Happy Halloween!

Braden's feeling so much better today - that Tamiflu is a wonder drug! We also got Tamiflu for the girls, as a preventative measure.


Anyway, the kids still had fun dressing up:

Ruby liked being a Jedi with Braden! I think.

Identity crisis - Obi Wan Kenobi w/ Princess Leia hair

Ruby was not a fan of her Yoda hat. I am, however, a fan of how she rolls her eyes as she pulls off the hat. And, I'm a fan of her cute toes.

Hello, H1N1 -

Good-bye, Halloween.


Braden woke up sick today. :(

Cooking

The kids don't have school today or tomorrow - it's teacher conventions for the state of Wisconsin. So, today I put Karly to work - we made meatballs!

Thatsa lotta meatballs!

We ended up making 73 meatballs from our own recipe. Karly wrote it down as we went. We had some tonight with dinner, and they were really good! Yay!! I'm so glad they were edible & tasty - because we froze the rest; we have enough for 3 or 4 more meals.

We also put 2 pureed sweet potatoes in the meatball mix. Why? Because we could! And sweet potatoes are good for you. You can't taste them, but they do seem a little sweeter than normal.

New Grin

This ...

constant wiggling of the loose tooth -

Has now become this:

Braden lost his first tooth while he was at school today! It's one of the front bottom teeth, if it's hard to tell from the picture. He wiggled it right out during an art project & brought the tooth home in a little white plastic tooth container.

We're so excited for the tooth fairy; she hasn't visited us in years!

So exciting -

Braden has his first loose tooth!! Eeek!

Shhh, don't tell!

I have another fun parenting moment to share. I already told the world how I withhold clean laundry from the kids and use the vacuum as a Lego-cleaning motivator.

Monday night, Braden and Karly were both very tired and cranky. We wanted them to go to bed early, but we knew that even suggesting it would cause them to whine & complain.

So, we moved all the digital clocks ahead an hour. Worked like a charm! The kids were in bed an hour early, and everyone's moods were much better the next day.


Just for fun, a random picture of Ruby:

Ruby

Bubble Wrap

The other day, I got a package in the mail from my cousin. It was a box filled with bubble wrap - and a couple little treats for the kids. The main gift was the bubble wrap of course!

If you're thinking, "Why would she spend good money to send you a box of bubble wrap?" it's because that's just what family does. (Or is it just my family??) Some people might see bubble wrap and think it's garbage, and yet others think, "Wow, Michelle's kids really need this!" She knew my kids would love it - and she was right. Thanks, Auntie Starr!

The kids were THRILLED! Karly & Braden rolled it out & then hopped on it - first in the living room, then in the kitchen. There was a pretty steady half-hour of popping, and that didn't get the least bit annoying at all ...

Even Ruby got in on the action:

Ruby wasn't too sure about it at first,

but Braden & Karly showed her how it's done!

Miss Independent

I doubt you can really tell, but if you look closely maybe you can see - Ruby is crying in this picture. Why? What has her so upset?

Daddy HELPED her brush her teeth.

The nerve of that guy.

Sleepy Head

Braden just woke up & came downstairs. I said, "Good morning, sweetheart - how are you?"

And he said, "Hey! Remember? I'm BRADEN."

"Not WHO are you, HOW are you!"

I don't think he was fully awake yet.

Unzipped

Another fun new trick of Ruby's - unzipping her pajamas.

She thinks it's SOOO funny!

Giving Braden a hug good night ...

almost always turns into a tackle.

Love.

5 Things

Don't be too impressed by this story, I totally stole this idea. I read it somewhere, I think - but I can't really remember. In a magazine? On a blog? No clue.

We would always ask the kids at dinner, "How was school?" and they'd say, "Good." "What did you do?" Karly always said, "Hung out," and told us what she ate for lunch. Braden would tell us if they played outside or not, and sometimes he made up wild stories.

Now this year, we play '5 Things' at dinner. Each kid has to tell us 5 things they did at school that day - so, even if Karly tells us what she ate for lunch & says she hung out at lunchtime, she still has to think of 3 more things.

When we first started, they'd give us one or two word replies for each of their 5 things, but now after weeks of us asking questions to get them to elaborate, they're sharing more & more. They really have to rethink their day, to find out what was interesting enough to share.

After Karly & Braden finish telling us their 5 things, we tell them 5 things Ruby did that day, too. Don't want our tiny tot to feel left out!

Ruby Behind the Camera

When I get the camera out, I usually only get a couple pictures or one little video before Ruby walks backward into my lap. So, I tried to take a video with her on my lap, and ... well ... see for yourself!

No toddlers were harmed in the making of this video.

October 15

It was really fun writing the post about the kids' names - I don't often get to write about Ruby & Lydia as "the twins." As much as I looked forward to having identical twin girls, the only time "the twins" really applies is when talking about my pregnancy.

Then, after the pregnancy Lydia becomes our lost forever-baby, as Ruby grows and changes. Sometimes I think about what should've been, but yet Lydia is always a baby to me.

After posting about the names, I realized today is October 15th, which is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remembrance Day. I love that this day is in October, smack dab in the middle of Down Syndrome Awareness Month.

Can you imagine what our life would be like, with two wiley little peanuts climbing around our house? Being able to blog about fun new words or songs they both learn? I can imagine it. And I've never, ever once been glad we didn't have to raise two daughters with DS.

I think they could've both been amazing and wonderful, and I'll always wish we'd been given the opportunity to raise them both, together.

Thanks for reading, following our journey - and thanks for sharing our thoughts of Lydia from time to time, too.

What's in a Name?

Penny's mom, Maureen did a post about names & the meanings behind them. Then, she tagged a bunch of people, asking about how our children's names came to be ... a great idea for a post!

Karly Morgan - well, I just liked the names. It was a toss up if she was going to be Morgan or Karly; I didn't really decide until she arrived. Originally, I wanted to name her Sadie - but my family hated the name. My aunt told me Sadie was the name of the prostitute barmaid in every Western movie. (If she had been a boy, she would've been Jakob Thomas.)


The other day when I picked up Braden from school, his teacher told me he had announced to the class, "My middle name is LEGO! Braden Lego Zoromski!"

His middle name isn't really Lego, he's Braden Thomas. When I began teaching in Wisconsin in 2000, I had a student named Braden in my class. I'd never heard the name before and I really liked it. I had to talk Brian into it, he was afraid it was too close to his name - but by the time Braden was born, it was the only name for him. He is such a Braden.

Thomas is to honor my step-brother who died when we were teenagers, in 1992. He was a friendly, outgoing guy, and his middle name was Thomas, too.

If Braden had been a girl - he would've been our Ruby!


Ruby Lyn & Lydia Eve
Ruby is named after Brian's grandma. When Brian told me he wanted to name a daughter after his grandma, I thought it was a great idea - his grandma was a lovely lady, and it's such a pretty name.

My Grandma's name was Evelyn, so when we knew we were having two girls, we split it in half for their middle names. (And my middle name is Lyn, too.)

I've always loved the name Lydia, but I had to fight for it - Brian liked the 2-syllable names we had & thought a 3-syllable name wouldn't fit as well. Our backup name for Lydia was Libby - in case we really wanted her to have 2 syllables; but I wanted to make sure the twins didn't have rhyming or cutesy sounding names, so the different syllables didn't bother me at all. I'm not sure what really convinced Brian, but we had their names picked out pretty much as soon as we found out they were girls.

Fun fact: The twins were the only babies we knew the sex before they were born. I always loved the surprise of not knowing, but with twins, I wanted to be more prepared.

Another can of worms opened

The other night, Miss Ruby climbed onto one of our counter stools. She just wiggled her way up, like she'd been doing it for ages - even though it was her first time!

Taking over Braden's usual spot

Attacking Braden's water bottle

So much fun stuff that we keep on the counter so it stays out of Ruby's reach ... we're going to have to find a new hiding spot!

Ruby had so much fun playing with Braden's Tootsie Rolls. I think she really liked the wrapper - fortunately she never figured out they were tasty; Braden would've been sad if she ate his candy!

The Popcorn Song

We sang one of our music class songs for Daddy the other day - and once Ruby realized it's a song we can sing at home, we've sung it no less than 87 times. Per hour.

Please ignore my singing - but enjoy the adorable Miss Ru as she acts out the song.

The lyrics are:
You put the oil in the pot and you let it get hot
You pour the popcorn in, and you start to grin
Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle, sizzle, sizzle, sizzle, sizzle, sizzle, POP!

Oh, crap.

Think we need a new baby gate?

Ruby is clever & determined.

We've been looking for DAYS to try & find a gate that will work here. But we have so many requirements, we can't find one that'll work.

• Up & down slats, so Ru can't climb it
• Pressure mounted (there's a pocket door there, we can't attach anything)
  
• and, preferably, it has to be short enough for me to step over
• (and cheap!)
  

I KNOW!

I'm sorry! I know I haven't posted since Friday!! Stop calling - we're all okay!!

(Just kidding, you can call if you want to.)

I have posts planned, they're in my head, I just haven't had more than a few minutes at a time to sit down & blog.

AND I really only committed to posting 31 times in October - no one said I had to post once every day... (Loophole!!)


P.S. Check out my new super cute header!! Thanks, Melissa!!

This Boy

I dropped Braden off at school this afternoon, and as he was getting into his line, I noticed he had peanut butter on his face. Oops!

So, I did the mom thing, and licked my thumb & wiped off his face. Then I kissed him on the forehead and left.

How much longer will I be able to get away with that? Not only wiping his face, but KISSING him in front of his school friends!?!

He's just growing up so fast.

My Little Ghostie

While my mom was here, she put a sweatshirt down on the back of a kitchen chair. It bothered Ruby, because she knew it didn't belong there. Really. She would point at it & babble at us, like "Who thought that was a good idea?"

So, Nana put it on Ruby, who thought it was so funny. She looked like a little ghost!

She walked around the kitchen wearing it for a while, laughing (we were laughing with her - it was pretty darn cute!)

Then I figured I'd give my mom & Bill a preview of Ruby's Halloween costume, and put this hat on her:

Yoda!

Ruby checking herself out in the mirror
And yes, that's a snack clip on the back of her shirt.

Our Daughters with Down syndrome

In honor of Down Syndrome Awareness Month, (and in case someone is new to our blog) I wanted to recognize the fact that we, in fact, have two children with Down syndrome.

Most of the time, Lydia is remembered as our lost baby - I guess that trumps DS.

But two of our daughters were born with DS. Our identical girls were born in May 2007. Ruby with her tiny cry and solemn expressions, and Lydia who never took a breath in the outside world.

We didn't know about the DS until after they were born. In truth, there was one suspicious ultrasound - Lydia had one soft marker, but that didn't mean much at the time.

I know I've said it before, but losing Lydia gave everyone so much perspective. The Down syndrome diagnosis was a surprise, but nobody cared. The loss was so much worse.

That, in my mind, is Lydia's gift to Ruby. Perspective.



Our sweet little Ruby, brand new and perfect (even if she was a touch yellow here). So much like her big brother - such a serious baby.

Another Revamped Post - Previous Experiences

So I'm stealing from my archives again. This time, the topic is - what are my previous experiences with DS, before Ruby & Lydia were born?

When Karly was little and struggling so much with her speech, she was put into school for services at age 3. There was a little boy in her class, we'll call him Jay, who had Down syndrome. They played together, and were in class together for two and a half years. If we hadn't moved to Wisconsin, they would've entered kindergarten together - both inclusioned (Karly was fully inclusioned at kindergarten, and pulled-out for speech; I'm not sure what level of inclusion Jay would've had).

The thing was, whenever I was at school with Karly (and I drove her at least a couple times a week), Jay was always doing the same thing as the other children. He was completely able to keep up. Now, I'm aware that this was a class for children with special needs, but in all honesty? MY child had the worse sensory issues. MY child had about the same level of speech. And from all appearances, she was the "normal" one.

(Can I just say, as I'm writing this, I think it's really weird that I never had a student with Down syndrome while I was teaching. Weird.)

Oddly enough - one time when we were struggling with some of Karly's behavior problems with she was younger, Brian said, "If she had Down syndrome or something visible, people would understand." Because it's hard when you have a daughter who is 8, 9, 10, etc and gets upset and has a meltdown - and looks like a "typical" kid. Nowadays, yes, people are more informed about autism, but if people don't know much about autism, they usually expect children with autism to be boys, and pretty non-verbal.

I have a friend, Anne, who has an adult sister with Down syndrome, and we've spent some time with them in the past few years. After Ruby & Lydia were born, Anne was one of the first people I called. I needed her to tell everyone at work what happened, but I also wanted to tell her about the girls having DS. She had the best response - she was like, "oh, okay," and we kept talking. A few minutes later she said, "I'm not saying I'm sorry about the Down syndrome, because I'm not. It's not a bad thing, you know?" And I did know. But it was really awesome to hear it - especially from someone who grew up with a sister who has Down syndrome.

Prenatal Testing

I was going to write about my thoughts regarding prenatal testing, and realized I already did - last October.

So, if you haven't been reading me that long - or would like a refresher - please read, To Test or Not to Test from October 2008. Plus, there's a cute picture of a littler Ruby at the end as a reward.

Thanks!

Pumpkins!

When I returned home late Saturday, these guys greeted me (and Uncle Mike) on the front porch!

I had Karly's IEP meeting at school today AND Ruby's IFSP today. My brain is full!

But - both girls are doing really well at school / with therapy and meeting their goals.