31 for 21

O.K., going to try again this year to commit to 31 posts in the month of October for DS awareness month. Since I haven't blogged in 6 months, don't hold out much hope.

Nick turned 9 a few weeks ago, hard to believe how the time has flown. It is amazing how "normal" or "typical" our family is. Nick is a typical baby brother, he figures out the right buttons irritate his brother & sister the most. Loves to wrestle with his brother (or anyone for that matter). He can pretty much take care of his personal needs.

What we did today

Today we set out for Stone Mountain and the Highland Games. Nate was fascinated by the caber toss. M.E. by the fiddlers. But both were disappointed that the blacksmith wasn't there. So, after a while we went over to Stone Mountain Crossroads Village to see the blacksmith there. Nate thought it was cool, Nicky thought it was too loud. Learned that a cobalt alloy is now being used on plough blades. And Kim & I had cokes, Nicky HiC, Nate dippin dotes and M.E. was cold. I should have better pictures, but I keep forgetting to take them.

Catch Up Post #1: Nicky Turned 6!

Last Month Nicky Turned 6!

Obviously, Lightning McQueen and Woody are still among his favorites (we should have bought stock in Disney)

What an amazing year it's been:

• Nicky finally put it all together and started walking independently.
  
• He can now climb up and down stairs holding onto the hand rail and occasionally uses reciprocal steps.
  
• He is putting together two, three and longer sentences. Some are just words and some are combinations of words and signs.
  
• He can reliably recognize all of the letters and tell you the sound it makes.
• He can write NICK.
• He can count to 5 and recognize some numbers.
• He is starting to use pronouns correctly, although I do miss "carry you".
• He still loves music but is starting to be a critic of family members' singing.
• He knows how to operate the DVD player and can turn on the tv with a remote.
• He can operate the mouse to play computer games.
• He knows animal signs for a vast number of animals and can make the animal's sound.
• He's getting very good at bossing everyone around and ignoring us when he doesn't want to do something.
• He can throw and kick a ball.
• He's just such a love and a blessing.

Catching UP

O.K., so I've totally dropped the ball on the 31 for 21. But, I'm really really really going to try to catch up. I figure if I write two posts per day for the next 14 days I can catch up. Yeah right.

Start of 31 for 21

Tried to post every day in October last year in honor of Nation Down Syndrome month and didn't succeed. Maybe this year will be different.

October 1 is a special day for us because Nicky came home from the hospital after 13 days in the NICU on October 1st, 2002. So, now it's been six years!