Sunshine Girls

June 29.  Sunrise:  6:06a  Sunset:  9:06p

The forecast says it is going to be 72 degrees and sunny at 9 pm tonight. 

We're at the point in the summer when the days are long and there's more time for leisure.  There is finally time each day to stop and take a breath. 

It has been over a month since I've posted here, and it isn't because there hasn't been material for the blog.  

I've taken a necessary break from technology to transition from the school year to summer break.  I needed to go dark--and quiet--to focus on my family and the little moments that make up our life.  This may be the first step away from the computer that I haven't telegraphed.  It just sort of happened.

I've slowly re-organized our closets and our schedules, and am finally making my way out of the piles of laundry and paperwork.

Last summer was a complete blur.  Alina had only been home for a month when school ended, and I was literally running while trying to figure out how to handle six kids going different directions, including one new (and busy) toddler from another country.

This year, we're back in our groove.  

The girls have been in a summer preschool program for the past few weeks, and we have a set of sisters providing respite care during the week.  

We're no longer stuck inside or spending our days moving from one obligation to the next.  We are finally coming out to play :).

As we head into July, we are looking forward to a family vacation and many more days without specific plans.

Though the sun is shining brightly today, our Sunshine Girls keep us covered in light no matter what the weather. 

Proof (and scenes from the month of June):

We're taking a break again over the 4th of July, but I hope to return to posting more regularly soon.  Happy Summer, everyone!

Back from the Beach

Does anyone notice anything different at the top of this blog? It's a new header picture taken while on vacation last week :).

And there are many more where that came from. Somehow, I ended up with over 600 pictures. Don't worry, I won't post them all here! But how am I going to choose ;)?

Both girls LOVED the beach. We all had a wonderful time, with lots of sun, sand, laughter and all the good things we could cram into a week-and-a-half at the beach.

I have so many things to write about, with so much going on in our Down syndrome and adoption communities.

If I can carve out the time, I plan to write a lot this month, because I'll also be advocating for Antonio, as well as featuring several posts here which will look back at our trip to Ukraine in April of last year to get Alina. (Our trip was such a whirlwind, that I didn't ever get the chance to post many of our pictures, or to share some of the more interesting and colorful details and observations from our journey overseas. Please leave a comment below if there's anything specific you'd like for me to cover.)

March is nearly over. Welcome Spring!

Stop the Presses!

We're not moving to a different blog address :).  Importing problem solved.  And I don't have to re-build my Down syndrome-related links.  All content from Loving Alina also appears here now as well.

Thank you so much for following!

Please Come Visit

...our new blog:  LIVING IN THE LIGHT

My Name is...

Jibby!

That is what Bridget is calling herself...Jibby. Or Jibit. I can't even type it without giggling. (Jibby is Bridgey. Jibit is Bridget.)

Her speech is much better than we once thought it might be, and she can say lots of names clearly. Why, oh why, couldn't we have selected a name she would be able to pronounce ;)?

Blog Pause

Please excuse, in advance, a temporary lack of blogging here on Bridget's Light. We are in Ukraine getting ready to meet Alina and bring her home. We're merging Bridget's Light and Loving Alina shortly, so stay tuned for a whole new blog from the Peele family :).

In the meantime, please follow our journey to our newest family member on Loving Alina.

"Hi, Shadow!"

Bridget has always loved her shadow. We're at the beach, and she discovered it on our deck today. She was captivated by the way her shadow looked when she swung a frisbee from side-to-side. "Hi, Shadow!," she would shout from time to time.



Bridget is loving the beach. She keeps saying, "Mommy, shoes. Beach!"

She is our honorary and official flip-flop washer. She's got complete control of the foot shower by our deck. Got sand on your shoes? Bridget is your gal :).

Here she is watching Max & Ruby and eating her snack of Goldfish in the late afternoon sunshine:

Stay tuned for more from the beach...

Funny Girl, Part II

Bridget keeps us smiling. There are so many things I wanted to add to that last post--things that make life with Bridget interesting and fun. And none of them have much to do with the extra chromosome :). So here they are, some other things I love about life with her:

-She always notices if I hit a pot hole, speed bump or curb. Oopsie, she says quietly from the back seat. She also shouts Whoa! when we turn corners.

-She knows what she wants (and doesn't want) and is always thinking about how best to get her point across. At dinner one night recently, she was trying to get out of eating brussels sprouts. The conversation went: Bridget: Mommy, hot. Me: No, Bridget, they are not hot. Bridget: Mommy, Eewww.

-Bridget surprises people (us included). Whenever we go through a drive through, Bridget sits silently while I am ordering. She must be listening intently, because she waits until the order-taker gives the total, and then she shouts O-K!! BYE!! The people at the window are always laughing when we pull up.

-She is persistent and polite at the same time :). If she wants a cup, for example, everyone should be prepared to hear her requests for that cup over and over until said cup is retrieved. She almost always adds a very sweet Please to the request, but her eye is on the prize. Anyone who answers her calls for help is rewarded with a hearty "Que" (Thank You) or a Job! (Good Job).

-Bridget takes great care of her baby dolls and stuffed animals (and a 12-inch Spiderman action figure). She likes to get them comfy with pillows and blankets and books. She feeds them, rocks them, kisses them and takes them for walks. It is not uncommon to look in our family room and see a doll lovingly tucked into the doll pack & play, or to see Bridget come around the corner pushing Spiderman in the doll stroller.

What things do you love about life with your kids?

Funny Girl

One of the many funny things about Bridget: she gets grossed out easily. She doesn't like piles of crumbs, dirty snow, or hair (unless it is attached to someone's head).

I tried to cut her hair recently, and as soon as she saw the first piece fall, she pointed to it and shouted EWWWW! She was yelling, trying to move away from the falling hair. (It makes for a funny story, but an interesting haircut. At least neither of us was injured in the process.)

A few days later, Bridget reached into her toy bin and once again began yelling EWWWW! I saw her toss something like a hot potato. Was it a bug? An old piece of food that had somehow made its way into her toys? No, it was this camel from her Fisher Price Noah's Ark playset:



I'll admit it, I think it is a little gross, too. But I have to giggle now when I see it sitting on the high-top table in our family room, far from the other toys and definitely out of Bridget's view :).

Bumble Bee, Waiting for Bus

Every morning, Bridget waits for her bus with great anticipation. She LOVES her bus driver and her bus aide. We wait on the sidewalk in front of our house, which is about twenty paces from the front door.

I ask Bridget, "Do you hear your bus coming?" To which she replies, "Hear it. (I don't hear it)". When it begins to come down the street and around the bend toward our house (and she does hear it), she begins to jump up and down.

She claps and cheers, and I always think how great it must feel to be greeted like that on a daily basis. The adults on the bus always pull up with huge smiles. Today, they were greeted by a bouncing Bumble Bee:




I'll bet those antennae lasted all of two seconds once she got on the bus :)...

A New Infatuation

Emmy has one American Girl doll, a "my twin" doll that Santa brought her a few years back. She rarely plays with it, but has a renewed interest since she'll be attending a tea party with the doll soon.

She brought the American Girl doll downstairs with her this morning. Bridget's eyes lit up and she quickly rushed over to grab the doll from Emmy. When Emmy offered her the baby doll nearby instead, Bridget pushed it aside and again went to grab the American Girl doll.

Emmy let her have it, and Bridget was thrilled. She hugged and kissed that doll for two hours. She held her hands and studied her feet. She brushed her hair and examined her face very closely. I guess someone will be getting a toddler/girl doll for Christmas this year. Baby dolls are so 5 minutes ago :).

Posting, Interrupted :)

We're all fine here. Please forgive the lack of posts recently. I planned on posting every single day of October, but my computer had other plans :). We've had a few technology glitches, and then between birthday parties, basketball try-outs, and no-school days (plus the rest of our regularly scheduled activities), I just haven't been able to write something meaningful here each day.

I have been busy recently, though, thinking and talking about Down syndrome, even more so than is typical for me. I'll be back soon to talk more about that..

With Love

When I look at my daughter,
I see purity, courage and strength.
To me, she is simply beautiful.
She is perfect.

Look Who's Blogging

Like most three-year-olds, Bridget is interested in doing whatever she sees the rest of us doing. She loves telephones of all kinds (cell phones, rotary dial phones, cordless phones, etc.) loves iPods, and loves computers.

Here is my little helper...blogging (okay, she's just checking out her own blog). Notice that the mouse is on the left side of the computer. It is usually on the right side, but she's left-handed and moves it. (She has also been known to hit random keys--in her mind, she's typing--and has put dates in my Microsoft Outlook calendar. Reminders will pop up on my screen from time to time that look like this: GDHLSKJOIDHEWG{LSHOEJHLk 10:00 a.m.)

More on preschool tomorrow, look for posts on feeding and speech later this week.

Look Who's Blogging

Like most three-year-olds, Bridget is interested in doing whatever she sees the rest of us doing. She loves telephones of all kinds (cell phones, rotary dial phones, cordless phones, etc.) loves iPods, and loves computers.

Here is my little helper...blogging (okay, she's just checking out her own blog). Notice that the mouse is on the left side of the computer. It is usually on the right side, but she's left-handed and moves it. (She has also been known to hit random keys--in her mind, she's typing--and has put dates in my Microsoft Outlook calendar. Reminders will pop up on my screen from time to time that look like this: GDHLSKJOIDHEWG{LSHOEJHLk 10:00 a.m.)

More on preschool tomorrow, look for posts on feeding and speech later this week.

Say Cheese!

On school picture day, we tucked a completed LifeTouch envelope in Bridget's home-school folder, then into her butterfly backpack (which she now loves...how quickly the tides turn when you're three).

Chris and I giggled all morning about how the photographer was going to get her to sit and have her picture taken. Beyond that, we belly-laughed about what on earth we would find when we got to see the finished results. I envisioned half of Bridget in the frame (half out...as in I'm outta here!), while Chris thought we might see the back of her head or her looking down, pouting.

We laughed even harder when we saw the above photo, which is the real McCoy, the finished product (and, as I'm sure you can all tell, a photograph of the actual photograph). I have no idea how the photographer got her to break into this huge grin, but it sure looks like she is having fun. This smile, the one with the half-moon eyes, is so Bridget. The picture is pretty darn cute, even if I secretly loathe LifeTouch.

If you're interested in getting an update on how preschool is going for Miss Bridget, check back this weekend. Next week, I'll be addressing speech delays and feeding issues. Fun stuff, so stay tuned...

Throwing Money Away

Chris and I often joke about how we are practically throwing money away--on lots of things, but primarily--whenever we buy kids shoes. Every single one of our five kids has outgrown his or her shoes this past month (alright, Brian's tennies were so stinky that they had to be tossed out, but that is another story alltogether).

I had to tell Chris recently that our youngest daughter is actually throwing away money.

She is a careful citizen, and is greatly concerned with ridding the house of litter and choking hazards (she is also obsessed with the trash compactor, which might have a little to do with her loving the act of throwing things away). She gets very serious when she finds a tissue, a wrapper, the tiniest crumb, or a piece of cereal laying on the ground. She picks up the errant item and immediately goes to toss it.

I had forgotten to mention this until today, when I read about Malea pitching her mom's cell phone and remembered the crumpled dollar bill that I found in our trash a few weeks back.

I have caught her in the act of throwing away money, so I know Miss Bridget is the culprit. To her, apparently cash equals trash. We don't leave money all over the house, but if Bridget discovers any sitting out, we can kiss it goodbye. She'll grab a bill off the counter, crumple it into a tiny ball and head for the nearest trash can.

I'll have to have a little talk with her about the economy and the value of the dollar someday. For now, I'll keep an eagle eye trained on her at all times, and continue to chuckle about finding cash in the trash.

Throwing Money Away

Chris and I often joke about how we are practically throwing money away--on lots of things, but primarily--whenever we buy kids shoes. Every single one of our five kids has outgrown his or her shoes this past month (alright, Brian's tennies were so stinky that they had to be tossed out, but that is another story alltogether).

I had to tell Chris recently that our youngest daughter is actually throwing away money.

She is a careful citizen, and is greatly concerned with ridding the house of litter and choking hazards (she is also obsessed with the trash compactor, which might have a little to do with her loving the act of throwing things away). She gets very serious when she finds a tissue, a wrapper, the tiniest crumb, or a piece of cereal laying on the ground. She picks up the errant item and immediately goes to toss it.

I had forgotten to mention this until today, when I read about Malea pitching her mom's cell phone and remembered the crumpled dollar bill that I found in our trash a few weeks back.

I have caught her in the act of throwing away money, so I know Miss Bridget is the culprit. To her, apparently cash equals trash. We don't leave money all over the house, but if Bridget discovers any sitting out, we can kiss it goodbye. She'll grab a bill off the counter, crumple it into a tiny ball and head for the nearest trash can.

I'll have to have a little talk with her about the economy and the value of the dollar someday. For now, I'll keep an eagle eye trained on her at all times, and continue to chuckle about finding cash in the trash.

We're not the Jolie-Pitts

...but Chris and I have always wanted a rainbow family.

When we were dating, I remember Chris asking me if I would want to adopt children if we couldn't have kids of our own. Definitely, I said. He asked, What would you think about adopting kids of different nationalities? I could see that, I said.

I have no idea why he was thinking in those terms in his early twenties, but I love that about him--he always has a unique and interesting angle on things and he's incredibly open-minded.

It turns out that we are living his dream. We didn't adopt, but have created our very own rainbow family inadvertently.

Our group is not made up of people with different skin color or ethnic background, but we've got all the personality and layers--and the essential quality--that Chris was envisioning.

Sure, most of our kids have big, brown eyes (from Chris, not me) and a few other similar features. We've got five kids who are genetically linked, but who each bring something unique to the table.

We've got boys and girls, all ages and stages, all shapes and sizes. We've got typically developing kids and kids with delays. We've got the entire range--some of our children have natural athletic ability and some are uncoordinated, some of our kids are intellectually gifted and others are cognitively impaired. We have traditional thinkers and kids with an unconventional approach to everything.

We've got a little bit of a lot of things :).

And that's what families are all about. Love yours for all the twists and folds--for all the texture and depth--that each person adds to the whole. Embrace the rainbow...

We're not the Jolie-Pitts

...but Chris and I have always wanted a rainbow family.

When we were dating, I remember Chris asking me if I would want to adopt children if we couldn't have kids of our own. Definitely, I said. He asked, What would you think about adopting kids of different nationalities? I could see that, I said.

I have no idea why he was thinking in those terms in his early twenties, but I love that about him--he always has a unique and interesting angle on things and he's incredibly open-minded.

It turns out that we are living his dream. We didn't adopt, but have created our very own rainbow family inadvertently.

Our group is not made up of people with different skin color or ethnic background, but we've got all the personality and layers--and the essential quality--that Chris was envisioning.

Sure, most of our kids have big, brown eyes (from Chris, not me) and a few other similar features. We've got five kids who are genetically linked, but who each bring something unique to the table.

We've got boys and girls, all ages and stages, all shapes and sizes. We've got typically developing kids and kids with delays. We've got the entire range--some of our children have natural athletic ability and some are uncoordinated, some of our kids are intellectually gifted and others are cognitively impaired. We have traditional thinkers and kids with an unconventional approach to everything.

We've got a little bit of a lot of things :).

And that's what families are all about. Love yours for all the twists and folds--for all the texture and depth--that each person adds to the whole. Embrace the rainbow...