A Fresh Start

Finally!!!

I know it has been a very long time since I let you peek into the lovely life of Miss Leightyn. When I first started this blog it was my goal to do the 30 posts in 30 days for Down syndrome Awareness Month. With that being said I felt like I NEEDED to include Down syndrome somehow in every post I made. I had visions of The Little Leightyn Love Bug Project, which focused on helping families who received a new diagnosis. I quickly realized I did not have something insightful about Down syndrome specifically to post every day, so I just stopped trying. You see Leightyn may have Down syndrome but it most definitely does not define her. It is only the tinniest portion of her being. I am turning over a new leaf with our blog and I know it will be even better. With this fresh start I can write more freely and you will see the love I have not only for my princess but for life itself! It would be impossible to keep Down syndrome from being a part of this story but it most definitely will not be the focus. We truly make the most out of every single day and I hope we can encourage you to do the same. I look forward to sharing our life with you all again soon. I hope to be able to catch you all up on Leightyns progress as well as all the adventures we have had since getting settled here in Cincinnati. So please stay tuned :)

I leave you with this!! ENJOY!

Happy Heart Day!

Happy Heart Day to my little princess, Leightyn celebrates one year with a "healthy" heart today!!! On this day last year she had her open heart surgery. Thank You Nationwide Childrens, Dr.Wheller, Dr. Galantowicz, all of our friends and family for your thoughts and prayers, and especially God for blessing us with our precious girl!!

Look for a ton of updates and pictures coming very soon, Thanks to Heather for giving me the motivation I need to get back to the blogging :)

Lazy Wednesday

Afghan Pics

I made a bunch of phone calls today so for a minute I felt like I was getting somewhere on my never ending to do list. I am still trying to get all of Leightyns paperwork taken care of and switched over since the move and finally set up the rest of her appointments down here today. She enjoyed a lazy day and this morning switched from last nights jammies to another pair of clean jammies and spent some time trying out a few more of her Christmas gifts. I decided to get a couple out of the boxes at a time so she has something new to occupy her every week or so, of course she was busy trying to eat the coupon sections of the last few weeks papers which I keep promising myself I am going to go through and begin to use lol. Of course the one she ate was one I might have actually used for hair color :)

Fun in the Snow!

Tuesday was a fun and busy day, we had speech therapy in the morning and finally got our honey bear to work on drinking from a straw. I will let you know how it works out for us soon. We have had snow here for a while and so we decided to take Leightyn and the Afghan out to play. She got a little baby sled for Christmas with a back rest and buckle so I bundled her all up, Christmas Story style, she couldnt even move and fell over under the weight and restriciton of all her layers which she was none to happy about. Once outside she was all smiles and loved the sled ride. Since it is still really cold out we were only able to do a couple laps around the front yard but I cant wait until next year when she is a little bigger and can really get outside and enjoy the snow. We brought a bowl of it inside so she could play in it and of course she had to taste it too. We also had the opportunity to meet the Early Matters coordinator for the local Down Syndrome Association, she is a Grandma to a handsome young man who happens to have a little something extra :) It was a lot of fun getting to know her and bounce some of the many bits of information and ideas we have off of someone down here. I am hoping to help her find a local therapist willing to do some therapy once a month on our side of town, so if anyone is in East Cincy and has a therapist who they use and love let me know and I will try contacting them along with Martha to get this going for us. I learn something new everyday and from her found out if we would have went about 10 more miles south into Kentucky Leightyn would automatically have been eligible for Medicaid resources based solely on her diagnosis and her income ($0) , go figure :) When I was doing all my research about moving I didnt even think to check the other states close by. I guess I was trying to keep it "easy" by only moving counties. It really is such a shame the differance a few miles can make in the resources and services available to our children. If you are ever thinking about a move and would have the option of possibly switching counties or states and not really sacrificing distance to work, family, etc. I would highly reccomend checking the resources available in the other areas nearby. We found something similar when we first moved from one home in Columbus to another and found out the next county over could have really made a differance in resources, and I said I wouldnt make that mistake again. So when we knew we needed to be in this area for Billys work I looked into 3 counties down here before making my decision since I learned my lesson or so I had thought lol. Here are a few pics of sledding :)

Afghan goes to Play Group!

We got to take the afghan to our local playgroup today, this was our first time attending, last month Leightyn had Chicken Pox :( We were running about 5 minutes behind, those of you who know me think nothing of this common occurrence, and then the GPS got us slightly lost. Yes, you read that right, I have a love hate relationship with my GPS. It was only a couple minute turn around but pair that with the running behind and 15 minute drive already and you get one happily sleeping baby. She of course woke up once inside but decided to be quite shy at first and kept climbing on Mommy, showing of her new skill, kneeling. The other kids all have siblings so unlike Leightyn are used to being around the other kiddos and even being "bullied" a little. By the end of the hour I think she was starting to warm up though and even joined in the band to play some music, one piano, two xylophones, and an Elmo guitar, music to your ears :) It was really great to meet some of the other local Moms and their precious girls. How neat is it that they are all girls here? Leightyn was the youngest one there but it is always exciting to me getting to see the older ones doing signs, motioning with songs, and walking/running around, all things I look forward to. I hope the other families get signed up to receive the afghan as well so we can see it again soon! None of them had heard of the project previously so I think we have done our part in getting the word out and plan to continue to do so the rest of this week. I also found a yahoo group for the families in the area with an enhanced little one. I am really getting excited about the connections we are making and being able to share resources, tips, and everyday fun with the other families. Here are a few of the pics of Leightyn and the girls, quite the challenge trying to get 4 girls under 3 to sit still and all look at once for a picture, are they adorable or what?

T21 Traveling Afghan!

I am really excited to announce we have in our possession the T21 Traveling Afghan!!! If you have not heard about this project yet, I highly recommend going to the site and signing up. Basically one afghan is traveling the world visiting children with Down Syndrome and spending a week in their lives. The family then writes an entry into the journal which is mailed with the afghan and blogs about it if possible and the pictures and their adventures are added to the traveling afghan website. The motto is one common thread :) It will be hanging out with us this week so check in daily to see what we are up to. This week I will be focusing on sharing our adventures with the afghan and then next week be ready for a ton and I mean a ton of posts and pictures to catch you up on the last 2 months and all the excitement and craziness as well as more on our move and adjustment to Cincinnati. I know I know I have been really bad but I finally have something to get me focused again and part of my new years resolution is posting at least 5 times a month but I really hope to do more. If you catch me slacking please please by all means call me out!!

Time Off :(

Okay after almost a month off I have returned and promise to keep up on the posting! Things are still very crazy and we have been doing so much back and forth between Columbus and Cincinnati and preparing for the holidays! I have a lot to catch you up on so be on the look out for many many posts in the next month :) Hope you all are well and have not given up on us!!