I'm So Proud!

I swear, every day brings us something new. I'm always so proud of Samantha, I could just burst!

On Thursday Sam's physical therapist brought us a walker to encourage Sam to move forward and, well, learn to walk! Well, she said that that was the best she'd ever seen any child use that walker for the first time, including her own typical child! It's totally just a matter of time before she really takes off!
We've been waiting for ages for Samantha to show some sort of interest in picking up foods or snacks and putting them in her mouth and chewing. Lastnight I gave her a peach puff and put it in her mouth for her, then put a few on the floor in front of her, and lo and behold, she picked one up and put it directly into her mouth! It was just about as shocking as the night I walked into her room and saw her sitting up in her crib. If Steve hadn't been sitting right there watching it, I would have been desperate for a witness.
Last but certainly not least, I had submitted a couple of photos of Samantha to the NDSS for this year's Times Square video. On the day of the NYC Buddy Walk, they'll show a video montage of people with Down syndrome interacting with friends, the community, or just having fun. I sent two photos--one of Samantha laughing on a swing (the photo that's on my first blog entry at the bottom of this page), and one of Samantha and Matthew playing together in a pool. Well, out of the over 2500 submissions, only about 215 were chosen, and Samantha on the swing got picked! So her picture will be plastered over this massively huge video screen and posted on the NDSS website in the video. I'm very excited about this! Of course, we won't be rushing up to New York (it's on September 30th) to see it live, but that's okay. Here's a link to last year's video: http://www.buddywalk.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/tsv.contentItem/contentID/09404688-78f0-475e-848a-242168cdf319

And speaking of the Buddy Walk, our team page is up for the Northern VA walk on October 13th at https://www.kintera.org/faf/search/searchTeamPart.asp?ievent=235179&lis=1&kntae235179=FCDE263D5CA64949829C5595C5B85CDA&supId=0&team=2046690&cj=Y