Disneyland!!!

I haven't been to Disneyland in over 15 years.  I had been dying to go to see the decorations at Christmastime and I was not disappointed. Nancy (my SIL) and I went on December 13 with Miss O to Disneyland. We got there at 11:00 a.m. and when we first arrived inside the park and stepped into Main Street you can't miss the GIANT Christmas tree with the BIGGEST ornaments ever! It was fantastic! The weather was GREAT for a December too! It was 80 degrees. The best was I played the Down syndrome card and we got to enter ALL the rides through the handicapped entrance so our wait times were only about five or 10 minutes versus 30 minutes. 

The first ride we went on was It's a Small World.  OLIVIA LOVED IT!!! She was clapping and smiling and just in awe.  Even I was in awe. I practically had tears in my eyes. They do such a great job of decorating it. And I was surprised by how long the ride was. Of course, we had to ride it again later on.

We even met another family who had a child with Down.  She was seven and was quite an impressive young lady. Her gross motor skills were amazing.

We rode the train, Dumbo, Jungle Cruise, and the ferris wheel (total disaster - she just HATES those things - why? I don't know!)

It was a GREAT day, but probably one of the best parts was seeing Sleeping Beauty's castle all lit up.  Absolutely breathtaking.  Wish I had a good picture of it, but there was WAY too many people and hard to get a good shot. 

Olivia was amazing the whole day too! She didn't fuss or cry once (well except for the ferris wheel - she fussed a bit then). She was having a good time! It was so nice. All in all a FANTASTIC day at Disneyland and since my SIL bought me an annual pass I'll be going there again! Can't wait!

Life with a Toddler

Lately Olivia has been ALL over the house.  It is so fun to watch her play. She loves to chase her ball around.  She will either bat it with her hands or with her feet. Nothing makes me happier than to hear her happy sounds and laughter.

She also LOVES the bath.  She kicks her little feet in there like CRAZY! Today, I got a call from one of my girlfriends while she was in the bathtub and while on the phone (because while I was watching her I wasn't paying total attention to her) she decided to stand up in the bathtub and climb out onto my lap.  Holy cow!!! She is really getting to be quite a big girl these days.

Today when Olivia and I were at church and I was waiting for Jim to come and get us, Olivia was sitting on my lap.  She was being SO cute. Looking into my eyes and smiling. I thought I was going to melt. I swear I NEVER knew how much love I could feel for a child. Sometimes I wonder if BECAUSE she has Down syndrome I love her more. Her hugs are the best and today she must have hugged me at least 50 times!! I truly don't know too many typical children that do that! Love this baby girl so much and want her to have the best life possible!

Sometimes it's hard

Today I took Miss O to a child directed play class where the kids play with the toys as they see fit and the mommas don't help out. The teacher brings out one toy at a time and the kids play with it. It was SOOO incredibly painful to watch her play and see how the other kids played.  All the activities were fine motor ones - building type activities.  Olivia sucks at building stuff! She just HATES it - period! All the other kids were building and pulling it apart and she just played with it like a 10 month old baby would...sigh... she was engaged, but her playing skills are pretty immature.

But the worst was when they pulled out the drums which were about three feet from her and she just sat there.  Now, Olivia LOVES the drums.  I mean she REALLY, REALLY loves them, so it was so hard for me to watch her just sitting there watching the other kids play with their drums. She just would not go over to them.  Then the teacher brought out the beautiful wood xylophone another item she REALLY loves and still nothing. It just about broke my heart.  I sat there wiping tears away thinking how I better get used to this.   She can get to anything she wants to, so I don't know why she didn't.   It wasn't until the teacher said she was putting the items away that Olivia made her way over there. Go figure!

Happy!

Happiness.  Where is it? Well it can be found in the soul of a child with Down syndrome.  Of all of Olivia's positive traits and she has many, happiness just seems to exude from that girl. She is really crawling around the house now and she is so happy with herself.  She giggles and laughs and thinks it is so funny.  I love watching her joy.  There is just NOTHING better. Tonight we went to a Christmas tree lighting and it was COLD outside (okay - cold for us in Los Angeles at 50 degrees).  It took forever for them to light the tree as they had some show going on that we couldn't see due to the large crowd. Olivia didn't complain or fuss once.  She was happy.  She was kicking her feet and making happy sounds. Hubby and I, on the other hand, were crabby because we were cold!

Lastly she has been pulling to stand on everything including me. I'm her favorite climbing toy. LOL!

Halloween

Well Halloween, didn't quite go as planned.  Every year for the past 19 years (with the exception of a few Fridays), I have always driven up to Santa Clarita to spend Halloween with my friend A's family.  They have four kids and since I didn't have any of my own it was always fun for me to go trick-or-treating with them.  Last year was the first year I brought my own child. :)

I was sooo looking forward to going to see them this year, mostly because I love Halloween and because I haven't seen A as much as I would like to.  Unfortunately this year, "A" broke her ankle; actually more like shattered it and she is in the hospital and had surgery on it yesterday. I was so sad for two reason - my friend and because we didn't get to go trick-or-treating.  Sadly my friend is in a LOT of pain, she now has two plates and six screws in her ankle. Poor thing took a step and didn't know to step "down" an actual step and down she went. I'm hoping she heals quickly.

Once I found this out, Halloween kind of lost it's glitter. Olivia ended up taking a late nap (by late I mean 3:45 to 5:00) and woke up CRABBY. She usually wakes up happy, but not today. It took almost 45 minutes for me to calm her to down and then it was time to eat.  As feedings take about an hour, we wouldn't have gone trick-or-treating until about 7:00 and that's when she goes to bed.  I figured what was the point to go out.  She wouldn't know what she missed and I would take her on Monday to get her pictures taken in her costume. I will post these when they come in.  She did look darling!

So next year will be a better Halloween...

GREAT day

Olivia had a busy day today. First we went to Captain Carl's Sea Creatures at Outside the Box (www.otbee.com) where Olivia got to touch various different sea creatures including a baby shark.  I was so proud of her because she actually reached out to touch many of the different creatures with minimal prodding from me. Of course, after she would touch each one, especially the slimy ones, she would turn into me for some hugs (not that I mind).

Then, we went to one of my oldest friends daughter's birthday party who turned two this past week. Olivia had so much fun playing with new toys and hanging out in the bounce house.  She even showed off some of her new signs that she has been learning. Olivia was even fighting (ha-ha) with L over a toy and held her ground. It was kind of nice to see. We didn't want to leave.

I was so proud of her today, but the best moment was when her and daddy were playing peek-a-boo and daddy was pulling his shirt up over his head. She was pulling it down from his face and laughing.  Then he pulled her PJ's over her head, said where's Olivia and she pulled it down.  Then, she pulled her PJ's over her head and pulled it down.  It was so great because she took the initiative to do that.  I was SO proud.

I'm FINALLY blogging!!

Many people have said that I should start a blog so here I am. I won't say that I love writing, but lately I have had so many thoughts about life and about Miss O that I decided to give it a whirl.

For my first post I thought I would write about select moments with Olivia. She is growing up so fast and I just don't want to forget these times:

• Olivia must have been about three months old and I was sitting in my rocker feeding her and holding her. She was so tiny. I remember hearing the birds chirp and I didn't have a care in the world other than this precious baby. I remember thinking this is THE BEST. It didn't matter that she had Down syndrome. She was MY baby girl and I loved her to pieces.
  
  
• At one of Olivia's therapy sessions we were working on going down a slide. She got to the bottom and with a big smile on her face gave me the biggest hug ever. Over and over again. Her hugs can melt my heart.
  
  
• Hearing her laugh makes my day, week, month and year! We recently went to a gym for kids with special needs (but is great for ALL kids) and I was throwing into a foam pit. She laughed and smiled and LOVED it.