Sing me a song....or not :)

Two of Erin's favorite things in life are singing songs and reading books. She could do these activities for hours each day! She has memorized many the words to songs and books. Now, she cannot verbalize all of the words that she knows...she does have Down syndrome, after all.  And with Ds comes a speech delay. (For anyone who has had a toddler, you know there is a stage of development where your child is beginning to talk but it is difficult to understand him. It is the same for those with Ds, but most often this stage is prolonged. Other times there are other speech issues involved such as apraxia and low muscle tone.  Yes, low muscle tone, even in the mouth, plays a role....but now I'm getting off topic).  But speech delay does not necessarily mean a delay in receptive language skills (at least not for the child...sometimes it may mean a delay in receptive language for the parents...at least until they figure out what their child is trying to say! LOL). That is the case with Erin. She understands much much more than she is able to verbalize. How do we know this? Well, first of all, she responds to what we are saying to her. For example, she can identify all the fruits and vegetable, or animals, in a book when we ask her to point to them. She also has nearly 100 signs, several words and many word approximations (words that sound close enough to the proper pronunciations that we are able to figure them out).

Erin "talks" all the time. She's quite the little chatter box. Most of the time we can understand just what she is saying to us, using a combo of signs and word approximations. Once in a while, however, we just don't have a clue : ) This video illustrates one of those times.  Teresa keeps trying to figure out what Erin is saying with not much luck. Erin continues to interrupt her by saying Tsza (Teresa!!!) and repeating her request.  Together they keep trying, but finally Erin gives up...

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Upon further review, here is the interpretation...

The clip begins with Erin asking Tsza (Teresa) to sing a particular song with her.(Erin can now sign about half the letters of the alphabet, so some of those signs you see are letters).

Teresa begins singing the alphabet song, but Erin quickly says, NO! Erin then signs and says, red, one, two, three, purple (when she puts her hand down and says ba-pur, she is signing and saying purple).

Teresa picks up on red and begins singing The Color Song.  No go.

Erin interrupts again, saying Tsza!, then again says, red, one, two, three, purple....Clearly, Teresa is lost LOL. Erin tries again with the same request. Teresa ties again. Erin emphasizes purple once again. Perhaps this is a song she made up?!

Then I ask her what song she wants to sing. She says, red, e, d (as in the letters), followed again by, purple.  Again, no go. 

Sorry Erin...we just can't keep up with you on this one! 

The highlight of this clip is most definitely the ending. Erin gets frustrated with Teresa and me for not being able to properly interpret what she is saying. That Down syndrome accent can be tricky :) So she exits the scene, flailing over the side of the couch. Her final words are very appropriate:  hep meeee!!! (help me!!!).

She sure cracks me up. Oh my, is she a charmer!

Choir/Irish Dance Recital

Last Sunday we had an Irish dance performance in the morning (Moira, Eileen and Teresa) our choir recital in the afternoon (Eileen and Bridget), followed by our Irish dance recital in the evening (Moira, Eileen, Bridget and Teresa).  What a busy day!  It went something like this:

Mass on Saturday evening.  Mike was in Madison on Sat. evening, so he took A and MG to Mass with him, for the second time, on Sunday morning.
 9:30- leave house with M, E, T, E and S for performance
10:15- Mike take A and MG to mass
10:15- M, E and T put together a quick rehearsal for performance
11:00- performance
12:00- pick up quick lunch on the way home
12:30- drop off M, E for dance recital rehearsal
1:00- get home, feed S, put E and S down for nap
1:30-leave to pick up M, E, and take T for her recital rehearsal
2:00- get home for E and B to quickly change their clothes
2:20-leave for choir performance after waking up S (Mike stays with E)
2:30- feed S in parking lot of choir
3:00-Mike picks up T at dance practice
3:00- attend lovely choir performance
4:00-head home to quickly change for Irish dance recital
4:00 Mike picks up Jimmy Johns for dinner
4:15- eat
4:30- head out the door again, with M, E, B and T, to buy flowers for dance performance
5:00-drop off kids at dance recital, park car
5:15-put on B and T's wig
5:45- feed S
6:15- sit down to enjoy Irish dance recital
9:00- home to collapse....whew!  LOL


Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my camera to the choir performance. The kids sang songs from Movin' in the Right Direction. I'm hoping I can get some pictures from some of the other families who were there...

I only got a few pictures after the Irish dance performance.  This year they danced in the performing arts center, The Meyer Theater, which had such a great stage and lights!

Moira (ha...notice the finshed black skirts....)

Eileen

Bridget, cousin Colleen, Eileen

The whole gang...

Seamus at 11 Months

He reminds us so much of Bridget here...

And a big thanks to our chromosome cousins for Seamus' adorable John Deere shirt!!! 

Our Tooth Fairy Needs a Little Help!

Our Tooth Fairy is notorious for procrastination. My poor kids often wait days until she makes her visit. Molly Grace has lost her front tooth and is anxiously awaiting a visit from the Tooth Fairy. I explained that she must be very busy with a lot on her mind, not to mention many kids on her list to remember to visit each night. I also imagine she is very tired and needs a little rest herself. In fact, some nights, I explain, she might go to sleep at the same time as Molly Grace, making it difficult for her to make her nightly visits for teeth.


A patient Molly Grace answers, "But Mom, she cannot come in my room if we do not leave the window open! Tomorrow night we need to leave the window open so she can get in!"

Aaahhh, of course, it's the window! Tonight we will leave the window cracked. Hopefully that will solve this issue of the absent tooth fairy. She must be pretty ticked off at us for leaving the window locked. It's not like she Santa, who can come down chimneys. Ha! Why didn't we think of that?!

Let's hope Molly Grace has better luck tonight!

Prom Pictures

Last night was the homeschool prom.  Moira and Eileen both attended this year.  They had several friends over to our house to get all dolled up.  Hair was straightened, hair was curled, fingernails were painted, make-up was applied and last minute alterations were done to the dresses.  They ate bon-bons while they labored.  Well, not really, but they did eat cream puffs, along with some other semi-healthy food. The final product....eight lovely ladies ready for a night out!

The lovely Moira

The lovely Eileen

Goofin' off (yes, Moira did wear sparkly green shoes)

Friend Jessie, Eileen, friend Debbie

When the girls were all ready, they met some of the boys who were getting ready at a neighbor's house.  Here are the girls...the boys didn't make it in this picture...

Eileen, Debbie, Chelsea, Jessie, Hailey, Meghan, Andi, Moira

Here's the whole gang with a couple of boys...Matt and Nate

Close up of those shoes!

The Sewing Weekend

Last weekend my parents came for a visit, their first visit since Christmas.  It was great to see them!  It also turned out to be a very good thing, and quite providential, that they chose last weekend to make the trip.  It just so happened that Moira, the sewer (well, sew-er, or I guess seamstress is the proper term?) in our family, volunteered to make new black skirts for their upcoming Irish dance recital.  We needed to make seven black skirts and hem seven more that our friends, and fellow Irish dancers, made.  It also just happens to be that my mom has the most sewing talent this side of the Mississippi (or something like that).  So my mom and dad came, along with their dog, Lacy.  They also brought my mom's sewing machine and serger.  Those machines were both smokin' all weekend long.

On Friday, seven skirts were made that look like this...

Then, seven more were hemmed, and then all fourteen were packed up to be embroidered...

My mom and the girls worked most of the day on Friday getting these done.  All I can say is the serger saved the day!

Worker number one...

Worker number two...

Worker number three's photo is missing.  I think I accidently deleted it from my camera and the computer.  Ooops.  But of course that worker would be Moira. 

Here they all are...

So, while that was a lot of work, they did not stop there.  Oh no!  On Saturday, Moira had a birthday party to attend that included ballroom dancing.  The dress she wore needed alterations.  Done. Then, since the girls' prom is coming up this weekend, they decided to alter those dresses as well. Done. They didn't even stop there.  There was also Moira's friend's dress that needed to be hemmed.  Done. And then there was a dress in Eileen's closet that needed a seam fixed. Done.

I think that was it, but I could be forgetting something.  The machines are probably still warm from all the work they did.  Whew!  It was certanly a productive sewing weekend.  Thanks again Mom!

Prayer Requests

My cousin Mark's very sweet wife, Erin, lost her dad unexpectedly Tuesday night.  Please keep her family in your prayers!

Our friend, Micah, who is recovering from a serious case of Toxic Shock Syndrome could use prayers for a full recovery.  He is doing so much better, but we want him home!

So many people are praying for Chrissie, who is making a miraculous recovery from many serious heart complications. Keep the prayers coming.

There's always so much to pray for....these three are big ones on our list this week.  Thank you for joining us in prayer.

Aidan's First Communion

Congratulations to Aidan on receiving his First Holy Communion on Sunday!  What a beautiful day we had.  We are so thankful for you, and this sacrament, Aidan. You make us so proud! 

I was only able to get two pictures at the church before my camera battery died...

The second picture was a group shot with everyone visable except two...of course one of the two would be Aidan :). (He's directly in front of the woman in the center of the back row)

Notice Anything New?

Two years of braces coming up for Eileen.  Last night they were hurting quite a bit, so she had a fruit smoothie for dinner. She says the pain is a little better today, thankfully.

Sign of the Cross

We have been working with Erin on the sign of the cross since she was old enough to sit in a highchair.  We practice it at every meal when we say grace.  This little practice always brings a smile to her face as she claps when she is finished.  She also practices the sign of the cross whenever we go to church and pass by the holy water font. Slowly but surely she is getting all the little motions in all the right order.  Today we found her practicing all on her own.  In fact, she was not only practicing on herself, but also on her little brother Seamus.  She practiced so much that they were both pretty soaking wet by the time we tracked down the little holy souls. This sounds all wonderful and great, doesn't it?  Well, it is, all except for one little detail.....she used toilet water.  Ewwww.

I now have two sqeaky-clean holy souls who have just come out of the tub : )