She’s perfected her technique

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

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

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

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!

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

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...

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