It seems Whitney is thriving at school!  I’m especially appreciative of how her communication is improving as she attempts to speak more words.  She loves singing along to songs with the few words she can remember.  Today she had two fairy stickers on her hand for successful pee pee in the potty.  Woo hoo!  I get along with her teacher very well.  I’m contemplating sending her with a full wardrobe for school, though, since between art, water play, and snacks, she’s constantly coming home in her [ugly] back-up outfit.  And the bus has shown up every day (although up to 20 minutes late, so we’re still working it out).

Whitney had her 3 year checkup and is very healthy.  She got a neck x-ray to check for Atlantoaxial Instability (a concern in neck/spine stability among people with Down syndrome) and it showed no concerns with her vertebrae.  This means she’s cleared to do somersaults and contact sports, and everything else that parents might freak out about. Yay!

Speaking of gymnastics, I’ve had a little bit of insight into Dylan’s potential lately…he just might be destined for acrobatics the way he constantly balances and hangs on my limbs.  (You should see us when I’m trying to hold a yoga pose).  It’s something like this:

Kristef Brothers on America’s Got Talent (www.nbc.com)

OR, we’ve got a budding little engineer/architect who is already building little cities.  He’s been sitting there by himself saying “this goes he-ERE” each time he carefully places a new block.

When we go on walks he’s constantly looking for kitties and balance beams to walk on.  Inevitably he gets very distracted and starts lollygagging.  We’ve introduced the game “don’t step on mommy’s shadow!” and it’s been quite successful.

Other News…

• The War on Naps is still raging.  But, I’ve made some interesting discoveries and won a few little battles by separating the two.  It involves rocking Whitney to sleep in another room (touch and go).  I’m considering re-assembling the cribs and getting the crib tents to put on top…anyone have experience with these?
• After inspiring and impressing so many with the Diaper Detox experience, it’s been on my conscience to give an update that we are in potty relapse.  There was so much progress made in those 3.5 days…but Dylan woke up day 4 with the runs, and then Daddy went out of town for a week and I resorted to pull-ups for the sake of my own sanity.  We’ve been in pull-ups since.  While he still successfully goes in the potty when I remind him to, he’s quite happy to just go in his pants when I don’t.  I’m convinced we could have succeeded completely if I had persevered and not been so afraid of accidents on-the-go.  But I wimped out and here we are.  We’ll be trying Detox again shortly…wish us luck.
• This is my first season off from coaching volleyball…I went back to watch the team play their first two matches and I’ve felt relieved of all the time and emotion that I’m not spending investing in the program (even though I loved it), but also crazy for not having any set breaks doing anything without kids attached to me.  I haven’t found the balance yet.  This work vs. some work vs. no work mom thing is not very clear cut.