Almost Wordless Wednesday (from Illinois)

Schwetting quite a lot out here in yonder corn country. I swear the cornfields trap the humidity thus making Pennsylvania feel cool by comparison.

Thank goodness for 24/7 pool access.

Anyway, we are enjoying our time relaxing here with Ryan's family. Cameran is enjoying Grandma and Papa and all of her cousins. She has decided to self-feed graham crackers (evidence below) and is continuing to improve in picking up her sippy cup and has returned to signing "food" and "more" after a monthlong hiatus.

Enjoy.

They Just Keep Comin'

It has really truly been occuring to me lately that Cameran is already far more capable than I see in the (unfortunate) few hours that we spend together from Monday to Friday.  For this I am both saddened and elated.  Saddened because I am not there to witness her small, but noticable achievements, but all the more elated that they are happening with or without Ryan and I present.


A few examples to serve my point:


On Monday, as I was dropping Cameran off at daycare, one of the two little twin boys who adore Cami saw her, and as usual cheerfully announced, "Hi Cammin!"


Cameran looked at him.  Cameran then proceeded to walk over to him.  Now don't get me wrong, Cameran has been walking, albeit shakily, for some time now, but apparently she is getting to be one brave girl at daycare.  Little twin lover's response was, "Look everyone, Cammin's walkin'!"  He was so excited for her, and my heart swelled.  And dammit, that's when I had to leave.  Oh, to be a fly on the wall.

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One recent afternoon, Cameran's teacher told me all about Cameran's new nickname...."Shadow".  Cameran loves her some Ms. Julie--apparently so much so that she follows her around the room and actually shows annoyance when Ms. Julie is not paying enough attention to her. 
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There have also been reports of Cameran participating in "parallel play".  While I know this is not totally wonderful, the fact that it is a step in the right direction is major!  We may never know how much time we "lost"- developmentally speaking -from her seizures, so this is an awesome step forward.  Before Cameran was content to observe.  Now at least she watches and tries to participate or at least go to the group of children and whatever it is they are doing.
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STEPS.
This mama hasn't been brave enough to get Cameran anywhere near steps.  On her own, she has shown no interest in climbing them.  PT has worked with her on occasion, and has said she has done well going up.  I decided to put this to the test...Last night before bedtime I decided to suck it up and see what Cameran's climbing skills looked like.  Girlfriend's got game.  Other than prompting her for the first few, she went to the top--14 stairs--all by herself!  Yikes.  Break out the gate!
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All in all this has been a great few months.  If we can get through the rest of the tooth explosion and jump on the self-feeding bandwagon prior to Baby G #2's arrival, then I will be in total bliss!

Catching Up

Since the transplant there have been many topics I've wanted to blog about, but haven't gotten around to posting. I don't know if it is my procrastination or the fact that I want to have the idea solidified in my mind before keystrokes begin.

In any case, this is more of a stream of conscious catch-up of the first two weeks of April.

My mom's kidney is functioning well. Her recovery is slow, and she is still weaker than pre-surgery, but is continuing to recover.

Cameran is now a full-fledged "walker". Sure it looks a little sketchy, but I would say by the end of the first week of April she became consistently determined to walk. She has perfected crawling, in true Cameran fashion, waiting until she could do it proficiently before showing off. No army crawl for this girl. It's the real deal. When she stands and wants to turn it is hilarious because it is like she is doing the one-footed pivot until she completes a circle and gets turned to where she wants to go.

She even did some great walking with her Special Instructor earlier this week...outside...on grass...on an incline!!

Around the same time the walking began her first bottom front tooth began its emergence into the light. Two little ridges now poke through. Slow and steady. The 2 1/2 toothed 24 month old.

I need to post separately about going to Princesses on Ice. We went with some friends on April 2nd. Girlfriend LOVED the show, and even stayed awake until the last princess at 8:45!

                                                                    Driving to Hershey.

Did I mention she sat in her own seat, courtesy of my friend Heather and my knees holding her seat down since apparently 21 lbs isn't enough weight to do the trick and she folded up in the seat at first!
Last weekend was Ds PlayPals.  Many of our friends were off at CHOP for a Ds conference, but we had fun with two other little friends and even made a field of Easter bunnies during craft time!

ENT appointment yesterday was uneventful. Cameran was given ear drops to decrease the swelling in the ear that has been persistently bothering her.

                                                         Why does she look so grown up?
Hubby passed his Master's Competency Test! Graduation is set for May 21, and his parents are planning to fly in for the ceremony. I am so proud of him (even if I did have to slave away writing proof-reading his papers.)

On a whim last night I decided to call a local ultrasound center to get this baby's gender figured out. I keep thinking that although Wednesday is only five days away, it will be nice to know the gender prior to a Level II ultrasound appointment where they are going to be more concerned with looking for abnormalities than finding out the gender. I am more than a little scared for what Wednesday will bring being that it is really the only glimmer of our odds of knowing whether this baby is totally healthy or also has a little something extra. Either way, ultimately we are still blessed considering we are going to have not one, but two children after being told not a chance...So...here's to hoping for good health and a typical sibling for Cameran to emulate as she grows up. (And yes, there is a gender preference, but I am not even going there being that the first time around I said I just didn't want an ugly baby. Wish granted with an extra helping of genetic make-up ;)

She is pretty darn cute...

 Even when posing as a disgruntled librarian...

I will leave you with Cameran's favorite new face...

Firsts and the Future

You know how when you want your child to do something/say something on cue it never works out?? 

Case in point...I went to pick Cami up from daycare yesterday, and upon arrival her daycare room teacher J, who I love, said that she took 3 or 4 steps yesterday unassisted!!! I tried like crazy to get her to do it for Ryan and I at home but she just got her sassy grin, and would drop and crawl.


She is also eating all sorts of new foods.  Her two (and only) teeth (both top molars) are coming in handy for pot roast, unpureed veggies and fruits, bananas bitten from the peel, Goldfish crackers, and other crunchy items.  She will pretty much crawl after whoever is closest and currently eating.  Now we need to get to the self-feeding part.  Slow and steady, slow and steady...

Baby #2 is still kicking ;) I am 14 1/2 weeks. Thought I would be finished the happy-go-pukey stage, but that isnt the case at all. I actually got to work (7th grade) and ran like crazy to the bathroom and lost it during homeroom earlier this week. Not cool.

They are sending me to our maternal/fetal medicine unit this time for the 20 week ultrasound. We passed up all the testing once again. I was afraid they would give us a hard time because of Cameran and an apparent increase in odds, but oh well. We were never supposed to get pregnant without IVF in the first place, then Cami came along. After Cami, we figured it wouldn't happen again, but if it did then it was obviously God's plan, and so I (foolishly?) didnt go back on birth control. In any case, bam...September 9th is on its way.

I would be lying if I said I am not petrified. I obviously know that there is a chance this cherub could have Ds or some other issue, and I will be okay with that, but I want more than anything for Cameran to have a typical sibling that she can grow close to and have to model behaviors and to learn from as they both grow. I know that I can't expect this sibling, if she is "typical" to be Cameran's guardian later in life, but I hope and pray that they are close enough that it is a non-issue. I really try to live in the present and not dwell on future but this baby makes me think of ALOT of potential issues...sigh.  Everyone tells me that it will never happen twice, and there are quite a few other mamas who currently pregnant with their second child after having the first with Ds who seem to all be "good to go" right now.  I just can't imagine that all of us will come out of this being in that 99% of "everything's okay".  So I worry.  Not a lot, but off and on...So if you feel compelled, please pray for us. 

In other news, my madre's kidney transplant is still on for March 29th!  Pray no one gets sick between now and then and for wisdom and guidance for the surgeons that day.

:)  Happy Wednesday

She crawls

I am taking the liberty to finally announce that Cameran is crawling finally. 

A little bit.

When she wants to.

Okay, only when she wants to.

Which is almost never.

But, I have now seen her in action. Ryan has seen her in action. Her SI has seen her in action.  Her daycare has seen her in action.

And so it counts. 

I am talking only like 3-5 paces forward, but they are consecutive and purposeful and uninterrupted by her obsession with standing.

Yay Cami!

Sleep and Teeth

Or lack thereof.
Cameran has morphed into super-nonsleeper extraordinairre to ring in the new year. 
It started with teething.  Serious teething around Christmastime. 
Cameran began constantly gnawing on her fingers, alternating sides of her mouth.  All of the chewing has been sllllllllllllloooooooooooooowly paying off because her first tooth is emerging-not through by any stretch of the imagination-in time for her to turn 22 months old.  And for the record, I totally called MONTHS ago that her first tooth would be a molar, and it is looking that way.  Top left baby. Maybe a bicuspid, but I am guessing molar all the way.  Of course, if P would stop clamping her mouth closed tighter than Fort Knox it would make it a teeny tiny bit easier to tell.  Just sayin.
However, we have been cursed -I mean blessed-with a content, happy, baby with no sleep issues for the first 21 months.  Which is what makes the past two weeks so. freaking. hard.
Yeah, yeah, all babies go through these phases; I know, I know. 
So Cameran, finish gnawing on your fingers so you can pop the remaining 20 some teeth through and we can all go back to long stretches of sleep and avoid waking 5 times a night. 
Love, Mommy

PS. Thank you Nanny and Pappy for taking the sleep resistant peanut for the night.  Daddy and Mommy have already nodded off watching Netflix mid-afternoon, and are on target to pass out before ten.  Feel free to keep her for a while.  Or at nights.  Or never again after the night you are about to have...Bwuuaa haa haa haa.

Balance

...and not the kind I referred to yesterday...

Check out Cameran's new move...

She did this repeatedly all. night. long, and it is not surprising, because for the past few weeks I have had zero success feeding her in any position or placement other than allowing her to stand.  I guess all that standing paid off!  Now we just have to work up to standing all by ourself without any leverage.  It's a-comin.  This is one determined little Peanut we have.

2011's bringing good things :)

Sweet November

Now that Halloween is over and November has begun, the beginning of crazy season is officially upon us.  No more leisurely trips to Toys 'R Us without the maddening Christmas crowds fighting over the three Kinect Xbox consoles the store may or may not have, along with all the rest of this season's hottest toys, gadgets, and gizmos. 

Gone are the browns and oranges and reds of "fall", instead, replaced with reds and greens of Yuletide joy.  Last time I checked Thanksgiving was an official American holiday, completed with the same corn husks and hay bales and pumpkins sans jack-o-lanterns of Halloween, but hey, if you are in retail, jumping right to Christmas is the "in" thing. 

I refuse to let go of my November.  My AUTUMN November.  My decorations will stay orange and brown and red until our plane returns from sunny Florida and the calendar changes to December 1.  Maybe by then I will be ready to give up my sweet November. 

In other news, Cameran is giving Tigger (you know, Winnie-the-Poo's annoyingly energetic striped feline friend?) a run for his money.  She has been (for about a week) bouncing around as a mode of transporation.  She also enjoys hurtling herself forward to get into "crawl", as opposed to a graceful descent, but hey, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, and I am completely owning my complete and utter lack of grace and coordination.  Way to go Cami.

I feel like November is the month.  She pulls to a stand by readily grabbing onto Ryan's or my hands, and then proceeds to wiggle and pivot and check things out.  She will stand against the sofa for extended periods of time before bending her knees and collapsing. And I know that she should be crawling or army crawling or something like that, but dammit, that girl hates the four-point (unless it's her idea, in which case she looks like a sprinter ready to leave her block at the start of the race but then never bothers leaving the block).

Did I mention round 2?  Of glasses that is.  Tomorrow we will embark on our round two journey to procure glasses for little Einstein.  Apparently her eyes are improving, but there is astigmatism of the right eye, and so she does not begin to aggressively favor the other eye to compensate, the doc. wants her to "try out" a newer prescription in hopes of balancing out both eyes.  Of course her original glasses that she wore for all of four months prior to her seizure diagnosis don't fit and are the wrong prescription anyway.

Merry Christmas, Cameran.

Picture Madness and Baby Boyfriends

Okay.  So I must've been living under a rock, thinking that I needed an awesome camera/editing software to create embellished picture. SOOOO not true.  I am sure picnik.com has been around for quite a while, but my silly self JUST -as in over the weekend- discovered this program.  And now I am hooked.  So, the header may not look quite right and may change every day, but that is the way it is going to be.  And thanks to my friend Karen over at Tales of a Library Lady for helping me figure out how to make a collage that would actually be an appropriate header size!  Her son is super cute, and is one of Cameran's many boyfriends.

Speaking of boyfriends--Cameran's identical twin boyfriends from daycare celebrated their 2nd birthday today.  Cameran took part in the festivities and apparently even went to town on a cupcake!  Now, when I pick P up, the boys run over and say "Cammin's mommy! Cammin's mommy!" and actually request to give her hugs.  They were practically pushing me out of the way while I was trying to put her jacket on to get to her.  Even though they are now two, they get to stay in the 1s room until Christmas when there are openings in the 2s.  I am glad because they definitely give Cameran the interaction that she needs.

Along with interactions--tonight Cameran got across the entire floor in her walker going forward!  She also tracked my voice and came toward me as I bribed her with her puppy.  It worked!!!  Not only that, but Cameran finally imitated clapping for the first time!!!!!!!!!!! She is still munching away on everything that is NOT a teething ring, but her efforts are still fruitless.  Someday.  If not, maybe they make baby grills dentures ;)

31 for 21: Halloween

Welcome to Cameran's 2nd Halloween.  Last year we went all out and dressed as a peapod AND a kangaroo.  This year we went for simplicity....Pumpkin Cheerleader...

 We started off the evening at our good friends' house.  Their kiddos are Phineas and the two black kitty cats in the back.  Next to P is a very adorable spider, who just happens to belong to another friend who happened to capture these photos!

 And who can forget the two identical, itty bitty twins flanking the outside of the picture?!  Too cute.

 Getting everyone to cooperate at the same time was hellacious wasn't happening.

 But if you scroll realfast it almost looks like they are all looking at the same time.

 Miss Cami actually did quite well considering all the photos I took of her... 

 ...Although here she is not looking to thrilled...

Daddy and Cameran were big hits at each of the houses!!

Buddy Walk 2010 in Pictures

There are no words to describe how absolutely joyous it feels to know the depth of the loving people we were surrounded by on Saturday, October 9, 2010.

I don't think even a panoramic camera could've captured all of Cami's Crew!

If Cami wasn't, well, Cami, then I am afraid to think of all of the little things as parents we would be taking for granted. But, thanks to that magical extra 21st chromosome, we push forward, day by day, celebrating the minute, the small, the big, and the gigantic accomplishments of Cameran as if they are each a milestone that all children's parents celebrate.

Sitting up on soft AND HARD surfaces (as of the weekend). CHECK.

Reaching up when you say "Up", and not just for clothing. CHECK.

Craftily taking off both socks, jammie bottoms, and diaper tabs. CHECK.

Rocking the 4 point crawl stance like she is a sprinter ready to take off at a race. CHECK.

Maneuvering through the house in her walker that she walks bounds like Tigger in. CHECK.
There are so many more things that are exciting right now in little miss Cami's world. Right now she is fascinated with her two puppies (the fake ones that sing and say colors). They make her light up in a way that exudes radiance from her tiny little face.

But enough of that. Back to the Buddy Walk, which is what this post is supposed to be about....

Our little buddy, Caleb, did an awesome job leading the Crew around the trail, holding Cami's sign proudly!

Both sets of grandparents came!!!

Oh, and not to toot my own horn or anything, but we raised over $4,000 in support of our local Ds association, and in doing so, scored a "top fundraiser" prize of a season family pass to the Baltimore Aquarium, AND I am also the proud winner of a raffle prize....Not the hot air balloon ride, not the Signing Times DVD set, not the $50 gift card to Olive Garden.....wait for it.....I won a 3 month gym pass! I guess it really is time to slim down!

31 for 21: Day 6

Although I miss not having my husband's family in the same state, it is refreshing to hear him talking to them on the phone.  There are frequent queries as to Cameran, her health, and her development.  She is out of sight, but most definitely NOT out of mind.

My favorite part of these family phone calls is hearing the husband respond to the questions.  They are upbeat, and positive.  They always reflect what she CAN do, and not what she CAN'T do (yet). (Just like old coaches have instilled, "can't" is a word that should be eliminated.) 

 Part of tonight's big brother phone call was telling about how Cami is doing.  His response was heartwarming and upbeat.  "She's doing well.  Better than before.  Her little personality is starting to peek out, and she smiles all the time.  She gets up on all fours, now it's just a matter of time before everything falls into place."

That's the thing about having a loved one with Down syndrome.  Once the initial shock wears off (and I am referring to those first initial moments when the diagnosis is bombshelled), there is nothing but love and acceptance.  Down syndrome teaches has taught me to live in the moment, and not to dwell in the past nor to look ahead too far into the future.  We have goals and hopes and dreams for Peanut.  We still have worries as well.  However, if we were constantly wondering about future IEP meetings, whether or not she will be bullied or accepted in middle school, if she will drive, will she live on her own, etc., etc...., well, quite frankly I think we might go looney.  Plus, ultimately, every parent's goals are similar: To raise children who are happy and healthy.  That goal remains a constant with or without an extra chromosome.

On another note, here are a few pictures from the past week.  Some are from our local DS Playgroup.

First Mum Mum tasting (by choice) with NO puking!

Playpals pumpkin painting!  Baby hand prints with white paint.  Eyes courtesy of helpers.  Voila! Ghosts :)

My little ladybug.

I am thinking that Jasmine thought Cameran's head would rub her belly.  Instead, Cameran just sat and sat and sat until Jazzy got bored and left.

Good night all.