"31 for 21" - Cate Horse Adventure (Part 1)

My daughter is a little horse crazy - isn't that awesome?  Such a typical little girl obsession!  I wasn't a horse girl as a kid so this new adventure of Cate's is completely foreign to me.  The way it all started (beyond her being fascinated by shows on the ipad that were horse related) was a birthday party.  The funny thing is that birthday party was a friend of Lucy's that the mom was just so sweet to invite Cate along.  When I went back to look for a couple of pictures of Cate's first horse experience I was really surprised to find it was in August 2013.  I really thought we'd been on this kick longer than a year.
The party was in a horse barn and from the moment we arrived Cate was captivated.

Meeting the horses - Aug 2013

She had no fear petting this huge horse.  I think she would have been perfectly happy to work in the barn and pet horses the whole party but of course then came the riding.  She had no hesitation getting on the horse and within a few steps looked like she had been doing it for ages!

Of course when her turn was over this was the look she gave the helper -

She took every turn they gave her and since Lucy wouldn't even pet the horses at this point, Cate got a couple extra rides.

She had such a great time and I could see how good it was for her physically to be on the horse.  It really takes a lot of core strength to hold yourself upright while the horse is bouncing around.  For the most part she was also very focused and stimulated.  I had heard of Hippotherapy (a physical therapy done on horseback where the therapist use the horse as a tool to promote major muscle work as well as speech and OT goals) and knew some people who's kids with Ds did it but Cate's hypotonia isn't bad enough in her major motor groups to quality for PT.  After talking to the helpers at this party I decided to look into some riding lessons for Cate.  A strength building exercise that she loves seemed like a no brainer.  So my next step was to start looking into our options - something I can chat more about tomorrow!


Cate Age 7 - Aug 2013

Just a little

Life snuck up on me again this weekend and didn't let me get in a post.  I was going to talk about Cate's new adventure and her upcoming first.  Since I don't have time to post all of that today how about just a pic to help you figure out what it could be?

How cute and grown up she looks!

A third grader!!

I think the best way to start off this return to blogging is to talk about the start of this school year.  I'll probably take a trip down memory lane in future posts but for this one lets talk about our new school year.   The decision was made at the end of last year to promote Cate to third grade.  Since I'm all about being honest on this blog I will tell you Cate is not by any means ready for most of the general education third grade work.  I think she ended last year reading at a 2.1 level (2cd grade, 1st month) or a level G if you do the alphabet method (an average end of year second grader would be heading to an M if I remember correctly).  Cate made significant improvements in math during her second grade year but at the end she was still only adding single digit number and just starting subtraction which is well below the general education classrooms.  But with the IEP process and the fact that she made significant progress during the year, promotion with an IEP was an option we were given.  We weighed the pros and cons of promotion and decided that moving forward was the best course of action.  That decision allows her to stay with a group of classmates that she has been with since kindergarten, does not affect her confidence (she completely believed that it would be "bad" to have stayed in second grade), and gives her new challenges and material to continue to grow. 

Our school has moved to an integrated teaching model so Cate is in a co-taught classroom.  For those of you not familiar, this means that her classroom has both a general education teacher and a special education teacher working together to teach a combined class of typical, IEP, and special needs students.  We were in the same model for second grade but since was new to the school it got off to a kind of rocky start.   Cate has an amazing team for third grade that is made up of an experience general education teacher and a second year out of college special needs student.  In my opinion the combination of the two gives the classroom the necessary order and rules with an enthusiasm that can only come from youth.  These two teacher so far have shown seamless communication, great preparedness, and the desire to help Cate succeed.  We are hoping for a good year in third grade but it won't be easy on any of us I know.  But we'll be up for the challenge, won't we?

First Day of School Pics!

 

Hello - anyone still out there? (Why I haven't written in a while)

HELLO!  Did you miss me?  I know you are probably super surprised to see a post from A Brighter Sunshine show up on your reading list or in your inbox.  I just kind of fell off the circuit didn't I?

Well I'm probably not back for good but I am going to try my best to get some posts out in honor of Down syndrome awareness month and '31 for 21' which starts today.  First if you are still reading this blog then I guess I owe you an explanation for my absence.  Really that is a twofold thing - one is the simplest answer, I'm completely busy and frequently overwhelmed by daily life so writing was the easy place to cut back.  The other reason is I just needed to step away from Ds.  Not sure that makes sense to most people but when I am writing blog posts, I feel the need to read blog posts and articles about Ds.  Not sure why except if someone is reading my blog it is only polite to read theirs, right?  And I love reading blogs about the daily lives of kids like Cate - it is inspiring and motivating, which makes it easy to fall down the rabbit hole.  I kind of obsess when I get too far into that habit - I spend hours reading blogs which leads to links to interesting articles about Ds around the country and the world, which leads to reading comments, which leads to outrage at how awful people can be, which leads to a need to advocate more.  All of that can be a really good thing until it starts messing with my perspective.  My reality is that our daily lives are not ruled by Ds but by two pint sized, strong personalities which take all my focus and the majority of my time. The last year has held some new challenges, new milestones, and a lot of fun.  For the month of October, I am going to do some reflecting of the time that has past since my last post in November 2013 and try to share some of that with you because I do love the Ds community  and I am an advocate at heart so it makes me happy to think that maybe I helped one person out there deal with an issue or at the very least made them realize they are not alone in this crazy life!

Now all that talk is well and good but truly you probably just want to see a picture of Cate, right?  When I look at my last couple posts I can't believe how much she has grown and matured.  I swear she is two inches taller and not a pound heavier.  She is getting adjusted to the third grade, swimming, horseback riding, cheerleading and starting to become very independent (in reality instead of just in her head!). 

 

Just a taste - at the very least I promise more pictures this week!
Thanks for sticking around!

Swim Meet 2013

Cate had her fall swim meet last month and again it was awesome!  You'd think we'd get bored of this or at least lukewarm but it is so much fun to watch these kids swim.  They all have worked so hard to get here regardless of their challages - on this team they are all equals and that is a great thing.  Cate swam in 4 races - 50 yard freestyle (new for her), 25 yard freestyle, 25 yard backstroke, and 25 yard breaststroke (new for her).


I did get a cute pose before the first race!

She started with the new 50 yard freestyle race and got 3rd place because she wasn't really sure she wanted to swim after the shock of cool water.  She wasn't the only new one to the race so finishing it without stopping got her 3rd place even though she spent way more time doggy paddling and looking around than being the competitive swimmer.  Cate has to be invested in something to do well and after that first race I was worried she was more interested in the birthday party for afterwards than the races at hand.    I don't know if she used that first race as a warm-up, was inspired by the ribbon she got, or just clicked into gear but the 25 free race was a totally different story.

game face on - ready to go!

#1!!!

Not only did she finish first, she did it in 48 seconds which is almost 10 seconds faster than her time in the spring.  Cate's stroke looked good and she was moving fast!!  She rushed over to show off her to cheering section which included my parents, my aunt and my cousin the blue ribbon!

 

first stop was to show her proud daddy!

and then "surprise" grandma and Kim

 

Of course because she won that one she was ready for the backstroke which she placed 4th in last season.    

ready for backstroke

off she goes

First Place for Backstroke!!!

a hug for sister!

 Not only did she get first place she got her time under a minute! 

One of Cate's friends was doing her first backstroke race and so Cate decided to give her some encouragement just like we gave her the first time she when she took 4 minutes to finish!

After this we set up for breaststroke which is the new stroke she just started this season.  She had a little problem getting started since she wanted to do free but there were a couple new to this race so she wasn't the only one.  But she got into it after a little while and did a great job.

Cate is the middle lane slightly ahead of the girl next to her at this point.

 

a little "I did it wave to the crowd"

Even though it is awesome that Cate did so well and made us so proud with her competitive spirit and hard work the best thing about this meet was that she sought out her friends.  They aren't really new friends but somehow this day it seemed that the relationships had matured which is awesome because they are great girls!

swimmer girls (A&L) and their sisters

 

A & Cate are proud of their backstroke ribbons

 

Our awesome swimmers!

It was a successful afternoon all around!

"enough pictures mom - ugh"

 



3 for 21 Blog Hop - November

Jumping in for a quick blog hop entry since I've missed a few! 3 for 21 is a Down Syndrome blog hop in which the participants do a post with one truth, one tip, and one picture.

One Truth: Cate is a great swimmer!  I have a long overdue post about her recent swim meet with some pictures about half ready to expand that.  Cate being a great swimmer is in and of itself a truth but behind that lies a every bigger truth.  If you are/were like me when you find out your  baby has Down syndrome you go through a time of sadness that comes out in thoughts like "she'll never do <something> like I did".  And really I still do it sometimes even with experience of being wrong in the past.  Some of those things you thought that about will be silly or turn out to be irrelevant, some with haunt you, but a lot of them will just turn out to not be true.  I worried when Cate was little she wouldn't be able or love to swim like me.  The truth she loves it and is great at it.  So the moral of my truth - that every time you think "she won't" remind yourself "she will if she wants to" if you just give her the tools.

One Tip:  Trust your instincts.  When Cate was a baby I was still in that "doctor/teacher/therapist knows best" frame of mind.  These days I'm more likely to take all professional opinions in mind and add them to own ideas before I make a decision.  No professional who sees Cate once a year, a month can know how she'll react to something.  For example when Cate get sick, a lot of the time she'll push herself harder and become more stubborn instead of seeming tired or telling you something hurts.  Actually if she says her tummy hurts or she feels sick it is very likely a reaction to a task that is hard for her (even when you don't see it that way), it is rarely actually a virus or bug.  Many times when she was a baby she didn't get treatment for a bug until she was running a high fever or developing pneumonia.  Now I try to trust my instincts that something is wrong when she starts getting whiny for no reason or seems to be pushing away from activities she normally likes.   You always know your child best.


One Picture:

as proud of herself as we are of her!

Halloween Pictures - just for Aunt Brandie

Didn't think I could be more of a blog slacker did you?  Life is rolling along these days and not leaving much time for anything.  Everyone has been healthy and is very involved in their activities which makes for a busy mommy with very little down time.  Pretty awesome huh?  Much better than the alternative of having sick kids, bored kids or no job.

Last week the girls' Aunt Brandie asked me for Halloween pictures - which I never even thought about sending until today.  So here is an overdue post for Halloween!  Lucy was a kitty cat.  She had a few choices including a cowgirl, princess, panda or the cat.  Smart girl choose the cat because it was slightly chilly and "it is like wearing a blanket so I don't have to wear a jacket".  Cate wanted to be princess Sophia from the Disney show Sophia the first.   The girls' Nana sent a huge box of old dance costumes that she got at a garage sale a few month ago (best care package ever!) and there was a perfect purple dress for a princess.  We added a purple amulet (Sophia's prize possession) and a crown, added a little curling iron action and TA DA - Cate was Sophia!  They had a fun at our neighborhood party complete with hayride (first time for Lucy!) and then a great time trick or treating home.


Princess Sophia and the white kitty cat!

The pumpkins are Wilbur and Charlotte - Cate's class made them and I won them at the fall festival auction.  Cate begged for them it is her FAVORITE book.

Cate spent a lot of the night showing us her curtsy - and you can just see the pink cowboy boots underneath!

hay ride - they went by themselves :-)

they are both still asking how long until Halloween again as they see the candy dwindle down!