Angel Unaware

Once again, we apologize for the delay, as we now have several months to get caught up on, so sorry for the length...  Here are a few pics from the gorgeous Easter we had!  Cayla enjoyed dancing in front of the mirror in her dress, and here you can see her putting her hand on her chest as we sang "The Star Spangled Banner."  Tonight as we left daycare, we got to hear this song before the track meet just across the way, and Cayla got to think this was being played just for her!  And as always, that hand went right to her heart, and afterwards she said emphatically - "GAME!"  Sorry Cayla, no games at this time of the year:(

And here is Eliana getting to enjoy her first Easter egg hunt at Uncle Dan and Aunt Naomi's house...  She loved getting to shake the eggs!

Eliana's first ponytail:) 

Eliana has been really enjoying her food these days, as you can see she loved eating yogurt tonight!  She has been growing up so quickly, and it is hard to believe that she is now almost one year old already!  It has been really neat getting to watch her grow and develop, as Jerod and I so often find ourselves thinking she is an absolute genius, as things just come so much easier for her than for Cayla...  But nope, pretty sure she's right there with her peers, but it's been fun watching her "just get" climbing the stairs, drinking from a sippy cup, picking up cereal, etc.  I never realized how easy just having a regular kid was until we recently went to the doctor for a routine check-up, and after leaving shortly after arriving, I was amazed that they didn't have to poke and prod her as they always seem to have to do with Cayla.  Our poor little Cayla Joy has to endure much blood being drawn and many tests being done, but she's a trooper!

I recently felt sorry for Cayla, as we went in for a hearing test after she failed one at school.  I honestly thought she had probably been too busy/difficult to test, so I was saddened to find out that she does have mild hearing loss in her left ear...  When the nurse asked me how I felt after hearing this, I said something like, "We just take things as they come with our little Cayla Joy."  But afterwards I became sad...  I cried as I thought about how challenged she already is, and then to have to add yet one more thing on top of this...  To think of everything she loves to listen to, from the sound of music to the sound of the birds singing outside, from the laughs of her sister to the sound of her tap shoes...  But she takes it all in stride, and she continues to teach us so much about how we take so many things for granted!  I just have to laugh as now that her ears have been cleaned out, she now says to me so often, "Loud, Mama, Loud!"  Yes, any of you that know me know this to be true at times:)

We are often so thankful that God gave us Cayla first, as I think we would be quite saddened by her slow developments if we really knew how far behind she has been with many things.  But we continue to hear how smart she is, and I had no idea that totally out of diapers by the age of 3 (night and all) was such a huge feat!  But way to go, Cayla!  Let's see if you can do the same, Eliana:)  Eliana is now crawling everywhere, and she now knows to watch out for "La La" (as she calls Cayla) and can be seen crawling very quickly along to the floor to escape her sister's next wrestling move...  Yes, Cayla has now learned that wrestling is quite fun, and Eliana is getting to "enjoy" being the recipient of all of this "fun!"  But we will take this any day, as Cayla has come so far in her actions with Eliana, and we are praising God so often for this accomplishment!  She now loves on Eliana so much, and this is rarely now seen in the form of anger and aggression...  As Cayla would say with her hand up in the air -- "Praise the Lord!"

But yes, Eliana is now saying "Mama," "Dada," "LaLa," and "Uh oh."  She has just learned to crawl up the stairs and is cruising furniture and can pull herself to a standing position, and she is wanting to walk so badly...  She has decided that baby food is no fun anymore, as she loves big people food!  Fun stuff seeing her moving right along, though I must admit that these milestones certainly are coming and going so much quicker than they did with Cayla, and although there was a ton of work that went into Cayla's milestones, it was nice getting a chance to keep up with the baby book:)  We certainly won't complain though...

I just love this sweet picture of Cayla and Daddy!  She is so cuddly and loving, and she now knows that giving us HUGE hugs right before bed usually gets her just a few more minutes of cuddle time:) 

And here is our little Cayla Joy learning her dance routine for tap, and she is looking forward to her first dance recital with a tap dance song and a ballet song on May 12!  As we have continued to watch her become the beautiful little lady she is, we continue to ask ourselves why we have been so blessed to be called her parents...  We are humbled that God chose to bless us with this incredible gift, and it has been neat getting to see the MANY things God is teaching us through her!  I just got done reading "Angel Unaware" by Dale Evans Rogers, and this was such a great book for anyone who has been touched by a child with Downs!  Thanks for the book, Marcia!  This book had a little girl with Downs who told a story after her death explaining that God had sent her to this family (the Roy Rogers family) as an angel to teach them and bring them closer to God, and then she got to go back up to Heaven and get her wings back after her mission was completed.  Sorry for the poor explanation, but I guess you'll just have to read it to understand what I mean...  We have so often thought that Cayla is our little angel here on earth to teach us so many things and to bring us closer to God, so this book seemed to confirm just what we had been thinking - pretty cool stuff!  Sometimes I am not ready to be learning what she/God is trying to teach me, particularly when I KNOW I am supposed to be learning patience, but that just never seems to be the lesson I want to learn...  But God knows BEST:)

Another really cool thing we just have been seeing is that Cayla "randomly" has been saying people's names, and Jerod said tonight that maybe God is prompting her to say these names and that we are supposed to pray for these people at this same time.  Although we have just seen this a couple of times over the past couple of days, this has been so evident and cool that we had to share!!!  Tonight as I went in to pray with Cayla, the first word she said was my intern's name, which was what appeared to be quite "random," as she has only met this intern a couple of times...  But then I quickly remembered that we DID need to pray for this gal, as she had just lost an aunt and was quite saddened by this loss today (though Cayla knew nothing of this sadness), so of course we prayed and loved this reminder!  And on Sunday morning, one of the first words out of Cayla's mouth was the name of one of her aunts that really needed prayer that morning...  So yes, although we were planning to pray for her (though Cayla again knew nothing of this), we once again loved it how she just "knew!"  So yes, whether this continues on like this or not, we are just continuing to be in AWE of God's love and faithfulness in our lives by blessing us with our little Cayla Joy and our Eliana Lynn!  We are soooooo blessed!!!