New Specs4Us

They arrived on Thursday but it took me until tonight to snap a picture. Forgive the cookie crumb face, please. Yes, Nutter Butters. No, they were not tainted.

(How about those dimples!)

She is gradually adjusting to the bifocals. She noticed right away that she could read better, but she doesn't always use the upper lens as much as she should. She also was sneaky and switched back to her old glasses twice today. I think we need to go back and get the ears adjusted, they may be too tight.

You can see that the bridge of the frame is much lower than on a regular frame. The temples have also been lowered. This keeps the lens up higher on the face, rather than dropping down. Individuals with Down syndrome have low set ears. Regular frames have the temples at the top of the lens. With low ears, regular glasses automatically are lower than they should be for optimal viewing. Add in the typically flatter bridge of the nose and you can get an idea of how difficult it is to get glasses to fit. They just droop.

If glasses droop down, then the first thing a kid with low muscle tone does is tilt their head back so they can see through their glasses. Well, I think the first thing anyone does would be to tilt back their head. But if you had low tone, when you tilt your head back, your jaw will jut out and drop open. If your jaw is open, your tongue is relaxed (try it and feel what your tongue does). A tongue that is relaxed cannot produce clear speech. Articulation is virtually impossible. Try talking with a relaxed tongue and a weak jaw. It doesn't work.

I can see that I'm getting off on a tangent--one of my pet peeves is the notion that everyone with Down syndrome has an enlarged tongue. I'll have to save it for a post of its own! Let me just say that individuals with Down syndrome are not born with a large floppy tongue. It's not caused by glasses frames either...but ill fitting frames can contribute.

And now you know more about glasses and tongues than you did before. Aren't you much happier and enlightened with your new knowledge? (I wish there was a font that was called "Sarcasm". Then everyone could automatically tell that I'm joking around. At least those of you who don't personally know me, who can't read the inflection of my typing.)

Drawing

I don't think I've mentioned that Hannah is an avid artist. She LOVES to draw and to color. She hated it as a preschooler, but somewhere around age 5 she fell in love with crayons and markers. There is not a day that goes by without colors or paper. She really likes coloring books. When she gets a new one, she won't begin to color in it until she has read the entire story. I don't think I ever realized there actually is a story in most coloring books until I had to listen to her read one once. If she had her way, she'd have access to paint every day as well. We only paint about once a week...I'm so cruel.

Her love for drawing and coloring is great because she is always happy while waiting (doctor's offices, restaurants, meetings) or in the car. Like most homeschoolers, we also have a period of time on most days where we "car-school".

A few days ago she drew these, which are good examples of the things she likes to draw. (click to enlarge if you like)

Hannah on a horse. I like the reigns which go all the way around the horse's neck. Hannah is very detailed with ears--these are so big the riding helmet couldn't fit on her head!

"Monkeys swingin' on the vine."

"Madeline's house, covered with vines."

Going Fishin'

We had a treat yesterday! The Virginia Living Museum had special classes for homeschoolers, so we packed up a couple of good friends and made the journey. Here are some of Hannah's pictures of the day (and a few I took as well). (Captions in quotes are from Hannah as well.)

"Here are some fish. I like them. They are shiny"

Hannah and Katie D., cheesin' for the camera.

"The puffer fish is BLOAT."

"The shark is soooo cool!"

"This guy is sad. And venomous."

The girls also participated in a class about skeletons. Here's Hannah with Mr. Bones. We got to see many types of skeletons, and several live animal examples as well. Hannah's favorite was the Screech Owl. My favorite was the bull frog.

"That's so cute!"

Now back to our regularly scheduled schoolwork...I don't wanna.

Sam I am

Since we have to leave the house by 11:30a.m. on Mondays we streamline our schooling in the morning (because, of course, we're laggards and are not ready to start anything before about 10:00). Usually it's all fun stuff on Monday mornings, geoboards and rubber bands, fraction tiles, Numicon, lame comprehension workbooks (the ones where you read a passage and then have to answer multiple choice questions), puzzles, etc. Today I pulled out a new thing, a boxed set of contraction flash cards. Hannah has recently had a few spelling words that are contractions, but we haven't really discussed them at length. She thought it was pretty interesting to magically turn some letters into an apostrophe!


When we finally got around to the contraction, "I am=I'm" she said:

"I am Sam. Sam I'm."

This girl cracks me up.

On to more gross topics. Proceed with caution if you are squeamish about innards or are vegetarian.

This afternoon: Dissection Class! Today it was frogs. I was busy working in the library while Nan was in class. She came out towards the end of class to find me and her camera.

She was able to show me the heart, liver, and even eggs (someone else's frog)

She also has learned the basics of using a microscope.

I think we'll be hearing about this for quite a while. She just loves it all!

Catching up

My first cold of the season has knocked me down a bit this week. It's finally lifting, or, rather, progressing downward, so while I feel a bit better, I am losing my voice. You'll have to behave because I can't yell at you!

Hannah and I took a little trip last weekend to visit Wendy and attend the DSAVP's monthly meeting. We had fun visiting with the little girls at Wendy's house, and seeing all our old friends at the meeting.

Hannah loves to read to the little ones.
(As long as they sit still and listen! See previous post about noisy preschoolers!)

There was a visitor at the meeting who came to talk about her experience with Special Olympics. Amy is 30 years old and participated in the National Special Olympics. She was terrific! I love meeting adults with Down syndrome. (and pretty much anyone else with Down syndrome...)

I was healthy on Tuesday, so Hannah and I went to our friend Grace's house for an inauguration party. It was a fabulous time sharing the joy and excitement of the day with several families!

Hannah was finally fitted for her new glasses--they should be arriving within a week or two. We chose the specs4us frames even though the options were limited (only two of the frame styles come in her size, and only one of those can carry bifocal lenses). It's hard to find frames that complement Hannah's coloring--most the girls' styles are pink, red or purple. These new frames are burgundy. Since we're under strict instructions to have frames that absolutely fit, we have to make some fashion compromises!

This week, while I've been sick, Hannah has been studying several cookbooks we borrowed from the library. I guess she'd like to have some real food rather than hunting and gathering in the pantry. She has made a list of menu options. Friday morning she wanted to make this:

She only needed a little help (separating the egg--she doesn't like yolks).

(I tried to hide the bedhead...)

Yum!

Tonight she has plans to make "Perfect Pasta" (ziti and Italian sausage). I think that will require a little more intervention on my part! If I play my cards right, maybe over time I can abdicate my position as Queen of the Quitchen.

Hannah was scheduled for her CPAP sleep study this Sunday night. I decided to postpone it because I fear she'll be coming down with my cold. She has a cracked lip, which is usually a sign that a cold is coming soon. And even if she doesn't, my cough will wake her up during the night! She is re-scheduled for February 8th.

Now I'm being paged to help her retrieve her saved Princess Wii game so she can play again...lazy Saturday for us.

From the Beginning...I think I love you.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Inside and out

Hannah does not fit the stereotype of “happy, easy going, sweet” individual with Down syndrome. I don’t know many people with Down syndrome who do. I would characterize Hannah as “ornery, funny, ridiculous” (of course I say that lovingly). She can be downright mean as well. Today, however, she said the sweetest thing.

Hold on to your hats now! Our family has joined a gym! This afternoon Chris and I are going to have our “orientation”. No, I am not excited. Neither is Chris. Hannah is though, because there is an indoor pool, even a big water slide! And there is a kids’ place to do games, watch videos and arts and crafts. I was preparing Hannah for her time in the Kids’ Gym. I mentioned that probably all the kids there will be younger than she is, and it would be a good time for her to practice being nice to them. (She frequently gets irritated by preschoolers—they are noisy and intrusive—toddlers are even worse. Babies are acceptable, even wonderful, as long as they are quiet.)

After this mini-lecture, Hannah said, “My brain will be kind. And my heart will be too.”

It made me smile inside and out.