31 for 21: Down Syndrome Awareness Month

Today marks the first day of National Down Syndrome Awareness Month. This time last year I was still in hospital after having my beautiful daughter Piper, Sept 28th, 3 days early. It wasn't until halfway through October did I find out that it was National Down Syndrome Awareness Month. My first post was actually Oct 22nd. So in honor of my first 31 for 21 post, I thought I would post a series of "One" pictures.

One day old

One week old

 One month old

One year old

It has been a great 1st year, I am looking forward to many many more.

Milestones...

This summer has been filled with so many milestones, who know our little lady would grow so much over three months. We had been working on sitting for awhile and with most developmental milestones we have decided not to get worried about what she is not doing. She will do stuff on her own time and when she is ready. Saying that while we were on our cruise in June, we sat Piper on the bed fully expecting her to fall as we hadn't seen her sit by herself, and to our surprise this is what she did...

We were so surprised it took as awhile to realize she wasn't going to fall over and we thought we should be taking pictures of this! Now she was sitting she hated being on her belly or back and wanted to be sitting.

That didn't last long because recently she hasn't been happy sitting and now wants to stand. She is holding her weight on her feet so much better and holding hands and standing, however, depending on her level energy she will either stand nice and tall or bend at the hips ( I call that her lazy position).

On the feeding front she is loving eating puffs and rice rusks, however she hasn't quite got the pincer grip, she still rakes the puffs and gets them trapped in her hand. But if I feed them to her she will open up wide and chew chew chew!

She is also able to hold her own bottle, and we are practicing using a sippy cup, she uses it as a teething toy instead.  

As for teething, I really wish it wasn't so a traumatic experience for her the night her first tooth finally broke through she screamed bloody murder, Mark couldn't believe how quickly I shot up and ran to her room. Now she has two and plenty of more on their way.

I swear her tooth is there on the left hand side.

And finally the start of crawling... She has been working on rocking on her hands and knees in PT. She is also starting to creep, even if it is backwards Piper is mobile!!! I guess I should baby proof the house.

 

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Bermuda Cruise

What a wonderful way to celebrate Mark's first Father's Day by setting sail to Bermuda on a seven day cruise. When we initially booked this cruise people thought we were brave by taking Piper on a cruise. At first we thought, why wouldn't we take Piper on vacation with us. People warned us that we wouldn't be able to stay out late, or enjoy our time spent at the multitude of bars. Our response was since we became parents we haven't done any of that.

So after spending a small fortune at buy buy baby and babies rus, we were ready to set sail. Now on everyday trips to stores strangers come up and ask us how old Piper is, and awww she is so cute, but it felt like everyone on the ship was in love with Piper. Within the third day most of the wait staff in the restaurants knew Piper's name and would say "Hi, Piper" every time we would sit down to eat.

Piper had lots of fun on the ship in the Under 2 Zoo, they had fun activities like drawing, painting story time and dance party. Here are a few pics of her time there.

                                

When we docked in Bermuda this was our view from our balcony.


On our first day in Bermuda we decided to explore Hamilton to get to Hamilton we took a ferry these are some shots I took while waiting for the Ferry.

Once we got there Piper decided she needed to nap, and Mark decided it was really important to make a phone call.

On our second day we ventured on the bus, which was a very scary experience, to Horseshoe Bay.

This was Piper's first visit to the beach where she could go into the water, it was a little too cold for her when we did the Polar Bear Plunge in Feb. But our little water baby enjoyed it, playing with the sand splashing in the "waves".     

After all that excitement it Daddy and Piper need a nap, but couldn't wait till we got back to the ship. 

The last day in Bermuda we walked around the dockyard area, before heading back poolside to chill out.

 All in all we had a great time, Piper's first vacation was a success! Now that we have been home for a few weeks, I wish another vacation was coming up.