31 for 21 Day 23.... Stubborn

Today all 5 of the children did not have school due to a teacher in-service day. The weather was rainy and chilly, the kids were all pretty hyper so I still sent them outside to play... rain and all. The twins still had their TSS come today to do drills with them and work with them for a few hours. After most of their work was done we all headed out to the Amish Bent N Dent store and bought a ton of groceries that's sure to last us two or three weeks. When we first got a TSS we were not allowed to leave the house. We were only allowed to use their services in the home environment as that is what the boys were familiar with. Now, we are allowed to use the TSS's out in the community since the boys are older and we need to help adapt them to social setting in the outside world. Its is TRULY nice to take them to the grocery store with me, especially on days like today.

I had my own cart which I intended on filling up from the get go, I knew there would be no room for a squirmy boy. So each worker got a cart and one boy to push through the isles and talk about how to act in a store. OH BOY!! They just weren't fast enough today. I was in one aisle and I hear a BOOM..then a CRASH...then another BOOM. It was hard for me not to chuckle. I knew it was my boys before I even began to investigate. If you take your eyes off of them even for a minute they like to scoop items off the shelf and toss them. So they both got a pretty lengthy discussion on why they should not do that and they can get in trouble for this or they could break something (which thankfully today they did not). They both seemed to be processing what was being told them and I turned to continue my shopping. Not even 15 seconds later I heard another BANG... and then the TSS came over and told me they would be taking the boys out to the van while I finished up my shopping. I did laugh a bit then. When they want to do something, or don't want to do something, NOTHING stops them. They are stubborn. VERY STUBBORN!! And I think this is the great fighting spirit that I love about them. I've often thought that it was this stubbornness that got them through the tough start they had in the NICU as a 2 pound and 3 pound premature baby.

So many people label people with Down Syndrome as "Oh they're such Happy People". They are happy people, but they are also sad, mad, fearful, grumpy, hurt, shy, outgoing, confused, overjoyed, intelligent, moody, self-conscience, and stubborn.

I got off the idea I started to blog about so let me get back. So the kids had the day off school we did some running, weather was bad outside but we made the best of it. We all took our turn on the Gazelle exercising, we all cooked dinner together, we all sat and watched Twilight after dinner and folded laundry and just had a great night. I went in to sit with Tom for a bit to unwind and get ready to write something in my blog tonight and in comes the kids laughing and screaming with joy at what they had done. I asked them to all put their pile of clothing away and they decided to dress up our dogs instead. It was quite funny and I thought I would share my kids' humor.

Auggie Doggie "our girl"


And Rosco "our boy"


And this was Caleb trying to tell us what he thought about all the craziness


I am thankful for crazy days like this and I'm thankful for stubborn, silly children.