Random Acts of Kindness

There are so many ways to celebrate World Down Syndrome Day, and my Facebook newsfeed has recently been swamped with how everyone is planning to spread awareness ( I am part of tons of Down syndrome FB groups). I find myself scanning the posts and thinking "what a good idea... I don't have enough time now, but maybe next year..".

The fact that I don't try to dip my toes into every DS project and idea is a huge step for me. I am a project starter, never a finisher. I somehow always find a way to convince myself I have the time to dedicate to each and every one of my "brilliant" ideas. I just store the started project in my mind, and move to a bigger and better idea.

With World Down Syndrome Day being only a few days away (3/21), I feel as if I did not accomplish everything I could have. Surely there must be enough time to squeeze in another project!

Today I found something that I couldn't believe I hadn't stumbled upon before. It was a fantastic idea and I knew that I had to take part. I wish I would have seen it weeks ago, but I could still make due with the few days left.

It is a campaign to pay-it-forward. In honor of individuals with Down syndrome, and for WDSD, people all around the world are preforming "Random Acts of Kindness".

After joining the Facebook group started for this campaign, I knew it was something that I wanted to do myself. It was perfect! I excitedly started thinking of ways that I could do my own random act of kindness. On the FB group, there were links to print out pre-made cards with information about WDSD and Down syndrome to go along with your random act. Lets get real, we all know if I waited to print out anything it wouldn't happen tonight, which simply means it wouldn't happen at all. Like I said before, I start projects... but never finish them. So I knew if this was something I really wanted to do I needed to quickly do it before something side-tracked me.

I came home from babysitting and told Joe about the idea,

-Me: "Joe, I saw this new idea and I am really excited about it.."

- Joe: "What now??!"

(Okay I did deserve that with all the rambling I usually do about my "great new projects".)

-Me: "Just listen,  there is this thing that people are doing to spread awareness for Down syndrome and it's really cool.  You pick a something nice to do like pay for the person behind you or go out of your way to be kind and then give them a card explaining why you did it. We need to do it!"

-Joe: "That's a good idea babe, but we need people to give us a random act of kindness and pay for us, not the other way around."

Joking aside, he did love the idea and we both talked about what we could do in such short notice. After a lot of not so great ideas, Joe came up with something that I thought would be fun. I made the card, and we headed to the grocery store.

(Some of the card cut off, but you get the point!)

The back of the card I made

Grocery store selfie!

Anthony picked the box of cereal, and we taped on our card with the Starbucks gift card behind it!

Next year, I do hope to start this a lot earlier and do a lot more with it. Some of the ideas people posted about doing were so above and beyond, very cool stuff!


Last year for World Down Syndrome Day we had staff and students in our schools wear blue and yellow to celebrate. This year it was taken to a whole other level, and I can't help but get all emotional just thinking about how wonderful it's going to be.

We are participating in an event called "Rock Your Socks". You wear crazy mismatched socks to show your support for individuals with Down syndrome. I created a video about our family to advertise the event for our school district. The video was shared so many times that it reached other schools/businesses and inspired them to rock their socks on WDSD too! This event is so wide-spread and I never expected to have so many people ready and willing to show their support for Down syndrome. It might not mean much to other people, but it fills me with such hope and love that I could burst.

Anthony is growing up in an amazing world; a world where people are willing to go out of their way to learn about something new, step outside their comfort zone, and show support... a world where people will have his back and he can be free to be himself.

Each year we creep closer to the ultimate goal- acceptance, inclusion, and all around well-being for individuals with Down syndrome. I believe that it all starts with our youth. They see the world how it is presented to them. If we teach kids to "look away" and not ask questions, they will assume that differences are bad. Instead, we need to feed kid's natural curiosity with honest and age-appropriate information so they grow up accepting, respecting and seeing our differences for what they really are- beautiful.

Oh, and if you're looking for a way to teach elementary aged kids about Down syndrome check out my lesson on Teachers Pay Teachers here: Down Syndrome Awareness (World Down Syndrome Day)

Therapy Update

Anthony is going to be 19 months in a few days (5 months away from being 2 years old!!??) and I figured it was a good time to update you on how he is doing with his therapies! Currently, Anthony receives 3 therapy services (Physical Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Speech Therapy) 4 times a week. Our awesome services are provided by Easter Seals, and we are fortunate enough to have the option of "in-home" service. That makes it so much easier for me! Each therapy session is an hour long. Both PT and OT come once each week, and ST is twice a week. Anthony has goals (set in place by his therapists and myself) in each therapy that we work on reaching during his sessions.

I was asked to speak at a financial meeting for Easter Seals this Tuesday. They were looking for individuals to give a speech on how Easter Seals has positively impacted their family. I will be speaking to people in charge of providing funding for Easter Seals to explain why I think they should continue funding. I am a little nervous (especially since the last I checked I was the only one who agreed to speak.. pressure on!), but I know that it will feel good to "give back" to a company that has given so much to our family. I feel so blessed that my son has such a great support team that believes in him just as much as we do!

Last month Anthony had an evaluation to see if he qualified for another service; ECE (Early Childhood Education). This service focuses on skills that Anthony would need when he goes to Preschool. He has already beginning to do some of these skills (matching, asking him to identify/find certain objects... etc). While the thought of another service sounded overwhelming, I would always be on board for anything that would benefit Anthony.

We were told Anthony was going to take the Bayley test and it would take around an hour. I knew Anthony had no idea what was going on, but I was completely stressed about his first test! The Bayley test would determine if he had enough of a delay (25%) to get qualified for the ECE services.

Of course I googled and snooped around the internet to see what this Bayley test was all about. Mostly, it was about observing what Anthony would do during different situations. Some of the parts I knew Anthony would excel in, and others I was nervous for.

To make a long story short, Anthony rocked it!! We couldn't have been more proud of that little smarty pants! Anthony did not show a delay socially/emotionally, or in the adaptive (environment) section. In the third section, cognitive, Anthony only showed a 20% delay, so he did not qualify for services. Wahoo, that's my boy! He is going to be tested again in another 6 months to see how he is doing.

The test was interesting to watch. There was a lady who came in with a suitcase full of toys and activities, and Anthony loved it. He had to do each task the way he was supposed to, and then he could move on to the next. The test stops when the child gets 5 tasks wrong in a row. Some of the things Anthony did not "pass" on I knew he would have trouble with (unscrewing the cap off of a small bottle, knowing the purpose for a comb/spoon/cup...)


When you're a teacher and you have that moment when a student's light bulb goes off and they understand a concept you've been teaching them, it makes it all worth it. When you're a mother, and you work so hard every day to teach your son certain skills and he finally gets it, it is the best feeling in the entire world. I love being a teacher, don't get me wrong, but I love being my son's teacher more. I have had so much fun being home with him this past year, putting my education/special education degree to good use. He is my best student! I know I have said it before, but this little boy is so determined to be successful, and he works hard to be the smarty pants he is! Every time I turn around I watch Anthony master something we've worked so hard on, like it's nothing! (Although, I must admit, the terrible-two year old attitude has kicked in lately, and things tend to run on "Anthony time". Makes teaching a tad more difficult when you have a pissed off toddler chucking puzzle pieces and stomping his feet.)

PHYSICAL THERAPY
Anthony is all boy, that's for sure! Everything he does is very physical and he excels in gross motor activities. On Valentine's Day Anthony became the boss man of the Mango house, even more so than before. Prior to V-Day, Anthony was able to walk... but not able to stand up on his own to be able to walk. We would have to support him before he could walk around. Now, we have no control over when Anthony wants to walk (which is every second of the day). We were ecstatic when he accomplished that big milestone, but knew we were in for some trouble! His balance when walking is getting so good, but he has moments of looking like a little drunk man, so we have to constantly monitor him to avoid constant trips to the ER.

In PT we are working on climbing the stairs, and getting down safely. We are also working on building Anthony's core, climbing the couch, bending his knees (that's a big one because he hates HATES hates anything to do with his knees), and looking up to grab something while standing without wobbling.

He still wears ankle braces to support him when he walks. However, he has big feet and grew out of the old ones, so we are stuck in limbo without braces waiting on the new ones to come in.

Click the link below to watch the video of Anthony learning to stand without support for the first time!

YouTube Video

OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY
A recent skill Anthony has reached is pointing with his pointer finger! He favored his thumb for the longest time and would only point with it, but one day he woke up and decided .. eh, I guess I'll give my thumb a break.

In OT Anthony is still working on the pinching skill to grab small items, how to properly use tools (crayon, spoon, comb, toothbrush, paintbrush...etc), twisting and rotating his wrist to open things, and using two hands during an activity instead of relying on the right.

SPEECH THERAPY
Anthony has been doing increasingly well in ST. His receptive language skills are fantastic (what he understands), but he is continuing to work on his expressive language (how he communicates). He loves reading, watching Signing Time DVD's, and is very interested in learning! Right now, he can verbally say: Dad, cat, all done, and there have been a few times he has said Mom. He can sign: more, all done, music, dog, "for me" (when he wants something), sleep, and he is starting to sign fish.

One of the things I love most about getting therapy services for Anthony is learning new ways to teach him that I might not have thought about myself. It is also pretty great collaborating with the therapists to come up with tools and ideas for teaching Anthony.

Some of my favorite that I have recently made for Anthony include:
*I included free downloads of these products at the end of this post, so keep reading!*

Song Board

Anthony loves music, so creating a way for him to ask for specific songs was right up his alley. All I did was search on Google for clip art icons to match some of his favorite song titles. I made the pictures big and not cluttered with other added images that would steal away his focus. I also added a single word at the bottom of each picture icon to best represent the song. The pictures were printed, laminated, and velcro was added to the back of each. The "board" itself is just a manila folder laminated, for durability, with 4 long velcro strips attached inside. 

This board can be used in a variety of ways. When it was first being introduced to Anthony, I made it simple by only providing him with two songs to choose from. I put the two songs I selected on the front velcro strip of the board and let him pick and take off the one he wanted me to sing. He held the icon while I sang the song, and then we placed it back on the strip. 

Now, Anthony likes to open up the board and select his own song from the multiple icons. He usually points to each one asking the name before making a choice. 

Play Binder

*This activity is not included for download, since it is photographs of objects and toys around our house. 

The play binder was created to help Anthony with his expressive language. He is now able to look through a mini binder of icons to pick what activity he wants to play next. This limits frustration, and is starting to help with transitions. I went around like a crazy person one day and took pictures of everything in our house that Anthony likes. I laminated the pictures and put them together in a small binder on pages with velcro strips. Anthony is still in the beginning stages of using this tool to help him, but he is making the connection and I can see that it is working. For example: if he looks through the binder and finds bubbles, he will start walking over to the tall shelf where the bubbles are to wait for help to get them down. 

-The following book is not something I made, it is just something that I think every child learning to speak and use one-to-one correspondence should have! I love, love, love this book for a few reasons:
1. It has one big, bright photograph on each page. There is not a lot of extra fluff to confuse the reader, just a picture of what they should focus on, brilliant!
2. It has the simple word below each picture, bold and big!
3. There are big sound buttons on the side, separated by a decent amount of space. Anthony loves books that make sound, but every book I find has buttons close together or hard to push. That makes it frustrating for a kiddo working on accuracy to feel successful! This book got it right!
4. Corresponding pictures and words on the sound buttons to pictures in the book.

Anthony pointing to the "car" button....

... and then pointing to the car picture in the book! 

 

Glove Icons

Since Anthony likes songs so much, I thought it would be a good idea to incorporate finger icons to make the songs even more fun. I used cheep gloves and attached a small velcro square to each fingertip. I then printed out small square icons that matched some of Anthony's favorite songs, and that would work with 5 fingers. I attached velcro to the backs of the icons so I could change them out when he wanted a new song. We have also been using the gloves for picture identification. He thinks it's fun to pick out which finger is the pig, or the cat. 

Some of the songs that we use the gloves for are:

-Old McDonald

-5 Little Ducks

-5 Little Monkeys

-5 Pumpkins

Dramatic Play

One of the things that Anthony needs to work on is identifying body parts, and using certain everyday items correctly. I created a "dramatic play" bin, that Anthony can use on his million stuffed animals or on his baby. Yep. Baby. Joe almost died when I first said I wanted Anthony to get a realistic looking boy baby doll. But, when I explained to him the benefits of this baby and how it could help Anthony he was on board. It also is an added bonus that Anthony might learn how to treat the baby now that our friends are all having babies!

So far, in my bin I collected (from my dollar store): toothbrush, brush, comb, cup, blanket, spoon, bowl, and fork. I also want to add a few more items, this is just the beginning.

Picture Cards

This is something that I literally put together last night. I came up with the idea when I found out Shutterfly was having a promotion to get 101 free 4x6 prints. I can't just let "free" go to waste! So, I got to work making over 160 picture cards to upload to Shutterfly. These cards remind me of the book I posted about, with big, bold pictures and a label. I can't wait to use them with Anthony when they come in! I plan on first introducing them to him slowly. Then, when he gets the hang of a few I want to create a matching game. I will place 2-4 cards on the floor and hand Anthony a card that matches one on the floor. His task would be to place the card in his hand on top of the matching one. 

The cards I made can be matched in two ways. Same picture to same picture, or similar picture to similar picture. For example, for most of the cards I found a realistic photograph and for another I found a clip art image. This will help me to see if Anthony is only recognizing the one picture, or if he gets the general feel for what the object looks like and can make the connection between the two pictures. 

I also created "family" cards to help him learn the names of family members. 

Below you can see a few examples of the cards:

You can download the following two products I made here, for free! Click the two links below and find the button that says download! I hope you find them useful!

Download SONG BOARD icons here

Download PICTURE CARDS here

'Twas the last day of break

 'Twas the last day of break and stress level was high

"Are you sure it has to end?" I said with a sigh 

Back to work, therapies, and our routine tomorrow

Tonight I reminisce to ease the sorrow

 It was baby's second Christmas, and much fun was had

But not when he met St. Nick, for that was just sad!

Christmas came faster than I was prepared

Last minute shopping at "Targeé", to show I still cared

Cookies were baked, twinkling lights on the tree

Presents spread as far as the eye could see

Cameras were charged, all ready to go

For in the morning, battery could not be low

Anthony awoke ready for a typical day

No idea what was in store, his routine thrown away

Presents were opened, with less interest than we thought

Cookie monster was the favorite thing that Santa brought

We squeezed in a nap before heading out

A crazy day was ahead, running all about!

Off to Mimi's for brunch and presents galore 

Welcoming more family that came around four

By miracle we made it to Grammy's before bed

More presents to open for the little sleepy-head

Anthony was spoiled, showered with love

He continues to be our best gift from above

We managed to have a great Christmas after all...

Without outside lights hung, and a tree way too small

Baking cookies at Mimi's house !

Boss Man barking out orders

Pure torture

It was a good attempt, Santa. Maybe next year!

I may hate Santa, but I sure do love this book he gave me!

Christmas morning 

His favorite Cookie Monster toy! 

Just some Christmas morning coloring

Ahh, it's Christmas!!

The Knisell Family, Christmas afternoon

The Mango Family, Christmas night

I had to throw these pictures in here..they're just too cute not to! We went to see Disney Frozen on Ice over break.. Anthony loved it!

Couldn't take his eyes off the ice

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a goodnight!

Coffee is liquid gold

I am not sure if this goes for all marriages, or if ours is just a little different. There is an unspoken rule in the Mango house. Some things are Joe's, and some things are mine. 

There are certain foods that “belong” to each of us. Joe has the fluff, provolone cheese, cereal (I used to love cereal, but ever since I had Anthony… I feel so strange drinking straight cow milk. It reminds me that I am able to completely relate to the cow. So, I skip the cereal for now), and coffee. I have the brownie packs (you know the ones; squishy, covered with colorful chocolate chips, and delicious…meant for kids lunches), the American cheese, and the apple sauce. When either of us crosses the invisible line and eats one of the items, the other takes immediate offense to it. “Wait… are you seriously eating one of MY brownies? I was saving that for tomorrow!”

Well, recently, I have been trying to make one of those things a “mutual food” in the house, and I am pretty sure Joe is not on board.

Coffee is liquid gold, and I only recently rediscovered its magical powers. For a long time, I parted ways with coffee, because the caffeine killed my stomach. But, becoming a mom and running off of little to no sleep some days has made me want to spark up a relationship with it again. It seriously works miracles, who cares what it does to my stomach! 

Take last night for example. I went to bed pretty late for me (11:40), because I was busy trying to fit in one last Shutterfly order before cyber Monday sales were over (which- side note- I discover this morning that they tricked us all and *surprise* continued the sale today anyway. So there really was no mad rush to finish the picture book)… anyway… Anthony usually wakes up around 5:30 so I thought I would at least get a few good hours in before he got up. Wrong! Anthony was up almost every hour last night. Why you ask? Who the heck knows! All I know is the bags under my eyes in the morning had their own bags! I felt I could honestly walk onto the set of Walking Dead and be cast as a zombie with no problem, or need for costume makeup. 

It was a rough day, and I know that I was not on my top mommy game. I was groggy, cranky, and didn't have the usual energy to play. Around 5, I walked by the kitchen and saw it out of the corner of my eye. The K-cups! I knew it was my only hope for survival, since Joe was working his second job and it was my responsibility to figure out how to stay awake for Anthony. Done and done. And, a big plus that Joe wasn't there to give me a hard time about my recent move to the coffee world. "You had coffee today? My K-cup? You never drink coffee, it doesn't make you feel good, you shouldn't drink it." Now I understand why he hoards the coffee, and doesn't like me using his precious k-cups... it's amazing. Since I don't drink it that often, I feel the caffeine almost immediately. 

I had so much energy it was like I couldn't stop. Anthony must have thought he had a mommy upgrade because I was playing like a pro! I chased him around our house at least 50 times, and loved every minute of it! (Did I mention that Anthony is SO close to walking all on his own!? He can walk independently from one side of the room to the other, all while stopping and trying to pick things up along the way. It's only a matter of time now before he takes off without looking back!) I was in a better mood, and that made for such a good night. I owe all my energy to coffee. Hook me up to an iv of coffee and I might just be mom of the year! 

Also, coffee might be my answer to blogging more. I realize that in my last post I promised Halloween pictures. Oops. Sorry to my loyal followers. Good thing for you I had coffee, and instead of sleeping (what I should be doing) I felt the desire to write! 

Actually, a big reason I haven't posted in a while is because Anthony has been non-stop sick. He went from having the croup, to the roseola virus right after. Poor guy couldn't catch a break. I hope this isn't foreshadowing a sick winter season for the little guy!

Here are the Halloween pictures as promised (just a little late). And, I'll throw in some Thanksgiving for good measure. 

Anthony went as a cute little duck for trick-or-treating and we all did a family themed costume for our Halloween party (Mario, Luigi, and Princess Peach). 

 

 Thanksgiving! As usual, trying to split a busy day with both families is a little tough (especially for Anthony). But, we made it work, and had tons of fun. We came home that night 10 lbs heavier each from two dinners!

 So, to close... I had the idea to enter Anthony into the Gerber photo contest, along with 165,000 other mothers. I really think it would be awesome to see a child with Down syndrome become the new face of Gerber! Please vote for my son, you can once a day until December 14th. We really appreciate it!!

The link to vote for Anthony- https://photosearch.gerber.com/gallery?entry_id=347992