Reece's Rainbow Christmas Angel Tree

Final day of Reece's Rainbow Christmas Angel Tree !!!

Please consider checking out all these precious Children and donating towards their grant funds.

Reece's Rainbow is a wonderful organization that helps find children born with Down syndrome (and other special needs) in other countries families. These other countries don't think being 'different' is acceptable.

Look at these precious faces....

Tristan

an updated photo of TristanTristan has over $3,000 in his Christmas Tree fund and $705 in his everyday grant (meaning the money he already had in his grant before the Christmas Tree project started. They will be combined after the new year.)

Yegor

Yegor has $790 in his Christmas Tree Fund and $300 in his other fund.

Cliff

Cliff has about $8,000 in his Christmas Tree Fund and $40 in his other fund.


Artem

Artem has about $600 in his Christmas Tree Fund and $1,215 in his other fund.

Charity

Charity has a family committed to adopt her but why not help her (and her family) out?

She has $550 in her Christmas Tree Fund and only $10 in her other fund.

To learn more about these precious little faces, just click on their names or check out Reece's Rainbow.

Happy New Year everyone!!

Oh My Gosh.... wall art

Does anyone remember my picture of my sweet, innocent, little Max and Sam cleaning their wall art? ...........

I had flash backs the other day...

"There is nothing to see behind here momma"
Joe's wall and ceiling above his (top bunk) bed.

Little Monkey Ike climbing the beds. Do you notice the marker behind the door and on the other wall as well?
They had a lot of scrubbing to do. Thankfully, most of it came off without much problems. They decorated their room, the hallway and the bathroom.


Speaking of wall art, I found this note attached to the wall a couple weeks ago...
This is proof of Sam's awful handwriting and spelling. What? You can't read it??!!

Translated it says, "Please watch out for cats If you find a wild cat call 901011" Then has 'tear away' tabs with the number on it.

It may appear...

... as that I have fallen off the face of the Earth. But really, I am still here! Not sure how it has been so long since I posted. Oh well. Hope everyone had a great Christmas and got to enjoy it with family or people you love.

I have been somewhat playing catch up reading other blogs. Not quite there yet.

Sam did get glasses. Her vision was 20/50 without them. She wears them some. I'm sure it takes awhile getting used to them.
They look good on her though.

Her foot... Sam broke her ankle and has had to get it X-rayed several times. 2 weeks ago we had it X-rayed. The lady we saw thought it looked healed enough and that Sam could go without her boot unless it started bothering her. So she got to wear her new glasses and go without her boot on her last day of school. We went to my parents house for that weekend to celebrate Christmas and she did not have to wear her boot.

Monday afternoon I got a call from the doctors office. The radiologist thought Sam should wear her boot for another 2 weeks and then again have it re-X-rayed. I guess the expert thought her foot was not quite ready to go without that support. Nice. We got used to going without for 3-4 days and Sam did just fine. Now I was being told she needs to wear it again! grrr! Truthfully, Sam has worn it about 2 times since then. I know, I know! She has been fine though. Even the last week (or 2) while she was wearing it she only had to wear it at school or during the day. In the evening she could take it off and help strengthen it. Honestly, it should have probably been the other way around! It is at home when she does all her crazy stunts not at school.

Remember last time I blogged I said it looked pretty bruised? This is a picture 2 weeks after she hurt it. A full 2 weeks! It was also still swollen at that point. I know a little hard to see bruising in a picture...


I have tons to blog about but not tons of time. I will try to get some post up in the next few days.

Sam's last week at school

This following week will be Sam's last week in public school. Starting January I will be homeschooling her. I don't think she is really that excited about it. I am though. I hope we find our groove quickly and she excels in her academic work. Partly to feel like "Ha- I told you so" towards some people but mostly just for Sam. I want her to feel confident in whatever she does and actually know the stuff she is working on.

Friday are the school's "winter" parties. I think Friday may be a hard day for Sam. Hopefully she gets over it fast though.

The school nurse said Sam failed her vision test twice and that she should be seen by the eye doctor. I took her and Joe in on Friday. Joe's vision was fine. Sam was a little nearsighted but not too bad. The Dr left it up to me if I wanted to get glasses for her. She said Sam would definitely see better with them. So we picked some out and should have them within a week or 2. I think Sam is excited. We got home and Pete asked what her vision was. I think the Dr said 20/30. To which Pete said Sam does not need glasses for that. If her vision is really 20/30 he wants me to cancel the order. Maybe the dr said 20/50? I'm not sure, I'll call them Monday. But really I think we will be getting them anyway. With insurance they only cost $20. That's it, $20. Not bad! Mine cost way more than that with our insurance. Even Max's cost more. His are bi-focal though. Speaking of which, Max goes to his eye dr in about 2 weeks. I think he needs new glasses. His seem way too small for his face.

Today we actually have snow on the ground. Not much but enough for the kids to want to go play outside. I bundled them up and sent them out. It is very cold out there today. They had fun, even if it's not enough to even do anything with!

Anna

I love that so many families decide to adopt little cuties with Down syndrome.
With Reece's Rainbow Angel tree project running right now it's easy to go over and check out those sweet faces all in one place. Reece's Rainbow Angel Tree. As of right now, 20 kids have found families! 20!!

Right now there is a family trying to adopt a little girl named Anna. She is not from the tree, so to speak, they had already committed to her before that.
Right now they are trying to raise money like crazy. They are hosting a drawing give away of a 16gb IPad with wifi of anyone who donates to their chip in.

So I encourgare you to go read about and donate to the Williams family.

The post explaining about the Ipad is HERE. The family blog is HERE. Either one will get you to their chip-in, which is on the right side of their blog.

Isn't she adorable?!

1 week follow up

It has been 1 week and 1 day since Sam's lovely attack on her ankle. Last week they could not tell if it was broken or not. However, the huge amount of swelling could be seen on the X-ray and they said that is not good. Sam did pretty well with her walking cast this past week.

Tonight I took her back in for her 1 week post accident. They did another X-ray to take a look. Her foot is actually still pretty swollen. Nothing like before but it is noticeable. I was actually shocked the first time I took her cast and wrap off her foot a few days ago. It is really bruised up. So the verdict for her ankle? She did in fact break it. I was told it was healing nicely though. We will be going back in 2 weeks again. She is allowed to take her cast off in the evening, along as she is not walking a lot and it doesn't hurt. It is not a weight-baring bone. I forgot to ask which one it was.

Just like a real cast, that thing can stink!! yuck!

Updating on Sam and her meds for ADHD-inattentive type... The smallest dose did nothing for her so it was up'd some. Honestly I don't see much difference with this dose either. I need to ask her teacher if she notices anything.

Sam is a type of child that takes forever to fall asleep at night. Just like her dad. He takes melatonin every night. I saw on Sam's report from the ADHD clinic (that was 4 or 5 pages long BTW) they would suggest melatonin next time we visit if she still takes awhile to fall asleep. Meds for ADHD can have that side effect as well. Last night I decided to give it a go. Oh my gosh what a difference!! I will be trying again tonight. I am not sure if last night was a fluke or what. Usually it takes her about an hour to fall asleep. Here lately I have been trying to get her to bed about an hour earlier to see if I notice a difference in the morning. getting to bed early is not easy. Last night she never came out of her room saying she couldn't sleep, no calls out for one more hug/kiss, nothing! Usually she does anything to get out of bed. If melatonin can help with that then I think I love it!

I am not the type of person who likes pills. Having one of my kids on pills almost makes me cringe. BUT if they work and make life easier for her, then it is worth it. Also, not being a pill type of person I can not swallow pills. I can do a small pill and can take my nightly zocor 20 mg without any problems. But a regular size tylenol I can not do. Sam is a champ... She can swallow her pills with no problem. She rocks!

I have not really researched a lot on ADHD. However, it seems Sam fits right into a lot of the 'signs' with the stuff I have read.

It's bedtime for a certain little girl so I will update again soon.