Ty's birthday

I'll have pics to post later but here's a quick review of our boy. His birthday is always around Thanksgiving which is a good thing and not a good thing. There's always a chance to hang out with family which is the good, but sometimes it's hard to get together with his friends which is the not good. I thought he was our last baby for more than 7 years so yeah, he's probably a little spoiled. He's funny, and silly, and easygoing, and smart. His hair is waaaaaaay too long and he wears the same hoodie every day to school. I wash it as often as possible. He loves Jack without reservation and he's great with little bitty kids. I cannot picture him as an adult yet, I'm too busy trying to get him to finish his homework!

Last night, Tyler had a couple of friends over to go get pizza and spend the night. Our family and our 2 guests went to the Incredible Pizza place. It has bumper cars, bowling, go karts, and lots of games, besides pizza. The food was NOT too good. And then to play the games you have to purchase game time, on a card, like at Dave and Busters. Guess how much I spent? For admission plus games for 5 people, it was just under $130! That's crazy! The kids had fun (even Jack, he ran around like a mad person) but I think that's the last time we'll be doing that. It was NOT worth it. And I saved for months for that. Ty and friends tried to stay up all night (didn't make it) but we had cake, then waffles this morning, and they seem to be having a good time.

So the rest of today will be getting ready for Thanksgiving!! Cleaning, cooking, thinking about shopping! I am thankful for my family, my friends, my house, my hubby who works hard to take care of us, and for today, we're all healthy. What are you thankful for?

Some of our friends need prayers.......

When Jack was first dx'd with Down syndrome, I wanted information. I searched the internet and came upon a wonderful site, Downsyn.com, that gave me lots of info but more importantly, had an amazing forum with knowledgable and friendly families of people with Ds. I looked at their pictures, I read their stories, and I came to feel we are a family. I talk about the kids and their families like they live next door. My real-life friends are probably sick of hearing about these on-line people! I've been lucky enough to meet some of these families in real life; as a matter of fact Miss Braska and her family have quickly become as important to us as our actual relatives! However, this post is not about us, or Braska and RK.

It is about a little sweet-heart named Polly. One of my new buttons (on the right) is for Polly. She is one of the faces that welcomed me to Downsyn a few years ago. I've gotten to meet her and her family. I have a really cute pic of Polly but Blogger doesn't want to let me add any pics right now. Polly's mom, Gillian, is just as beautiful on the inside as she is on the outside. They need our prayers right now because Polly has been diagnosed with Moyamoya syndrome. This is a quote from a post Gillian wrote, explaining. "The Doctor explained that it had to do with blood vessels in Polly’s brain progressively narrowing, resulting in strokes. The disease worsens with age. And the only way to combat it is brain surgery." Obviously, very scary stuff. If you click here, you can read about Polly and her family.

This post is also about a beautiful little girl named Quinn. She's younger than Jack, so I was able to welcome Quinn's mom to Downsyn after I had been there awhile. Karyn and I have talked through posts and pm's (private messages). Our (Ds) stories are similar. We both found out about our unborn babies having Ds and continuing the pregnancy. Quinn has a wonderful, loving family. Quinn has been diagnosed with IS - Infantile Spasms. Please click here to read the story. The cure seems to be as bad as the illness, but Quinn is a fighter, and I'm praying for a super outcome for her!

Both of these families have found their way into my heart, whether they want to be there or not! Please add them to your prayers, they are my family.

Post Party Wrap-up

We celebrated Jack's birthday with a little party. Just his grandparents and us. We got a little cake and had lots of fun watching him play. His favorite present was a Little People school bus.

We sat Jack in front of the cake and took a lovely pic. Then, as I turned to grab the video camera, Jack decided to feel the candle flame. Yes, feel it. This is what he looked like after that:


Now go back and click on those photos so you can see it up close. Too cute! Actually, right away he was sad and we cheered him up and this is the face we got when we re-lit the candle. And I am such a good mommy that instead of sitting with him and telling him it's okay and that kind of stuff, I made sure to grab my camera and take pics of this amazing sad face!! But it's okay, he cheered up again and clapped and smiled for the real cake photo:

And then I have to post this one just 'cause it's kinda neat!

Halloween '09

It was much more fun than I thought it would be. We'd had so much rain the entire month of Oct. I just KNEW trick-or-treating would get rained out. I was gloriously, wonderfully, wrong. After days and days of rain, Sat morning the beautiful sun came shining out! It was a lovely day, a little cool but who cared?! M organized several of her friends to go trick-or-treating together. They were all going to meet here and go out, then 2 of the girls were going to spend the night but everyone else was going home after. Turned out, 6 girls spent the night here and 2 boys were here until almost midnight! I was getting ready to drive them home myself but one of their mom's came and got them. There was giggling, music, and noise all night. So much fun! Even my big boy got a mask and ran around with his buddies having Halloween fun until late. I still don't have pics of my kids together, but here's a group shot (can you find Jack in there?):


Here's another of Jack-

His favorite thing about trick-or-treat was running down the street away from mom and dad! I need to take a better one before we put all the Halloween stuff away. Can you tell what he was? Let's see, there was a beanstalk on his stroller. More on that later.

It's Been Crazy

I have a lot to catch up on. Jack and I have been through a bunch of changes in the past couple of weeks. You know about our therapists. It hasn't quite sunk in yet, just feels like we're having a couple of weeks off.
We went to the punkin patch for Halloween pumpkins that weekend. I got a pretty good pic of all the kids together, even though we'd had so much rain. It was a less than fun trip unfortunately.

We had a class Halloween party last Mon. The kids in the 2 yr old class are so sweet. That was Jack's last time in that class.

The next day was Jack's 3rd birthday! I took him to get official photos taken, but here's our new Jack's birthday tradition photo with Jack's girly friend Braska!

(I don't know what is up with the date on my camera. I keep fixing it and it keeps getting messed up.)
We didn't do much as a family to celebrate. After pics, we met with Braska and her sister and mommy and had lunch at our house, let the kids play a bit, then everyone went home and had naps. That night, nothing. No cake, no presents. We planned a party for the weekend and figured Jack wouldn't know the difference. So other than extra hugs and "Happy Birthday!"'s, nothing. I'm feeling a little bad about that.