When you first walk into the playhouse you are greeted with a beautiful mural sharing words of encouragement, empowerment, and hope. In the center of the mural is the quote “you are exactly where you are meant to be.” After two years of hard work and dedication, raising the funds and support to open a…

Yesterday, I went to check my phone to track my twenty one year old daughter’s location as she headed back to college early in the morning. To my surprise, she had left the security of the state highway and was on a two-lane rural highway on a terribly foggy morning. I called to see if…

Tummy Time…so important and yet so many parents feel it is a major challenge for their little one. The start of my physical therapy evaluation for an infant includes a question about tummy time tolerance.  So often the response is, “well, we are trying, but they hate it”. So many factors go into why a…

Finn is lucky enough to not only have an amazing big sister (check out her blog here: https://gigisplayhouse.org/deerfield/2019/10/16/in-the-eyes-of-a-super-sibling/) but two awesome older brothers too! The blog below was written by his oldest brother, Owen! People often look up to great leaders, great historical figures, or great sports players; I look up to someone who I…

Four years ago I was pumped to learn I would have another baby brother. Our whole family was looking forward to his arrival. We would talk about “Floyd” constantly as my mom mentioned in an earlier post. This was the name we referenced the baby with, but not his actual name. The beans got spilt…

October is our time to rise and shine! While we get to celebrate and shout the worth of our friends and family members all year long, October is a great opportunity to get our communities involved too! Down Syndrome Awareness Month has always been our chance to teach people about the most common chromosomal condition…

It’s August, which means school is going to begin! For most parents, this means back to school shopping for supplies, clothes and shoes, checking class lists, and excitedly sending kids off and celebrating another summer survived.  For us, it is largely the same, plus a little more, and maybe a bit different than expected.  We…

At our Grand Opening celebration last weekend we took a moment to recognize some of the incredible volunteers who have dedicated their time to the playhouse the last six months. One of those volunteers was a young man named Luke. Luke received our Enthusiasm award. At GiGi’s we follow five core values, Enthusiasm is the…

My first day at work was the GiGi’s Chicagoland 5K Fun Run four years ago. It was held in a grassy field that was filled with mud from rain the night before. The families showed up in huge groups, all smiling, excited and happy to be there. Music was blasting, the energy was high, and…

Every week Eleanor works so incredibly hard in therapy. At school she receives 90 minutes of speech, 60 minutes of OT and 40 minutes of PT. Privately we currently do 60 minutes of speech, 30 minutes of hippotherapy (PT and OT) and 60 minutes of OT. So in one week she gets 2.5 hours of…