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I am the Momma of 8 children. Seven here on earth and 1 precious little Angel in Heaven. My children range in age from 2 months to 25 years. My 6 year old was born with a laundry list of complex medical conditions. He has Trisomy 21 (Down Syndrome), a rare brain malformation, which resulted from a mutation of the PAX-6 gene, bilateral anophthalmia, which means that he was born without any eyes, so he is totally blind. At the age of 2 1/2 months old he had to have a tracheostomy to help aid in his breathing. He is hearing impaired, with normal hearing in his left ear and has profound deafness in his right. At 3 1/2 years he had surgery to have a Mic-Key button placed in his stomach (feeding Tube), which is mainly used to give him his medications. He also has insulin dependant diabetes and wears an insulin pump, which gives him a continuous dose of insulin. Even with his many dis"abilities," including being globally developmentally delayed, he has accomplished more than anyone would have ever believed that he could. Join us in our journey living with a Dis"Abled" child....

Monday, April 25, 2011

Grandpa and me

 There isn't anything better than some cuddle time spend with grandparents who spoik me!









Sunday, April 24, 2011

Hop-py Easter

This was Nate's 1st Easter. He had lots of fun playing with the Hide-Em and Find-Em Talking Easter Eggs. He also enjoyed mine and his share of dinner. He had mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce.

Timmy enjoyed his Easter dinner. Floyd pureed Timmy some ham, cabbage and mashed potatoes. Floyd and I even agreed to take a gamble and gave Timmy 1 slice of apple crumb pie for dessert. Being that Timmy is a diabetic, he doesn't often get the luxary of enjoying sweets very often. To err on the safe side, Floyd checked Timmy's blood glucose 2 hours after his meal. Surprise, Surprise!  Or maybe not, being Timmy's glucose levels lately have been like a wild roller coaster ride. Ater consuming 70 grams of carbs, he blood glucose was 123!  Timmy is one diabetic that NO ONE will ever figure out what makes him tick!

I leave you with some Hop-py Easter cuteness......





















Saturday, April 23, 2011

9 - Months Old

To start, I want to apologize for the picture quality. I'm having technical difficulties with my digital camera. So I have had to resort to using the camera on my LG flip phone from Verizon. I've had this phone for 3 years. The camera on the phone isn't much better. Sorry!

It is hard to believe that 3/4 of a year has passed since you were born. Wow, it's AMAZING at just how much you have grown and learned in such a short time.

You now have 4 teeth, Two top front teeth and two front bottom teeth. Now that you have teeth, when someone is eating, especially momma, you insist on having a bite of food from my plate to sample. Even though you may have just eaten, you give me that precious puppy doggie look along with a pitiful little whine that would make anyone want to share their food with you.

You now have a vocabulary of 4 words, Momma, Dada, Baba (bottle) and Nahnah (nite nite). I have had to stop putting you to the breast for feedings, because now that you have teeth, you consider Momma your special chewy toy. It is nice though that we still get to share cuddle time at bedtime, while you take your last bottle feeding of the day. Even though you are feed from a bottle, you are still getting breast milk. I express breast milk for you just before each bottle feeding. I will continue to do so until you turn 1 year old.

You refuse to sit in your bouncy seat. You still enjoy playing with the hanging toy bar. Your favorite place to be is on the floor, not restrained, so that you can GO, GO, GO where ever you desire.
While holding onto furniture you have learned to pull yourself to standing. Now that you are able to stand alone, you find enjoyment in being able to hold onto something and bounce (jump) as long as your heart desires.


You are now fully mobile. No more Army crawling. You crawl on hands and knees. Going ANYWHERE and EVERYWHERE, exploring every nook and cranny of your world.


Shadow play is your new found form of self entertainment. It is fun to watch you play and explore your shadow. It appears to amaze you that even though you can see the shape of your hand and head in shadow, you can't figure out why you can't actually see yourself.


Now that you have gotten older, Timmy isn't just your Big Brother, he has become your Best Friend. Your interest and desire to play with Timmy has grown. You so enjoy crawling over Timmy as though he were your Jungle gym. Timmy is such a trooper to tolerate this type of play from his little brother.


The expressions on your face once you figure out the solution to a problem, discover how something works or accomplish a new task are priceless!

You continue to have the best personality. Your laughter is contageous. Your day is routine oriented. Heaven forbid someone gets off of your set schedule.

You are very inquisitive, loving to explore to figure out how the many things in this world works.

You are a very socialible boy. You haven't met not one stranger so far. Different people interest you. When someone holds you, you are fascinated by a persons face. You stare intently at the person's mouth the entire time that they are speaking.

You are the Love of my life. You bring me so much happiness into my life with each passing day. I never noticed until you came along just how fast a infant grows into a happy, vibrant, inquisitive, active baby. With your arrival, my life is complete. It is with this feeling of completeness, I want to savor every minute of your young childhood. Because with just a blink of an eye it will soon disappear.

Monday, April 4, 2011

Look At What I Can Do

I was going to save this wonderful milestone development for Nate's 9 month old update. I'm too excited. Just had to share my excitment and amazement with everyone.


Look at me! This is the first time that Nate has sat up for over a few minutes, without arching and falling backwards. I went through Timmy's toy bin and found some of Timmy's "infant" toys that I thought that Nate might enjoy playing with. This and a light - N - sounds musical piano are his two favs.
Nate can pull himself into the sitting position. He is still having some trouble getting into the sitting position while on the floor without anything to help assist him. He can also pull himself to stand. BUT of course, being I wanted him to do so, so that I could get it on camera, he refused. But pulled himself to stand once the camera had been turned off.


It took only 1 week for Nate to go from speed comando crawling to this.....

I'm a bit jealous. Upon Nate and Floyd's return from Grandma's. Nate has been saying DaDa. I'm looking forward to the day he will actually  recognize that "I" do exist aside from his DaDa.

It's amazing just how far Nate has come in such a short time with meeting his milestones. Some (not all) kiddos who have visual impairments are developmentally delayed. We are blessed to have such a WONDERFUL Physical Therapist working with Nate and Timmy. THANK YOU Kathleen!!!!  With her patience and persistance both of our kids have come a Long way developmentally. And Nate has been able to meet his gross motor milestones thus far right on schedule.