Mommy guilt

Well, after I posted on Thursday night I felt guilty that I hadn't taken any new pics of Avery and I had 50+ of Tate. So last night after work Avery was playing outside and I took 190 of her. Yes, 190. Mommy guilt can do crazy things to a woman. Anyway, here are a few of them.

This first one was taken yesterday before daycare. Ave has started to choose some of her own outfits and outfit/shoe combos. Enough said. She insists that anything that is pink or purple (no matter what shade or pattern) matches. Makes for some interesting outfits. As I write this she is putting on her too-small Elmo swimsuit on over her valentine pjs. We told her the other day that her too small clothes were being put away in case she has a sister someday. Now every time she goes to put something on and it's too small she says "this is for my little sister but she's not gonna be born yet". And for any of you who are trying to read between the lines, there are not to be any more little St. Louis' on the way, at least not for a while. Back to this picture though. Check out the gesture being made by her right hand. It's constant. I know she doesn't understand, but hopefully she'll outgrow it soon. It makes it difficult to determine why people are staring at us as we walk around Target or the grocery store... is it the middle fingers sticking up or the singing of Jingle Bells at the top of her lungs?

Okay, we are off to the library. Have a great weekend!

Nothing new

I wish I had some great Memorial day stories to tell everyone, but we didn't do anything spectacular this year. Josh spent Friday through Monday reshingling my mom's house with my brother Jeff. They did a great job but both of them agreed that they could think of other things they would rather have been doing. Can't say that I blame them but I know my mom really appreciated it. The weather was okay for most of the job but Monday's starting temp of 43 was a bit brisk. While Josh was roofing the kids and I hung out at my mom's so that we could see Josh when possible and so I could try to help out with the roof. They didn't let me do much, but I was able to work for a few hours removing nails. We are planning on reshingling our house later this year... after seeing what an undertaking it is I'm not too excited about it! The joys of home ownership...

I had coffee with a woman on Tuesday. Her son is 6 weeks younger than Tate and also has Down syndrome. It was so great to connect with a mom of a younger child who is going through basically the same things that we are as a family. We had a nice chat and are planning on getting our families together later this summer. They have a daughter a year older than Avery so it should be fun for everyone!

No new pics of Avery this week... is that terrible? I'll post a few of Tate anyway. My mom did take a few this weekend of Avery dressed up as a mom (anytime she dresses up and it involves shoes that are too big she says she's a mom... when she wears dresses she says she's a teacher; not sure where that came from!). She was wearing a lime green and blue leotard, red patent leather high heels and my mom's green purse. My mom asked her to smile so she could take a picture of her as a mommy and Avery said "I'm a mom and moms can't smile." Nice, Avery. At least I know that was just her two year old sassiness talking and that she doesn't really think that I am always sober faced.

Tate has started to really watch people as they talk. I got home from a meeting around 8:30 last night and he just wanted to watch me talk and sing to him. Newborns are cute and all, but I just love when babies get to the more interactive stage. He's started to coo a bit too. Fun, fun! Have a great weekend and I'll try to post some pictures of Avery soon.

Our weekend in pictures

We had a busy weekend. I took tons of pictures, so instead of taking an hour to write about everything we did, I'll just post pics of the highlights.

Friday night Tate, Avery and I hung out at home while Josh worked at Scheel's. Tate did a lot of this:

And Avery did a lot of this:

She loves to read to Tate and lay with him on the floor, so they did a bit of that too. Saturday morning we got up, picked my grandma up and tried to watch my mom run her first 5K, but we missed her in both spots. Avery was all ready with her sign! It was great to have my grandma there to help out; two kids is fine at home but getting in and out of the car or walking for any distance gets tough. We also went to the Fargodome to watch my aunt Julie finish the half marathon.

On our way home from the Dome, we stopped to see my grandpa working in the field (Avery's papa). Here is a picture of Avery and my cousins Kai and Anna with papa.

After a quick lunch and nap at home, Ave and I dropped Tate off at grandma Jane's house so Avery and her friend Marcus could do the half mile kids run associated with the Fargo Marathon. The wind was blowing about 30 mph, so you can guess how much of the run she actually did... She ran half and I ran half with her in my arms. She loved getting her finisher's medal at the end though!
Saturday night after Josh got home from Scheel's, my friend Alissa and I picked up flowers from the greenhouse. I'm about to head back there right now... this will be my third (and according to Josh, FINAL) trip to buy flowers for the year. Saturday night we picked up pizza from Papa Murphy's. This is Avery while waiting for the pizzas to bake. For those of you that know her well, these pictures capture her perfectly!

Sunday Josh worked and Avery and I planted flowers. Tate napped. Avery was so excited to plant her marigold. She doesn't understand that they're called marigolds; she calls them miracles, but whatever. :) I don't think she liked it once she started... take a look at her expression.

She ended up planting one or two and I did the rest. She spent most of the rest of Sunday wandering around our backyard talking to imaginary people on her phone.

And one last cute picture of Tate for good measure...

And yes, we take tons of pictures. I would say over 200 a week. Yikes!

Not much else is new with us. We tend to like it that way... after a year of many, many changes we are enjoying our "uneventful" life. Both kids are doing great. Avery is as challenging as ever... On Monday Josh brought the kids to my office after work. Avery was carrying a baby and a cup. Josh asked her to hold his hand since they were in a parking lot. She looked up at him (mind you she's not even 3 yet...) and said: "Daddy, I can't hold your hand. I can only hold your hand if I have three hands because I'm already carrying two things. But I don't have three hands, I only have two so I can't hold your hand right now." We are seriously going to have our hands full with her. Tate is getting stronger every day and is still sleeping well. Our family is going to a RedHawks game next month with the Down syndrome group from the FM area so we're looking forward to that. It will be nice to meet other families who have been through this before. Not that other people don't understand, but there's just something comforting about talking to someone who's been in our shoes.

Have a great Memorial day everyone!

Eyes, ears and undies

Typically Tate gets top billing in the blog posts... usually just because Tate has more topics to update everyone on. Today though, Avery gets to be the star. At 2 years and 9.5 months old, she's finally out of diapers! Josh and I are thrilled (and VERY relieved)! We had tried everything, even bribing with candy (swore I would never do that... note to self: never say never when it comes to kids!). In the end, I don't think it was any individual technique that we tried that worked. I think she just decided she was ready! She's very excited now because she gets to go to bible school at church this summer and start preschool in the fall at the Y- both things were on hold as long as she was still in diapers. Woo hoo Avery!

Tate's opthalmology appointment went well last week. Let me rephrase that... we got good news at the appointment, but the staff was less than comfortable working with an infant and they were less than tactful about Tate having Down syndrome. I know I'm a bit sensitive about terminology and how people address Tate, but I try to be pretty forgiving with the general public. Four months ago, I wouldn't have known much about person first language either (I'll explain this in a bit). It's not something most people learn about until they have firsthand experience with someone with a disability. When we're in a clinic though, I expect that the staff have been trained on how to address people with special needs. The nurse at the eye clinic came and got us from the lobby and took us back to the room. She didn't have any background info on Tate, so she asked what the purpose of the visit was. I told her that mainly, we wanted to rule out congenital cataracts because he has Down syndrome, but also to check his vision overall. She looked at Tate and said "Oh, he's Downs? He doesn't even look like it!" and proceeded to keep checking out his face from different angles looking for any evidence. Am I overly sensitive about this? Yes, and I know that's my issue. It just frustrates me when people say "Tate is Downs." He isn't Downs, he has Down syndrome. Just like you don't want one trait to define your child, I don't want my child's disability to define who he is. It's most definitely a part of him, but doesn't define him. Person first language places the person, Tate, before his or her disability. Tate isn't a Down syndrome kid, Tate has Down syndrome. Another example would be a kid with autism... they aren't an autistic child, they are a child with autism. Make sense? This little change goes a long way for those of us with special kiddos. End of rant and back to Tate's eyes! There is no evidence of cataracts but he is pretty farsighted. Most newborns are pretty farsighted, but Tate is slightly more farsighted than what we'd expect at his age. They want to see him again in four months and determine at that point whether he'll need glasses. If he does need them, he will be fitted for glasses around 9 months. That may seem early to some of you, but if he can't see he can't learn as quickly!

We had his third audiology appointment today. The woman we work with at Innovis is so great. She's comfortable working with kids and can quickly get the tests done- a huge feat on squirmy Tate! He had an ABR done today. I honestly have no idea what that stands for, but it involves placing three electrodes on his scalp and placing things in his ear to emit sounds. The electrodes then measure if and how his brain interprets the sound, I believe. Sorry about the vague info- I don't care how this test works, just that Tate can hear! And he can hear perfectly- his hearing in both ears is great! I was very relieved with these results too- no hearing aids or tubes yet. Kids with Down syndrome are prone to ear infections and fluid behind the ear drum (often doesn't cause pain but interferes with hearing) so she wants to check him again when he's sitting up on his own to make sure his hearing is still good.

Therapy is still going well too. His muscle tone continues to impress all of us. He's batting at toys and holding on the them for a bit on his own. Avery didn't do that until she was about his age so he's about on track with some of his developmental milestones. We're focusing on head control and bringing his arms to midline this week. He can roll to his side, but then his arm gets kind of stuck behind him...once he can bring his arms to midline he'll be able to roll over in no time!

Whew- that was a lot of info! Not much else is new. Josh is busy gearing up with deck business for the summer and finishing up the school year. He and the K-Kids group he leads at school went to the Special Olympics this morning to cheer for the athletes. I'm guessing that was planned long before Tate was born, but it's definitely more personally relevant to Josh now. In 2000, Josh and I volunteered at Special Olympics together in Minneapolis. I heard an ad for volunteers on the radio and thought it would be a fun thing for us to do together. Kind of crazy looking back on it now- I never thought we'd be the parents in the stands someday! :)

Avery is going to run the kid's half mile run this weekend after the Fargo Marathon. She's excited- she gets to run with her friend Marcus and get a medal at the end. I think she'll have fun with it, it's just a matter of how many times we'll have to stop to go potty... Oh, and Tate is smiling all the time now, and even starting to giggle out loud. So cute!

Happy Mother's Day!

Just a quick post for now... I'll add more later about Tate's eye appt. I came across this piece online last night. While I don't agree with everything it says, the part about saying mama for the first time brought me to tears! Enjoy!

The SpecialMother
by Erma Bombeck

Most women become mothers by accident, some by choice, a few by social pressures and a couple by habit.
This year nearly 100,000women will become mothers of handicapped children. Did you everwonder how mothers of handicapped children are chosen?
Somehow I visualize God hovering over earth selecting his instruments for propagation with great care and deliberation. As He observes, He instructs His angels to make notes in a giant ledger.
"Armstrong, Beth; son. Patron saint...give her Gerard. He's used to profanity."
"Forrest, Marjorie; daughter. Patron saint, Cecelia."
"Rutledge, Carrie; twins. Patron saint, Matthew."
Finally He passes a name to an angel and smiles, "Give her a handicapped child."
The angel is curious."Why this one God? She's so happy."
"Exactly," smiles God, "Could I give a handicapped child to a mother who does not know laughter? That would be cruel."
"But has she patience?" asks the angel.
"I don't want her tohave too much patience or she will drown in a sea of self-pity and despair. Once the shock and resentment wears off, she'll handle it."
"I watched her today. She has that feeling of self and independence that is so rare and so necessary in a mother. You see, the child I'm going to give her has her own world. She has to make her live in her world and that's not going to be easy."
"But, Lord, I don't think she even believes in you." God smiles, "No matter, I can fix that. This one is perfect - she has just enough selfishness." The angel gasps - "selfishness? is that a virtue?"
God nods. "If she can't separate herself from the child occasionally, she'll never survive. Yes, here is a woman whom I will bless with a child less than perfect. She doesn't realize it yet, but she is to be envied. She will never take for granted a 'spoken word'". She will never consider a "step" ordinary. When her child says 'Momma' for the first time, she will be present at a miracle, and will know it!"
"I will permit her to see clearly the things I see...ignorance, cruelty, prejudice....and allow her to rise above them. She will never be alone. I will be at her side every minute of every day of her life, because she is doing My work as surely as if she is here by My side".
"And what about her Patron saint?" asks the angel, his pen poised in mid-air.
God smiles, "A mirror will suffice."

Like I said, I don't agree with everything in the piece. I don't think I'm God's gift to mothers, nor do I think I'm perfect. What I do believe is that before Tate was born, I was rushing through life, rarely taking enough time to enjoy the important things... kids and family. Tate has forced me to be more intentional with my life and to just enjoy the process. Having a child with special needs has blessed our family in ways that I never could've imagined. I'm sure Tate will continue to open our eyes as the years go on. I'm honored to be his (and Avery's) mom.

Happy Mother's Day!

Finally caught a smile!

Tate had his weight check today and he's finally passed the ten pound mark! He gained 13 ounces since and grew 1/2'' since last Tuesday! Today's weight was 10 lbs 4 ozs. He'll have another follow up on the 16th, so hopefully he continues to pack on the pounds. There's nothing cuter than a chubby baby!

He's been working quite a bit on tummy time lately. I caught this picture of him this morning. I think it's my favorite picture of him so far. I love the little grin!

Not much else has changed around here. Tate has his hearing and vision appointments next week so we'll update sometime after that. Have a great weekend!

Awww.....

Tate is finally smiling on a regular basis. It's so great to see him respond to us! Josh and I have to work pretty hard to get a smile, but Avery can just sit by him and start talking and he'll give her a big grin. I have a feeling he's going to have Mommy wrapped around his little finger...


Bismarck was fun. The drive there was a bit snowy and slow for the first hour or so, but fine after that. Avery was so excited to stay in the hotel and swim with Daddy. I took Tate with me to my seminar for a few hours each day so Josh and Ave could swim. As you can see, they had a blast! My seminar was great too. It was on pediatric chiropractic; I learned some great new techniques that I can't wait to try!

Josh joked on the way back to Fargo that we could plan a day trip to see all of the "World's Biggest Animals" around here. The world's biggest sand crane (or something like that) is somewhere between Bismarck and Fargo, the buffalo in Jamestown, pelican in Pelican Rapids, prairie chicken in Rothsay, etc. I didn't realize how many there are around here. Here's another little glimpse into Josh's thoughts. On the way back to Moorhead on Sunday he said "If Theodore Roosevelt was alive today, what kind of car would he drive?" Ummm, first of all I don't have time to think about that kind of thing, second of all I don't really care! We're so different. He always manages to make me smile though! We ended up discussing it and deciding that he would drive a hybrid pickup.

Not much else is new. Tate's weight check is Thursday, so I'll update again then. Just wanted to get a few new pics up. This last one isn't a great one of Tate, but it shows how strong he's getting. Enjoy!

Baptism, etc.

Tate was baptized on Sunday at our church. We spent most of the weekend getting the house ready and food prepared to have everyone over after the church service. We also had Taylar overnight on Saturday night (Josh's seven year-old sister), so we had a busy weekend. We were all set to be at church half an hour early so we could have seats at the front of the church and feed Tate before the service. Well, Avery was crouching down by Tate's carseat as we were getting ready to leave the house and the heel of her shoe caught on her dress and tore bottom layer of the dress about halfway around. The bottom layer is tulle with ribbon of fabric at the bottom, so the rip was pretty obvious. I don't sew well, much less know where any of my sewing stuff is, but I knew we had to fix the dress before church. So, Josh found needles and I managed to find some thread that matched well enough. Avery stood on the kitchen table in her dress and I did a quick, not-so-neat repair job. We still made it to church early enough and if you didn't know that I'd had to fix her dress at the last minute, you wouldn't have noticed. The dress incident was the only wrinkle in our day. The ceremony and the lunch went well and Tate handled being passed around very well. He seemed pretty content to just lay on his blanket on the floor for a bit after everyone left though. I'll post some pictures of the big day either tonight or tomorrow.

We had another therapy session and meeting with the public health nurse yesterday. Teri (the nurse) hadn't seen Tate in about 6 weeks and was very surprised to see how much he'd grown! I asked her to weigh him to make sure he was still growing well. He weighed 9 lbs 4 ozs two weeks ago at his two month appointment, and has only gained 3.5 ozs since then. We had been trying to nurse without giving him a supplement afterwards, but we'll have to go back to that to make sure he's getting enough to eat. We're also bumping up his bottles (when he's not with me) to 5 ozs, then 6 ozs next week (he's at 4 ozs now). He has another weight check next Thursday so hopefully the extra food will pay off! With Avery, she would cry to let us know that she was hungry or that she wanted more. I'm not sure if Tate is just more content, but he doesn't really cry much. I can nurse him for thirty minutes and assume that he's gotten enough, because he doesn't cry to let me know that he's still hungry. Sometimes he'll nurse for less time (especially if he's tired) so we'll give him a 3 oz. supplement and he'll take the whole thing. I guess our trouble now is that we never know if he's still hungry. For now we'll just have to keep offering a bottle after every feeding. Life with Tate is a learning process for everyone.

Avery has been enjoying our spring weather. She loves to play in the backyard by herself. It's fully fenced, so it's nice to be able to just let her play without worrying that she'll run off. We still have to keep a pretty close eye on her though. I check on her every few minutes and about half of the times I check she's doing something she's not supposed to. Her favorites are splashing in the water that collects in her toys when in rains, throwing toys over our fence into the neighbors yard, trying to climb the fence into the neighbor's yard to get the toy she just threw over, and playing fetch with Jersey (except she throws her own toys, not Jersey's). As long as we keep checking on her, she does okay though. It's nice that she can be outside by herself though, because it's been too cold for Tate to go out and she doesn't understand that yet. So, she gets to go out but he and I can stay in and watch her through the patio door. Hopefully spring will be here to stay soon so that we can all spend time outside!

Josh got his new pickup this weekend, so he's been enjoying driving it around. I told him the neighbors will miss hearing his squeaky car pulling out of the driveway early every morning... he didn't agree with me. The pickup belonged to Josh's dad, so he is honored to have it.

The whole family is heading to Bismarck this weekend for a seminar. I'll take Tate with me to the seminar (I'm hoping he'll sleep most of the time) and Josh and Avery can hang out and swim at the hotel. Should be fun (for the two of them anyway :)

He CAN hear!

Tate had his third hearing test today and finally passed part of it! Even though I knew he could hear (based on his reaction when his big sister screams or dumps out a bucket of toys :), it was a relief to have it confirmed. The hearing test they did today is called an OAE. It's done by putting a sensor in his ear while he is either sleeping or calm. The sensor emits sound waves and then measures the waves the body sends back after processing the sound. Does that make sense? The long and short of it is that the test isn't the "raise your hand when you hear the beep" kind. Tate passed on his first try on his right ear, but only passed two of three levels on his left ear. Because the results are all or nothing, they said he didn't pass and will need to be tested again in a few weeks. The good news is that even though he didn't pass, we know he can hear. The next test is called an ABR and will give us an actual measure of what tones he can hear and how much hearing loss, if any, is present. From what I understand, the test is done by placing electrodes on his head that measure his brain waves and how he processes sound. Tate will have that test on May 6th so I'll be able to explain it better then.

Tate is getting much stronger! We've been working a lot on tummy time and what I call "baby sit ups". I'll sit with my legs inclined at about 45 degrees and lean his back on my legs. He'll grab my fingers, tense his arms and neck, and I'll pull him to a seated position. This doesn't sound difficult to those of you with kids without developmental delays, but it's a huge deal that Tate is getting strong enough to be able to do this. It's funny to watch him... no matter how crabby or upset he is, baby sit ups get one of his lopsided grins to come out. :) The focus for this week is making sure he's looking equally to his right and left sides; he's shown a preference for his right lately and we don't want that to become a habit. Other than that he's doing great!

Josh, Avery and I went to the circus this weekend with our friends Alissa and Marcus. Avery has been asking about the circus for months, literally. She was a bit overwhelmed when we got there; I think all of the noises and the crowd were a bit much for her. Once we settled into our seats and the circus started, she did pretty well. Her attention span still isn't very long, so the hour-long first half of the circus was a challenge. The funniest part of the day was her looking at me halfway through the first half (so 30 minutes through the two hour circus) and excitedly asking me "Mommy, do we get to go in Alissa's van again pretty soon?" The van rides to and from the circus were her favorite parts of the day. Even more exciting than the elephant ride. She did pretty well with the day though and had fun with everything. She ate an entire thing of cotton candy by herself!

Check out Avery's new owie. I'm not sure on the spelling of owie- never written it out before. Anyhow, one of the kids at daycare pushed her into the bookcase. We thought she just scraped her bottom lip, but later that night noticed that her top gums were still bleeding and that the portion of her gums overlying her top two front teeth were bruised and purple. She said it hurt to even brush her teeth. Poor kiddo! I did call the dentist, but was told that any damage that is done can't be repaired now and to just keep my eyes out for graying of her teeth. Hopefully that won't happen!

Tate's baptism is this weekend so we're busy getting the house ready for that. Eighteen people in our little rambler will be crowded, but it will be nice to have everyone together.

I think that's all for now. Have a great week!

One more thing- I changed the setting on the comments section so you no longer have to register in order to leave a comment. Feel free to post- we love to see who's visited the site!

Drum roll, please.....

We had Tate's two month appointment today and here are his stats: length 22 1/4 inches (25th %); weight 9 lbs. 4 ozs. (10th %), head circumference 15 inches (15th %). He's on the smaller side for all of his measurements, but that's to be expected because he started out so small. I believe there are different growth charts for kids with Down syndrome, but these are his percentages on the "typical child" growth charts.

The doctor we met with today was great. She has an older child with DS, so it was nice to talk to someone who can relate to what we're going through and who knows what unique things to monitor for Tate. We asked her for a referral to a pediatric opthalmologist to check for cataracts and any other eye issues that are common in people with DS. That appointment is May 9th... hopefully they won't find anything and we can rule out one more potential health complication.

We had his speech eval a week and a half ago. The speech therapist watched him take a bottle and suck on his pacifier and was impressed with his oral tone. For those of you who have seen him eat, you know that he drools a fair bit of milk out the bottom and corners of his mouth while he's eating. This is due to less than normal muscle tone. The ST said his tone is pretty good for a child with DS. She told us to keep doing the mouth exercises before feeding and that's about all we need to do speech-wise for now. She'll continue to monitor him and said that we'll likely need to add speech to his therapy program once he starts on solid foods. The main thing she would work on with him is closing his mouth around the spoon. His ability to do that will directly affect his ability to make sounds like ma, ba, and pa... hence the reason the ST is concerned with his eating.

We had his IFSP meeting last week too. An IFSP is essentially his therapy plan. All of the professionals who have observed him and will be working with him meet at our house and go over their findings and recommendations. Overall, his development is pretty normal so far. The two main things we'll be working on with him are increasing his oral tone and head control. We do tummy time several times every day and he's gotten a lot stronger with his head already.

On to lighter topics now! He had his first bath in the big boy tub a few weeks ago. Prior to that we had still been giving him sponge baths because of his temperature problems. Check out the picture- he wasn't quite sure what to make of the tub!

As for Avery, she's counting the days until the circus comes to town! She's been asking about it since February! We kept telling her that it wasn't until after Daddy's birthday (March 15th). Well, she woke up on the morning of the 16th and said "Daddy, it's after your birthday. Is it time for the circus now?" She never ceases to amaze us! Between the circus on Saturday morning and Josh's school carnival on Friday evening, she'll have a weekend full of fun (and too much sugar, I'm sure!).

Work is going well for both Josh and I. It's hard to believe the school year will be over in less than two months. Josh just bought his dad's old pickup so he's excited to get it and start working on his deck business again.

I think that's all I have for now. Have a great week!

Yes, we're still here!

Sorry it's been so long since our last post; we've been busy and were out of town last week for Easter.

It was Josh's birthday on the 15th... we didn't do too much to celebrate since Tate still can't go out in public. Avery and I picked up some balloons for him and we ordered takeout from Speak Easy. I even made him seven layer bars (his favorite). In case you're wondering, they turned out much better than my cookies. :)

Tate is doing well. He hasn't been weighed in a few weeks now, but he seems to be growing. He's even getting a double chin and some little rolls on his thighs. If you ask me, there's nothing cuter than a chubby baby! His neck strength and control are also getting better. He still does what I call the chicken peck at times (bobbing his head), but we've definitely noticed improvement over the past few weeks. If someone has never held Tate before, I always warn them about his floppy neck. People usually respond with something like "Oh, I know. I've held babies before." If either Josh or I have said this to you, it's not meant to insult you. Tate just doesn't have the neck stability of a typical infant and we need to be somewhat more careful with him than we were with Avery. I'm learning that in the process of looking out for Tate, I may offend others. Please know that it's never intentional!

He had a big Easter weekend meeting new family members. He got to meet grandma Janet, auntie Taylar, uncle Derek, uncle Travis, and great aunts and uncles Jill, Ray, Laura and Mark for the first time. He's now met all of his aunts and uncles except his uncle John who is serving in Iraq. John will be home this fall or winter sometime so Tate will get to meet him then. We're anxiously awaiting his return!

Avery is doing well too. She had a blast with Easter this year. Although it felt strange to miss church on Easter (because of the no crowds thing for Tate), we had fun spending time with both of Josh's moms and brothers and other extended family. Avery dyed Easter eggs, had two egg hunts, and got very spoiled by the Easter bunny. She's even convinced that she saw the Easter bunny outside Grandma Janet's house.

Josh spent most of his weekend at the WCHA Final Five hockey tournament. He and I usually go to all five games together. That was the plan for this year (we were going to take the kids too), but after Tate was born our plans changed. Although I was bummed to miss out on the games, I got to spend time with Terese (my brother Jeff's girlfriend) on Thursday, Janet and Taylar on Friday, and Linda on Saturday. We asked Terese to be Tate's godmother, so she and Jeff will be Tate's godparents. But back to hockey. Jeff went with Josh to one game and Travis (Josh's brother) went with him to the rest. Josh and Travis don't get to spend a lot of time together and are both OBSESSED with Gopher hockey, so they had fun. Tate also watched his first Gopher hockey game a week and a half ago. Check out the picture of Tate and his friend Mallory watching the game. I'm not sure if Tate can even see that far yet, but he enjoyed looking at Mallory. She's a cutie!

Not much else is new in the St. Louis household. Tate has his speech eval on Thursday so I'll update again then.

P.S. Josh and I just want to say a quick thanks to everyone who has reached out to us since Tate's birth. We are so appreciative of everyone, but especially those people who have been through the birth of a child with special needs. It's so helpful to have you as resources and support in this adventure!

Lookin' good!

As Josh wrote yesterday, Tate had his first evaluation with Early Intervention Services last week. His main therapist (she's kind of a jack of all trades for the birth through age three group) and an occupational therapist came to our house to check out Tate and see where he's at developmentally.

Because low muscle tone is a major issue for kids with Down Syndrome, they wanted to see if he could turn his head side to side, lift his legs up while lying on his back, lift his arms when lying on his back, etc. I was amazed at how much they could evaluate just by observing him doing his own thing. Those of you who have held him know that Tate is kind of a squirmy little guy. They were happy to see how much he moves and said that some kids with Downs don't even voluntarily lift their arms and legs when lying down. Overall, they were very impressed with his muscle tone.

They had him laying on his back looking to one side and would make a soft noise with a rattle behind his head. We could see his eyes start to move immediately and within a second or two he would turn his head to try to find the source of the noise. They also showed him a few black and white geometric pictures and he would track those with his eyes. It was nice to see him react because I was starting to wonder if he had vision or hearing problems (both are common in people with Downs).

The next step is to meet with the speech pathologist. Everyone we tell that to is surprised that a newborn has to meet with a speech therapist, but they aren't going to work on actual speech yet. They want to see him take a bottle and suck on his pacifier and make sure that he has a coordinated sucking motion. I think there are other things they look for too, but I'm not exactly sure. Our meeting with the ST is 3/27, so we'll let you know after that.

Our therapist was here today and gave us some exercises to work on for head control. Tate is able to lift his head, but it's really wobbly and he doesn't have much endurance. It's nice to have something constructive to work on with him so we feel like we're helping him progress in the time before our actual therapy appointments start (end of April).

On a different note, I started back to work last Friday. Since Tate isn't supposed to start daycare for another three months, we weren't sure what we were going to do. Neither Josh nor I can realistically take that much time off. My aunt Lisa generously offered to watch Tate one day each week, as did my Grandma Betty. We are so blessed to have family here to help us out! Lisa had Tate on Friday. It felt strange to leave Tate for an entire day; I'd only been away from him for two hours since he was born! It did feel nice to be back at work though, and it was a great feeling knowing that Tate was with someone Josh and I trust and who loves him! Thanks Lisa! He has his first day with GG tomorrow and I'm sure he'll have a great time and get a little spoiled! :)

I think that's it for now. Enjoy the pics of the kids. They're from this weekend. Avery loves reading to her baby brother!

Where does the time go?

Holy buckets! I can't believe it has been over a week since either of us has posted. I won't use the, "we're too busy," excuse, but it's hard not to because it's the truth. Anyway...

Tate is continuing to grow, though not as quick as recently. Our public health nurse came last Tuesday, which I believe was a span of eight days. In any case, he was up to 7 lbs, 8.5 ozs, a nice increase. Now that it has been almost another week, it's probably safe to assume that our little brute is 7 - 13 or so. At that rate he'll be over 8 lbs by the weekend, a two pound gain since he was born. All in all he's doing well, so well in fact, that Ave even had her first opportunity to feed him. I think it was the highlight of her life so far!

He also had his first evalutation with EIS (Early Intervention Services) last week. He was a superstar! Everything looked great, including his muscle strength/tone. I believe that Liz is going to try and blog about that appointment more tomorrow because she was there and can do a better job than I can. Overall though, things are looking great!

And speaking of great, we wanted to reiterate how blessed we are in our lives! It's funny, but two months ago we knew next to nothing about our second kid, and now he's already a month old! It has been an interesting, busy, exciting month! Liz and I were talking the other day, probably after his eval, when it hit us - Tate has Down syndrome! Now this wasn't an, "Ohmygoshwhatarewegoingtodo?" moment. Instead, it was, "Oh yeah, he has Down syndrome - I forgot," moment. We've already accepted it and moved on to doing the best job that we can as parents, that we just don't even realize it. I guess what I'm trying to say is that we think of him as our son, a blessing, just like our daughter Avery. I figured we would get to that point, because why should it be any different with him than her, but it still surprised us. We are just enjoying him, and loving the fact that we can already see how much he has grown since he was born!

Enough of that though. I know everyone that reads wants to know what we do in our spare time. Well, we don't have any spare time, end of story. No, that's not true, we do have spare time. I can tell you that I spent all my extra time watching the state hockey tournament last week. That is always one of my favorite times of year, because I can watch hockey four days in a row from lunch until bedtime (yep, I even had it on at school for my students to watch). Avery loves watching too, so it's fun for me!

Liz, while she loves hockey almost as much as me, thought last weekend would be a good time to perfect her chocolate chip cookie recipe. After last weekend, I can safely say that Otis Spunkmeyer, Grandma, and Chips Ahoy! do not have to worry about any new competition, at least not from our house. If you want proof, just check out the cookies. I don't remember if this is a picture from Friday's batch, or Saturday's batch, but you really can't tell the difference. In fairness to Liz, I do think it was a bad recipe from Nestle'. I wasn't sure after Friday's batch, because I think that with Avery's help, Liz might have been off on some of her amounts in the recipe. But I supervised Saturday's batch (by supervise I mean, watched hockey and checked on commercial breaks) and I know she followed it well. Even though they didn't turn out when baked, the dough was pretty tasty and I got to eat a lot of that. I don't know what the plan is for this coming weekend, but I hope it doesn't involve any baking!

(This was Avery and me after the cookies didn't turn out! We wanted cookies!!!)

We made it to the weekend!

It's been a short while since we've posted. Hopefully you're not as upset as Tate was!

First, it has been a busy week for us. At school this week we raised money for Pennies for Patients. All proceeds go to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. Since I'm in charge of K-Kids, and K-Kids runs the event, it kept me pretty busy. We had a "Spirit Week" to help encourage students/families to donate. Each day was a different day, like Hat Day or Wacky Hair/Spud Pride Day. The goal was to raise $3,000 as a school. We exceed expectations and raised $3,955 which was almost double last year's total! It was a lot of fun, but I'm glad that it's over because it kept me busy!

Liz had a busy week as well. In additon to having the public health nurse visit on Monday, she also had to stop in and play receptionist at her office on Thursday. It was the first time Tate really went anywhere, besides his doctor's office. She also took Tate to the audiologist yesterday. Since he failed his hearing test at the hospital, he had to have it retested. Unfortunately, he didn't pass this time either. We still don't need to be concerned, they said. They'll test him again in six weeks, in hopes that he will have grown, including the tubes in his ears. If he fails at that time, then they have to do a more in-depth test. I think I relayed that information correctly, but if not, I'm sure Liz will correct me. She was at the appointment and knows a little more than me (well, she always knows a little more than me, but I guess that's why she's a doctor).

Avery is still a blast to hang out with, although she still is as bossy as ever. "Daddy, sit in that chair. Don't look at me; look at the TV." That's just one example. The trouble is she speaks really well, and is really smart, so nothing gets by her. She remembers everything and can apply whatever she learns to new situations. I have some great examples, but I can't think of them right now. You'd just have to hang out with her to believe some of the things she says and does.

Now it's Saturday and we are having a wonderful day. Avery went to her first movie theater this morning! She and I went with our friends Brian and Alissa, and their son Marcus to see "Bee Movie". They have special family screenings at 10 am on Saturdays, where tickets are discounted at you get a free popcorn with each ticket. We weren't sure how she would do at her first movie, but she actually did really well. She seemed to have a good time, and enjoyed sitting near either Marcus or Alissa. It was a fun father/daughter activity.

Then this afternoon Liz and Avery went to the Moorhead DQ. It's a big deal every March 1st when they open for the year. It's one of those signs of spring. They picked up treats and brought them back home. As you can see, she really enjoyed her ice cream!

Tate is doing well, at least most of the time. We put him in the swing for the first time today and he fell right asleep, so he must have enjoyed it. With his weaker muscle tone in his neck we were hesitant to put him in there, at least before today. We tried to support his neck a little bit so that he would be comfortable. Again, he looks like he enjoyed it.

Well, this was a rather straightforward entry, but sometimes that's how it is during a busy week. Our only other announcement is that we decided on a date for Tate's baptism. He'll be baptised at our church, Triumph Lutheran Brethren, on April 20th at the 10:30 am service. We're very excited for this day to arrive!

That's all, happy March 1st!