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Yikes! I can’t believe it. Landree turned a year old on the 6^th of August. She had a princess birthday party at the park, and even happily wore her tiara! That's my girl! If her cheeks look a little red in the pictures it’s because it was 1,000 degrees that day!  She’s getting so big and doing so well. Her personality is really starting to show. She’s very vocal & loves for us to copy the sounds she’s making. She’s added the word yay to her vocabulary and she loves it when we sing that old song Ka-Ka-Ka-Katie (except we’ve changed it to La-La-La-Landree). My grandmother used to sing it to me when I was little. Landree can be crying but if we start to sing that song she gets the biggest grin ever! She also apparently thinks counting is pretty funny. By the time I count to two she gets a little smirk. By three she’s grinning her head off.  She’s not really interested in tv. I turned the doodle bops on for her Saturday while I fed her breakfast, but she didn’t pay much attention to it. However, when Drake and Josh came on it was a different story. She watched for several minutes.

I guess she’s officially not a baby anymore. She’s eating real food now along with her baby food & she doesn’t take a bottle anymore; just sippy cups. In fact, she’s graduated to the spill proof sippy cup. Don’t expect her to eat baby food if we’re eating regular food. She will push the spoon away & reach for whatever is on our plates. I can’t say that I blame her on that one! She looks like a little girl now instead of a baby. It makes me sad but she’s so much fun. She laughs out loud & loves to crawl all over her brother when he’s lying on the floor. She thinks he’s great. She watches his every move. Every now and then he will put her in her bed at bedtime. When he turns to take her to her room she puts her head on his shoulder and smiles the biggest smile. She’s so proud.

Landree is crawling some now but hasn’t quite perfected it. She’s made major improvements in the last couple of weeks, but she’s still getting the hang of it.  The first time we actually saw her crawl was on her birthday. She crawled over to get her brother’s baseball cards. She’s definitely more interested in things she’s not supposed to have. Especially if they belong to big brother.

We’re working on teaching her where eyes and noses are. She’s almost got that one down. Sometimes if I ask where my nose is, she’ll stare at it instead of grabbing it. She definitely understands, she just doesn’t always communicate it. If she does grab for the nose, be careful. She’s quick and she doesn’t let go right away. Her big brother learned that the hard way. We’re also working on teaching her to point to things and to pick up food with two fingers instead of grabbing a handful of something. She’s figured out picking up food with two fingers, but we’re still working on the pointing.

Sorry it’s been so long since the last post. Summer was busy, busy ,busy with lots of baseball & Landree had her first trip to the beach. I can’t believe it’s already football time again! I need to get to work on her outfit for the games!

Landree is 10 months old today! She’s doing great. So much has happened since the last post. This time last month she had her 9 month checkup. Everything still looks good. She’s still right on track. The doctor noticed she had a little cough. He gave her a breathing treatment before we left and told us to call if it got worse. The next morning she woke up having trouble breathing. We took her to the emergency room and found out she had croup. It was pretty scary, but she’s fine now.

On the 23^rd of May we found her first tooth. Her daddy started checking her mouth for teeth when she was about a month old. And of course, every time he said he thought he felt one! It got to be kind of a joke.  At her last appointment with the genetic specialist the dr. told us she didn’t see anything that even resembled a tooth. I guess that’s why Rick quit checking all the time. Then a few weeks later, there was her tooth!       

She’s saying three words consistently now. She says mama, dada, and bubba, but she says bubba more than anything.  She thinks he’s pretty great. I mentioned in an earlier post that we started trying to teach her sign language when she was about 4 months old. I read somewhere that it may take several months of showing her the signs before she would do them back. A few weeks ago, her teachers at daycare told me she was doing a sign over and over but we couldn’t figure out exactly what she was trying to say. That night, her dad was swishing her around like she was flying through the air. Every time he would stop, she would do that sign. We finally figured out that she had made her own little sign for “more”. We were so excited.

Last weekend at my sister’s house Landree sucked her thumb and kept waving at us (we thought).  I felt terrible because after about 15 minutes we finally realized that she was actually doing the sign for milk. We worked and worked for months to teach her sign language and then we didn’t catch on when she finally did it! Poor Landree..... I guess she was wondering why we weren’t getting her any milk. We also learned that she loves ice water. Last night she even drank out of a sippy cup. We’ve tried it before but last night was the first time she really got the hang of it.

Right now we’re working on crawling. I think she’s getting pretty close, but not quite there yet. She can get up on her hands and she can get up on her knees but she hasn’t been able to get up on her hands and knees at the same time. Although, it doesn’t keep her from getting where she wants to go. She’s perfected the art of rolling! ECI has shown us some things to do to help her. I’m sure once she’s crawling and getting into everything, we’ll wish for the days she stayed in one spot.

When she was first born I wanted it to hurry and be the time when she could roll over, say her first words or crawl. I couldn’t stand the uncertainty and just wanted to know she would be able to do those things. Now I realize she’ll reach all of those milestones whenever she’s ready. She’s the funniest happiest little girl and she makes everyone around her happy.  Of course I want her to be able to do all of those things but it doesn’t matter so much when she can do them.  She’s our baby girl and we know she’s great! It won’t be long until we’re planning her first birthday party. Actually, her dad has already started planning. We’ve talked about it a little, but I can’t stand to think about it too much. Although I do think there definitely needs to be a tiara on her cake. That’s just a given!

                I just had to share this picture of Landree at church on Sunday.  Every time the music starts, her hands go up in the air. It’s like she can’t even help it. She loves it so much it’s just a reflex! I kept thinking her little arms would get tired, but she kept them up.  It’s nice to see that she likes church music as much as she likes Dierks Bentley’s song 5-1-5-0. Up until now that was her favorite.  I noticed on Sunday that while she loves all of the music, her favorite song seems to be “Because He Lives.” She raised her arms and had a smile plastered on her face the whole time. She fusses a little when the music stops but she’s usually asleep by the time the sermon gets started. She’s only in it for the music!

                Landree is 8 ½ months old now. I can’t believe it! I know I say that every month, but it’s true.  She’s gotten so much hair that it needs to be in a pony tail or it’s too wild. She’s laughing out loud more and more, especially at her daddy’s singing.  (His singing is pretty funny!) She stares and smiles at her big brother as if he’s the greatest thing ever! Every now and then she will say something that sounds like Mama or Dada. Of course Rick and I try to get her to say it all the time. She thinks that’s pretty funny too. When I look at her and say “Mama” she gives a big smile. Then she usually takes her hand and does the sign for mama on my chin. She definitely knows what she’s doing. The sign for mama and dada are the same except for one sign is done on the forehead and the other is done on the chin. She knows to do the sign on my chin and her dad’s forehead. Smart girl!

             Landree has made great strides in learning to like fruit. I’ve gotten lots of comments and suggestions about the fruit video I posted a while back.  I think her dislike for fruit was compounded by being tired and grouchy.  She might get that from me! Her daddy doesn’t like any of his food to be mixed or to touch each other, so he was reluctant to mix the fruit with other things.  Apparently Landree doesn’t mind her food being mixed. Once I started mixing her fruit in with other things, she started eating them with no complaints. I don’t even have to mix them anymore.

                 A few weeks ago Landree’s picture went viral on facebook. The response has been overwhelming. Hopefully people will remember her smiling face the next time they hear something about Down syndrome. It’s been really cool to hear from people in all different parts of the world. I haven’t gotten to respond to all the comments and messages, but I’ve read every single one. I love hearing your stories and seeing pictures of your kids so keep them coming!

               Tomorrow we take Landree back to see the genetic specialist. To be honest, I’m not sure what this visit is about. I just know we were supposed to go back in 6 months. I’ll let you know how it goes.

                I hope everybody has a great week. I’ve constantly been thinking about the explosion in West. I know there are hard times ahead and this week will be especially tough. The people of West will be in my prayers.