Uh oh, Oh no, YAY!

John Michael's speech continues to take off... branching into 2 word and sometimes 3 word phrases, like "Hi, Luke", "blue block" or "love you".  He is a parrot and often copies the last word in a sentence or picks up expressions. 

This morning, while feeding Luke, I quietly observed John Michael building towers with Legos.  He built the tower by himself (not the bottom, larger structure) and was quite chatty.  He would say, "Yay" when a block or section fit.  He'd say, "Oh, no" or "Uh oh" when blocks were tipping or fall off and would say, "fit" when the blocks didn't fit well.


Here he's standing proud of his accomplishment.  That was as high as he could reach without the whole thing falling over.  He stayed with this activity for about 15 minutes, which is pretty good for self-directed play.  If Greta were here, they probably would've played for about 30 minutes.

Eventually, he branched off to playing with the Lego animals, cars, trucks and people.  But the whole time, I noticed how his expressive language is growing.

Some other expressions he frequently uses are: "Whoa!" for when he catches himself falling or bumping into something; "Oops! (soop)" for when something goes wrong; "Bonk" for when he bonks into something; "Wow!" when something's exciting or cool; and, "Ow!" for when he's hurt.  This has really come in handy lately since he can now show me where he is hurt.  It used to be a guessing game with lots of tears.

This was taken last week and he built it all on his own.

 I just love Legos for all the things you can do with them. 

ArtBeast, New Friends and Spaghetti Factory, OH MY!!

Last Friday, a blogging buddy, Darlena, came up to Sacramento to meet some of us.  I've been following Darlena's blog for over a year.  She has a beautiful family, but we especially love reading about her darling son, Brayden.

Isn't he a cutie?!?!

We first met at the ever-cool ArtBeast for some music, art and creative play.  John Michael looked quite at home on the drums.

A John Michael masterpiece. 
We love his painting so much that Doug wants to make greeting cards out of it.  :-)

John Michael loves to give his friends hugs.  Miss Gabby doesn't seem to mind.  Isn't she precious?!?!

At Spaghetti Factory, John Michael and Brayden took over the waiting room inside the old train station.  If you look carefully, you can see the front door is cracked open.  John Michael and Brayden discovered that if they pushed a bit, they would be able to escape. 
Let's just say these two will not be left alone -- who knows what kind of trouble they'd get into!

I didn't get everyone's photo, but I did get this cute one of John Michael feeding Sofia.  Her brother, Joaquin was in the stroller and Sheridan came later to join us just for dinner.

Just the moms... me, Darlena, Debbie (she came to say hi), Sheree and Jennifer.

And finally, the evening ended with a nice bowl of ice cream.  Besides meeting up with his friends, this was for sure John Michael's favorite part!

Brown Bear, Brown Bear... Book Embellishing Party

Last Friday night, I hosted the Ds Sisterhood for a Brown Bear, Brown Bear book embellishing party.  We had 14 moms and one nana, plus a few adorable kids.  The book is called Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? by Bill Martin, Jr. and artwork by one of my favorite artists, Eric Carle.

I borrowed the embellishing idea from Bessie Barth, Music Therapist and Director of Music to Grow On.  She writes, "This was my original idea especially since I had some clients with visual impairments that needed something to experience the book.  I also found that it was more engaging for many of my clients and made it multi-sensory and easier to follow along."  Two of her interns took the idea and really tried to make the book true to textures related to the animals as best they could.

John Michael loves to feel the different textures.  We love the book because of the sing-songy text.  For each page, we sign and say the color and animal name and then make the associated animal sound.  For goldfish, we usually call it orange fish and smack our lips.  It's very funny to watch JM do it! 

 

It was a tight squeeze in my kitchen, but we managed to craft and enjoy appetizers and wine.

 

When was the last time you played with glue?

 

The hot glue station...

 

Some moms even made two books that night!

Joey, Eva and Sofia played while their mamas crafted.  My daughter, Anna, did a great job entertaining them. 

We finished the evening watching Deedah.  "Deedah is an honest, touching and often humorous account of a seven-year old girl’s relationship with her six-year old brother, who has Down syndrome. The 26-minute film, shot in documentary news style, follows the siblings through their daily lives."

While watching the film, I saw glimpses of Greta (5) and John Michael (almost 3) a few years down the road.  Greta loves John Michael without condition.  She nurtures him, cares for him, plays with him, dances with him, chases him, encourages and motivates him and is an advocate for him to other kids at her school.  He calls her "Deh duh" for Greta and we sometimes call her that, too, just for fun.  This is one of those films that should be seen by every school-aged child, as well as doctors, teachers and other parents. 

I've included several more photos from our book embellishing.  I'm hoping to contact Eric Carle to show him how cool his artwork looks in 3D!

Red bird has red feathers that fly off the page!

The blue horse has yarn hair.  We used hot glue for this. 

Here, we added a suede collar and rhinestone.

The teacher's glasses were made out of blue chenille stems.

The bottom row of children have googly eyes glued on.

Wordless Wednesday -- Chocolate Pudding!

Mmmmm... Loving his chocolate pudding...

Monkey See, Monkey Do...

John Michael loves to copy whatever his siblings are doing, which has aided greatly in his learning.

Here, he's filling a piggy bank with loose change for a local charity. Very good for fine motor skills. The coins are small and hard to grasp, and the hole is just a slit not much wider than a quarter, not to mention it's good for his concentration, too.

Another skill he's picked up is building with Duplo Lego's. He used to just stack and stack, but now he seems to be building out a bit as well. He's discovering more ways to build and design. I LOVE Lego's. He also plays with the Lego animals and cars.

This is a funny photo and doesn't do it justice... He's talking on a play phone making his fake laughing sounds while pulling the "barking" dog. It was soooo funny, but I didn't get a great shot. He was obviously mimicing Greta who has lengthy (pretend) conversations on the phone all the time.

And finally, I caught John Michael learning the fine art of making funny faces from Greta after sharing a pretzel snack.

I love all the learning that goes on, even when I'm not actively teaching him anything in particular. Life is full of opportunities for learning, you just have to open your eyes to recognize it.

Take 2... Updated video with captions

I know I'm crazy, but I was up until 1:30am adding some photos I'd forgotten and then started labeling all the places John Michael has been.

John Michael -- Birth to 3 years. You're so Amazing!

In preparation for John Michael's transition to preschool meeting tomorrow, I gathered up all my favorite photos. The first take was 9 minutes long! Here's the pared down version. I've kept it to about 3 minutes to show him doing all kinds of things. John Michael... you're so amazing!

Gold Rush Days -- Sacramento, CA, circa 1850

The Old School House, circa 1850, Sacramento, California.

Sacramento was "the" place in the 1850's for finding gold.  We spent Labor Day in Old Sacramento for Gold Rush Days where the streets of old town are covered in dirt and the only transportation to be seen is horse and carriage.  There are lots of shoot-outs and displays to see and things to do.  Here, we're in the old schoolhouse.  The boys in the front are in trouble for sitting on the girls' side of the classroom.  The one on the left looks remorseful.  The one on the right, well, he was taken out back and paddled.

These pioneer girls are enjoying the shade after braving harsh conditions and surviving the long journey from the east in a covered wagon.  They're smiling because they just had their first bath in months.

Here's that boy again.  Like I said, nothin' but trouble.  Playing Faro in the tent city.  The boy actually won the game and left with 21 chips.  He had some sasparilla and a bath, and paid for the girls to have a bath.  Perhaps he's a gent after all.

A woman making gorgeous lace using wooden bobbins.  Such an amazing skill.

The little prairie girl trying her best at tug-o-war.

This young man was trying his hand at "crack the whip."

A fine bunch. 

They posed while waiting for the steam locomotive to be filled with water.

I love how the girls enjoy dressing for historic days.  Nic used to, but he has outgrown everything we had for him.  We found Anna's dress at a thrift store earlier this year -- a Jessica McClintock Gunne Sax dress for $14.99.  I was so thrilled!  And Greta's outfit is something I'd bought for Anna on ebay several years back.  I love how she looks in it -- so cute.  I can't wait to see John Michael dressed as an old fashioned boy next year.

MOMS! -- Introducing the "Whine-erator"

This could be the invention of the century!

Kids making too much noise? Baby still fussing after you've met all his needs? Have you heard, "Mooooooommmmmm" followed by whining one too many times? Can't hear yourself think? Need a little quiet but still need to keep an eye on things?

Then you need the Whine-erator! Guaranteed to take you to a place of peace and calm, at least in the sound department. "Sorry, Sweetie, I can't hear you," will be your new mantra.

Order now. Limited quantity. You deserve some peace today :-)

A rough week...but we'll make it...

After Luke was born, it became very clear that I would need some help managing the kids and helping John Michael have the attention he needed while I recovered and cared for a newborn.  I've never needed help before, but this time was different...

On a recommendation from a friend, we found Haley...


a Sophomore at St. Mary's College who we hired to be a nanny/babysitter/mother's helper (all-in-one) for several half days a week throughout the summer.  It didn't take long for us all to warm up to Haley, and she and John Michael formed a special bond that I'm sure she didn't expect when she first started helping out.

Within a few days, John Michael had Haley wrapped around his little finger and she quickly learned how to communicate with him and interpret his sounds, gestures/signs, and words.  She took him (and usually Greta, too) to the park, both slathered in sunscreen, to work off some of their energy and to allow me some quiet time with Luke, to straighten up the house or to rest.  She made it easy for me to leave the house to run errands with Luke or to have some one-on-one time with the older kids, often while John Michael was napping.

Saying "Good=bye" last Wednesday was especially difficult.  The kids and I have missed her this week and I can tell John Michael misses her, too.  He has even said her name, "Lay-Lee" a couple times!

Haley, we wish you well in your studies.  You are always welcome to visit and babysit anytime.  The kids all agree that you're the best babysitter they've EVER had.  That's quite a compliment!  So, don't forget to stay in touch!  We'd love to see you at the Down syndrome walk!