Happy Holidays

Jasmine was 2nd Runner Up in this years Little Miss Merry Christmas. She got to ride the float in the annual light parade, they even allowed her brother to ride it too. Unfortunately, a big diesel truck was the 2nd float and directly behind her float. Every time the truck honked it's horn it scared poor little Jasmine. Thank you for everyone who supported her and bought tickets. We hope to have your support again next year. Happy Holidays.

Trick or Treat

Hopefully everyone had a Happy Halloween. As for Jasmine, she had a blast. This was the first Halloween Jasmine was able to walk and the first Halloween that she was fully aware of what was going on and she loved it. She started the night out with a slice of pizza and a nutty bar (you can see the nutty bar in her hand in the pic below). The first house she went to she walked up to the door got her candy, turned around and got in line to get another candy from the same house again :) She was not ready to call it a night when her brother was but when we got home the both of them fell sound asleep.

Here She Comes

Well, she's on the move. That's right, Jasmine is walking. After so much time and practice spent letting her push the shopping carts around various stores on all of our shopping trips. She's still learning but she just about has it down. She's running away from us at the stores and running away from her teachers at school and running with a smile. Jasmine is really becoming a handful. We're so excited about her development, She's also getting closer to drinking from cups with no straws.

The resiliency and determination Jasmine displays on a daily bases never ceases to amaze me. She truly is a gift from above and we are all blessed to be a part of her life.

Brotherly Love

Disabled and special need children need patience and attention. Lots of attention. That attention includes therapy, Doctor's appointments and so on. In doing so those of us that have more kids have to remember that the other child migh not fully understand, therefore may feel unwanted or unloved, which couldn't be further from the truth.

We try our best to explain the situation with Jasmine to her older brother, Frankie. But due to a number of different situations including physical therapists who spend their time with Jasmine working on her motor skills doing things like putting puzzles together or having her play with apps on their tablets, Frankie thinks that they are simply there to play with Jasmine and I'm sure he wonders why nobody comes to play with him once a week. Not to mention, when he goes along with us to her out of town doctor visits we take him to Chuck E.Cheese. Kind of as a reward for sitting through the long wait at the doctor's office plus the time they spend with Jasmine. So it has always seemed to me that when he doesn't go with us to her out of town visits he thinks we still take Jasmine Chuck E.Cheese without him and thus feels left out.

We make it a point to explain as much as we can to him and hope he understands. We have to remember that it's not his fault if he doesn't fully understand the burden that's been placed on his sister. We also have to make even more time for him so that he doesn't feel left out or like the black sheep. It's definetly harder than most people realize. But Frankie's a smart boy as he gets older he will understand. He already loves his sister and Jasmine looks up to him in so many ways. What else can you ask for?

Jasmine's Place

For those of you that haven't heard, Jasmine is now a master chef. Here nene (grandma) bought her a kitchen play set and she will not leave it's sight. Jasmine has been cooking everything in sight, including socks. Jasmine has been cooking non-stop. First thing she does in the morning after waking up is head straight to her kitchen to whip up some breakfast. When we leave the house Jasmine wants us to take her kitchen with us she loves it so much.

So the next time you are in the neighborhood stop by at Jasmine's Place so Jasmine can fix you up a special dish, but please don't forget to leave a tip.

On The Go

Our little Jasmine is getting closer to walking. She can take 2 or 3 steps by herself when she's not being stubborn. In May we will be seeing a doctor from Carrie Tingley hospital to get their opinion on whether a gate walker will help or hinder her progress. She spends alot of timing playing outside scooting all around the yard, getting full of dirt and playing with our dog, Nala. But what she really wants more than anything is to get out there with her big brother and all his friends in the neighborhood. So we are hoping for her sake we can get the approval of the walker for her. We know she will love it. We also know that we will spend a good amount of time chasing her because she will be on the go.

Jasmine's school has provided her with a gate walker for her time there (complete with a "Move It or Lose It" plate). With the help of her walker she gets to stand in line with the rest of the kids instead of having to be carried around and she loves it. Conflict arose when her current doctor found out about the one at school and advised us that he thinks it is not in Jasmine's best interest to be using the walker, the school thinks otherwise which is why we will be getting a third opinion. Hopefully, she will get approved for a walker for home because there is nothing worse than watching your child be left out of simple everyday activities because of their disability. So we ask that everyone keep Jasmine in your prayers and hopefully you will see her running amok with a new walker.

Update

It has been a while since there has been a post about our daughter Jasmine. Well, one, is she sure has grown so much in the year 2013. She goes to preschool for two hours and for those two hours her teachers have so much stories to tell me about how her day was at school. For Jasmine only being 3 years old she had already got in a "hair pulling fight" lol. I picked up Jasmine early from school one day and her classroom was at recess and there was Jasmine and a little girl sitting on the floor pulling each others hair (not aggressively), and the teachers standing around watching Jasmine and the little girl because it was cute to them ( I do have to admit it was a little funny watching it too). Another thing her teachers say about Jasmine is she can no longer do craft activities with food because she ends up eating the food (if you know Jasmine...she has an appetite). I say she gets it from her grandpa Eddy lol. Jasmine rides the bus to school everyday and when she first started ridding the bus, she was little; I mean you couldn't even see her in the seat. Over Christmas break I believe she grew because now I can see her through the window, waving to her and blowing kisses to her (she blows me kisses back :)) Her teacher Mrs. Maria says when she gets Jasmine off the bus to go to her class room, she screams "Hiii!" and Mrs Maria says "shh Jasmine, you're going to get us in trouble" and what does Jasmine do? She screams louder "Hiii!". Her mom has a lot of nicknames for our baby girl but the one she uses most is Brat because she can be one....don't let her cuteness fool you. Jasmine is growing up so much and I thank God that I have 3 wonderful years with her and looking for more years to see her grow.