This weekend...

We are going to

to see the

play the

spending hours in the freezing, freezing

But it's ok because afterwards we will eat

enjoy this

and this

and even try seeing one of these

and sleep in this

with none of these.

The woodland creatures will be cared for by

(note...not my real mom....)

who might go

but probably not, because we left her with lots of

and

and

and

and

(just kidding--sort of)

To everyone else not lucky enough to stand in the snow for a football game this weekend, have a good one anyway (and cheer for the Bronco's).....

Can't.... catch.... up.....

Christmas card photo rejects....

Look at that snaggle tooth mouth? So cute...

All pictures of N were either with her hands on her face or her eyes were going in different directions. I couldn't get them both to focus on me for love OR money, and I offered both.

Cubby was giving me the stink eye the whole time.

...and N is finished. No more pictures.

Whew. We have been busy.

We have been ticking off our Christmas list. This year we made a list (as a family) of all the things we wanted to do this season. I really didn't think that we would do so well, but D has been really good about making sure we schedule in the time. So far we have managed to do the following:

--Attend the Nutcracker (a dance school production, very good and SHORT...)

--Decorate the house. I let Lu do it this year and it looks awesome. Mostly because I didn't have to do it.

--Get a tree. We even got the lights put on it. We haven't managed to get any ornaments on it yet. This week. Maybe.


--Decorate candy houses. I copied an idea that I saw on a craft blog (I am too lazy to do the link). I bought unfinished bird houses at the craft store. I painted them white and then varnished them. No more putting houses together. I can just wash them off and use them again next year. We also used leftover Halloween candy. I discovered the best things to use are Nerds (they make a cool cobblestone effect)and pixie sticks (to "color" the snow). We used no chocolate and it was just fine.

--Took the kids for "their" shopping trip. I am trying really hard to make Christmas about giving. We don't go overboard on the gifts really. Just a few for each person. I wanted each kid (the big ones anyway) to see what it is like to REALLY think about giving someone what they want/need. I had each of them think about what the other members of the family would like, then we went to the dollar store and they could choose whatever they wanted. They will wrap them all by themselves too.

--Make Christmas cards. I have not sent them yet. Not even close....

--Lauren requested to "have a dinner". I wasn't sure what that involved but it was really simple. Invite some friends to dinner. I kind of cheated and did this on the same night as the candy houses. We had

--See the creche exhibit at the church. Every year our stake puts on an amazing exhibit with hundreds of creches. I have been involved with it in years past, but this year it was nice to just go and see it. They have a kids room where the kids can try on costumes from the Nativity story, make a craft, watch a puppet show. Fun for about 10 minutes.

There are still several things we have to do. Things like putting ornaments on the tree and having a Family Movie Night where we get our jammies (thanks for the idea ~J). We go to the beach on the morning of Christmas Eve. We are also going to try and see the lights at the Oakland Temple. This one might not get accomplished this year. I also need to wrap the Christmas books so the kids can open one each day and read a new story. My mom gives us a Christmas story book each year, so we have a good collection. I am also looking for a good service project that would be meaningful for Lu to do. We do try and work in service all year long, but this is a good time to find projects.

I am working on the DS thing...blah. Meanwhile, is there anything you do that is special for Christmas (or whatever holiday you celebrate)? All my best traditions are ones I have borrowed from other people.....

Thanksgiving--by the numbers

Did everyone have a good Thanksgiving? Is there anyone out there that DIDN'T have a member of the family throwing up the entire day? I haven't heard of one yet. Maybe that is the new Thanksgiving tradition of our country.

We went with my husband's family to Park City, Utah. This is handy b/c my parents live really close by. So does my best friend. In theory, this would mean lots of fun social things and babysitting and visiting with family. In a perfect storm of awesomeness...none of that happened. So here it is, Turkey Day 2007 by the numbers...

Number of times someone threw up-- many, many, many....

Number of times it was on the plane -- 80%

Number of most consecutive hours of sleep by me or D -- 3

Number of times Jacob almost died during the long weekend -- 3 (not kidding)

Number of fun pre-planned social outings I attended -- 0

Number of times I had to go to the stupid outlet mall -- 4

Number of gifts I had to return on Black Friday after being really organized and buying the Christmas presents for the in laws in advance, only to find out that this year we are drawing names -- 8

Number of children I was ready to sell to the gypsies by the end of the trip (or to anyone, really) -- 2

Number of times I either tripped, dropped something or otherwise found out that my body does NOT seem to want to obey my brain -- eleventy million

Number of very beautiful, very expensive, band new white suede couches that my daughter managed to spill Vitamin Water all over and totally destroy -- 1

Number of times I watched Shrek 3 -- 10

Number of times I stayed awake past 7:30 pm -- 0

Number of times I will drag the whole family back to Park City for a holiday, even though it is a really nice house and wonderful opportunity -- 0

That is us. I really don't mean to make it so complain-y, but it was pretty comical. It really was a perfect storm of evil. My kids argued and fought. They tried to kill themselves (twice being hung by the bunk bed rails, once jumping off the third floor balcony), they got sick, they didn't sleep, they wandered the house all night (once Cubby woke up with a full bag of Doritos's clutched in his hands...no one knows where they came from....) and generally were a lot of work. That is what it comes down to, I think. It wasn't that we didn't have a good time and want to see the family, it was just a lot of work. I don't want to do it anymore. Is it terrible if I play the Down Syndrome card after this and just bow out? Seriously, my kids can argue, almost die and puke at our house just as easily as anywhere else. Right?

Who am I kidding? We will be back in a month.

How was your Thanksgiving? Seriously, did anyone have a healthy household? I am curious.

Sick Day...

Big sister has step throat, I am pretty sure Cubby has it too (the Dr. let me just call in and gave me the meds...she is great). L stayed home from school today. In the morning she was curled on the couch and miserable. A few hours later she came to my room looking for my "fancy shoes" and I know that the meds were kicking in. A few minutes later I came down stairs (where it had been suspiciously quiet for a long time) to find that the kids had built an enormous playhouse with blankets (complete with a toilet, a kitchen and Nerds for food) and were dressed up.

Ladies and Gentleman, I give you the first of many times when Jacob proves he will do ANYTHING to be part of L's big plans.

He actually was happy to be dressed up, in this picture he was mad b/c I wouldn't turn on the music until he took the picture.....

I am sure that this won't be last time that someone tells him he would be a very pretty girl. He reminds me of the kids I work with in Africa. Most of them keep their hair cut very short and you only know that the little ones are girls because they are all wearing dresses.

They turned on Nick Jr. Radio and played the songs and danced. They were doing a West Coast Swing style dance complete with the splits and lifts. Not bad.

Norah is in full swing of toddler hood. She is acting like a real 18 month old, climbing, getting into things (the dishwasher being a new favorite). She is standing more and I am seeing more progress with her. I know she still needs help, but it means that she really is coming along at her own pace. I appreciate the suggestions of the commenter's about her legs. We have done test after test and know her Vitamin D is OK and her hips are OK. Her eating is doing better too. She has days when she doesn't want to eat at all (except eggnog and cheesecake) and other days, like last night, when she ate two entire pieces of meatloaf. I think she looks chunkier.... we will see.

Today I have a bunch of ultrasound's to get a better idea of what is going on with the baby's heart and tummy. It will be nice to have that info.

Off to run errands. Kid updates coming soon...

The thing about Norah...

So I have been reading some blogs lately of people who have children with Down Syndrome. One thing that I have seen and liked is that they did a monthly update of their children. It was really helpful for someone like me to be able to read a chronology of how things went. Then it occurred to me that I should do this for my other kids too. We have an early intervention diagnostic appointment with Norah and I realized that I can't remember when she crawled, pulled up, etc. That might be why I didn't really notice that she was behind. Oops.

So here is an update on the queen. The grandma's will like it, it will serve as future reference for the kids (and me) and the rest of you might possibly be bored. I know that this blog is pretty much only about my kids now. That will change again soon. I do actually have other thoughts in my head besides that, but lately I have been in full-on survival mode and this is happy stuff. You really don't want to hear about the rest of it.... ;-)

Norah was born pretty premature. Somewhere between 5-7 weeks early. She was tiny, but left the hospital just a few days after birth. We knew that there could be some issues with her in the future as a preemie, so this is not much of a surprise. From the very beginning, this child has been 85% easygoing and sweet and 15% pure attitude. There isn't much middle ground with her. I also said early on that one thing I knew that was going to be an issue with this girl is motivation. How right I was. Last month Norah was officially diagnosed as developmentally delayed. Again, no surprise, but still hard to hear the pediatrician say. In true Dr. fashion, they listed all the potential problems and the need to get her checked out and see if she has mental issues, physical, etc. It feels like a lot. My mama gut tells me that she will be OK eventually, but does need a little bit of help right now.

Here is where we stand right now, at 16 months:

Language--As far as I can tell, Norah doesn't really attach any specific sounds to meaning. She also doesn't appear to understand much of what we say to her. She doesn't point (most kids do this at 12 months). She doesn't say "mama" "dada" or make animal sounds. She doesn't wave bye bye or seem to understand what we are saying when we say that word. Lately she has started to copy the tone or cadence of our words and repeat it, but I still am sure she doesn't seem to know what the words mean. I am not even sure she recognizes her own name.... well maybe. If I say to here "where is Jacob?" she will look at him. She does the same for Mom, Dad and Lulu. That is about it. Her first real "trick" is if we ask her "What does a pirate say?" and she will answer "agrhhhh". Sadly, she also says this for an answer to anything else it appears we are asking her. She doesn't appear to understand what the world "no" means. She has reacted to it a few times, but I am sure it was because of tone, not the word. We have to wait for the speech therapist to let us know what our language goals are with her, but it is pretty clear we have our work cut out for us here. The good news is that over the last few weeks, she has really started to "talk". She sounds just like the old school McDonald's character Rubble Rubble. Remember him? I know that my other kids did this MUCH earlier. The good news is that she is doing it now. I don't think there are hearing issues, but we will have to wait and see about that. She has also started to shake her head for no if she doesn't want something.

Physical Development -- Norah doesn't walk or really pull herself up on furniture. She doesn't walk along furniture. The few times I have seen her crawl towards something and pull herself up to get it is for the toilet, which she LOVES to play in. Dilemma--do we let her play in the toilet b/c it helps her practice and makes her legs strong or not? I haven't found anything else that is interesting enough for her to do that. It brings us back to that old motivation problem. She was a later crawler and sitter. She sat up at about 8 or 9 months and started to army crawl at about 12 months. In the last few weeks she has moved exclusively to hands and knees crawling. In the last 6 weeks she has also mastered going up from a crawl to sitting on her knees or flipping over when laying down and crawling. I know she COULD do these things earlier, she just wouldn't. She started crawling up the stairs at about 12 months, but hasn't done it since. If I put her on a chair or couch, stays there. She doesn't try to get down or even fall down. She just stays. Yet, she will wiggle out of the buckle in the high chair and be on the tray or counter in a second. So I know she CAN do it if she wants to.

If we try and hold her by the hands to help her walk she pulls her feet up and then cries. I got her a walker and she sits in it and pulls her feet up. She won't walk in it. Again, we are waiting for physical therapy to start so we can see what her goals are, but we have a lot of work to do. I think that this one is going to come, I really think she just can't be bothered. Good news--this week she found a baby doll in the toy box and hugged it, cradled it and put it in a bed. This is HUGE. Also, she found her shoes and tried to put them on her feet. This shows us that she knows what these things are and knows what they do. She has NEVER done this kind of thing before.

Also, she is a teeny, tiny thing. In the last few months she kind of fell off the weight charts and is firmly entrenched in "failure to thrive" territory. Our goal as parents is to get as many calories as possible into her body, healthy ones. It was only when I really sat down and concentrated on her eating that I realized she doesn't really eat that much. She isn't interested. We have been feeding her a lot of Greek yogurt (16 grams of fat per cup), Trader Joe's Belgian Chocolate Pudding (20 grams of fat per cup), eggs, half and half in the bottle, etc. It is an all day affair. Some days she eats more than others. We have a check up in two weeks and hope that she has put on some weight. If that doesn't work, I am going to crack out the Truffles from Costco and Doritos. She is still in 6-12's or 12-18 months clothes but wears size 4 diapers. She has chunky legs and arms, she is just really, really small. Except for her hair.

Socially, I think she is right on. She loves to play with her siblings and they love to make her laugh. She plays "games" with her dad that are special only to him. She loves to hear music and will bounce and sing. She can play peek a boo. She loves to fill and empty baskets full of things. A cup and 10 pieces of cereal will keep her busy for 15 minutes. She loves books and loves to be read to. She plays well with other kids but is very attached to me and to Monique (our nanny). She is a hugger and a snuggler and would prefer to be held than on her own. This is one area that I am not worried about her at all. Again, I guess we have to see what the therapist says, but I think she is right on target.

There you have it. The rundown on N's development. Of course there is much more to her than this, but this will help me to keep track of her progress. It will also be interesting to compare her with the next one. I keep hearing about how children with DS are delayed, but the timing seems to be about the same as Norah's so far, so no biggie.

Next up is Cubby and Lu, then some new stuff about the new baby and the new challenges. I am still processing, but want to thank everyone for your comments, your links to others who are a little bit farther down the road than we are and just the general kindness. It has been wonderful and helpful....

Happy Wednesday.....

P.S. Oh, her eyes. She does NOT need glasses. We will continue to patch her and in a few months she will have surgery that should straighten them out. Poor baby will be able to have both eyes look in the same direction. ;-)

Parenting tip of the week...

You know how your kids haven't totally figured out the time difference yet? You know how your kids probably get cranky an hour early in the evening (is it just mine?). When my kids are tired the get CRAZY. Persnickety is the best word for it. I have a solution--though this might only work for younger kids. I imagine that there is a point when they won't do it any more. Probably about the same time they don't fall for "I am going to time you and see if you can run upstairs and get my remote/slippers/book in less than 30 seconds".

Here is one of our favorite games (and they still think it is a game. Suckers). Find what motivates them (money for child #1, Popsicles for child #2). Put on a loud song and tell that that whoever can jump or dance for the longest amount of time gets the prize. If you have really competitive children, your kids will be too exhausted to fight and will be THRILLED to sit and watch a movie.

Seriously. This one saves my life.

You are welcome.

Holy Hair....

We have been keeping No's hair mostly in braids or puffs, but it is getting really long. When it is wet it is twice this length. When we get out of the bathtub she sits between my legs and all her hair gets combed out, oiled and lotioned. She isn't used to having it down any more and she kept pulling it out to look at it....

Norah has the most beautiful curls and her hair is still pretty soft. I think her curls are going to be the type that grow OUT and not down. It just seems to keep getting bigger. I love it down, but I don't love how snarled it gets from the car seat and naps. She doesn't love it when I have to comb all the growlers out, so braids it is for now. We have been using Curly Cuties products and have been really happy. They smell REALLY good and even though they are kind of pricey, they last a really long time. I can comb out all her hair very easily after the bath and in the morning when I use the conditioner and hair milkshake.

This is how she sleeps each night (braids or no braids). I think she looks so cute with her little do rag... and they are all pink, of course. I helps keep her hair from getting too snarly and her braids from getting too fuzzy.....


As much as I love Norah's hair and love to do it, I am kind of glad that this next baby will be bald as a cue ball until she is about two (if the genetics hold out and she is a little white haired baby like Lu was...). No hair to deal with. ;-)

Happy November....

Halloween Fun.....

Norah wore her costume for exactly 13 seconds. This is the only picture of all three kids...

Lu is NOT a Doodlebop..she is Stephanie from Lazy Town....

(apparently she had to say that a lot)

Argggg. The obsession w/ pirates continues....

Lauren waiting for her dad to pick her up for the Daddy/Daughter dance at school....

They even had flowers... that was the best part according to her...

Nosi is obsessed with her dad's hats. Most of the time they won't fit over her hair.....

Jacob came down from nap like this (he loves to take his clothes off). He announced

"I a butterfly". I had know idea he even knew what one was. Or where he found those wings.

I had been feeding Norah. In the time it took me to grab the camera, take a pictures and turn back around, I found this. Doesn't she look pleased with herself? And yes, apparently my children never wear clothes....

Filler...

Some unbearable Halloween themed cuteness....

On Jacobs birthday we went to the greatest pumpkin patch ever. It is in Half Moon Bay, right on the ocean. It is the Disney of Halloween. Yes, I like to get my kids into holiday themed clothing (and they all look REALLY good in orange...)

Norah was not impressed with the hay or the pumpkins..... or the licorice...

Jacob thought it was all for his birthday. Score for mom. Check out his "I see braces in his future" grin.

Lets see if Norah does better with her older sister...... No......

This one is the cutest pumpkin in the patch......

How is Nono doing? Well, she isn't crying anymore, but she still wasn't too sure about the whole thing...she acted like any minute D was going to drop her in a pile of pumpkins......

Every year we take a picture of the kids with these cookies.....

and on these rocking horses.....

again, Norah was not impressed......

"Mom, I just love all these pumpkins"

"Do NOT make me touch these pumpkins...."

I also did the matchy/matchy dress thing for church. The dresses are orange with smocked collars and little spiders and witches embroidered on them. Yay for E bay....

It appears that Norah is as impressed with this dress as she is with all other things Halloween

"NOT FAIR".

I am not sure why she was saying this now but she was not happy about something. The closer she gets to 10, the more I see this face....


One last shot... this is another fun game in our house. First, put the baby in the shopping cart, then push it in a circle as fast as you can. Wait for baby to throw up (or not).

As long as No has her honey-bunny she is fine. She actually LOVES this game. Never a dull moment in our house....

That should tide you over until tomorrow. I am still on bed rest (having contractions--boo) and D is in Boston. I have the best babysitter ever, she took the kids to her house where they will play with her dog, get their hair done and generally have so much fun they will cry when they have to come home. I get to lay flat on my back and NOT think about how much laundry I have to do......

Tune in tomorrow for:
--Will she or won't she have to go to the hospital overnight to monitor the contractions
--Jacob as a butterfly
--How much of a mess does one small blog of yogurt REALLY make?
--Baby news...is he really a she? Is there a long line of therapy in our future?

Always a party at our house people. Don't be too jealous.