But I don't wanna go to sleep

We've started a new routine this week with Madeleine of reading in the chair next to her bed and then putting her down immediately after reading. (we usually finish with Goodnight Moon-- that's such a great book.) In the past we've read some nights and others we've just spent time playing or rocking until she falls asleep. It is nice to have her fall asleep against you (okay-- its better than nice, its really awesome) but Madeleine is getting to the point that she can fight off sleep for hours and all that ends up doing is throwing everyone's routine off.

In any case, we finished reading tonight and I laid her down in her crib. Prior to reading, I had changed her diaper with her lying in the crib. I can't remember if I've mentioned but due to Madeleine's lack of a large intestines, her stool (still my favorite parent word) is rather watery and requires a strict policy of Ilex paste (a thick paste) against her skin and then a second layer of vaseline to cover the Ilex paste. (Yes, we go through a LOT of vaseline every week... I've gotten some strange stares at the drug store.)

In any case, I was cleaning in the kitchen and heard Madeleine banging around in her crib-- when she doesn't want to go to sleep, she sits up and usually plays with the suction machine or any other cord that she can get her hand on. I planned on giving her a few minutes in the dark before I went back in to lay her down when all of a sudden, I heard her crying frantically. I immediately went into the room as Madeleine rarely crys and when I turned on the light, her face shone back at me. I didn't think to take a picture but it became immediately clear that she had taken the top off the vaseleine tub that I'd left in the crib and had smeared vaseline all over her face. She wasn't very happy when I rubbed it off but that wore off as soon as I stopped scrubbing. I laid her back down once she calmed down and she fell asleep almost immediately. Too funny.

I will say this much-- her skin felt extremely soft when I rubbed her cheek before walking out. I'll let you know if her skin is soft and radiant tomorrow morning. Who knows? Perhaps she'll start a new fad... Have a good night.

Madeleine's Development and Our Basement

About a month ago... you know, right about when we stopped blogging for a while... we decided that it was high time to take back our living room from toy clutter. We'd been tripping around Madeleine's toys for quite some time when we finally realized that we had a whole finished basement that we were just using to collect boxes and other clutter. We realized that by failing to use the basement, we weren't only denying ourselves and our visitors a chance to enjoy a relaxing time in our living room but we were also limiting Madeleine's development.

That may sound a bit drastic but let me explain. Madeleine, like her father, is extremely distractable and extremely social. Additionally, with Down Syndrome, Madeleine's impaired cognitive level makes it more important that she focus on specific tasks. (Note: Children with Down Syndrome can have drastically varying IQs ranging from slightly mentally retarded to more severe and at this point we really don't know Madeleine's IQ or cognitive functioning level. Regardless, all children's with DS have some level of mental retardation. Recognizing thsi fact, Kirsten and I are determined to provide the best opportunities for Madeleine so that she can maximize her cognitive ability.) When we kept her toys in the living room, it was common for the television to be on making it difficult for her to focus on toys and/or specific tasks. Even when the television wasn't on, the clutter caused by the large number of toys and limited space made it hard to keep the visual diarrhea from distracting her. We're blessed with the option of using our basement for play space and we decided to lay out colored interlocking sponge tiles in the basement to provide a colorful and lively environment that is also comfortable for Madeleine as well as ourselves and nurses that work with Madeleine. Here's one picture of the basement and others are posted here:

I've provided details with the pictures in Picasa but as you can see from this picture, the basement tiles look really great-- our nurses have asked if we plan to open a daycare... answer: yes, a daycare for Madeleine and only Madeleine. We're slowly working with our nurses to figure out how we can best use this space to further Madeleine's physical and cognitive development and, oh yeah, have some fun too!

That's all for tonight-- just thought I'd give some quick details on one of our major projects. We have lots more to update-- will post it in the coming days.

The Difference A Year Makes

Yup-- we had a pretty special Christmas yesterday. We've posted more pictures of Christmas morning (as well as the rest of Decmeber) here. As you'll see from the pictures, we spent yesterday in our house with Kirsten's parents. Santa was very good to Madeleine and we have some action photos with the wrapping paper. Madeleine didn't fully grasp the notion of unwrapping gifts. We expected her to tear into the wrapping paper much as she does with our newspaper every week but instead, she was very delicate with the paper and didn't really rip and tear. We spent the rest of the day napping, cooking, and playing board games.

I'll post more about all of Madeleine's medical progress later but in the meantime, we hope you enjoy the pics. Merry Christmas!