Tucson is lonely

As some of you know I am in Tucson to help train the new staff for the new store REI is opening. Tucson is a new market for us. It is a beautiful city. The thing I love most about it is the fact that a high humidity day is humidity in the low thirties. Gotta love that.

However, I am in Tucson. Tara and Laura are at home in Houston. I miss them terribly. I new that would be the case, but still I am lonely.

Laura is laughing more and more with each passing day. She is starting to learn to drink from a real cup and not a bottle. For the record, she does not like sippy cups. I am glad. She is beginning to work on the precrawling activities. I am hoping that she is only a month or two away from being mobile.

Now here is the thing I think is funny. She is more interested in standing than crawling. I think this is too cool.

We had a meeting at the Down Syndrome clinic at Texas Children's last week. It went well. Over all they were very pleased and excited about where Laura is and how she was doing. They quickly discovered Laura is people person. They had some exercises they want ed Laura to do that required her to interact with various objects and toys that they had. The munchkin had no interest in the toys. She just wanted to get to know the new people. From our perspective, it was par fro the course. They doctor and 2 therapists were really amazed at how engaging and charming she is. I told them she gets that from her mother.

They did say they wanted us to start some physical therapy in addition to our occupational therapy. Yes you read that correctly it. It is my plan for Laura to get a job and start pulling her own weight. She has been mooching of of Tara and I way to long! They even recommended that We start putting Laura in to high top shoes to help her support her feet and ankles as she starts to stand and walk. This is a concern because people with Down's tend to have low muscle tone, which Laura has been working hard to over come. That has been what the occupational therapy has been for.

This was bitter sweet for me. I have been adamant about her not wearing shoes until she starts to walk. Now I have to give in because the doctor said that the high top style will help her. That is the bitter part. The sweet part is that I work for an outdoor retailer and she is going to get hiking boots as her first regular pair of shoes!!! And the hairy legged mountain woman trend continues. Anyone who is curious about that comment, ask Tara.

We went through Second's parent child commitment ceremony a couple of weeks ago. All of Laura's grandparents were in attendance, including her great grandmother. The startled look on Ben Young's face was hilarious when he saw Tara, Laura and I standing there. He actually played with Laura for a moment before he moved on to the next couple. To me that was to cool, because I had never seen any of our pastors do that before.

I will be home in a couple of days, and I cannot wait to see Tara and Laura.