Enjoy recent photos of me! 2 years old and growing!

Sequenom's DS Test in News‏

Follow the link below to read more on the interesting updates of upcoming tests to be available to determine whether a child will be born with Down Syndrome. Science is amazing.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5h0kD15aXfOokRuQuwtjVvPrAe83gD97SVLAG1

learning to swim this summer

Let's try this one more time. Cruz is ready with all his gear. You can never be too safe.













HE IS DOING IT! Cruz is learning to float and relax in the pool. We are so proud of you Cruz!













I'm swimming, i'm swimming!!!!! Okay so he is not really swimming, but he is definitly floating (with a little help ;) But we know this summer Cruz is going to make some big accomplishments in the pool.

Always watch your babies around water! PLEASE!"

First swim pictures of the year!

Cruz is very excited to start swimming this summer!














I'm ready!












Hmmm still to cold!

Accomplished before reaching my second birthday!!!!

Two goals accomplished! Cruz is officially walking and officially off the bottle. He stood up in early September and with some wobbling, falling down, bouncing off objects, he has perfected his walking before reaching his second birthday! We are so proud of you Cruz! He was even ready to parade his lion costume (handmade by mom- me) in time for Halloween. He still has some strength building to do in his legs so that he can stand up and stay up without the falling down every now and then, but we are working on that and for the time being he prefers walking over crawling- walking about 80% of the time. Way to go Cruz!

One of my own goals for Cruz was to get him off the bottle before his 2nd birthday; we tried sippy cups, straws, different types of training cups and all were not 100% successful in some way or another. With the suggestions of his therapists, with the research I did, and suggestions from the DSNetwork I went out and bought the training cup with the straw spout. I put away the bottle and told Cruz, "If you want this milk you'll figure it out son.". I sat him down with the cup and watched as he lied down to drink it like a bottle, sat up and sucked and sucked not getting any reward, threw it across the room, picked it back up........ I could go on and on. Finally with some more help he figured it out and very nicely sits with his cup and sips his milk like a successful toddler! He shows me over and over how much determination he has and that he is truly a fighting spirit.

Our third follow up with the cardiologist and the results are in....

We are truly blessed! Thank you God for all that you have blessed us with and for hearing our prayers!

We had our third follow up with Cruz's cardiologist to find out how his tiny holes in his heart were coming along. We were told that he had three tiny holes in various areas in his heart (PDA, PFO, & one other near the bottom). Although tiny and no medications to be taken, they were still there and until they are closed 100% we still had that tiny bit of worry hanging above our heads. So the test are in and the Dr. was pleased to tell me that Cruz is a remarkable kid. "It is rare to see kids with DS whose hearts develop like Cruz's has, I don't get the chance to see positive results this often and it makes me happy for Cruz to see that his heart has develop amazingly well.", told to us by Dr. Sandweiss. He followed up by telling us that 2 of the three openings have closed 100%, cease to exist! The third one (PFO) is so tiny it is possible to live a full life expectancy without problems. We do not have to return for three years, at which time Dr. Sandweiss expects third opening to be closed.
I could not help but call everyone closest to me and while telling them the great news I was overwhelmed with the news I couldn't not hold back my tears of joy for my son!!!!!
Cruz is a fighter and a strong boy, he continues to beat his own odds.

The surgery went well!

Cruz had his first of two eye surgeries this morning. Today we did another probe to clear the obstruction of his ducts and then they inserted silicon tubes so that the ducts can stretch to avoid the obstruction from happening again. As some of you know he has already had one surgery (last year same month) to clear obstruction of his "tear" ducts. And well, it came back. Poor little guy....
He is a fighter; the surgery went well, it was 20 minutes quick and within a few hours he was home watching his noggin channel, dancing to his favorite cartoons, and spinning around on his head. There will be more tearing and some bloody tears and nose for a while, the tears will probably last until they pull the tubes out in six months. We could use your prayers that Cruz cooperates and does not do anything to pull the tubes out. We want to be sure that they stay in long enough so that ducts have the opportunity to stretch. So if all goes well he will move on to his eye muscle surgery to correct the strabismus (cross-eye). Thanks to everyone to prays for him and his good health. We applaud you Cruz!