Sophia Grace

our growing little flower!

Sophia Update

What can I say, except this little girl is doing AMAZING!  She has rocketed this year alone and I see, and hear, her doing new  things every single day.  Sophia has been a turbo bottom scooter for some time now, but as most of you may know, she is now pulling up and standing on everything!  She is climbing up, down and all around, on anything that will stand sturdy enough for her to hike her little leg up on to pull up.  We have been working on walking, and cruising along furniture, and her baby tredmill routine is paying off.  She will take steps, when it suits her of course, while holding onto my hands or a push toy.  And just this week I saw her cruise around our coffee table, ALL BY HERSELF!  Of course we aren't talking all the way around it, baby steps people, but there were about 3-4 steps that she took to move closer to some prize that awaited just out of her reach.  I've also been hearing lots of babbling and new sounds coming from her little jabber box.  Of course dada has been a regular for a while now, but again, just this week, I heard MAMA come from her mouth, more than once!!!!!  The first time she said it, was during physical therapy, and we all heard her loud and clear.  Then again today I've heard those sweet syllables ring off her tongue like a choir singing in church!  I've also heard dayden (jayden), dog, kitty cat and all done, and all with witnesses around to reassure me that I'm not hearing things.  But nothing is real consistent yet, but still it is an awesome thing to hear her making new sounds and trying to say words!  We've also seen one sign come from her tiny little hands recently, which looks like "daddy", and has been pretty consistent with Randy being around or getting ready to come home.  We've also had some small break throughs in the eating department as well.  Recently, we switched Sophia off her formula, which she has been on since birth, and is ultra sensitive to her very sensitive tummy, and started giving her Pedia Sure.  She took the switch like a champ and is now strickly on Pedia Sure, which is much better tasting, not that she really tastes it, but it's a step in the right direction.  It has also helped her, sorry if this is too much information, stools.  She has always had runny, off colored stools, but recently they have been more formed and that nice brown poop color that I never thought I would love to see!  She is also making small gains in the oral feeding department.  She loves her some mashed potatoes and gravy and uses a spoon to self feed herself pretty well.  She has also successfully chewed and SWALLOWED both popcorn and Cheetos Puffs!  Most foods she simply chews up, mushes around in her mouth and spits back out, but people, WE ARE MAKING PROGRESS!!!!!  This is definitly the longest road we have traveled on this journey so far.  Food has always been a HUGE struggle for Sophia, but I truly believe there is a "finish line" at the end of this obstacle for her.  I know there are still a lot of hurdles that we have to jump over, and a lot of them we are going to fall over and land right on our face, and it hurts every time that happens, BUT, we will continue to pick ourselves up and try, try, again!

Health wise, she has been pretty good, except the occasional cold and ear infection.  Our specialist doctor appointments have been great recently.  We have a routine hearing and vision appointment coming up next Friday and we are also getting her feeding tube replaced, due to a pesky malfunction that keeps occuring with the one she has in right now.  Then in June we have a sleep study, scheduled by our pulmonary specialist to make sure all airways are good, which we haven't had any problems, but this may be an annual routine thing due to possible enlarged tonsils or adnoids which are common in kids with Down syndrome.  We also see our local and developmental pediatrician in June for regular check ups and we'll see Sophia's cardiologist in October for our annual check up appoinment. 

I've said it more than once, but I will continue to say it over and over and over again, Sophia is AWESOME, AMAZING, BEAUTIFUL (both inside and out), SMART, HAPPY, LOVING, CURIOUS and best of all PERFECT!  She is everything I never dreamed of, but always wanted.  I never imagined feeling a love quite like this before, but I am so glad that I have been given this amazing little girl to love forever!

The Mule

The family taking a ride in great grandma and grandpa's mule.  The kids LOVED it!

Coloring Eggs

A little late, but last Saturday we colored Easter eggs.  We started out with about 15 eggs and after I had my hands on them, we ended up with about 10.  Of course Jayden had fun coloring the eggs, the whole 10 minutes it took, which makes me wonder every year, what exactly are you supposed to do with the eggs after you color them?  I mean it's fun doing it, I guess, but then what?  We don't hide them and they start to stink after a bit, so what exactly are you supposed to do with these eggs?

Anyway, hope you enjoy the pics!

getting ready to start coloring eggs

blue, daddy's favorite :)

"pretty cool!"

being very careful, unlike her mama :)

"check this one out."

i decided against letting sophia get in on this activity, she would have ended up being the egg and dumping dye all over herself.  not a chance i was willing to take that day.  so she observed :)

that's the best I could get from Sophia at that time

"Where did Sophia go???"

there she is!!!!

Water Babies

Nothing like some play time in the bathtub. 

Family Addition

We decided to get the girls a fish tank.  So Saturday we went to the pet store and got all the stuff we needed and came home to get everything set up before going back to get our fish.  Easy enough, right?  Well it took Randy about 6 hours to get everything put together and to get the water just right.  Nice way to spend his first day off in two weeks :)  So we thought we had it all ready and Jayden couldn't wait to get her fish, so Randy and Jayden headed back down to the pet store before they closed to pick up a couple fish.  They came back with an orange fish, Nemo Goldie, (Jayden's fish) and a black and white fish, Dora (Sophia's fish.)  It was all pretty cool and we were all excited.  THEN, about 4am when I was up checking on Sophia, I popped my head in on the fish to see how they were doing and wouldn't you know it, not even 12 hours later, Nemo Goldie was at the bottom of the tank, dead :(  We had to break the bad news to Jayden first thing Easter morning, but fortunately she took it pretty well.  We left for the day and Jayden was eager to return home to see how Dora was and Randy and I were just hoping that she was still alive, and unfortunately she had passed away too!  Two fish, dead in a 24 hour period.  This time we had one crushed little 4 year old.  But today, we returmed to the pet store and got us two new fish and here's hoping for the best! 

SpongeBob SquarePants Fish Tank

Another shot at fish ownership.

This is Sophia's fish, named by Jayden.

"Iron Man Tony Stark"

Jayden's fish, that little orange/white thing to the right of Squidwards house

"Spiderman Peter Parker"

For Every Little Miracle.

Check out this cute ad for pampers!