Starting Summer (a little early!)

Happy Almost-Summer everyone!  We've been really busy here at our house: and since our mom is on maternity leave right now - we've jumped into summer a little early!  

Since Dad started his new job as a golf pro, he always works on weekends - but when he has his day off during the week we try to go do something fun.  One week we went to Harrisonburg to see where Mom went to college.  First stop: Mom's favorite ice cream shop.  Well... you can't be surprised!  I get my love of ice cream from her of course...   it was just as good as Mom remembered: and Dad and I were pretty impressed too!

Darn it all!  I slept through it!  That's such a pattern around here these days:  being a newborn is rough.  I don't mean to - but in the middle of all the best stuff I just fall asleep!  I'm going to have a word with my doctor the next time I see him.  Maybe he can prescribe something to help me stay up:  and maybe he can be persuaded to change his "nothing but bottles" rule... I was bummed to miss out on that ice cream.

So after we ate lunch and had ice cream (the important stuff!) we went off to see James Madison University.  Mom walked us around the campus, things have changed a lot since she left 9 years ago - but she could still find her way around. 

Man I make this place look good.

Here's my sister practicing her "I'm so cool, I own this place" walk.  She's 2 going on 20.  If she doesn't stop poking it at me - I may try to make a case for shipping her off to college next year. 

Shoot!  This place is HUGE.  I like to walk - but this is just crazy... let me back in the stroller and push me around please!

Darn it all - I slept through the tour too!

Over Memorial Day Weekend we went to Viva! Vienna - a really cool community fair near us.  I got to ride lots of rides!  They told me I wasn't tall enough to ride them on my own - so I had to take someone with me.  Lucky for Mom, Dad and Auntie Em - because that meant they got to try to squeeze into the tiny kiddie rides with me.  I LOVED the big bumpy slide. 

And I really loved the train!

Mom, Auntie Em and I rode the Farris Wheel.  I was chatting constantly when we were on the bottom half of the ride - but when we were WAAAAY up top: I was pretty quiet.  It was just a bit scary way up there.

Do you see a frustrating pattern here?!  I slept through the whole fair too!!  MAN!

One day it was SO hot we couldn't even really take Hayley outside... so Mom and I decided to bake brownies.  I liked pouring stuff, I sort of liked stirring - but that seemed a little like sneaky physical therapy to me - I was on to Mom's game.  So I was pretty suspect when she told me I could lick the spoon.  But then I tried it.  Quickly Mom made the good decision to save my clothes by removing them.

Yeah - good decision. 

When the spoon was clean I went looking for more batter.  I had saved plenty for later!

So I used my sweet flexibility skills to lick myself clean too!

Haha!  Look!  I'm awake!!  So - while Abby bakes brownies, swims at the pool, eats ice cream, and all that cool stuff:  here's what I'm up to.  My eyes turn more and more blue every day.  My hair is growing in with blond roots.  I'm a really good baby, happy and easy going.  I'm fairly forgiving of my big sister who likes to love on me and often accidentally delivers an elbow to my stomach while she does so.  I'm a pretty decent sleeper at night: sleeping 5 hours or so at first, but then I'm up every 1.5-2 hours after that.  Lucky for Mom and Dad; I need my beauty sleep, so I just eat and go right back to sleep.

I'm gaining weight like a champ.  Abby and I had a joint doctor appointment in mid-May.  At one month old I weighed 10 lbs 1 oz (50th percentile) and was 21.5 inches long (50th percentile).  Stuff goes in one end and comes out the other; I don't cry too much and I sleep.  Enough said. 

So the next 30 minutes of our appointment were dedicated to me!  At 2 1/2 years old I weigh 27 lbs (25th percentile) and am 33 inches tall (5th percentile).   I'm getting ready to start pre-school in the fall.  The doctor wanted to hear all about that: so I'll assume you do too.  I'll go to pre-school at an elementary school in my town where I'll have no more than 8 kids in my class: all of whom will have some sort of special needs.  We're still in the process of writing my goals and working out all the details: but here's what we've done so far.

The first step was to assess how awesome I am.  My therapists looked at all the different developmental areas and talked about what I can do and figured out what "age" my skills are at.  When we did this, I was 28 months old... 
My gross motor skills were like an 18 month old.  (See my skinned knees in the picture above).
My fine motor skills were like a 14 month old.  (puzzles and coloring are anti-social: I don't do anti-social)
My cognitive skills were like a 24 month old.  (So now no one can argue when I say I am SUPER smart!)
My expressive language skills were like a 24-26 month old.
My receptive language skills were like a 24-26 month old.  (Have you met my parents?  Talking a lot was a genetic certainty in this family!)

Since I had deficits and a medical diagnosis of Down syndrome (which often leads to deficits) I was found eligible for special education pre-school... and I will start in the fall with all the big kids, go to a school with all the big kids, and RIDE THE SCHOOL BUS!  (I hope my mom doesn't read this: she gets all choked up when she thinks about this stuff.  Well, sometimes she gets choked up... more often she thinks about what I'm going to be wearing as I climb onto that bus and what hairbows she needs to make to ensure I'm the cutest kid in the class.)

So: to sum that up for you:  Abby is AWESOME.  A lot of those scores take into account the fact that I sign so much... I still really don't have many words; so we changed my therapies to include speech therapy once a week.  I'll get therapy through the summer; and then I'll transition to pre-school where I'll work with therapists during my school day.

So that's what the Nathlich crew has been up to!  Just the beginning of a busy summer... which means there will be many things to blog about and even more cute pictures of us!!  Lucky you!