Almost Wordless Wednesday: Summer Fun

There will be some captions involved...lots of pictures just not a long post.

Splash Park Fun 

Marloe was timid at first.

Grayson tested the water and...

discovered it was a perfect bum cooling temperature.

Marloe saw this and decided to test the water also and...

decided to also cool off her backside first.

Marloe stood back to observe the kids playing.

There's Wee Pie and Little Sweetie having fun in the sun.
We love our new home!

This is the life.

Going to find more trouble. Notice the bear crawl. He is fast on those hands and feet.

Marloe ran this way and...

that way...

back and...

forth.

This day led to two tired kids that were in bed by six...pure heaven to this mom!

On a totally different day we went to Carl Sandburg's home. Here is my handsome husband sitting in the poet's thinking chair at the base of Glassy Mountain.

Hope your summer is full of fun. Make it count folks!

THE MOVE!!... and Beach Trip

Woah! That's all I can say about our move. Let me say it again...Woah! We got back from the beach last Friday. Instead of going back to our old house, we went ahead up to my mom's place (which is now ours also, so I need to get out of the habit of calling it my mom's).

The upstairs part of the house was cleared out of my mom's stuff on Monday. Also on Monday, Drew, his dad, and his uncle went back to our old house. They loaded it up just in time before a pretty bad storm hit. Then they came back up on Tuesday. Meanwhile I am working to keep the rugrats out of the way. We had been talking to Marloe about moving and the changes that would come. She pretty much understood and didn't react bad to the change. Wee Pie, on the other hand, was quite bad off the second day we arrived to my mom's our new house.
Whiny...check; Messy...check; Trouble...check; Biting...check; Hitting...check; Into every possible thing he shouldn't be into...check; Tearing up everything he got into...check; Lamp pulled on head with goose egg knot...check; Naptime didn't help...check; Daddy stepped in poop...check. I think that pretty much sums it up about that.

After two days of trying to put the house in order while keeping kids entertained, we bit the bullet and put the kids into their new daycare early. We were going to wait till July so they could get settled before they had another change thrown at them. Sometimes accepting that you can't be a super, unpacking, organizing, do-it-all-while-the-kids-are-chomping-at-your-heels (litterally with Grayson Goo) mom is just as super. Drew and I were able to get a lot accomplished on Thursday. The kids loved daycare so my worries were just worries. The daycare center put Grayson in with his age peers instead of the infant class he was in at his last daycare. I am really happy he will have peer models. The only hiccup was Marloe not eating her lunch, but in return she scarfed down her dinner.

Friday we closed on our house after thinking it would be at 10:00, then thinking it wouldn't happen at all that day, and finally having a two hour closing at 1:00. This was complete with Drew's name being wrong on a couple documents that had to be changed. Are you sure you don't want to be a Gordon? Now we are first time home sellers! I am so happy for the family that moved in because they were so excited to be first time home buyers. Plus they had two little ones close in age to our kids. It was perfect!

Now we are just settling in, unpacking box after box, making tons of phone calls to new providers/doctors/therapists/etc., finding things in town to keep the kids busy with, and just being happy the hardest part of our year is probably over for now. Hmmmm...should I have just not jinxed myself? Oh well, have a good week everyone! Now for some pics of our beach trip.


Grayson wasn't too kean on the beach arcade at first.



Wack-A-Mole

Family Kingdom Rides Courtesy of Uncle Clyde and Aunt Susan

Hey Mommy!

Riding in a big truck like Daddy. Meep! Meep!

Eating Sand

I love it when he points one and flexes the other...means he's pretty darn excited. Notice the toungue...extra excitement.

Shell hunting.

Quick smile for the camera.

Just washing my face with sand mom. No need to worry.

I love that they can play together so well now. Of course there are times when they can't stand eachother.



He watches everything she does so intently.



Party at the Beach House!

Those are balloon gazes he is giving the camera.

She kept saying, "I don't want to grow to be bigger and three. I want to grow smaller and stay two." Sorry chick :)

We had a big time. That is my Uncle Clyde and Aunt Susan and my mom in the background. We always go to the beach together each year. I hope they are pleased that they made the blog.

Loved the Bubbleguppies cupcakes.

Showing off her gifts.

Still Not Sweatin' It or My Way of Sharing World Down Syndrome Day (3/21) or Our Trip to the Zoo

Why am I not sweatin' the petty stuff or pettin' the sweaty stuff?

Grayson didn't want to turn around to take the picture.

 Because I am beginning to learn that I just shouldn't. I have spent the last 2 years in a state of worry. I've spent them in a state of woe or even mourning, but I don't think that is the true description for it. I've just been different. Not myself. Sometimes I didn't even like myself. I would be in the moment, not being myself, knowing I wasn't being myself, and yet I still acted not myself! It was frustrating. I cried to Drew about it, my mom, my close friends. Why couldn't I just be me again? What happened to me? Is this what I was going to be like forever? Is this what a stressed out mom, teacher, parent of a special needs child, and wife acted like? I lamented who I used to be, I grieved over who I was becoming, and I longed for the old me.



Me preggers with Grayson and really really a Blondie!

 But I am slowly coming to realize that I will never be that person again. A lot has happened in my life in the past two years. I had Marloe, got pregnant with Grayson 6 months later while still learning how to be a mommy, then found out at birth that Grayson had Down Syndrome. I can't be the same person after going through all of those life changing events in less than two years. I am just now realizing that a year and a half later. I am beginning to accept who I am now, in the present.




The lamentation over the past me is slowly staying where it should stay...in the past. I like this newness. I like the feeling of accepting where I am in life...Finally! I feel fresh, excited, like anything is possible. Bring it on Spring! I welcome your growth. I am going to grow with you.

March 21st marks World Down Syndrome Day. This is a day to raise awareness for people with Down Syndrome. But for me, every day is Down Syndrome Day. This is my life.  I want to raise awareness every day. I want to tell my story to the world. That's why I started this blog. Its been so therapeutic to just get my thoughts out and maybe someone, somewhere is learning more about people with Down syndrome because they clicked my link or found me in this great big "web." I hope so. I know reading other parents of Down syndrome children's blogs like Noah's Dad, Pudge and Biggie, and The Bates Motel has helped me. They have inspired me to share our life. Of all the resources, books, pamphlets, and websites out there on raising children with Down syndrome, other parents' stories have been the most helpful.

I have a special needs son, a typically developing daughter, and a wonderful husband who I share my crazy life with. I have a great supporting community of family, friends, and co-workers. And yes, Grayson has delays. He has therapies. Yes, I have to explain to strangers and acquaintances why he isn't walking yet or what living with a child with Down Syndrome is all about. But I don't care. I want to do that. I love talking about my children. Above all the diagnosis and chromosome counting, Grayson is my child, my son. He is my wonderful, curly haired, blue eyed, funny, stubborn, snotty, slobbery, and loving son.

And now more pics of  Our Trip to the Zoo

Marloe giving tokens to a wildlife project.

Grayson watching tortoises.

Family Shot with Nana (my mom)

Nice people offered to take one of all of us.

Now if only we were all cooperating...Marloe!

Taking a break on the playground.

Such a Little Sweetie!

Hopefully I will post my Wordless Wednesday and make a post on 3/21, but if not
Happy World Down Syndrome Day! I'm loving all of my world Down syndrome days for the rest of my wonderful life!