Our December

Here he is signing 'Book'

  Tyce is now 18 months old. His personality continues to evolve, some days he is all attitude and others he is a cuddly baby.  Mostly he is all boy.  His new favorite things are cars, race car ramps, airplanes and train tracks and still books.  This kiddo could be read books all day long and be content.  I must include his newest obsession, MICKEY MOUSE CLUBHOUSE and the music that goes along with it, he's obsessed. 

  His 18 month well child visit went well, he finally gained some weight he is 23 pounds he had stayed at 21 for about six months so I am glad he has filled out a little more lately.  We went to the ENT last month and we let him know we had concerns about Ty's congestion, tonsils and sinus infections he had all fall.  ENT suggested we do a sleep study for apnea.  At first I thought this was a great idea, but now that he hasn't been sick for the past month and a half he sleeps wonderfully and is not  even snoring.  I really think his snoring was due to his sinus infections and congestion.  He has small ear lobes and small nostrils, things get stuck in there easily.  We are going to hold off on the sleep study until he is two, that way if he needs his tonsils and adenoids out it will all be less risky.  My momma gut tells me to wait and that he is fine and I over worry sometimes.  I know my kiddo and I want to do what is best for him and I feel waiting is best for now.   His big 18 month Kidney check up is coming up next month.  The dreaded kidney's.  We have heard about Ty having kidney issues since I was 20 weeks pregnant.  I pray that at this next visit they tell us all is well and they have cleared up.  If his kidneys are still retaining fluid he might have to have surgery and I am not thrilled :/.  Other then that he is a healthy, active toddler.   *Above are his 18 month and Christmas's pictures!  

  Today we had the Down syndrome Association of Western Michigan's Christmas Party.  It was wonderful, beautiful and I got to catch up with some of the best mommies I know.  I also got to meet up with the DS nurse, she is awesome,  I love her and I am so sad we didn't get a picture of her with Tyce :/ The party was at Frederick Meijer Gardens and Ty's nana and papa came with us too.  

Me and Angie I love this girl, really I do ;)

Ty and his Nana

Really, this is the best my camera got, sorry girls I dont know why I was doing that face, I love you girls so much!!! 

Ty and his papa, he looks just like his papa.  

Could honestly be my all time favorite picture of him!

I love his kisses

I love being your mom

And he LOVES being your dad, we thank God every single day he picked us to be your parents!

Next year it will be four of us :)

Had to get a picture of Me and Ty with the Mexico Christmas tree

And TJ had to get one with the Russian tree :)

 Great party it was!

Yes, he thinks he's texting and he talks on the phone.

Night Night you all thank you for reading, leave me a comment if you like!

This little man is taking some steps in between us and he is standing alone a lot more.  In his time, but we are so proud of his strength, his new signs and the fact that he now says puhhh for his pipey and his newest word is ball.  I love you Tyce!  My pregnancy with this next one is getting better. I am thoroughly welcoming this second trimester. I can't wait to meet our next little man!
  

  Next month we move.  Next month I start an internship with the OAISD.  Next month the Lions go to the Play-offs (that was all TJ). Next month Ty has his big Kidney check up.  Next month we have our 20 week ultrasound for baby peanut number 2.  Next month Bo will finally have a nice big back yard to run in.  Next month we all start new endeavors.  We are feelin blessed! God you have never left us and we are feeling your love, you get us through anything, and make it all right!

Happy Holidays we LOVE you all and thank you so much for reading and caring even praying for our family!  May you all have a blessed Christmas and New 2012!

Big Brother!

  We announced a couple weeks ago that we are adding another addition to our family.  Baby Matchinsky will be arriving in late May of 2012!!!  We couldn't be more excited.  Yes it is a busy time in our lives, but we thought this would be a great time to grow, especially when Ty is little, we wanted him to grow up close in age with a sibling.  TJ and my closest sibling are 6 and 7 years apart, we wanted our babies a little closer, ok, well we got a lot closer. And, two years apart they will be :).  To be honest, baby number two is due the day before Ty's second birthday, oh dear, we are cutting it close :).  But I am so excited, I love being pregnant, I love the thought of of us having more babies!  Now, for the question some might ask, are we worried about DS again?  I would lie if I said I wasn't, I would lie if I said it's no big deal, we did it once we can do it again.  I was scared, I was scared when we were told about Ty's diagnoses, I was scared for a long while, sometimes I still am.  I am a need to know type of person!  And I just wanted to know, I wanted to know to be prepared, I need facts, I need time.  TJ and I contemplated for a long time about testing.  We prayed and prayed and I truly feel God gave me peace with our decision.  I was told due to my age it was highly unlikely, I didn't care, I wanted to pursue some options.  TJ once again was wonderful and supportive and did I mention wonderful.  He knew my mind would be more at ease if we tested.  We knew the risks, we talked to genetic counselors, we were again reinforced that Tyce has T21 and after an hour with the genetic counselor we were told that there is no family history of DS that it was just something that happened, that the chances of it happening again were less then 1 percent.  With all that said, our odd's with Tyce were even less, and I still wanted to know.  Call it what you want, I am comfortable with our decision.  We decided to do CVS testing.  We knew the risk and I was once again, scared out of my mind, I was scared for this bean inside of me. But, again, my faith, my God knows me too well, and he knew that my mind would rest easiest if we just knew.  Two weeks later the results came in and Baby BOY number two does not have T21.  Yes, Tyce is going to have a BROTHER, and did I mention they are two years apart to the day, hello? I will not have to buy baby number two much clothes, yes! ha.  To be honest, I don't know if I would do the CVS again, I don't know if I recommend it, the doctor said things for us went text book in the procedure, I felt I was so unalone, I felt God was totally in that room with me!  I feel at peace with everything.  More then anything, I am excited, to be a mommy again! (CVS testing for those who don't know is Chorionic villus sampling (CVS) is a prenatal test that detects chromosomal abnormalities such as Down syndrome, as well as a host of other genetic disorders. The doctor takes cells from tiny fingerlike projections on the placenta called the chorionic villi and sends them to a lab for genetic analysis.)   Baby two does not show any chromosomal abnormalities and I believe this testing is around 99 percent accurate.  We did the quad screen testing with Tyce, but obviously that was not accurate as we were told Tyce's chances of having a chromosomal abnormality  were 1 in 10, 000, another reason we opted for the more invasive testing. 

      Doesn't he look like he will be a great big brother!?

  Our family is growing, our house is for sale, it's looking like we might have a buyer, any prayers and good vibes are welcomed!  We need to move out of this house for a few reasons.  Biggest reason is the main floor only has two bedrooms and well in Ty's room two cribs will not fit.  Secondly, Bo needs a yard to run in and three, we are out growing this house!  Hopefully we will be out of here by next month.   

  Tyce has been flourishing in the signing department.  We teach him a sign and he catches right on.  His latest is 'Book', everything is 'book, please', 'more, book' and flat out 'book'!  I got my little scholar!!!  I would say he prefers a book over a ball, but I really think that is a toss up :/.  He has also been signing, 'milk', 'eat' and 'all done', those are the newest. We definitely work on talking with him, he likes to mimic sounds and actions, but he can't get words out so much.  He says dad, bo and papa clear as day.  I know he should have a few more words under his belt, but to be honest I am totally proud of were we are communication wise with him.  We totally understand what he wants at this point in time, and I feel good about that.  

   His newest funny thing is to blow at fans and  fireplaces, as if he is going to cause some major change with that that little amount of air that comes out of that body!  He points and tries to blow as hard as he can.  

  Tyce has been getting really sick this fall/early winter.  I think it has a lot to do with his going to therapy group.  And well it is to be expected for him to get sick, especially when he is around other little kids, but it breaks my heart to see him so stuffy so often.  This is his second sinus infection in two months.  I like the group therapy and I don't like the group therapy.  I like to socialization he gets, but I also don't like the lack of one on one time he gets, not to mention him coming home sick at the end of each week, but I guess I can't stop that from happening, better now then later.  With the move, the option for group therapy will no longer be there, so I'm sure it will all work out.  

He's about to sign book ;)

That is our life, these are our updates, we hope you all had a wonderful thanksgiving!  

Happenings

  We have a busy toddler in the house.  I used to have a cuddly, timid baby boy and now he is all sass.  He never wants to be held and he wants to fly crawl around the house.  Life in the Matchinsky household is no longer  quiet and we love it that way.

This video is about a month old but it was too cute I had to post.  Go to my playlist and push pause, it is too cute!!!

  October was busy, but beautiful.  We had the Step up for Down syndrome walk.  We had an amazing turn out and surpassed our goal of 1,000 and ended up with 1,360 that was GREAT!!!  We can't thank those who walked with us and donated enough.  I also want to thank my friend Betsy who designed our wonderful "All for Tyce, Think BIG shirts".  We wore red and white because we are from Holland and we have a lot of Holland High Pride still in us all :).  The back of the shirt had a big T and the Down syndrome foot with the extra gap in between the first and second toe, I love that little characteristic on Ty's little toes!!!

  October also brought on some fun Halloween festivities.  Tyce was our Chicken Little with bat, tights, feathers and glasses.

A very tired Chicken Little

Chewey, Chicken and Chucky 

Save the Chicken the sky is falling

He is flying away!  

  He was so fun, we swear we heard him say trick-or-treat and he said it again the next day at therapy!  A very baby version but it sounded like trick-or treat!  He also calls Tj dada but mama is not even close to being said ;-(.   I will take what we can get.  

  With October of course comes more Lions Football !

  Updates with us.  Well I will start with Tyce.  Therapy is still going good.  I wish he got more one on one time while at group to work on his walking.  He is loosing most motivation to walk because he crawls so fricken fast.  We hear that the crawling is really strengthening his core so that he can walk, but I feel like all its doing is making him fly around the house.  I know it will happen in it's time and when he decides that's what he wants to do, but sometimes I get the mommy guilt of "am I doing enough to help him''?  I don't ever want to feel like I am settling with answers I'm given but I also don't want to go nuts sending him to therapy's all the time if the therapist don't feel he needs it, and I want him to be a baby, to have fun.  I feel it's all such a balance. He is meeting goals in OT and Speech and he is learning new signs all the time (some of the signs are so similar he starts just throwing his signs everywhere until he gets us to understand what he wants).  Today, he brought over a book and wanted it to be read to him  while he sat on my lap.  He also will come up to me and sign eat when he wants a snack or pucker up and smack his lips for juice.  We are breaking some huge understanding barriers here!  One of his OT goals was to learn to drink from a straw.  I was initially told it was good for him to learn to drink from a straw so I really wanted him to meet this goal/milestone.  Well, he hates straws, they are like his enemy.  He is in LOVE with his sippy cup and has been drinking from his sippy cup since he was ten months old.  Whenever we would bring out the learning straw cup he would throw a tantrum until he got his sippy.  Luckily, this past week we were told to no longer push the straw cup use with him.  I was told that some kids are cup drinkers and some are straw drinkers.  Ty is a cup drinker, he now has a beginners training open cup and he does sooooo well, no spills, of course I give it to him.  But that is sooooo exciting, no need to push something that made him so unhappy.  In it's time :). 

   TJ and I have been busy being working and being parents to a very fun little boy.  He keeps us on our toes.  

 In the mornings when I get ready for work Ty likes to do his own thing around the house.  Here are this mornings happenings :)

Busted with the toilet paper

Sad it got taken away

Giggling can't remember why

Back into the bathroom after every roll of toilet paper was taken from out of his reach

Now throwing a fit

And I'm sure he is contemplating his next move

Which was going into his mom's drawer and take out her cords 

What mom? It is fun to hang things around my neck that are dangerous!

I was just wondering if you needed them for work today, that's all :)  Thanks Ty!!!

Down syndrome Awarness Month!

October is DS awareness month and therefore I will share some T-21 facts (21 facts on our little T-Man Tyce)

1.  He was born on May 31, 2010 and weighed 7 pounds 11 ounces and 20.5 inches long.  He was one week early because he was becoming too big of a boy for his momma's belly.

2. He passed both of his apgar scores with 7 and 8, however did fail his hearing test on one ear, he ended up passing his hearing test a few months later.

3. He started to crawl the correct way at 11 months on all fours. Before that he did the army crawl from about 9 months on.

4. He began to pull to stand at 13 months and started cruising along furniture and pulling up on anything and everything after that.

5.  He is the number 12th grandchild on my side of the family and number 2 on TJ's side of the family.

6.  His first real word with meaning is Bo

7.  He can sign "more" "more please" and "eat" all with meaning. 

8. His favorite toy's are not toys! I.E. My lap-top, our cell phones and standing on our book shelf making all the books fall out one  by one.

9. His full name is Tyce Coronado Matchinsky (Thijs= means child of God in Dutch, we decided to spell it like Tyce because we wanted to call him Ty for short)  Coronado- is my mom's maiden last name and I adore my mom to death and she adores her family and heritage back in Tampico, Mexico.  Tyce has  Mexican, Irish, Dutch and Polish ancestry  so we tried to incorporate all that in his name.

10.  His favorite food lately is sliced turkey and cheese slices and he will inhale anything sweet.

11. He loves to flip through books all by himself!

12.  He just started a pilot therapy group through our local early on, and he likes it so much that when I come to get him for pick up and story time he literally pushes me away with his hand and turns around to ignore me.

13.  He is a mommas boy (other then at group)

14.  For his first Step up for Down syndrome walk he had over 50 friends and family support him and walk for him in such PRIDE!

15.  At 16 months he has 10 teeth (and each one came in with its fair share of unhappiness and pain)

16. He wears a size 4 shoe and knows how to un-Velcro them and take them off as well as take of his socks and chucks both of them as far as he can.

17.  He attempts to clothe himself, particularly likes to try to put his own socks and shoes back on as well as shirts and lets them dangle around his neck while he cruises around the house. However, he prefers to be naked all the time!  He screams with happiness around the house when he is naked! 

18. He recently learned how to climb up and down a step, very unconventionally but he makes it work.

19.  He will eat anything you give him, there are very few things he will not try. Mostly at feeding time he signs "more please'' while there is still food in his mouth.


20.  He was prescribed glasses at 9 months but upon a third opinion we were told to wait until he was at least 3. His only health concern was one I knew while I was pregnant  which is that he has hydronophrosis in his kidneys which means he retains fluid instead of letting it all out.  At 18 months they may have to perform a surgery to help that fluid all be released.  We will know at his 18 month check up. He also spits up and takes reflux medicine, but as he gets older that is finally getting better! 

21.  He is a healthy 23 pound boy who loves to give kisses, waive and if you ask him how much someone loves him he will spread his little arms out and wait for you to say "THIS MUCH"!

Those are our T- Man's T-21 facts :) He is a baby boy full of energy and love!  We are lucky to be his parents!!!

Tyce has T-21 which is the non hereditary form of Down syndrome. No one in either one of our families has it and it was just a plan of God for Tyce to be born into our family.  After all we did name him Child of God :) And we thoroughly thank God for giving us our Tyce!

Off to school I go

  We decided to go with the pilot group therapy for Tyce.  There is about 10 toddlers in the class ranging from age 15 mo (tyce and only tyce) to 24 (possible plus) months.  The kid closest in age to tyce is 22 months.  7 months difference is quite a bit when we are talking about little ones.  The orientation went super well, he got to sit at the table and have snack time and kept signing ''more'' for more snacks.  At one point I saw him take the snack of the kid next to him ( had to laugh).  Today he brought home a coloring piece, it was a bear and probably one of my most proudest moments as a mom.  My baby is a blooming ;).

Lately he has been doing a whole lot of this, down dog... yoga, perhaps?

He is quite funny, he does the ''yoga'' stance all the time now, we think he is trying to stand.  He also plays this game with Bo our dog where he climbs up and down him, up and down him and he thinks it is so funny!  Our poor 70 pound dog completely takes the abuse, he closes his eyes and wishes Tyce would just got away.

Here are pictures of his first day of therapy at the Early On center, before we left.  I will bring my camera for next time!  

My camera is a canon for peets sake, the pictures are coming out gritty, maybe because I don't let the lens adjust because Mr. quickness won't sit and smile for a picture!  

We are feeling blessed.  Things with therapies, doctors, work, school and life are falling into place.  This little love of mine is so much more then Down syndrome.  He is Tyce, signing, giggling, waiving, playing little boy and he makes me ridiculously proud to be his momma!!!    Next month will be our first ''Step Up for Down syndrome'' walk and he is why we walk.  He is why I walk.  If you would like to donate to his walk we would greatly appreciate it.  Every single dollar donated goes to helping individuals just like Tyce who have Down syndrome in West Michigan. Every single dollar donated goes to Tyce and his friends so that they can keep on Living BIG, Thinking BIG, Doing BIG!!!   Please consider 5, 10 dollars anything you can and you will help Tyce's life continuously be shaped into a life of inclusion, and full of potential.  I will walk with pride, and if you would join us we would LOVE to have you there.  If you can't join then please consider a donation and help Tyce and us reach our first goal.  This community has welcomed us, once very new and scared first time parents with WIDE open arms, we want to give back to the wonderful organization that we have felt always has our back!  

Click here to Donate!!!

He is looking so big these days.  Must be the big boy hair cut, or the shoes, perhaps the vest?  or maybe school! ahhh 

Have a blessed day!

He loves to give kisses

   Our baby knows his ladies (babies).  He loves to give kisses, mostly to himself in the mirror and other babies, ok and me :).  He knows what a dog is and a ball.  He has started calling his pipe ''P'' and signing more, with what we think is meaning.   Have I mentioned music, he loves to dance.  I think he must secretly watch MTV because his dance style is similar to that of the rap videos, swear, I have no idea where he learned to dance, it is a little hood.   

  

  And yesterday was our 3 year anniversary.  I was taken out to a wonderful sushi bar with some delicious Martinis. And Trav was surprised with some nice Lions tickets.  Life is good!