Has anyone else had this problem?

DSC01090, originally uploaded by maxiak.

My beaver. . . I mean baby, likes to chew into the wood of her crib. The straight sides have a plastic guard over it; however the curved head and end sides are exposed. When she is quiet in her room (or perhaps when light from the full moon pours through her bedroom window, transforming her into a beaver-by) she must be staning at the end of her crib and lick the crib until she finds a spot that she likes to bite into. OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER again. I first noticed small bite marks about 3 or 4 months but I didn't put much thought into this because I thought she would grow out of this quickly. I mean, how is this appealing. But I noticed yesterday that the biting has not stopped and it is clear that she is licking the varnish off the rest of the edge. Can anyone suggest something here. I can't think of something that would be flexible to cover the edge the right way, but not be bite-able. Can you?

Santa Claus is Coming to Town and other ramblings

I just love my little girl. She was so much fun tonight. She was laughing and pointing at things and yelling "DA" She ate her dinner with a fork, rigatoni with mock bololagnse sauce. I think she loved it! I just look in her beautiful eyes and I know she understands so much of what I have to say. When I came home from work, my babysitter asked me what a specific sign meant that Penny has been using. And she did what I know to be Penny's version of "more". This is when she puts her right index finger into her left palm, which is kind of curled. She was so impressed when I told her because Penny was using her sign appropriately to ask for more lunch!

We are going here on Saturday. I can't wait!

Oh, you should pop on by to Jessica's blog, she has a couple of wonderful stories for you.

Lastly, we had Nathaniel's conference today. It was not anywhere as bad as I was expecting. She did not imply at all that my son needs to be hung out by his toes. Even when he has recess taken away from him (which is everyday) she lets him run around for a few minutes to burn some energy. It sounds like his music teacher can't stand him, but she doesn't count, she only sees him once a week. We just need to work on our listening skills. . . .sigh, easier said then done, right?

Has anyone read this?

I cannot/ do not want to put it down. Half of me wants to say that the school systems really haven't changed that much and that maybe I am just looking for an excuse for my son's activity level. But then the other half looks to my son and I want to know what I can do to help him. Does anyone else have any opinions they want to share? At any rate, this book "The Trouble with Boys: A Surprising Report Card on Our Sons." has been interesting so far.

Random Ramblings about Me

I know, this blog is supposed to be about Penny. But hey, I am just as interesting and you know Penny is just doing so well that I don't have that much to talk about when it comes to her.

Actually, I do have one update about her that I can share. Scott is finally taking her to get her first blood draw for thyroid testing. I know, we should be on test #3 by now. Apparently we are really bad parents. (shame) If you notice on my link list, there is a comprehensive listing of things to have routinely checked for on your child with Down syndrome and I have ignored this.

Anyway, back to me. Last night I stopped by the Boy Scouts of America store to finally purchase my uniform shirt and all the related accessories. Nathaniel is just so excited about this and he cannot tell me enough how much he loves me when we are doing scouting things together so I know this is a great thing to do with him. I might even go all the way with him in cub scouting. I mean, what kind of message would that send if I quit? And it is only one hour a week, right? lol. When I showed him all the patches I had to sew to my shirt, Nathaniel said to me, "Mommy, it is almost Friday. You better hurry up and sew these on!" And wouldn't you know that when I called to check on him before he went to school, he asked me if I started sewing yet. I admit I was up pretty late working on this, and he was already asleep, so his concern was really sweet.

I am really having a good time with this Cub Scout stuff and by the time Nathaniel crosses over to Boy Scouts if he chooses, it will be right in time for Penny to be in 1st grade (hopefully) and she will be ready for Girl Scouts. I have already planned my out!

But for now, peace out Cub Scouts!

I am so Excited

For Penny! She is just so close to walking. She is so happy with herself. I try to set the dining chairs all over the living room in different compositions so she can cruise herself to where ever she wants to go. :)

Tomorrow morning I get to help chaperon for Nathaniel's 1st grade field trip, wish me luck. I love hanging out with a bunch of crazy 6 year olds. Hey, that must be why I am into Scouting!
Speaking of scouting, I spent 8 house at a Cub Scout Pow-Wow on Saturday. I learned so much and I am so excited now to be a Tiger Cub Scout leader for those boys. I can't wait to apply what I learned!

Question of the Day

What do you do when your 18 month old is up 3 hours past her bed time and she is not hungry, or feverish but she (or he, this is hypothetical right?) just whines and cries with no end in the crib and will not settle in if you try to lay down in the big bed? This same 18 month old is happy to play though if you take her (or him) out of the crib!

Am I doing this right? - You know, parenting?

So, on my long list of items to worry about with Penelope, I have had to add feeding skills. I have read that the low muscle tone thing typically makes it difficult for infants with T21 to eat. Appearantly, the low muscle tone, or hypotonia, makes it hard for Penny to coordinate the muscles in her mouth and therefore, it is hard for her to bring the food to the back of her mouth and swallow. There are a lot of muscles that need to work in concert to accomplish this seemingly simple feet. Alot of children with T21 also have an aversion to textures. Hard things like crakers can cause terror in some children. I don't think that is a problem with Penny. She likes to take carrots out of my hand and shove them into her mouth so she can teethe on the cold vegetable. I finally introduced puffed rice. I put it in front of her so she can decide whether or not she wants to try out a pincer grasp. She sitll rakes the puffed rice with her fingers and spreads them over the place. I know she is working things out though and she will get it -- sooner rather than later.

I just have concerns because when we give her pureed foods, the quasi-liquid seems to just slip out of her open mouth and drip all over the place. Then there are the much loved raspberries she blows in the air, spraying food all over the place. I love food showers!! However, when we add a bunch of rice cereal to the puree to give it an almost oatmeal consistency, she does really well it. I have concluded that it is because the texture just sticks to the inside of her mouth, so she has no choice really but to swallow it. I guess she doesn't like the sliminess, but then, can you blame her. My concern with adding the rice cereal just makes me wonder, am I cheating?

"P"

Penny had a good weekend, I think. . .what is her recourse anyway, "Mommy, I'm bored, let's go hit the bar." I don't think she will be saying that to me anytime soon. :) She slept until 5 am both Sat. morning and this morning. I said it before, but I will say it again, "I AM SO HAPPY SHE IS BACK TO SLEEPING THROUGH THE NIGHT!" We still haven't sat down with the speech therapist. We had expected to start with ST last month, but the therapist had a cold at the beginning of the month so we canceled, and then she had surgery. . . you know. But we really need to call her and get her in before the end of the month. I started to use some sign language with her this weekend. I showed her "mother," "father", and I took the letter for "P" and then pointed to her as well as doing that with the letter for "N" and pointed at Nathaniel. I had asked Nathaniel Friday night if he had any thoughts on a visual representation of his name. He did not so I said you can be "N" and then a point in his direction. It made him happy. We have physical therapy coming on Tuedsay. We love love love her. She is just so supportive in all that we do and that is sometimes really good for Scott and me to hear.

She's back to her Old Self

We are on a roll here with Penny sleeping through the night. For a few nights now Penny goes down between 8 and 9 and sleeps until 5 am. Of course, we would like her to sleep until at least 10 am, but I guess I need to be happy for what I have. :) She is such a sweetie while she sleeps. I want to kiss her and love her forever. I can't believe she is almost 8 months old. I haven't even gotten used to the idea that I have a daughter yet. If anyone has the time, I highly recommend getting over to jibjab and making a little video of yourself in the starring you section. I laughed my butt off.

She slept thru the night!

Let's hope this is a trend. Penny went to bed last night around 8pm and slept until 4:30 am at which point she woke up to be fed. Then she went back to sleep after I fed her and she was still asleep at 6:15 am when I left to go to work. Yay!

When will she sleep through the night?

I know she just had surgery, but I really want her to sleep through the night like she used to. Maybe the increased oxygenation in her blood is giving her increased energy and she is saying, "What??!? what is this sleeping business everyone wants me to partake in?" She is up almost every other hour. I don't know how much more of this I can take. I am sure my sister -in -law is thinking that I should be glad for the 7 months of pretty much uninterrupted sleep that I have had the good fortune to enjoy. My niece, Hailey will be a 1 year old next week. She has been walking for at least 6 weeks now, and by now she is a pro. But she does not sleep through the night either. I already forgot if Nathaniel slept through the night or not. Right now Penny is playing on the floor and she is making some pretty strange noises. Nathaniel loves to play with her, and he is helping her pick out some toys. :)