31 for 21 : Wordless Wednesday

31 for 21 : A video

I decided to try to do a video of Ella answering a couple of questions....it took several takes. LOL. She was in a mood.

  I'd say "what's your name?"
Ella "um Bubba." me *sigh* "no it's not. How old are you?"
Ella "eight."

Start over.
"What's your name?"
Ella "Um. Baby Beau."
me *sigh* "seriously Ella? How old are you?"
Ella "I dunno. A baby."

She finally decided to cooperate so I was thrown off track and couldn't think of much to ask her : ) Ella CAN speak in complete sentences, just apparently not when you ask her questions! Here is my little stinker!

Make a video - it's fun, easy and free!
www.onetruemedia.com

And just in case you can't see the video above click HERE

31 for 21: Day 1

It's that time of year again! October is Down syndrome awarness month, so I am participating in 31 for 21! That means that every day this month I, and several other bloggers, will post everyday for the month of October (31 days) in celebration of Ds (Trisomy 21!) I think I will start off the month by revisiting the begining! As I reread this post today I realized that it doesn't even come close to explaining just how devistated I was by Ella's diagnoses. It makes me so sad that that was my reaction to her....but I just didn't any better. I now know just how amazing this girl is and that I am so blessed to have her in my life! Read my first post HERE


Ella 2 days old

Hunter 2 years 4 months old and Ella 3 days

Ella at 1 month old

I have oh so much that I want to talk about this month....mostly lots of catching up on Ella!  If you have any questions or requests please let me know!!!

Eye surgery....again

This morning.

Ella had her 2nd eye surgery today. Her eyes began crossing again, though not as bad as the first time, and her doctor decided it was time to fix them again. This time she just cut the outside corner of her right eye and tightened the muscle....apparently it fixes both eyes. While she was in there the doctor decided to probe her tear ducts in both eyes as Ella had been having problems with watering eyes. The surgery went well, the doctor was happy with the outcome and said that her tear ducts were really blocked so was glad she did it. Ella was a champ. Besides trying to claw her eyes out while waking up from anesthisia she has been doing pretty good! Here she is relaxing at home.

Funny story...The anesthesiologist, a good looking guy, tried to get Ella to put her hat on before surgery to cover her hair even gave her a flowery one and Ella would have nothing to do with it. He told her how much he liked her hat and said he would trade her. She said ok! So he left with a pink hat on and she had his blue surgeon type hat on and off to surgery they went. He said "well that backfired" lol.

Step Up for Down Syndrome

Today was our Step Up for Down Syndrome walk!!! We had a really good time! The weather was great, the venue was perfect, and all the people with Down syndrome...AWESOME!

Daddy and Ella before the walk

The Big Bubba

Ella watching the cheerleaders.

Ella with the pom poms that she refused to give back

Aww!

Cool quote in the park.

Team Ella Grace with the Pretty Face...minus me behind the camera!

The walk was a mile long....Ella probably walked about half of it.

Crossing the finish line...people were cheering for her but she only had playing in the park on her mind!

We finally got to meet this family....but the girls had had enough by this point.  At least we got one pic of them smiling : )

Ella overheated....she looked horrible.  This pic just doesn't show just how red and blotchy she was.

We sat in the shade for awhile and then got faces painted!

Admiring her hearts

Love this pic

Bubba's turn

Scorpion

So cool!!!

We went back to the van and picked up Ella's stroller and then headed to the rest of ValleyFest.

We of course had to stop and check out the old cars!

This one is a hearse and had a casket in the back....I mean a tool box, lol.

We had a great day and can't wait till next year!

Great pictures : )

Some day I hope to come back to this blog and actually write something : ) I have been faithfully keeping up the other blog so if you would like to see tons of pics of the kids go to my 365 blog. These pictures were taken by a great photographer, Maria (who happens to the aunt of cutie pie Beau) and they turned out awesome!!!!!!!!

Last day of preschool.......

Today was Ella's last day of preschool. It is so hard to wrap my brain around that!!! Ella has been at this preschool for 3 years now, over her half of her life. We will miss it, but we are ready to move on. I am so very glad that we pushed for that extra year of preschool, especially given all of Ella's issues revolving around Graves' Disease. We didn't accomplish some of the academic goals that I had in mind but Ella did do a lot of amazing things!!! We finally got her bladder issues all worked out and Ella is successfully wearing panties now (thanks to bladder capacity expanding medication!) Ella's speech is so great! She can write her first and last name as well as many other letters. She can cut with regular scissors, quite well may I add! The list could go on and on, but I feel very confident that Ella is ready for Kindergarten!!! I took some comparison pictures today.

Here are Hunter (first day of Kindergarten and looking so little himself) and Ella first day of preschool September 8th, 2009

And today Ella's last day of preschool. Hunter still has another week of 2nd grade!

So stinking cute!!!

1st day of school waiting to eat breakfast
Today signing in at school. (The kids have to write their names everyday to "sign" in."

So excited to start school

So excited to be shaking her instrument during the freeze song
Walking into the school for the first day.

Getting her certificate of completion of preschool!!!!
I feel so fortunate that Ella was able to be in an intergrated setting for all 3 years of preschool. She started school not talking much beyond "mama' "dadda" "bubba" "nana" and now she talks non-stop. She started as just a baby and now she is a big 5 year old. She learned SO much from her "typical" peers!!!!!! We had some great teachers and therapists and will really miss them all!!!!!