31 for 21: Day 17 {Buddy Walk 2009}

Photo courtesy of Blueberry Shoes Productions LLC

Today was our Buddy Walk ... this was our family's 4th annual Buddy Walk and our first year as Two Girls Tribe (previously known as Payton's Posse). I was on the committee this year, so I have come to learn all that goes into planning an event like this!

Who knew?

Photo courtesy of Blueberry Shoes Productions LLC

Although being on the committee is something that is very important to me, it has also allowed me to expand my local network greatly ... and for that I am thankful. I have come to find some awesome friends along the way.

Anyway.

While we raised a lot of money from pre-event fundraising ... over 150K ... we were totally bummed to have rain and cold on the day of the Buddy Walk. Not only for fundraising purposes, but for fun purposes!

Instead of enjoying the weather and letting the kids run and play, we saw a lot of this ...

Photo courtesy of Blueberry Shoes Productions LLC

And this ...

Photo courtesy of Blueberry Shoes Productions LLC

We had some pretty amazing entertainment and guests this year, including Rachel Coleman from Signing Time ...

Photo courtesy of Blueberry Shoes Productions LLC

Blair Williamson ...

Erin Thompson ...

Diego and other characters ...
And a local marching band to lead us on our walk! So fun.

Photo courtesy of Blueberry Shoes Productions LLC

The girls enjoyed their view of the walk from under a rain cover ... that rain was such a bummer.

After the walk, the committee got to spend a little bit of time with Rachel. She and her husband were very sweet. Here is a lovely shot of my friend, Linda, and I with Rachel. Unfortunately all of our kids had already gone home, so none of them got to meet her.

Thank you so much to everyone who supported our team this year. We raised a little over $3,000 all because of you! Every team that raised over $2,000 got a personalized mile marker. Here is ours, although we were not able to decorate it because of the rain ...
Our stars for the day ...

31 for 21: Day 15 {Updates all around}

Things have been so crazy around here. Let's see ...

This past weekend, we spent time at a friend's lake house. We had a lot of fun and I loved being at the lake and out on the boat, since I did a lot of that growing up at a friend's lake house. I'm soliciting investors for my own lake house ... anyone interested? Ha.

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Since my accident, I have been seeing a chiropractor three times a week for my neck and back. Although it is time consuming, it has helped so much. I have a couple more weeks of this intense treatment and then we will go from there. I have yet to settle with the insurance company, so we will see how that goes when the time comes.

Despite the kids school starting, I continue to be very busy here on the home front ... and running kids here, running kids there. I also am on the Buddy Walk committee this year, so that is consuming some of my time. Come this Saturday, that will be over and then I will be planning Nika's 3rd birthday party. After that is over, I'll be planning my sister's baby shower. Then Christmas and two more birthday parties in January. Sigh.

Oh ... and by the way ... today I won fan passes to see Tim McGraw at the Today Show next week. And I love me some Tim McGraw! So several of my friends and I will be driving up to New York City for the night ... and then waking up at the crack of dawn to freeze our butts off head to the show to see him perform in concert. With the fan passes, we will get in to the concert area first ... should be fun times!

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Mason is doing great in school. His behavior has continued to be very good, with the exception of this past Friday, when he apparently couldn't keep his hands to himself. All things considered, I am very pleased. He seems to be learning a lot and he loves to go to school. He is currently line leader for his class, which makes him very happy. His teacher told me that Mason is her little teacher's pet and that he aims to please her, so I guess that is good? Better than the opposite, I suppose.

Me (as I'm leaving the room): Here bud, wear this shirt to school.
Mason (as he enters my room wearing a different shirt that clashes with his pants): Okay Mommy, I'm ready for school.
Me: Bud, you can't wear that shirt with those pants. Go put on the other shirt that I laid out for you.
Mason (in an exaggerated voice): But Mom ... that shirt isn't stylin! *sobs*

Mason: Mommy, can I be a car rider? I don't want to ride the bus anymore.
Me: Why, what is wrong with the bus?
Mason: We always have to stand in line for so long.
Me: Sorry bud, I can't drive you because I have to be here with the girls.
Fast forward to the next day.
Me: Bud, hurry up! We have to go, or you are going to miss your bus!
Mason: That's okay, then I can just be a car rider.
Me (thinks to self): Ummm no, I think you are missing the point here.

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Payton is doing excellent ... in school and otherwise. She is basically potty trained and I just need to take the plunge into panties. It is hard because I still don't trust her and we have to take her to the potty still, versus her telling us she has to go. She is such a busy body, she just doesn't think to tell us all the time. But she is staying dry. So I know I need to do it, I just hate to deal with the mess of an accident. Oh vey. I do know, however, that getting rid of the bulk from her pull up would help her pants fit a lot better! Haha.

Payton had a little issue down there last week that sort of has me concerned. She kept pointing down there and saying, "Oww." I noticed that the area was a little irritated, however one day as I was wiping her after she went potty, I noticed blood on the toilet paper. That sort of freaked me out, so I had her pediatrician test her urine to see if she had a urinary tract infection, but she didn't. We treated the irritation with baking soda baths and it went away ... and she stopped complaining that it hurt. I'm still a bit perplexed where the blood came from, as there didn't seem to be any cracks and the irritation was not that bad, just a little red. Not sure on this ... still keeping an eye out.

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Nika is doing fantabulous. I feel like the bond between her and I has grown immensely since school started. Having the other two kids in school for longer hours has allowed Nika and I to bond more ... it has been great. I also have been so proud of Nika for how well she has done with school ... and I think that proudness factor has contributed to our bond, as weird as that might sound. I can't believe next month is our one year anniversary of bringing her home from Russia! Craziness.

On a little side note, I think I may have curbed Nika's finger sucking ... *knock on wood*. She has not really been sucking her fingers at all. I have been testing her during nap time and she is passing with flying colors! Her finger sucking could easily have gotten to a point where it would have consumed her, if we let it. Her teacher got to see some of this too. Basically Nika would sit and suck on her fingers for hours at a time if you let her ... interfering with her daily functioning, basically. That is why it is such a problem ... for me at least. Anyway, I really wonder if her closer bonding with me has affected this and lessened her need for her finger sucking ... makes sense to me!

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I have continued to see progress with both of the girls since starting them on Gingko and Omega 3. Their cognition, awareness, speech, concentration ... these are all differences and improvements I have seen. Payton's speech therapist continues to be thrilled with the changes ... fingers crossed that it continues!

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Chocolate chip cookie, anyone? Ha.

31 for 21: Day 15 {Buddy Walk}

This Saturday, our family will be walking in the Down Syndrome Association of Northern Virginia's annual Buddy Walk. The Buddy Walk is an event to promote education and awareness for all people with Down syndrome ... obviously something that is very important to us.

As you know, our two daughters are blessed with an extra chromosome. It is events like the Buddy Walk that help families like ours to raise our girls in the best way possible. As previously noted ... and most importantly ... it promotes education and awareness for our girls. It also helps to provide the financial assistance necessary for things like therapy, adaptive equipment (if needed), resources that we wouldn't otherwise have, among other things.

We are asking for your support of our team, Two Girls Tribe! Every penny helps, so please consider supporting our girls or coming out to walk with us! Click here to make a donation.

Thank you so much to everyone that has supported us ... we appreciate it more than words can say!

31 for 21: Day 14 {The Name Game}

I was tagged by Cheri over at Raising Reid to talk about how my kids got their names. So here we go ...

Mason James ... When we found out we were having a boy, I made of list of names that I liked ... it looked something like this ... Kaden, Aiden, Mason, Camden, etc. There seemed to be a trend, in that I liked names that ended in -en, -an, -in or -on. We knew the middle name would be James, as that is Kyle's middle name and we wanted to stick with tradition.

For most of my pregnancy, we had decided on the name Kaden James. I loved the name Kaden, however by the end of my pregnancy I was bored with it, so we switched to Mason James. There was nothing really special about the meaning of it, we just simply loved the name. And so Mason James it was.

Payton Lynn ... When we found out we were having a girl, I wasn't really sure what to do, as I have always liked boys names better. Even as I went into labor, we weren't really sure what our little girl's name would be. I think we had narrowed it down to Mya and Payton ... me sort of pulling for Mya and Kyle pulling for Payton. I really wasn't sure though, since I tend to like those -on, -en, -in, -an names ... Mya didn't fit the bill on that one.

Kyle actually had made a bet with me that if Peyton Manning had broke some record that season, then our little girl would be named Payton. Ha. Peyton Manning did not break the record though ... too bad, so sad.

So fast forward to the birth of our daughter ... lo and behold, we find out she has Down syndrome. As we discussed her name, I told Kyle I wanted her to have a strong name. She was going to have to fight her whole life and she needed a strong name.

Payton it was. Payton Lynn. I had originally wanted our little girl to have my middle name, which is Ann. However I didn't like how Payton Ann sounded, so we gave her the middle name Lynn, which is the same middle name that my sister and Kyle's younger sister have.

Addison "Nika" Veronika ... From the time that we decided to adopt a little girl, I knew her name would be Addison. I loved the name and it went with my -on, -in, -en, -an name trend. Her birth name was Veronika, so we decided to keep that as her middle name ... with the same spelling.

It is no surprise that we pretty much call her "Nika" 99% of the time. When she was in the baby home, her caregivers and the other children called her "Nika", which is a shortened version of Veronika. And the name stuck. We continued to call her "Nika" after we brought her home, only because that is what she knew and we wanted her transition to go as smooth as possible. We still haven't really transitioned out of that name either ... while I think she knows her name is Addison, "Nika" is what we use when we really want her attention.

So there ya have it!

31 for 21: Day 12 {Van Gogh ... I mean, Van Payton}