My extra chromosome makes me extra cute

Fall leaf mobile - and a blog to check out

Inspired by the mobile in this post of "Enjoying the small things",

I decided to copy her idea.

Super easy, but I really like the results.

 I cut out some leaves out of colorful cardstock.

I used my Big Shot, but you could also draw and cut them by hand,

or trace a template or real leaves.

Then I poked some holes in the leaves, and used a needle and some crochet thread to connect the leaves, and tied them to a branch. 

And, since this month I am blogging to raise awareness for Down syndrome,

I might as well point out that the blog where I found my inspiration for this mobile,

"Enjoying the small things", is a blog that was very encouraging to me 

when we had just found out that the little girl we were expecting had Down syndrome.

Just reading about the life of this family, and how this mom had also feared that things would never be 'normal' again, 

and seeing how they simply kept 'enjoying the small things' was just what I needed.

If you're new to her blog, Nella's birth story is probably the first thing I would recommend you to read. 

Crepes Recipe: simple and delicious

My kids ALWAYS love to eat crepes, no matter what time of the day it is.

They are easy to make, out of ingredients we usually have on hand. Two important things!

The amount of choices for toppings you can use is endless: 

sometimes we only eat them with some sugar, or jam or syrup,

but you can go all out and use fruit, whipped cream, ice cream, Nutella, or whatever combination you can come up with.

In The Netherlands, where I am from, these are called "pannenkoeken", or "flensjes". 

I usually just guess the quantities, but this time I measured everything and wrote it down, so here is the recipe:

Ingredients (for 16 thin crepes):

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cup milk

2 eggs

a dash of salt

butter for baking

Combine the first 4 ingredients in a medium bowl and stir with a whisk till no longer lumpy.

Heat a non-stick frying pan, and put some butter in it (enough to cover the bottom).

Swirl the molten butter around, till bottom is greased.

Add a scoop of batter, and swirl around till the bottom of the pan is covered.

This should be a fairly thin layer.

Lift occasionally to see if the bottom is solid, with small brown speckles, like pictured.

Once the bottom looks like that, you can turn the crepe.

The second side will take less time.

I like to use 2 pans at the same time, to speed up the process.

Enjoy!

And, since I'm blogging this month to raise awareness for Down syndrome:

When I made these today, my youngest daughter, who has Down syndrome, 

and isn't really eating much for 'chunks', had crepes for the first time!

They were just soft enough for her to be able to handle small pieces. 

So I'm excited that this is a new thing she is able to eat.

She can eat pureed foods, cheerios that have been soaked in milk, etc, but tends to spit out anything chunky that we put in her mouth without having something semi-liquid to 'hide' it in. 

I wonder if it's really her being unable to handle it, or plain stubbornness :)

Shared at Craft-o-maniac and Sugar Bee Crafts.

Feeling much better...

You asked how I'm doing?

Well, I am doing much better! 

How about a little workout to prove that I am getting back to being my old self?!

31 for 21 - Day 11

21-21-21

Sick

Today a short post, because our little girl is sick.

She has an ear infection and isn't feeling too well, 

so I have lots of cuddling to do.

Here she is asleep on daddy's lap,

cute as ever...

Don't try this at home...

Did you know that people with Down syndrome are usually extremely flexible?

The first time I found my little girl sleeping in this position, I was shocked!

Just looking at it almost makes me hurt, but it doesn't bother her in the least!

I must add that we try to discourage her from sleeping like that. 

She also likes to sit up by doing the following:

She is laying flat on her tummy, then she swings her legs 180 degrees around, 

till they are in the position as pictured above, and then she pushes herself up. 

She is also able to sit up the 'normal' way, which her physical therapist prefers, 

but our daughter is pretty stubborn and prefers her own way...

A new perspective

The experience of becoming the parent of a child with Down syndrome has been an eye opener for us in many ways. 

When I was still pregnant, I tried to imagine what life would be like after our girl was born. 

I thought it would probably be hard for me to see other, typically developing children of the same age as my daughter,

 and see how they could do things that she couldn't do yet.

But reality is different: I find it interesting to see what other kids can do, but it doesn't hurt. 

I know that eventually she'll probably be able to do most of these things. 

While we expect her to be delayed, we also try to not have fixed ideas of what she will and won't be able to do. 

We try to teach her everything that we have taught her older sisters.

Our focus is on the things she can do, rather than look at the things she could be doing but isn't doing yet.

What I didn't anticipate though, is how exciting it is when she learns something new. 

We are all so proud, and she is very excited and happy about it, too!

We celebrate every new trick!

2012 NDSS Times Square Video

"Every year, NDSS reminds the world in a big way about the gifts that people with Down syndrome bring to their communities through a special video presentation on a jumbo screen in the heart of the Times Square.

The Times Square Video presentation kicks off Down Syndrome Awareness Month on the morning of the New York City Flagship Buddy Walk. NDSS receives over a thousand photo submissions for the Times Square Video contest and the featured photographs highlight children, teens and adults with Down syndrome working, playing and learning alongside friends and family. These collective images promote acceptance and inclusion, which is the foundation of NDSS and the National Buddy Walk Program."

Celebrate

Crochet Owl Hat

During a LOOOOOOOOOOOONG airplane ride I needed something to keep me

 entertained (besides the girl pictured above and her big sisters).

A crochet project seemed great: something portable, and something 

that just takes a little more time than I would normally take for a project. 

I had seen some pictures of similar hats online,

and since it basically consists of very basic shapes,

I decided no tot use an pattern, but just piece it together.

My daughter was conveniently close,

so occasionally I would try if I was still on track regarding her size.

It was a fun project, but took quite a bit of time, since there are a lot of pieces,

 that all need to be finished, and then the whole thing needs to be put together. 

But it was a fun project to keep me busy!

And as you can see, she had a LOT of fun modeling it for me.

Still blogging in the "31 for 21" challenge to raise awareness for Down syndrome.

If you want to read more about that, click the button on my side bar,

or the tab "Down syndrome" on the top of the page.

I linked up to Sarahndipities.

Scenic route

I read this inspirational quote in a newsletter we received.

The author is unknown as far as I can find. Please correct me if I am wrong...

The picture above is my own. Feel free to print it for personal use.

So far this has been so true!

We have to work a little harder to get our little one to do certain things,

but once she does them, she makes us so proud.

And if she adds one of her huge grins to it, that's even better!

A year later...

It has been almost a year that I wrote about my little girl on this blog.

Mainly because this blog is a craft blog, but once a year I do make an exception,

because October is Down syndrome awareness month.

So how has our youngest been doing this year?

She is doing great!

She is sixteen months old,

and a happy and active little girl.

She was born with a heart problem, a so-called VSD and an ASD.

That is a condition that could solve on its own, but unfortunately that wasn't the case for her.

So in November, she had to have open heart surgery.

There haven't been many moments in my life that I was SO nervous and scared as the moment when we handed her over to be taken into surgery. But there was no option, not doing it would be fatal eventually.

Luckily, she went through it like a champ. Recovery was quick, and like her cardiologist wrote later in a letter "she seems to have set all kind of records in recovery and leaving the hospital so soon". 

Since then, things have been going pretty smoothly. 

She is healthy, and keeps learning new things.

We all love her to pieces!

October is Down syndrome awareness month!

Those of you who have been reading here for longer than a year, may remember that last year I took part in the "31 for 21" challenge:

Blogging every day of the month to raise awareness for Down syndrome.

31 days for Trisomy 21

Blogging every day is time consuming, but I decided to do it anyway.

The reason?

This little girl:

Meet our youngest!

So sweet,

funny,

active, 

curious,

entertaining,

lovable,

determined.

I could go on and on and on...

And, she happens to have an extra copy of the 21st chromosome,

also called Trisomy 21,

or Down syndrome.

I hope you'll follow along while I blog every day of the month to raise awareness for Down syndrome! You could also make others aware by posting this button on your blog, or even take part in the challenge. (You don't have to blog about Down syndrome every day, only mention daily that you do it to raise awareness...)

Grab This Button

21 things I love about you

This is the last day of the "31-for-21 challenge", and I am glad I 'made' it, posting every day.
It was kind of hard, so I sort of 'cheated' here and there by keeping it short and just posting a picture. 
It takes a lot of time, and besides that, I am not one to easily share my feelings with 'the world'.

But I hope my posts have been interesting, and maybe even encouraging to someone out there that is going through similar experiences. Thanks to everyone who has been reading these posts! 

Since our baby girl has an extra copy of the 21st chromosome (Trisomy 21=Down syndrome), 

I thought I'd create a list of 21 things I love about her as my final post for the "31-for-21" challenge.

(In random order)

21 things I love about you

1. Your big blue eyes - almond shaped and all
2. The way you stare at your hands, you think they are amazing
3. Your smiles, grins and giggles
4. The way you talk, cute noises
5. The way you gaze in our eyes as you're talking to us
6. How you like to look at your big sisters when they are playing
7. How you like to smile at your big sisters
8. How you are usually sleeping between midnight and 7 - thank you, little girl!
9. Your long, dark eyelashes
10. Your chubby cheeks
11. Seeing you kick your little legs happily when you spot one of us
12. Your sweet baby smell - except for the diapers ;)
13. How you are enjoying your baths
14. The way you grab our fingers
15. The cute long 'tail' of hair on top of your head
16. Your chubby hands and feet
17. The cute little sandal gap between your big toe and the next one
18. How you like to suck your thumbs, either one is fine
19. The way you stretch and try to roll over when you see a favorite toy or something interesting
20. How you've taught us that perfection comes in different forms
21. How you have shown us that having a baby with Down syndrome is not a bad thing - actually we're very lucky to have YOU

Love you, baby girl!

A beautiful day at the park

This weekend we went to the park to take some pictures.

The weather was so nice.

Loving all the fall colors!

These girls were excited to find a squirrel.

And the squirrel didn't seem to mind them so close, he was just looking at them.

Little sister was content to hang out in her stroller, taking it all in...

Favorite toy!

This little cat is Little Miss N's favorite toy.

Whenever she spots it, she HAS to get it!

So we use it a lot to get her to roll over, reach for things, etc.

It's nice to have something that 'motivates' her to move, 

so we use it during Physical Therapy, too.

It's so cute to see her 'play' with it :)

A different perspective :)

(If you have Down syndrome, you have 47 chromosomes, instead of 46, which is typical.)

No time to be bored...

The past three days

in our house

we've had 

someone with a stomach bug

someone with hand, foot and mouth disease

someone who managed to get chewing gum stuck in her hair... TWICE 

someone who got a bead stuck in her ear, requiring a trip to the doctor to get it out.

Who does have time to get bored around here?!

Fortunately none of it involved the smallest member of the family...

Nope, she's just as innocent as she looks...

Sound asleep...