St. Clair County Down Syndrome Picnic

someone like Jonathon very much

was on Sunday afternoon at Cheri's house.  This year there was swimming, a clown, balloons, painting, and a hayride with lots of food and great people.

This was our second year attending the picnic and we had a great time again this year.  It is nice to be able to sit and watch all the children play and a good time to just sit and chat with other parents.

Jonathon had a great time.  He got to swim in the big pool for a few minutes(before he got cold) and then he really enjoyed just running around and playing with some big balls and they had a huge slide.  He did quite well with the clown.  He got a cat balloon made and even let the clown paint his arm with a snake.  I am so proud of him because last year he would have never let anyone paint his arm.  He was one of the younger ones this year, but that didn't seem to bother him at all.

We met a new family who has a 3yr. old boy who is a typical child and a 4 month old who is blessed with an extra chromosome. I got the chance to talk with the mom for a few minutes and hope to see her again at our local monthly meetings.  Her boys were so cute.

Before we went home we went down the road with the rest of the party goers to feed some Alpacas.  But the Alpacas were pretty shy and didn't want to come close to the fence so Jonathon decided to eat their carrots instead and throw some out to them.

All in all a great day ~ we all enjoyed ourselves very much and can't wait to go again next year.

playing ball with daddy

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

                                                                                                                      

snake!

 

 

 

Alpaca

 

YMCA

Jonathon has been going to the YMCA for awhile now and he just loves it!  Here are some pictures of him and "Luke" (lifeguard).  He has a special time set aside for swimming with Luke every Saturday.

 I am so proud of Jonathon ~ he is doing great in the water and we all just love Luke.  He is really good with Jonathon and knows exactly what he wants.  Very special young man, he is!

Three Year Check up

Some may think that a 3 yr. check up is a piece of cake ~ go to the pediatrician ~ get weighed ~ get measured ~ take temperature ~ discuss with Dr. Pediatrician if your child is doing what a typical child should be doing........... and get your updated shots!

Well it is/was not a piece of cake for us........

Jonathon had a 3:15p.m. appointment with Dr. Pediatrician.  He got weighed (26.6lbs)  He has finally gained weight.  He was stuck at 25lbs for the LONGEST time. Happy about that.  Then he got measured ~ he refused to stand up next to the wall so he had to lay down like a baby and get measured. 35"  Happy, he is continuing to grow!  

Then it was time for a shot ~ he kept telling me "NO"!!  He was not happy.  I played his toy radio/Ipod and he cried for a few seconds and we were done!  Good job.  Talked with Dr. Pediatrician about what Jonathon has been up too and he was pleased.  Then we got our scripts to go to the hospital and get blood work done for Thyroid and Jonathon had to get an xray of his cervical spine(Atlantoaxial Instability)


Let's just say that it was not a good trip!  Jonathon screamed his head off and cried and cried while getting blood taken.  It was over very quick, but he was sooooo upset that they couldn't get him to stop bleeding.  Finally I asked if he could get out of the chair and see my cell phone (I have apps that he likes to play).  They said yes and he calmed down enough to stop bleeding and get his bandaid.  While blood was being taken he was soooo upset that he had a small accident so we had to find a restroom to clean up.  Then it was off to xrays.  Which I "THOUGHT" was going to be quick and fast...........ummm not even close.......


As soon as we walked into the x-ray room Jonathon was upset ~ I told him he was going to get his picture taken and say cheese ~ he wasn't having any part of that ~ we tried everything to settle him down ~ he just cried, yelled and squirmed off of the table ~ I really think he remembers x-rays from when he was 5 months old and they strapped him in a machine ~ as my heart was breaking I had to get him to hold still to get the x-ray done ~ we ended up having Andrew help out ~ I had to hold Jonathon's arms and Andrew had to hold his head still and we both had to listen to him scream and yell and cry like we were killing him ~ we eventually got 6 x-rays taken and got the heck out of there.

I hugged and hugged Jonathon and told him what a good big boy he was!  After lots of kisses we walked hand in hand back to the van and then went to dinner at Big Boys.  Jonathon was feeling much better after dinner and then we took him to Toys R Us to pick out a new toy ~ he picked Lightning McQueen Shake and Go car ~ and then we took my exhausted baby home.


He slept well and is doing much better today ~ he still looks a little tired from his traumatizing day yesterday but is back to his old self today!


I am not looking forward to our Detroit trip next week when we go see the cardiologist.  I hope he doesn't freak out when we do the echo cardiogram.....


Results from yesterday will be in early next week!

 

Update

We have been very very busy these past few days.  And when I wanted to quickly update my blog I couldn't figure out how to rotate my pictures off my new phone.  Very frustrating!

Thursday, Friday, Saturday we had a yard sale uptown at my brothers house for the "Memphis Days"  Jonathon did very well for getting up and having to leave the house by 8:30a.m. and spend the entire day outside until we got back home at 6p.m.  3 days and no naps!  He did great....  And my air is still not fixed in my van so he had no downtime from the weather....

Took our own pool to cool off

                                           playing playdoh

                                         Watching a movie while resting

                                                    playing in Uncle John's driveway

                                                     Testing out 4 wheeler that is 4 sale!

So we made it through our yard sale days and didn't do too bad.  Kenny sold lots of toys and made about $75.00.  Jonathon sold some toys and clothes and made about $140.00.   I am very proud of Jonathon for how well he did behave for those 3 days.  He still takes naps everyday so those long days were hard on him.  He pretty much went to bed around 6:30 - 7p.m. instead of 8p.m.  (Glad we are done with that)

Then on Sunday we had church at 11a.m. instead of 9a.m. because they were having a picnic afterwards.  Also we became official members of the church also.
Gilbert and I were raised Catholic, Andrew and Kenny were baptized Catholic, and Jonathon was baptized Lutheran.  We had some issues with the Catholic church after Jonathon was born and neither my or Gilbert's church would baptize him so we left and had him Baptized Lutheran.  We just recently started going back to church and we chose Jonathon's Lutheran church.  We are very happy there and that is why we decided to become members.  We are now Lutheran.  Next year Andrew and Kenny will make their confirmation and become official Lutheran members too.
The picnic was lots of fun and lots of good food.  Jonathon even played kickball with the big kids and won a bag(prize) of goodies.

Then we left church and had to go to my brothers house for his step daughters First Holy Communion party.  It was a nice day out and the kids seemed to be enjoying themselves in the pool.  We did not stay too long at that party because this was now the 4th day for Jonathon not having a nap and he was just miserable ~ it was very muggy out ~ so we left at 5:30p.m. and headed home to relax after a long week.

The big brothers went out swimming and Jonathon and daddy and I sat in the air relaxing.  By 6:30p.m. Jonathon was lying on the couch and I asked him if he was ready for bed.  He answered yes (poor baby) and we got jammies on and he was out cold by 6:45p.m.

This morning he was up at 6:30a.m. like always, but looked really really tired and just was not himself.  We got up ~ went potty ~ went to get a drink ~ got some cereal ~ ate about 5 spoonfuls ~ and he went back to bed ~ and he went back to sleep!  Back in bed by 7:10a.m. ~ It is now 8:05a.m. and he is still sleeping........

My poor little guy is so exhausted.....I feel really bad now.....I know he still needs his naps and I was really bummed out that I couldn't get my air fixed in time for the yard sale.  He would have been able to nap in the van...... And today is our only downtime because we have another busy week this week....I am going to try really hard to re arrange my schedule so he can at least come home and nap in between because with our temps going in mid 90's my van is gonna be scorching........

Wordless Wednesday