From SoDak to NoVa

Since the last post, Bella and the family have uprooted from kind, compassionate and warm (hearted, not weathered!) South Dakota to Northern Virginia.  We are back on the east coast, baby!

Bella is a lot better than she was in February 2010.  She will be 2-years-old this month and is almost walking :)  We dearly and sorely miss her old OT (occupational therapist) in Rapid City.  As a family we've noticed a decline in the developmental care of children who're disabled, particularly those with Down syndrome, in our area.  Bella will meet with her new PT on Monday, and we pray to God that all goes well there.  She has one more year with the NoVa Early Intervention services until she is in the preschool program for developmental help.  By then she will not receive one-on-one care/assistance, and we really want this last year to count.  She is doing well, but we never want to expect less of her due to her Down syndrome.  For some reason this seems to throw people off, which frankly concerns us all. 

My husband is back in school on his way to finishing his degree.  I'm so happy for him and I think he is very happy for himself too.  As for myself, well, I am still "just" a stay-at-home-mom.  I'm finding a new passion in cooking however.  Thanks to shows like "Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations" I am now transferring my wanderlust to the culinary arts.  All of our meals these past few weeks have been solely Mediterranean based.  I'm thinking of beginning a culinary adventures blog for my own sake/benefit, but am unsure of it's real amusement for others.  There's got to be a crowd that loves to dabble in the culinary arts for the fun of it though...

Thanksgiving is quickly coming our way and we will be headed down to Florida to see our families for the first time in over a year.  We've seen both our parents and M's brother and our sister-in-law since they visited us as soon as we moved closer to Florida, but our visit to Florida will bring us to meet M's grandparents and his aunt, uncle and a few cousins.  Bella will get to meet her great-grandparents for the first time.

Bella may be meeting her first DS friend tomorrow for coffee, or, well, in their case milk.  If there's one thing the local Early Intervention services have been good for, it's the references for local families with children with Down syndrome.