Anne & Whitney: Up, Down and All Around

A Superbowl Cheer

2012-01-26T19:31:00.002-05:00

"good job, Whitney"

2012-01-23T19:04:00.003-05:00

whitney loves to tell herself "good job, Whitney" as she works on her flashcards...

Good Morning

2012-01-22T09:14:00.001-05:00

anne and whitney would like to say “good morning” to you… *disclaimer – anne is NOT drinking coffee… she is warming her hands on her daddy’s coffee

good morning

Pat-a-cake

2012-01-20T10:05:00.001-05:00

Whitney recently started “singing” all of the time – she has always loved music and finally can sing along with a lot of songs. She also loves to “sign” along with the songs she is singing. In addition to singing, she is very into playing with dolls. Here is a little video of Whitney and Anne doing “pat-a-cake” with their doll “Stella”

“pat-a-cake” with “stella”

GREAT awareness video

2012-01-10T20:31:00.002-05:00

this is exactly what we hope for Whitney's future - this mommy and her daughter Maddox say it perfectly!!!

Happy 2012!!!

2012-01-03T09:06:00.001-05:00

SNOW!

2011-12-27T15:14:00.003-05:00

Well... we did not have snow on Christmas... but 2 days after Christmas Day is still fun! It is also my Dad's birthday (happy birthday Dad!) We were able to go outside and play today. This is the first year that Whitney has been able to walk around and play in the snow. The last couple of years she has tolerated being out in the snow for a little bit then was not too happy about being bundled up and getting wet and cold from the snow. This year she had a great time sledding down the little hill behind our house, walking in the snow and eating the snow. Anne had a GREAT time playing, making snow angels, snow balls, sledding and eating the snow. Here are some fun pictures from playing outside today:

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Angel Tree 2011

2011-12-12T11:58:00.004-05:00

Reece's Rainbow is a Down syndrome adoption ministry and they have a fundraiser called Angel Tree during the Christmas season to raise money for the adoption funds of some of the children who are available for adoption. If you make a donation of $35 or more to one of the children featured in the Angel Tree fundraiser you will receive an ornament with that child's picture to have as a reminder of the angel you helped to find a family of their own. We can't wait to receive our ornament with Emily's picture.

http://reecesrainbow.org/25299/emily-15h

http://static.reecesrainbow.org/angeltreekids/

happy heart day Whitney!!!

2011-12-01T10:39:00.002-05:00

We are still alive! I have been terrible about uploading pictures for the past couple of months and our computer has been running very slowly and I just haven't wanted to deal with it - so I apologize for the complete lack of updates. Anne and Whitney are both doing very well and are healthy!

We are celebrating Whitney's 3rd heart day today - this is like a birthday for us because without her miraculous open-heart surgery on December 1, 2008 we truly believe we would not have Whitney with us today! If you saw her 3 years ago today you would never believe she would be as healthy and full of life as she is today! We are so lucky!!!

She’s perfected her technique

2011-10-16T10:57:00.001-04:00

Whenever I put Whitney in her chair at the kitchen table and forget to buckle her she has taken the opportunity to climb over the side and get down all on her own. At first it wasn’t pretty and luckily I have been at the table and able to stop her or help her down. She has used this method (going over the side of her chair) to work on getting down by herself and has perfected her technique. She did it this morning and I was able to capture it on video… it is funny to see her just hanging there from the side of the chair. At first she would hang until I came to get her down… now she waits a little bit and then drops to the ground all on her own

first day of school

2011-09-07T21:07:00.000-04:00

today was the first day of preschool for anne and whitney. this is anne's last year of preschool - it truly seems like each day is going by more quickly than the one before and i know she will be having her first day of kindergarten in just the blink of an eye. whitney is in her second year of preschool. she made the cut-off for the 2 year old class last year by 6 days. she was by far the youngest and on top of it did not even walk until february... this year is a different story. we are so excited to have her in class with the same teacher again this year! she went just one day a week last year from 9-11:30 a.m. and this year will be going 2 days a week. both girls had a great first day! the director even found me in the hallway and said what a difference the summer had made for whitney. she knew just what to do, was listening and following directions. we are also working on potty training, so keep your fingers crossed that she will continue to do well and that i will have the courage to make the gigantic leap to underwear soon. i learned about the foxx-azrin toilet training method at the July parent meeting sponsored by Down syndrome Indiana. we had already been working with whitney on going on the toilet and trying to get her to recognize when she needed to go to the bathroom. we have been saying "go toilet" and she now says "go toilet" and signs "toilet" at the same time. this has been a "slowly but surely" type of training so far... but after learning about the Foxx-Azrin method I think to put us over the edge and make the leap to underwear we are going to need to dedicate 2-3 days of staying home and wearing underwear and trying to get whitney to drink drink drink! hopefully soon.... yeah and agh! at the same time!

here are a few pics of the girls from just before school this morning:

Sassypants

2011-08-16T09:47:00.003-04:00

In the words of Whitney's pre-school teacher - Whitney is a "sassypants" and this is her latest "sassypants look":

Monsters of Rock circa 1989

2011-07-15T23:01:00.001-04:00

Tommy used to work on the docks, union men on strike he's down on his luck it's tough, so tough...livin' on a prayer…

Ricky was a young boy, he had a heart of stone... now it's eighteen and life you got it, eighteen and life to go...

He's the one you call Dr. Feel Good he's the one who makes you feel alright, he's the one you call Dr. Feel Good... he's going to be your Frankenstein...

Pour some sugar on me...in the name of love

Take me down to the Paradise City where the grass is green and the girls are pretty... oh won't you please take me home...

I’m on my way, I’m on my way, Home Sweet Home… Tonight Tonight… I’m on my way just set me free Home Sweet Home…

Win Big – Mama’s fallen angel, Lose Big livin’ out her lies, Wants it all, Mama’s fallen angel, Lose it all, Rollin’ the dice of her life…

My heart, my heart – Kick start my heart…

Sweet Child O’ Mine, Sweet love of mine, She’s got eyes of the bluest skies, as if they thought of rain…

found it!

2011-07-13T21:20:00.005-04:00

I finally found the cord to connect my camera to the computer... here are a few recent pictures... we are still keeping busy "trying" to unpack in our new home, having therapy for whitney 7 times/week (6 through the early intervention program and 1 hippotherapy - horse therapy-), trying to get to the pool and enjoy summer and just living this crazy thing called "LIFE" :)

Hope everyone had a wonderful 4th of July holiday and that the summer is treating you well! I LOVE LOVE LOVE summer - July is just about as good as summer gets!

Anne's 2nd jump ever from the high-dive!!!

funny blog/embarrasing dad

2011-06-08T09:05:00.003-04:00

If you get a chance, check out this article that Mike sent to me and to my parents/siblings this morning... this is something that would have been up my Dad's alley (thank goodness he did not think of this!) This Dad waved to his sophomore-in-high school son every morning dressed in costume this past school year. Here is the article:

http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705373877/Teens-dad-spends-school-year-waving-at-bus-embarrassing-son.html?pg=2

here is a link to their blog if you want to check out some of the costumes:

http://waveatthebus.blogspot.com/

here is a picture of the Dad in costume on the second-to-last day of school...

still here...

2011-06-07T22:26:00.002-04:00

Hi~ we are still alive. We moved to a new house about 8-10 minutes from our old house at the end of April and were without internet access for about 2 weeks. While living in the new house we have changed out almost all of the flooring so we have still not actually "moved" in. We have movers coming next week to help us with the big furniture and to move things from storage units. Hopefully someday we will be a little more settled. In the move I have misplaced the cord that connects my camera to my computer so I kept thinking I would post when I located it and could also post some pictures. Whitney and Anne are both doing very well and seem to love the new house. Whitney's evaluation to transition from First Steps (early intervention) to the school system was last week. She went on Tuesday and Wednesday mornings from 9-11:30a.m. and she loved it. She did not skip a beat when I dropped her off and we received the evaluation report already. Her IEP (individualized educational plan) meeting to set goals for the coming school year will be Monday, June 13. Hopefully all will go well at this meeting :)

Hope everyone is doing well in "blogland"!!!

Happy Easter

2011-04-25T20:59:00.002-04:00

The face of a troublemaker

2011-04-10T10:58:00.002-04:00

Hi, I'm Whitney. This is my teddy bear. Don't I look so sweet and innocent?

Look at this face - do I look like someone who would cause trouble or be naughty?

Yeah, actually I do - don't I???

Just wondering if anyone else has kids whose sole mission in life seems to be to "seek and destroy"???!!!

Flashcards

2011-04-08T12:08:00.001-04:00

An important phone call

2011-04-03T11:52:00.001-04:00

Denied a Family

2011-03-30T14:41:00.000-04:00

Please read this http://pudgeandzippy.blogspot.com/2011/03/if-your-heart-hasnt-broken-for-this-boy.html about a little boy from Russia whose adoptive family was told by a judge in the region he is from that they could not adopt him - that his adoption was denied. because he has Down syndrome. Please pray that their appeal will go through and they will be able to adopt him and that other children with Down syndrome will not be denied a family who wants to adopt them merely because they have 47 chromosomes instead of 46.

Bathtime Fun

2011-03-27T14:12:00.001-04:00

I have been terrible again about posting to our blog – things have been crazy! I have tons of blog posts in my mind and never seem to sit down to write them… we have been working hard to get our house on the market. We listed it on March 16th, the sign went in the yard March 17th and on March 19th we received our first offer. We countered back and forth and had an accepted purchase agreement by March 22nd. The people who bought our house would like to close by the end of April – so we have 32 days from today until closing – yikes!!!

Meanwhile… we have a jacuzzi tub in our master bathroom that we NEVER take the time to use… we thought it would be fun to give the girls a bubble bath in the tub before we move. Here are some fun pictures from what Anne said at least 20 times was “the best bath ever!!!”

Hope everyone is having a good weekend

Please help!

2011-03-07T15:18:00.002-05:00

I am copying and pasting an email I received from a friend below to try to get the word out to help Lera and her family that is trying to adopt her. If you click on the link below you can read about the family that is adopting Lera from Russia and if you make a donation you can help save Lera's life!!! The donations through Reece's Rainbow are tax deductible. This is a miraculous organization that helps save lives of children with Down syndrome who are living in orphanages in eastern Europe and Russia because their parents gave them up for adoption. Many of these children, if they are not adopted by the age of 4 or 5 (depending on the country) are transferred to institutions where the living conditions or so deplorable that many die within a year of being transferred. Please read the email from my friend below and consider helping to save Lera. The money donated will go directly to her fund to pay for the cost of her adoption. Thank you so much!!!

Hello to my dearest friends!!

I am writing with a huge favor!! I am sure that many of you are familiar with Lera is has been waiting to be adopted from Russia for what seems like FOREVER!! Her family had an appointment this week to go and meet her for the first time and it got rescheduled because they still don't have enough money. The amount they need keeps going up and even though they have almost $20,000, they still need another $20,000. Here is the really bad news!!! Lera was just transferred to an institution. We all know how horrible this is!! What I am hoping is that maybe everyone can do a quick blog post or facebook post to spread the word to get people to help donate to her Reeces Rainbow account. This is so urgent!! Everyday she is in that institution is a day too long!! Here is a picture of Lera that you can use if you would like as well as the link to their donation page. Thanks for any help you can give for Lera!! Thanks.

http://reecesrainbow.org/sponsorhigbie

Love, Denise

Sisters

2011-02-20T21:57:00.001-05:00

anne's haircut and whitney walking

2011-02-06T12:33:00.009-05:00

I apologize for the LONG delay in posting to our blog. I cannot believe it has been two months and I have not posted anything. If anyone is still reading our blog - we have a lot to catch up on. I will start with our most recent highlights...Anne had 10 inches of her hair cut on January 21, 2011. She did not start “sprouting” hair until she was nearly 2 years old, and once it started to grow it did not slow down!!! In 2 ½ years she grew enough hair to donate!!! We have not yet mailed her hair because I wanted to research the different charities where you can donate hair and I think we have decided on Locks of Love. Anne was so excited to cut her hair to give to “a sick little girl” (Anne’s words).

In other exciting news - Whitney is walking! She is not walking 100% of the time yet (I think once she can go straight from the floor to standing she will be able to walk full time) but she can take 20+ steps until she falls and then she crawls to somewhere she can pull herself up to a stand and walks again. We are so excited to see her walking :)

Below are some pictures from anne’s haircut and a short video clip of Whitney walking. Sorry again for our absence, I promise to be better about posting more often!!! Hope everyone is having a fun Super Bowl weekend!!!

p.s. aghhhh the pictures are mixed up/out of order and i cannot cut and paste in blogger for some reason... oh well! :)

Whitney's Heart Day 2010

2010-12-01T17:24:00.003-05:00

This is Whitney's 2nd "Heart Day" - 2 years ago today Whitney had successful open-heart surgery and it is definitely a day we want to celebrate. Here is the post from last year's "Heart Day" http://acbyron.blogspot.com/2009/12/whitneys-one-year-surgery-anniversary.html

We have two friends whose children are at Riley Children's Hospital this week having open-heart surgery. Ryan is 5 months old and had successful surgery yesterday and Maeve is also 5 months old and has her surgery scheduled for tomorrow. Please say some prayers and send positive thoughts for them, their families and the doctors, nurses and staff at Riley.

Here are some pictures from Whitney's 2nd "Heart Day" :)

Happy Thanksgiving

2010-11-25T21:47:00.003-05:00

Whitney is giving her famous "stink eye" in this picture - could NOT get a picture with both girls smiling... so "the stink eye" picture will have to do :)

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving!!!!!!!

Therapeutic Listening

2010-11-17T13:55:00.004-05:00

We have started a "therapeutic listening" program with Whitney to work on helping her filter out background noise and pay attention when someone is speaking to her or trying to get her attention. Whitney failed her newborn hearing screen and multiple hearing tests following her birth. Unfortunately, her heart was more of a severe issue in her first few months of life than her hearing and we were unable to pursue her hearing as quickly as we would have liked because we were more focused on just keeping her alive and getting her to her open-heart surgery date (December 1, 2008 - 3 months and a few days after she was born) and then keeping her healthy and helping her as she recovered after surgery. We then ran into a problem with an ENT that after waiting nearly two months to get in for an appointment (after Whitney was starting to recover from open-heart surgery) did NOT do her job thoroughly. She merely looked in her ear canals and proceeded to tell me that her ears are clear and look just fine. She did not do a tympanogram, she did not read any of the failed hearing test results and when I got out information I had printed from the NDSS (National Down syndrome society) and expressed concern about how most of the hearing loss in people with Down syndrome is due to undiagnosed fluid in the ears and that they basically recommend tubes almost as a preventative and how with Whitney failing multiple hearing tests that I would like to look into the option to place tubes. This doctor proceeded to tell me (and I quote) - "Well anyone can put anything on the internet." She said this with a very condescending dismissive tone. I wanted to say "It is not like I got this off of some lady's blog - this is the National Down syndrome Society and they are very credible when it comes to information regarding individuals with Down syndrome." - but I did not. Instead I let her speak to me like this and I left the appointment very upset. I then called and requested all medical information regarding both Anne and Whitney (Anne had 2 sets of tubes placed by this doctor when she was a baby and when she was almost 2 years old). I then emailed the Indiana Down syndrome parent distribution list and asked for recommendations for ENTs in the Indianapolis area. We had to wait over two months to get into this doctor and she immediately scheduled Whitney for tubes in both ears. We are VERY happy with our new ENT and Whitney has had two sets of tubes placed since just before her first birthday. The first set of tubes fell out very soon after they were placed and we did not realize it for a few months. It took a little while longer before we could get in for surgery but when we did, we had "t-tubes" placed (March of this year) and Whitney's hearing is SO MUCH BETTER! It was like a cloud lifted.

Throughout this ongoing battle with fluid in Whitney's ears and not being able to hear due to this thick glue-like fluid, Whitney missed the first 12 critical months of language acquisition as well as possibly the natural time to learn to respond to your name and to respond to sounds in the world around you. It is noticeable that when you call Whitney's name she does not always respond or does not know how to tune out other things and focus attention when someone is trying to get her attention. Part of this could be "selective hearing" :) But, another part, I think, is that she just never naturally learned to respond by turning and focusing attention when her name is called (because she could not hear very well due to thick glue-like fluid in both ears)

We are very lucky to have WONDERFUL therapists and also a very caring and WONDERFUL preschool teacher for Whitney. Whitney's teacher is the one who asked me if I had heard about any therapeutic listening programs or if it was something I might want to look into or consider to help with Whitney's ability to turn to her name consistently or to tune in to the world around her (and also tune out background noises). I asked our therapists about this and it turns out our Occupational Therapist is trained in a therapeutic listening program called "Vital Links". This type of program is often used with children who have sensory "challenges" but we are trying to use it to achieve better response to voices and sounds and to be able to filter out background noise. On the Vital Links website they have the question, "What is Therapeutic Listening" and this is their definition:

Therapeutic Listening® is an evidence-backed protocol that combines a sound-based intervention with sensory integrative activities to create a comprehensive program that is effective for diverse populations with sensory challenges. Therapeutic Listening can impact sensory modulation, attention, behavior, postural organization, and speech and language difficulties. Trained therapists learn to use modulated CDs to set up programs for clients in homes, schools and clinics. Listening is a function of the entire brain; when we listen, we listen with the whole body.

I do feel like this program is making a difference for Whitney. Our biggest challenge is keeping the headphones on her head because they are still very big on her tiny head, even in the smallest setting on the headphones. She is getting better about not immediately taking them off as soon as we get them on her head - but as soon as she remembers they are there, she tries to take them off. She seems to like the "listening part" but not so much the having something on her head part :)

Here are some pictures of Whitney during her "therapeutic listening". Hope this is helpful in case anyone else is experiencing this with their children or if their children have any sort of "sound defensiveness".

Happy Halloween

2010-10-31T10:34:00.003-04:00

Anne and Whitney with "Skellie" the skeleton at the Indianapolis Children's Museum
Whitney our "hula girl" and Anne our "bumblebee"

it's been a little while...

2010-10-26T14:57:00.005-04:00

sorry for my lack of posting recently (with the exception of the posts about whitney and anne's cute new shoes!) - i am not sure where the time seems to be going.

since school has started we have also increased whitney's therapies. she is now scheduled every week to receive two speech sessions, two developmental therapy sessions, one occupational therapy session and one physical therapy session. these are all therapies that she qualifies for based on her annual evaluation that took place in august through the state of indiana's early intervention program (First Steps). we LOVE all of our first steps providers (thearpists) and have been VERY lucky to have such wonderful people looking out for and helping miss whitney along.

we also added horse riding therapy (hippotherapy) through insurance about 5 weeks ago. we are doing this on our own in addition to the EI therapies. i put whitney on the wait list in February or March so that when she turned 2 and was able to begin horse therapy - we would be good to go. we elected to have her receive occupational therapy through TherAplay knowing that she would receive the benefit of the horse riding for half of the session whether we chose occupation or physical therapy. right now we would like whitney's fine motor skills (self feeding, pincer grasp, drawing with crayons, shape sorting, putting pegs in a hole, etc...) to get a little more work because her "pt" skills seem to be coming along - she is getting more steady at walking with just one hand held :)

anne is LOVING school this year - she is in preschool 3 days a week. she also is happy to have whitney going to school one day a week with her and their classrooms are right next to each other. i was worried about whitney going to preschool this fall (we also put anne in preschool one day a week when she turned two) because she still cannot walk unassisted and she does not speak very clearly yet - but she is signing QUITE A BIT now (over 50 signs) and her teacher and the director have been OUTSTANDING in assisting Whitney when she needs it and talking with me about how to adapt certain activities. For the most part - Whitney is keeping up and shows improvement every week in "preschool" :)

there are many more things i could think of to "update" this blog with- and i will try to be better at posting more often and "catching up" both on writing and reading all of the blogs that i LOVE! hope everyone is having a good week so far! i will end with some recent pictures...

pumpkin patch

whitney riding at therAplay

anne's tea party for her dolls

2010 buddy walk

pumpkin patch

first day of school

Our Bugaboo Shoes (1/2 off until Oct. 15th)

2010-10-10T20:25:00.008-04:00

I have had some questions about what size I ordered for Whitney to fit with her Sure Steps - so I thought just in case anyone was wanting to order the Bugaboo Shoes (http://bugabooshoes.com/index.html) but not sure what to do about sizing I thought I would share what sizes we have for Whitney and Anne and their measurements.
On the website, there is a list of sizes with the length of the shoe given in inches. Whitney is currently wearing a size 3 (5 inches) with her sure steps and this is a perfect fit!!! Whitney would most likely wear a size 2 without sure steps (she still fits into a cute pair of baby crib shoes from gap that are labeled size 6-12 months!) and her foot measures 4 inches almost exactly. So for her, the 3s were big when we got them, even with the sure steps but now they fit perfectly. I have also ordered 2 pairs of size 4s but they are still too big even with her sure steps. I couldn't help myself - I also ordered a pair of size 5s for when her feet grow even more - how could I pass up 1/2 off. By the way - the code for 1/2 off is SALE and the sale ends on October 15th!
If you are thinking about ordering any Bugaboos for your older children - Anne is 4 years old and we have two pair of size 9s. According to the size list a 9 is 7 1/2 inches long. Anne's foot measures just over 6 inches (almost 6 1/4 inches) - so with socks a 9 fits with a little bit of room to grow. I also ordered a size 10 but it is way too big at this point in time - hopefully in the spring they will fit :) Hope this helps!!!

anne's new size 10 bugaboos

size 3 Piper next to size 4 Piper

size 10 Paulie Ann next to size 9 Paulie Ann

Anne's foot next to size 9 Paulie Ann

Anne's foot measures about 6 1/4 inches

Whitney in her Sure Steps with her new size 3 Piper shoes

Whitney in her Sure Steps with her size 3 Camille shoes (can you tell she has worn these a lot?!?)

Whitney with her Sure Steps

Whitney's size 6-12 month "crib shoes" that still fit!

I love these little tootsies!

Whitney's foot measures 4 inches long

Our Bugaboo Collection :)

GREAT shoes!!!

2010-10-06T23:00:00.007-04:00

I have been meaning to share this since last week when Heather (Zoey's mommy) posted about needing to find some new shoes for Zoey to wear that will work with her Sure Steps (orthotics). I found out about Bugaboo Shoes last winter when Whitney finally started to "bear weight" on her legs and we needed to look into getting orthotics and shoes that would give a little more support than just cute "crib shoes". I left a comment on Heather's blog to let her know about how much we love our Bugaboo Shoes and I went on the shoe website to copy and paste it for her and found out that right now they are having an inventory reduction sale and all shoes are 1/2 off!!!!!!! (use the code SALE at check out for the 50% discount) Once I found that out, I of course had to order some new shoes for Anne and Whitney. We LOVE these shoes and cannot say enough about them - I would highly recommend them, even at full price!!! (they have boys shoes too!) I will try to take some pictures of our "models" (anne and whitney) wearing them - but right now they are in bed, so pictures from the site will have to do :) Just wanted to share this great find!!!

anne has these in orange + one size bigger in pink waiting for her to grow into them

Whitney has these in pink and we LOVE them!

bone marrow donor registry

2010-09-24T14:56:00.002-04:00

I have been reading all too much recently about friends who we have met through our blog whose children are going through or have been through treatment for leukemia. One little girl, Lois has just relapsed 2 weeks after she finished 3 years of treatment for leukemia. She now needs a bone marrow transplant. To quote her mom, "I don't know the odds that a match for Lois will be found. But I know that Lois isn't the only child in this situation right now. And it's possible that YOUR bone marrow could save the life of a child like Lois. So I encourage you to visit www.marrow.org and add yourself to the National Bone Marrow Registry."

I registered in October of last year (2009) to "be the match" and I hope someday I can donate my bone marrow to save someone's life. Please consider taking the steps to become a bone marrow donor.

jumperoo take 2

2010-09-14T11:06:00.006-04:00

this past weekend we decided to get whitney's jumperoo out of storage and see how she did in it. i think we put it away a few months after her first birthday so it is like it is brand new to her. when we had it before she was so tiny that even at the lowest setting for the seat her legs barely touched the ground - but she still had fun in it. now that whitney is taller she can reach the floor and really "stand" and "jump". i was thinking that it would be a good way to get her to "stand" and "bear weight" on her legs (with the added bonus of keeping her from going to unroll the toilet paper or empty all of the books off of shelves, out of baskets, and in general "cause trouble") :) Here are a few videos of her in her jumperoo in June of 2009 and now in September of 2010:

+ today I had the girls dressed alike and thought we would do a mini photo shoot:

how is this comfortable?!?

2010-09-13T21:58:00.002-04:00

our big two-year-old

2010-08-29T02:30:00.003-04:00

Whitney had a fun birthday week! We started the week last Sunday with a birthday dinner with our families - it was a lot of fun! We also took a week-long break from appointments of any kind - no therapy appointments, no doctor apointments - just play dates :) We had two playdates at two different splash parks in town, spent her actual birthday at the zoo, went to a farm (Traders Point Creamery), went to the Indiana Dunes and spent time today with my grandma and aunt (who was in town visiting). It was a busy and fun birthday week - now Whitney is officially a two-year old! Anne especially enjoyed Whitney's birthday week -including enjoying many of Whitney's presents. It is a good thing at this point Whitney is still ok with sharing her new toys with her big sister... Hope everyone has a great weekend!!!

Indiana State Fair

2010-08-18T22:34:00.006-04:00

the girls loved the bus ride to the fair!

"there's more than corn in indiana"

3 month old llama

walking toy

2010-08-13T08:38:00.004-04:00

Another tip/idea we got from our PT is to put the ankle weight at the bottom of the push toy so that it weighs the walking toy down. This helps keep the walking toy from getting ahead of Whitney too quickly when she stands up and pushes it to try to walk. You can really tell the difference between when we have the weight at the bottom of the toy and when we don't - it definitely gets ahead of Whitney and she has a hard time keeping up when the walking toy is not weighted down. The weights we used on Whitney's ankles yesterday were one pound weights that belong to our PT. I was not able to find one pound weights but I did find some two pound weights at TJ Maxx - this is what we use on the walking toy and are starting to use at home when our PT is not here with her one pound weights. Just wanted to share the idea in case anyone else has a walking toy that gets going to quickly when your kiddo tries to walk behind it...

Up at the gym just working on my fitness

2010-08-12T10:48:00.003-04:00

During Whitney's PT session yesterday we used one pound weights on each leg to help her with keeping her feet planted on the ground and going from sitting on the step stool to standing with the least amount of assistance possible. She is getting so close... a few times recently she has been able to stand on her own for a few seconds before she realizes she is standing and just plops down to the floor.

Broccoli!

2010-08-08T22:15:00.004-04:00

We are not sure what they put on their broccoli at Meridian Hills - but since Anne was little she has loved it, and tonight, Whitney (who seriously DOES NOT LIKE vegetables) loved the broccoli too! Anne and Whitney were eating the broccoli like a popsicle! Whitney even tried grabbing for the plate so she could have broccoli because apparently I wasn't getting the job done quickly enough! I guess I will have to order "takeout broccoli" to get Whitney to eat her vegetables...

Wordless Wednesday

2010-08-04T22:02:00.003-04:00

mp3 player

2010-07-30T09:11:00.003-04:00

a couple of people have asked - the children's mp3 player in the video posted below is made by Blue Hat Toy Company. It looks like they still have some available through amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Blue-Hat-Toy-Company-Little/dp/B001GW9NEK
Also -if you have a Tuesday Morning store where you live, I found ours this past spring at Tuesday Morning. I think I paid $24.99 and it said compare at $49.99 - so the amazon price is probably a realistic price. Whitney is playing with her mp3 player (because we didn't put it away last night) as I type this...
Happy Friday :)

Whitney Likes to Party

2010-07-29T20:23:00.002-04:00

Whitney and Anne have a kid-friendly mp3 player and Whitney LOVES to play music and dance whenever she feels like listening to music. We even take this in the stroller with us so we can listen to music on a walk or run. Here is a little clip of Whitney dancing to "We Like to Party" by the Venga Boys:

A Special Child

2010-07-29T16:40:00.004-04:00

I just read this poem on another blog that I follow. I thought it was beautiful - hope you enjoy it:

A Special Child

by Sharon Harris

You weren't like other children,

And God was well aware,

You'd need a caring family,

With love enough to share.

And so He sent you to us,

And much to our surprise,

You haven't been a challenge,

But a blessing in disguise.

Your winning smiles and laughter,

The pleasures you impart,

Far outweigh your special needs,

And melt the coldest heart.

We're proud that we've been chosen,

To help you learn and grow,

The job that you have brought us,

Is more than you can know.

A precious gift from Heaven,

A treasure from above,

A child who's taught us many things,

But most of all-

"Real Love”

Anne's last day as a three-year-old

2010-07-15T21:35:00.003-04:00

Today was Anne's last day as a three-year-old. I think she had a pretty good day! We did a little "photo shoot" with her posing and showing me how old she was today - Whitney joined in on the pics (despite the heat she cooperated... maybe she knew it was almost Anne's birthday). We ran some errands and then Anne wanted to go to Toys R Us to use her $3 coupon they sent in the mail to her with her Toys R Us birthday card. The girl at customer service gave Anne a balloon, a cardboard "crown" and announced her birthday on the loud speaker throughout the store - Anne LOVED it! She also had about 5 people while we were at the store wish her a happy birthday (they had heard the announcement). Anne picked out a cute Strawberry Shortcake lunch box with her coupon (+ a little extra from me). While we were there I looked into getting a water table for Whitney's birthday (she will never know that we gave it to her about 6 weeks before her birthday and I figure Anne and Whitney will get more enjoyment if we have it now). They were completely out but the girl at customer service said they had ONE that had been on hold and the people were supposed to pick it up by July 5th and they had never shown up. They were just "releasing" it today to be sold and hadn't even put it back out on the floor. It is the "Anchors Away" Pirate water table. The girl told me this has been the most "popular" one and they have not been able to even keep it in stock and this is the last one because they probably will not be getting any more in at this point in the season. When I found out it was an $80 water table (even though it is for Whitney's birthday) I thought "there is no way I am getting an $80 water table - they are normally about $40!!!" but then I couldn't help myself after I thought about it for a minute and realized how much Whitney enjoyed the water table yesterday and how good it would be for her to stand there and build the strength in her legs (without her realizing that is what she is doing). The girl asked me if i had the most recent Toys R Us coupon that had been mailed out - I said I thought I had it out in the car... I went out to my car and had a 20% off one baby item from Babies R Us coupon. It specifically stated that it could not be used for toys (and certain other exclusions) but she talked to her manager who was standing close by and they gave it to me! yeah!!!! Altogether it was a pretty lucky shopping trip - and Whitney's bday gift is taken care of!!! here are some pics from the "photo shoot":

Whitney LOVES to read books!

2010-07-14T21:55:00.006-04:00

summer fun!

2010-07-14T17:07:00.003-04:00

This morning we went over to our friend Jenni's house to play in the backyard. The girls had a great time - Whitney LOVED the water table and without knowing it, Whitney got a workout in with her leg muscles!!! She stood for quite some time playing at the water table... I think I may have figured out an early birthday present for Whitney. Anne loved the slip and slide + the baby pool with a toddler slide going into the pool. Max and Hank were great at sharing their fun water toys with the girls!!! Judd (their baby brother) kept busy playing "outside" of the water toys! Thanks for the fun playdate, Jenni!

Look at this big girl!

2010-06-23T22:19:00.002-04:00

Father's Day Weekend 2010

2010-06-21T14:04:00.009-04:00

This weekend Mike went to Michigan for a golf trip so the girls and I headed to Lafayette to visit with my parents and grandma on Saturday... we went to the pool while we were there and my mom's cousin Therese was in town visiting my grandma, too. Therese was nice enough to bring my purse (which I had left at my grandma's) to the pool and joined us for dinner. We had a great time visiting and eating outside on the patio at the pool!
On Sunday Mike came home and we opened his father's day gifts then "attempted" to take pictures at a park near our house. Whitney does NOT like to be hot (this is an UNDERSTATEMENT!!!) so we did not get many smiles (if any) out of her during our little "photo shoot". We then went to Mike's parents to hang out for the afternoon and have dinner together. It was a great weekend and the girls were very good while their daddy was out of town! Here are some pics from the weekend (they are in reverse order... oops!)

Papi's IU golf shirt

smiling because of the airconditioning in the car

enough of this!!! please get me out of this heat!!!

Whitney is getting "close" to standing on her own (doesn't she look thrilled?!)

jellies :)

why are you sticking me on this grass in this heat???!!!

make a "funny face" and say "cheese"!

GG, Therese & Whitney

Jimmy's IU golf shirt

Wordless Wednesday

2010-06-16T23:11:00.004-04:00

Straw #8!!!

2010-06-09T23:26:00.003-04:00

Whitney has made it to the 8th and final straw in the Talk Tools straw hierarchy! YEAH! We started using this straw with her about 3 or 4 weeks ago, and I have been meaning to write a post and show some pictures but life (aka hail damage repair and lots of painting inside and out) has gotten in the way :)

Whitney's speech therapist asked if she could have a copy of my pictures + if I would sign a copyright release for her to use the pictures because she has not had someone as young as Whitney ever make it to straw # 8 (excuse me while I brag, just a little - isn't that what moms are supposed to do???)

Whitney is supposed to build up to being able to take 20 consecutive (in one eating/drinking session... not all right in a row) sips from the straw without fatiguing too much. She is doing well - but we still have some work to do.

Here are some pics of straw #8:

As a frame of reference, this is straw #7

Straw #8 (put together)

Straw #8 (in three pieces)

Whitney up to the challenge

I can do this!

500 Festival Parade

2010-06-01T22:12:00.010-04:00

We had a GREAT time at the 500 Festival Parade on Saturday. It was BLAZING hot, but we still had fun (although I think Whitney would care to argue that... she is not a fan of being too hot!) Here are some pics from the parade... we had front row seats in the tv box section thanks to one of my friends who used to be an accountant for the 500 Festival! Thanks Leah!

(the picture order is from the bottom - start of the parade- to the top-end of the parade... they did not load in the correct order)

the winner - dario franchitti & his wife ashley judd

it is a little too loud!

mrs. brady

our favorite part of the parade... for some reason these guys were really a funny "attraction" in the parade! THE FRED HILL Briefcase Drill Team

Strawberry Shortcake... anne was really excited about this!

this is dedicated to uncle tim and aunt jill living in germany!

500 festival princess and queen

The Butler University basketball team: the Grand Marshall's of the parade

"Under the Sea" - this was the BEST and most creative float!

Whitney was NOT happy about posing for a picture nor sitting at a HOT parade!

Cheer for Graham Rahal at the Indy 500

2010-05-29T22:30:00.002-04:00

Graham Rahal of Rahal-Letterman racing has agreed to put the Down Syndrome Indiana logo on his car for the race tomorrow and the Bobby Rahal Foundation is going to make a donation to Down Syndrome Indiana for every lap Graham completes in the race tomorrow. To see pictures and read about the #30 car for tomorrow's race, click here.

Also... we went to the 500 Festival Parade today... I am hoping to post pictures from our day hopefully on Monday. Hope everyone has a wonderful Memorial Day weekend!!!

more prayers/positive thoughts please

2010-05-20T14:08:00.002-04:00

another one of our blog friends, Presley (She is just about Whitney's age) lives in Texas and is in the hospital right now. She has pneumonia and is having trouble keeping her blood pressure and oxygen saturation levels where they should be/need to be! Please, if you could, take a couple of minutes and send some positive thoughts/prayers her way!!!

ABC program: What Would You Do?

2010-05-19T22:30:00.003-04:00

I was putting away my Costco purchases tonight and had the tv on. A program on ABC caught my attention and my reaction caught me off guard. The program was "What Would You Do?". It brought me to tears to see the actors treating the clerk with Down syndrome like this, even though I knew they were acting! It just makes me sick to my stomach to see this kind of thing happen and to think that even though in this situation it was acting that there are times when actual people treat other people like this! Check out this link:

http://abcnews.go.com/WhatWouldYouDo/syndrome-grocery-clerk-scenario/story?id=10648284

Prayers for Ella Grace

2010-05-10T13:49:00.003-04:00

I just found out this weekend that a little girl who is about 5 months older than Whitney has been diagnosed with leukemia. We have been following her blog and have enjoyed getting to know this little monkey! She reminds me a lot of Whitney, a mind of her own and a super sweet smile!

She was admitted to the hospital this weekend and has already started chemo. I am asking for all of your thoughts and prayers for little Ella Grace and her family!!!! THANK YOU!!!

Hi!

2010-04-28T23:28:00.003-04:00

Since my sister requested that I post a video of Whitney saying “hi” on the blog… here it is (said with her southern accent and all):

Also... please continue to keep Carly and her family in your thoughts and prayers! I just can't stop thinking about them!!!

An Angel Too Soon!

2010-04-25T22:28:00.004-04:00

I just started checking a few blogs for the first time all weekend and saw a post mentioning that Carly, a little girl who was only 8 years old passed away unexpectedly on Friday, April 23rd. I have been following this family's blog for quite a while now and reading this news is just devastating. Please keep the George family in your prayers. I cannot even imagine the shock and loss they are feeling right now!

How to tell if someone is a boy

2010-04-20T20:57:00.004-04:00

Mike was helping Anne get ready for bed and she was going to the bathroom. For some reason they were talking about how boys stand up and girls sit down to go to the bathroom. Anne informed Mike that he is a boy and that boys stand up to go to the bathroom. Mike was then teasing her and asking "Well then how do you know I am a boy?" --- Anne paused for a few seconds, put her hands into the air and said "because you don't have pretty clothes and you have a regular haircut." So... apparently the way you can tell someone is a boy is if their clothes are not pretty and their haircut is just "regular" :)

a learning experience?

2010-04-16T14:56:00.005-04:00

So yesterday I went to get my hair cut while Anne was at school... after, Whitney and I went to have lunch together and I had a little bit of time before I had to pick up Anne from school so I decided to run into a shop to see if they had any cute dresses for a charity event we have coming up next weekend. I actually found quite a few cute dresses so I went to try them on. I had Whitney sitting in the front of the shopping cart and had nothing in the cart (except for Whitney) and was holding 7 dresses in my arms to try on. I went to the dressing room and the dressing room attendant very rudely informed me that I could not bring the cart in with me. I looked at her with a puzzled look and said, "what?" she pointed to a sign and said "can't bring the cart in here". I looked at Whitney then looked back and her and said that I would not be able to try the dresses on if I couldn't bring the cart in with me. She just looked at me with a dirty look and didn't say a thing in response. I then said to her that I had never been to a store where if the Handicap dressing room was open that they didn't allow me in with my child in the cart while I went in to try on clothes. (in fact, most times the attendants have been so nice and realize it is difficult with children and that keeping them in the shopping cart is one way to keep them "corralled" while trying on clothes so they usually go out of their way to say the handicap dressing room is open and to go ahead in there with the cart to try on.)
The woman then looked right at Whitney and then back at me and said "Oh, I didn't realize she was handicapped, go ahead." Writing it in the blog post doesn't do justice to the woman's attitude and way she treated me and the insensitive way she pointed out to me that Whitney was, in her view "handicapped" so then it was alright for me to go into the handicapped dressing room. I guess I was just taken aback by her demeanor and the way she called Whitney "handicapped" but it really took me by surprise and as I tried on the dresses I couldn't help but start to cry. This also surprised me because I do not easily cry! I guess in a way it broke my heart for Whitney to be judged and I was so happy that she had no clue the way the woman had just judged her, but I know that this will not be the only time something like this will happen. I guess in her 19 months of life we have been so lucky to not encounter really anything like this, most of the time people just smile and compliment us on how adorable whitney is, how beautiful her eyes are, how well she is doing (which we realize we are so lucky, especially considering how incredibly sick and barely hanging on to life she was in the beginning months of her life). It just took me by surprise and I do not consider Whitney "handicapped" and to have someone else judge her as handicapped and label her it just hurt me for my little girl.
I know that at some point in both of their lives both Whitney and Anne will have their feelings hurt and will encounter "mean people" but I wish as a parent I had a way to protect them from this. I have said to Mike so many times that I wish somehow I could keep Anne and Whitney from ever being 8th grade girls (after teaching middle-school Spanish, I have determined that from what I have observed that 8th grade seems to be one of the worst "mean girl" times in girls lives). Anyway... I know I have read other people's stories about encounters like this and I think that helped prepare me for an experience like this, but at the same time it still took me completely by surprise and will probably help me learn how to be stronger the next time something like this happens (hopefully the next time will not be for a very LONG time).

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!!!
Just have to end with some cute pictures of the girls (sorry, I can't help myself)

~Laura

happy belated easter

2010-04-12T22:50:00.004-04:00

i hope to find a little more time to sit down and write a post soon (I JUST finished our taxes, woo hoo!) but for now, i just wanted to wish everyone a happy belated easter and also say WELCOME SPRING!!! It feels so good to FINALLY have winter behind us! (I better watch what I say... just last week it dropped nearly 40 degrees within 2 days! but the weather is nice again...yeah!!!)

Also - if anyone has any tips for non-sedated ABRs (we have already done 3 of these hearing tests with whitney and have to do another one on April 29th) please share them!!!

Lilybug Winner(s)!!!!!

2010-04-06T18:49:00.006-04:00

Here is the video of Whitney drawing for the winner of the LilyBug Giveaway:

Whitney drew two names and narrowed it down to one winner, JenPhen. Whitney and I talked about it after she drew the name of the winner and we decided that since she drew two names, we would have two winners! The Elslagers was the other name drawn, so we will send them a LilyBug too! Could JenPhen and The Elslagers please leave a comment with your email address and I will get in touch with you to get your address so I can send you your LilyBug :) Congratulations!!!

Go Bulldogs!!!

2010-04-03T17:08:00.004-04:00

4 weeks ago we were lucky enough to be invited by our very good friends, the Paynes, to the Butler semifinal game of the Horizon League Tournament. They played UW- Milwaukee and won 68 - 59. It was a great game! Anne and Mike sat with Eric & Colin in Eric's courtside/center court seats. Whitney and I sat with Leah, her father and aunt in good seats, as well (there is not a bad seat in Hinkle Fieldhouse, Butler's basketball arena). I could see from our seats that Anne was having the best time ever sitting courtside right in the middle of the action! She loved watching the players warming up, the cheerleaders and she even got to pet the Butler Bulldog as he walked by with his owner. She must have worn herself out because about halfway through the first half she was SOUND ASLEEP while the game and all of the action was going on right in front of her. It was a LOUD and EXCITING game and she slept through the entire rest of the game starting about halfway through the first half!!! We had so much fun and are so excited to see Butler playing in the Final Four just 5.2 miles down the road from their home court, Hinkle Fieldhouse.

Go Butler!!!!!!!!!

watching the latest ella grace dance video

2010-04-02T16:25:00.005-04:00

We showed the girls the latest Ella Grace dance video the other night just before bed. Their reactions while watching it were so cute I decided i needed to get the camera out to catch a video of them watching Ella Grace and her dance moves! Here is a little clip of them watching it for the second time... Ella Grace has some great dance moves and we love watching her videos :) Anne is a month older than Ella and thinks they are best friends just from seeing videos of her (even though we have never met Ella Grace or her family). Enjoy the video (and be sure to click on the "Ella Grace" link to see the actual dance video!

P.S. Don't forget to check out our LilyBug giveaway & leave a comment on the LilyBug Giveaway post if you or someone you know would like to have one!

LilyBugs Giveaway

2010-03-31T22:06:00.005-04:00

About a month ago I wrote a post about LilyBugs. I also sent an email to Heather, the owner of the Mom4Life website where I first found LilyBugs to tell her how much we love our LilyBug and about the blog post I had written. Heather, the owner of mom4life, emailed me back and was so nice. She asked if she could forward the post link to Crystal, the mom who created LilyBugs, to let her know about how great the LilyBugs have worked for us with helping Whitney hold her own straw up. Crystal (the creator and owner of the LilyBugs company) sent me the nicest email after reading our post and offered to send Whitney a new LilyBug + send an extra LilyBug to "giveaway" through our blog :) YEAH!!! I am so excited to do our very first "GIVEAWAY"!!!

Here are a few details that came in the packaging with our new LilyBug:

"LilyBugs are a wonderful addition to the ordinary, hard plastic bottle or sippy cup. Babies and toddlers instinctively grasp and rub the soft, cuddly handles while feeding. The animated faces, vibrant colors and multiple textures provide visual and sensory stimulation for growing hands and minds." ***just a sidenote: Anne, who is 3 1/2 and considers herself a very "big girl", also loves LilyBugs... now that we have two LilyBugs she is always asking us to put one of the LilyBugs on her cup, too! So... they are for babies, toddlers and "big girls & boys" :)

Features:
-Fits both bottles & sippy cups (*straw cups too!*just wanted to add that, since according to all of the research from the experts when it comes to Speech Language Pathology, straw cups are much better than sippy cups when it comes to forming the muscles and movements of the mouth for speech) - Machine Washable - Great for Glass Bottles - Absorbs Condensation & Leaks - Creats a Smooth Transition from Bottle to Sippy Cup - Provides Visual & Sensory Stimulation - For Both Boys & Girls - Helps to Introduce Bottles or Sippy Cups while Nursing - Separates Drinks Among Multiple Children - Decorative for Fashionable Moms, Dads & Kids - Keeps Little Hands Warm During the Cold Seasons

Lilybugs, Inc.
P.O. Box 669
Southampton, MA 01073-0668
1-800-593-9232
http://www.lilybugs.com/home.shtml

And because the LilyBugs are so cute - here are a couple of pictures of Whitney with her new LilyBug (Thank you Crystal!!!!!!)

AND.... here is a picture of the LilyBug we are giving away (the "ears" squeak!):

***If you are interested in winning this LilyBug, please leave a comment on THIS post and we will put all of the people who leave a comment into a bowl or a hat and draw for a winner! The contest will end at the end of the day on Monday, April 5, 2010. On Tuesday, April 6, 2010 Anne or Whitney will draw the winner and we will announce it on our blog :) Also --- I know we have some "international" readers... I will ship the LilyBug anywhere the winner happens to live, so please feel free to leave a comment if you are interested, even if you do not live in the United States! Good Luck!

Wordless Wednesday

2010-03-24T10:01:00.003-04:00

+ a small "giveaway" coming this weekend (hopefully... if I get it posted :)

The Little Stinker Can Hear!

2010-03-09T20:56:00.003-05:00

Whitney's surgery to place "t tubes" in her ears was successful on our second attempt of the day! Although Whitney had other plans this morning (by eating a tiny piece of paper from the package her hospital socks came in while I was talking to the anesthesiologist) we were able to come back this afternoon (after her paper had "digested") and the surgery went well. I was very happy that all went well... Whitney did NOT share my feelings! She was FURIOUS when they brought her back to me. She was just so mad and she screamed and cried loud enough for the entire wing of St. Vincent Hospital to hear her!!! :) I did not get any pictures of this display (because I was trying to hold her and she was just distraught) but I did get a few pictures of her just before her surgery (and we were sure to keep all forms of paper away from her!!!)

loooking so sweet and innocent

showing a little leg

playing with a toy (not a plastic package w/ a paper label)

too sweet! (but still a little stinker!)

Whitney the Paper-eating Troublemaker!

2010-03-09T11:23:00.003-05:00

This is the face of a paper-eating troublemaker! We arrived at the hospital bright and early for Whitney's surgery to put in her second set of tubes. Her first set was placed in July of this past summer and at the beginning of December we realized she had fluid in both ears. We tried ear drops and also a hydrogen peroxide/water mix that the ENT's office suggested to clear her ears... neither worked and at the beginning of February, at her 6-month checkup from her tubes surgery the otolaryngologist said that both tubes were no longer in place. We have been looking forward to March 9th for a month, just waiting for new tubes so that Whitney could have the fluid out of her ears and hopefully be able to hear properly. Well... Whitney had her own plan for how today would go --- as we were sitting in the room waiting for her to go to surgery, the anesthesiologist came in to talk with me. She and I were talking and Whitney was sitting next to me on the hospital bed playing with the package that her hospital socks came in. This package was plastic with a paper label that you peel apart and take the socks out. I was paying attention to the anesthesiologist and realized that Whitney had put the package in her mouth. I turned to Whitney to get the package out of her mouth and noticed that the paper label was wet and a piece was missing. I looked in her mouth and there were two pieces of paper - I swiped her mouth to get the paper out and was able to get the bigger of the two pieces. I went back in to get the smaller one that I had seen toward the back of her mouth and she had SWALLOWED it! The anesthesiologist then said, "I hate to tell you this, but we are not going to be able to do surgery now." WHAT???!!!! She explained that while she is out for the surgery that her gag reflexes would not be working and that there was a danger that Whitney could aspirate the piece of paper into her lungs and that would be very dangerous. I certainly did not want to take any risks, but I also did not want to go home without the tubes placed in Whitney's ears. I asked if we could try gagging her, since she had just swallowed it, to get the piece of paper. She looked at me in shock that I would even consider gagging my own daughter on purpose (not something I would ever normally want to even think of doing... but I would rather do that and still get the tubes, I guess I am just a heartless mom??? :) Anyway - she said she would speak with the surgeon and see what we should do. Luckily, they are not making us reschedule - but we have to wait at least 6 hours since Whitney ate the paper but we are to arrive back at the hospital by 1:30 p.m. even though they will not be able to operate until 2:30 or 3p.m. So.... please keep Whitney in your thoughts and prayers --- especially that she can get through this day without food or drink and that she will not be so desperate to eat when we go back that she decides she needs to eat more paper!!!!!! Whitney is seriously a little troublemaker!!!! She has made what was supposed to be her easiest surgery yet, complicated! :) As I was walking out this morning the word had already spread with the nurses and other doctors on the floor - they smiled at us and one nurse said, "make sure you get this in her baby book"... our nurse said she has been on this floor for 20 years and never had anything like this happen or heard of anything like this happening... guess we just don't like to make things simple or easy. Oh, Whitney - I love you, even if you are a paper-eater!

Spread the Word to End the Word

2010-03-06T15:15:00.003-05:00

I missed the official "Spread the Word to End the Word" day on 3/3/2010 but still wanted to post this video in support of ending the use of the "r-word" in everyday speech. For more information go to http://www.r-word.org.

A goodnight poem by Sandra Boynton

2010-03-01T20:02:00.005-05:00

When we are finished reading stories every night before the girls go to bed, we always read the same goodnight poem at the end - the poem is "The Going to Bed Book" by Sandra Boynton

Tonight, Anne was saying it along with us and so we asked her if she knew the poem. She said almost the entire poem without us hinting to a few of the words. We loved it so much that I asked her if she would say it again if I got out my camera - if you haven't heard it before, it is a very cute book/poem... here is Anne's re-telling of "The Going to Bed Book":

Mountain Girl Silver (Feb. 21st - Feb. 28th)

2010-02-26T16:17:00.003-05:00

I ordered a necklace from the Mountain Girl Silver store this week because part of the money from the cost of the necklace will be donated to the Saving Sofia adoption fund. I just ordered it on Monday and it arrived in the mail today (Friday)!!!!!!! I love it!!!!! I am so excited to wear it... I actually spent some time on etsy.com looking at additional charms and things to add to it after ordering it - I will share the completed look when I have all of the pieces - for now, here is the necklace I received (completed and mailed to our house in Indiana in 4 days!!!!)

Thank you for sharing this website with us, Jennifer!!! Hopefully some other people have been able to order this week and help toward Sofia's adoption :)

Johnny Knoxville on the "r" word

2010-02-24T13:43:00.000-05:00

I just LOVE Johnny Knoxville!

Lilybugs

2010-02-22T20:36:00.005-05:00

I have been meaning to write a post on this for a few months now. I was just "reminded" of this after reading Adrienne's post at Our Unexpected Journey. Bennett (Adrienne's son) is 9 months old today and is learning to use a sippy cup. Although he is practicing with a sippy cup, Adrienne has ordered him a Honey Bear Cup so that he can transition from a bottle to a straw cup, and it has not come in yet. Here is short article from Parenting magazine that gives a brief summary of the benefit of a straw cup vs a sippy cup.

Anyway - Adrienne mentioned how she wished there were handles on the Honey Bear Cup (and I don't think I have found any straw cups that have handles) & I thought the same thing. I found something called Lilybugs on the website http://www.mom4life.com (I have found LOTS of great things on this website:) I thought it looked like something that might work... I ordered one (they have free shipping!) and Whitney LOVES her Lilybug! It really does help with learning to hold your own straw cup (although, Whitney has figured out that she much prefers to have us "hold" her cup for her, even though we KNOW she is capable of holding her own cup. She is working us!!!) Lilybugs have even won the 2006 iParenting Media Award in the categories of "Feeding" and "Hot New Product". The best price I have found is on the mom4life website (especially with the free shipping... it is a better deal than ordering direct from the lilybugs website). They have both "boy" and "girl" designs... Here is a picture of Whitney's "Lilybug" :

Little Miss Chatterbox

2010-02-16T10:08:00.003-05:00

Whitney has started to really babble and just talk about "whatever" (I have no clue what she is talking about) more and more... here is a little bit of her chatter w/ a little meltdown at the end :)
Enjoy!

49 of 50 states

2010-02-14T11:08:00.004-05:00

There was snow on the ground in 49 of the 50 United States on Friday. It even snowed a little bit in Florida! This snow is the reason that All Delta Airlines flights were canceled on Friday out of Atlanta... causing Craig (Mike's brother), Ellen (our sister-in-law), Grace (niece) & Julia (niece) to miss their flight for a 4 day weekend in Indiana with us. As it turns out, the snow that kept these flights grounded did not even begin until 5 HOURS after their departure time. They were able to get re-booked on a flight for Saturday (yesterday) which was also canceled. We were SO EXCITED for their visit and now we have spent the weekend feeling like this:

We missed you guys this weekend! We hope there is a time soon when you can re-schedule your trip!!!!!!!!!! Hope you were able to have fun playing in the snow in Georgia!!!!!

Saving Sofia

2010-02-11T13:32:00.002-05:00

Our friends in California, the Sanchez Family (Three's A Charm) are adopting a little girl named Sofia from the Ukraine. Jennifer and Hector Sanchez have three boys. Joaquin, the youngest, has Down syndrome and is about 6 1/2 months older than Whitney. Jennifer was checking out the website, Reece's Rainbow, which is a charitable organization that promotes the international adoption of children with Down syndrome. Through donations they are able to offer grants to adoptive parents who may need extra financial help to bring home a child with Down syndrome, that may otherwise be confined to a life in an orphanage or an institution. Reece's Rainbow had a Christmas Angel Project where you could sponsor a child and donate to their adoption fund and receive a Christmas ornament with that child's picture on it. The Sanchez Family donated money toward the adoption fund for Sofia. Jennifer could not get Sofia off of her mind and through a series of events and discussions with her husband and their family, they have decided to adopt Sofia and have a baby girl. Sofia will be 1 this February 21st. You can read about their adoption journey at their adoption blog, Saving Sofia. If you would like to help them with their adoption of Sofia, you can click on the "Saving Sofia" button on the side of our blog, or visit their "Saving Sofia" website. There are a couple of ways that you can make a tax deductible donation to help bring Sofia home to their family: you can donate through Reece's Rainbow, or through the Down Syndrome Information Alliance. Both of these organizations can be found through their blog, Saving Sofia.

We cannot wait until Sofia is finally with her forever family!

great face lotion!

2010-02-09T10:47:00.004-05:00

I just have to share about a great face lotion I have found! My sister started dating a guy named Josh this summer. Josh grew up in Aruba and now lives here in Indianapolis (with about 6 inches of snow on the ground and 4-8 more inches on the way right now, I bet he wonders what in the world he is doing in Indiana!!!!!) I, unfortunately, have not been lucky enough to go to Aruba, so I would have never known about sunscreen and lotion products made by a company called Aruba Aloe, but as it turns out, Josh's family bought this company about ten years ago and they have expanded from only selling their products in Aruba, to now selling via the internet worldwide! Josh manages the internet sales. I wanted to try some of the products and Josh was nice enough to create a 15% off code for me when I placed my order. I ordered some face cream, hand lotion and face lotion to try. I love all of the products I have tried, but so far, I think my favorite might be the Desert Bloom Face Care Lotion. It comes with 8 oz. compared to many face lotions which come with only 2 oz. or less and cost quite a bit of money. (I am VERY into products and LOVE LOVE LOVE to shop at Sephora, so I have tried quite a few face creams and lotions and have never been able to buy a face lotion I love that comes in an 8 oz bottle!)
Whitney and Anne both have dry skin due to the dry winter air, but poor Whitney's cheeks have become VERY chapped, even though I have been putting all kinds of moisturizers on her cheeks multiple times throughout the day. I just got this new lotion in the mail last week and thought maybe I should try it out on Whitney's cheeks - guess what, they have dramatically improved. I LOVE this lotion and just thought I would share in case anyone else out there is looking for a good deal on a great face lotion. I called Josh this morning to see if I could share the 15% discount code with my friends and family and he said I could go ahead and share it - so, if you are interested in trying it out... go to http://www.arubaaloe.com/ and type in the discount code SNOWDAY15 to get 15% off your total purchase. I can't wait for warm, sunny weather so I can try out the sunscreens!!! My sister, Melissa, who is fair skinned went to Aruba with Josh for New Year's (and she ALWAYS manages to get sunburned any time we go on vacation) and she said for once she did not get sunburned!!! (Josh gave her Aruba Aloe sunscreen while she was there) Now I just have to convince Mike that we need to go to Aruba... I NEED some sunshine and warm weather - I am SO over winter!!!! :) I hope everyone who is covered in snow is managing to stay warm! Spring is just about 40 days away... hopefully we will see some glimpses of spring soon!

We have another tooth :)

2010-02-03T15:39:00.005-05:00

I have to admit I have been more of a "reader" of blogs than a "writer" in the past couple of weeks. Nothing TOO exciting has been going on... Whitney has been working on her top/front two teeth for I don't know, about 8 or 9 months!!!!!!!! FINALLY, her top, right middle front tooth popped through a couple of weeks ago. She has had her bottom two middle teeth since about 8 or 9 months old, it took until almost 17 months old to get her 3rd tooth! I think the one next to it will come through soon, maybe???
We had a cardiologist appointment for Whitney last Thursday. The last time we saw the cardiologist was July of last year, and we had been going to the cardiologist about every 3-4 weeks and then every 4-6 weeks. In July, Whitney was doing well enough that the cardiologist didn't need to see her for 6 months! When we saw him last week he could not believe how big Whitney had gotten and how well she was doing. In fact, she was doing so well that we do not have to go back for a whole year!!!! Yeah!!! Her mitral valve is still leaking more than he would like to see, but as of right now he is going to keep an eye on it for a while longer before deciding if another surgery will be needed to repair it again.
My mom had a cardiologist appointment today to see how everything is going with her heart (follow up from her June 2009 aortic valve replacement open-heart surgery). She also received good news- she is doing so well that she does not have to return to the cardiologist for one year, too!!!
I do not have much to report about Anne, other than she is getting way too big, way too fast!!! Last night I was holding her and looking in the mirror with her like I used to do when she was a baby - and it just is hard to believe that she is such a "big girl"!
I tried to take some pictures of Whitney's new tooth, but they didn't turn out so well... here they are:

Wordless Wednesday

2010-01-13T22:08:00.001-05:00

Actually - Two Words: BED HEAD

Snow Day

2010-01-12T20:30:00.006-05:00

This past Friday, Anne, Whitney and I got all bundled up and went out to play in the snow. (As you can imagine, the actual bundling took longer than the time we were out playing) Whitney did not enjoy playing out in the snow last year (actually - she was just made to pose in pictures, she wasn't quite ready to 'play' in the snow yet at just 5 months old.) and I think this year, she pretty much had the same thoughts as last year on the whole idea of "playing in the snow"... Anne, on the other hand, LOVED the snow (last year and this year)!

Whitney and Anne last year (Jan. 2009)

January 2009

last year -2009

This year - January 2010

*We are starting to see this face more and more when Whitney doesn't want to do something :) Most of the time you would never imagine Whitney crying and making a face like this - but she does have a "streak" of willfulness in her!!!

Our Little Christmas Crawler

2010-01-07T17:57:00.004-05:00

Just before Christmas, on December 22, 2009 Whitney crawled for the first time!!! We were at my friend Jenni's house with our other friend Leah and all of our kids for a little playdate/Christmas get together. Jenni has three boys and they had a foam sword that was just out of Whitney's reach. Whitney must have been fascinated (we do not have any of these toys at our house) and decided this was worth crawling to go check out. She crawled about 4 paces and reached the sword. We all saw her and were so excited! Whitney was also proud of herself - she sat up and clapped for herself with a big smile on her face. Here is a video of Whitney crawling. She is also starting to get it when we say "How big is Whitney? So big!" Hopefully she will be signing more than "milk" and "doggie" soon :)

The 12th Day of Christmas

2010-01-06T21:51:00.004-05:00

Since today is officially the 12th day of Christmas, it is not too late (hopefully) to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy 2010!!! :)(Whitney looks like she had a little too much champagne in celebration of the new year!) :)

Instructions for putting your winter coat on

2009-12-21T13:34:00.002-05:00

Anne has learned how to put her jacket on by herself. Here are the lyrics to the song she learned at Peter Panda Preschool :)

You put your jacket on the floor, and you stand at the top. You put your arms right in and you do the "flippy flop". You do the zipper pokey and you're ready to go out. That's what it's all about!

Getting closer to crawling... still working hard!

2009-12-18T10:11:00.002-05:00

Rudolph-the-red-nosed Reindeer is sick

2009-12-14T22:08:00.003-05:00

Today Mike and I planned to meet during his lunch hour at the mall with Anne and Whitney to see Santa and get their picture taken with him. I got the girls all dressed up and did their hair and we headed out to see Daddy and Santa. I even checked online to see when Santa takes his "break" so we wouldn't get there during his break and have to wait with a three-year-old and 15-month-old. Mike got there before us and called me on my cell as I was in the parking lot to tell me there is no one there --- the chair, tree, set-up, etc... is there, but no santa and no photographer. I thought "that's odd" - I even told Mike how I had checked to see when his break is, maybe he had to go to the bathroom and couldn't wait??? I then found a place to park, got the girls out of the car and headed into the mall. Mike met us at the entrance and told me that Rudolph is sick and Santa had to stay home to take care of him. I said, "very funny!", he said, "I'm serious" - apparently there is a sign near where the photographer is normally set up stating, "Sorry folks, Rudolph is sick. Santa is taking care of him. He will be back tomorrow." Mike is convinced that Santa had a little too much fun at the Indianapolis Colts football game yesterday and just couldn't make it in to work today to take pictures with little kids and find out what they want for Christmas. We decided since the set was there and Santa's chair was available that we were going to at least take a few pictures of our own with the girls all dressed up. Here are a few of the pics (minus Santa and Rudolph):

D.A.D.S. Holiday party

2009-12-13T22:15:00.004-05:00

This past Tuesday was the D.A.D.S. (Dads Appreciating Down syndrome) Holiday party. I guess every year they have their holiday party at Recreation Unlimited's showroom (which is a company that makes awesome playground equipment). We had a great time and even had a visit from Santa and Mrs. Claus! Whitney was not scared of Santa or Mrs. Claus and was happy to sit with them! Anne was very funny about Santa - she was definitely not scared, but was in awe - Santa was really here at this party???!!! She just looked at him and couldn't believe he and Mrs. Claus were really there at the party with us --- when we left, she looked around the parking lot and asked us what car they drove to the party. Mike explained that they came in their sleigh, but we also told her they might have decided to drive their car to the party, we weren't sure. Here are some pictures Mike took with his cell phone (I could not believe I forgot to bring my camera!!!)

Whitney is on Mrs. Claus's lap and Anne is sitting on the ground just below her with the red and green hairbow.

funny comment from Anne

2009-12-04T10:37:00.003-05:00

Last night as Mike took Anne to bed and was tucking her in, Anne said "Daddy, scrunch me up like baby Jesus" (we are guessing she meant swaddle/wrap in swaddling clothes like baby Jesus --- they have probably talked about when baby Jesus was born at Anne's preschool.) Mike proceeded to tuck the covers around Anne and apparently Anne did not think it was quite right because she said in an annoyed voice, "No! Like Jesus!"... Come on Dad, get it right! :)

Wordless Wednesday

2009-12-02T22:23:00.002-05:00

Anne & Maddie 7-2006

Whitney & Maddie 12-2009

Whitney's One Year Surgery Anniversary!

2009-12-01T20:05:00.003-05:00

(Mike here) - It is hard to believe that it has been one year since Whitney had her open heart surgery. December 1, 2008, was a very tense, nerve wracking day. Around 4:00 p.m. that fateful day we were finally able to see our little Whitney post-surgery. She was lying there with tubes, monitors, machines hooked up to her, etc., and it was scary. In the end, Whitney came through just fine. She has made leaps and bounds since her surgery. She has really flourished lately. It took her about 6-8 weeks to fully recover from the surgery and since that time she really has taken off. In retrospect, we are so thankful to the doctors, Dr. John Brown in particular (her heart surgeon), the nurses and the entire staff at Riley hospital.

Without their knowledge, expertise, care and round the clock attention we don't know where or how we or Whitney would be. THANK YOU! Here are some picture to demonstrate the strides that Whitney has made since her one-year post open heart surgery. Doesn't she look great?!
What a difference a year makes!

We're So Proud

2009-11-16T20:38:00.003-05:00

Yesterday, Whitney went from laying on her stomach and rolling around to sitting upright all by herself. She did this two times and both times we missed seeing it happen - we just knew that she had been on her belly and that all of the sudden she was in a sitting position. Tonight we were playing in her room just before bed and she started squirming around and looking as though she might sit up all by herself. She did it and so I called to Mike and Anne to come see if she would do it again. She did it 3 or 4 times and then I went to get the camera - this is what we captured (it is a little long and she only sits up one time, at the beginning, just to let you know ahead of time if you decide to watch the video.)

Workin' Hard

2009-11-08T07:58:00.005-05:00

Whitney has been working hard on getting up on her hands and knees. She first started getting up and rocking on her hands in knees in August (I believe it was late August) and she has been working hard on this skill and building strength to be able to hold herself up ever since. She seems to take each task or skill and work on it until she has it perfected before she moves onto the next step of the skill. She is now holding herself up on her hands and knees more often and for longer periods of time. It is so cute to see her really start rocking once she is on her hands and knees, like she is so proud of herself.

Our physical therapist, Miss Heather, had a baby in September and we had a great physical therapist, Miss Miranda, cover her maternity leave. We are happy to have Miss Heather back, but will miss Miss Miranda. We have been very lucky with our therapists, all of them are wonderful! Here are some pictures of Whitney working hard for Miss Miranda on her last PT session with us:

Las Vegas

2009-11-01T13:27:00.006-05:00

Mike and I had the chance to get away for the weekend last weekend for a wedding in Las Vegas. It was the first time we had been away more than just a night out (which hasn't happened all too often, either) since before Whitney was born! One of Mike's best friends from growing up lives in Los Angeles and he and his new wife had their wedding at The Four Seasons at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. It was a BEAUTIFUL BEAUTIFUL wedding! They closed the pool at the Four Seasons at 4p.m. to set up for the wedding - it was an evening/night wedding outside by the pool. The ceremony was beautiful (can't think of another word to use), cocktails and appetizers were WONDERFUL and the dinner and dancing were so much fun! We are so happy we were able to go to the wedding and the added bonus was we had a weekend in Vegas at a BEAUTIFUL hotel with friends, great weather, dancing, laying by the pool, seeing some of the different casinos on "the strip", some cocktails and NO feeding anyone except ourselves, NO changing diapers, NO getting anyone ready for bed, NO messes to clean up, etc... Thank you Bonnie and Papi (Mike's parents, Lynne & Dan) for watching the girls for us (+ our dog Maddie, too!) We didn't worry a bit about them while we were gone and although we missed them, we had a GREAT time and it was a much needed break!!! Although, I did not feel like we had too much of a break after we proceeded to stay out until 6 a.m. Indy time (3 a.m. Vegas time) on Saturday night --- there is truly no way to have a concept of time in Las Vegas!!!! We knew it was time to go up to the hotel room when the dealer at the table where Mike was playing black jack told him 2 X, "Excuse me sir, I think you are falling asleep!" (probably not the best gambling strategy) :) Our flight didn't get in until about midnight Sunday night, so it was a week of trying to catch up on sleep and readjust to "regular life" :)

Here are a few pics from our trip and the wedding - we took some touristy pics to share with Anne (and Whitney when she is a little older and more interested in pictures)

in front of the Paris

inside the Bellagio

in front of New York New York

the Excalibur

The Luxor

the Four Seasons pool

the wedding (poolside)

view at the reception of the pool and head tables

updates forthcoming

2009-10-31T23:02:00.003-04:00

I am hoping to post some "updates" tomorrow... Mike and I were in Las Vegas for a wedding last weekend and somehow the time-warp that is Las Vegas seems to have followed us back to Indiana!!! Hope everyone had a fun Halloween!!!

Happy Halloween

2009-10-31T22:52:00.004-04:00

Our little lamb and our wonder woman...

by the way...

2009-10-19T16:15:00.002-04:00

Thank you Adrienne, from Our Unexpected Journey, for the adorable new blog header!!!

Why didn't I major in computer science?

2009-10-19T14:50:00.006-04:00

Ever since our Dell laptop, which had the Microsoft Windows XP operating system, started having issues with holding a charge (to the point where it would not hold a charge at all and had to be plugged in at all times and have a book or magazine holding the part where it plugged into the computer in just the right place or it would shut down completely and then take 20 minutes to start back up) I have started to STRONGLY dislike (understatement) computers. We made the decision, after taking it to a computer repair place to see about fixing the charging issue, to buy a new computer because it was going to cost nearly as much to repair as it would to buy a new computer. The laptop we purchased came loaded with Microsoft Windows Vista operating system. It turns out, certain issues with Vista have been the root cause of the MANY issues we have had come up within the last few months that have required HOURS upon HOURS of calling technical support from our computer manufacturer, the online security company where we purchased our online security software (due to errors that could not be fixed regarding our online security software - they determined this was a vista error) and ultimately microsoft technical support (this past week). Microsoft technical support seems to have sorted out (or rather, walked me through the steps to sort out) the issues with our PC and at last it seems our computer is functioning as it should (with the exception of one error message we received this past Friday that we still have no clue what it means, but so far it does not seem to be affecting anything (I am keeping my fingers crossed). I wish we could have known to speak with Microsoft to begin with. All along, all of the tech support people have been very nice, but the steps they have taken me through have taken hours up on hours of time!!!! AGHHH!!! We are supposed to receive a free upgrade to Windows 7 (the full version is supposed to come out at the end of this month) but now I am afraid to do this upgrade, if it means the possibility of more time WASTED on working on the computer (rather than doing a million other things I should be doing or would like to be doing).

Sorry - I just had to vent... (I have seriously considered taking our new computer into the driveway and running it over a few times) I hate that I depend on the computer to be able to pay bills, check our bank/credit cards, email, blog, etc... I am so far behind on all things computer related, I will never catch up... maybe if I had majored in computer science, rather than Spanish, I could have gotten through this on my own (and/or much quicker???!!!)

Ok... enough about my computer saga...

As far as other things that have been going on --- Anne continues to run around at 100 mph with no stopping until bed time. She has never been one to stop and take a nap, and she seems to gain energy and momentum with every passing day, so she is a lot to keep up with (luckily, she is for the most part, very well behaved... although, 3 years old seems to be a lot "sassier" than 2 years old!)

Whitney is getting to be such a big girl, too! I spent the past weekend sorting through all of the clothes in her drawers and closet and packing away all that she had outgrown (sad and happy at the same time) and getting out the next box of clothes that were Anne's to see what will fit for this fall/winter. When I finally finished with her clothes, I moved on to Anne's and now both girls are set with clothes for fall/winter (at least for now) and it feels good to have some sort of organization in both of their rooms (I even sorted all of our books today - we'll see how long that lasts).

Whitney is drinking out of a straw really well (although, still not taking enough volume to switch entirely away from bottles). We are working on the straw hierarchy used by Talk Tools with the guidance of our speech therapist. Whitney is on straw #4 (of 8).
Last week our speech therapist gave us the lip block to get her mouth/lips/tongue into the right position when drinking from the straw and Whitney seems to have the hang of drinking from the straw even with the lip block on and close to the end of the straw.
Our genetics doctor suggested we start adding a small amount of miralax to her night time bottle to help alleviate any constipation issues... we had been doing this, but now after reading about Ruby's mom putting olive oil in her bottles to add calories/good fat + help with constipation, we have been doing this with Whitney and it seems to be working out very well. Whitney is also doing better with eating table food. We still have to make everything very little so she doesn't choke or gag, but she can do it. We realized part of her not wanting to eat food that was more "solid" than baby food was not ability, but ATTITUDE. She didn't like texture or the effort that it was taking to "chew" the food and swallow it. We kept working and kept working with her (often putting the textured food into yogurt or baby food fruit that she really likes) and now, she still makes faces, but she will eat things like Sunshine Burgers (in small bite size pieces), mac n cheese (1-3 noodles at a time, depending on size of noodle), broccoli (steamed and cut into tiny pieces), carrots (steamed and cut into tiny pieces), spinach, applesauce, frozen berries that have been thawed and made into tiny pieces (I usually add this to yogurt), sunflowerbutter and jelly sandwiches, grilled cheese sandwiches, etc... It is so nice to be able to feed her some of the same things we feed Anne (Anne's food is still somewhat limited at times due to her major allergies to egg and nuts).

Whitney's therapies seem to be going well, too. Although - she has been getting up on all fours and rocking for about 2 months now, but she collapses after holding the position for about 5-10 seconds and does not move forward. She can scoot backward and roll all over the place to get to something, but she does not seem to be moving forward with crawling. I know she will get it, but it is definitely on her terms (despite our work... she LOVES to roll out of the crawling position, or any position that she doesn't feel like doing... she is a "professional" at rolling!)

We are also working more on bearing weight on her legs, which does seem to be getting better (although only for a few seconds at a time... again, when she feels like doing and for as long as she feels like doing it).

Here is a little video of Whitney from two months ago (just before her first birthday). She is pretty quiet throughout the day, but is "chatty cathy" just before bedtime :)

Worldless Wednesday

2009-09-30T22:21:00.005-04:00

Go Hoosiers!

2009-09-26T12:03:00.004-04:00

Worldless Wednesday

2009-09-23T13:38:00.003-04:00

Daytona Beach, FL September 2009

Anne playing at the beach

2009-09-22T11:11:00.004-04:00

How Anne spent her time at the beach: