Breakfast With Santa

First off, Andrew would like all of you to know that he did not approve of the photo of him in the previous post.  In my defense, I hold firm that my Drew-Drew looked extremely hot and all “Glamour-shot-like” in said photo.  He is my hot, sexy Baby Drews and all should be allowed to gaze at his baby blue eyes.

Ellie and I preparing to meet Santa
This photo was taken before the 1st clothing change.
Yes, there was more than one clothing change within 30 minutes due to spit-up--that is a whole other post.
GI, here we come. . . well at the end of January.

Moving on. . .  Happy 15 months Ellie!!!

I am writing this as I anxiously await for ECI to arrive for Ellie’s big speech evaluation.  We have had general evals, but this one is speech specific.  To stomp down the anxiety, I am distracting myself by uploading tons of photos from this morning’s Breakfast with Santa. 

Unlike most little kids, Ellie loves Santa.  He has a nice long beard that is perfect for pulling. Uh oh is right.  Fortunately, beard remained in the proper position. 

Do you see this?!?  Ellie is actually poaching on another child's turn with Santa.  She just crawled on over and pulled herself to a stand. Yes, I am thrilled with her motor capabilities, but I had to quickly save Santa.

Oh and the presents.  She is so spoiled that she knows a fair amount about bags and wrapping paper.  I spent the morning protecting other children’s toys from her quick fingers. Super Ellie!  Helping others with her brilliant fine motor skills! 

I just love kiddos in PJs.  So cute and cuddly.  Does anyone have adult footie-PJs?  This is Ellie and little Liam.  They are buddies most of the time.  Instead, we are witnessing the Battle of the Pacifier.  Ellie lost as Liam has teeth of steel, thank goodness.  I believe it is now time to teach Ellie about sharing.

This is handsome Tristan with Ellie.  A few months ago they would approach each other while crawling and communicate using their 3rd eyes.  I firmly believe it appeared this way.  Baby communication on a higher Zen-like level.  Now Ellie is still "in love" with dear Tristan (she demonstrates this by following him around and trying to sit on him.  Yes, on him),  but he has moved on to other females or toys or something.  Ellie, however, wants to be with him where ever he goes.  

Perhaps now is a good time to mention that this Breakfast with Santa occurred at a church.  What is that in Ellie's mouth?  It is a church-related thingy.  What exactly I cannot say.  However, an amazing thing happened. . . there were several of these shiny gold plates and Ellie stacked them.  Let me repeat.  She STACKED them!!!!!  This is huge developmentally :-)

Here is sweet little Maggie (aka Maggie Moo or Magpie as I like to affectionately call her) from playgroup.  How can you not love that sunny smile?  Kate from sewing is her mommy.

Do you see these shoes????  The tights with little red bows???  Oh how I wish Ellie would keep shoes on.  Is this not adorable?  So sweet.  The bows!  The redness!  So festive.

I just love how Ellie looks at Santa like "Who is holding me?".  Acting all shocked and whatnot.  Then, Ooh a beard.  Must. Pull. On Beard."  I think that these pictures turned out much better than the mall ones.  So I would just like to shout out to the Paddens--"Thank you!"

Ellie Bellie, standing like a big girl!

Okay, speech eval is over since I started this post:  DENIED individual speech therapy sessions.  Tear tear.  Lagrima, lagrima.  This is both good and bad.  It went well in the sense that Ellie showed off all of her awesome loud babbling skills of "lalalala", "bababababa", "dadada baba wah", and "mon mon mon mon" as well as signing "eat" and her blatant refusal to sign "out".  However, you and I both (well all of us know) that low muscle tone, high arched palate, global developmental delay, and abnormal dentition contribute to speech delay.  We also know that children with DS tend to require speech therapy and have a characteristic speech pattern.  ECI has acknowledged that she is delayed, but not delayed enough for speech-specific therapy.  Yes, I am indeed truly grateful and happy that The Bear is doing so well, BUT I want to give my Ellie everything.  So, we shall continue our developmental therapy with dear Jan who is excellent at pushing both Ellie and me to do our best.    Must look on the bright, happy side.  We are blessed with Super Ellie!!!!