Sweet, little victories

One of the things I am learning that I love about having a little girl with Down Syndrome is how much sweeter the everyday victories are.  I never, ever thought I would feel this way.  And, believe me, there are many days when I just wish things could come easy for Ashlyn.....that she wouldn't have to struggle.  There are still days when the tears come.  There are still days where as much as I love our therapists, I wish they didn't have to come to our house every week.  But, in the mix of all of that, when at times it seems like the waiting for the next big milestone will never end, there come little victories.  The kind that I may have never noticed with Kyla.  The kind that may seem so little to others, but in our world, they are huge and are cause for much celebration.  And, I love that.  Who wouldn't love a little extra celebrating in their life? 

All of these celebrations have happened within the course of this past week.  Here is one.  Ashlyn has been saying "mama" and "dada" for awhile now.....every time I hear it I still celebrate in my heart.  Well, I had not heard her say her sister's name yet.  The other day Ashlyn and I were in the car driving over to pick up Kyla from preschool.  I was telling her what we were doing.....that we were going to pick up Kyla from school.  From the backseat I heard the sweetest little voice say, "tya".  I knew exactly what she meant.  I looked back at her and smiled and said, "Yes!!  Kyla!"  And, Ash had a huge smile on her face.  My heart was so full of joy hearing her say her sisters name.  This is a girl who loves her big sister....and the feeling is quite mutual as evidenced here:

Another sweet, little victory comes in the world of walking.  Ashlyn is cruising quite beautifully these days, but her preferred mode of getting around is crawling.  And, I must say I am very thankful for her crawling because I prayed for months that she would do it....no complaints here on the crawling.  But, it is time to focus on walking now, so we encourage her as much as we can to try to walk with her push toy.  She loves the push toy....likes to look at it and make it play music and even stand with it.  But, as soon as it would start to move she would just plop down.  Well, the other day I saw her take a couple of steps with it!  Yahoo!!  And it continues to happen....not lots of steps, but a couple.  And, we are celebrating!

The biggest one for me personally comes in the way of her sippy cup.  Not her drinking from it...she does that just fine (another victory).  I am talking about her throwing it.  Oh, goodness, this has been a big one.  She is in a stage where she throws most anything right now.....a developmental stage she is in.  Her and I have been working for many months on her not throwing her sippy cup while eating in her high chair.  I have reached down and picked it up countless times and told her, "no throwing" countless times.  I have wiped down our kitchen window with windex plenty of times from milk coming out of the cup and splashing on the window after the big toss.  There have been several times I have sat at the table with tears in my eyes wondering what to do about the throwing of the cup.  It has just been her natural reaction....as soon as she is done drinking she just lets it go.  Perseverance.....perseverance.  Today it paid off.  It was her afternoon snack time and she was drinking away and while she was drinking I said, "Ashlyn, no throwing.  Cup goes down (meaning down on her tray)."  I have showed her over and over the motion of the cup going from her mouth and then being set down on her tray.  Well, today she picked up her sippy cup, held it, looked at me and said, "duh" (meaning down) and set it down....right there on the tray.  Hallelujah!!  This time there were happy tears in my eyes!!  For many reasons....one, she said the right sound for down and then used it in the right context, she didn't throw her cup and she communicated with me perfectly that she understood what I was saying.  A little victory that is actually really big.  I am telling you, it means so much when these things happen because of the perseverance that takes place on both of our parts.  This afternoon when that happened I was thinking that there could be someone somewhere in an office building closing some huge business deal and making lots of money doing it, but Ashlyn and I in our kitchen making that step seemed way huger to me than that.  There is no other job I would want to have.  Her and I are becoming quite the team....our family is becoming quite the team....working at it together.  Here is the happy girl in her high chair....and a side note, I know she will throw her cup again because that is what comes most naturally to her....we will keep working at it.  We are getting it....she is getting it.

 To me, every time one of these sweet, little victories happen I feel like it is a personalized gift from the Lord to us.  To just keep showing us that He is watching over her and helping her grow and develop.  Celebrating everyday....sweet, little victories with one very sweet, little girl.