Quickie update

I have been completely delinquent - so much for regular updates huh??!! I've just been having way too much fun in Peru - and Peter is the most amazing kid ever! He has just rolled with it like a pro, and is obviously having a great time. I have close to 500 pictures taken, so I do need to weed them out and post a bunch. Peter and I leave around midnight tomorrow to head back to Colorado, and will get there mid day Monday. I promise to post a full update and pictures once I get settled in. Quick synopsis of the trip -
Monday - walked the district of Miraflores within Lima and enjoyed a relaxing evening at home
Tuesday - slept in! we were tired!! then headed down to "Pulpos" where my parents have a beach house. We enjoyed a little time by the water, and then a dinner on the balcony overlooking the ocean. Late that night my Uncle Peter arrived from England to enjoy the summer here.
Wednesday - enjoyed the beach in the morning - took my first dip in the Pacific Ocean and tried body surfing again! Tumbled in the waves and enjoyed the sand between my toes. Then headed down to "Asia" beach where there is an incredible little shopping/dining area - and had my favorite chicken in the world at the Granja Azul restaurant. Got home late, so had wine with cheese and crackers as we watched the waves break.
Thursday - came back to Lima and had a wonderful evening with some of my old friends from school - San Silvestre - British girl's school I attended. I swear my friends never age because they look like they did when we graduated twenty years ago!
Friday - yes, I'm spoiled.... manicure and pedicure day! Amazing "cebiche" lunch at a fish restaurant. Then helping get things taken care of for my mom's special party. In the evening we had the party at the local "Phoenix Club" and it was fabulous! I saw people I hadn't seen in 20 years. My mother was the belle of the ball, followed closely by Peter who was the special guest of honor. These wonderful folks have prayed and hoped for Peter's good health - and seeing him brought so much joy to them. My Tia Janet (Aunt Janet) was even on the floor chasing after people as he crawled around. It could not have gone better!
Saturday (today) - had another gorgeous run along the beach.... oh it was beautiful!! Then we visited with Nilda - my mother's reflexologist who had a young daughter with DS. She was the pillar of strength my mother needed here after our pre-natal diagnosis and the health challenges after Peter's birth. Unfortunately her daughter died unexpectedly from an infection - so holding Peter was bitter-sweet for her. Peter took to her instantly and gave her the hug she needed. Fit in a little shopping and more great food!! Including one of my favorite desserts - "picarones". A deep fried donut made of squash and sweet potato batter and drizzled with a peruvian syrup made from crushed brown sugar cane. Yummy!! Then we took an almost 4 hour bus tour of historic Lima and a local park with amazing water fountains.

Tomorrow we have a lot of little things to do - a little shopping, washing and packing - but, if the weather is good hope to go para-gliding right off the cliff in front of my parents apartment. A bit scared of jumping off a cliff - but hoping the weather will be right to do so.

Anyway - there is a quickie update. Can't wait to share the pics with you and more details on Peter's experiences. I just have to say - Peter is the perfect traveller!!

Love -
catherine

We are in Peru!

Yesterday was a very long day! We got up early, early, early to leave the house at 5 something a.m. There was about 4 inches of snow - so I was afraid our flight would be delayed. John took Peter and I down to the airport. Our flight was not delayed, but we spent about 45 minutes in line on the runway waiting to be de-iced. We had a long lay over in Houston, so was not worried. We made up time and landed in Houston at about 11:30 am local time. We strolled around, ate lunch, and strolled some more. Our much anticipated flight to Lima ended up being delayed, and delayed again, and then again. I was trying to keep Peter awake until we boarded, but he passed out in his stroller. We finally took off about 2 hours late. They made up a bit of time on the flight down, but we were still late. Peter was the perfect passenger! We sat in a row on our own and he was easily entertained. We walked the aisle a few times for a break, and he slobbered all over the TV screen in the seat in front of us. I was exhausted, but Peter really was an angel. When we landed I loaded him up in the stroller and headed to battle the line of immigrations. Next thing I knew I was getting whisked down a fast lane by the people who would no doubt be in line for hours. I got checked out , stamped, suitcase and was not even selected for customs check. We were out in no time at all, and at my parents place little before 3am. The door was decorated, the apartment perfect - with priceless views of Lima and the Pacific Ocean at night. And I got to settle in eating a "mousy mousy". When my brother Roger and I were kids, my parents would take us to a local bakery. Roger and I would always pick the pastries that were decorated to look like little mice, and we thus dubbed the bakery "The Mousy Mousy Place".

Yesterday Peter and I slept in. We much needed it. In about 20 minutes Peter warmed up to the new setting and set off to explore the home. Nothing is safe! But he has been gentle with Silver the cat. After lunch I decided I wanted to walk Miraflores - the district of Lima I grew up in. We loaded Peter up in the stroller as my dad and I headed out. We walked along the coast, through shopping sections, parks, and finally to the meeting location with my mom - Starbucks! :-) We had a drink, got a little groceries and then headed out for the last leg of our trip. We walked through my old neighboorhood and I saw homes of old friends, the park I learned to climb tress in and my old home. We then walked a few blocks to my old school which we walked around. Hard to believe it has been over 20 years since I would put on the ugliest school uniform in the world and walk to that same school and through those same gates. That was my home for 12 years - so many memories, wonderful friends, quirky teachers and moments that make up who I am today. We finally made it back to the apartment after 7pm and settled down for more amazing views of the ocean, the sound of the breeze and the sea salt in the air. Truly magical!

Last night was a late night as Peter is on an eating strike, and decided to get a second wind late at night. Finally we shut all the lights off and he got the hint. This morning I decided to go out for a little walk/run.... it turned into almost an hour and a half of exilirating exercise. I ran along the top cliffs of Lima, then down these very long stairs to the beach area and then I ran for what seemed like miles. I ran on the beach, past some old favorite restaurants, watching the surfers head out to catch some waves, and the whole time breathing in the ocean breeze. Then it was time to climb what seemed like a mile of stairs back up - that was a challenge. By then I was a few miles away from my parents place. After catching my breath ran the whole way back. I was red and sweaty and felt GREAT! It is so nice to have so much oxygen and the difference in energy levels is amazing.

Sorry no pics yet - need to dig out some cords from my dad to attach the camara. We are headed out for a couple of days at the beach house - so it will likely be Thursday before I get the pictures all posted. Thursday night I'm having dinner with some old class mates, Friday night is my mother's birthday soiree at a club, and then the weekend before I head home.

Better run so that we can get on the road -

love you all!!
catherine

Merry Christmas & happy end of 2008!

It is December 31st, 2008.... where has the time gone? Today John said to me "Remember Y2K?" It seems like so long ago. It was my full time job helping our company prepare and test and test and test some more for Y2K. And honestly it was so anti-climatic when it came and went. And here we are, 9 years after computers were supposed to stop working, we would have no water and the world would come to an end. I wonder sometimes how the people who bought bunkers out in the plains feel today. Anyway, I digress because I am tired and a simple thought process seems quite challenging right now. And of course the kids want to stay up to ring in the New Year. I think we will be half zombies at Mass in the morning. 

But, I did want to update the blog and let you know what a wonderful Christmas we had this year. Unexpectedly John's parents were in town to help my brother and sister-in-law move to a new home (a totally awesome, beautiful dream home with an amazing kitchen!) so we had a wonderful big family Christmas.  

         

Christmas Eve we had a small dinner - just John, me and the kids - and we had ham dinner. I grew up in Peru and having a big hot meal on Christmas (in summer) just seemed insane - so we always had our dinner on Christmas Eve. John and I adopted a modified version of this Mortimer tradition. I cooked dinner while John and the kids delivered all the goodies we had baked. We enjoyed dinner, and then went to Mass where Alexandra was Altar serving. We came home and in a tradition John and I created for the family - the kids got one present to open. Now, the get excited every year but they know exactly what it is - pj's!! Two reasons - a) they normally need new winter pj's by this time of the year; and b) they are guaranteed to be clean and decent in pics from Christmas morning!! We did our Advent readings and off to bed we went. 

    

Christmas morning we had promised to keep the kids out of the gifts until John's parents could get here to celebrate - which was around 9am. Fortunately the little ones slept in but the big ones hid in the basement to contain their excitement. Grandma is always very generous and stocks the tree abundantly. The kids love this! They know that from John and I they will get three gifts.... after all, we are celebrating Christ's birth and Jesus himself got three gifts. Another family tradition I guess! Usually the gifts are an outfit, a book or movie, and a game or something fun. Then Santa brings the kids one big gift each. This year Santa gave in on their repeated request for a game system - so he brought one gift for the kids to share - a Wii game system. Talk about excitement, and screaming and jumping and now endless hours of playing Wii tennis, bowling, baseball and Mario-something-slugger.  We were also joined by my brother and sister-in-law (Greg & Brenda) and together enjoyed a wonderful turkey dinner. Brenda has the reputation of making the best deserts in the family - and she baked a delicious cake and yummy cheese cake. 

Now to share some of the kids favorites this year - 

Peter - light up Christmas socks - 

Alexandra - snicker doodle scented candle

Tommy - the remote control helicopter that Jack got from his godparents

Jack - the heli, a foam disk shooter and a maze book + computer game 

Michael - hands down...the Wii

And on an embarrassing note I must confess my own lack of being in good shape. This last summer after Peter turned a year I started exercising again. I went out every morning and was doing 4 - 5 miles a day part walk and part run. I felt great! I lost weight! I felt good!! Then school started and my life went crazy. I didn't have time to exercise, I never got back on top of laundry and felt like I was constantly flying by the seat of my pants keeping up with home, kids, husband and work. Ahh! Well, I recently recognized my need to start exercising again - so I've been getting up early before everyone else to fit in prayer and exercise. I have become somewhat fanatic in the last couple of weeks in my useless attempt to look more like Heidi Klum before my trip to Peru. I am failing terribly despite being up to 6 miles a day, eating little and drinking lots of water - I'm cursed! Anyway, I digress again. I was started to feel more comfortable that I was getting "fit" again. Michael challenged me to the Wii. "Sure" I told myself "just a kids game - how hard can it be?" Well, he kicked my @$$ at tennis which was embarrassing. I decided to move onto bowling - you know - a sport more suited for us maturing parents. Well, he double kicked my @$$. My competitive edge kicked in and I was bound a determined to master the bowling. In a less than stellar parenting move, I sent Michael off to bed and stayed with the Wii. I bowled for an hour trying to beat Michael's 203 score. I maxed out at 185. It was midnight and I went to bed. I should have iced my shoulder because my right arm was so sore I could barely move it for three days. I have not yet taken on the Wii again!

Anyway - it is 2009 in half the world, so I better wrap this up and just say THANK YOU GOD for a wonderful 2008! please continue to guide us and bless us in 2009!!

Love, 

catherine 

My Dream Kitchen?

Ask me how I would describe my dream kitchen - and likely I would tell you all about the design. Almost opposite of what we have now! I dream of a big kitchen, center island, country sink, double oven, etc. You know - the kitchens we see in TV or in magazines. But, reality is I have a small galley style kitchen that requires creative packing to get everything into it.... especially since I have somewhat of an addiction to small appliances - I will unfortunately never have enough! 

This is what my kitchen looks like right now.... and yes that is a glass of well deserved wine after a long day! 

  

So, this is not how it looked all day. And that is where the true dream kitchen comes in. While my kitchen is not my fantasy kitchen design, today it was my dream kitchen. All my kids piled into our little kitchen - each with their well-used and somewhat stained apron on. Each with their own little project. But, each project perfectly intertwined with every one else's project. The perfect timing of baking. And, through it all there was laughter, teasing, a lot of fingers "taste testing" and a smidgen of drama. Would hate to imply we are a perfect TV family because Lord knows we are not! (You will see the evidence of taste testing below)

But, at the end of a long day, and a kitchen that took over two hours to get free of a couple of loads of dishes, dropped M&M's, finger smudges and stuff I don't even recognize - we have a recipe for family togetherness and a lot to show for it!  So here is a bit of the magic everyone brought to the kitchen - 

Alexandra made peanut butter and swirl kisses cookies:

  

Michael whipped up a double batch of brownies using the same recipe I learned in summer school at his age:

   

Jack made is very own double batch of M&M cookies. He also helped mash the bananas for our banana bread:

   

Tommy carefully made a batch of vanilla ice cream and lent his expert "taste testing" to everyone's special projects:

 

Peter was in and out of the kitchen sprinkling us all with love and giggles. And I made up another batch of blackberry jam (yes - the berries were still on sale!). 

    

We tied all our projects together and have goodies for our neighbors that we plan on dropping off tomorrow. 

   

So, back to the dream kitchen - today I had my dream kitchen! I had the kitchen I close my eyes and dream of when I am at work missing my kids like crazy. Today we spent the time together creating with our hands - and at the end of the day (even if super late) can put our feet up and smile. 

God bless you all as we continue to prepare for Christmas.... and let our recipe for life this week remind us the real reason for the season. As my kids say - Happy Birthday Jesus!

catherine 

Peter - CarePage - December 22nd, 2008

PT @ TCH - 

Peter had his physical therapy assessment at The Children's Hospital - Denver today. We again were able to see Pat Winders who I told you about many months ago. She is the number one PT for kids with DS in the world. She is so inspiring and so positive! She was thrilled with Peter's progress since last time she saw him. He has come such a long way. I think she was equally as excited to see him off of oxygen and getting so healthy. She was surprised at his agility and speed in the army crawl arena - that kid burns rubber - think he gets it from my dad who used to race cars.... love of speed runs in the family. Alexandra and Jack came up for the session too - Jack wanted to escape Colorado Springs, make new friends and unfortunately spilt water all over the computer in the evaluation room. Oops! The thing was still running when we left - so hopefully no bill for that repair - yikes! He was his normal chatty self - he really knows no strangers. Alexandra really wanted to fully partake in the session and share her observations on Peter - but was frustrated that Jack needed some entertaining at times. 

Peter now has his new goals to get to the next level - the first being working towards independent walking. She wants him to take steps forward. We've worked on it some up until now, but he somewhat resisted it, and keeps his knees locked. Pat said we shouldn't worry yet about the locking knees or position of feet since he is at this time insecure and not pulled together. He doesn't have good balance at this time for walking, but she believes that as he gets stronger and more confident in his moves he will take off like he did with the army crawl. 

Pat also wants Peter to work on cruising to the right. While he doesn't really enjoy cruising, he will if it is to reach something on the couch - but generally he will go to the left. We need to work on going to the right. She also wants us to work on crawling on all fours. I've noticed recently that he has been pulling his knees in more as he army crawls - but he doesn't want to push up and walk his hands. She used the same technique that Kerry (our PT) has used - so we need to work on that more at home now. 

The last thing we need to work on is reinforcing the turning and sliding to come down stairs or off of furniture. Right now he does pretty good coming off furniture, and sliding down if he is half way climbing the stairs. However, if he is already at the top he won't turn onto his tummy and slide down naturally. She talked about using single word commands per se. So instead of saying "now turn and climb down the stairs" we should just say "down" and point. She called it "labels". So single word labels that let Peter know what to do. So we need to teach him that down means "I turn onto my tummy and push backwards". Admittedly this was somewhat of a new concept to me. I know that I have used single words or short commands in the past with the other kids, but by nature I am a pretty chatty person (I know - gasp - what a surprise! catherine is NOT a person of few words??!!). As a result I tend to talk a lot to Peter. I guess I just figured he was learning vocabulary and sounds in the process of me talking to him. And I am sure he is - but now I must rethink when to be chatty and work on sounds and vocabulary, and when to use single labels to teach an action or response. As a side note - our older kids teachers have often commented on their vocabulary as young kids - don't take me wrong- they are not users of the finer form of English - but they used a lot of words to communicate or tell stories. I think that is as a result of John and I both NOT being people of few words. Hmmm.... I guess that explains Jack and his addiction to talking. 

Anyway, I digress once again. But, honestly Peter is doing great! She was gracious to not compare Peter to any other child - a sign of professionalism if you ask me - but I would suspect he is in the middle of the pack. Which honestly is fine with me.... as long as he is progressing the speed is less of an issue. My pediatrician has always told me speed is not reflective of how far you get - and some kids are slow persistent little turtles that will eventually surpass the hares in group. I like to believe that is Peter..... the little persistent bear (not turtle) who smiles and keeps trying and trying and trying. He obviously isn't the fastest but he might just go the furthest!

Here are a few pics from the session. 

Love to all - 

catherine

Here Peter is playing on a cool toy which she would gentle push to make him walk. Since he really didn't realize he was doing it he was more cooperative - but she still positioned behind him so that he wouldn't flop on his butt like he does when he doesn't want to stand

"Seriously?! you think I am going to walk??!! ha ha ha!"

Putting a motivator in front of Peter (the toy) at a higher level - so higher than floor level which he could army crawl to, but lower than a couch which he would just cruise or reach standing.  You can see the positioning, the encouraging forward and celebrating the victory. 

 

 

 

"If I go floppy can I stop?!"

  

Beautiful sis Alexandra

Alexandra's Birthday Party!

Alexandra had her birthday party this evening. It was simply ten girls having a great time! The theme was a Christmas based cookie exchange. We changed the rules a bit, but each girl brought two dozen cookies - and almost all of them clearly made the cookies themselves which was exciting to see. The evening started off with just a lot of laughter and goofiness - then the girls enjoyed pizza dinner with salad. They headed down to the basement to watch "Mama Mia". Sidebar - we did question having girls this age watching it but each of the parents was fine with it - we did have some back up choices should the underlying story line be uncomfortable for some parents to address. 

I think with this group of teenage girls Edward (from Twilight) has temporarily been replaced by Skyler in the movie. The girls snuggled up under quilts and watch the movie. I could occassionally here them laughing, uhh-ing and the breaking out into dance. Funny how Abba music lives on!

While the girls were watching I cleaned up the dinner table and set up the cookie part of the party. I made party favor bags with one of each cookie in it, and then sealed it with a sticker and an old fashion rusty metal bell ornament. I'm biased.....I thought the table looked great with the cookies and the gift bags. 

 

   

    

Took about 3 seconds, maybe 5, for there to be flying cookies, crumbs and chugging down of hot apple cider! Tommy and Jack joined the girls for this part of the event - but they can not be blamed for the mess left behind by a feast well enjoyed. 

Alexandra said she thought the party went off really well - which is really the seal of approval any mom needs! She had friends from school as well as outside of school at the party - but they did a good job integrating with each other and making sure no one was left out. Not sure what silly game they were playing but I've never seen so many teenage girls giggle, laugh, and chase each other up and down the stairs like they did when they were in Kindergarten. 

I'm exhausted - so off to bed.

Good night!

catherine