New Year, New Thoughts

Wow, what a whirl-wind end of the year it has been. I don't think Christmas has ever been so jam-packed with stuff to do. The weeks before Christmas were spent getting the house together for it to be sold. There were some things that I wouldn't be able to do without Stephen. We spent Christmas day here (with 6 inches of snow!) and then drove up to NY the next day to spend the week with Stephen's family. Rachel got an ear infection before we left. Thank God, I took her to the pediatrician a couple days before we left and we were able to get meds to help her out. That would have made the trip even more miserable than it was. Poor girl was not happy in the car. She used to be OK for 5 hour spurts but not any more. She cried like we were torturing her. I think she has also reached the point where it's harder for her to sleep someplace besides her own crib. She did not want to sleep past 4:30/5 AM most nights and that was hard on us. We ended up driving straight through from NY to NC on Thursday night just to get home. Rachel slept in the car from 7 PM until we got back around 11:30 and when I put her in her crib, she woke up, looked around and fell right back to sleep. She slept in until 7 AM and has done so since then. Such a home-body. Thank the lord we have no more long trips in sight for months.

Stephen left Sunday to start his new job down in Huntsville. Our last weekend together was spent getting his stuff together. He took our dogs with him too, to keep him company. It is very quiet here now. I never thought I would miss his noise but I really do. I have the carpet cleaners coming on Wednesday and Molly Maid coming on Friday. After that, I take pics of the home and hopefully have it ready to go on the market. I'm sure a lot of people go through this when the sell a home but I worry about this house. Will the next owner like the pear tree I planted in the back yard? Will they take down our fans and replace them? Will they paint over the green in Rachel's room. Thinking about Rachel being someplace besides "her room" breaks my heart. I think I'll have to take the can of green paint with us when it's time to go. Her next room will need to be that green again. I know I've said it before but I will miss it here.

People ask me all the time, "How is Rachel doing?" Actually, she is doing great. I went through some old posts and I have realized that I'm not reporting every little thing she does anymore. Probably because the news of Down syndrome has kind of worn off. I don't feel the need to tell the world each and every therapy session because they are just part of our lives now. Kind of like doing the laundry. Everyone knows that I do the laundry, so why do I need to talk about it all the time? But she is moving along. She wants to walk so badly but doesn't understand how to get her little legs moving. She pulls to stand and if she is near another platform, she'll try and transfer over to it. She has been getting better but she tends to forget to move her legs as she throws her body over. She also almost climbed up from a toy to her bench. She got her little leg up on top of the toy and then I think she got unsure of herself and lowered herself back down. I was so excited. I thought for sure she was going to do it. Rachel is learning much faster now too. She received a couple new toys for Christmas and she already mastered how to use them. I underestimate her sometimes and I know she does these things just to put me back in my place.

most of my pictures look like this now - she crawls after the camera

notice the toy explosion