The Adventures of Cap'n Jack 'n Crew

Random stuff

2012-02-08T22:16:00.001-06:00

When I left the room, I told Jack, “please use the coaster for your drink buddy”. So he did.

Pica-shoes!

Ponytail! (There are days in this house I can’t stand the cuteness!)

There’s so much wrong with this lol! The most wrong part? It was Saturday! Not even a school day!

I told them to put everything in the bucket. They took that literal.

Guess who went to another dance? Aren’t they pretty?!?!

I have more pictures but they are on my new phone and I need to learn how to download them onto the computer.

We woke up to snow this morning! But it’s Feb, right? not so unusual. But we’ve had crazy high temps this winter so far so it was a surprise! If Jack said “snow” once on the way to school today he said it 50 times! He’s really talking more now – initiating conversation, telling me things he sees, adding descriptions like the color. It’s really great. Finally, the kid is talking!

Heart Issues

2012-01-22T10:02:00.005-06:00

Disclaimer - I don't know how to fix these pics! I will though!

So we found out Jack had Ds prenatally. The next step was several ultrasounds and a fetal echocardiogram since many babies with Ds have heart issues. (40% is what is stuck in my brain but as of right this minute I can’t back it up!) Jack seemed great except the amniotic fluid was a little low a couple of times. Even his heart was great.

And then he was born. Within a few hours, it was determined that our little man had pulmonary hypertension and guess what else? Heart issues. Thanks a lot fetal echo (you worthless p.o.s.). Our baby had a small to medium hole between the upper chambers of his heart (Arterial Septal Defect – ASD) and a medium to large hole between the lower chambers (Ventricular Septal Defect – VSD). They had to be fixed. Our goal was to get him big enough to undergo open heart surgery. The problem was between the heart issue and the PH, he wasn’t able to stay alert enough to eat enough to grow. So our guy had to have a feeding tube through his nose, or a ng tube. The way he could sleep away while still getting food into his tummy. Of course the Drs wanted to keep him in the hospital as long as possible but mommy was done with that place. He was removed from the NICU not exactly against orders but I sure had to fight for him. I think they were afraid I would steal him if they didn’t let me take him! Jack removed his own ng tube a few times after we got him home, but after about a week, he was eating the required amount ON HIS OWN!

That was the end of Nov. Less than 2 months later, our sweet baby boy underwent open heart surgery. When the Dr called to say they were ready to set the date, I was a wreck. I was shopping and cried right there in the store. By the time we arrived at the hospital, I was okay. I just wanted him fixed. His surgery was on Tues.

Wed was ugly; he was on morphine most of the day and so out of it. He slept a few minutes at a time and would cry when he was awake :( . Thurs morning he was so different! They moved him to a regular room, he was only on Tylenol, and that Sat, we went home! 4 days!

Thurs.

Sat., right before going home!

7days after open heart surgery!

Little did we know almost exactly 2 years later, the little girl that we would adopt was undergoing (in Ukraine) pretty much the exact same procedure! The echocardiogram shows her surgery was to repair the same problems that Jack had. Weird! And even weirder, our cardio says it was a great fix. Of course I don’t have photos of Dasha after her surgery and we weren’t there to hold her and whisper that it would be okay. I hope someone was. I am thankful every day that someone got her that repair. But her scar looks even better than Jack’s!

Both of them now have near perfect hearts – the cardiologist says so :). And today is the day, 5 years ago, that all of that started, Jan 23.

So precious! Jack loves his sister :)

Cap’n Jack had a party

2012-01-21T21:57:00.000-06:00

I found this post that I wrote (clearly) right after Jack’s birthday (at the end of Oct.) and never hit “publish”. I contains some of the cutest pics of my baby!

Of course I didn’t plan anything ahead of time but at the very last minute we decided to invite a few nearby family members over for cake and ice cream. We had (of course) delicious cake from Costco and balloons. I had gotten him a few gifts so we kept those for party day and I think he was pretty happy.

Jack was good at ripping the paper off this year :)

Here Grandpa, hold my trash.

There’s one more? Waiting…… SpongeBob!!! Yay!

Jack blew out the candles before we finished singing so Grandma Rita sped up the song – it was the fastest version of “Happy Birthday” ever!

Precious! Love, love, love him! Hope this is an awesome year for you my big boy!

Horrific.

2012-01-13T21:13:00.003-06:00

This is what all parents of children with special needs fear. This is what keeps us up at night. This is what causes our hearts to beat a little faster every time we take our kid to the Dr. We fight so hard for our children to be accepted in this world. We rejoice when we find each other because here are other parents who “get it”. They “get” that the love our kids inspire is more fierce, more pure, more protective. Not that any new momma with her baby won’t take your head off if you look at her baby cross-eyed, but we know we may have to defend our cubs way past the 18 yr old mark.

Please read this blog post written by a devastated mother. And then pray.

Almost Wordless Wednesday

2012-01-11T21:52:00.001-06:00

Capes!!

(They were running back and forth in the kitchen watching them billow out behind them – so fun!)

What is clogging the toilet – revealed!

2012-01-08T00:12:00.001-06:00

Ready???

Yep, it’s Scooby and the gang in the Mystery Machine! Somebody decided it should solve the mystery of where everything goes when the potty is flushed! (Can you see how Scooby is covering his eyes? Cracks me up!)

Hopefully tomorrow our commode will be re-installed into the bathroom where it belongs and I can selfishly ban all potty-users from my master bath! Tonight, it still looks like this:

(Andrew had friends over tonight and apparently forgot to tell them to use my bathroom instead of the hall bath. One of the guys came up and I heard him yell from the hallway “there’s no toilet in here!!!”. OMgosh I was rolling! Probably not near as funny in the retelling but maybe you have to know the source. Love ya Tony!)

What is clogging the toilet???

2012-01-07T10:35:00.001-06:00

Okay, actually, at this point I know what is clogging the toilet but for about a week we did not! Every night Allan would plunge the thing out and every morning we couldn’t use it because it would start to overflow. Not a lotta fun I must say. And being down to one crapper in a house with 5 people who use the thing on a regular basis plus 2 littles that I was trying to get to use the thing on a regular basis, well it was just crappy (yep, pun intended!).

So Allan finally decided to take it apart and find out what the problem was. He got the potty off the plumbing and determined there was no clog in the pipes. It must be in the throne itself. Let’s check.

Turns out, this is an interesting project so Daddy got some “helpers”.

And then, the source of the clog was discovered! (And will be revealed in the next post, hee hee.) It would NOT come out. One of the helpers was even called in to, well, help.

The helper was less than excited but bless her heart, she did it. Hopefully, the next post will also show a newly re-installed family can :).

It’s a New Year

2012-01-06T15:58:00.001-06:00

And I’m a bad blogger. I’d like to resolve to blog more often and maybe I will be able to do that. To be realistic, I’m shooting for once a week, sometime between Sun and Sat. I’d also like to try doing Wordless Wednesday this year too.

And one more thing. I love looking at my Jackson. I could stare at his amazing, beautiful face all day. I think all of my kids are exceptionally beautiful (of course!) but I love looking at Jack’s face. There’s a little guy on Reece's Rainbow that I cannot stop looking at. I love his face too. He’s going to be 5 this year. He needs a family to save him from hopelessness. When we adopted Dasha, I promised my family I wouldn’t beg again, to save another child, but oh, I would go get him in a heartbeat if I could. His name is Daniel on RR. I don’t know what his real name is, or where, specifically he is. But I’ll be talking about him, trying to raise money for him, trying to get his picture out there, so his family can find him. I pray it is soon.

Happy New Year friends.

Christmas Day!

2011-12-27T18:11:00.001-06:00

(I’m putting up a post on Dasha's blog also!)

Ah, it was a good day. I got a Dashlyn charm for my necklace with charms on it of the other kids. (I had hoped to get it last year after coming home with our Ukrainian princess but this year isn’t too late I think ;). )Allan got his new planner pages and a couple of pizza baking stones (he asked for them, I swear!).

Jack started out the morning finding a package of oreo cookies. They were minding their own business sitting meekly on the counter. He insisted on having one then ran over to stand in front of the cabinets and said “camera”. Of course, I ran to find the camera faster than the speed of light and took this photo. (Catch that?? He SAID camera! Woo hoo!!)

Soon after that, it was present time!

Andrew opened a gift that he then shared with his siblings:

Everyone got something they liked. Dasha decided she likes opening presents :).

Daddy got a new phone (with a teeny little short cord). Okay maybe he was just borrowing Dasha’s!

After present time, we ate brunch, played with our new stuff, took naps, went out after dark to see pretty lights, ate late dinner pizza (remember the stones??), and watched the entire season 4 of Big Bang Theory (another gift)! We stayed in our jammies ALL DAY! It was a great day!

Hope you all had a terrific day too! Happy Birthday Jesus!

‘Twas the Night Before Christmas

2011-12-26T15:18:00.001-06:00

And 2 little kids were ready for Santa to come! The basement was picked up and they were dressed in cute and cozy sleepers. First we set out cookies and milk. (Dasha’s signing cookie!)

And now Jack is signing cookie. (It was really hard to convince them to NOT eat the cookies! I still don’t think they have a clue why they were on the table haha.)

I think Jack is thinking if he just gets a little closer, maybe no one will notice if some of the cookies go missing…..

And then D decided to watch Andrew play some last minute video games:

And back to Christmas prep….

The traditional reading of The Night Before Christmas (right after Dasha checked her phone one last time before bed, while Jack loses patience!)

And finally, the usual Christmas tree pics, one after everyone goes to bed (Mom and Dad got the little kids a kitchen! I can’t wait ~~to play~~ to watch the littles play with it)and one after Santa visits!

(I love our tree. Nothing formal or decorator about it, just every ornament we’ve collected or the kids have made on it with tons of colored lights! Love, love, love!)

Next post – Christmas day!

Andrew & I had an Adventure……

2011-11-11T17:25:00.001-06:00

Brag alert –> (I don’t think I do this often, but this story, I think, needed a little background.) Andrew has always been an advanced reader. By the time he was in the 4th grade he was reading at a 12th grade level and we started to have problems finding stuff for him to read that was reading level AND age appropriate. I started finding some series books that worked great. A few years later, we (I always read what the kids are reading) found a series called "Ranger's Apprentice" by John Flanagan. We LOVE it! I’m very thankful that Andrew and Madelyn both share my love of reading. It’s a great way to connect with my kids, spawning many informative conversations. After many years and 10 books, we found out the awesome Mr. Flanagan was going to speak at a library near us!!!!

We were so excited! We had never been to a real author’s book signing before. He spoke for about an hour and I swear Andrew and I both could have listened to him for a couple more :). Afterwards we stood in line to get some books autographed and actually get to say hello and thank you. What a nice man! Of course I forgot my camera but Andrew’s phone take decent pics so we used that!

It was one of the best evenings of my life, and one I hope Andrew thinks of that way too.

A giveaway!!

2011-11-05T00:08:00.001-05:00

Okay, this is really cool. Go here, to Robyn’s World, a blog written by a mom I know irl. She’s hosting a giveaway of a neat set of custom flashcards from Goosie. Go check them out! I think they would be awesome for helping Jack and Dasha with their communication skills. Jack’s ST mentioned last week that it would be great if I could bring in some photos of things around the house and family members that he is familiar with, for use in matching games and identifying. These would be perfect! Good luck (but I really hope I win!)

Yesterday was the official start date of the Angel Tree!

2011-11-02T20:20:00.001-05:00

And of course, I was not efficient enough to make a post yet!

But the good news is we have Daniel’s button installed so you can click on his pic which will take you to the Angel Tree page of Reece’s Rainbow. Just click on the link to see the Angels, scroll down to Daniel’s picture, and you can use the “donate” box to send him a tax deductible donation! If your donation is $35 or more, you will be able to receive a beautiful Reece’s Rainbow ornament with Daniel’s picture on it for your tree. Or you can decline the ornament (but I am totally getting one!). ANY donation is greatly appreciated!

There are other ways to donate as well:

1. Send a check to Reece’s Rainbow (also tax deductible)

Reece's Rainbow
PO Box 4024
Gaithersburg, MD 20885

(Please make sure you mark the check for Daniel 2H)

2. Send cash or a check to me and I PROMISE to get it to Daniels’ account. (I have the comments on moderate so leave me a comment with your e-mail and I will send you my address.) The only drawback to this plan is that your donation will not be tax deductible. But the money will still go to a WONDERFUL cause :).

Any way you’re able to donate, please let me know (leave me a comment or send me an e-mail) so I can give you a reward! I’m trying to figure out how to do a give-a-way (hints are appreciated).

Thank You!!

Jack’s 5th Birthday

2011-10-27T22:20:00.001-05:00

It was kind of a low key day. Jack doesn’t quite “get” the concept of a birthday and we didn’t have a big party (maybe this weekend). He did go to school where they sang him the “Happy Birthday” song. Then we got lunch out with our 2 favorite playmates, Braska and Kinlee at a playplace. Seemed like a good idea but Jack pooped, Braska went up and didn’t want to come down, Dasha couldn’t go up except for trying to climb up the slide, and Kiki was a generally unhappy camper most of the time. Okay now it sounds kinda funny but at the time RK and I could not get out of there fast enough :(.

We went home and both littles went down for a nap which Jack never ended up taking which is a bummer because he was cranky all evening when we tried to go to dinner with Grandma Judy. We didn’t even get to sample the yummy cupcakes our awesome neighbor Linda made. Or open any presents.

Oh well. This just prolonges the birthday celebrations! We got a few cute pics though -

The traditional Jack and Braska birthday photo (clearly neither kid was thrilled).

My view at dinner most of the time :(

Thank goodness he cheered up a little after we got home and pj’d and ready for bed!!

I can’t even believe how much I love this little boy. I also can’t believe it’s been FIVE years since his birth! I can remember nearly every minute of that day like yesterday.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CAP’N JACK!!!!!

Halloween Preview

2011-10-26T23:12:00.001-05:00

My sweet little preschoolers had their Halloween parties (or what ever we’re supposed to be calling it now) today. So last weekend I began to seriously look for costumes. Every year Jack is something that has “Jack” in it – Jack-o-lantern, jack hammer, etc. But this year I wanted to do something with the 2 of them together and couldn’t think of ANYTHING. (If you do, please let me know for the future!) So I went through the costume box downstairs and found the cow costume that fit Miss D :). I did buy a new hat to go with it since the one that came with it was horrible. So for Jack? Easy. The farmer! My uncle sent him a hat a couple of years ago after Jack loved his (he’s a real farmer donchakno?) so I bought overalls and a plaid shirt (which I love on him btw so he’ll wear it lots) and voila – a farmer and cow.

And they seem okay with them. It’s always tricky to find a costume your kid will wear and can be adapted to this crazy weather we’re having. Halloween could be 30 degrees or 80 here! So at Jack’s party they did some face painting; or in Jack’s case, hand painting.

After I took the pic of them together Jack insisted I take this one of his painted hands (and he had to be looking at them too apparently). What a precious little boy. How did I get to be so lucky to be mommy to these 2 precious sweethearts?!

Blog Hop

2011-10-21T20:32:00.004-05:00

Bear with me - I have no idea what I'm doing with this! But it sounds like a whole lot of fun.

Check this out:

Orthotics

2011-10-18T22:37:00.003-05:00

One of the possible and fairly common traits of Ds is low muscle tone. This results in the "floppy-ness" of most newborns with Ds. In our case, low tone is why Jack didn't even hold his head up for such a long time, like close to 6 mos. Also that's why he rolled over later, sat up later, and walked later. Also with the walking, our Jack rolled his ankles in slightly when he did learn to stand and begin walking, so our physical therapist recommended some orthotics to help him keep his foot/ankle in proper alignment while his muscles strengthened and learned to line up without support. I have a pic of his first pair somewhere; I'll find it. Until last year, Jack wore his Suresteps whenever he wore shoes. Last year he got new shoe inserts nicknamed hot dogs. They just sit inside the bottom of his shoe and support the sole of the foot, instead of going up over his ankles too.

When Dasha came home she got Suresteps too. She had such tiny little feet when she first got home. Her pt told us they would grow when she started being able to use them more and by gosh they sure did! So Miss D grew out of her Suresteps after a few months.

Right now Jack and Dasha are both waiting for new hot dogs, hopefully they'll be in this week and then both kids can get new shoes to wear with them. Maybe I can get them matching shoes, or the girl version and the boy version of a shoe! Pics to come (posting this from a different computer than the one all the pics are on!)

Wedding

2011-10-16T00:05:00.001-05:00

I know that I am supposed to be blogging all about Ds this month. But life is still moving along and today was a super big huge very important day that has nothing to do with Ds or my 2 littles.

Today was the wedding day of a boy that is not actually related to me. However, he's been Andrew's best buddy since kindergarten, he's spent lots of time in my house, he's gone on vacation with us and camping with us, and I love him as much as any of my nieces or nephews. What an emotional day!

Tony and Taylor, we love you both lots, and wish you every bit of happiness in the years to come. We’re so glad to have been a part of your amazingly special day!

Ds fact for today

2011-10-14T13:26:00.003-05:00

ds fact for today: ds has several physical characteristics that can include low muscle tone, flatter nasal bridge than usual, a bit of a slant &/or extra folds of skin at the corners of the eyes, smaller, low-set ears, and a large gap between the big toe and the other toes. This is not a comprehensive list, nor does a baby have to have all of these features. Also there is no correlation between physical features and mental comprehension. Since there is pretty much always some degree of mental retardation (which only means the person probably has some delay in learning skills), this is important to remember.

Jack has always had better gross motor skills than speech/language. He uses several signs and now has many words that he uses and I think other people can understand him too.

Dasha seems to be following along Jack's footsteps. She's stronger in gross motor but right now she has NO words. She makes sounds and sometimes they are very purposeful - she's trying to repeat what we are saying but it doesn't come out just right. She understands pretty much everything we say to her though, and she has several signs that she uses (more, drink, all done, book, bath, go school).

The important thing is, both of them are growing, learning (in their own time), and healthy!

And a blast from the past:

Homecoming!

2011-10-11T21:21:00.001-05:00

I almost forgot to post about this! Every year we watch the homecoming parade our high school has. My high school didn’t do that so I’ve always thought it was cool. From the time my older kids were in elementary school, I’d take whoever was with me and go up to the parking lot and watch the high schoolers as they enjoyed their time to be silly. We get to sit right on the curb! There’s always a firetruck and police car as well as several floats created by each class and several clubs or groups. And of course all the homecoming attendants :).

Andrew walked the parade every year as a member of the football team and I was a little bummed that we wouldn’t have anybody walking to cheer for this year but M came to the rescue! The orchestra class decided to do a float which turned into a pick-up but they all threw candy anyway!

There’s my Madelyn getting ready to toss her little brother and sister some candy!

That night we went to the football game – Dasha’s first!

We all had a great time! We won! As a matter of fact our team id now at 7-0! Too bad this great season is happening after Andrew’s time with them though.

And then of course, the Homecoming Dance was Saturday. M and Charlie looked great, as usual!

Poor Jack isn’t feeling so great

2011-10-11T20:20:00.001-05:00

I was going to say that Jack isn’t feeling so hot but of course that is exactly the problem – he is hot. Right around 104, says the thermometer. This started on Sat. Jack felt a little warm and was much less busy than usual. Sun he seemed fine. Mon morning, a little warm again. No actual fever, but he was just not himself. Today, Wed, he felt warm again but no actual fever and coughing. I’ve had a heckuva headache all day so after Jack got up from nap he and I were hanging out in the recliner. Just before dinner I felt his head again. HOT. I forced some ibuprofen into him and he’s drowsing here next to me in my bed (we put Daddy in charge and escaped from the craziness in the living room). He’s just so dang sad. Poor baby. Dasha doesn’t understand why he doesn’t want to play. Hope she doesn’t up with it too.

Jack and Dasha’s sibs

2011-10-08T16:21:00.001-05:00

Fact About Down Syndrome : In a recent study by Brian Skotko, M.D. it was found that among siblings ages 12 and older, 97 percent expressed feelings of pride about their brother or sister with Down syndrome and 88 percent were convinced they were better people because of their sibling with Down syndrome.

Pretty cool, I think. So far, my oldest 3 seem to enjoy their little siblings. Madelyn wants to show them off all the time. All of them come home from school or wherever and greet them and carry them around and play with them. And if any of the older 3 sit down, forget it! There’s a little person on or right next to them! So precious!

Andrew seems to be a preferred target. He’s the sturdiest and has the most “holding” space! All he has to do is remain in one spot for more than 3 seconds and see what happens?? I love it!!

I knew I wouldn't make it :(

2011-10-06T10:20:00.002-05:00

Yep, missed yesterday. Oh well, this will be a very short, cheating, catch-up post.

I think I will get in writing what I would like to remember to blog about this month:

-Jack and Dasha's heart issues
-J & D's school, therapists, therapies, orthotics
-more facts (I will be mostly stealing these from other bloggers or fb posts!)
-information about Reece's Rainbow and kids with Ds from Eastern Europe
-the ever-popular, "21 Facts about Jackson" (I'm saving D's for her birthday, which is, in a cool twist, on Mar.21st!)
-more stuff from past posts

Anything else???

2011-10-04T22:40:00.002-05:00

It's a widely known fact that when mothers are told the babies they are carrying have Ds, most of them terminate. A statistic I hear/see over and over again is 90%. 9 out of 10 women eliminate the baby they are carrying. To me, that is shocking. I also hear that it is very common for most ob's to encourage this termination, often citing out-of-date or incorrect information about what such a baby would be like.

I was lucky. My Dr gave me the news and told me I had "options" if I cared to discuss them. I did not. If you want to go back and read about how we foud out that Jack would have Down syndrome, go here. My Dr got me in touch with the Down syndrome Association and said "okay, then we will treat this pregnancy as any other unless we learn we have some other health concerns". And we did. We laughed about my weight gain, and how active Jack was, and took bets on my measurements at each visit. He's an awesome Dr and I am grateful he took care of us until Jack was born.

I want to feel sad for these other moms. Clearly I should; they are missing out. Ds has brought much joy into my life and I am grateful. But I am mostly angry and irritated at them. I hope to become more enlightened and forgiving at some point. I have some amazing friends who are leading me that direction but I'm not quite there yet.

I mean, look what they are missing out on:

3 days old and I was already head over heels in love.

What can kids with Ds do??

2011-10-03T22:48:00.002-05:00

Well, let's see.....

(Clearly, this will be a partial list only. There's no way I could ever cover an entire list! But I am going to come up with 21 things about each of my cuties with Ds during this month, so this will be a little start.)

Dasha loves to "read" books. Hopefully she'll do it on her own some day. I'll probably be in trouble for posting this pic, but she loves her grandma too and I thought it was sweet.

Dasha is also learning signs, loves to swing, and RUN while holding someone's hand, she wrestles with her brothers, and she gets really excited to go to school each day.

Jack is learning to use the computer! He asks for this web series called Bunny Bop. He loves to watch videos on youtube sometimes too, especially Laurie Berkner and Veggie Tales songs. He can even hit the play button to start them over!

Jack plays with the dog, has excellent ab strength, loves Elmo, can use a fork and spoon, and gives super duper hugs and kisses! (He loves to kiss "owies". The other day I tripped on something walking into the kitchen and said "OW!!" really loud. He ran in and gave me such a nice smooch on my foot. It was the sweetest thing!)

Both kids love watching Signing Time videos, eating cheerios for snacks, removing the bookmark from anyone's book left unattended, and pushing doll strollers around as fast as they can!

And both are loved so very much!

Fact #1

2011-10-02T22:22:00.004-05:00

Not sure how many facts I'll get to, but here's the first one :)

Fact About Down Syndrome #1: There are 3 types of Down syndrome - Nondisjunction which makes up about 94% of all cases, it means every cell has an extra 21st chromosome. (This is what Jack and Dasha both have.).
Translocation makes up 3-4% of all cases. This can be (but is not always) an inherited form of Down syndrome.
Mosaic makes up 2% of all cases. This means that not every cell has the extra chromosome, only some of them do.
The diagnosis of Down syndrome is made by a chromosome analysis test called a Karyotype.

Here it is again - Down syndrome Awareness month!

2011-10-01T20:55:00.002-05:00

Last year I signed up to blog every day for the month of October. That didn't exactly go so well. I'm not a great blogger most of the time anyway, but a post every day?? Yeah I wasn't able to pull it off. So instead of disappointing myself again, this year I did not formally commit, but I'm going to do my best to post several times a week.

Some things I'm thinking about are Ds facts, past posts about Jack's birth, diagnosis, etc., and stuff about Dasha (her country's views on Ds and the adoption procedure, stuff like that). Pretty much anyone who might read this blog already knows all this, but I might think of something new :).

I've started out with a pic of my cuties with Ds! Time to get out our yellow and blue Ds awareness ribbons and think about Jack's birthday! He'll be 5 at the end of the month - how the heck did that happen?!?!

9-11-01

2011-09-11T20:03:00.002-05:00

It was a normal Tues. Got 2 kids up, ready, and on the bus to school. Ty was 2, and we had a meeting with a Parents As Teachers educator, to check how my little guy was growing and learning. As I was doing my usual last minute "pick up the house and make it look like we don't live like pigs" routine, the phone rang. My neighbor Terry said "did you hear about the planes crashing into the towers in NYC?". So I turned on the tv. Ty didn't understand but he saw something that looked like one of his big brothers video games and kept saying "cool!!". We had a new puppy that had to go out often. I sat watching the tv all day, kleenex box on the coffee table, disbelief rolling out of my eyes. We put the kids in my room to watch videos that evening. We were glued to the coverage and entered a fog that didn't go away for weeks.

I am a chicken. I haven't watched ANY of the anniversary shows. The thought of it makes me cry. I can so easily go back and feel that day.

No, I won't ever forget.

Everyone is back to school :(

2011-09-09T15:16:00.001-05:00

Andrew technically started first. He’s in college this year. He’s attending a local community college, this year and maybe next year. He participated in a program in high school where the state pays his tuition for a minimum grade point avg, min. attendance, and participation in a mentor program at another of the schools in the district. One of his classes was an “intro to college” kind of class and he took it the week before the rest of classes started.

My big boy, going to his first college class:

The next week, the middle kids started. Madelyn is a sophomore this year and Tyler is a 7th grader. They both start much earlier than last year. I am not a morning person – I think the school district is trying to kill me!

My middle kids:

(What a trauma getting this pic! Too much smiling, not enough smiling, too giggly, not looking at me, just general silliness!)

And then the little kids started the week after that. They both go mornings, Mon. – Thurs. Dasha is in the classroom that Jack was in last year and Jack has the teacher he had his first year at school. They both like going (but are happy to see me when I pick them up – yay!).

This is actually after school, since I wasn’t efficient enough to get one before! Jack decided to help Miss K clean the classroom, so she provided him a plastic glove which he wore until I made him take it off for lunch! What a goof ball!!

So things are going okay. Too stinkin’ early for me, and M has crazy amounts of homework daily, but everyone is adjusting. (Me – I’m still mourning summer break and waiting for the next one!)

Lake Trip – part 2

2011-08-10T13:53:00.001-05:00

Everybody loves water. We have all decided that we should live here!

Dasha has learned to swim! See how far away she got by herself? She’s really out there!

Okay, just kidding. Andrew is with her but we made him go under for the pic! See the ripply spot to the left of Dashlyn? That’s him.

And here’s the house and dock and the dock and boat– it’s the last one in the cove. Best spot on the lake! It’s shallow enough that we can stand until you get just about 1/2 way across the cove, but deep enough to dock a boat. And very calm water – rarely do we get big waves so it’s super good swimming. Perfect!

I have to show off the inside of the house. My in-laws are updating a bit (even though it was already gorgeous) so there’s no flooring but there will be some beautiful Pergo down soon. It’s a lake house so it’s all about easy maintenance ya know!

The kitchen:

And 2 of the living room:

I didn’t take any of the bedrooms or bathrooms – I forgot. (The upstairs bath is really cute.) Next year I can post pics of those rooms and the pretty new floor!

Thanks Mom & Dad! We had an amazing time!

Lake Trip – part 1

2011-07-31T23:56:00.001-05:00

My in-laws are so nice to let us use their vacation home and we go usually every year for a week or so. It’s so much fun and a relaxing trip. Miss D got to go on her first boat ride! And swim in the lake! Those life jackets for little kids called puddle jumpers are awesome! Jack & Dasha both love them. And both felt confident enough to swim (or float) independently.

We love hanging out in the house:

And hanging out on Grandpa’s cool boat is even better!

Jack loves to drive!

Of course Dasha had to try it too!

More pics to come!

Family Float Trip

2011-07-31T13:11:00.000-05:00

I guess I forgot to post this long ago back at the beginning of July when we went. Oh well, it was still fun!

Dasha’s first float trip! I think this was Jack’s 4th :). This year we had 3 rafts, 8 canoes, and 2 kayaks. There was about 3 fewer people on the trip. Everyone stayed in campers (no cabins this year). We had beautiful weather. The kids enjoyed hanging out on the river bank to swim and eat lunch. It was so hot this year we didn’t enjoy campfires like we have in the past, but it was still nice to visit and just relax. Dashlyn was, as expected, a big hit!

Uncle Dave declared this a kid-free zone but guess who did not get kicked out?!?!?!?

Lunch anyone?

Everyone takes turns hanging out with these 2 awesome, precious, fun little ones! How did we get so lucky to have them in our family?

My amazing view:

M getting ready to jump off a cliff – and I let her! (Even in a life jacket, look how gorgeous she is!)

And we took our usual family photo – us in our blue shirts! Someone got a great shot of the WHOLE family – but it wasn’t me :(. I’ll steal it and post it later!

2 exciting meet-ups

2011-07-08T00:32:00.001-05:00

And unfortunately, my pictures are not so great.

First off, my kiddos and I got to hang out with Braska and her mom, RK and her sister Kinlee. Not so unusual, right? But this time the Loraine family was there (including newest member Oksana, home from Ukraine about a year now) and the Stumbo family (with former Ukrainian Nina, home for about a year and a half). We met at an indoor play place where the kids (and the grown-ups) had lots of fun! Of course we forgot to line up our little former orphans for a pic, but I do have one from meet-up #2, which you’ll have to wait for! But here’s what I did get:

Dasha loved the slide :)

Jack loved all of it!

And they both loved Nina’s walker!!

The next day we had meet-up #2 with guess who? Well, besides RK and her girls, the Loraines and Stumbos again, and my awesome friend Adrienne, we caught the Garcia's on their way to their new home in CO from TN. It was my first time meeting up with the famous Kennedy and family :). The kids are just as cute in person as they are in cyberspace and Kassidy is just as sweet! Again, my camera readiness was sadly lacking so not a lot of great pics but I did get a few:

Moms – Renee, Adrienne, Ellen, RK, Erin, and me.

All 4 adopted Ukrainian princesses – Oksana, Kellsey, Dashlyn, and Nina.

And my sweet Jackson (trying to stay out of the girlie pic!).

If I can get pics from some of the other moms I’ll try to post again!

Cutest Thing Ever!

2011-07-07T21:57:00.001-05:00

I was sitting on the couch folding laundry this morning. I try to sort into piles as I go. Jack decided to help, and pulled shirts out of the basket to “fold” and put on a stack. Oh, how I LOVE him! Can you see his pile?? So dang cute!

Awesome, cool, must-see blog post

2011-07-02T23:04:00.001-05:00

No, not mine! (Though it would be cool if it was mine.) No, this post was written by a new friend, Tammy, whose daughter Joy wrote and sings a beautiful song. The link was sent to me by another friend, Cindy. I know Cindy IRL (in real life), and Cindy knows we adopted Dashlyn and how our hearts have changed since we learned about these sweet orphans. So she sent the link and I went to check it out and was so moved I wrote to Tammy to ask if I could share her daughter’s song with all of you. She was so generous and said “yes! please do!”. So here ya go – click HERE to hear the song &/or read the words. And don’t be surprised if you enjoy the rest of Tammy’s blog as well!

Andrew is 18

2011-06-28T00:14:00.000-05:00

I know I’ve had a lot of Andrew posts lately, but that’s what’s going on with us right now. Maybe you can stand one more?

We threw maybe his last birthday party (do 18 yr old boys have birthday parties?). He wanted a fire pit in the backyard which sounded easy so we said “great!”. Then we thought “we have an old swingset that needs to come down….hmmm”. Guess what happened next?

Getting started:

I mentioned my “extra” kid before right? This is why I love him!

Does this look like “rushing” the swing set to you? Yep, that’s what’s happening!

The little kids got to enjoy some cookie cake with the guys before bed.

Happy Birthday to my biggest boy! We love you, we’re proud of you, and we hope you have an awesome year!!

Paaaaar-taaaay!!

2011-06-27T00:11:00.001-05:00

Yesterday was Andrew’s graduation party – finally!! The party was for Andrew and 5 buddies so it was busy, loud, and FUN!! Jack and Dasha were a little too busy for this momma while we were setting up so they spent a little time in their car seats (he he).

A little table surfing is the best way to make sure it’s sturdy, right?

We made up shirts for the guys. We got Sharpies and let the guys sign each other’s (and some of the rest of us signed them too!).

It isn’t a party without cake!

I can’t believe it’s over. I’m excited for Andrew’s future, but I am gonna miss his high school years, his friends, all the fun. What an awesome 4 years it has been. Love you guys, and especially my amazing, intelligent, super fun first-born son. Your dad and I could not be more proud of you!

My Baby is a High School Graduate!

2011-06-11T16:32:00.001-05:00

We haven’t had the party yet. And I still have to get a good picture taken of him. But it happened – the graduation ceremony at the high school.

On his way out the door -

He’s in the middle -

And here are a few of the boys -

Our crew that will be partying together -

These 3 are super special – they started kindergarten together, all us moms were friends for awhile, and now they are headed in different directions. This is quite possibly the last time all 3 will be together. I’m so proud of them, but my heart hurts at the thought that this time of Andrew’s life is over.

And here are the 2 who’s laughter was completely infectious and who’s jokes and general conversations keep me endlessly entertained. I will miss the 2 of them together as much as I miss my best friend from high school, who still (thank you God) is my sounding board for all aspects of my life even though we now live 600 miles apart and it’s not the same. Good luck in everything you do Tony!

We had a little, casual celebration at home, with Andrew opening his cards and everyone eating lots of dessert :)

Congratulations my firstborn. Your dad and I cannot express how proud we are of you and everything your future holds. You already have more common sense than many adults we know. You’re becoming responsible and self-reliant. And c’mon – a 34 on your ACT?!?! Who gets that?! Love you so much!!!!

Jack went to a birthday party!

2011-05-22T10:53:00.002-05:00

We got the invite a few weeks ago. It was from one of his school friends, a typical child, so I wasn't sure how he would do. His teacher said every little boy in class was invited. But we went. It was at a kids' gym, so there were things to hang on and roll down and jump over. (I will edit this to post pics after I get them uploaded.) But Jack. did. AWESOME. I was so proud. He hung and rolled and jumped just like everyone else. They did a circle activity where they held a scarf and ran around in a circle and stood on it and waved it up in the air and by golly he did it all. He was slower to do it, and watched everyone else for a second before he did, but he did it. I had to herd him when it was time to transition from one activity to another, so it was kind of nice that I got to see how he responded (I'm thinking IEP info here). They sat at a table and had cake. It was served with a spoon. He cried when he had trouble with the spoon. I said to one concerned looking parent next to me "I think he would do better with a fork". BAM, a fork appeared! And he did great with it. They served pizza (yes, after the cake). And his piece was too big for him to hold so again, fussing. I switched it with a smaller piece he could hold, and he smiled so big. And ate his pizza. He drank lemonade out of an open cup and he threw away his trash when he was done without any promting from me! He said thank you when given his goodie bag. And said bye to his friend.

He was the only child with any special need there.

It was an awesome party!

Once Again, I’m Behind on my Blog

2011-05-17T14:58:00.001-05:00

So to catch us all up, we had the annual All District Orchestra Concert for our school district. That’s when all the orchestra students have a big concert together, and since my big 3 all play violin it’s really cool to see/hear them all together. As usual, it was awesome! But sad too, since it was Andrew’s last one. I didn’t cry though!

I made it through yet another Mother’s Day :). I was given a delicious breakfast made by my super hubby, a card signed by all the kids, and while M and I did some shopping, hubby mopped the kitchen floor for me! Who wouldn’t love that??

After we had lunch today and I was cleaning up in the kitchen, Jackson came in, handed me the remote, and said (WITH WORDS) and signed “Signing Time” and pointed at the living room where we watch TV. Yes, he’s said that before, and signed it before, but this was completely unprompted, and with visual aids!! How excited was I?!?! So did we watch? OH YEAH!! We lucked into an amazing deal last month when Signing Time had a sale, so now we have a bunch of DVD’s to pick from. Jack and Dasha love to watch, and the rest of us have picked up several signs that we use all the time. M and I used them a few days ago when we were at Wal Mart and didn’t want to yell at each other across the store ;).

Next up, graduation. Lord help me. It’s seriously killing me that my baby will be done with all 12 grades and going to college. Some days I can’t breathe. Where did the time go?? When did he get so big, and smart, and handsome?? He shaves. He drives. When he answers the phone people think he’s his dad. Very soon he’ll be gone, out of our house, living far away. How I will miss him….

What happens when it hails

2011-05-09T20:32:00.001-05:00

We have a tiny house. We’re comfortable here, and we’ve done lots of updating. Of course I have along ways to go, sorting and getting rid of unused things, and organizing in a better way, but we do love our little piece of the world. And our cars! Our little house was blessed with a lovely, large, oversize garage. M and I were rear-ended about 6 weeks ago, did I mention that? The other driver’s insurance fixed our beloved ride so even though it’s now 7 years old, it’s as good as new :). And my someday fully restored classic Camaro also deserves plenty of love. So when the weather got ugly and hail was threatened, we had to take drastic measures.

Unfortunately, the car didn’t quite fit all the way in, so we improvised with cardboard, fender protectors, and swim noodles!

Thankfully, the weather seems to have moved past the spring craziness (hopefully) and we don’t need to worry about hail anymore ‘til next year.

Day 4

2011-04-23T13:03:00.001-05:00

A weird hobby or collection

Can’t think of anything weird. I scrapbook, like to read, have several favorite movies. I used to collect Cherished Teddies, little ceramic bears from Hallmark, but they quit making them. I still have them, they’re so cute.

Oh, I got it! I have every watch I’ve ever owned. 99% of them don’t work because they’re broken or need a battery, but they’re in my jewelry box in my room. I always say I’ll get them fixed soon, or maybe not!

Day 3

2011-04-23T12:57:00.001-05:00

Photos from your wedding

I have to come back to this one because I’m so old that my wedding pics need to be scanned and I’m having issues with that process. So, I’ll skip to the next one!

Wordless Wednesday

2011-04-13T23:10:00.001-05:00

I’m gonna give it a go:

Not All Days are All Super Happy

2011-04-08T23:48:00.001-05:00

Sometimes we just have one of those days. When you just feel crabby. She looks innocent enough, right? Just chillin’ out on the floor.

But when she rolls around this is what I was hearing before:

Every time I took a pic, Jack said, “cheese!”. Encouraging her to smile for the camera. Even the extra fluffy pillow didn’t help too much.

Finally I turned the camera on him. “What should she do Jack? Say cheese?”. So he showed me what you’re supposed to do when mommy has the camera out!

How I absolutely adore this little boy!!

Go Visit my Friend Sarah's blog!

2011-04-08T09:58:00.001-05:00

Sarah and her family are bringing home "Taylah", who is just adorable! (Click on Sarah's name to go to the blog.)

See? Isn't she precious?!

And if you scroll down to the Apr 2 post on Sarah's blog, you will see a fun, free givaway! All she asks is that you share her blog (on your blog or facebook or Twitter, or whatever), become a follower of her blog, or follow Reece's Rainbow on Twitter to qualify for a chance to enter. Easy, right? And check the prize - so cute!

There are SOOOOO many family bringing home kids through Reece's Rainbow right now. It's amazing and awesome. I'll be trying to post about a family weekly. They can all use our support and encouragement, even if that means just a quick prayer. Maybe it's because I'm super nosy, but I love "meeting" these families and getting to know them a little and following their journey to bring home a little one (or two, sometimes).

Day 2

2011-04-01T23:22:00.001-05:00

Take a photo of a random part of your day and tell us about it:

Okay, I admit this photo was not taken today, but it could have been! I looked for the messiest one I could find and this is it, even though it certainly isn’t the messiest this room usually is. At least once, sometimes twice or 3 times a day I pick up all the toys and put them where they live. Then I do it again the next day. I gate them in sometimes, helps contain the mess! The 2 littles have lots of fun playing, wrestling, and making messes. I’m working on a plan to have “table time” every day where we get out play dough or one of the many toys I’ve put away to play with only under supervision since parts and pieces seem to disappear when I let them be available whenever. Until now I haven’t had the energy ;). So that’s our typical day, playing, watch Signing Time, take Jack to school and pick him up, feed people, clean something.

Day 1

2011-03-28T20:46:00.000-05:00

Meaning Behind Your Blog Name

This one is easy. When we were expecting Jack, we had to pick out his name. We knew he was a boy, and the whole family LOVED the Pirates of the Caribbean movies (I admit it, I was obsessed.) Cap’n Jack Sparrow was the most interesting, fun character we’d seen. We wanted our little baby with Down syndrome to have a fun and easy name that also could be strong. Jack fit perfectly. So we named him Jackson because all the kids have ended up with names that can be shortened. When I started the blog, we already knew our little guy was running the house, hence we’re all the crew! Adding “The Adventures” wasn’t very original, but it worked. And of course now that we have Dashlyn, she’s another member of the crew! I keep thinking I should change the header pic to one of all of us, but I’ll have to get one taken first!

30 Day Challenge

2011-03-27T12:29:00.001-05:00

So my friend Shelley decided to start this 30 day callenge to get herself back into the blogging mood. Since my blog has been a bit neglected lately, I figured it wouldn't kill me to try it too. The goal is to write one post a day with each of these as the topic:

Day 0: The 30 Day Challenge Explanation and Description
Day 1: Meaning behind your blog name
Day 2: Take a photo of a random part of your day and tell us about it
Day 3: Photos from your wedding
Day 4: A weird hobby or collection
Day 5: A song that means a lot to you
Day 6: A random picture that makes you happy
Day 7: Favorite books
Day 8: A place you've traveled to
Day 9: Your favorite quote
Day 10: Something you're afraid of
Day 11: TV shows that your currently addicted to
Day 12: Something you don't leave the house without
Day 13: A photo that makes you laugh
Day 14: A website you love to visit
Day 15: Share a Bible verse
Day 16: Describe your dream house
Day 17: What’s in your purse?
Day 18: Photos from around your town
Day 19: Something you miss
Day 20: Nicknames
Day 21: Favorite Movies
Day 22: Share the oldest photo that’s saved on your computer
Day 23: Something you fear
Day 24: A photo of somewhere beautiful
Day 25: 3 things you hope to accomplish by the end of the year
Day 26: Something that stresses you out
Day 27: Your favorite poem
Day 28: A photo of the inside of your car
Day 29: 5 things you are thankful for
Day 30: a picture from today

I'll try to keep to the schedule but I may take liberties with the "post a day" part of this challenge! Wish me luck!

THE Birthday Party!

2011-03-27T00:43:00.001-05:00

Today was The Party. The party to celebrate Dashlyn’s 3rd birthday. Also Madelyn’s 15th birthday and Dashlyn’s first EVER birthday party. There were balloons and presents and cake and ice cream! Most importantly, there were family and special friends to celebrate the life of a special little girl with Down syndrome. I could post a whole album of pictures, but I’ll try to whittle it down to just a few:

My 2 beautiful daughters:

Presents:

Family and Friends:

Cake!

There’s so much more to write about. Like how the family members who haven’t seen Dasha since Christmas were so impressed by how well she’s doing. And how I got all teary when everyone was singing “Happy Birthday”. And the way she looked when I put her into bed; so tired and sleepy and happy. It was a super awesome party and tonight I am one tired and happy mommy.

Awesome Video

2011-03-20T23:38:00.001-05:00

Please watch the video with sound on. It shows the beauty of our sweet kids with Down syndrome. I bet you’ll see a few familiar faces too!

Sending lots of love to our Down syndrome family! I honestly don’t know what I would do without you all!

I’ve Been Having a Bad Week

2011-03-20T12:09:00.001-05:00

Andrew and Madelyn are gone on their orchestra trip so I miss them of course but they are having a fun and wonderful experience with school friends so that is just a teeny part of my sadness this week.

This is a big part. My friend Stephanie posted about Carrington. She was in Dasha’s orphanage. I just don’t have the words. My heart breaks for her and her new mommy and daddy. Stephanie has also set up a chip-in for anyone who would like to help support the family financially while Carrington is in the hospital. Click here to see info on that. Summer and Jill have written beautiful posts about sweet Carrington too.

This is the other big part. A family had their court date this week to bring home their sweet boy from EE. The judge said no. I don’t think I could breathe for several minutes when I read that. NO. A little, harsh, heartbreaking word. Our court date was the most anticipated, terrifying day of my life; but we were granted permission to make our little girl ours! What if we weren’t? Another adoptive mom, Julia, has written their story and explained far better than I could. Please read and pray for them too.

My “Gotcha” Day

2011-03-09T20:40:00.000-06:00

Yep, mine. Gotcha day is a big day in the life of adoptive parents; huge. It’s the day they get custody of their child; sometimes the very first day they laid eyes on that child. It’s every bit as important as the day you give birth and sometimes the parents worked waaaaaay harder for this day than if they had given birth. I’ve done both and Dasha’s Gotcha day was every bit as meaningful as emotional as any of the birthdays of my other babies.

I was adopted as a wee little girl, not quite 6 weeks old. My parents didn’t get much notice that I was coming. They had to borrow most all the neccessary baby equipment, and I was at the baby shower thrown for my mom. The pictures of my mom and dad as new parents are awesome. They look so young, and happy. Well, you know I was kinda cute! So, Happy A Day Mom and Dad! I love you very much!

What we’ve been up to

2011-03-01T22:07:00.001-06:00

Not much, which is good, I guess. Some days I have so many things floating around in my head and other days, nothing. This past week or so has been nothing. But we’ve managed to entertain ourselves anyway:

Chillin in the recliner:

Hangin’with Grandma and Grandpa H:

Playing this game where Jack makes us all imitate him (this is his latest favorite thing to make us do):

And guess what day is was??? Baking day!!! German chocolate cake cupcakes! Thanks neighbor Linda!

I Don’t Think Dr. Suess Had This in Mind…

2011-02-19T18:19:00.001-06:00

Even though it IS cute -

We had our local Ds group playdate this morning and I got to break out these cute shirts I bought last summer. There were 2 more “Things” at the playdate – can you guess who they were? Maybe I’ll get pics of them too. If not I’m thinking we’ll be getting all the Things together soon for a big photo shoot before they all grow out of their shirts!

Valentine’s Day

2011-02-15T14:38:00.001-06:00

Almost too late but since it was yesterday I can still post today, right?! Jack started with a cough over the weekend and that turned into a fever so he didn’t go to school. We missed the school party :(. But we sent his Valentine’s to school with Braska to drop off in his classroom so maybe he will have some when he goes back. It would have jammie day for everyone but Dasha had speech so she and I got dressed. Good thing because she had to wear some pink, right? And I’ve been experimenting with hair bow making (so fun!!) so here’s our newest attempt:

As per our usual, everyone got some yummy chocolate and the kids got some little gifts (M got bed sheets poor thing!). Dashlyn got a cute baby doll stroller/walker.

Jack sat at the table until he put his head down and I realized he was about to pass out. Excellent mommy that I am, I forgot to give him his next dose of ibuprofen. I gave him his medicine and let him chill on the couch while we finished dinner (complete with pink mashed potatoes). Soon enough he perked up (that stuff is magic) and we got him to pose on the couch with D:

What should we do first?

Show off our tummies!

That was so funny!

Cupcakes!

2011-02-05T23:35:00.001-06:00

Every so often our neighbor Linda decides it’s baking day. Since she and her husband don’t want to eat most of an entire cake or batch of cookies, she sends the rest over here to us. Terrible, right? I mean, YUM! Today, it was cupcakes with pink icing and Valentine’s sprinkles. Guess who enjoyed her very first cupcake today??

I wish we had thought to take a picture of her face! I think she ended up wearing as much icing as eating it!

I would feel bad about this but…..

2011-02-01T23:16:00.001-06:00

it all comes from love, right? Just because she’s new, it doesn’t mean we can’t giggle at Dasha like we giggle at each other. So in that spirit, can you say “Why so serious…..”

(That was Andrew’s idea!) And insert some clever line from the Hulk here -

(Yay Christmas cookies in Feb.!)

And this will undoubtably win me the mother of the year award. The other day Jack and Dashlyn were playing in the kitchen. I was keeping an ear on them and they were fine. Until I heard the little girl yelling and I ran to see what happened to her. I took a quick look and ran to get the camera before I “fixed” the problem (true blogger that I am!). I was cracking up:

She wasn’t hurt, I promise! Just really mad that she was stuck! Have I mentioned that this girl is THE bull in the china shop? And she’s fearless? And so far we haven’t found a girly bone in her body?? She’s the perfect sister for Jack and I must admit, I’m getting a kick out of her spunky personality. Of course that also means she’s the queen of messes which makes me crazy sometimes. But she’s so stinkin’ cute!

We got snow!

2011-02-01T22:52:00.001-06:00

And my crazy husband and daughter went out in this winter snow/ice/sleet madness to try and buy milk! (They found some, btw.) Madelyn took this pic out the window and I thought it was really good. Look at the snow coming down! Really pretty! We’re supposed to be having a record storm and the grocery stores and even McDonalds closed this evening. Yay midwest!

So what do we do around here on snow days?? First off, it is essential that we remain wearing pj’s all day. Then there’s movies – today the featured presentation was “Jumanji”. Andrew tends to spend all his time on xbox. And the little kids have decided it’s fun to wrestle with big brother Tyler:

Dashlyn had to make an important call -

And Jackson decided to try flying lessons -

And we finished off the afternoon baking some Christmas cookies that didn’t get done in Dec. :)

Tomorrow we get to do it all again!!!

Miss D in the snow!

2011-01-20T22:58:00.001-06:00

We’ve had a bit of snow here lately and finally I decided it was time to see what she would do in the snow. So today Madelyn and I bundled up the kidlets and ventured out into the yard. Every year I go through this quandry about snow pants. Do we buy them or not? Usually I do not because they are kinda expensive and we only use them 2 or 3 times per year. This year we got lucky. I “inherited” some snow pants from from my friend Heather’s sister (Thanks Heidi!) size 3T. Then my awesome friend Denise sent Miss D a wonderful outfit with a nice warm jacket and pants, perfect for 10 minutes in the snow! Without further ado:

Everyone was having a great time!

The snow was fun to throw…

And fun to dig in!

And then we were DONE.

Snow Day!!

2011-01-20T22:45:00.001-06:00

One of my first posts when I started this blog was on a snow day. They are truly my favorite days of the school year. Not just because we get a little surprise break from routine, or because we get to sleep in, but because there is a peace about a suddenly free day with beautiful scenery. Today we hung out in our jammies, ate breakfast late, and broke out the spagettios for lunch. Check out my view:

Back yard

Front – looking up and down the street

And then we went out to play – next post :).

Head Wound

2011-01-17T20:11:00.002-06:00

This time it isn't one of the kids and actually, it's a lttle embarassing. I was moving things around in the van and tried to enter the back seat a little too........vigorously. Slammed my head into the door frame. Because (and only because) I promised Lori that I would, I'm posting a picture. It isn't the best because it's hard to take a picture of your own head without getting yourself in it! But check out the lump! Can you tell?

Remember that shutterfly promotion I told you about??

2011-01-07T16:24:00.002-06:00

With Love Chartreuse Christmas Card

Click here to browse hundreds of Christmas card designs.

View the entire collection of cards.

Here it is! It's awesome, right? I LOVE this card!

Quick Update on Dashlyn!

2010-12-18T23:35:00.002-06:00

The following is what I posted yesterday on Dashlyn's blog! Way overdue, but I finally put together a quick update on our girl!

It's so easy to make a post a day when you're bored in a foreign country and there's lots of time to kill!

I have lots to "report" but not enough time to write a decent post! So, here's a quick update:

Ther first few days Dashlyn slept. A lot. Not interested in eating. Finally we remembered we had some Pediasure out of a sippy cup and she loved it (very warmed up though). She got less sleepy as the week went on and by Fri I decided she was gonna eat (they said she ate great in the orphanage) and we tried oatmeal for breakfast. A hit! I think it helped that I had a booster seat for her and she, Jack, and I were all sitting at the table like it was serious eating time! Lunch and dinner went the same way and now (almost a week later) she eats like there is no tomorrow. She cries when we say "enough" which we have to do because she doesn't stop. I hope this a one of those stages, and when she realizes, yes, there will be another meal, she will stop the endless desire for food.

Her first bath was a disaster. After that, they got better. She smells so much better than she did at any time we visited her. She must have only had sponge baths; I'm sure she'd never sat in water before. She wants to be held all the time. I think it's like the food & when she realizes we aren't going anywhere she'll be okay not sitting on my lap or being carried everywhere. I'm humoring her as much as possible - she's been here 2 weeks tonight!

She has no clue what to do with toys. She doesn't stack anything, or look at books, or "play". She throws. We're saying "nyet" and trying to show her what to do with toys, but this will take some time. Also, she has no concept of "no" or "nyet" or "shtoy" or "stop". She laughs and smiles when we interact, she rides in a cart at Wal-Mart or the grocery store like a pro, she waves bye and blows kisses when grandma and grandpa leave after a visit! She cuddles. She accepts kisses and hair bows and getting her picture taken a hundred times per day.

She is AWESOME!! We are very thankful to have her, and still getting used to the fact that she is HERE!!

Check this out!!

2010-12-14T21:25:00.001-06:00

I heard about a wonderful opportunity to promote shutterfly! You’ve heard of them, right? You upload your photos to them and can get prints, enlargements, or almost unlimited special gifts featuring your own photos! I found them a couple of years ago and have since made several cute photo books from their photo gifts section. I’ve made one for each year of Jack’s life, and made a really cool one after we went on vacation last summer. You can get soft covers or hard but I love the hard cover ones – they look so professional. My dad always borrows them to show to his friends ;). I plan to make one that shows what all we went through adopting Dashlyn. It’ll be all girly and pink (because I love pink ya know!).

You can make all kinds of personalized gifts. Calendars, Holiday cards, and address labels are only the beginning. This year I’ve been looking over the amazing collection of Christmas cards and found a few I want to send out. Since we have a new kid at home this year (hee hee) it’ll be fun to have her included on a card that I can personalize by adding our photos and whatever message I want to.

The awesomest part?? Shutterfly is giving 50 free Christmas cards away to anyone who will blog about their fabulous and fun site. So, thank you Shutterfly for offering this opportunity to share about your company while also giving such a great gift!

Gee, I’m just a little behind here

2010-11-29T10:52:00.001-06:00

But I have a good excuse! Ever since we got our travel date for Dashlyn’s country, I’ve been running around like a mad person. (Go see what we’ve been up to here.) First there was the packing and prep for Allan and I to go. Then before we left there was the little matter of a certain little boy’s FOURTH BIRTHDAY!!

It happened to be the same day as his class Fall Party. The kids got to dress up in their Halloween costumes if they wanted. Can you tell what he was? We didn’t waver much from the “Jack” theme because we said he was “Jack Skeleton”, not Skellington. I found the cutest little skeleton jammies that work great as a costume. (Someone else got cute little matching pink skeleton jammies!) His teachers were nice enough to let us combine his birthday with the fall party so that was fun.

There was cupcakes and games and music time! How cool is that for a party?? And we even got a sneak peek of a sweet little bumble bee even though she really isn’t in Jack’s class:

(She snuck her mommy in the picture with her!) Then after school we took the kids to eat lunch out at a Dairy Queen with a play place!

Kiki was there too, just not real excited about getting her picture taken.

After naps and the big kids came home from school, we had the family celebration. 4 years, I can’t even believe it. Since we wanted a Costco cake and didn’t order it in advance, we had to pick what was available. We were going to add SpongeBob and yellow sprinkles so white icing it was:

Little man’s big gift was a scooter! Hopefully we’ll have some nice weather so he can ride outside.

Then the next day was Andrew’s last high school football game. :( How did we get here? 4 years of practice, work-outs, and games. It was truly fun to cheer on the team and watch my son grow into a young man. It was really hard for the guys to be finished, and hard for us moms (and dads) too. The last game happened to be Senior Night, where all the senior sports players are recognized.

How quickly it’s gone by. How quickly this little baby has grown. And how very proud his dad and I are of him! I tried to warn him that this year, his senior year in high school, is going to be very emotional for me and he just needs to accept that his mom is going to be a puddle of tears all year. Everything he does will be emotional – the last football game, the last Christmas concert, the last dance, and then……….graduation. How will I ever get through that??

Day 17

2010-10-17T12:57:00.001-05:00

Somebody is jealous of his new sister’s new clothes! (I should be saving these for a wordless Wednesday, but maybe I’ll start that next month!) At least he has good taste!

WE HAVE A DATE!!!

2010-10-16T12:29:00.000-05:00

On Fri, I found out we have an appt to accept our referral for Dashlyn’s adoption! This is what we’ve been working toward all these months! So we need to be in Dashlyn’s home country on Nov. 1st! I’ll make travel arrangements this week, plus gather all the other paperwork we need, plus pack, plus plan for the kids here at home, plus talk to M’s school about her going back with me, plus plus PLUS!! I’m overwhelmed today but that’s okay. It will all get done, and what doesn’t, oh well!

Day 15

2010-10-15T20:58:00.001-05:00

I am soon to be the mother of 2 children with Down syndrome! 2!! This is so amazing to me. I really didn't think I was mom material at all, let alone mom to anyone who had a little something extra.

When we found out about Jack, it took a few days to sink in, but the thought of not having him wasn't a consideration. I remember when the dr called to give me the results of our amnio, he was very kind and gentle, but he did say we could discuss "options" if I wanted to. As he was saying those words, I could feel Jack moving and kicking inside of me. I almost laughed in the midst of my sadness, when I replied "no thanks" as I imagined Jack in there saying hey now, I'm here, and I'm real, and I'm really too busy for your options! So that began my journey into the world of parenting a child with special needs. I honestly didn't allow myself to wonder if I could do it. I knew Allan would be a super good daddy to ANY child so my job was to keep up! I tried to learn about Ds and access as many resources as I could for Jack. Keeping in mind that when he would be born he was going to be a BABY, was the most helpful thing of all. I already knew I loved babies and could deal with that. Falling instantly in love with his little face helped too!

Less than 2 years after Jack's birth, I learned of Reece's Rainbow, the ministry that helps to find families for children born with extra challenges in other countries. These children live in orphanages, and since I've discussed this before, we won't re-visit, but the thought of adopting fascinated me. I never considered it for our family. We have 4 kids already, we live in a tiny house, we don't have a lot of money. I thought the families that did adopt were so brave. I read their stories with interest, supported their efforts, and was amazed at their ability to step out in faith.

Last Christmas, I fell in love with a picture on Reece's Rainbow. A little girl, not yet 2, blonde and blue-eyed like my boys, drool on the front of her shirt like my Jackson, and an orphan in Eastern Europe without a family. A seed was planted. It grew all winter. By the end of January, I was asking Allan - "do you think we could...." and he reminded me of all the reasons we could not. By the end of Feb, the seed was growing within him as well, and we knew that sweet little girl belonged with us. It still doesn't seem real. We're only weeks away from holding her in our arms (17 days!) and I can't believe it. This is the way it felt to be this close to giving birth. The evidence is there; the preparations have been made; the reality has yet to hit. And I will be the mother to 5 beautiful children, 2 who have the kind of special needs that scare the bejeebers outta most people, and I am so blessed.

Day 14

2010-10-14T12:36:00.000-05:00

Another interesting fact about Jack – he likes to dress up. If it’s not his stuff – even better. I found Ty’s Halloween costume and guess who wanted to wear it??

Can you guess what he is? Yep, he’s a ninja! The mask is great, right?!

Difficult post….

2010-10-13T16:54:00.001-05:00

This is why we feel such a pull to go get our beautiful Dashlyn. Do you see this lovely doll in the pic above? She lived in an orphanage in EE. She was waiting for a family to claim her. Waiting for a mommy and daddy.

Her waiting is over. Sweet Anne Marie has passed away. I’ve been broken hearted all day. There are not enough words. Please read more about her here.

Day 12

2010-10-12T22:30:00.002-05:00

So here is a little essay that someone posted on one of the forums I enjoy. You've probably read it before as I have but it's totally worth reading again. :)

Who Mothers the Children with Disabilities?
By Erma Bombeck
This year, nearly 100,000 women will become mothers of children with disabilities. Did you ever wonder how mothers of children with disabilities are chosen?

Somehow I visualize God hovering over the earth selecting His instruments for propagation with great care and deliberation. As He observes, He instructs his angles to make notes in a giant ledger.

Finally, He passes a name to an angel and smiles, "Give her a child with a disability."

The angel is curious. "Why, this one, God? She's so happy." Exactly smiles God.

"Could I give a child with a disability to a mother who does not know laughter? That would be cruel." "But has she patience?" asks the angel.

"I don't want her to have too much patience or she will drown in a sea of self-pity and despair. Once the shock and resentment wear off, she'll handle it.

"I watched her today. She has that feeling of self and independence that is so rare and so necessary in a mother. You see, the child I'm going to give her has his own world. She has to make him live in her world and that's not going to be easy."

"But Lord, I don't think she even believes in you." God smiles, "No matter, I can fix that."

"This one is perfect. She has just enough selfishness."

The angel gasps, "Selfishness? Is that virtue?" God nods. "If she can't separate herself from the child occasionally, she'll never survive. Yes...here is a woman whom I will bless with a child less perfect. She doesn't realize it yet, but she is to be envied. She will never take for granted a 'spoken word'. She will never consider a 'step' ordinary. When her child says "Momma" for the first time she will be present at the miracle and know it!"

When she describes a tree to her blind child, she will see it as few people ever see my creation."

"I will permit her to see clearly the things I see...ignorance, cruelty, prejudice...and allow her to rise above them. She will never be alone. I will be at her side every minute of her life because she is doing my work as surely as she is here by my side."

...Erma Bombeck

I would very much love to be that woman. I'm still working at it. Good to know that God didn't expect me to be perfect! I'm good at not being perfect. Hard to believe I was blessed with our little man - I must have done something right.

Day 11

2010-10-11T19:53:00.002-05:00

So today I'm thinking about sign language. Jack uses many signs, enough that I lost track of how many. We learned most of them from various Signing Time videos, either ones that we purchased, or rented from the library. Also there's several signing websites that I look at when we want to find a sign. I like this one because you can look up words pretty easily and a little video accompanies each sign.

One of our favorite things to do when Jack and Braska were a little younger was sit them side by side and have them sign words - so cute! You can see a little of that on Braska's blog.

Jack is starting to use more spoken words, but he still doesn't use words that are understandable all the time. Today he signed water to Andrew while holding his cup, and when Andrew asked "you want water?", Jack started to sign milk and corrected himself to sign water. He's really getting it! So for us, signing has been an excellent way to bridge the gap between no communication and spoken dialog. AND, it's been fun and so cute to see him sign words!

Day 10 - the birth!

2010-10-10T21:32:00.006-05:00

So I was under the impression I had posted yesterday because I sent a post from my phone and it said my message had been sent. But here I am and there is no post. How annoying! Anyone have any ideas? So I'm skipping Day 9 for awhile until I find out where that post went.

Here is Jack's birth story for today. I actually wrote this a couple of years ago, but it's that month again so I'm re-posting! I skipped the shower story and may go back to it. But I think this is more interesting for now.

Okay, so we had the baby shower and I'm thinking I have about 4 weeks 'til our little guy makes an appearance. However, he was in a big hurry, and I ended up going to the hospital, Fri., morning on Oct.27th. About 3 weeks early. This was after I called another mom to take over the Halloween party in my daughter's class, after I called my mom to tell her to drive the 3 hrs here, after I was freaking out 'cause I wasn't ready, and after I called my MIL who wanted to come with us and was out of town. They tortured me for awhile, and then sent me home. I won't specify what sent me there in the first place because really, it's TMI. So my mom came in town anyway, my MIL came home and we sent her back, and M (who wanted to see Jack being born) missed her Halloween party. I called my friend Jenny and we all went to lunch. Now, I'm sure anyone who has given birth at least once will back me up and agree that when you're in labor, you're in labor. So while we're having lunch I'm thinking, "yep, there's something going on here" but I held out as long as possible so they couldn't send me home again (HA) and finally at 8pm I announced it was time to GO. We packed everyone up, dropped the boys at Jenny's, and drove off to the hosp. I got all hooked up to all that crap they hook you up to, and then things really started happening. My first 2 babies were born while I had an epidural and Ty wasn't (he was the 9lb 5oz-er!) so I had been planning no epidural with Jack too but the pains became pretty darn intense so we called for the epidural, but before the guy showed up, it was time to push. Actually, it was time to NOT push 'cause they weren't ready (again, HA) but Jack came out anyway! The Dr. was the one on call and she came in putting on her gloves, and only got the one on before she had to catch! We got a neat pic of Allan cutting the cord.

(M took it!) Then we got to hold him while they were looking for a room for me. My MIL finally showed up (she had gone back out of town) and we all congratulated ourselves on having a gorgeous baby. Yes, we saw (well, I saw) the Down Syndrome right away. The thick neck, squinty eyes, big space between the big toes and the rest of the toes - it was all there. But you know what? I didn't care. Not one bit. I wanted to hold that teeny little bundle of warm baby and stick my nose in that space between his jaw and neck and just nuzzle. It was great. We got to keep him quite awhile until they took him down to the nursery to finish cleaning him up and all that. That will be the next installment - the trauma of finding out your tiny, little, sweet, yummy new baby would need open heart surgery.

Next time - brand new baby pics!

Day 8

2010-10-08T10:39:00.000-05:00

What's Jack doing now?

Jack can run and jump. His jumping is great. He can come straight off the floor and goes several inches into the air! He jumps off curbs and lands with both feet. He jumps off the couch too (which I'm not too crazy about). These are his strong points. He's starting to say words and use them appropriately. I don't know if you would recognize them if you heard him, but we do! He still eats well and uses a fork and spoon. It occurred to me the other day that we should be trying an open cup so that'll be fun. We spend lots of time with Braska and Kinlee. Hopefully he'll like his little sister as much as those 2!

He started school again. He goes 4 days per week, 9 to noon. 2 days are "big" class days and 2 are "small" class days, when only kids with IEPs go. On small class days there are only 2 kids in the room! How cool is that? Unfortunately, Miss B is not in his room this year :(. But since both classes are pretty small on small days sometimes they get to see each other anyway, on the playground or for activities. Last week Jack's classroom buddy was sick so Jack got to spend the whole day in B's classroom!

They do so many fun things at school! I need to make a list of all the things I've seen this year. (IEP post coming soon.) One day when I dropped Jack off they had this big tub of spagetti on the table. Some of it was cooked, some not. I had to take a pic since I thought that was such a neat idea! He loved it!

Day 7

2010-10-07T17:21:00.000-05:00

Nicknames....

We named Jack after Captain Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean. But since the other kids have names that can be shortened, he got one too. So he's Jack and Jackson. Also there are a lot of names that just happen. Bub, Munchkin, Goofball. I've been calling him Ubu a lot too. You know, as in "sit Ubu, sit". We also call him stuff depending on what he's wearing or doing. Milk boy, snot boy, hat head, all those kinda things. All of them are given in love. He's busy, he's funny, he can be a royal pain (like when he's digging the dirt out of my flower pots on the deck). But he is so loved! And no matter what we call him, we call ourselves lucky to have him!

Day 6 - How we found out

2010-10-06T16:54:00.003-05:00

Since this is Ds awareness month, and the month of Jack's birthday, I thought it would be a good time to re-hash some of my favorite posts about finding out that Jack would have Ds and his birth story and stuff like that. The is the first I'll do. I thought about just linking it but decided to copy/paste it. Pics next time!

Sunday, March 16, 2008

I wanted to start this blog to write how we felt and what happened when we found our baby would have Down Syndrome. That seems like an overwhelming job now. Maybe I'll just do it in bits.

Installment #1 - How we found out

At about 12 weeks pregnant (right after we found out we were pregnant), I decided to do that nuchal fold test, where they measure the back of the baby's neck (via ultrasound). There's some magic number that is a marker for ds. With every pregnancy, I took pretty much all the tests because I like to be prepared. This sounded like an easy one, so I took it. They couldn't get our little one to be in the exact right position, so it didn't work. That was on a Fri. We tried again on Mon., still with no results. I don't really remember what made me decide to have the amnio; I just remember having the appointment and my friend Sherry telling me she would come with me because she didn't want me to go alone. This was really a big deal 'cause she lived a couple of hours away. We found out Jack was a boy while getting prepped, and the actual amnio really wasn't bad. That was on a Wed. On Fri., while I was home, my ob called. "I really hate to tell you this, but your test shows Down Syndrome." I know he said more stuff but I sure don't know what it was. I called my husband at work and told him to come home. He did, and we cried together. We had plans that week-end but cancelled everything. We didn't tell anyone for almost 2 months. I just needed that time to be okay. It was really hard. People kept calling to ask if we heard anything yet and I lied. I said "no news must be good news, ha ha" knowing the whole time I would have to tell them at some point. It's an emotional thing. I honestly wasn't worried that anyone would be mean or anything, I just needed to get to the point where I was emotionally okay telling people because I knew I would be the one reassuring others. I thought no way can I start talking to people about this if I'm breaking down every time. Even my closest friends and our parents. For some reason, I needed to be strong. My dr. was great. He said, at the first visit after we found out, that we wouldn't dwell on the ds unless I had questions or concerns. He wanted me to feel like this was a regular, fun, miraculous pregnancy, just like it was. We finally told our other kids. They decided at once no one would ever make fun of their baby brother and were protective right away. They made me cry in a good way. We then told my parents; I kind of chickened out and told them when I was literally on my way out the door to go 3 hrs. home from a visit with them. After a quick hug, I ran away quick so they could be upset and cry. Then I wrote a big long e-mail to all the friends and family I had an e-mail address for and even asked them to forward it to others. The response was really positive. Sounds anti-climactic, but that was it. I have one friend that I'm really close to and everyone was saying to her "wow, you sure kept that quiet" and she has to say "yeah, cause she didn't tell me" which I feel a little bad about but I just couldn't yet. The rest of the pregnancy was okay; I had gestational diabetes (special diet, blood checks, and even shots in my tummy!) and lots of ultrasounds and non-stress tests and an echocardiogram for Jack and everything came back great. Everyone acted very excited to see our new guy. We had the BEST baby shower. (That'll be another story!)

Day 5

2010-10-05T20:08:00.006-05:00

First off - Happy Birthday Lori! I won't mention how long we've been celebrating b-days together - but man it's been a long time! Here we are when we were so cute - college sorority dance. Hope you had a super day!

Now onto the Ds awareness portion of our post -
I wanted to post some interesting little fact about Down syndrome. But I'm too lazy at his very moment to look something up. So the only thing that comes to mind is the way I spelled it - Down syndrome with a capital D and a small s. In the US, that is the preferred spelling. I believe in other countries it could be spelled with a capital S too, but we don't want to give our syndromes more credit than they deserve here, so small s it is. And there we have it. Maybe during the rst of the week I'll "borrow" a post from someone else, or actually look up a fact, or just send you to someone else's interesting blog!

Day 4

2010-10-04T20:04:00.000-05:00

Someone posted on fb that their child ate a crayon. My first thought was "hey - my kid ate a crayon, and I need a blog post!". So even though I did post this pic before, you get to see it again because it cracks me up and, after all, this is my blog!

Day 3

2010-10-03T15:35:00.003-05:00

At some point, I will do a post that lists 21 things about Jack. Why 21? Anyone that reads this blog I'm sure, already knows, but just in case it's because Down syndrome is also known as Trisomy 21. Most people have 2 copies of each of their 23chromasomes, and Jack has 3 copies of the 21st.

Until that big post - here's a little fact. I tell Jack every day, "I love your face", and usually it comes out when he's just done something that he thinks is clever and he gets this very delighted grin. It just makes me happy! It's hard to capture on film, but I'll see if I have a pic of that expression to share later!

Day 2

2010-10-02T18:14:00.003-05:00

My older son plays footbal for his high school team. This is his senior year, so his last year. His dad and I, and Jack and M & Ty, have gone to pretty much every game. Last year he played down on the JV squad so we even doubled up on games. The point is, Jack has a fan club or a following so to speak, at the games. There are other parents who sit in the stands with us that say hi to him every week. Some of them don't even know our names and we don't know theirs but they know Jack. How cool is that?! It makes me wonder if maybe he's been an ambassador for Ds at the games. Maybe he's given a positive image of Ds to people who may not know anyone else with Ds. He gives high-fives and knuckle bumps; he smiles and laughs and cheers; he waves and says "Hi" and "Bye - see ya" when people walk by. Everyone has responded to him so positively. I'll miss it next year. Or maybe we'll still go, at least to home games. Jack will be 4 on his next birthday - he's gone to games since before he was one. Everyone has watched him grow into a little boy, and hopefully thinks of cuteness from now on when they think of Ds!

Day 1!

2010-10-01T09:15:00.001-05:00

I thought I would start out Ds Awareness month with a pic of my cuties! Capn Jack is sportin’ his very cool “Don’t Dis My Ability” shirt with I also thought was appropriate! And Dashlyn, well, hopefully I’ll have new pics to post of her soon, after we get to travel. Although I love pink, it will be so amazing to see her in a shirt other than that one :).

31 for 21!

2010-09-30T19:41:00.002-05:00

Grab This Button

Guess what tomorrow is?!

The first day of October! So we all know what that means - Down syndrome Awareness Month! So, once again I'm going to attempt to blog once each day in honor of this month. Hopefully, I will make it.

Enjoy all the other blogs!

Ds Forum Meet-Up!

2010-09-06T13:23:00.001-05:00

What a lovely week-end I just had. Many fun people that I know mainly from Ds forums came into my town, where I live, and we had a blast! We had a small group for pizza Fri night. Kids played and parents met.

Sat morning we all met at an indoor playground where there was more playing and chatting.

Look at that little man! Isn’t he just precious? His name is Micah. We had a wonderful time together. I will add a link to his mom’s blog in the next post.

We split up into smaller groups for lunch and naps, then met up at a very accommodating restaurant for dinner. That was our biggest group of the weekend. After I steal a decent pic from someone else, I will post one of that group. After dinner, we split up into smaller groups again, some at the hotel and some other places. RK graciously let a few of us invade her house For a little while.

Jackson was very much in love with Ellen! That pic doesn’t show it well, but he couldn’t get enough of her hair, and hugging her. (Don’t worry Braska! He will soon realize the age difference is too big to make it work between he and Ellen!!)

Sunday morning a few of us went to church, then McDonalds for lunch. I wish I had pics of that! Then again, we split up for naps, and met for dinner at a nice large room at RK’s church where we assembled sandwiches, ate salad and watched the kids run crazy and have fun.

Here’s beautiful Sienna and her mommy Lorene. More pics coming soon!

First day of school pics!

2010-08-21T23:37:00.001-05:00

Andrew and Madelyn leave before Ty and Jack even get up, so I had to take 2 sets of pics this year (3 really, ‘cause Jack started his school a week later). A is a senior, M is a freshman. HOW AM I OLD ENOUGH TO HAVE KIDS THIS AGE??? Weren’t they just babies?!?!

My sweet Tyler and little brother Jack (Holly had to get in there too). Ty is off to 6th grade. I have them in 6, 9, and 12 (hee hee).

And here is my precious guy on his first day, along with best buddy Braska and lil sis Kinlee. RK has better pics so that you can actually see that B is Thing 2! Kiki coordinates with them but she’s not a thing this day, she’s just cute!

Something I’ve been meaning to explain

2010-08-21T23:21:00.001-05:00

I keep getting those weird comments full of chinese symbols. Sometimes there are words too but clearly they are complete spam and I know many of you have complained of getting them too. That’s why I changed our comments to “moderate”. No one was rude. I just didn’t want to have them on there since there’s no telling what they said. It’s not worth it to translate. Thanks for leaving comments anyway!

They Went to School….Waaaaah!

2010-08-15T23:48:00.001-05:00

I hate when they go back to school. Get up early, fight to get ready and get out the door on time, fight to do homework, fight to get ready for bed, and go to sleep on time. Remember to buy lunch food ahead of time, get dinner ready on time. No more movie nights, sleeping late, hanging at the pool all afternoon, eating popcorn for dinner. I took pics of their first day, but no downloads tonight. Gotta get ready for the grind again in the morning. Have I mentioned I hate this??

Slot machine, or little boy??

2010-08-10T21:54:00.005-05:00

Here's a story I meant to post awhile back:

2 weeks ago this Thurs Tyler came running upstairs with Jack saying "he's choking". So I looked at him for a fraction of a minute and knew he was breathing, but clearly there was something in his throat. We debated calling 911 but since he was breathing, and the ambulance house is right close to the hospital, we decided to run him to the emergency room ourselves. Allan drove and M & I watched him all the way there (less than 10 mins.). When we were in the parking lot getting out, he started coughing up lots of clear mucus-y stuff so Al ran him in and M and I grabbed our stuff and followed. They put him in a room pretty quick and took an x-ray. Guess what was in there???

Can you tell what it is?? Yep, it's a quarter. Look at it from the side (it's a real faint up and down line in front of his spine):

That's why he didn't choke to death and could still breathe.
So the doctor decided to send us down to St. Louis Children's Hospital to be checked out and have surgery to remove the quarter since he couldn't swallow it down and he couldn't throw it up. Lovely. He was pretty pathetic, real sad looking and quiet. Just wanting to be held. After we'd been there about 2 hours the dr. came back to tell us the ambulance was there to take us to Children's and asked "how's he doing?". We had literally just remarked that he suddenly perked up, and was talking, and seemed more like himself. So the dr. says "hmmmmm, let's take another x-ray before we send you down there". Guess what?? No quarter!

He managed to swallow it! Yay! So surgery! The guys that showed up with the ambulance (hi Andrew and Kevin!) waited so patiently for the xray results, chatting with us and entertaining Jack. They even took Jack on a little tour of the "bus" because he wouldn't ge to ride in it. He loved seeing the lights on top (he's into lights lately so that has super special). Then we went back in, spoke to the dr. who told us to watch for the quarter (ewwww) and that it could take up to 2 weeks to see it again. We've been waiting, waiting, waiting ever since. But guess what happened last night? We have quarter! (the black one on the right is Jack's, the other one I pulled out of my wallet for comparison. Can you believe the color change? Interesting.

So all is good, and now you know what happens to a quarter after going through the digestive tract of a little boy for 2 weeks. I was glad it came out - all the jokes about where the soda comes out or where does the change come out were getting repetitive!

The saddest day of the year.......

2010-08-10T16:08:00.003-05:00

The day before the first day of school. I hate it. I hate the stress of homework, short amounts of time with my kids, fighting about going to bed, doing homework, getting up......BLAH!

We went through all the school supplies this morning and everyone picked out what they need and loaded their backpacks. Even Jack got in on it.

M got a notebook she's happy about. We love Johnny Depp even when he's bizarre!

Say a prayer for me tomorrow. I'll probably buy a coffee drink to ease my sorrows and thank goodness for Jack's company, but I'll still be sad and lonely and pathetic. Maybe I can channel some of this boredom to clean out the house. Wish me luck.

Jack's School Issues

2010-08-07T11:07:00.003-05:00

Okay, a couple of posts ago I was ranting about Jack's school. I am not going to take back anything I said because I still think it's accurate. However, I do have an update. The problem began when I was given a call to say that Jack would be placed in the afternoon class when school starts. My immediate reaction was, "hmm, that may not work, he still takes a nap in the afternoon". So I called the person I thought could help me and told them I didn't think his placement would work and although very nice, I was basically told "oh well". Now we all know that Jack's good buddy is in his class as well. Initially, we didn't want to compare notes because we don't want school to think we are ganging up on them and what good would it do really, but I knew they were having the same issue. But for health and performance reasons, they were more than happy to pull her from school (she learns better at home anyway). (Yes, at some point we had compared notes and analyzed every conversation either of us had. But like I said, we were tying not to.) I was surprisingly hesitant to pull Jack, but after thinking about it for awhile, I was looking forward to keeping him home. I was a little concerned because that meant no professional therapy (no our insurance wouldn't be helpful), but I was ready to give it a go here on our own.

Now keep in mind, all this is happening on the verge of and at the beginning of our vacation. (We went to FL for the National Down Syndrome Congress Convention, and a few days of fun in the sun. More on that later.) So I wasn't quite as invested or po'd as if I'd been at home. But surprise, surprise, I got a call from buddy's mama (yes, you all know who it is), who said school had been calling my house and I should call them back. Guess what? They had some staffing changes and Jack is now in a morning class. Very interesting. I don't know why, but we're back in business. I was a little sad that I don't get to keep him (but c'mon, he's still 3 and it's pre-school soooooo they can count on Jack not having perfect attendance if ya know what I mean). But it will be nice after Dashlyn comes home to have some time to spend just with her, and Jack will have his therapies, and he will get to hang with some friends which he does enjoy.

Bottom line - once again I realized how much I HATE other people telling me what to do with my own kid, but things have worked out quite nicely. Next week may be a completely different story.

2010-07-17T16:47:00.002-05:00

I can't blog and think through my issues at the same time. There is a huge wrinkle in Jack's school life right now and I'm so unhappy about it I can't think straight. I'm unhappy (very) with his school right now. And I'm sorry, bur IEP apparently means "we can do whatever we want and you have no say even though you know your kid the best and we if we say that's appropriate, you can suck it". Yes, that's what I'm hearing, even through it isn't quite in those words. More later.

2010-07-10T21:16:00.002-05:00

We just got back from a camping trip. Our annual camping/float trip with hubby's family (and a few friends), to be more precise. This year, we had 39 people in attendance and we floated in 2 rafts, 12 canoes, and 2 kayaks. We stayed in 6 campers, and set up a huge awning, or pavillion-type thing over 5 tables set end to end where we ate and played games and hung out.

I have more pics I can post, but here's just a couple. We had a great fire made by Andrew and my nephew Nick:

There's a funny story behind this photo. My MIL wanted a pic of all of us. A friend was taking the pic, but there were gumpy teen-agers and distracted little ones so another friend decided to MOON us! Yes, he really did it! I think Tyler is going to need therapy for the next 20 years! This isn't the funniest part.....

After seeing the mooning, as we were walking away, Jack decided to give it a try! Allan saw him first and nearly cried he was laughing so hard. I managed to catch a quick pick (Jack didn't get as far as actually removing his bottom covering which would have been WAYYYY preferable to the one we did see!).

More pics coming...

Jack - Summer 2010

2010-07-03T16:32:00.003-05:00

Thought I should do an update on what Jack is doing this summer.
-He walks very well and is even running (not with long stretched out legs yet, more like a fast walk. But those strides are getting longer every day - just give him a cookie and then try to get it away!).
-He goes up and down stairs standing. Still mostly one step at a time (due to short legs, I think). But he's starting to do it without holding onto a hand or railing. So that's good.
-He eats. Just about everything. He uses a spoon and fork mostly appropriately. If it's peaches that will not be stabbed, he uses fingers. And we're working on eating a popsicle from the top down, not side to side :).
-Words continue to elude him. Not completely, I guess. He has a few words and a few more word "approximations". I can't possibly type it the way he says things, but he says down, catch, and several others that I can't think of now that I'm trying. He says Daddy and TyTy (for Tyler) and those we think sound like it. I still haven't ruled out apraxia. Sometimes he'll say something and we can't get him to repeat it. Or he'll say "bussss" (he likes to draw out the "sss") but when he repeats it, it'll sound like "dus". So we'll see. But he IS trying more, and we often hear something new.
-He loves water. The pool, the tub, makes no difference to him. If it's water, we must splash it!

-Jack is going to summer school (or ESY - extended school year). We just finished week 2. He seems to enjoy it, and is ready to go. But if it's not a school day, that's okay too.
-Potty training. He actually went #1, once. He isn't fond of sitting on the potty - there are too many other things to do. I'm not exactly pushing it. When he cooperates, we give it a try. But from experience, I know when he's ready, it will happen.
-He opens doors. He can open the front door (the dead bolt unlocks when you turn the knob) and leave. He can unlock and escape through the back door. Our summer home improvement project is finding Jack proof locks. (You wanna see him run? Wait 'til he gets the door open and gets out. Then try to get him back in.)
-He still loves his blanket and it goes where he goes. So cute.
-He still has cute little yummy toes, and fingers, and cheeks. Especially right out of the tub.
-He's loving books right now. We read often. He'll bring me a book, or before nap and bed time we read, and he settles right down, pays attention, and points to things when I ask. It's cool.

That may be most of it for now. We couldn't love him more. He has such a neat relationship with his brothers; I love watching them interact and play.

Picnic

2010-06-29T10:10:00.002-05:00

If you read our adoption blog, you know we held a picnic/potluck as a benefit for Dashlyn's adoption fund. You can read about it here if you would like. I was hoping for a big turnout, and we tried to have a couple of games (like a 50/50 raffle) to earn some money. It was fun; my sister and brother in law provided burgers and hot dogs and grilled them, my good friends Pam and Ken provided music from their DJ business, we played games and ate great food, but it didn't quite work as well as I'd hoped. We didn't even earn $300, so if I subtracted the money we spent, it would probably be closer to $180. So I'm bummed, and worried about the financial aspect of our adoption. And the only reason I'm posting about this at all is a few people have asked how it went and I'm having trouble being positive. I need to come up with more ideas I guess.

Happy Birthday Andrew!

2010-06-20T23:19:00.004-05:00

Here he is, my oldest son, my firstborn, the first to call me "mom", the first person to ever take my breath away when he tripped at age 1 1/2:

Isn't he handsome? His face has changed so much over the past year. We had senior yearbook photos taken a week ago and I still can't believe it. He's matured, he's grown, he's becoming an amazing young man. It will be so fun to see what he does as a grown-up. It went too fast though. I miss the baby, the little boy, the sweet way he said "mick" when he wanted a cup of milk.

He went go-karting for his birthday, with a few buddies. (They're sooooo big!)

They came here afterward (along with a few more), for roasting hotdogs over a firepit and then an entire night of Xbox. Yes, they ate a lot. Yes they were noisy. But I cheated. Since the in-laws live super close, the younger kids and I snuck over there to spend the night, and then we snuck back in the morning! Al was here, but since he can sleep on an airstrip the noisy boys didn't bother him a bit! Andrew had a great time and I hope the other guys did too. He sure does have some nice guys for friends :).

Just so you know how well I'm doing...

2010-06-16T00:14:00.002-05:00

I got up and got ready a little earlier that usual this morning to take Jack to his ENT appt. Just another follow-up to check on his tubes, check his hearing, all that stuff. M wanted to go, so got her up too and we all headed out. We get to the Dr's office, and yeah, his appt was yesterday. They will probably charge me the "no show" fee which I deserve. grrrrr. We set up a new appt for next Mon. MONDAY. The 21st. MONDAY. (I keep thinking if I say if often enough it should stick. Right?)

Jack's last day of the school year (well, almost)

2010-06-11T20:35:00.004-05:00

(I added 3 posts today! Woo Hoo! So keep reading!)

So this is the next-to-last day. See the day I took these pics I thought it was the last day. Turns out, he had one more day. But this was a seriously good day!

Can you tell what this is? (Inside the big bowl!) Yep, it's ice cream!

Everyone got to add something to the giant sundae. Jack added sprinkes!

Braska added MORE sprinkles!

And here it is - the biggest Preschool flavored ice cream sundae I've ever seen!

Look who showed up to help enjoy the ice cream.....it's Kinlee!

Yummy! And really cooooold!

And a kiss for Mommy is even better than ice cream!

Pictures of the last days of school!

2010-06-11T20:13:00.005-05:00

This is the best I could do of Ty. Yes, he wore his hoodie on the last day of school when it was in the 80s. What a goofball!

Here's my beautiful girl going to the bus stop. Who said she could grow up??

Getting her 8th grade graduation certificate.

Proud of herself! So am I!

I met someone special!

2010-06-11T20:05:00.002-05:00

I feel like I'm living a double life these days. One is this life, where I take care of my 4 kids and blog about that. The other is my "adoption" life. There's so much to do, so much to think about. If you click on Dashlyn's button over on the right, you can see what's going on in in that life. But today, my lives intersected!

This is Erin! (with me and Jack, who must be involved in all picture taking opportunities)

She and her hubby are adopting Oksana from Dashlyn's country! They are traveling super soon and we got to meet Erin and her boys, and Erin's mom before they left. Erin has been a super source of info for me.

Have a great trip and be safe Erin and Larry!

It's the end of the school year

2010-05-29T10:11:00.002-05:00

Every school year end, I wrestle with 2 feelings - complete relief that we're done! and stress that now it's another year later. (I don't enjoy the stress and craziness of the schoolyear - get up early, run like crazy all week, yell all the time about get up, do homework, take a shower, go to bed....HATE IT.) But this year, I'm looking at the fact that this is the last summer that Andrew will be a high school student. Next year, he'll be a senoir, and our summer may look completely different. I'll be bawling constantly, for one. Who told these children they could grow up? And move away from me?

I took pictures of the last day of school that I will post after I find my camera. I even have pics of Jack on his last day and wait 'til you see what Jack's class did the day before his last day! Where is that camera????