Kinast Connection: Rivers Ripple

September 20th, 2016 (I wrote before my trip to NYC, but didn't get pictures added until tonight. And as interesting as I am to read...I know you all are visual learners.)---
How is that time goes so quickly as you get to be middle aged?!?! 3 months has come and gone. We had a full summer--lots of things to keep us busy.
Dan has fully transitioned into his job with Gray Communications and goes into the office about 1x/week, working the rest of his days from the "man cave". He is playing with the church band at Renew, the first service there was this past Sunday. Dan will run a 10K on Saturday and plans to run the Prairie Fire Half Marathon in October.
Sarah has been juggling the three children's schedules, appointments, and etc. As we have started school, most mornings the Rivers Minivan Shuttle runs non-stop. In an effort to keep her sanity, she is getting her regular workout routine at the YMCA back--two days a week to start (often with a friend). She is participating in MOPS at Ascension and helping to lead some of the meetings as we are without a coordinator. Sarah also participates in a Special Needs Support Group at Aldersgate. Between MOPS and the support group, she is out on Thursday evenings most weeks. Sarah did start a bullet journal in August in an effort to keep both a journal, to do lists, and etc in a nice consolidated way.
Olivia had a full summer, attending Preschool Summer Camp 2x/week. She had lots of fun with her friends and doing fun activities. We filled in the other days with other experiences--trips to the zoo, botanica, visiting Hutch, gymnastics, splash pads, the swimming pool, swimming in our backyard, library storytime, etc, etc. Unfortunately, Olivia was bouncing in a bounce house on the Saturday before the 4th of July and someone bumped her and she went down. Her right ankle was very swollen and hurt. An x-ray on the 7th didn't show any fractures, although the ankle continued to be swollen. We opted for a round of PT as this ankle has been a problem on and off since Feb. 2015. After 3 sessions of PT, and no change we were referred to a Sports Medicine doc. They did another round of xrays and yes, it was fractured both in her lateral malleous and fibula. So the day before Kindergarten started Olivia got a walking boot. She wore it for 4 weeks and is now doing her ADLs and has even done some gymnastics at home and seems to be doing well without it. It was not quite healed on the xray, but the doc said we may not get complete healing. Olivia has been the trooper and is now well-known by many people at school thanks to her walking boot. She likes Kindergarten, especially music and the bus ride home on Tuesday/Thursday. Olivia's imagination will usually take her on quite the adventure in the afternoon--house, class, ponies, boats, cooking, etc.

Kinley had a good summer--see all of the above experiences and fun things. She started Preschool at the end of August and is adjusting to it. (She's a very black and white kind of gal and likes for people to follow the rules so I heard about a little girl stealing toys and snacks...and finally had to ask the teacher.) Her favorite parts are the music. Kinley and Sarah and Emily are participating in Starlets (parent/child preschool) through Maize Early Childhood. Kinley likes to do the learning activities and art there. Kinley has continued to struggle with allergies or some other contributing factor. Anyway, we will see an allergist on October 20 (first available appt at the beginning of August). Most recently she had what we think is a bug bite of some kind flair up enough that we had to visit the doctor on Monday to check it. Kinley is trying dance through the YMCA. Aside from her sensory issues and the meltdowns tights and having to pull up hair cause, (We've since decided that a leotard and ballet shoes are sufficient, and her teacher is fine with that.) she really enjoys it! She'll tell you quite a bit about it. Kinley loves to color. She also really likes Doc McStuffins right now. And the surprise pack ponies. She still enjoys her Lalaloopsies.

Emily is a go-with-the-flow gal. She is now 7 months old. She smiles, coos/goos, growls, and blows raspberries. She also laughs. She likes tummy time and can roll both ways. She takes her time but can also roll to get something/off the blanket. She is eating some baby food solids. Her favorite so far is bananas. She dislikes green beans and doesn't care for water. Emily had a cardiology appointment at the beginning of July--her perphrial pulmonary stenosis is resolved and her ASD (hole in the heart) is almost closed. She made a trip to Kansas City to the Down Syndrome Clinic at Children's Mercy at the beginning of August. It was a good trip for a round robin check. And they drew chromosomes to confirm Down Syndrome. She continues to have therapy 2x/month and has started to do Hydrotherapy (swim) with Sarah 2x/month. We will do the Buddy Walk on Oct 8th to encourage awareness and advocacy for people with Down Syndrome! Emily enjoys toys that she can make make noise (ie rattles, crinkle toys).

On any given week we've visited the doctor at least once for someone in the family, played hard at home, done 6 loads+ of laundry, done 4 loads of cloth diapers, picked up toys numerous times, played outside, read books, been to the grocery store once, loaded/unloaded the dishwasher 7 times, and gotten in and out of the van 16+ times.

Olivia, Kinley, and Emily

Celebrating Mom and Dad's Anniversary in July

We swam--a LOT!

Making butterfly wings.

Adding glitter glue.

Emily in Mommy's dress.

Olivia on the first day of KG--by the garden. Note the walking boot.

Kinley. :)

Emily

We had a block party at the beginning of Sept--have we mentioned we love our neighborhood?!?

Baby doll Em

Emily playing guitar with Daddy

The girls loved Cave Quest VBS!

Kinley is taking dance!

The girls ran their first 1 mile race. It was wet, but fun.

One of our friendly garden spiders, and it's egg sack. We watched the spider for a long time late summer and now we'll watch for baby spiders in the spring!