For any of you who have been living under a rock (when it comes to my posts) and do not already know about my obsession with Ellie’s hands… let me let you in on a few things, here.
First, Ellie’s hands are puffy – they’ve been puffy since the day she was born and I describe them like little peach pillows. Ellie is squishy – I KNOW you’ve heard me say this. I often describe her as pudding. Because, honestly, she feels like a bag of pudding, folks. She’s getting stronger as she gets older, but to squeeze on those little arms, hands, and legs… she still feels like she’s full of pudding. There’s a delicate tenderness about her and all this squishiness stuffed into this little bitty body is just too much for me to handle.
When Ellie was about a year old, we decided to make a craft that involved painted hand prints. I painted and stamped the hands of the boys, then painted and stamped Ellie’s hands, too. When I looked at the final product, I felt like I’d messed up. I must have only painted two sections of her pinky… how in the world did I manage that? I grabbed her little hands to repaint them and low and behold… noticed that I had not missed a thing. It was Ellie that was missing something – the middle section of her pinkies. WHAT? How had I not noticed this before? How was she almost a year old and I never noticed that her pinkies were just over half the size they should have been? Maybe I’d been too caught up in her pillow hands that I never inspected the littlest digits.
I later discovered that this happens sometimes in kids with Down syndrome and it’s called clinodactyly – a very short pinky that often curves in towards the other digits. Well… it kind of curves, too. Hmmm… news to me! I’d searched her little palms for a single palmar crease (another outward sign that’s a soft marker for Down syndrome). She doesn’t have the single line – but I’d failed to notice those pinkies. It’s thought that when babies with Down syndrome are developing in the womb, they tend to fold their hands at a ninety degree angle (instead of curling them in more). This is due to low muscle tone and is thought to be the reason so many people with Down syndrome have a single palmar crease. Ellie’s palms look exactly like mine – not one, not two, but three lines. She must have been great at making a fist as she developed. Maybe practicing shaking her fist at the odds of her success! (Get it, girl!)
So in the beginning, I determined that she did not have the single line, and went about kissing those soft pillow hands for months – never noticing this cute little pinky. Until the epic painting craft. I also noticed that Ellie’s painted handprints looked huge. Well, they’re not big at all… but once painted and smashed onto a page, all that squishy pudding flattens out to make a very boxy handprint. I can’t get enough!
Ellie came home with this artwork in her backpack and I’ve been staring at it, admiring those square handprints… admiring those tiny pinky prints… and internalizing all these different little things that fill me with joy these days. I mean, really… who gets excited about pinkies? This girl. That’s who! Tiny reminders of how incredibly blessed we are to walk this weird, crooked journey as her parents. Reminders littered through our normal days reminding us of how lucky these little boys of ours are to know in the deepest depths of their souls what compassion, hardship, and unconditional love look like. For these things (and tiny pinkies), I’m so very thankful.
Her purple people eater is adorable. Can you see the tiny pinky in the pic of her with my glasses? Funny, right?
Side note: I didn’t even attempt to do the 30 Days of Thanks this month. I’d tried it in the past and failed miserably, so I wasn’t about to start and stop again. Maybe I’ll try again another year. It’s not that I don’t have a billion things to be thankful for… I certainly do… I just get side tracked when I have the best of intentions to post something each day for a month. February is congenital heart defect awareness month. Wanna know how many facts I managed to post? Ummm… four. Yep – and I had a short month to work with. October is Down Syndrome Awareness month… I think I got about 5 of those 31 days, and at least three of those were just shares from someone else. Eek – I’m terrible at this. So instead of trying to stick with something for a whole month… I’m going to try to double my previous attempts and shoot for 12 days of Christmas (not even 12 consecutive days… just 12 days between now and Christmas where I post something). How’s that? You think I can keep up with that? I don’t think I’ve made 12 blog posts all year… but why can’t I do 12 in the next month-ish? Ha! Today’s was even a bonus on top of those 12. Keep me accountable, will ya? I have a lot to be thankful for and a lot of people who have poured into our lives that I want to thank. That’ll likely be the focus, btw, turning the spotlight on to the people who have cared for Buggy (and me) through this journey. People who care for hundreds of kiddos each week, and do so with the intensity they’ve had in our lives. Stay tuned!
Our elf, Luigi, hanging around. The boys are so excited about this!
There's a house in Piqua that has more lights than the rest of the state, I swear. We had to see it!
Took the boys ice skating on Sunday afternoon - B wasn't excited about my selfie.
I can't handle the cuteness. We had sick kiddos last week, and again starting Sunday evening. We're back to healthy now... whew. No fun. Keykob enjoyed the cuddles nonetheless.
Aunt Sherri bought Ellie a super cute sparkly shirt. Ellie approves!
Yep, this is how we act for Thanksgiving dinner!
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