| Braska: Catch-up: Visit from the famous LC! |
| On Tuesday, last week I got the best surprise! My blog friend LC came to my house! She"s like a superstar in our house, and I couldn"t believe she was just right there! She even brought her Mommy and two grandmas! "Is that really LC?!?" I think we felt a little shy at first.
Then she started to grin and be silly. I still wasn"t sure about it.
 I showed her my favorite stacking cups.
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| I had the most bestest fun today! I love to play on Mommy and Daddy"s great big bed, but I"m not allowed to be up there without someone to watch me because Mommy says I don"t watch the edges like I should. But that"s ok because it"s way more fun when Daddy plays with me! Miss A lets me climb all over the big cloud pillow thing at school, and to practice at home, we put lots of big pillows all over the bed and I climb on them. It is SO much fun!! (Mommy note: The "headboard" to our bed is a mattress, turned on it"s side. It"s a longer story than you want to read, but it actually works really nicely, and it fits perfectly with our king-sized bed. You"ll see why this info is helpful... back to Braska.) So today we were playing on the bed after we got up from nap, and I wanted to get up on the higher part of the bed. And I found a NEW fun thing to do... Here, I"ll show you in a little movie. What do you think? You wanna come to my house and try it?? Come on over! |
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| Yesterday I went to school for PT with Miss A. Miss J came too so she could see how much I talk when I"m playing in the PT room. (I don"t talk very much with Miss J. They don"t know why and I"m not sayin".) I just love the PT room!!! I wish I had one of those at home! Today we did 2 kinds of swings, and I did a good job staying on when it was really hard. I crawled under things and went through the big tunnel and worked really hard to crawl over the big cloud pillow thing. There"s a basket of big letters in the PT room and I always find them and get them out. I really like letters and numbers, and I like to say what they are. When we go in the PT room, there are number cards on the floor and I pick them up and tell Miss A what number is on them. Today we got the basket of letters and I stood up at the rock wall and put them on there. When Miss A gave me the letters, I told her what they were and then we put them on the wall.
(Mommy note: Braska blew us away yesterday at her PT session. She just goes crazy in the motor room at her school. The sessions we do there are amazing, because the kid just is ON when we are |
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| E plus I times X equals GUILT |
Early Intervention therapists come to our homes weekly, bi-weekly, or even just monthly. They train our babies to develop their gross, fine, oral motor, and cognitive skills by conditioning their brains to learn movement patterns, sensations, and organization. They also teach us how to perform these specialized therapy activities and recommend that we do them on a consistent basis.
Daily... I am supposed to do oral motor stimulation prior to each meal and to fit in a 20 minute physical therapy session. I am also supposed to expose my child to classical music and signing throughout the day. Weekly... I am supposed to carry over what we do in pool therapy and to practice several activities suggested by a special education therapist and a teacher of the visually impaired.
I admit, I am already overwhelmed with multiple children, a job, a husband, a couple of blogs, a house to keep up, two moms groups, church... etc. And, some days, ok, maybe lots of days, I could easily not do any of the recommended EI activities. When this happens, guilt sets in and I envision my daughter never becoming independent because I didn’t find time to roll her around on a mat everyday. Oh, yes, I beat myself up for being an EI slacker mom.
Once the guilt takes hold, I start to wonder if EI even matters at all. Wouldn’t it be easier to just free myself of this cruddy feeling by axing EI altogether? What good is a bi-weekly 20-minute splish-splash in a pool anyway? |
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| Braska: Another new friend!! |
| Today we went to have lunch with a new friend that Mommy found from around the blog world. Matthew and his mommy and daddy don"t live too far from us, so we met in the middle. I"m pretty tired, so I"ll just show you some pictures that we took today of all of us. Don"t forget that you can click on the picture to make it bigger and see it better. It was nice to meet you Matthew and Mr. Bill and Miss Ria! Hope we can play together soon!  |
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What would you say to a woman who has just found out she is carrying a baby with Down syndrome and is torn about what to do?
Answer this question by July 31 in the comments section of this post or in a post of your own and you will be entered into the DSNM summer giveaway. During the first week of August, I will post my answer to the question and link to all your posts. I will also list the random winner who will have the choice of either prize pack listed below.
The Child Pack
 The child pack consists of a bottle of Nordic Naturals Children’s DHA, strawberry flavored, in liquid or soft gel form (your choice) along with the book, No No Yes Yes by Leslie Patricelli.
The Parent Pack
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There is a new blog out there you just have to go visit... It is called Kaitlyn"s Korner. Kaitlyn will be joining us this summer on August 4th. Stop by and read her story and make sure you let her mom, Jenee, know what a wonderful gift she is getting. |
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I got to go to my school a couple weeks ago an extra day to meet Miss A, my PT, and it was SO fun!! Usually she comes to my house, but it was special to get to go play with all the neat stuff at school. I got to use the same walker toy that I practice with when I go to school on Mondays. I surprised Mommy and Miss A because they didn"t know I could walk this good with the walker toy!
We went to the place they call the "motor room" to do some exercises. I loved the swing!
There was a really fun place to crawl and climb, and I just LOVE to climb, so I did this part lots of times.
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Memory is the storage system for all information and new learning. Researchers have observed and suggested that the long-term memory function (skills learned and events recalled) for children with Down syndrome is good. Therefore we will focus on the short-term memory abilities and how to improve them.
The short-term memory can be compared to a computer CPU (central processing unit) that has two distinct hard drives, one for verbal/auditory information (called the phonological loop) and one for visual information (called the visuo-spatial scratchpad). More good news; the visuo-spatial short-term memory spans for our children is comparable to those of typically developing children of similar non-verbal mental age (mental age as determined through non-verbal skills).
However, verbal short-term memory spans, which play a critical role in learning to talk, are specifically impaired. There are several contributing factors to this phenomenon and studies continue to explore how and why these factors influence the phonological loop function.
The first thing to remember is that brain functions usually show dynamic development, meaning they are positively influenced by input and activity. Over time, with consistent intervention, a child with Down syndrome can improve his phonological loop function, thereby increasing his working memory function. This is important for many thinking skills but especially for the development of expressive language (speaking). |
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by guest blogger ch
Our daughter, LC, is adopted. My husband and I stood in the delivery room and watched her birth. We were left speechless by the honor of becoming her parents in a way that felt as if we had been tangibly touched by the hand of God.
(What if adoption didn’t ask a birth mother to say, "Take this from me" but, instead whispered, "Share this child with me"?)
The truth is, we adopted a baby that didn’t need a mom. LC has a mother. And, believe me, she has earned the title. When she learned of her unborn baby’s diagnosis of Down syndrome and multiple heart defects early in her pregnancy, she did her research and attended numerous appointments with a variety of specialists to ensure this child would have every possible chance at a healthy birth.
For over 200 mornings she was kicked awake by little feet that would one day run through someone else"s home. Month after month, she saw doctors and endured procedures to care for a baby’s heart she would entrust to someone else"s keeping. For so many weeks, she sacrificed relationships, social acceptance, and convenience to shelter a tiny body. Night after night, she |
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