Play date

Alayna was super excited today as her friends from baby class (& moms) came over for a play date. She got up early, did her morning exercises (She showed me that she can now sit up all by herself YAHOO!), got Aidan off to school then she settled in for a good morning nap before her friends arrived this afternoon.



LC, Eli, & Ian arrived and the fun began. All 4 kids were in good moods and enjoyed playing together and the moms got in some great mom time!

Usually Alayna loves watching Agnes (Ian's beautiful mommy) but, not today she had her eye on that handsome Eli! She shared a book with him and even a few smoochies (sorry Kim I am sure Eli was soaked by the time Alayna got done drooling on him!)









When Alayna was done drooling on Eli she turned her admiration toward LC's amazing mommy, Courtney. (Come here and let me give you a little smoochie!)




After all that playing everyone was worn out. Do these two look like they are ready for a nap or what?

Alayna went straight up to bed for a nice nap.
Thanks friends for making our day so much fun. Come back soon!













Alayna & LC "party animals"

OH, they are so cute I can just squeeze them and squeeze them...

First grade funny. "Would you like beer with your chicken nuggets and fries?"

Aidan has been asking for me to come and have lunch with him at school since school began in August. This week he came home and said, "Mom, the school even serves beer to those parents that come to eat with their kids, one of the girls in my class had her mom come and she was drinking beer for lunch."

Now me being a retired principal I knew better than a school serving beer. But, I thought this road is too fun to not go down so I delved into this a bit more...I wondered if someone truly brought their own beer, if the school had something that looked like beer or if they truly were trying to get more parent involvement and added beer to the lunchroom menu (just think of all the dads who would be volunteering)!

After a long conversation (and trust me Aidan didn't want to give up that it was beer for a long time). We finally came to the conclusion that it was ginger ale (or something else that looked brownish like a beer).

To make matters even funnier, Jason took Thursday off to spend some time with Alayna and he went up to the school to surprise Aidan for lunch. To his dismay he couldn't find the beer line anywhere (although his English accent scored him a carton of milk, I tell ya that guy gets more freebies with that accent!)

Case solved. Aidan is one good detective.

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This week has been another good week. Alayna is starting to move forward (on her belly) now. She is not as fast that direction as she is backwards yet though but, we know it is only a matter of time.

Here is a shot of Aidan at the game yesterday. He is having so much fun playing soccer. He scored 1 goal but, had 3 nearly make it in shots. It is really fun to watch them improve each week.

Rivals cooperate on touchdown for player with Down syndrome

I love it when the news highlights the positive things kids do....click on Alayna's picture to read an article about a Freshman football player in St Joseph that scores his first touchdown (he also happens to have down syndrome) that was in the KC Star today. Very cool...

Step up for down syndrome update

Courtney our amazing friend with SO many talents again shows them off on her post. We keep hoping the more we hang out with her maybe some of her awesome crafty skills will rub off on us, so far no luck so I attached the link to her post. Thanks CH!

Click on the picture (finally got a good picture of Alayna's 2 teeth to show you) to see the update on the Boom Boom Cannonball team.

We thank you for those who have joined the team and hope if you haven't joined yet that you consider joining (especially by Sept 25th if you want a cool t shirt with the team name on it for walk day).

If you can't make it here to walk with us please consider making a tax deductible donation to help this great organization keep providing the much needed support to over 1,000 families. Thanks!

A day at the farm

After a great morning at church and a few hours nap for Alayna we rounded everyone into the car and headed to the Weston Red barn for a family fun day sponsored by the fabulous DSG. Elise and the girls joined us for the adventure.

DSG put on a great afternoon for our families. We signed in and of course, Aidan was hungry (where does he put all that food?) so we headed to enjoy the nice lunch. We ran into several friends we have met over the year and met some new families which was really nice.

After lunch we headed out to join in the games. The kids quickly lined up for carry the egg on the spoon race, the 3 legged race, and the wheelbarrow race (Jason & Aidan came in 1st !) They had great prizes for all who entered so Aidan was sweet to pick out a note pad for himself and a cute stuffed animal for Alayna.

Next, we headed to get the kids faces painted (Aidan opted for his hand), then they were off to jump and bounce down the giant slide.

We all needed a breather so we jumped on the hayride for a nice change of pace. Alayna loved the breeze.

We rounded off the day by visiting the animals on the farm (chickens, sheep, horses, turkeys, and goats).

We were just about to head for the car when we let the kids talk us into the corn maze. They really enjoyed trying to find their way out (with no luck). Have you ever seen the movie Children of the Corn? AHH, don't want to be stuck in there after dark. Thankfully my UPS man has his own GPS in his head and he backtracked us all the way back to the entrance (thanks honey).

We are so thankful for this great community of people that we have been so blessed to become a part of through the DSG and we thank all of you who have joined our Step Up for Down Syndrome team to ensure that this organization can keep providing not only their educational, but also their fun and celebratory activities to it's members.

Alayna is 11 months old!

Today we celebrate 11 months with our Amazing Alayna!

We are so blessed & thank God for our precious children!

Thank you for following our journey.

A few things she has worked on since last month...

Bench sitting ~ Pulling to stand (she LOVES it) ~ Eating everything under the sun and finger feeding well ~ rocking on all 4's ~ starting to bring mommy's hands together to do the "more" sign~mastered moving backwards ~lifts hands to be picked up ~ babbling much more (except in crowds, then she is very quiet) ~ saying mama (not specific to me yet) ~ mimicking faces, sounds, laughter, coughs (especially daddy) ~ 2 bottom teeth ~ hair has really blossomed in the past few weeks ~ loves giving hugs & kisses (really wet ones)!

Labor day

We had a beautifully, sunny Labor Day weekend
and enjoyed spending time together as a family.

We played in the yard, went biking, went to the park, visited with Grandma & Pop Pop (Aidan even got to spend the night with them...which he was SUPER excited about that), and we moved Alayna into her big girl car seat instead of the infant carrier (she is too long for it now YIPPEE!)

She has more fun maneuvering her way under things and then laughing about it. She is truly a happy little girl and a complete blessing.

This morning, Magen, Alayna's occupational therapist came for her biweekly visit. She worked on Alayna sitting on a bench, standing up, bolster sitting and Alayna reaching up for toys. It is amazing to see how far she has come. Our goal for this month is to get Alayna moving forward.

I have caught her several times up on her hands and knees rocking back and forth so we know it is only a matter of time before she is on the go...thankfully we already have all the outlets covered!

Hard to believe that she will be 11 months old tomorrow...where does the time go?

Snuggle time...

This morning, a little after 6, I could hear Alayna in her crib just singing away. She wasn't really ready to get up but, rather just playing and entertaining herself (I was good to stay in bed a little longer).

Not too long afterwards I heard the pitter patter of big feet and then saw Aidan hovering over me. He said, "Mom, she is SO smart she turned on her music all by herself and is just in her crib laughing about it!" The next thing I hear is Aidan and Alayna having a long conversation...he had joined her in her crib and they were snuggling away.

It was a great way to start the day. I do so thank God for my many blessings, especially my children!

Alayna is so proud that she can pull herself up to standing now (you should see the giant grin on her face each time she pulls up). It is her favorite activity...she will make you do it again and again and again...she is responding to sign language by me making the "more" sign and she will pull herself up again.

She is also saying mamama (although not in reference to me. I will take it as I have heard dadada for months now)!

I also caught her on her hands and knees rocking back and forth today for the first time. Even thought she didn't last in that position very long (I ran to get the camera but, she was already back on her tummy), I was pretty excited that she did it all by herself.

Aidan is enjoying school and even got an award from his computer teacher this week for being a great role model. YEAH Aidan! He is reading well and is enjoying getting new books from the library all the time. His favorite this week is the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis (the kids version) we took turns reading pages and I was amazed at how well he is doing sounding out the hard words.

I am getting the chance to volunteer in his classroom once a month starting next week (Thanks to Grandma or Amy keeping Alayna for me!) I spent quite a bit of time in his kindergarten room and enjoyed working on reading and math skills with his class. I guess it is a good way for me to use my education degrees and spend time with him. Aidan is really looking forward to me being there, he keeps saying, "Can you come in today?" I am sure in a few years he won't be wanting me to come in so I better get my time in now while I can!

Oh, one more thing... Alayna says, have a safe and happy Labor Day weekend!