I Love Her

Not much in the way of words for this post. Mostly pictures. I can't find the appropriate words to describe how normal I feel. Kate has just become so much fun, her personality is really taking off, she is showing off new skills everyday and working hard to get new ones too. I believe we are on the precipice of walking. She is now taking two independent steps and getting braver by the attempt, and she senses she is about to accomplish something big too.



The girl loves to swing. She gets mad when she thinks it's over, it makes all of us laugh.












I had spent the better half of last year "waiting for my life to change". That is what I expected when I had Kate and received her diagnosis and that is also what well meaning people told me too. "Plan B", "readjust your dreams" ect.... Well I can't say when I came to this point but I know my life hasn't changed and it is certainly not over! This girl is every bit of the toddler I dreamed of, curious, demanding, loving, needy, trying to do things herself, happy, sad, teething, she has brought me so much more joy than I ever could have imagined. I am so okay with taking one day at a time now, I'll deal with the future when it comes.

I love her.

Wow, it's been a while

I think about my blog everyday. We have all sorts of interesting things going on but I just can't seem to carve out the time to post. I guess we have just been living life and that sense of normalcy that I thought I would never feel again seems to suit me just fine. We had a great vacation over spring break (I know ages ago).



We all had so much fun in Florida.













The boys are still crazy about her. They literally rock, paper, sissor to see who gets to sit next to her in the car. I am not kidding. Then I have to say on the way back you get to sit next to her and on our next errand you get to sit next to her blah blah blah. I don't mind that kind of arguing.





Kate is now 18 months old. I can't believe it, I just can't. She was an amazing 34" tall and 28 lbs!!! Yes that is correct she is 97% on the typical growth chart. Size 6 shoe. She has had two haircuts-basically to even out her baby mullet. She is doing big things from ring stackers, stacking blocks, making animal sounds, like woof, woof and buzzzzz, she is so close to walking. She can get into standing in the middle of the floor all by herself, crawls up and down stairs. The other day she picked up the remote and pointed it at the TV, I thought that was so funny. She readily blows kisses and says "hi" to people. You should see the look on their faces, priceless. She can self feed with a spoon (pretty messy). So we are making strides into toddlerhood. She has just become so much fun. She loves baby dolls. Early on I wondered if she would like dolls, how silly. She rocks them, pats them on the back, she pretend feeds them with a toy spoon and bottle. It is all so sweet. One of her most favorite things to do right now is try to put any article of clothing she finds on the ground on. I find her crawling around with the boys shorts or underwear around her neck. Sounds dangerous but it is pretty funny.


This is the dress Kate wore for Easter. It was my dress. This dress is 34 years old! I wore it when I was 3. I can't figure out if I was just really small or the dress shrunk or Kate is huge.


So now school is out and the boys are home for summer and our life has returned to lazy days at the pool, swim meets, soccer & baseball games. Kate loves hanging out at her brothers games and it will be so fun to see what she decides to do.

Show and Tell

My son Will is in kindergarten. All year he has anticipated the day he would finally have his turn for show and tell. Without any hesitation, with the biggest, proudest smile on his darling face he announced he wanted to "share" Kate. So I called his teacher and with blessed permission Will showed off his perfect, beautiful baby sister to his class.



She was a hit. He proudly told the class her name, how old she was, how many teeth she had and Kate showed off a few of her standard tricks. She showed how old she was, stood on command and one short game of peek-a-boo.




Then like the pro of a big brother that he is he fielded an array of questions from his classmates. All the while he had THE biggest, happiest smile on his face. He just loves her so.....and in those moments I know something good has come of this, some piece of my boys' hearts flexes and grows in ways that only she can strengthen.

A Funk

Maybe it is the weather, it has been so cold and snowy for so long. Whatever the reason I am in a funk. Not good because all I do is kick around crazy ideas and "what ifs" and "if onlys" , "why me", "why not me", you get the picture.

Our calendar is starting to fill up with all kinds of sports and activities for the boys, everyone is healthy, they are such good little students, Kate is doing well and is healthy but............I should be content but.....

I think it is just the down syndrome process, the healing. Instead of crying everyday (this time last year) to once a week, to a couple times a month to many really good days strung together, there is a natural let down. I have been on a high for what seems like several months her birthday, Christmas & New Years now it is a low phase, not crying, not sadness, just going through the motions kind of phase.

But the weather around here is a changing and I feel my mood may follow soon.