I found a nice Garanimals tshirt at Walmart that had an airplane print on it and got the iron-on letters. The shirts said "K's big brother J". The nurses raved about the boys' shirts, they couldn't believe they were just iron-on letters, they swore I had to have sewn them myself. Super easy and no matter how much I washed them the letters stayed on. :)

Our city passed a law years ago making fireworks of any kind illegal in the city limits, not that it stops people from buying them outside the city and bringing them home to set them off. ;) The city puts on a big display downtown, we don't go as it's too much a pain to find seating and then get back home. We go over to my parents house where their town doesn't have any restrictions. We buy a bunch and set them off, the kids have a lot of fun.

:iagree:Same here, my younger son has ADHD and he knows better! Both my dh and my brother have ADD and it was uncontrolled during childhood (dh's mother refused to accept the dx and didn't do tx, my parents didn't know what ADHD was back in the day) and neither of them did anything like that. It really sounds like there is much more to what is going on with this child than ADD.

DH is a major Halo fan and I really liked Cortana's name. Way cooler than my real name, lol!

My name is Diana and we have 3 kids. We've been homeschooling our oldest for 4 years and our younger son for 3 years. DD is just along for the ride right now, learning preschool stuff. ;) We live in the Inland Northwest, the eastern side of Washington state. Our 12yo ds has down syndrome, our 10yo ds has high-functioning autism, and our 3yo dd has speech and cognitive delays and is also showing signs of learning disabilities. Yup, got our hands full but wouldn't trade it for anything. We are homeschooling for many reasons from academics to behavioral to religious and more. Takes too long to explain the specifics. Currently I work part-time from home packaging products for a baby products company. Dh is a registered nursing assistant providing in-home care for developmentally disabled adults, also studying through distance learning to go into full-time ministry.

I've done Walk Away the Pounds, I have several dvds and mix them up so I don't get bored. There are different styles, some use a stretchy band, others use the belt, some use resistance bands, some hand weights, weighted gloves, etc. My favorites are the ones that incorporate circuit training style, mixing in jogging with the walking and such. Dh has been doing P90X and he LOVES it! When I get more weight off I plan to start using it, right now it's just a bit too intense for me. I've also used Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred and it's a good, intense workout, too.

I know, it is really sad.

Can't believe all you Johnny Depp lovers haven't posted this yet! http://www.people.com/people/article/0,,20562667,00.html

We continue school through the summer but in addition to that: camping (as a family and our 10yo goes to district Royal Rangers camp for a week), swimming, hiking, going to the park, going to the library, summer reading programs, summer programs through parks & rec department, free movies at the theater, activities at the library, Legos, playing with their friends, riding bikes.

Yup. I was discussing curriculum with another mom and it came up that ds#2 has HFA and she pipes up "oh, I'm sure my oldest son must have Asperger's or something cause he's so good at music and just picks up an instrument and becomes extremely good at it. He's become obsessed with playing all kinds of instruments. And he's really good at math, too." Keep in mind that she said all this with an excited, giddy voice and was practically jumping up and down. :001_huh:

2 and I'm thankful for them both, especially as they are so welcoming and accepting of the boys. Besides the fact that I do find it's true that when you have kids it makes it hard to have friendships, when you are parents to special needs kids it pretty much eliminates most every chance.

Bad part of town: $395-$450 Better part of town: $500-$600 Best part of town: $700 + Those are all apartment buildings or houses converted into apartments. For a loft style/over the garage apartment like you are describing with the view and all, you would be looking at $800-$900 easily. We live in a university town (2 private universities plus a state university), depending on the time of year you are looking to rent can affect the price too. I've noticed in the later summer/early fall apartment prices go up, but in the spring when all the kids are going home the prices go down.

Our 10yo ds has high-functioning autism (dx at age 6). Our 12yo ds has down syndrome. Our 3yo dd has speech and cognitive delays and we suspect possible ADHD.

We used it with our younger ds who has high-functioning autism. We originally bought it for our older ds who has down syndrome but the skills that are required to use it he still hasn't acheived yet, MUS has worked better for him. MM is a great program but it does have a lot of repetition and a little slow, to the point that ds was getting bored to tears. For example, with multiplication for 3s it would teach 0x3, 1x3, 2x3, 3x3 then go over those combinations for several pages including mulit-digit combos (i.e. 123x3, 12x3, etc). Again, a really great program especially for slower learners (the program was originally designed for special needs learners), but wasn't a good fit for ds #2. We recently switched him over to Ray's and for him it's working beautifully. It's more mental math and he LOVES doing math in his head. I wish I had more advice for supplementing but I'm still relatively new to homeschooling myself. :)

What a beautiful day and looks like you guys had lots of fun. Looking at the picture of your youngest dd, she looks just like my little girl right down to the hair color and length. ;) Beautiful family!

Audrey, bravo to you for putting up with that!!! As for the food the woman served, it makes me think of what Charlie Brown served his friends for Thanksgiving dinner.:blink:

Our oldest does have down syndrome and we didn't do anything differently with him than we did with our other two kiddos. He did have very flexible joints (he could sit on the floor and bend at the waist and lay his chest flat on the floor). I carried him on my hips, he played in an exersaucer, when he wanted to push up and stand we let him go for it. :) As for diaper changes, didn't do anything special, just wiped his bum and put him in a clean diaper. ;) I would not hesitate to start physical therapy, our son started somewhere between 4 and 6 mos. The therapist will know what areas to be careful in and such, that's their job to be aware of the different limitations of different conditions. They will also teach what exercises to do to encourage proper muscle development and such. Our son does have the neck instability issue (and I wish I could remember what it's called but I can't). He does have some restrictions from his dr at Shriner's (no trampoline, no tackle football, no gymnastics, no riding dirt bikes, no excessively rough play, always wear a bike helmet, no jumping off his bed) but his dr did say he's a typical boy and he's going to be rough and tumble and there's only so much you can do about that. The neck instability issue is actually very common in all kids, the problem is that the traditional treatment for it doesn't work for kids with down syndrome (typically if the issue doesn't resolve itself by a certain age then neck fusion surgery would be done, but in kids with down syndrome for some reason the surgery doesn't work). Special Olympics does require a form from a dr stating whether the child has the neck instability issue and if they are clear to participate before they are allowed to compete. Bottom line, she's really no different than any other 11mo if she does have down syndrome, she'll just be a bit slower reaching her milestones. :) That's been our experience anyway.

Dh has an older brother and 2 younger sisters. He stays in contact with all of them and calls all of them or texts them regularly. There was a time with his brother where they didn't talk much (dh's bro was going through some weirdness) and it hurt dh pretty badly to not have his brother in his life. There's been a lot of healing and now dh and his brother are in constant contact with each other, they call each other pretty much every other day. With his sisters it's different and it's complicated. He calls them as much as the situation allows (usually has to do with if they've got a working phone or not) but the contact is limited and it's something that bothers him a lot as he loves his sisters very much.

For ds 12 who has down syndrome continuing what we're doing and going up to next level when ready, Reading: McGuffey's Eclectic Primer/Dick & Jane books (he loves these) plus ETC Get Set For The Code book B Writing: HWOT printing Math: Math U See Primer, learning to use a calculator For ds 10 who has high functioning autism (also just continuing along with what we're doing and going to next level when ready), Reading: McGuffey's Eclectic Second Reader, ETC book 3 Spelling: Sequential Spelling 1 Writing: HWOT cursive Grammar: Easy Grammar 2nd/3rd grade Math: Ray's arithmetic, multiplication Wrap Up For dd 3.5 who has mild speech delay and mild cognitive delay, HOD Little Hands To Heaven McGuffey's Eclectic Primer With all the kids, lots of read-a-louds and fun reading. We may get The Prairie Primer but haven't decided just yet.

Glad I was able to help. :)

Congratulations!

We have a small youth group. The youth runs about 15-20 kids, regular service is on Wednesday nights and then there is cadres (small group Bible study) on Sunday nights with about 10 kids attending regularly, cadres will suspend over the summer. Dh teaches the youth Sunday school class and LOVES it! He has about 8-10 kids coming. We also have programs for boys and girls on Wednesday night that go all the way through high school. There are 2 boys and 1 girl that are doing the boys and girls program instead of youth group. The age range is 12 and up, no seperation of middle school and high school. We have a paid youth pastor and several adult volunteers, including my dh. I used to help but I left to help with the preschool program when nobody would do it. The youth staff meets once a month to go over goals and ideas and upcoming events. The activities are pretty limited, nothing in addition to regular weekly stuff other than summer camp and winter retreat and occasionally an outing for a fun day (they went bowling as a group last week). They really don't do any outreach stuff or missions or anything like that, which is a shame. We've had a real problem with the youth pastor and his wife and their attitudes and it's damaging the youth group (at one time we had 50-80 kids attending). I wish our youth group was better, dh and I have been volunteer youth staff together our entire marriage (we met when we both started volunteering after high school) and have been in some wonderful youth groups. Our oldest son just turned 12 but dh refuses to let him be in the youth group due to the issues going on, one of the biggest being the youth pastor doesn't really want to deal with a developmentally disabled kid in the group. Thankfully the leader of the boys program is a fantastic leader, loves having ds in the program and is more than happy to accomdate ds.

First of all, what a wonderful friend you are! I wish I was your friend 12 years ago and had someone as caring to do some research and offer help like you. :) Websites that are AWESOME: http://downsyndrome.com/ http://www.nads.org/ http://www.ndss.org/ They all offer lots of fantastic information. These sites would be my number 1 resource anything and everything down syndrome for new parents. I still go to these sites all the time when for my little man. As for how to support them: love on that baby! Tell them how beautiful and wonderful and perfect he is! Be there for them, love on mom and dad, let them know you are there for them, let them talk with you and express all their feelings (this will run the gamut of joy to sorrow to excitement to fear, etc). But above all, love on that baby and love on mom and dad. :)

:iagree:My younger son has this and it's really nothing to be worried about. We took him to a dermatologist and she diagnosed this. She recommened we use Amlactin or Cetaphil, both have worked really really well for ds. My older son has now developed it and I noticed that I have it as well. The dermatologist said it can be hereditary. I really was worried that ds had something major but when we started using the lotions, it really made a HUGE difference. In the drier months around here it gets worse so in the summer and winter we really have to make sure the lotion is at hand.

:iagree: It totally agree with both these ladies. These are all things we have used with ds and they have worked well for him. Nearly all of ds's meltdowns were due to his inability to express his anxiety, frustrations and feelings. It took him a while to learn to identify his feelings, that helped a lot. After several sessions with the child psychologist we saw at the time and talking with ds, we came up with a list of the things that helped him to calm down (giving himself hugs, having me rub his shoulders, playing with his Legos in his room by himself, etc). He had a list with pictures that we kept taped the the fridge and whenever he felt himself getting upset he would go to his list and pick one of the things to do. It was a HUGE step for him to learn to use the coping techniques on his own and that helped further that he could be proud of himself. We always make a big deal out of it when he handles a situation on his own, for him it helps reinforce that he has done the right thing.