigans. This momma simply isn't ready!!

In one week my dear friend will marry the love of her life and we are SO EXCITED!! "Auntie Ronda" and "Uncle Bob" are getting married at a local vineyard and it is going to be beautiful. I only have ONE flower girl for this wedding so hopefully it will be a little easier than trying to wrangle both girls and keep them happy and clean. After that, my awesome in-laws are coming up for a visit and our annual trip to the Zoo! I can't wait! We've been counting down the sleeps they have until gramma and grampa get here and I think the girls are impatient because they "call" them and think that every car down the street is their papa and gramma. It's adorable!

I've been so blessed. Between 2 amazing little girls who are growing so much, an amazing husband who is a great father and partner in this journey. And then there are the other momma's I have met who also have children with Partial Trisomy 21. Our little facebook group, along with the Unique group are a great resource for a momma like me. We all have children with rare chromosome disorder diagnosis' and even if the duplication/deletion isn't the same, a lot of the help and advice is still great and so very helpful! If you found my blog helpful, inspirational, or interesting, I am so glad you are here. That's all I really wanted to do with this blog. Oh, and share what an amazing family I have. I am TRULY blessed.

I'll leave off with a picture of Kaelyn and her "Doc Stuffins Braids". I love this looks and it keeps her unruly, fuzzy hair out of her face. :D

quick post

Debating an occasional podcast blog post. any body ever do this before? might be easier to keep up to date if every so often it wasn't something i had to sit down and type? I dunno. just a random thought. Have a good day!

another "long time no post" post

The month of May. SUPER BUSY. End of the school year, Sister in laws Wedding. Both Kaelyn and Aria were BEAUTIFUL flower girls along with their cousin "K" (no permission to use her name so K is what we will call her"). It was a beautiful wedding, tear jerker vows. sigh. takes me back to 7 years ago (yesterday, in fact) when Jeremy and I said our vows in front of family and friends and started this crazy and wonderful life together.
After that we had June, Fairly quiet. Just a lot of normal day to day stuff. Gardening (i have 3 bush pickle cucumbers sitting on my counter. awaiting more so i can make a batch of refrigerator dills to maybe take camping.), lawn work, library trips, walks (literally 5 blocks) to the farmers market, and lots of fun and family time.
Kaelyn's speech lately, it has just taken off! Going to make some tough decisions about preschool (whether to do 2 days of early childhood special education classes (at the elementary school in town) and 2 days at our churches preschool, or do all 4 at the elementary school). I gotta tell you, i'm leaning towards the 4 days of a smaller class that is more focused on Kaelyn. I'm strongly of the opinion that she was a BIG people watcher at our church preschool because she was behind in speech and felt overwhelmed. The world "overwhelmed" came up several times in her IEP meeting. I'm hearing phrases like "Mommy, I found it!" and "Diaper change for sister, mommy!" and the light in her eyes? Its amazing. She knows she is doing so well and improving. We constantly say to her "did you just say [insert new phrase/word here]??  That is amazing! we are so proud of you!" and she just glows!
Potty training is still a struggle at nap/bedtime. Naps are few and far between because it's not going to be an option come school year time since she will be in an afternoon class. I'm not sure if this is typical of all children with partial trisomy 21 or even of DS, but it is very frustrating to say the least.
We now have a group of 4, soon to be 5 parents in our little Facebook group. Kaelyn wont be the oldest anymore! It will be amazing to see how much we can look forward to our cuties doing as they grown and learn and thrive.
The biggest thing, in my opinion, that has happened since my last post is that we went to the local county fair. (5 blocks away) and Kaelyn rode so many rides! She did the Ferris Wheel with me and Jeremy. She rode the "Super slide" and the "crazy swings" and even did the little car ride with Aria! Both did so well and my fears of a terrified tot with a meltdown were completely unfounded! Sure, she was unsure of walking up the stairs for the slide (all 30-something of them) but she got up, went down, (mostly without incident. She did get stuck as i think she was too little to get enough momentum going, but the second time I gave her a good push and she just flew.) I was so worried that it would be out of her comfort zone and she would do her usual "crumple and melt" routine but she just smiled through each ride with the wind in her hair! Never again, will I underestimate my girls. It was AMAZING!
Lastly, I want to take a moment to recognize that my husband and his family lost a great woman. He called her "Grandma Jo" and she lived next door to him and took care of him and his brother (and possibly his sister but i'm not sure). She was 88 years and hung on far longer than the nurses caring for her thought. She lived a good and full life and is now with her husband. I'll end my blog here and post a few pictures of Kaelyn at the fair. I'm even posting one with ME in it! That truly never happens! I'm usually behind the lense so enjoy it!
We'll be off camping this weekend for Jeremy's family reunion (his dads paternal side of the family) and Kaelyn and Aria will BOTH get their first taste of camping. SO EXCITED!

Lots of love,
Kaelyn and Lara (and little Aria-toodles too!)

p.s. Shout out to Katherine! Her daughter also has PT21!! Just in case you are reading, I'm glad you responded to my email and I can't wait to hear more! :D

Kaelyn and Daddy taking a "Selfie" on the Ferris Wheel. I think she's too busy looking around to smile for the camera, but that is surely her "busy thinking" face.

 

Mommy and Kaelyn on the Carousel. She loved it! I even got her to have her hands and say "YEEE HAW!!" Such a cutie!!

Musings of a sleep deprived momma

It's been such a long time coming, a long road, but the process of getting Kaelyn's school district evaluation is now over and her IEP (Individual Educational Plan) meeting was last Wednesday. It's nothing new and shocking. Her speech is behind. Her receptive speech (following orders) is probably highest, but her expressive speech is way behind. She can point to whatever you ask, knows her colors, shapes, animals, but if you ask an abstract question like "what goes mooo" or "what animal barks" she wouldn't understand what you are asking of her. This leads to a lot of frustration on her part (crying, screaming) because you KNOW she wants to say something but she just can't put the words together and spit it out. She apparently seems very overwhelmed in her current 3k classroom (22 children with 3 teachers) and seems more content to play along side other children  or just people watch instead of directly asking to play or jumping right in.Whether or not that is tied into her speech (and being insecure) is another thing. Mild pt/ot delays (she was a late walker, late jumper. Mild muscle tone issues but nothing overly concerning.)  Our biggest concerns seem to be the speech and social aspects. They seem to think once we get the speech going the social will fall into place. The plan they set on the table was to keep her at our current preschool for tuesday and thursday and go to the elementary school for ECSE Wednesday and Friday. The Problem we are running into is that our current preschool is tues/thurs mornings and the elementary school is wed/fri afternoons. Kaelyn is very much a creature of habit and routine. I dont see how that will work for us. I put in a call to the school to see if we could just to the elementary school route. Our current preschool director feels so strongly that Kaelyn will benefit from staying that she offered us a half scholarship. I wish we could stay. I just think the flip flop will lead to melt downs and at that point ti wont benefit her anymore. She will lose out on anything she may gain by the stress. Anyhow, this is just a lot jumbled up in my head. Once we had Kaelyn's genetic diagnosis, we were basically at the beginning. They couldn't tell us anything more than we knew before we went. it's scary to think that in September, Kaelyn will be in a Early Childhood Special Education class. I am so very afraid that she will get made fun of. It's hard enough getting some family members to understand that its nothing we did, as parents, to hinder her speech. How do we expect the big bad real world to understand her or to treat her compassionately?  I cry when I think that there is a chance that maybe she'll never have kids, that she will maybe never talk as well as peers her age. If family, friends, and the big bad world have issues with her now, how will they treat her when she's 10 and can't talk well. 15? 25? I hurt for her because she is so kind and sweet and doesn't realize that this isn't the way it is for everybody.  All I can do is love her to pieces and help her the best I can. Be the best momma, advocate like crazy and cut out anybody who doesn't accept her and help her. She only needs love and faith in her. I swear on every momma bear instinct in me, the next person to make one off color comment, one negative, hurtful, less than helpful comment will get the full force of my protection. Family and friends should and will be a safe place for her to come to after she takes on the world. You are either part of this safe place or not. I wish I could make people understand her, to see the pure and unselfish love she gives to her sister, to me, to Jeremy, but its hard for people to see past the outbursts (cuz who wouldn't be upset when they can't express their need to use the bathroom, that they want apple juice not grape juice, or that they just want to be left alone?) they can't see past her lack of speech (no I will not let my child go thirsty because she can't ask for a drink like a big girl. what good would that serve her? another melt down?) and they truly are missing out on a love like no other from an amazing little girl. Knowing and loving my child is a gift that she returns 10-fold daily. By her willingness to pick up Aria's sippy cup 10 times after I have stopped. Sharing her snack 50-50 even after I offered Aria her own, how Aria gets the first hug when we pick her up from preschool. And how Aria loves her back unconditionally. We are so lucky and so is everybody who has met her and loved her as much as we have.
So what say you? Are you her safe place?

I"m really not good at doing this often.

Sooo, .... its been over 3 months since I've last updated our blog! We've went through some horrible winter weather and now it seems spring has sprung! Kaelyn has since started a new Evaluation for ECSE (early childhood special education) through our school district. Last week She had, PT (physical therapy) come to her preschool and observe her and then just ask a few questions afterwards. This next few weeks she is going to have Speech come in to school. The first few times just to get her used to talking to the lady and then to really get down to it and start the evaluation process.  We've got a tummy bug in the house today. I popped into the girls room to see if Aria was awake and then VOILA! I smell PUKE. Uck. mostly dried so sometime in the middle of the night she puked and fell back asleep. Unlike her father, she is a silent puker. :D

We have Kaelyn's birthday party this saturday. Just a small little gathering with some friends for the evening as every year less and less people want to make the 2 1/2 hour drive up here for cake and presents. Completely understandable and it takes a little pressure off of me to have the house SPOTLESS for the whole weekend and plan a HUGE party. We'll be home the following weekend to play in the Worlds Largest Trivia Contest. Should be fun and a chance to visit family and they can see Kaelyn as well and wish her a happy birthday!

Our newest obsession is "Frozen" and she sings "let it go" the best she can whenever it comes on! (which is quite often. Lets be honest.)  It's super adorable. I'll have to put a video up of her singing and dancing.

So for those who thought I forgot I had this blog, I Assure you I did not. It's just hard to sit down and blog when your day is full of frozen, tantrums, preschool, a hyper dog, and life's little details. Thank you all for reading! We love you tons!

For now, its off to snuggle up with her my little ponies (the big stuffed ones from walmart were a birthday gift last year (rainbow dash) and she's now gotten 2 more! love those things and how much she loves them too!) and watch Turbo, i think. If Aria is done being sick.

love you all!!