Fun Videos

Here are a couple of videos that we recently shot. The first two are from the day Jocelyn spent playing on the trampoline. They put the hose on the trampoline so it would spray water every where. She loved it!

The next clip is from Jocelyn the other day eating her yogurt. She now will not let anyone feed her. She insists on doing it herself. She actually does a pretty good job, most of the time. This clip was taken one morning while eating breakfast. She just got up and her hair was a mess. She was so funny that morning.

Summer Days

We have had a quite a few adventures lately. We have had lots of good times with our friends and family. Jocelyn had her first time on a trampoline. She loved it. She just bounced around on the trampoline while the other girls jumped. At first she was a little hesitant but then couldn't get enough jumping. We also had our big lake trip. Jocelyn was a great camper. She spent much time in the lake swimming around. She also played with side walk chalk and all the rest of the kids. She did an awesome job getting dirty.

Jocelyn is busy growing and learning new skills. She is picking up new signs all the time. She now knows the sign for dog, cat, horse, cow, pig, hot, cold, milk, eat, bye, more, please, dirty, all done, book, and shoes. We are working on a few others right now as well. She does a great job imitating and picking up on new signs and words.

Jocelyn also recently received her ankle orthosis which are custom made orthotics that will give her foot and ankle more support. She tends to pronate, meaning rotate her foot in when she stands. This keeps her more upright and gives her more support so that she can walk. She is super close to walking. She has started taking 3-4 steps by herself at a time. It will just be any day now that she will just take off down the hall then nothing will be safe.

Swimming Lessons

The last two weeks of July, Jocelyn went to her first swim lessons. She did a great job. She did not have any hesitation to the water. She was very excited to splash around. I think her favorite part were the songs that we sang. She even jumped off the the diving board 3 times. (with her life jacket on of course to the life guard) She also went under water a few times. We are definitely looking forward to next year' classes.

Trip to the Zoo

Last weekend we went to the Kansas City Zoo. Jocelyn, Grandman Vicki, Sean, Malindi, Maddy, Jude, Olive and myself went. We couldn't have asked for better weather. It was a little warm but tolerable. It helped that they had misting fans throughout. At a few of them, I soaked Jocelyn. At first she was a little surprised, but I think she enjoyed it. Now, my mom and I had never been to the zoo before and it had been a really long time since Sean was there so none of us had any clue how we should tackle it. Let me just say, go to Africa first. We did Austrailia first. Bad idea. We ended up saving the long part of the zoo last. By the end, we were just trying to finish. The animals were a lot of fun. Most were interactive, but others just slept in the grass. Jocelyn did get to pet a few animals. I'm not quite sure she knew what to think about some of the monkeys running around. She did end up sleeping through part of it. It ended up taking almost 5 hours to get through the zoo. But it was a great time spending it with our family. It was neat to see all of the kids' reactions to the animals. Next time, we will probably be more prepared and tackle the zoo a little earlier in the day. Here are some pics of our day. I will add more once I get everyone elses' pics.

Birthdays and Camping

This past month has been filled with lots of partying. We first started by going to Jocelyn's cousin Jude's 9th birthday. We went over to his house to help him Celebrate. To our surprise, Jude's great aunt Suzie brought her horse for Jocelyn to ride. This was the first time that Jocelyn has seen a horse this close and personal. She was a little taken back and first and didn't quite know what to think about it. Then, the following week, we went camping at Wilson Lake to celebrate my birthday. We went down with some friends and met up with Oma, Papa, Chris and Bridget. We also had some family friends that were there as well. Even though it was rather warm that weekend, I knew Jocelyn would be a happy camper. On our way, we stopped in Salina at the Cozy Inn, which is a world famous burger joint. Since this was Jocelyn's second trip there, she was able to show everyone the ropes. While we were camping, we spent lots of time in the water. Jocelyn just loves splashing around and hanging out in her floaty. She laughs and giggles in the water. She was definitely tired though by the end of the day. She played hard but she also slept hard. After we returned from the lake, it was pretty hectic. I was busy with work, call and surgery. Alex was busy with school and work. And Jocelyn, well, she was busy being busy. We did manage to find time to pack up our camping gear and head back out to the lake for the Fourth of July. We met back up with Oma and Papa. Unfortunately, the weather was not as nice this time. It rained on Sunday and was terribly windy on Saturday so we were not able to spend much time in the water. We did go on lots of walks and spent time hanging out under the awning. We went on a nature hike early Sunday morning and were just getting through when a down pour hit. We were running down the road. I tried to cover Jocelyn with one of our shirts but she wasn't digging the rain very much. Unfortunately, Jocelyn also had her first run in with a tick on her belly. Luckily, it hadn't burried his head and was easily removed. Everyone has to find one at some point. So, now we are back in Olathe trying to rest up and get back into daily grind. However, we are looking forward to the weekend. We are going to the Kansas City Zoo with Oma and Jocelyn's cousins. We will be taking lots of pictures so I will add them next week.

Lots of Updates

Yes, it has been a very long time since I've updated the blog. It's amazing how quickly time flies in the summer time. We have had quite a few adventures over the past couple of months. At the end of April, we went back to Hays after my grandma Mickey (Jocelyn's great grandma) passed away. While it was a difficult time for everyone, it was still nice seeing our entire family and spending time together. We did spend a little time in Olathe over the past few weeks, believe it or not. Alex, Jocelyn and I along with Kevin and Kelly went to a KU baseball game. It was a little chilly but she appeared to enjoy it. She was a pretty good trooper for most of the game and ended up falling asleep around the 5th inning. We also attended our friends' daughter's 1st birthday party. Aubrey, Chuck and Emily's daughter, celebrated her 1st birthday in Lawrence. There were a lot of kids there. Jocelyn tried to keep up with them but was mainly trying not to get run over. We did make one trip back to Hays though for Aunt Bridget's graduation. She graduated from Fort Hays State. We had a good time down at the swinging bridge park. Jocelyn even went down the slide a few times. The past few times she has been on a slide she did not enjoy herself. This time, she even cracked a smile or two. Her and Olive played most of day. They really enjoyed being pulled around in the wagon. Over Memorial Day weekend, we had a BBQ. My brother Sean and his family came up from Baldwin. Jocelyn wasn't feeling so well that day and did party like she usually does. None the less, it was still a really enjoying weekend. We did manage to go swimming on that Monday. Unfortunately, the most shallow portion of the pool was 3 feet deep so Jocelyn wasn't able to get down and play. She did well for about an hour but after that, she didn't want to be held any longer. I think she would have a great time in a zero entry or a beach type setting. We are planning on setting her up for swimming lessons in July. This past weekend, we had Jocelyn, Aubrey and another 16 month old boy, Tucker, (Alex's friend's son) at our house during a BBQ. It was like the attack of the 1 year olds. I think all the toys were out in the living room. It was fun to see them play and interact with each other. Jocelyn definitely slept well that evening. We also went to Old Shawnee Days parade with our babysitter Sarah and her family. Jocelyn was pretty mesmerized by the horses and small cars. There was a loud train that when it blew its horn, Jocelyn would scream at it. It was really funny.

Jocelyn has also been going to volleyball with Alex and I on Thursday evenings. You should see the mess she makes. There is sand EVERYWHERE!. She even lays down so it gets all in her hair and sticks very well with her sunscreen. She is pretty quick so we constantly have her pull her back off the courts. Who knows where she will run off to when she is walking. I'm gonna try to take some pictures next week when we go so I can post them. They are too funny.

Jocelyn continues to become more independent every day. She is now climbing up on furniture without help. She can motor up and down stairs without any trouble. She is super close to walking. She is really close to taking her first couple of steps. I know we will be in for trouble at that point. We thought she was hard to contain now, I can only imagine when she is more mobile how she will take off. She is also become more vocal and communicating more as well. She can sign all done, up, milk, more and we are working on please. She can even make the sound for a cow.

So last week Jocelyn finished her 20 day course of anti-biotics. Over the past couple of months, Jocelyn has had this persistent nasal congestion that she can't seem to kick. She has also developed sleep apnea. She is constantly waking herself up at night to catch her breath. There is a high percentage of kids with down syndrome being affected by sleep apnea. There are a few reasons why including low tone in her air way so it does not remain open and enlarged adenoids and tonsils. So we went to see our ENT in May. He said that she has chronically enlarged tonsils. It was not strep throat though. He thought if we could keep her on a longer regimen of anti-biotics, it would clear up her chronic sinus infection and decrease the inflammation in her tonsils and adenoids. If it doesn't clear up, then we may have to consider surgically removing her tonsils and adenoids. He would like to wait until she is three though because it is easier post op with eating and drinking. So we go back in a couple of weeks for a check up. Hopefully it will be better and we can avoid surgery for now.

I think that about catches up through the month of May. I'll be sure to continue updating because we have lots of plans coming up.