I FORGOT AN IMPORTANT DATE!!

An amazing, important, completely and totally special once-in-a-lifetime milestone. And I missed it. And I was sooooo looking forward to celebrating. We'll still celebrate. It will be late though. Darn it. On Aug 10, after going about our day, sleeping in and hanging out at the lake, the sun finally set on the day that marked the last day that Dasha lived the same amount of time as a loved daughter, sister, and granddaughter as she did an orphan. Get that?????? She's now been a wanted, cared-for, adored precious family member for LONGER than she was unloved, abandoned, and hopeless. I've been looking forward to celebrating that day for 2 years, 8 months, and 9 days and I MISSED IT! AAAARRRRGGGHHH!!! Tomorrow, we celebrate. Special dinner and dessert, maybe festive plates from the dollar store or a present even. There WILL be pictures.

World Down syndrome Day!!

I already posted the lists of 21 things about my sweet kiddos.  One of the coolest things about the the IDSC is the video they made for World Down syndrome Day!

Please check it out!

21 Things About Dasha

1. She’s a people pleaser.  She is never more happy than when she’s “helping”.

2. She has no words.  Lots of sounds, some specific, & lots of signs.  Some sounds are very purposeful.  But no actual words.

3. Dasha understands everything.  I can say “go get your shoes” or “go get Jack’s drink” and she does.  M thinks she will be a waitress specializing in beverages. 

4. She has a recent obsession with combs.  We keep several in a drawer in the bathroom and she keeps getting them out to play with.  It makes her dad nuts.  Crazy girl.

5.  She loves movies.  For at least 10 mins.  Sometimes she’ll watch longer; sometimes she must run around and then watch; sometimes it’s over after 10 mins.

6. Dasha is a mess.  She’s like pigpen, from Charlie Brown.  She always needs to be washed; hands and face especially.

7. Dasha was adopted from a Ukrainian orphanage.  She’s been home 2 years and 3 months.  It’s easy to forget that she wasn’t always here.

8. She’s still learning to play with appropriately with toys.  She doesn’t throw things as much anymore, but imaginative play is still a work in progress.

9. Her hair was super short when we brought her home and it grew and grew.  We cut it into a really cute bob just over a year ago.  It’s now almost that long again (grows fast) and I’m trying to decide if we should cut it again or let it grow through the summer.

10. Our girl loves water.  A big swimming pool, a bathtub, a sensory table at school, a sink full of water; doesn’t matter.

11. Her brother has a particular blue blankie that is his favorite.  So of course, we had to get Dasha the pink version of the same blankie.  Yay for me – she loves it!  It goes to bed with her and in the van and

12. Dasha loves books.  Sometimes she even looks through the whole thing.  Sometimes she just wants to see how many she can get off the bookshelf before I stop her.

13. Dasha is a runner.  We have to hold her hand very tightly or she will run away (and she is crazy quick).

14. She will be in kindergarten next year.  We haven’t had her transition meeting yet, but since she’s behind Jack by only a year, I’m comfortable with the process this time.  Looks like Dasha will even be in Jack’s class.  I hope that will be a good thing for both of them.

15. Dasha is completely incapable of being still.  She is in constant motion.

16.  She loves her brothers and sister.  Loves.  If one of them comes with me to pick her up from school, I am totally chopped liver.  If we all sit down to watch a movie she is all over one of the big boys.  It’s quite adorable.

17. Dasha loves to hug people.  It’s awesome that she’s so friendly.  Unfortunately, she hugs everyone, including strangers at the quickie mart.  It’s not always appropriate or appreciated.  We’re trying to teach her to not show affection indiscriminately.

18. Dasha is a very busy girl.  She doesn’t sit still for long.  Even at dinner.  We still buckle her into her booster seat at most meals so she doesn’t take a walk in the middle of a meal!

19. Food.  Dasha loves food.  She’s doing great with a spoon and fork and most finger foods too.  Unfortunately, our little miss came home from Ukraine with many eating issues, one of which was the she would stuff as much food in her mouth as possible, thereby leading to many choking incidents.  We learned to only give her a little amount at a time but we’ve been able to increase that in most cases.  However, gold fish crackers seem to be a “trigger” food.  We still have to watch her with these.  Dry cereal, oyster crackers, other similar stuff is fine, just not gold fish.  Weird huh?

20. Dasha seems to be an animal fan.  She loves our dog and any other animal she encounters.  We have to watch her though – she can be very enthusiastic which can translate into not careful or gentle enough sometimes.

21. My last thing for this list is an odd one.  Dasha loves music – not odd.  However, not too long ago we heard a russian-ish version of Jingle Bells and it completely freaked her out.  Completely.  Freaked.  Her.  Out.  We still aren’t sure why.  She’s been home over 2 years.  Weird.

So that’s our girl.  Much loved, much enjoyed, much cherished.

Who I Am

The IDSC (International Down Syndrome Coalition for Life) is running a campaign in honor of World Down syndrome Day called “Who I Am”.  It’s all about individuals with Down syndrome, and how they are indeed, individuals.

Since there are 2 little cuties with Down syndrome in our house, they tend to be lumped together a lot.  I’ll try to separate them a bit for the next few days at least.  It’s been a fun thing, in blog land, to make a list of the top 21 things about your person with Ds in October (Down syndrome Awareness month) or on March 21 (World Down syndrome Day).  Since Oct. is the month of Jack’s birth, I usually do his list then.  And Dasha’s birthday just happens to be on Mar.21 so I’ll post her tomorrow, along with a link for Jack’s last one.  And I’ll be looking for cute pics to post too!

Gotcha Day, 2 years later

(Of course, this post is late. I started it several days ago but had trouble finding the older pic and kind of forgot until now. So, oops.) 2 years. 2 years. Really?? It has been 2 years since our girl was really and truly in our arms?? There are so many days to commemorate, when you adopt. The day we committed. The day we traveled and received her referral. The day we met her. Court. And now, gotcha day, the day we "sprung" her from the orphanage, the day she wore her very own clothes, the day she left the orphanage grounds for EVER, the day this momma dreamed about for months beforehand. It feels like yesterday. It feels like 100 years ago. For comparison sake, here's our girl the very first time we saw her in person:

And here is our precious princess, 2 years later:

Amazing, right? This people, is the power of adoption!

Check out This Face

Dasha’s class already had their Fall party and this is just a random photo I got.  But look how happy she is.  Look at the joy.  This child was thrown away at birth.  This child was languishing in an orphanage.  Maybe some other family would have gone to get her.  Maybe she would be enjoying the love of some other mom and dad right now.  But maybe not.  Her baby house transferred residents at the age of 4.  I don’t like to think about that.  But this picture got me thinking (as I do often) about her birth mom.  Does she miss Dasha?  Does she wonder about her daughter’s new life?  Does she even know that Dasha was adopted?  I wish I knew these answers.  I need to start working on her annual report; I’ll definitely include this photo. 

Dasha’s 2nd year of preschool

Dasha started school on the same day as everyone else so that’s nice for me.  Hopefully the schedules will be the same all year.  Little miss is in the same school as last year and we have lots of familiar faces on her team.  Unfortunately there are a lot of faces that we don’t get this year so that makes me sad.  When we had her IEP last year we got to update a few things but there really weren’t a lot of big changes.  Speech is still the area she struggles with the most, followed closely by OT stuff, lots of fine motor in her hands and face (chewing properly is an issue).  Gross motor is her best area but there’s plenty of room for improvement there too (we don’t call her “moose” because of her giant size! – it’s all wobble related).

She was the last to go to school so I took a few extra minutes to take some photos.  I have learned that Dasha photographs either great, or not at all great.  Unfortunately most of the shots I get are the latter.  But here are a couple not too bad ones:

Cute, usual, first day of school next to the front door photo :)

My sad attempt at an artsy pic, which was fine until she turned around and saw the tree (our former Ukrainian still has issues with foliage!).

And getting her name tag from teacher.  Does that teacher look familiar?  She’s Jack’s teacher from last year!

So Miss D is going to preschool 4 days a week, 3 hours a day, 9-12.  She gets PT, OT, and ST during the course of those days.  2 of the days are “big” class days, which means there are kids with and without IEPs in class.  I think there are 7 kids on those days.  The other 2 days are “small” class days.  That is when only the kids with an IEP are in class, I think there are 4 those days, all girls :).  As a matter of fact I can only think of 1 boy on big class days.  Poor kid.

Dash has the same teacher and aide every day.  There’s a little one who goes every day the same as D and she has an aide assigned to her so there are 3 grown-ups in the room at any given time.  The therapists usually spend their time with the kiddos in the room so that adds to the grown-up count.  PT usually pulls the little one out, to go work in the motor room or on the playground.

This is our 4th year at this school.  It’s a preschool/day care founded especially on the premise that kids with special needs not only deserve to be educated and given the therapy that can enrich and enhance their lives, but they deserve to do it in an atmosphere of acceptance from their peers.  There are lots of typically developing kids that enjoy the benefits of the preschool and plenty that are there for day care.  But it’s not unusual to see a child in a wheelchair or one using a walker playing right alongside.  I wonder if some of those kids notice a difference when they go to kindergarten.  Hope not.