Whitney has been keeping us on our toes lately with new and improved escape techniques. This past week, it culminated with her first police encounter from the scariest breakaway disappearance yet. She has upped her game and can now climb over our side gate while covering her tracks behind her (looks like the doors are all locked behind her), and she is able to...
My heart swells with gratefulness for the gathering of Whitney’s all-star friends and family at her sixth year parade. We know that friendships for six-year-olds are pretty simple (hey – you like Ariel, so do I? My favorite color is blue, too!) and are grateful that Whitney’s school community has made a very accepting environment for her to have so many connections to her...
Happy World Down Syndrome Day everyone. I think it’s fitting that Whitney spent most of her day at her full-inclusion kindergarten classroom (I basically tout her school/teacher/staff to someone almost daily – we are so grateful for what it is right now), and then after school we went to a doctor’s appointment…because that’s the other thing people with Down syndrome do a lot, right? Well sometimes it...
Every year on March 15th my mom reminds me to “beware the ides of March.” Just kidding, right? But no, seriously, in reality I basically brace myself every time I flip to this page on the calendar. March is a month of remembrance for me, especially for very challenging experiences that have fallen on it’s pages. Yesterday (March 14th) was three years since Whitney...
It was about 5:45pm, I had just turned off the burner where dinner had just finished sauteing. I rounded the corner and saw this. Whitney. Oh my gosh. It’s deafeningly quiet, when did I see her last? hear her last? I didn’t even look around the house, I yelled up to Tyler (who was working in the office upstairs) and ran out the door...
There’s some extra cuteness going around and the smiles are especially contagious. And I found the first little tooth poking through this evening! We had a 4yr (Dylan) and 4month (Leslie) checkup last week. These kids are healthy and thriving! Dylan is the size of the average 5 1/2 year old. The doctor encouraged us to “put a basketball in his hands.” I just...
Whitney is 5! Whitney loves dogs, Clifford, books, Berenstain Bears, iPad (YouTube), dance parties, ballet, Frozen, Bear Necessities, playing piano, singing, cupcakes, Costco hot dogs, dressing dolls, baby Leslie, the zip line, hammock, swinging, “going to the beach”, “driving the car”, making smoothies, cooking in her play kitchen, going to school, circle time, riding the bus, greeting everyone, hugs, kisses, and life in general!...
How will she know which is snack and which is lunch? Is it enough food? healthy? too messy? what are the other kids going to have? Let’s practice opening the container at breakfast to make sure she can do it. Braids. Can’t have her hair falling out all over the place or dropping in her food or art. Is this skirt too short? Gotta...
Sisterhood. Oh what joy I have already watching my two girls together. I am pretty sure Leslie will grow up knowing deep in her soul that from her first breath she has had Whitney’s unfaltering love and devotion. Whitney has adopted Leslie for her own and can’t get enough of baby time, always asking to hold her, declaring it’s time to change her diaper,...
Two years of hard work learning and growing (disguised as full-on social fun) and our baby has closed the books on preschool. She has come so far since she first walked in that classroom — and I’m pretty sure she enjoyed every minute of it, considering the ways she talked about the teachers, her friends, and the bus. This is her superstar teaching staff. ...
I always thought Whitney was a good sleeper. She slept through the night when only a few months old, she would sleep soundly even amidst moderate noise and light. Sometimes she snored, but not crazy loud and never with snorts or gasps, it was more of a cute snore and usually it seemed to coordinate with being congested from a cold. She was pretty...
With Whitney on the verge of Kindergarten we’ve had to put on some serious pants and think through the education considerations ahead. Decisions will have to be made, services likely advocated for, and all about a future that we cannot foresee. This is tough stuff, friends. I suppose education decisions are something all parents have to go through: public or private? or home school? ...