RAISING JOEY

Back in 9 days!

Well, Joey and I are off to Ohio to see our family and friends till next week! Be back on February 4th! If I get a chance I’ll try to post an update while I’m there!

Favorite Ingredients Friday- Super Bowl Edition!

Skyline Chili Dip

1. One 12 oz. package softened cream cheese
2. One 13 oz. frozen Skyline Chili thawed OR one 15 oz. can of Skyline Chili
*For those of you who can’t find sky line chili, use any hot dog chili, works good too!
3. 1/4 cup diced onions (optional)
4. 12 oz. Skyline shredded mild cheddar cheese

Spread softened cream cheese evenly on bottom of 9 x 13 microwaveable casserole dish. Heat chili according to package directions. Pour heated Skyline Chili over cream cheese. Sprinkle diced onions (optional) on top of chili. Cover with Skyline shredded mild cheddar cheese.

Conventional oven: heat at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes or until cheese is completely melted.

Serve with nacho or corn chips.

For more Favorite Ingredient Friday recipes, go to Overwhelmed With Joy!

Previous Favorite Ingredient Friday recipes:
Cheesy Potato Soup
Peanut Butter Cookies
Saurkraut and Pork Roast
Candied Nuts
Mom’s fudge
Peanut Brittle
Beef Enchiladas
Snicker Doodle Cookies
Pecan Pie
Burrito Pie
Apple Crisp

I’m on a mission!

I’ve decided that I need to make a difference somehow helping to educate other women who were in my shoes in October 2005 when I got my CVS results that Joey did in fact have Down syndrome. I’ve been emailing back and forth with another mom here in Connecticut and hopefully we can start to not only educate medical professionals but also families who receive a prenatal diagnosis of Trisomy 21. Hospitals don’t give out enough if any information on Down syndrome so families don’t always realize the joy our children bring us and how they’re not really much different than a typical child. Joey eats, sleeps and poops just like a typical baby, he might need a little more help getting strong enough to sit, stand and walk, but that doesn’t mean to give up on him. His heart beats just like ours and his blood is red just like ours. The more I sit around and think about it, the more determined I become to make a difference!

To be continued…

The year I was born

Michelle had this on her blog and I thought it was pretty cool so I decided to post mine too!

In 1981 (the year you were born)

Ronald Reagan becomes president of the US. Minutes after Ronald Reagan becomes president, Iran releases 52 American hostages that had been held captive for 444 days. President Reagan is shot in the chest by would be assassin John Hinkley. Space shuttle Columbia, the world’s first reusable spacecraft, is sent into space. A suspended walkway in the Kansas City Hyatt Regency Hotel collapses, killing 113. A female former lover files a “palimony” suit against tennis star Billie Jean King. President Reagan appoints Sandra Day O’Connor to be the first woman on the Supreme Court. The Pac-Man video game is introduced in the US. Alicia Keys, Elijah Wood, Kelly Rowland, Anna Kournikova, and Britney Spears are born. Los Angeles Dodgers win the World Series. Oakland Raiders win Superbowl XV. New York Islanders win the Stanley Cup. Raiders of the Lost Ark is the top grossing film. “Bette Davis Eyes” by Kim Carnes spends the most time at the top of the US charts. MTV debuts on cable television, playing music videos 24 hours a day. Gimme a Break premieres.

Oh and to add in a little something extra, the day that President Regan was shot was the day I was born! My mom was in labor with me sitting at home waiting to go to the hospital when it came across the TV.

Dads update

Both of our fathers are doing well and both should get out of the hospital today!

My Dad had his heart cath done yesterday along with a stint and is recovering nicely. Now we’re not sure if he had an actual heart attack. He’s had 2 doctors tell him yes and one tell him no. But he did have a blockage that required a stint so that’s definitely a sign that he needs to eat better and exercise more!

Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers!

Wordless Wednesday

Joey with his Aunt M.

For The Wordless Wednesdays Headquarters, go here.

Stinky Boy!

Well, not only did Joey go #2 once today, he’s gone twice and I don’t think I’ve ever seen him so happy after going potty, he was cracking me up and boy did it smell!

Photo and video editing at onetruemedia.com

Prayers Needed

So Friday my father in law starts having chest pain along with the pain radiating down his arm, finally on Sunday drives himself to the hospital.

Yesterday my father wasn’t feeling well so he took himself to his doctor and after taking his blood pressure, his doctor called an ambulance and he was taken to the hospital.

Do you see where I’m going with this? Both my father and my father in law have had heart attacks in the past 2 days! WHAT THE HECK?!

My father in law had a 90% blockage in one artery, less in the some others so they repaired the 90% with a stint and the others they’re going to try to fix with medication.

My father is in route being transferred to a different hospital for the heart cath and possible stints.

LOTS AND LOTS of prayers are needed today folks!

Golly, What DID Jon, Joey and every other person with Down syndrome do?

Many of us have been posting this article, but it’s worth posting again!

Will: Golly, What did Jon Do?
Written by George F. Will

What did Jon Will and the more than 350,000 American citizens like him do to tick off the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists? It seems to want to help eliminate from America almost all of a category of citizens, a category that includes Jon.

As women age, their risk of having a Down syndrome baby increases. It has become standard practice for women older than 35 years old to be offered genetic counseling and diagnostic testing. But because of the higher fertility rates of women under 35, such women have 80 percent of Down syndrome babies. So new ACOG guidelines recommend that all pregnant women, regardless of age, be offered such counseling and testing.
For the rest of the article, click here.

George Will, a fellow parent of a child with Down syndrome wrote a wonderful article in Newsweek this week. It truly does seem that the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists wants to eliminate people with Down syndrome at the rate they are going! 85-90% of prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome result in abortion. If doctors would give more positive information rather than all the negatives, this percentage would go down! What doctors fail to tell you is that people with Down syndrome live full and wonderful lives! People with Down syndrome do not suffer because they have Down syndrome. Many graduate from high school, go to college, live on their own and heck are even getting married! What about the waiting lists of families waiting to adopt a child with Down syndrome? Some people just don’t get it…

Like I’ve said many times already doctors need to focus on the positives and less of the negatives. Don’t just offer abortions, offer information on local Down syndrome groups so that soon to be parents could meet families with children that have Down syndrome so they could see the positives.

I had a prenatal diagnosis but I chose life. I’m only 25 years old but Joey had some markers of possibly having Down syndrome during an ultrasound and I wanted to know for sure so me and my family could educate ourselves and be prepared for Joey’s arrival. And you know what, I wouldn’t have him ANY OTHER WAY! He’s perfect just like he is, extra chromosomes and all!

Surprise… new ticker!

Take a look at my new ticker below Joey’s 1st birthday ticker! I wasn’t going to say anything for a while, but it was all of you who got me through losing Kiera so I can’t keep this exciting news from you!!! I just found out Friday afternoon so say lots of prayers for this time to be a safe and healthy pregnancy!!!!

What a small world!

It was just brought to my attention last night that Tricia from Unringing The Bell also lives here in Connecticut! How cool is that! I love meeting other parents of children with DS and how cool is it that we’re both part of the crazy world of blogging!?!? And we’re both members of the CDSC!

Much better this morning

Joey went to bed last night without any problems a little after 9:00 but he woke up at 12:30 crying. Luckily I was able to pat his back until he fell back asleep. This morning he’s been a little cranky here and there. He’s been taking a nap for the past 1 1/2 hour. I’m hoping the rest of the day will be ok.

Patrick didn’t have to be to work this morning until 10:00 so I got to sleep in an extra hour! Thank you Sweetie, I need that!

Yesterday the weather man said we were suppose to get 1/2 inches of snow last night. Well, he was wrong! Well, I woke up this morning and looked out of the window and we got nothing I was actually hoping for a little snow. Oh well, I’m sure we’ll get some at some point!

Also, yesterday I went grocery shopping at Shop Rite. They’re having their can-can sale so I once again stocked up on canned goods and anything else I could find for a good price. As I was walking around, they announced in the deli that they had pre-cooked turkey dinners for up to 10 people on sale for $9.99! This included mashed potatoes & gravy, stuffing, sweet potatoes, creamed spinish and an 11 pound turkey!You just have to heat everything up! So along with half the store, I rushed over there like an idiot to get my turkey dinner. So tonight, I “cooked” for my in-laws and we’re having a turkey dinner! I also got my 12 cans of veggies 12 for $3.48!

Favorite Ingredient Friday

Cheesy Potato Soup

Ingredients
1. 6 tablespoons unsalted butter
2. 1 1/2 cups chopped onions
3. 1 1/2 cups chopped celery
4. 4 cups water
5. 8 potatoes, peeled and cubed
6. 15 slices American cheese - broken into pieces
7. 4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
8. 2 1/3 cups milk
9. 2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

Directions
1. Melt the butter in a large pot over medium heat. Saute the onions and celery in the butter for 5 to 10 minutes, or until tender.

2. Stir in the water and potatoes, bring to a boil and then simmer until the potatoes are tender. Add the cheese and stir until melted.

3. In a separate small bowl, combine the flour and the milk and stir well until the flour is mostly dissolved. Pour this into the soup slowly, stirring constantly, until soup has thickened, about 5 minutes. Garish with parsley.

For more Favorite Ingredient Fridays, go to Overwhelmed With Joy!

Previous Favorite Ingredient Friday recipes:
Peanut Butter Cookies
Saurkraut and Pork Roast
Candied Nuts
Mom’s fudge
Peanut Brittle
Beef Enchiladas
Snicker Doodle Cookies
Pecan Pie
Burrito Pie
Apple Crisp

Please restart my heart!

Ok, well that was scary… I was just giving Joey a bottle of juice when he started choking, like I’m talking didn’t take a breathe for about 30 seconds, juice coming out of his nose, gasping for air choking. I just hope he didn’t aspirate, but it sounded like he did. He just cried himself to sleep so we’ll see what happens. It scared the crap out of me though…

Wiggles & DS clinic note

Well, The Wiggles were on The View today, I usually don’t even watch The View but Joey’s PT & OT were both here and they saw The Wiggles so I turned it up for Joey. Up until now I’ve refused to watch anything like that. No Wiggles, no Barney, no nothing. The only children’s thing I’ve let Joey watch is his Baby Einstein DVD. Well, even at 10 months old, The Wiggles caught Joey’s attention. Joey seemed to like listening to them. So we’ve been sucked into The Wiggles craze!

His PT & OT usually don’t come to the house together but every couple months they like to just to “compare notes” and to give eachother ideas. They both can’t believe the progress Joey is making each time they see him!

I just got the Dr’s note from Joey’s trip to the DS clinic from a few weeks ago. I can’t believe how much this doctor went into detail! The note is wonderful! He said “his length is 68 cm, 3rd centile; weight 7.8 kg, 3rd centile; head circumference 44.5 cm, 10-25th centile. On the Down syndrome growth chart, his length is at the 25th to 50th, weight 50th and head circumference 90th centiles”. I have DS growth charts, but I have no clue what the heck I’m looking at!

Why can’t they explain that in English to where I could understand?

He also said that Joey should have a pediatric opththalmology evaluation done within the next month to see if there is indeed a modest left esotropia (WebMD & google here I come!). On that note, I’m off to the DownSyn forum to post this to see if anyone can explain growth charts to me! Or if any of you could help, please do!

My M&M self portrait

I was watching TV today and saw a commercial to make myself into an M&M and gave it a try! Pretty cool to do with the kids! Just thought I would share. Become an M&M!

Wordless Wednesday

To visit the WW Headquarters, go here!

Finally!!

Today is finally the day! Joey is done with his helmet!!! And I think he’s as happy as I am!

Peak A Boo!

Another video of my little cutie pie this time playing peak a boo!

Make an online slide show at onetruemedia.com

Joey’s close up!

I took this video last week and forgot to post it! Anyways, Joey was sitting on my lap being cute as can be so I grabbed my camera and started filming.

Make photo slide shows at onetruemedia.com

back in the day…

I often sit back and think about my days in high school. My friends, the things we did together (some I regret, some not), and my days in AFJROTC and marching band (yeah, I was a dork). There are some I still have contact with, and some I wish I could be in contact with. Many have grown up, some still have growing up to do. I was part of a very close net group of friends. We all were in either band or ROTC together. I was fit and in shape, not to mention about 30+ pounds lighter than I am now. I love popping a tape in of an old marching band performance and picking myself out. Some of my friends joined the military, some went away to college, and some stayed home and went to local colleges. I wish I could find the few I have no clue where they are. I have a myspace and a facebook account and unfortunately, not everyone is on them.

(I’m the second from the left)

Then I look back on the couple years before I moved up here to Connecticut. I worked my butt off at various jobs, hung out at a local bar (often drinking too much) and taking turns with Patrick flying back and forth so we could see each other every other month or so. I am a much different person I was back then, I have grown up more in the past 2 years than I ever thought I could.

But yet, I look back on the old days, and miss it. Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t change my life back for anything now. Being home all day long DOES get very lonely though, I know I could get out more but part of me just doesn’t want to.

I’m not sure where I’m going with this post, but just wanted to let any of my friends from Ohio know that I miss them. If any of you guys stumbled across this link via my myspace or facebook profiles and now read this, be sure to drop me a comment saying hi!

New blog!

I just wanted to share a new blog starring a little boy Jaden, who shares the same little extra chromosome as Joey, Jaden’s Journal.

weekend update

Saturday morning, Patrick and I went to test drive the van we’ve been looking at. It drives like a top! I’m so excited, I just hope this one works out better than the last one we looked at. The guy who is selling it is going to let me take it to our mechanic to look over to make sure there’s no major problems hiding under the hood. As long as it checks out ok, I’m going to have a new/ used van!

Saturday afternoon, Joey’s Aunt Maureen, and I went and bought Joey a new car seat. He hasn’t completely outgrown his infant car seat, but since he’s getting his helmet off on Tuesday and they warned us that his car seat that he has would put more pressure on the back of his head and might help his head to regress back to being flat easier. So, after making a trip to BJ’s then to Babies R Us, then BACK to BJ’s, I chose a car seat that adjusts from 5 lbs, to 80 lbs. And even in the infant setting, his head doesn’t seem to have as much pressure on the back of it.

Today was spent going to noon mass then spending the rest of the day cleaning and doing things that I’ve been wanting to get done. Unfortunately, I ran out of time! There was so much more I could have gotten done today, but hopefully I can get most of the things done this week.

I still can’t believe Tuesday is the last day with Joey’s helmet! The last 13 weeks have gone by so quick! Tomorrow I’m actually going to let Joey have his helmet off for intervals so he can start getting used to not wearing it. He had it off for about 45 minutes this evening and didn’t seem to be too happy to have it off, especially when he hit his head on a toy. It’ll take a little adjustment getting used to it being off for good.

Tomorrow I need to go back to Babies R Us. Today Joey used a medium flow nipple on his bottle rather than a slow flow for the first time and did good. No choking, so we’re going to try medium flow for now on. Mostly because his slow flows are wearing out and he needs to use the ones more for his age.

I just checked my bloglines and realized that I’ve not read many of my favorite blogs all weekend and I’m getting too sleepy to read them tonight, so I’ll save that for tomorrow morning during Joey’s first nap of the day to catch up with all my favorites and try to read a couple new blogs too!

Favorite Ingredient Friday

Peanut Butter Cookies

Ingredients
1. 1/2 cup butter, softened
2. 1/2 cup peanut butter
3. 1/2 cup granulated sugar
4. 1/2 cup packed brown suger, or 1/4 cup honey
5. 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
6. 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
7. 1 egg
8. 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
9. 1/4 cups all purpose flour
10. granualted sugar in a bowl

Directions
1. In a large mixing bowl beat butter and peanut butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add the granualated sugar, brown sugar, baking soda and baking powder. Beat until combined, scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Beat in egg and vanilla until combined. Beat in as much of the flour as you can with the mixer. Stir in any remaining flour. If necessary, cover and chill dough until it’s easy to handle.

2. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Roll in additional granualted sugar in bowl to coat. Place 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten by making crisscrosse marks with the tines of a fork. Bake in oven on 375 degrees for 7-9 minutes or until bottoms are lightly browned. Transfer to wire rack and let cool.

** This is my favorite PB cookie recipe and comes out of the Better Homes & Gardens Cookbook.

For more Favorite Ingredient Friday recipes, go to Overwhelmed With Joy!

I need relief!

I used to enjoy wearing perfume and scented lotions, now I can barley walk through the perfume section of my favorite stores without sneezing 10 times. I would always wear my favorite perfume, Miracle, but now it’s just a pretty bottle sitting on my dresser along with my Bath & Body Works lotions. I can’t even light my favorite candles anymore without getting a headache and sneezing! Gotta love allergies that arrived in my early twenties. Medication doesn’t even help me sneezing to my favorite scents! These allergies have also brought on a new enemy… mold! In November, my allergies seemed to be getting better in that department after our first freeze. WELL, thanks to the past couple weeks of the temperature being in the 50’s, 60’s and even last weekend in the 70’s, my friend, Allergy has reappeared. I’ve been sitting here sneezing my head off for the past couple weeks. We had a freeze last night so I’m hoping for some relief in the near future. Not to mention, I’m running low on Kleenex!