You gotta tell me these things

Like when I name a post "The Rabbit and the Hare" Kids eat brain cells, so I don't have many left. So fixed it, except I couldn't wrap my brain around how to spell tortoise, or whatever, ugh

The Tortoise and the Hare..driving a car....

I elaborate on that more in a minute. In country you will most likely have several different drivers. Of course, there is the ever famous Niko. Niko is the bomb driver, he is a little older, very experienced and knows his stuff, also very easy going and nice.
So Niko had told us about a guys I am going to call "walter" not his real name, just go with it. So, Niko says he "knows a guy" who can give us a great tour of Kiev, the capitol while we are staying there, this guy knows great English. So we hire said guy, Walter. First of all Walter has an issue, with his car. His car alarm goes off ohhhh, every 10-30 seconds when he is not in it. Why? Not sure. So Walter picks us up and takes us to our SDA appt. Right across from the SDA is a huge souvenir market. There, Walter "knows a guy" who sells souvenirs. We are pressured to buy souvenirs from him and only him. Slightly uncomfortable, but they are very nice and know great english. "The guys" with the souvenors tease Walter about his car alarm going off, they tell us it always does this. When we walk away to go to our SDA appt Walter leaves his keys with the souvenor guys so they can turn his alarm off, should it happen to go off while he's inside with us. Oh, ya did I mention that Walter was not able to park his car, the souvenor guy did it for him after Walter tried several times. I'm a girl, I could have done on my first try, my grandma could have done it on her first try.
If you were wondering, in this story Walter is the Tortoise,
I have to go clean while the baby is sleeping.
To Be Continued.............................................................

For Me

Every once in a while I look at my hubby and ask him "can you believe WE get to keep her?" To say we are in love is an understatement.
People comment to me all the time how in love we look (Alanna and I) hehe, and we are, like a newborn and mother getting to know each other.
I kiss her toes, breath in her breath, memorize the color of her eyes, squeeze her chubby legs, hug her close, press her cheeks against mine, etc... It is like God made her for me, my child. And the thing is, He did, as her birth mother carried her in her womb, as she lay in a hospital with no visitors, then in an oprhanage crib for 15 months, God already knew she was mine. Because first of all she is His, and we had prayed for another child, and He knew the perfect one.
Sorry, I tend to get sentimental on Sundays. Ha!

Eating Skills

Many people ask questions about what she can and can't do. I understand that people are curious, especially if they don't know anything about how down syndrome effects development. The easiest way to explain it is, whatever it is, she will do, it will just take longer. You know how babies go through stages, it's so much fun, but it goes by so fast, we get to linger and enjoy longer!
I have no anxiety over what she will do when, but when she does the smallest things, we all rejoice with her.
She's got a pincher grasp, on one hand, but refuses to use it while eating!

First she tries to simply hover over the food and see if it will come to her.
She will pick up the food, and try to put it in her mouth, sometimes she succeeds, sometimes not. Either way, it's always cute.

Giardia Beware Poopy Post

Yes, sometimes you bring home some little unwelcome guests. So makes sure that your pediatrician orders a stool test. Alanna's came back psoitive for Giardia. It's a parasite caused by dirty water, and since it lives in the intestines, it is passed easily in any "daycare" type setting.
She didn't look like she was having any symptoms, no loose stool, the opposite as a matter of fact.
Then she got diagnosed, and it was like all of sudden she was having oily loose stools. But she is such a healthy chubby little thing, it didn't seem like it could be making her very sick.

Well, she's been on the medicine for 3 days now, and guess what.
That acid reflux, gone! Before I couldn't even give her the smallest amount of juice/water, it came back up like a volcano. She was constantly spitting up, and she had 3 episodes of vomiting. All symptoms of Giardia, who knew?

It is Wednesday morning, and the last time I saw her spit up anything was Sunday. She must be feeling so much better!
And yet, things like this make me so sad, there are hundreds, thousands, of babies, not only all alone in a crib, but suffering from the most treatable things, that are causing them so much pain.

Cool Story

Cool Story: I was on the phone the other morning with the lady who does the referals at our pediatricians office. She asked why I needed a referal for PT. I said "she has Down Syndrome" She then asked me "are these girls you have adopted relatives?"
I told her no, and she told me how much she admires me, that always makes me a little uncomfortable Then she exclaimed ý"I was sitting behind the CUTEST baby with DS at church yesterday!
Me:"umm, what church did you go to yesterday?" Her "Lifepoint, in Byron" Me: "That was ME!"
She was not expecting that.(neither was I) She said her and her husband had the hardest time paying attention because the baby was cute and the Mommy looked so in love. Then she said "you are blonde right?" LIke she was still having a hard time believing it was me. Haha, "yes, this week I am blonde"
The funniest thing is, our pastor had opened service talking about how you don't know how you might affect the people sitting behind you.
Oh, my, I have no idea why a child with DS needed to impact that lady on Sunday, but I feel honored it was us!

Her Mama

People have asked if she shows attachment, andy knowledge of who her Mama and Daddy are. Yes!!
A couple days ago she started crying whenever I put her down, uh oh!! Ha, I love it! And she doesn't cry long if I don't go back and get her, which I do about half the time, it's hard not to!
I don't think I've explained exactly how unconnected she was to everything when we met her.
Some things we have been working on:

Encouraging her to crawl to us. She had no clue to do this, if nooone ever picks you up or interacts with you, why would you?

Encouraging her to put her arms up when we go to pick her up. You know, how babies do that.

And of course, as you already know from my last post, smiling for joy!

Last night we were at a friends house for dinner. She was a little cranky. She was playing on the floor, kind of happy kind of not, everyone had played with her trying to cheer her up, but she was not her usual happy self. I was sitting in a chair, I leaned down, and said something to her. She looked up and saw me and got the biggest smile and inch wormed crawled as fast as she could to me, then stuck her arms as high up as they would go for me to pick her up!
It was one of the best things ever!!
Yes, she know who her Mama is! And this morning when I woke up, Gary was holding her and she reached out for me!! Poor Daddy. Hehehe.