Happy 2018 to everyone out there! I hope you are somewhere warm and happy!
Emersyn and I at my parent's for Christmas
Here at the Elder house it is cozy and warm, filled with love and laughter. Cliche? Sounds like it, but don't be fooled. My husband just finished a 16 hour semester and it was a long one. This break was a much needed break for everyone, the babies included. During the semester, I took a trip to Chicago and met the coolest women in person, and they were even better then imagined. Where during his first week of the semester, my husband was left to fend with both kids-one still waking 5 times a night to nurse. We also celebrated Luca's 1st birthday, The Down Syndrome Festival, Emersyn's 4th birthday, Halloween, Thanksgiving, our 5th wedding anniversary, and Christmas. It was busy, exciting, and very exhausting!
Emersyn and her daddy playing
My husband and I have agreed that those first years with your child with Down syndrome, are a roller coaster of doctors. A checklist. Crossing things out that could potentially be wrong. Circling things that are in fact happening with your baby/toddler. I hope I'm not jinxing it when I say, I think I can put down the list for a while. Stop being the doctor/medical researcher Mom, and move on to being the educator/therapist Mom. This is exciting stuff, especially considering we live so far away from basically everything.
Emersyn working on drinking out of an open cup and doing awesome!
Because I can' t not post a picture of my handsome boy Luca!
Example: Over the course of this Christmas break Emersyn has developed a pretty nasty habit of getting up in the night. I'm always greeted with a "Hi" or "Mommy" in the sweetest of voices. After I acknowledge her (because until I say what-she will continue with "mommy Mom ma mommy") she follows with a scrunch of her nose and a giggle like we're both breaking the rules together. She promptly tells me she needs to go potty; Yes with sign AND verbally. She goes #1 and #2, and all I can do is tell her how awesome she is! Following that we go straight to the living room and cuddle each other followed by sleeping, 75% of the time. Now here is the kicker, Sometimes its only for #1. Which tells me she is fully capable of being 100% potty trained and she is absolutely working me over. All while, getting to sleep and snuggle with me or her daddy half of every night!
Building her Poppy at build a bear.
This leaves me to her new-found-master-manipulating-I-can-control-everyone tool.....her VOICE.
How exciting it is to hear her respond "Kay" when I tell her "be a good girl for Grammy okay?"
How annoying it is that for both family Christmas's she would see me while playing and point to me saying "NO!" or "DONT!" Because, as we all know, mom's aren't that cool.
How scary it is to hear "Osh!" directly after I say "Oh Gosh".....lets hope that my language problem improves as well....
How adorable it is to hear her say "Buddy buddy!" When she sees her brother for the first time every morning.
Or one of my personal favorites that prompted this blog post-When putting Trolls on for probably the MILLIONTH time-I get a big thumbs up with a giant "YES!" not ES! I looked at Jacob and said she said YES with a Y! I must share with the world!
Four months ago there was no "Yes", no "mommy", and so many others! This is all from the collaboration of everything we have worked so hard on checking off of our list, the team of doctors we have, two parents with an enthusiasm for what some call music therapy(where we only thought we were silly adults who pretend to be John Legend and Adele behind closed doors), an incredible physical therapist who has taught me about not only the body and how it works, but also parenthood and our new found incredible speech therapist (who doesn't know this, but I was praying for her arrival in to Emersyn's World for at least a year.)
I have some mommy intuition happening here, and it is telling me it's going to be a big year for Emersyn. I see this magic in her growing, her ability to convince me at 3 a.m. to cheer for her and just be happy with whatever that moment brings. Her ability to refuse almost everything I've so lovingly prepared for her all day with the cutest little "nooo" that scrunches up her nose that leaves me smiling and saying "okay" like one of her minions. Her ability to bring us together with a family hug. She really demands that daddy, mommy, Emersyn, and Luca all hug at once on most days. Truly, our own little Poppy calling out "HUG TIME!" in her own little magical Emersyn way.
I'm embracing this leg of the journey for our family, a journey I really never in a million years could have anticipated. I wouldn't have chosen it at first offer, but now looking into my own heart and soul, and discussing what having a personal relationship with Emersyn has provided to the few of those who really know her and what she is about, I am absolutely thrilled to see what self improvements and insights she will provide to me and those around her. Its so interesting, metaphorically speaking, how she has provided a rose color tint to everything around us while ironically and simultaneously removing it in so many ways. Just another one of her amazing gifts. I sure hope you have your own little Poppy somewhere in your world-we could all use more HUG TIME!
Love and Hugs from Emersyn's World!
