Prayer request

Recently we’ve noticed that Lucy’s arthritis has started spreading to other joints. At first it was only in her ankle, but now it appears to also be in her wrists and possibly in one of her knees. A doctor’s appointment today has confirmed our fears. The doctor we see really wants to aggressively treat this and not let it spread anymore. So now in addition to the medicine we hide in her food everyday we are going to start having to give her a shot once a week. We have to go for training next week so we can properly give her the shots. To top this all off we have to take her once a month to get blood tests to make sure she is not experiencing any of the side effects that these shots can give her. Drawing blood from Lucy is very hard, her veins don’t cooperate, and she screams and cries the entire time; last time it took almost a half hour. Please keep our little girl in your prayers.

The good news is that none of this appears to be bothering Lucy at all (with the exception of the blood tests and as long as your not messing with her wrists or ankles, but if you do she’ll let you know about it). She knows how to limp to avoid pain in her ankle and how to avoid putting pressure on her wrists. She loves life and she makes us love life all the more from sharing life with her.

Update

Well since you have some new pictures to look over I thought I would give you a little run down of the new things I have been doing lately.
One of the newest and most exciting developments is that we have met a wonderful tutor. Her name is Joanne(she works with people with ds that range from age 2-20. Right now she works with 26 differnt people) and I work with her on Fridays for an hour. She has helped Mommy and Daddy know what things they should be working on with me. Since seeing her (about a month) I have started using the potty after every meal, I can recognize about 5 letters of the alphabet, I can read Mom, Dad, Lucy and Simon (when mommy shows me the card that says Simon I say SSSSS), I'm working on my colors. I'm very good at matching but working on naming. I love to color! Joanne says I'm one of the best colorers that she has worked with.
I've been going swimming every week to work on my arthritis. I'm getting more range of motions but still have a little limp. Hopefully summer time will bring more improvements. Keep praying that it doesn't spread and that it goes away!
My Favorites:
Books, My Play Kitchen, Wonder Pets, Coloring, Simon, Spaghetti, Pudding, Pizza, Grapes, My blanket, Singing, Dancing, Animals, Hats, Veggie Tales Sing Along
I Don't Like:
Taking my medicine, Carrots, Potatoes, people messing with my ankle, getting my hair brushed, (It's hard to think of things I don't like- I'm a really likeable kid!)

Dad says I'm the cutest ever!

Simon turned 1

I can't believe brother is now one! We are starting to have so much fun together. My favorite thing is to make him laugh.

In a box

All smiles

Eating

I'm starting to eat more and more of my food all by myself. Mom and Dad said I've really turned the corner in this area. Actually, I get pretty mad right now when I'm not allowed to feed myself.

Little Brother's First Steps

These are some of Simon's first steps which took place early last month. He started off pretty wobblie and fell a lot, but now he's almost walking faster than me. But don't worry cause I still know how to keep him in his place.