A Day in the Life

I'm going to share a little bit of what a day with Kamdyn and, by extension, Down syndrome looks like for us. 

When Kamdyn wakes up in the morning, we usually take it easy for a little bit. 



She likes to snuggle in the morning, whether its me or one of her siblings.  She snuggles up, sucks her thumb and rubs someone's ear or neck.

 

On Tuesday and Thursday, she has to be at preschool at 8:15.  That's an early morning for her, but she gets up pretty easily. 

Her breakfast of choice would definitely be Multi grain Cheerios with milk.  She loves them.



Kamdyn cannot say Cheerios or cereal yet.  She can sign "cereal", but she doesn't really use that one.  The way that I figured out how much she LOVES Cheerios is pretty simple.  Out of all the things we eat for breakfast: eggs, pancakes, waffles, toast, oatmeal (which she also really likes), and cereal, she eats every last bite of the cereal, and then drinks the milk from the bowl.  Some of the other things, she either won't eat at all or maybe only a couple of bites.  I still offer the other stuff, but Tuesday and Thursday are definite cereal mornings, because I don't want her to be hungry at school.

On Wednesdays, she either has Occupational or Speech Therapy for one hour.  She looks SO thrilled here, huh? : )



We have had our battles with therapy and her hating it, crying through a session, and me sitting in there with her to try to get her to cooperate, but she's been doing well for a while now.  Right after this picture, she was smiling and playing again.  I just thought this was funny.  At school, she also gets Physical Therapy twice a month, Speech Therapy every week, and an Itinerant Teacher. 

Kamdyn will be 4 next month, and she is very delayed in her speech and language skills.  She has a lot of single words and a few phrases.  Some of these would be hard for other people to understand, but she is making progress.  There are times when she has a hard time expressing what she wants, but for the most part, we know what she is "saying" by her actions and what is happening around her.  For example, last night, I took her out of the tub and wrapped her towel around.  When she started crying, I thought it was because she didn't want to get out, but then she held her hand up in the air and showed me her thumb that was dislocated.  (She has a trigger finger that she is getting checked out by an orthopedic doctor soon.)  While she can't tell me that her finger hurts, she was able to show me. Actually, doing that with her has even helped me in parenting my other kids, because we all react to things that are happening around us and sometimes that can cause the poor behavior. 

Kamdyn loves books.  Many times, when I pick her up from preschool, she is sitting on the mini couch with another child and "reading" books.  We also go to the library on a regular basis.




Another thing that is a struggle for Kamdyn right now is going down the stairs and anything involving heights.  She is getting pretty good at our steps at home.  She's had a lot of practice on those.  If she takes her time, and she doesn't feel rushed, she can manage on them just fine. 





When we are other places, it's not quite as easy though.  I try to get her to at least try, and sometimes she will.  But it's very hard for her if it's a large stairwell or if you can see through the railings down to the bottom (because of the heights).  I probably notice this more, because it can be hard to carry Kamdyn and the baby at the same time.  But I think this will improve as she gets bigger and more coordinated.

Kamdyn loves to help me load and unload the dishwasher.



In the last couple of months, she is really pushing for more independence.  She wants to do things like this on her own.  Potty training is an ongoing process right now.  She uses the potty every day but it's still pretty hit and miss.  Sometimes, however, she will go into the bathroom, pull down her pants, take off her diaper, and pee on the potty with no prompting from me.  She also likes to brush her teeth by herself.  If she sees food, candy, or a drink up on the counter that she can't reach, she pushes the chair over to the counter so she can climb up.  So even things that she struggles with or are difficult, she finds a way to make it work for herself.

I try to work on something with Kamdyn every day: colors, shapes, numbers, counting, sight word books, or maybe just a little project to work on fine motor skills.  It's nothing formal.  She enjoys it, and we do it like a game so it's play to her.

Here she is playing a little dress-up:


She also likes to have tea parties and play with baby dolls and dance.  We have regular dance parties in our house, and she loves it.

Kamdyn really is such a fun kid.  She is busy and full of life.  Her laugh and smile are contagious, and she brings so much joy into our household on a daily basis.  And that about sums up "A day in the life".