Story Time at Preschool

Tonight was the first night that Jayden got to meet her teachers, Ms. Angie and Ms. Stacy, during a 1/2 hour story time at the school before actually starting her first day of preschool next Tuesday. She was excited to go to the school tonight and couldn't wait to meet her teachers, who we have been talking about since last week when I found out who they were. We walked into the preschool together and went to her classroom and met Ms. Stacy. Jayden said hi and after a few minutes Ms. Stacy took Jayden's hand and walked her over to the other kids who were playing, to introduce her, and that was it, no turning back. I stayed outside the door for a few moments to see if she was going to turn around and need me, but she didn't. I went into another room with all the other parents and waited for her to get done. About 30 minutes later, in a single file line, her class came to the room and she ran up to me with a cut out of a hand with a small red heart in the center and she said that when I get sad because she is away at school I can hold the heart up to my cheek to feel better :) She wanted to stay and can't wait to go back. I can't believe how grown up she is getting. I have a feeling when I take her back next week, she is going to walk in to her room and push me right back out. She doesn't even need me anymore :) I'm so proud of her and of the big girl that she is becoming! Next week I will have pictures of her first day of school!

Enjoying the nice weather

Mommy and Jayden

Jayden took our picture. Not bad :)

our little babes!

there was a crime scene in our driveway :)

Our Little Monet

Letting Sophia finger paint, what was I thinking! It looks more like body painting :) She had fun though!

Bye, Bye Curls

Jayden had her first hair cut yesterday and to my surprise she did fabulous! She was such a big girl about it ever since we made the appointment, but I just knew as soon as we went to get it done, all hell would break loose, but it didn't. She walked into the hair salon like a big girl and sat down and waited for her name to be called. She decided she would like to sit in the airplane chair, instead of the regular black one, and that was fine. She didn't want her hair washed and that was no big deal. Then she started to get a little scared and a small tear slid down her cheek :( but the hair dresser was awesome and was so kind to her and in no time she was talking everyone's ear off and just having a good ole time getting her hair cut! I'm definitely glad that we got our first hair cut over with, but I'm a little sad that she doesn't have her curls anymore :( We did save them and have them in an envelope to open up in 20 years from now and think, "how disgusting!" :) It was a good day and a good experience. I don't know why I ever thought it would be any different.

New Kid on the Job

Randy officially started working at his new job today! Last Thursday he worked his last 2 hours for Crown Electric, the company he has been with since his first day as an apprentice. He was ready for a change and got an opportunity to go to Robinson, IL and work at the Marathon Oil Refinery, which will be totally different then what he was doing at Crown, instead of commercial stuff it will be industrial stuff. He got a long weekend out of the deal and went in yesterday for orientation and started actually working today. He is going to be working 6 days a week, 10 hours a day through December and then a few weeks of 7 days a week, 12 hour days somewhere in between. It's going to be a lot different, especially since IL. is an hour behind us, which means he'll go into work late AND get home late. It will definitely be an adjustment for us all, but we both feel this is what's best for our family right now and hopefully things will work out and Randy may stay on down there for the long run. Here's to a good first day on the new job!!!

Jayden's 4th Birthday Party

We thought that we were going to get rained out today, but the weather was nice to us and we ended up having a great day for a birthday party! Jayden couldn't wait for her friends to get here today and by the time they all showed up, it was well worth the wait, she had a blast! The kids ate pizza, bounced in the bounce house, colored a giant puzzle, went swimming and water sliding, went slip n sliding, ate cake and ice cream and played, played, played till their mommy's and daddy's took them home :) Jayden had a fabulous time, with amazing friends and family and got a lot of cool stuff. Tonight after everyone left and we were all cleaned up and relaxing in bed watching a movie that she got for her birthday, I told her how she was actually still 3, until tomorrow, and she got a little bummed out for minute, but then I told her how we were going to Toys R Us for her birthday tomorrow and all of that 3 year old stuff was out the window and she didn't care how old she was, as long as she was going to Toys R Us!

I can't believe that Jayden is about to turn 4 and starting preschool in about 2 weeks. A lot has changed over the past year and Jayden has really stepped up and made us proud. She is an amazing little girl that we are so happy and proud to call our daughter. She is truly something special and we love her so very much! Happy Birthday baby girl!

i have a voice

How Do I Talk About Down Syndrome?

I came across another blog last week that I really like, Bill and Ria, and when I read it for the first time she had a link to this website, How Do I Talk About Down Syndrome, and it gives some really good information about good words to use and big no-no words that you should not use.  I know that I have used inappropriate words in the past not really knowing how hurtful they can be perceived by someone who has a child with special needs and I think that it is important for all of us who love and care about Sophia to educate ourselves and show our children, as well as others that words can hurt.  I hope that you will all take a moment to read this short 2 page brochure, I think that you will find it very educating :)
upsfordowns.org/libraries/documents/how_do_i_talk.sflb.ashx

Become a Follower

If you want to become a follower of this blog all you have to do is click "Follow" then you click on create a new google account, unless you already have one. Next you fill out a little information: email address, choose a password, your birthdate, type in a word verification, and accept to create an account. Finally you just click "Follow blog" and that's it and you will be added to our list of Followers. Before you click "Follow blog" you can edit your picture with a picture that you may have saved to your computer, but we had a hard time doing this with Randy because it kept saying the picture size was to big. Anyway, I know some of you weren't sure how to become a follower and it's pretty easy actually. I believe after you have a google account you can also leave comments as well :)

Leg Warmers and Button Buddies

We are embarking on a new fashion statement, bringing leg warmers back and our new button buddies :) I have seen other little ones showing off their leg warmers since last fall and winter, and since spring came along and Sophia has officially been out of jammies as her every day attire, I decided to try them out for this fall and winter, and don't they just look cute! This is our first trial pair and let me just say, there will be more. I can't wait to look for some other cool leg warmers to keep our chunky monkey nice and warm during the next two seasons and keep her comfy as well.
The princess button buddy is something that I just heard about last week and looked up the website and thought they would definitly be a lot cuter than the white gauze I have been using and after buying a trial pair I found out that they are great! So I've ordered a weeks worth and I can't wait to add a little sparkle to her feeding button :)

Music Lover

She's such a ROCK STAR!

Here I come!

Who needs a water park? We have our own pool and water slide right in our backyard :)

Slipin and a Slidin

We busted out our new slip and slide this weekend and it brought me back to childhood. But then today it reminded me that I'm no longer a child and man am I sore! Jayden loved it though and she's practicing her slip and slide skills so she'll be ready to show off at her big 4th birthday party in two weeks!

Bye, Bye Oxygen!

It's official, Sophia's oxygen tanks and her monitor will be leaving us tomorrow! I got the results back from the sleep study we did last Monday and apparently she was in a deep sleep long enough for them to find out that she doesn't need her oxygen. We kind of already knew this, but coming from the doctor makes it official. We also found out that this time around she didn't have near as many sleep obstructions as last time, which is why we got referred to an Ear, Nose and Throat specialist a few months back. Last time she had over 100 obstructions while she slept, this time she had 9! So apparently the older and bigger she gets, the better some of these issues are getting as well! It will be so nice not to have all this extra equipment around, especially when we aren't using it anyway, but I'm a little nervous about the pulse oximeter leaving. It was nice having her hooked up at night to something that would alert us if there was a problem. But we can't be dependant on it forever and we haven't had any problems in over a year, so it may take some time to get used to not having it at night, but it will all be fine :)