Long Overdue Updates

I know it has been a long time since I have updated the blog.  Summer has been exciting but very busy!  I am going to do 2 blog posts in 1: Claudia's birthday party and a general 6 month update.  Here you go:


Ok, in my last post, Claudia had just turned 4 years old.  The following weekend we threw her a party.  It turned out wonderful.  So many of our family and friends came out to celebrate and we had beautiful weather.  Claudia did very well and had a great time.  She even opened her own presents.  We were wary about how that would go, but she quickly got the hang of it!

This is the cake that I made for her party.  The inside of this one was also polk-a-dot (like the one I made for her actual birthday).  Sadly I don't have any pictures of the inside (so if anyone has any, please send them to me)



I also made cupcakes!

Feeding her cake :)  Thank you Ben Schoenfelder for capturing some beautiful moments!



Here is my lil Claudia with my cousin Claudia!  So beautiful to see them together :)

Doing her favorite thing!

Happy girl with her Daddy!

Trying to get a family pic with this many people is near impossible!  Claudia decided she would rather steal my dad's hat and put it on me :)



Present time!

Claudia got many great gifts from her family and friends, I don't think we have even taken all of them out of the boxes yet as we are quickly running out of room in our little house!

 

 

 

Can you believe that Claudia has already been home for OVER 6 MONTHS!!!??!!! It is incredible. I am amazed at how far she has come, I know that I say that a lot but it is soo true! 

 

BEFORE:

 

When we first met Claudia, she was a frustrated little girl who was unable to express herself without hurting herself or others. 

 

She very rarely smiled or laughed unless she was eating. 

 

She did not like to be held and most certainly would not cuddle for very long at all. 

 

Claudia could take only a few steps on her own and was very unsteady on her feet.  She did not like to walk very far while holding hands and would tire very quickly. 

 

Claudia was not very interested in many toys at all and it was difficult to keep her occupied.  She threw everything!  She was unable to keep herself occupied and required constant attention.  She tried to eat crayons and when she would try to color, she would dot the page.

 

Developmentally she was somewhere around one year of age.

 

NOW:

 

Now, Claudia is often found smiling and giggling.  She loves to look at herself in the mirror or in pictures and videos.  She usually laughs when she sees herself. 

 

She still loves her food and is slowly getting better at using utensils although she would still rather use her hands. 

 

Claudia will often ask to be picked up by Jason or myself and enjoys it (especially when her Daddy swings her around while holding her).  She still does not often like to be held by others and we are OK with that, it shows us that she has bonded with us!  I can ask Claudia to cuddle with me and she willingly climbs into my lap or lays down next to me. 

 

Claudia is walking!  She can walk and turn around all on her own now.  She is getting more and more stable in the grass everyday.  Claudia is also exploring her independence with walking as well... sometimes when she needs to be holding our hands she does not want to.  Her walking pace is getting faster all the time and she will soon be running.  I think she is now walking more than crawling or bear walking.

 

Claudia has many toys that she plays with now and even does quite a bit of pretend play with her dolls.  She is picking up on games that require skills and for her to think a little more.  Claudia still likes to throw things but not quite as much as she used to.  She has also learned how to use crayons much more appropriately over the last few weeks! 

 

We believe that Claudia is developmentally reaching her "terrible two's" now.  She is starting to throw short tantrums when she does not get what she wants.  She knows what we ask her to do and has a very good understanding of English.  When we ask her to stop doing something, she gives us "the look" haha. 

 

Claudia amazes me every day!  She continues to watch other people and imitate them.  She has a very good memory and will demonstrate things she saw days ago.  We are very encouraged by the progress we have seen in the last 6 months.  I look forward to hearing what her teacher thinks once Claudia goes back to school.  She is a totally different child!

 

 

 



Loving her car rides!

Showing off her walking skills (and running away from Daddy)

My little book worm!

I hope she can read to us soon!

Either kissing her doll or knocking heads with it (she thinks it is hilarious to knock heads with people!  Thankfully she is gentle about it)

And here is my sweet little girl walking!  (Don't mind her belly sticking out... it means she is finally growing out of her 18 month clothes!)

 

 

Claudia's 4th Birthday

Yesterday, Claudia turned 4 years old! 

 

It was a pretty typical day, she went to school and took a nap when she got home.  Her naps have been hit or miss lately, sometimes she sleeps, other times she keeps herself awake.  Well, yesterday she was out cold.  I had to wake her up and she was not liking that one bit!  Even after having a snack she was tired and grumpy, she kept trying to fall back asleep. 

 

After dinner we gave her a small gift (VeggieTales DVD's, her favorite) but she was not in the mood to open it, she was super grumpy.

 

A little later, after letting her settle down for a while, we sang to her and gave her cake.  She loved the cake (this morning it was sitting on the table in it's container and she kept asking for some lol). 

 

I spent all of Wednesday making the cake.  It took a long time but I was very happy with the results! Here are some pics :)  Sorry some of the cake pictures are so poor, I took them with my phone.

 

 

Step one, cake balls!  They leaked a little!



Step 2, Cake with cake balls

Step 3, Stack and frost the cake

Step 4, Decorate! (Used homemade fondant)

 

 

 

So excited about the cake!

Enough pictures already, I WANT CAKE!

 

Step 5, cut the cake

 

Pretty!



Step 6, eat it!

 

 

Photo Shoot!

Here are some of the pictures that we had taken at JC Penny.  We were very impressed.  Thank you Groupon for the chance to get these done at a great price!  Enjoy!

 

 

5 months home!

As of yesterday, Claudia has been home for 5 months and we have known her for over 6 months!  A half a year, ALREADY!  Oh my, where does the time go?  Claudia has come such a long way.  We are so proud of her.  She amazes us everyday.

Claudia is SMART!  She may not be able to verbalize things or move around great but she picks up on things so quickly.  Just yesterday I gave her a pair of cheap children's sunglasses that she could play with (so maybe she would stop taking our glasses from out faces) after she had played with them for a while she brought them to me and used my shirt to wipe the lenses clean.  We do this all the time after she gets finger smudges all over ours!  She will even pretend like she wants a hug or kiss so that when we get close to her she can take our glasses.  Haha!

Every Sunday at Church, Claudia takes us right to her room and asks for help to get in.  A couple of weeks ago we were there pretty early so Jason was walking around the children's area with Claudia letting her lead the way.  She took him to where they do story time, went and grabbed a piece of carpet, sat it on the floor and wanted Jason to sit on it so that she could sit in his lap.  She then pointed towards the stage.  Too cute!

We were having some mildew problems in our bedroom so Jason had to take the walls down and re-drywall half of the bedroom (I love how handy he is).  When it was close to being finished I took Claudia in to check it out.  The closet doors were leaning against the wall; she pointed to them and then pointed towards the closet.  I tell you, she does not miss a thing!

Claudia is walking very well now, she can go quite a way by herself.  She still falls occasionally and has a very wide stance when she walks and her feet turn out.  We are watching to see if it will normalize or if we should get some type or orthotic or AFO.

Today is the first day of the second week of summer school for Claudia.  According to her teacher, she has been loving it!  She has also been very cuddly with her teachers giving lots of hugs and blowing kisses.  They must think she is a different girl than the one that started school in April. 

Claudia turns 4 next week.  It is so hard to believe.  She is still so tiny!  She is now wearing 24 month clothes.  She has grown about an inch and maybe gained a pound.  We hope that with good nutrition she will continue to grow but she will always be small.  She has genetics at work against her when it comes to her height!  She is in the 5-10% for  height on the Down syndrome curve.  Seeing her next to typical children her age makes me realize how small she really is.  Most children her age are at least a head taller than she is.

I have spent the last month or so preparing for my NCLEX exam, that is the nursing boards.  I took my test last Wednesday and found out that I passed on Friday.  The test shut down at the minimum number of questions (75).  The way the test works is that if after 75 question it is unsure if you will statistically pass or fail, it will continue asking you questions, up to 265 until it decides if you have passed or failed.  It is a really smart test!  So now i can proudly call myself an RN!  I had an  interview on Friday with a follow up tomorrow and I am expecting a few calls this week and will hopefully get a couple more interviews.

And now for what you really want to see, pictures of Claudia!

Claudia's hair was so long and uneven that I decided it was time for a cut.  I did not want to take her somewhere to have it done because I did not want to pay for a bad haircut and did not think she would cooperate very well.  I decided to attempt it myself.  Anyone that knows me well, should know that this is a big deal for me, I can barely cut a straight line on paper!  I sat Claudia at the table with some crackers and she did very well, I don't think I did too bad a job either!

Before

After

This is how excited Claudia gets when she goes for a ride. (Don't worry, I was not driving when I took the picture)

So excited to go to school.

Look at that genuine smile!

Bed head!

Bed bead #2!

Here are the sun glasses after i put them on her.

She decided they fit better upside down!

Lots of balls + Pack and Play = Instant ball pit
Thanks Heidi for the idea!

This past Saturday we wnet to JC Penny with a Groupon and had family portraits done.  We were VERY impressed with the quality of them and can't wait to get them back later this week to share!

A Relaxed 4th of July

We had a nice 4th of July.  I spent the morning studying while Jason and Claudia got to play.  We spent the evening with Jason's family.  We did not see any fire works and id not go to any parades but we had a lovely holiday anyway!

 

We love this girl so much :) She always makes us laugh!

 

 

Family pictures are near impossible, she does not like to cooperate.  As soon as the camera comes out, she wants nothing to do with it.

OK Mom, enough pictures already!

I hope everyone had a wonderful day.  Tonight, Claudia is spending her first night away from home.  It is a trial for if/when we do something for our 5 year anniversary later this month.  I hope she is good!

School is out!

Claudia had her last day of school on Thursday.  She is off for two whole weeks!  Lots of time to spend together and play!  Over the last few days we have spent time together with friends.

On Friday, Claudia and I got to hang out with Natalie and Sara Keller.  Our girls were both adopted from Colombia at the same time.  Hopefully someday they will learn to get along, Claudia cannot resist pulling Sara's hair, ugh!  So, it is difficult to get a picture of the two of them together!  Here are some photos of all of the fun stuff at the indoor playground we went to:

Claudia loved the light floor, even if she did not weigh enough to make it do anything!

Bounce house!  While she does not bounce, she does enjoy being in it!

 Claudia really like the car, especially honking the horn, but she was not interested in moving it.

Kid sized stairs, she loves climbing!

Tunnel!

She had a lot of fun in the house.

Feeding the baby with a pan.

One of the few pics of Claudia and Sara.



She really liked the roller coaster! 

Here is a video of Claudia right after she learned how to push herself down it, with Sara encouraging her!


 On Saturday Jason, Claudia and I went to a party for our friends Dustin and Heidi.  They are such fun people and are expecting their second lil one.  They are such great and fun loving parents, we can't wait to meet their new addition.  Claudia was pretty well behaved despite not getting in a nap.  She ate well, she even ate some veggies!  Woo hoo!  She really like the lil kiddie pool, she sat at the edge and splashed! 

Sharing her tortilla chips.

Yum!

She wanted help going down the slide.  I don't get it since her slide at home is bigger :-p

We look forward to many more fun times with our friends and families this summer.  But, for the next 3 weeks, I will be locked away studying for my NCLEX exam!  Wish me luck :)