Morgan hits double digits!

Happy Birthday to the light of my life, Morgan! 10 years ago you came with a few surprises. First, you couldn’t wait to join our family and arrived into the world with a quick, unplanned delivery at home. Then a few hours later, we were shocked to find out you had Down syndrome and a heart defect. Little did we know how very lucky we were to be given such an amazing gift on the day you were born. Morgan, you have blessed our lives in so many ways. And opened our eyes to a beautiful world of diversity and individuality. I am so blessed to be your mommy! ♥

Morgan’s 10th birthday was on a Monday which of course was also a school day.  This meant she had just enough time to wake up, get ready, open a few gifts, blow out 10 candles and have a quick piece of cake for breakfast.  She was so excited to open her gifts.  It didn’t even matter what was inside!  I had surgery the week before Morgan’s birthday and hadn’t gotten any gifts before so I sent Gavin to Target to pick out a few things.  He did a great job and focused on Disney Princesses since she is the biggest Disney/Pixar fan!  He scored big points with the “Merida” barbie from Brave.  Mia voiced her disappointment of the non-theme birthday cake and lack of decorations set up for her birthday.  Seriously?  I’m sure she gets that from her dad!  I reminded her that Morgan's party wasn’t for a few more days and that all of the decorations would be up for that.  

Hadley knew I didn’t have much time to get ready for her birthday and spent the night before making gifts, signs and cards for Morgan.  She made the cute beach frame for her and the sign that she’s holding up, “I’m So Happy You’re My Sister”.  I somehow managed to finish her digital scrapbook from her 9th year.  Trying to catch up and am a year behind (if you don’t count all of the years behind the first one I did!).

She is loving 4th grade and has an awesome set up this year.  Her teacher is excited to have Morgan in her classroom and is making sure Morgan is included in everything they do.  And it’s already making a difference.  She doesn’t fight us to go to school in the mornings anymore.  And even though she has had some behavior stuff, it’s has improved so much since last year.  I think some of it is just because she is growing and maturing but a lot of it is because she feels part of something and love in that classroom.

She wanted ice cream sandwiches for her birthday treat this year and loved passing them out to all of her classmates.

We had to hurry down to the city clerk’s office right after school to apply for passports so they will get here in time for our road trip to Mexico (yes,  road trip!) next month.  We finished the days celebrations with one of Morgan’s favorite activities . . . a movie in the big theater.

We went to The Gateway and had the theater all to ourselves.  Can’t beat your own private screening of ParaNorman on your birthday!

In honor of her 10th Birthday, 10 things we love about Morgan:

1.  Her favorite movie is The Lorax.  She watches it every single day and still loves it!

2.  She loves to ride her bike and is getting faster and faster on it.  She started out riding it really slowly at the beginning of summer.  Getting off to walk over any bump or corner on the sidewalk.  Now she is going too fast for me to keep up without running.

3.  She swims with goggles!  This is huge!  We’ve tried to get her to wear goggles every summer and she wouldn’t ever leave them on.  She swims with her head under water the entire time and would have red, swollen, burning eyes every time she swam.  She finally realized goggles help and her eyes don’t hurts after swimming.

4.  She loves to play Barbies.  Her favorite thing is to get a few Barbies and watch a movie  while the Barbies act out each scene.

5.  She got “braces” (a palate expander)  this summer to help give her jaw more room for her permanent teeth.  After the battle of getting the molds made, expander cemented in her mouth and her finally opening up her mouth so we can turn the expander, we found out it’s not working.  She got a defective expander that isn't opening up.  So we get to start over and do it all again.

6.  She finished her first year with the Angels cheerleading squad.  She loved the performances but not the practices or the uniforms.  She fights me when it’s time to get her uniform on, “I’m NOT an angel!”  Amen, sister!

7.  She shares a bedroom with Hadley and many nights, shares a bed with Hadley.  She is so lucky to have such a loving, patient sister.

8.  She doesn’t eat much now that everything gets stuck in her palate expander.  She would be happy with nachos or chicken nuggets for every meal.

9.  She actually said her part in the Primary program this month.  Every year she gets a part in the program but always gets too shy to say it once she’s at the podium.  This time she got up, all excited, and said, “Ok.  Here we go!”  and then she looked out and got scared and put her head down by her hands, below the microphone and said, “I can choose the right by dressing modestly and respecting my body.”

10.  She gets great satisfaction out of doing things by herself.  It’s the simple things like making her bed, pouring her own drink, warming up her food in the microwave, getting herself all dressed for the day or for bed.  I need to be better at encouraging this independence and not always worrying about the time it takes.  It means so much to her and she always gets the biggest smile on her face, “I did it by myself!”

Coming Up:  Her big Lorax birthday celebration