Aubrey and her mullet

I can't wait until Aubrey's hair is long enough so that I can play with it everyday! For now, I have to wait for her mullet to go away. But, I did manage to get these two piggies in the other day. They were so cute!!! The hair on top her head isn't even long enough for a little clip!

Christmas Recap

Happy Holidays!! We got a lot of snow over the holiday around here and we were able to enjoy some sledding and snow ball fighting!

Devin created this awesome ginger bread house with his uncle Justin.

Aubrey looked adorable Christmas eve in her red dress!

Aubrey and Logan at their great grandma and grandpa's.

Christmas morning!

Aubrey loved the dolls and accessories she received!




Devin had a "Wall-E Christmas". His favorite gift was M-O...the little robot in his hand.





Aubrey and Logan with Grandpa!

Merry Christmas!

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday! I have pictures to post soon!!

Ear Infections Number One and Twins!!

No...we are not having twins! We already have them! Aubrey and Logan have ear infection number one of the season. Hopefully this will be the only one, but if not, Logan will be heading in to get his second set of tubes. The two of them spend so much time together and are so much a like these days. Their developmental age and size are almost identical and I get asked if they are twins daily. Right now, I would have to say that Logan is slightly ahead of Aubrey with speech, but she has passed him in gross motor skills.
Aubrey has developed quite the personality. Poor Logan is starting to get pushed around by her....hopefully she will just keep him on his toes and not trample over him. She is a great example for him to follow (skills wise), but she irritates the heck out of him. She is always in his face!! Poor boy!

Help bring Lily home!

Good friends of mine are raising money to adopt Lily, a 5 year old girl in Eastern Europe who happens to have Down syndrome. Help bring Lily home by visiting their blog and bidding on items in their auction. Item #9 happens to be a session with me for your family! It's a full session including the high-resolution CD and $50 in prints! Get on over to their blog and help bring Lily home!!

Times Square Video is Online!

In September, Logan appeared in the 2009 Times Square Video at the NYC Buddy Walk. The entire video is now available to view online. Click Here to watch! Logan is at 10:48. (which is about 1/2 way through) I love how the video shows how their abilities are more important than their disability.

Building a christmas gift

My kids are getting a playhouse for christmas and my dad and brother started it last week. Just as they got going it started to snow! Devin enjoyed helping them and playing in the snow!

Holidays

This holiday season has been a bit different than the last few years...I can't seem to keep the ornaments on the tree. My trees are now decorated on only the top halves. Aubrey and Logan steal ornaments and run with them. I have to admit that it is darn cute though.

A quick post...

Logan has been doing a few super cute things lately...I am working hard to get them on video. When you ask him now old he is he holds up two fingers on one hand and he also attempts to jump and says "jump" when you ask him to. It's so adorable. I can't wait to see the look on his face when his little feet get off the ground!!

Getting around outside

A few pictures of the kids enjoying our last day before the snow comes!! Logan is so cute with his hat...he insists on putting it on himself!

Logan's 30 Month Check-Up

Today, Logan went to Dr. B for his 30 month check. We discussed his sleep/energy issues and his umbilical hernia. I really was hoping for a sleep study now, but he convinced me to wait til 36 months to see if he will continue to grow out of his suspected apnea. He thinks it is getting better not worse and that we may see it continue to get better. But, he said he would go ahead with it at 36 months if I still was concerned. I guess I am ok with that.
As far as his hernia, it seems that his intestines are still poking out a bit and he said that he will have a surgeon look at it when Logan is 4 yrs old. He suspects that it may need to be fixed at that point.
Here are his stats, I was a little disappointed about his height. He grew less than an inch over the last 6 months and is about to fall off the chart. On one hand, it is so fun that he is such a little guy yet. I can still pick him up and it's like he is taking his time growing up....I don't mind that. But, on the other hand it is sad to see him next to kids his age. He is the size of most 18 month olds.

Height: 33 inches (1%) (75% on the DS chart!)
Weight: 28.5 pounds (27%) (95% on the DS chart!)

Logan also showed off a little at his appointment. He showed the doctor how he is trying to jump and he used a couple of words. Of course, his doctor is very proud of him and how much he changes each him he sees him.

Help a child this Christmas!

Reece's Rainbow is an organization dedicated to promoting the international adoption of children with Down syndrome. By raising money to offer adoption grants on waiting children, they are able to give adoptive families the extra financial help they need to bring a child with Down syndrome home from a miserable existence in overseas orphanages. Their Sponsorship Program provides a unique opportunity for anonymous donors to contribute to the adoption journey of our families. These children are viewed as outcasts with no ability to learn or be functional members of society. They languish in mental institutions, hidden away from the world in shame.

Please watch this video and consider being a waiting child's Christmas sponsor. Reece's Rainbow has a Christmas Angel Tree Project where if you donate $35 dollars or more for a child, you will receive a beautiful porcelain photo ornament of your sponsored child to hang on your tree! This is a very special way to "share Christmas" with an orphaned child, and to make it possible for other families to afford the high cost of rescuing them from orphanages and mental institutions around the world!

If you choose to give, consider choosing Lily. Click HERE and make sure that you specify that you want to support "Zoromski Family - Lilya". Lily needs funds to be able to join her new family here in Wisconsin!

CLICK HERE for the Reece's Rainbow Video!!!

Big Announcement!!!

Check out the side bar to the right! Yes, our local group, the Down Syndrome Family Network of the Fox Cities, is proud to announce that our special guest for our 1st Annual Fox Cities Down Syndrome Awareness Walk will be Rachel Coleman!!! Rachel will be performing Signing Time Live at our walk!!!

Rachel Coleman is the co-creator and host of the children's DVD and public television series Signing Time! Rachel’s oldest daughter Leah was born profoundly deaf. After learning American Sign Language (ASL), Rachel wanted to create a way for all children to learn to communicate with her daughter.

Rarely do we see individuals who believe in the power of one to change the world. Idealistic as it may seem, Rachel Coleman is just such a person. Signing Time! was developed based on her personal experiences. Rachel learned from her two daughters the power of ASL. Leah, who is deaf, showed her mother how much easier it was to have a baby that signed and could tell her what she needed. Rachel was especially excited to see how knowing ASL accelerated Leah’s spelling and vocabulary skills as she grew up. Her daughter Lucy, who was born with spina bifida and cerebral palsy, was never expected to communicate in any fashion. But by growing up in a home where ASL was the primary language, she learned to sign, found that ASL was a powerful means of physical therapy and eventually learned to speak the words she’d grown up signing. As a result, Rachel committed to share what her daughters had taught her with the world. This was the motivation behind Signing Time.

Signing Time teaches the basics of ASL to children of ALL abilities a fun and engaging way. Since the release of their first video in 2002, Signing Time has spread to customers in all fifty states and twenty different countries almost entirely by word of mouth. Parents and professionals everywhere praise the Signing Time series for opening up a world of possibilities for their children, whether they are using ASL as a means to communicate with their babies before they develop speech, or learning a second language, or even for children with special needs for whom speech is a challenge.

Signing Time's mission is to create programs and opportunities designed to dissolve the barriers that exist for children (or anyone) with disabilities.

What would you do??

Logan has his 30 month appointment on Monday. I am anxious to see how much he has grown and I also am considering a few other things. I am thinking of asking for a sleep study to try to get to the bottom of Logan's low energy issues and strange sleeping habits. He is a very light sleeper and also has a very hard time waking up. He also sleeps in very crazy positions. Would these be reasons to have the study done? I am also considering asking if we can have Logan's umbilical hernia fixed. Logan was born with a VERY large umbilical hernia, which has for the most part resolved itself, but he has been left with A LOT of extra skin that sticks out quite far. I am torn about whether it would be silly for me to put him through getting it fixed. I have been told he will grow into it, but I am not convinced that he will. I also know there are much worse things that I could be dealing with. I understand if your are thinking "she's crazy" to worry about something like that. I have to ask, but it may end up being something cosmetic, if it has healed completely. I am even embarrassed to ask his doctor, because I don't know how he is going to react. Do you need a picture to know what I mean?

A new look!

I have given the blog a little makeover and I am hoping that this motivates me to start to blog regularly again! So, if you are reading from facebook, google reader, email, etc...stop on by and check it out and check back often...I promise that you won't be reading the same post for weeks at a time! :)

Help bring Lily home!

A friend and member of my local DS support group has made the amazing decision to adopt a beautiful little girl who happens to have Down syndrome. Click on the button below to visit Michelle's blog and read about their journey. Please consider helping their family with this very costly process so the Lily can join their family and avoid being institutionalized.

Grab This Button

Down Syndrome Births Drop in U.S. as More Women Abort - ABC News

Down Syndrome Births Drop in U.S. as More Women Abort - ABC News

Great Crayons for Beginners!

Last week, Logan's OT mentioned some crayons that write very brightly without pressing down hard. I looked and couldn't find them, but I came across some window crayons and I bought them for Devin (because he is obsessed with decorating!). They work great on the windows, but they also work great for Logan to color with. He doesn't have to press hard at all and he gets great colors from them! He also discovered that they write great on my table. I want to let Logan use them on the patio door too, but I haven't done it yet. I'm not sure if it is a good thing for him right now, to be encouraged to write on walls.

Happy Halloween!

I just love costumes for little ones!! Here are my kiddos this year!

Where has October gone?

I can't believe I only posted three times this month!! And it was Down syndrome awareness month! Lately, I have been struggling with how to prioritize my time....and I guess blogging fell low on my list, but I am slowly getting more organized and feeling less frazzled. I just have too many things going at once right now. I am figuring it out though. I've found that I love photography, but struggle to decide how much time to devote to it. Time with my kids is number one, but there is always laundry to do, cleaning to attempt and groceries to shop for when I would rather play with my kids.
Down syndrome awareness month does mean a lot to me...in fact, I have spent a lot of time this month planning for next October. Planning for the Fox Cities Down Syndrome Awareness Walk has kept me thinking about what is important for me and other families who love someone with Down syndrome.
Logan is doing fantastic this month! He is showing off new skills each week at gymnastics class, he is talking more each day, he is a little comedian who can make anyone laugh, he has started coming to me for hugs at random moments during the day, he loves to look at books, he loves cars, he hates bed time, he watches and signs along with his Signing Time DVDs, he loves to play with playdoh, he can draw lines and circles, he "runs" around the house with his brother and sister and he says hi to strangers at the store.
I can't wait for next month to find out what he will do next!

No Cavities!

Logan visited his new children's dentist today. He sat perfectly and let them look at all of his teeth. All looks great and we were told he has all of the teeth that a typical child would have right now. He will get his teeth cleaned 6 months from now! Go Logan!

Happy Birthday Baby Girl!

Click on the collage to view it larger.

Aubrey will be one on Friday!

As if she couldn't get enough of her cake with her fingers! She stuck her face right in it! Here's a sneak peak of her cake smash today!

October is Down Syndrome Awareness Month!

We walked in the Down Syndrome Association of Wisconsin Down Syndrome Awareness Walk on September 27th. Thank you to all of our friends and family who participated in the walk and/or made pledges to Team Logan! We are so blessed to have friends and family who support us. I am already looking forward to next year and our 1st annual Fox Cities Down Syndrome Awareness Walk on October 2, 2010!

Logan in Times Square!!!

Over the weekend, Logan appeared on the Times Square jumbotron! My friend Megan was there and she took a picture of him up there for me!!! Thanks so much Megan!! It still brings tears to my eyes every time I look at the picture. I can't believe he was up there for everyone to see. He was up there to celebrate the New York City Buddy Walk for Down Syndrome Awareness along with many other children and adults with Down syndrome. I will post the entire video that was shown in Times Square soon!

Here he is!!!

Wordless Wednesday

I will never get over those beautiful eyes...

Could you say no to him? The eyes get me every time!

The Best Bubbles Ever!

These ARE the best bubbles ever! We played with these yesterday at 8am and there were still bubbles stuck all over at 8pm that night! Why is this good, you may ask? Well, when Logan was younger his OT would blow bubbles to help with his visual tracking and fine motor skills (popping them with his pointer finger). The bubbles we used back then always popped when they hit the carpet. But with these, you can actually get them to land on your finger or anywhere and they don't pop right away. They're also slow moving in the air. Ours float around the room for hours!! They are so fun!! You can see them all sitting on the brown blanket in the pictures! Oh, and you can get them HERE!