She's almost two.

Oh. my. word.

Where did the last two years go????  Oh, that's right.  They were poured into our children, a new-to-us house and property, schooling, activities, jobs, and a little thing called Down Syndrome thrown in.

Honestly, most days Down Syndrome is sooooo back burner I barely notice it.  Charlotte Joy is just Charlotte Joy.  The littlest sister.  The super snuggly baby-careening-toward-toddlerhood.  The one who makes everyone smile and breathe a little deeper.  The one who wakes us up and doesn't get a snarly response but instead gets invited to join them under their warm covers before mom gets all serious about getting out of bed in the morning.    The one who has figured out how to dig into backpacks, purses, boxes, laundry baskets and takes something somewhat clean and contained to what looks like a bomb went off all over the floor.

She fits just perfectly into the zoo.  She's found her place.  Her niche.  I shouldn't have expected less.

Here are some highlights in a brief rundown:

These days she's scooting/hopping everywhere like a frog.  It's hilarious and she's super fast.  Correcting her crawl is a problem for me as I'm not as fast, but it would be good if she'd use that right side more for actually four point crawling, so I chase.  We'll see what she does, although I'm more into celebrating the fact that she's figured a way out to get to her daddy as fast as she can the second he walks in the door, or to try and run away from her big sister chasing her.  

Charlotte isn't really saying words but is starting to make some great sounds and signs tons.  We can ask her what she wants and she's able to sign to us the very thing she wants.  She does a great job of communicating and is always watching to see what your eyes, hands, and mouths are doing so one of these days, I bet she's going to literally TAKE OFF in words.

Her health in general is very good, THANK the LORD.  We are a little more careful if we know people are sick because she is more prone to catch things and recovering takes her longer.  Winter may find us more holed up but that's okay.  Her heart repair has worked out beautifully and we don't need to see her cardiologist for another two years.  She does see specialists for various things but, for the most part, those are just routine checks to keep tabs on issues that *could* develop down the road.  Eyes, ears, GI...the like.



So for the most part we're just enjoying the Charlotte-ness of her and not worrying about the extras.  I hope you do too.

More to come later. I promise.