Joy’s Christmas

I love Joy’s name.  It fits her so perfectly.  But it is so much more special at Christmas!

Here are pictures of Joy’s Christmas:

Joy, the niece and cousin, surrounded by loving Aunts and cousins

Every time I looked at Joy during present time, she was playing with ribbons and wrapping paper.  She was so cute!

New pajamas – ones from Grandma and all dressed up for Christmas Eve.

Loving on Aunt Kathie                         Sharing Becca with Michael

Aunt Donna and Joy

Christmas Morning – Joy’s presents

Merry Christmas!

All I Want For Christmas….

is my two front teeth!

Joy now has the right top front tooth.   Her bottom left tooth is breaking through!  That will bring us up to a grand…..3!

 

Crazy picture – but if you look, you can see her two teeth!

 

And then for the fun of it, pictures of Joy’s life…..

Joy and Lizzy in the tub

And then these three, I was trying to get a good picture to send to Joy’s mother.  She wasn’t cooperating, but she liked the moose!

 

And then pictures with my family: Aunt Kathie

 

Uncle Jeremy with Joy and Michael. I really wanted to get that picture of Jeremy with Joy and Michael to compare it with this picture: Look how the cousins have grown!

     

Daddy, Joy, and Grandpa

 

and JOY!

 

Playing Ball With Becca

Where’s Joy?

Joy is so cute!  She spontaneously plays peek-a-boo now – and she initiates it!

Where’s Joy?

 

There she is!

And kisses cause she’s so cute!

Fun Therapy and Random Joy Pictures

Joy had both communication and OT this week.  Her communication therapy is going to increase to twice a month starting in January – yeah Joy!

First, parachute – so fun!  She was leaving to make a sound or a movement and we would respond.  We were working on shake and up. 

We continue to read.  Joy thinks you have to point to look at a book.  It’s so cute!

Working on in and out. (and no, she’s not really standing there)

 

Working on up and down.

Now onto OT:  You want me to walk behind that thing?  Are you kidding me?  :)

 

Also working on “on” and “off”

Now onto the random pictures of Joy:

Joy, the angel

Joy discovered the cabinet

Joy in the leaves – we call them Texas Snow!  :)

  

18 Month Check-Up

Joy looks great according to her doctor.
She is weighing in at 20 pound 10 ounces.
She is 30 inches tall.
That puts her at the 75% for both weight and height on the DS charts.
She also got two shots...and a lollipop!

And............a referral to the ENT. Her right ear did not pass the hearing test.
Sigh! I was talking to someone just yesterday about Joy and the fact that we haven't had any ear infections or fluid on her ears. I spoke too soon.
I'll let you know what the ENT says.

A picture of Joy today BS (before shots) :)

18 Months Old!

For Joy’s 18 month birthday, we composed this list:

Reasons We Love Joy

1. She’s happy!

2. Her laugh is so cute!

3. She crawls like Mowgli.

4. She says, “Hi!”

5. She is so sweet.

6.When other people are sad, she tries to comfort them.

7. She loves to play.

8. She loves ice cream.

9. She kisses me.

10. She blows raspberries.

11. She’ll eat whatever you eat.

12. Her first word was '”Dada.”

13. She has a cute tongue.

14. She’ll gladly play with you.

15. She plays peek-a-boo with her blankets.

16. She loves music!

17. She’s cuddly.

18. She loves everyone!

Thanksgiving and Crawling

This is Joy and her cousin Victoria.

Joy enjoying her pre-dinner turkey. This year she actually ate turkey. Last year it was the jarred stuff. She didn't like it last year. She loved it this year!



And finally, I have been trying to capture how Joy crawls. Finally - I got it! Enjoy!

Self Feeding

The time has come for Joy to start feeding herself.

She is doing well, but she is making a HUGE mess!  Don’t you just love the morning hair?  :)  Her therapist jokingly said at least oatmeal is good for the skin!  :)

Self feeding means LOTS of baths.  :)

Communication Therapy

Today Miss Kari came for Communication Therapy. Joy is at such a fun stage - she is beginning to learn to imitate - which is how we learn language. Yeah!

Washing our hands in the parachute

We practice sounds in the hollow container - it makes a fun echo!

You want me to move behind this thing? You are kidding, right?

Stacking??

We have a tooth!

Fun and exciting news!  We have felt (!) and seen our first shiny and sharp little tooth!  Wahoo!

Not being a dentist, I can’t tell you which tooth it is, but I am going to make an educated guess.  I think it’s the First molar – it’s pretty far back there on her right side, upper jaw.

Here is a chart for normal tooth eruption (www.drgreene.com):

Eruption of Primary or Deciduous Teeth
	Upper	Lower
Central incisors	6-8 months	5-7 months
Lateral incisors	8-11 months	7-10 months
Cuspids (canines)	16-20 months	16-20 months
First molars	10-16 months	10-16 months
Second molars	20-30 months	20-30 months

 

And then from a DS website (http://altonweb.com/cs/downsyndrome/index.htm?page=desai.html):

“Tooth eruption is delayed in timing and sequence.”

So very true!!  :)

A couple pictures for the fun of it

Joy was NOT going to look at me!

Playing with a car

Santa Joy

Another bath post – I can’t help myself!

We thought her bubbles looked like a fun Santa beard!  :)

Joy had therapy yesterday.  She did so well.  She was able to cruise for two steps – more than one.  She put toys “in” for the therapist.  She has never done that for me!  :)  And we worked on the stairs – she has one stair she'll do for Miss Carolyn.

When Daddy came home, he got her to go all the way up the stairs – way to go Joy!

Daddy is also working on helping Joy walk.  Joy isn’t too thrilled, but it’s the next step.  When Miss Carolyn tried the same exercise, Joy knew what to do.  She wasn’t pleased, but she recognized that she had to move her feet.

She is doing so well!

These pictures are for last week’s therapy:

Swinging

Have I mentioned how much Joy loves to swing?

and swing?

and swing?

Joy and Her Daddy

Joy loves her Daddy! She is trying to move beyond 'dada' to "Dad - E". Really cute!

Kissing

Joy loves to kiss! She is getting better. At first it was the total open mouth face plant. She is moving toward closing her mouth. She is very intent on giving kisses!


Joy and Linda (our family friend) kissing

Joy determined to plant one on Lizzy!

Dentist

Joy saw the dentist today! Joy has both our private insurance and medicaid - which is such a blessing, but such a pain. Medicaid has all of these rules. For example, they want Joy to see a dentist every six months. She has no teeth - not one. Too bad, the great state of Texas feels that she needs to see a dentist. They keep telling me so in letters. Sigh. If you don't use your private dental insurance, no one yells at you. :)

Sammi went to our wonderful pediatric dentist today. I was explaining everything and hoping they would accept our insurance and maybe, just maybe, use medicaid as a secondary insurance. Normally, they don't see children until they are three, unless there is a problem - like poor Jessi. Wonder of wonders, Dr. Lewis accepts medicaid, and not just medicaid, our particular kind of medicaid, Texas Health Steps. As Dr. Lewis says, God is watching out for us! Yeah!

So what were her findings? She stuck her fingers in Joy's mouth and told me she doesn't have any teeth! :) We'll go back in six months. Crazy, crazy.