Monday, February 15, 2010

Big Up Date






Yes, it has been quite a while since I have last posted. We have had quite a few adventures since the beginning of the year. First of all, Jocelyn continues to grow like a weed. She had her 15th month well child check. She remains in the 92% in height and 85% in weight on a typical kid's growth chart. As long as she continues with her height greater than her weight, we will be heading in the right direction. She received some more shots which she did just fine. We go back in April for her 18th month check up and then will be pushed back to 24 months. Since Jocelyn is doing so well with her health and development, we are going to fore go the Down Syndrome Clinic this year. Our pediatrician is very knowledgeable in the development and health concerns that come along with down syndrome. This way, we can save a open space for another child who may benefit from it more. We are going back to the ENT in a few weeks for her check up on her tubes. It has been 8 months since her surgery and this is about the time that they may fall out. We will have to see what happens. More than likely, she will need to have them redone at some point. We also go back in March for another eye check up. We will be getting new glasses at that time as well. Big girl glasses! I will post some pictures once we get them.






Jocelyn has been able to crawl since she was about 7-8 months old but chose to army crawl most of the time. Now that she has developed more strength and coordination, she is a crawling machine. And fast too! She is still cruising along all the furniture but is becoming more brave and starting to try to stand on her own. She has stood without support a few times for a few seconds. Any day I know we will just look over and see her just walking down the hall.






We have been pretty lucky this winter in the fact that Jocelyn has not been sick much. She has had her occasional colds but nothing too serious. Most of her problems have been with the giant molars and other teeth that are popping through. She has had a few fevers and cranky days. Hopefully now that a few have broken through, the rest won't be so bad.






We are continuing to work with our therapist weekly. She sees a PT weekly for the month of February while our OT is out on vacation. We are still working with our Speech therapist every other week. Jocelyn is making great strides in her speech therapy. She can point to dog, ball, and baby. She is now saying "uh oh" which is so adorable. She understands the context of the word so she sometimes intentionally throws things off her high chair just to say "uh oh." It is really amazing how much progress she makes every week. There is always some new to tell her therapist. It is hard to believe that she is already 16 months old.

Monday, January 4, 2010

The Holidays


We are finally recovering from all the past couple of weeks' happenings. The holidays were great. We all had a great time enjoying each other's company and time together. We went to Hays for Christmas to spend time with my grandparents. Of course, Jocelyn and Olive had not only matching Christmas dresses, but pajamas as well. This year Jocelyn really got into ripping the paper off the presents. She still was interested more in the wrapping paper but at least she had a good time tearing into them. She received a lot of books which is good since that is what she loves to do. From Santa, she also received a DVD player for the car. We weren't too sure if she would be that interested in it, but she loved it. She watched Charlotte's Web the whole way. Her toy collection now spans the entire fire place. It takes Alex and I at least 5 minutes every night to put them all away. I think she enjoys pulling everything every day more than playing with them.








The weekend after Christmas, we came back home to a wintery-wonderland. We had Christmas with Grandma and Grandpa Green. We had fun spending time with them.








We then got ready for New Year's. We went to Sean and Malindi's for the evening. Jocelyn partied it up with her cousins but was in bed by 9:30. She also spent some time with them this past Saturday night while Alex and I went out for a dear friend's birthday. So now, we are going to rest this weekend and spend some time at home. Well, that is until this weekend. Grandpa Kurt's birthday is this Friday and Maddy"s, Jocelyn's cousin, birthday is also this week. Maybe that rest will happen next week.

Monday, December 21, 2009

Getting Ready for Christmas

So I'm sure everyone has been just as busy as we have been getting ready for Christmas. This past month has just flown by. It started with Jocelyn's Grandma Vicki, (Oma) coming to stay for a week while Sarah, our day care provider went out of town. We had a great time shopping all day long. Well, my mom and I did. Jocelyn was a pretty good trooper and wasn't too annoyed while we shopped all day. I was able to get most of my shopping done since I took a couple of days off. We then celebrated Alex's birthday with dinner with all the grandparents. Jocelyn's cousin, Olive, also had her 2nd birthday party. That same day, our friends' Rob and Cat's little girl had her first birthday party, Elodie. Jocelyn was very popular attending two birthday parties in one day. By the end of the weekend, I think she was all partied out.
Lately, she is pulling up on anything in site. She can even pull herself up to the wall. We know it won't be long until she is moving on her own. She has also recently shown a big interest in her books.

(probably because she can actually see them now) In OT, we are now working on her feeding herself with spoon. I am really amazed how easily she is picking it up. She needs little assistance. We are only working on yogurt right now, but I think she is going to master it in no time. This picture I posted is of her one night feeding herself.
This past weekend was the Kansas City Down Syndrome Guild's Holiday party. There were LOTS of people there. We got some goodies and had a great breakfast. Jocelyn also got to sit on Santa's lap. She just sat there staring that him. No crying but no smile's either. I think she will definitely have a great time next year when she can run around and participate more.
We are getting things ready for Christmas week. We will be traveling to Hays for a couple days and then back to KC to hang out with the Green's. I'm not sure yet exactly what we are going to do with all of her new presents and toys, but I'm sure it will be fun letting her open her gifts. She has already ripped into one. I will be sure to post some pictures after the Holidays. Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

Monday, November 30, 2009

Happy Thanksgiving

Sorry it has been almost two weeks since our last update. It was been a pretty busy couple of weeks. Jocelyn has been busy getting into everything. She can now pull herself up on almost anything she chooses. She is also starting to get around on the furniture. We recently had our family pictures taken. It was a lot of fun and I think they turned out pretty well. We went back to our friends at Portraits Today Studio.






Last week, we went to Hays to celebrate Thanksgiving. The food was excellent. Jocelyn greatly enjoyed the turkey, potatoes, green beans and corn. Most of all, she was all about the pumpkin pie. She couldn't get enough. The whole family came back into town to enjoy some time with the family. Both of my brothers and their families were there as well as Jocelyn's great aunt Jen and great uncle Gus with their two girls. Jocelyn spent a lot of time with her cousins. Jocelyn and Olive had matching clothes every day that we were there. They had matching dresses, sweaters and even their KU cheerleading outfits. They were so adorable. We had a great time with everyone but were glad to get home on Sunday for some much needed rest before the beginning of the week.

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Getting over the crud






This past week was not a very fun one for Jocelyn. She came down with a little cold that left her completely snotty in the mornings. Every morning last week, her eyes were sealed shut from eye goobers. She never ran a fever which was good. She didn't really seem to let it bother her much. Since she was doing better by the weekend, she was able to go to her Uncle Sean and Aunt Malindi's house. She played all day long with Olive and Jude, her cousins, while Mom and Dad went to the KU game. Since it was pretty chilly and rainy outside, we didn't think it would be the best idea for her to go out. She had a good time playing with everyone. Other than that, we have just been hanging out at home lately. Jocelyn is now pulling herself up on anything she can find. The dishwasher, open cabinets, all the furniture (short or tall) and even people. She is pretty proud of herself too when she does it. She always has a big smile on her face, like "look at me!" This weekend we are finally taking some family pictures. I will post them online when we get them back on Saturday.