Showing posts with label Macy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Macy. Show all posts

Monday, July 22, 2013

Our Spontaneous Christmas Day Adventure!!!

We usually spend Christmas in California every year at my In-laws place. This year I had told Barry that I would rather save the money and just stay home. So we had a really enjoyable Christmas morning except for the fact that Tommy was in Texas :( We always miss him so much when he is gone! 


Our house was quite the disaster for the rest of the day... who wants to clean on Christmas??

Well, the weather that day was freezing and blizzarding (is that a word?) Barry especially hates the cold. So he came up with a brilliant idea! "Lets drive to California and get out of this crap. NOW!" After talking me into it and calling the border because I couldn't find my passport, we decided to go!
I had a roast in that was done so we pulled it out and threw it into the freezer (we would later get hot dogs for Christmas dinner on the way! haha) We packed in an hour. Took the Christmas gifts upstairs, left the garbage and loads of Christmas candy all over the house and walked out the door!

The weather was pretty bad when we got into Utah! But we made a stop at one of my favorite restaraunts Cafe Rio to see some of my family! 

I love them and don't' see them near enough! They wanted us to stay the night but honestly, I just wanted to get out of the weather! We saw so many cars spun out on the highway!! We were happy when at around 1 am we arrived at our hotel for the night! 

You can imagine my joy when I woke up in St. George, Utah to a blue sky, warm air and NO SNOW!!! I love St. George and spent a lot of time here as a kid. 


Our first stop was VEGAS!! I think it was even more amazing because it was WARM! 


 Vegas is so exciting! So much to do and so many fun things to see!
 Street Performers!
 And of course the kids LOVED M&M world!


 These are Ice pillars at one of the malls

 The Venetian Hotel is gorgeous!!


 We had to stop at another one of our favorite restaurants Grand Lux!!
 Then it was off to Palm Springs, one of our favorite places to be!
 We did lots of relaxing!


 We had to build our Christmas break puzzle!
Played games
 Went to see the house that my father in law is building to flip.

 Had warm walks in the sun!



 Bought loads of Trader Joes Salsa!


 Played in the pool, rested in the sun and read!
and of course visited our favorite restaurants... AGAIN. A common these right!

 Then it was time to head home again!





I'm so glad that Barry suggested this trip! Fun, Spontaneous and well worth it!

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Invisible, Special, and Pride

There are a few things that I do worry about with Macy... Some may come as a shock, some may not.

These aren't the typical worries. Because of my beliefs, I know without a double that Macy's future is bright!
I know that she she will struggle in life as she grows and I will have to watch her closely and protect her, but these are some of the things I worry most about.


Macy becoming Invisible-

I am sure you have all seen an adult with Down Syndrome as you go about your lives. On many of those occasions, people keep their distance. They make wide distance between themselves and that individual. Or they simply ignore them. I have never had a single negative comment about Macy, but she is still young and cute and charismatic! She is a charmer. I fear that as she grows older and into adulthood, she will slowly become "that lady with Down Syndrome" or simply "invisible, ignored, shunned to the side."



Treated "Special"-

Out of compassion and doing what they think is best, many people think those with special needs need to be treated "special." I feel like everyone is special no matter who they are and everyone deserves to be treated the same. I don't want people to allow Macy to get away with behaviors that typical people can't get away with. I know through her life things will need to be altered slightly for her. She will need extra help, modified programs and such. But, I also want her to view herself as an equal to her peers. She should not be given special treatment.



Not know who she is or be proud of that -

Macy has Down Syndrome. That is part of who she is. I get so frustrated when parents don't want to tell their child that they have Down Syndrome. Are you ashamed? I'm not. Why does Down Syndrome have to be such a negative thing? How do you think it impacts your child when you are ashamed? I am proud of who Macy is and I am well aware that Down Syndrome is part of who she is. If she didn't have that extra Chromosome, she would be different than she is. I like her the way she is. So as she grows I hope to instill a sense of pride in her. She should be proud to say she has Down Syndrome. She should be proud of who she is. I am proud of who she is and so is her Heavenly Father.

 So I encourage everyone who reads this to notice those around you with special needs. Say hi, treat them like you would treat anyone, give a hand where needed, start a conversation and mostly allow them to feel proud of themselves!!!

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Macy

A video for Down Syndrome Awareness Month!!! 

Macy, you are DOWN right AWESOME!!!!

Monday, October 15, 2012

Little bits!!

Yesterday I was reading through some of my pre-macy blog posts and remembered why it is so great to blog. I wrote things down that I would never have remembered otherwise. (Like at my 37 week appt the doctor didn't think I would make it another week, and what do you know... Macy came 3 days later!)

(me at 33 weeks)

Those are some of the things I want to remember!!! 

So starting with baby... Here are our name ideas. Dallas, Reid, Talon or Calder. Names may still change but if I have my way, his name will be; 
Talon Dallas Ehlert

Dallas being the place where Barry and I met. It may also happen to be Barry's favorite football team!!!

I am 35 weeks and 1 day today. I am really excited to have a baby boy in the house. It brings back memories of my first born little boy! Boys are so special!!! Especially when they love their mommas!

Barry keeps telling me that my heartburn was way worse with Macy, but I keep telling him I am just getting better at not complaining to him about it :) Because it's pretty bad!! Like, tasting acid bad. Something stuck in my throat bad. Cough attack bad!!! Yuck. So done with it!

I have an appointment tomorrow and wondering if I can talk the doctor into letting me have another ultrasound. I am so curious to know how big this babe is. It's my own crazy way of predicting when I'll have him! 

Barry is predicting I have him 2.5 weeks early. Brownie points to him for even saying that!!! I hope so!

So on to other news...

Macy is talking up a storm!!! Which is soooo important to me. I want her to learn to communicate very clear so she can have more opportunities in life. I have heard many kids and teenagers from her school PREP speak as clearly as a typical person. That is what I want for her. She has quite a list of words now, no sentences yet though. Here is her list

Hi
Bye
Yeah
No
Mom
Daddy
okay
there
this
dog
baby
bum bum
poo poo
pee pee
hot
ouch
more
done
book
ball
eat
drink
go
Hiding (sounds like heidi)

she will say "o" for open
"huh" for help when prompted
any word like please, cheese, me etc. she says "eeee"
she is trying to repeat a lot of things I say which is a big step toward talking.

I try not to give her anything or pick her up etc without making her ask. For instance; I will say, "Macy do you want up? She says "Yeah" than I say, Macy say "up" and she will say "uh" 

One word she WILL NOT say is night night. Every time I ask her if she wants to go night night... she says "NO" as clear as day!! little stinker!

She is constantly having a complete mumble jumble conversation with whomever will listen. She actually redialed my moms number on the phone the other day and my mom thought she was Kyla because she was speaking so many clear words into the phone. :)

Our next goal is to learn how to say "NAV" that is her teachers name at school and she told us that should be Macy's next word!! We love Macy's teacher!!!

As far as walking, that is where I could get really frustrated!! SHE CAN DO IT!! She doesn't doesn't want to. Yes, she will stand on her own and take 10 steps or more. She will walk between people. But just wont do it all the time. She goes up and down the stairs alone. Can climb up a slide on her own. Pushed doll strollers all over the house. But still uses "bear crawling" as her main means of transportation! She is so stubborn and I am just waiting for the day that she decides to! I know it will come, just like everything else... but on my time would be best!




Kyla started preschool this year and is in HEAVEN!! She wants to go every day! She loves to learn so much!! I am excited about this because she understands things so quickly and school will be enjoyable for her!!! She is a little perfectionist with her school work though! 
She knows all her letters, numbers up to 20 and can identify many sight words. I plan to start teaching her to read this fall. Just basic books. She is so ready!!
I am also starting to teach her concepts like; above, below, left, right, before, after, between, yesterday, tomorrow etc. I found a great app for the ipad that she really likes!!
She will spend all afternoon doing crafts or worksheets and be so happy!! Though if she EVER finds her precious artwork in the garbage, LOOK OUT MOM!! I have to be really careful when choosing when to throw things away, since I can't keep everything! I'm thinking of making an art display wall in her room! 
And this big man!!! What am I going to do with him??? He is my big middle schooler now. Am I terrified! YES! But, he tells me everything! This kid has a guilty conscience if he ever does the slightest thing wrong. 

Friday he told me he left class before cleaning up because other kids did too. He said he was feeling really bad about it and that he had prayed and asked Heavenly Father to forgive him. Than he told me that he felt he needed to tell me to feel totally better! What an awesome kid! We had a great talk about setting a good example to his friends. Being a leader. Always putting kindness first, and doing our part.

I am so proud of the person he is. So naturally nice!!! It is really just the way he is! Last month we were at the Corn maze and there was a man there with Down Syndrome who was struggling with the gate to get out of the goat pen. I noticed many people just watching him, but kind of keeping their distance. (MY WORST NIGHTMARE FOR MACY!) Well, Tommy all on his own quickly ran over and said, "Here let me help you bud." Melted my heart. I have seen him do these kinds of things on many occasions!! He is so loving with his sisters and tells me all the time that he is so glad his sister had Down Syndrome "Cause she is special and she is a perfect spirit and she makes everyone so happy!"

I love my kids! They are amazing!!!

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