Wednesday 9 October 2013

Singing in the train...

As Autumn tries its hardest to keep everyone smiling with the late Sun so does our Budlington! We have been away the past two weekends trying our best to string out the good weather and spend some quality family time together.

First off we tagged onto the back of Karen's parents holiday for a weekend in the beautiful Snowdonia National Park. We stayed in a lovely old cottage which offered a great new environment for Rosie to explore. She enjoyed shuffling around, getting to know her surroundings and pinching the odd novel from the bookshelf! The cottage had a couple of steps, one down from the kitchen and one down into a conservatory – this became a bit of an issue for Rosie and we'd keep catching her shuffling up to the step, pondering, then lowering one leg over at a time to test the distance – this is one of the first times we've seen her show caution which is a promising sign for any parent of a seemingly fearless child! At one point however, Grandad did find her in the conservatory and we have no idea how she made that manoeuvre – thankfully there were no tears although when we encouraged her to try again she wasn't interested. Getting up the step offered a different challenge altogether and although she didn't achieve it we watched as she tried several times to work out the best route. She put one leg on the step then realised that wasn't a feasible option, leaned over onto it but wasn't sure what to do next then she turned around reversed up to it and tried to bump herself high enough to bounce her bum up! We did try encouraging and helping her but seeing as she doesn't front crawl at all it was never going to be easy.

The highlight of the weekend came when we took a trip on an old steam train and Rosie sang to the whole carriage – I've included a short clip of this in the video below.

The singing carried on into the next weekend where Rosie entertained and (most likely) woke up fellow campers as we braved the October weather to go on our first camping weekend as a family. Thankfully Rosie took to it like a duck to water and slept quite happily both nights right through! We had my sister and her family there on standby next to us with their plush caravan just incase it got too cold for her but she was fine. Rosie enjoyed being made a fuss of by her cousins who offered her plenty of cuddles and different hairstyles!


Singing-in-the-train from SwissBaldItalic on Vimeo.








7 comments:

  1. What a beautiful song! I love it! Thank you for sharing! Glad the camping trip went well! Love this little girl! Much love from Utah!

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  2. She is soooo cute! Your blog is so beautiful to read and I hope it continues for many years to come. Rosie is going to be just great because she's got the stongest foundations anyone could need - a loving family. The perception of disability is outdated, like you said, and your blog is one step closer to eradicating it for good! :o)

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  3. What a beautiful smile that little girl has.

    I expect you will get the usual horrible comments from keyboard warriors, very brave in their anonymity. I hope you can ignore them.

    For me I am trying to bring my child up not to judge on appearance but on character. I hope I can succeed

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  4. I enjoyed your blog. There sre lots of activities and help/encouragement for Downs syndrome children. Try special needs playgroups and the special olympics held in Bath/ Bristol this summer. Good luck it is amaazing what children can achieve.
    Trish

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  5. I came across your blog after seeing it in a featured BBC article and have just spent my morning reading from the very first post.

    Thank you for sharing your amazing journey and introducing me to your brave little girl; her smile is beautiful and infectious :]

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  6. As L, I was brought here through a BBC article and I wanted to share our story with you.

    My late father's sister also has Down's Syndrome - she, too, survived heart surgery, she is largely independent (cleans her room, tidies her things, sets the table and helps with other chores) and soon she will be celebrating her 69th birthday contrary to all the doctors who said she would not ever see 40.

    I may have a Master's degree from a prestigious UK university but she has taught me all about love, patience, understanding, tolerance, acceptance, humour, family, strength, discipline, warmth, the power of the hug and the beauty of quiet moments.

    What a wonderful life you will have with your Rosie!

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  7. You have done what so many Doctors and Specialists cannot do, you have brought so much awareness to the fore for all to see. Thank you. Rosie is beautiful and you are a very special family.

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