Danny's Hunt

Danny went out to scout for his big brother Saturday. I asked him if he saw anything. He said he "saw a whitetail deer." He didn't know if it had horns or not as he only saw the "whitetail."

Working Out with his Nephews

Dan didn't exercise for a week and a half when we were up north. The day after we got home he did a 1 1/2 hour workout. He did complain that he was a little sore.......His nephews joined him. They didn't last the whole time but did pretty good.

Danny's Surprise Party

Danny's siblings decided to throw him a surprise 16th Golden Birthday surprise party when they were all home. It didn't go over quite as well as they expected. This picture pretty much depicts his enthusiasm. All he wanted to do was open his presents. Then he said he was tired and he wanted to "take a shower and go to bed." I'm thinking some of the others got pictures of him coming in the door and the decorations. I'll post them when I find them.

Christmas Program

This was Danny's last day of Sunday school. He starts confirmation in January. He had a piece but didn't memorize it so had to read it. You can see it sticking out of his pocket. The confirmation boys said pieces and the girls sang a song. Danny was disappointed he wasn't singing. He initially said he was going to "sing" his piece. Thank goodness he didn't! He actually said it very well. Some years he blasted out the microphone but not this year. Jeanie chose not to say a piece. She only had to sing.

The Golden Birthday Boy

Well, Danny's Golden Birthday was everything he could hope for and more! He received a pile of birthday cards today along with some $$$$. Then a couple of his friends popped in and surprised him with a nice present. He has been counting the days until this special golden birthday. 16 on the 16th!!! But honestly, he wasn't expecting or thinking of presents. He was just PUMPED that he is 16 and all he really cared about was the recognition and birthday wishes!! The cards and surprise were just a bonus he didn't expect!! Thanks to all who shared in his special day!

Gourmet Mac 'N Cheese

Danny has the family cooking genes. Here he is making "my own" macaroni and cheese. Along with the 1/4 cup butter, milk and cheese powder from the box, just add a little garlic salt, a slice of American cheese a bit of ketchup and salsa. Delicious!!!! He says.......

Confo Halloween Party

Danny was so excited for his first confirmation get together! He kept saying, "I can't believe I'm in Confirmation!" and just giggled. When I picked him up after the party he was all excited and said, "I won! I won!" I asked him, "You mean nobody guessed you?" He said "No! I just pretended I wasn't there. I heard someone say my name but I just shook my head. I was tricking them. I was pretending I wasn't at the party!" I tried to tell him that he cheated. I can't convince him. He just thought he was pretty clever by "tricking" everyone!

Danny Gets New Glasses

Danny got new glasses today. He didn't want to get new ones but his were starting to get bad. He wanted to keep the Nike ones "because Wade thinks they're cool." I talked him into getting another Nike pair. The are very similar to his old ones except these are black instead of brown and there is no frame on the bottom.

"I Was Born With This Face"

We got a new sweet keyboard so I thought I'd try it out by adding a post.

A Danny story:

We were at the dinner table last weekend. We had a couple extra people over and Danny was in top form entertaining us all. I don't remember what the conversation was about but someone jokingly asked Danny if he was born "that way" (what way, I don't remember) and Danny replied, pointing to his face, "No, but I was born with this face." Someone asked, "What do you mean?' Dan says. "You know.......with Down Syndrome........you know......my DNA is different than yours........"

The keyboard is driving me nuts! I'm sure I'll love it once I get use to the new keys but I keep hitting the wrong keys!

Last of the Braces

Phew......these are the last two to get braces. Unfortunately, all you kids except Matt and Wade, got my teeth. Small jaw and crowded teeth. Jeanie and Danny have been doing great with them. Not too........much complaining about sore teeth. For the second appointment, Danny picked pink and purple brackets! When he first got them on, Danny came to bring me back to talk to the orthodontist:

Doctor: Danny, show your mom what color you picked.
Danny: laughing shows me the pink and purple
Me: Dan??!! Come on.......
Jeanie: Danny, your such a girl!!!

Later we were at the dinner table and
Kaitlin says: Danny, show Dad your braces.
He starts laughing and shows Dad.
Dad: Dan! Are you serious?!
Danny: ahhh............Pink..........you know.........for Skin Cancer...........
Good one Dan!

A Silver Medal

Danny played in the State Finals Special Olympics Basketball Tournament. They won Silver Medals.
Dan getting his medal.
Dan and his awesome coaches.
Danny wore both his gold medal from last year and his silver medal to school one day. I told him that was fine but he couldn't wear it again the next day. He, of course, wanted to wear it again as I am sure he got plenty of attention for them. I explained that it was okay to wear them and show his classmates but if he keeps wearing them, then it would be really showing off and bragging. He didn't get it. Kaitlin was bringing him to the library so she came down wearing all her "medals", academic letter, honor cords, HOSA medals....and said, "Dan, should I wear these to the library?!" We all had a good laugh, but of course Danny thought she SHOULD wear them to the library!

Pretend Movie

This kid's a nut. He's been spending almost every night for the last week "watching" a pretend movie. He waits until it's dark and then goes in the basement and keeps all the lights off except the laundry light then sits in the dark and listens to Narnia on his boom box and stares at a shadow on the chalk board. "I imagine the movie because there are sound effects on the CD." He actually thought about skipping basketball last Thursday night because he wanted to go watch/listen to his "movie"! Only Dan!

Dan Plays at U of M

First these guys played.
Waiting to get on the court.
Then these guys played.

The Fact Man

This is what Danny is doing if he's not playing wii, listening to his boombox (music or books) or on the computer. He's "writing facts". He has pages of "facts" around the house. He doesn't realize it but he's getting great practice on his writing (and reading).

Halloween

As you can tell, Danny is C.S. Lewis, author of Narnia books. Jeanie and Laura are from the 70's or 80's. I can't remember. Dan is quite a character (literally). We had a Halloween party at work Friday night. Danny wasn't sure if he wanted to come because he's not too sure what to think of all those "Grumpas and Grandmas". But he decided to come after all. When it was time to find a costume he insisted that he wanted to be C.S. Lewis. He has an autobiography on him out of the library. As C.S. Lewis was just a sort of bald ordinary looking man with glasses he decided to wear a sports jacket and vest from the Halloween stuff. I found Grandpa H's old hat to finish the costume. (He didn't want to put on a dress shirt and tie.) It was funny at work, I told one of the residents friends "who" Danny was. When Danny walked by he says, "Hey Buddy, come here. Let me guess......Are you C.S. Lewis?" Danny looked quite surprised and hesitantly nodded. That was great!

Danny Visiting with Gretchen

Danny getting his "Gretchen fix". He randomly asks, "Can I call Gretchen? I haven't talked to her for so long!" He really misses his big sister since she moved away. Actually we all do! Can't wait until she comes visit!

The High Schooler

See Amanda, I'm blogging every day right? Almost.

Tuesday night I went to Danny's open house. I have been a little apprehensive about him entering high school. All the other ninth graders attend the freshman campus but his CI (cognitive impaired) classes are at the high school. Well, most of my fears have been put to rest. I was rather impressed with all of his teachers and I feel like he'll have a great year. His computer and Life Skills teacher is also his case worker who will be involved in his IEP's. So he has her for three hours as Life Skills is a two hour block. I really like her and felt like she really enjoys Danny. She said, "Danny loves to visit and I love visiting with Danny. He has so many interesting things to talk about." I feel pretty confident that his education will continue to be as positive as it has been in the past. I'm very thankful for that!

First Day of School

Today was Jeanie's first day of middle school and Dan's first day of high school. Jean was up well before she needed to be. Danny had a hard time getting up. He said he was too tired and wanted to stay home. Oh boy, I hope that's not going to be a problem. He's been so excited and nervous about high school. He was pretty sober this morning, even for the pictures. I finally got him to show how he's been acting the last few days. Hopefully his high school experience will be as good as the middle and elementary was. I have yet to meet any of his teachers. Hard to believe Molly Jane is a junior already! It feels pretty good to have all the kids out to school by 7:00, now I'm off for my walk.

Danny's Trivia

Danny was watching Gretchen, Paul and Molly play Phase 10. Then out of the blue he says:

"Gretchen.....What kind of bear builds a nest?"

Gretchen: Is this a joke?

Danny: No

Gretchen: Ummmmm, a Koala Bear?

Danny: No

Paul: A polar bear?

Danny: No

Molly: A grizzly bear?

Danny: No

Gretchen: What kind?

Danny: a sun bear. Google it.

So we did. It is quite an interesting bear. I asked him how he knows it builds nests and he said to google "sun bear nests" and when we did we saw a rare video of a sun bear building a nest up in a tree.

I asked him where he learned this and he said, "from my book." Matt and Emily gave him an Animal Encyclopedia a few years ago and he must have been reading it the other day. Sometimes he really surprises me.

Garage Sale Finds

Jeanie's been trying to learn to play the guitar and had requested a youth size one. I found this garage saleing the other week. So we have lots of guitar strumming going on around here. Fred, Kaitlin, Molly and now Jeanie.

I picked up this bike for Danny. It's almost the same as his old one but a size bigger and has 7 speeds. Not sure if he has any clue how to use them. He thinks it's pretty cool as it has DS on it. You know.....Down Syndrome.

I have a Danny story for Auntie Jean. We were at Costco last week. When I was checking out Danny points to my membership card in the clerks hand and says, "That's a picture of my mom." She says, "Isn't she pretty?" Danny replies, "Nah..." The clerk says, "Yes, she is." Dan says, "Nahhh.......I don't think so, well, maybe half." I then said, "Gee thanks, Dan. Just for that I'm not going to buy you a slice of pizza." He looked at the clerk and said, "I'm just that kind of guy."