A few toys

I wasn't home to witness this but apparently Brooke thought it would be nice to give Lindsey a toy to play with after her nap.

Or maybe the entire toy box would be way more fun.

Another Zoo trip

Brooke and Lindsey are a little zoo spoiled. It is only minutes from our house and we have passes so we just go whenever. Carrie, Leah, and my mom joined us yesterday.

They have all these animals hanging that the kids can put their head inside an octopus, goldfish, or even make it look like they have a dog head among many others. They are just the cutest things to see and the kids all like swinging from them.

It rained on us hard a few times send ing everyone for cover. The animals, they don't care.

The baby polar bears were born right around the same time Brooke was. They are huge now and no longer are the cuddly babies we remember the first year we took Brooke.

Wordless Wednesday

My ??th Birthday Singer

The best happy birthday singer a mommy could want. What a way to celebrate my ehh ?? birthday. I need to go back and try and find the video of her singing to Tim on his birthday just back in March. What a difference! As you can see she just couldn't wait to pick the M&M's off the cookie cake. How can you say no to a face like that anyway?

9 Months-trial

As much as I rave about portrait innovations I decided I might try and do and do Lindsey's 9 month pictures myself. I have no clue what I am getting myself in to and still don't know how to use half the settings on my camera. I tend to say"ohh that turned out good, wish I knew what I did". Thought I would experiment tonight a little. Not bad for trial run? Hopefully I can get her to smile tomorrow.

Who needs a cup?

Brooke figured out how to get the refrigerator open and found the orange juice. What she forgot was her manners.

Alarm Clock

Lindsey is quite the morning person. You all know she doesn't get that from me. At about 7:10 every morning I wake to the sounds of her babbling and kicking her aquarium or mobile to get them going. I can't help but smile back when my alarm clock greets me with a great big smile like this each morning the second she catches me peeking in her door.

Put a sock in it

Lindsey has EVERYTHING she can get her hands on her mouth these days. Thank goodness it was her own sock.

Wordless Wednesday

9 Months

Smore fun

Tim took the girls to his parents house Sunday night for dinner and smores.

Don't burn it daddy. We like them golden and gooey.

Enjoying her smore with her Uncle Greg

Lindsey even had a lick

No clue what this face is about but I thought it was a classic Brooke face.

We call her Linus

Brooke loves her pink blanket. She wakes up and hands it to me to take downstairs with her to eat breakfast. She takes it everywhere she goes anymore and it has become a comfort item for her. She hugs it tight and and says, "pink blanket makes me soooo happy".

Our own version of MTV

Sitting?

Maybe she is trying to tell me something after yesterday's post.

I wouldn't call it complete unassisted but long enough for me to run for the camera and take a few pictures.

Developmental Pediatrician Take 2

As some of you may remember we have a fabulous developmental pediatrician in the area that also has a daughter with Down syndrome. It is great to see her because she can not only gives tips from a medical standpoint but also personally. The last appointment was when Lindsey was maybe 3 months old. What a difference going back today. She asked about her eating and sleeping schedules, milestones, heart, lungs, and all other systems.

It has been frustrating that she is not sitting independently on her own. If she would just stop throwing herself and arching back she would be doing much better. Sure, she may not be close to the milestones of a typical 8 month old but to think about all she has accomplished is a positive. Problem is I am more of a pessimist and think in terms of what she could be doing and not what she has accomplished if not for the low muscle tone. She is getting a little too heavy to be toting around in the carrier car seat. I was going through pictures last night and getting them organized so I can get to work on a 1st year scrapbook for her. I found some pictures of Brooke standing and cruising around at her 9 month professional pictures and it just broke my heart. Even while Brooke 2 1/5 she is up running at the playground, swimming in the pool, dancing, climbing, and anything else she can get in to Lindsey still may not be walking at that age. I just feel like she will be missing out on some things that her body and low muscle tone just won't allow.

Ok, back to the appointment. She talked about feeding. Lindsey does great eating as you can tell by the many rolls and the 16 lb 10 ounce weigh in. She loves Stage 2 fruit and veggies, and has even enjoyed a few puffs. The spit up though, oh the spit up. I kept going back and forth when her PCP that suggested Zantac last month. She is gaining weight, and doesn't seem to be in pain with any of the spit ups but I wondered what may happen over time. She spits up sitting up, lying down, on us, the carpet, the couch. Wherever Lindsey goes there is a burp rag nearby and she is on a blanket. She spoke with the GI Dr in the building to get his input and long story short we are going to give the Prevacid Solutabs a try and see what happens.

She thought her eyes were still teary while Tim and I responded with, "oh no this is a good day". We are continuing to taper the drops and are down to 3 times a day. Hopefully we can be done with soon. I have lost track but we have been doing eye drops continuously for about 8 weeks.

Milestones, well she was impressed with how Lindsey has accommodated to the low muscle tone and she didn't arch back once while she had her in a sitting position. Go figure! Overall she was quite happy with where Lindsey is at in all areas including strength. Lindsey babbled and shot her that big toothless grin that is just irresistible.

Brooke also tagged along for the visit and even said the Dr. took those easter eggs out of her ears but there are more. Geez, the imagination of a 2 year old is endless.


In case you don't know about the easter eggs

Wordless Wednesday

Kids say the funniest things....

Brooke informed me this morning she has easter eggs in her ears. Blue on one side and pink in the other.

Loaded Weapon

Happy in the Highchair

I pulled the high chair out this week. We have been feeding Lindsey in the bouncy seat but I thought she would like to sit up at the table with us to see what was going on. This way one of us won't be away from the table feeding Lindsey. She looks pretty excited and so big sitting up in the high chair.

Cuddle

When Brooke woke up from her nap Tim slipped Lindsey in for a quick hello.

Lindsey is wide eyed and thinking, I heard what you said about the way this girl sleeps, don't think you are leaving me in here.

Wordless Wednesday

Trying out the sippy cup

I thought I would see what Lindsey would do with a sippy cup one day last week. I enticed her by putting apple juice inside. She was able to do pretty good with the idea of getting it up to her mouth but just wanted to chew the apple juice out. She also tried a few of the Gerber puffs. She loved them! Brooke was happy to see those snacks back around again and had a few herself.

Happy 4th of July

We had a jam packed weekend. It started out with a pool party at Cathy's house Friday morning. Those pictures are on the smaller camera in the diaper bag so I will post later. Tim took the girls to see the fireworks in Sylvania that night.

Saturday we headed over to Tim's aunt where Brooke had fun with her popping things and Lindsey had fun playing with everyone.

Brooke really liked throwing them from way up high on Uncle Doug's shoulders.

Tim's cousins had tons of good fireworks and put on a great show.

This picture doesn't really look like it but Lindsey was smiling the entire time!

A little freaky but she loved to stare at Brooke's glow sticks.

Trying to get a picture of all of us is pretty much impossible but we tried anyway.

Lindsey was sleeping as soon as the fireworks were over. Brooke, well she sang the entire car ride home. Man, what I would do to bottle up some of her energy for myself.

Sunday we headed over to the Toledo Zoo to get some use out of our membership.

Christa, this was taken and posted especially for you!

It was a nice Fourth of July weekend even with 2 nights of work squeezed in.