Amazing Feat of the Week

I just have to share. Lilly has discovered her hands! Which is quite helpful in the car, since she does not enjoy it. It seems to entertain her at least for a little while during the car ride - she just turns her hands over and over and stares at them!

And then now that she has discovered her hands, she has discovered the toys that she has been grabbing onto! I put rings or whatever in her hands and she just thinks it extraordinary!! Here are some pictures, they are fuzzy and dark because they came from my phone, but I just can't help it!

Buddy Walk 2010

We participated in our very first Buddy Walk last Sunday, October 17th. It was absolutely a blast. Unfortunately, Eric, Mom J, and Doug couldn't make it because of the wedding plans they had already made. But the rest of us made do anyway. The walk was held at Saluda Shoals Park in Irmo, which is such a beautiful park.

A couple weeks ago I had gotten some T shirts printed for our team. They came out just wonderful! The printing company we used (Custom PrintWear in Lugoff) was a joy to work with.








The walk was so much fun. There was lots of food and fun. There were a ton of people there too.





Team Lilly Pad had a ton of support and did an excellent job fundraising, especially for our very first walk! We won 3rd place for fundraising! That is out of 36 teams!!! We ended up with a total of $2015. Thanks so much to everyone that showed their support. We almost won the youngest special buddy award, but it was yanked from us by a little girl just TWO days younger than Lilly, haha! Oh well.





It was amazing to meet all these incredible people and their families. I loved being surrounded by people who had been there done that and had walked in our shoes already. There were so many words of support from complete strangers. I had a grandfather of one of the kids come up to me and the other family with the baby girl. He had overheard our conversation about our girls needing heart surgery. He put his hand on my shoulder and reassured me that it would be the best thing that ever happened to our family. We would see such an amazing difference in our daughter once her heart was repaired. It made my day to hear that from someone who had already been through the fear, anxiety, followed by relief and joy after having their tiny baby go through a major heart operation.

I had never been around many people with Down syndrome my entire life. It was a relief to be surrounded that day. After this exciting day I came out of it with one feeling - They are all okay! They really are. Everything was fine and will be just fine once it's all said and done. It may sound silly if you've never been in my shoes, but trust me it's not. I have always had that fear deep down - what if it's not okay? What if she is not fine in life? But after that day I have been truly reassured that although it may not be easy, Lilly really will be just fine.

And with that I will leave you with a few more pictures of our day.




















One more thing! Let us not forget our other little friend Miss Abby in Connecticut. She did an amazing job fundraising for her Buddy Walk! She ended up in 9th place for fundraising. That is a monster feat seeing that her organization fundraised over $117,000!! That is just AMAZING! South Carolina has got a lot to look up to! Congrats to the awesome Pelletier Family!

We still do exist

We've been neglecting this poor blog so much lately! We've just been too busy between work, school, and everything else to post. Where do I start?

First let's start with two weekends ago.


1. Last Friday - October 8th, my buddies from vet school came and visited us!! It was awesome!! Amanda, Katherine, and Audra (and their husbands/boyfriends) drove all the way here to hang out! I had a blast seeing them and miss them SO much!


Katherine




Amanda





Audra






2. October 9th, was Michael's 14th birthday! Yes, that's FOURTEEN. Pretty scary, cause that can only mean I got 14 years older too....


3. October 10th, was Leslie Drews' wedding! Finally Leslie! That would be Leslie Ventura now. I was the matron (sp?) of honor and Crystal was her maid of honor. It was a very nice wedding. Although, goofball Leslie insisted we wear these giant green flowers on our heads. That's Leslie style. Lilly made her debut at the wedding in the most precious little dress. (And yes, she got married on a Sunday because it was 10/10/10 - again in perfect Leslie style).


Cutting the cake.




Our little family!





Mama, Mommy, and baby





Michael and Leslie





The flower looks better on Michael






4. This past Friday I managed to get nailed in the knee by a po-dunk school horse. It hurt like crazy let me tell you! I ended up fine, my leg is scraped up and I have a nice black bruise smack on my knee cap. I must say that's the worse I've ever gotten kicked. I've been tapped a couple times and for the most part manage to Matrix maneuver my way out of the rest of the kicks. So I'm pretty lucky and I make sure to be as safe as possible! Luckily this pony had no back shoes on, otherwise my knee cap probably would be in two pieces! All's good now.


5. Saturday, 16th, was my birthday. I'm 28 now. Boo. I didn't do anything special, Eric went to Pennsylvania to be at his cousin Shawn's wedding. It was nice though because that was the first day in a while that I had nothing important to do. I didn't even get called out for any emergencies! Me and Lilly just hung out on the couch all day long and watched football, it was great! That was a birthday present in itself, just me and the kid hanging out.


6. Again, Saturday 16th, Shawn got married. Eric and Doug were groomsmen. I'm sure there are some pictures floating around.


7. Clemson tigers finally broke there losing streak on Saturday. They beat Maryland - woo hoo. Gamecocks - what? I think they lost their game after beating #1 Alabama last week... Is that right? I think so.... moo haha. Sorry Rachel, I couldn't resist.


8. Sunday 17th, was the bomb! We did the Buddy Walk here in Columbia!! It was SO much fun that it deserves it's own post. I will try my hardest to get right on that. Stay tuned!


9. Yesterday was Dylan's 3rd birthday. He's getting old, we'll probably just trade him in for a new nephew at this point.


10. Oh yeah, Belmont is home again. It's nice to be able to just go outside and ride him, but that means I gotta take care of him too! Ugh! He's doing really well though. Laverne is happy she's not alone anymore too now.


Well, I believe that is it for now. I'm sure I've left out plenty. I will post on the awesomeness of the Buddy Walk as soon as I get a little more time!!

Go Clemson!

Another Child

I feel like I have to discuss the elephant in the room. That's the other child. Some of you may have met her once or twice, some may not even know of her. We decided that it's time to officially introduce our other "urban" child. Her name is Shanaynay. Here are a few pictures of her.


Shoo...





Oh no, I know you di'nt!








Wha choo lookin at?





And there it is. You all now know our other daughter, Shanaynay.

A heart that needs some fixin

Lilly had another cardiology appointment today. She was 9 pounds and 6 ounces. Slowly but surely she's gaining the weight. They also repeated her echo today. Unfortunately, there has been really no change in the septal defects. So her doctor says she definitely needs surgery and he wants to book it for right at 6 months. This was kind of sad to hear, even though my brain knew it was the most likely outcome. Still it breaks our hearts, but we will all get through it just fine I'm sure. Overall though, they were still happy with how she is doing. We will have monthly check ups until the surgery.

So the plan is for the surgery to happen around the end of January or beginning of February which will be when she turns 6 months old. We will be down in Charleston for about a week as long as everything goes well.

On a lighter note, Lilly was just a ham at the doctor's office today. She was talking and smiling for everyone. And let me tell you, we have trouble on our hands - I have never seen that child coo and smile for anyone as much as she did today. All during her echo, she was just talking away to the ultrasound tech and staring into his eyes and smiling for him! Talk about some major flirting! Oh dear, what have we gotten ourselves into?

Speaking of boys, one of her new friends at school has been showering her with gifts, haha! When Eric went to pick her up, he put a ball in her carseat and in her diaper bag before she left! How sweet!

First Day of School

So yesterday was a sad, yet exciting day. My little baby went to her first day of school!! Yes, she started the Montessori School! The school here in Camden goes from infants up to 5th grade. By the time Lilly is old enough it will go up to 8th grade. The school really is one big family and I have already fallen in love with everyone there. It will be a great environment for her to grow in.

Well the day first started with me bolting upright at 6am and staring into the bassinet. Wait a second... I never fed her last night... Did I sleep through her crying? Impossible! She slept a solid 8 hours! Eric had left the house at 4am to go hunting. So it was just the two of us. I got her up and fed her a breakfast that she "sleep ate"- you know what I'm talking about! We changed clothes and put a cute outfit that her Mama bought her the other day. But even though it was labeled newborn, the pants swallowed my teeny baby. So we had to find a different pair that still matched. After a few pictures to celebrate the event, we were out the door!

Can you tell, she's not a fan of the car seat?





We made it to school without her crying in the car. Boy was it chilly that morning! I unloaded all her loot (there's a ton of crap required for something smaller than the cat). Her teachers were sooooo excited to see her, especially since she is the youngest and smallest of their babies. She seemed happy as a clam as I left her. Even flashed a few grins for her teacher before I left!




Eric picked her up in the afternoon. The first question he was asked was "Does Lilly sleep much?" HA, I love it! She kept them on their feet all day. Hehe, not our problem! She's usually happy when awake, but she usually requires major entertaining. But as you can tell, once home she was in need of some sleep and was a little fussy. She fell asleep for a nap fairly quickly though.




And YES she slept 8 hours AGAIN last night! Yeah, so I'm not holding my breath. I'm just assuming it's a fluke. I'll take whatever I can get though!

Eric's to-do list

1 - Remove the microwave you installed last week that doesn’t work. Return it to Home Depot and next time don’t believe them when they say they opened the box just to look in it and make sure everything was there(I‘m beginning to think there is a correlation between an opened box and a microwave that doesn‘t work.). Then, since that was the last one of it’s kind in SC, research another microwave that’s just as good for the same amount of money. Also take the old microwave to the dump.

2 - Go to the post office and mail off the camcorder you just got for your birthday to get repaired.

3 - Install new blades on the lawn mower. Remember your air compressor is still not working so you’ll have to go over to your neighbor’s garage and use his tools again. And yes he just had another round of chemo a few days ago so you’ll probably run into him and be depressed for the rest of the day. Then mow the lawn and pasture.

4 - Apply to school at USC. You still need to get official transcripts from Clemson and midlands before you can do so.

5 - Write a good short story and some not lame poems for your critiquing session in your creative writing class in two weeks. You don’t want everyone to critique you to death again. Then put together a portfolio for the class. (What do I need a portfolio for? He does realize I’m just taking this class because it’s required right?)

6 - Clean the house before Mari’s college buddies come over Friday. She said the house looked fine but the stains on the carpet are really bugging you and they appear to be multiplying. And make sure you have something covering the areas of the flooring you installed where it didn’t get snapped together all the way. There are some in that crowd that will point those areas out to you.

7 - Get an A on your differential equations test tomorrow.

8 - Exercise. Just because the mud run is over doesn’t mean you can stop exercising. (But I did.)

9 - Clean the rug you stuck outside last week because it smelled funky and hang it up somewhere to dry. It rained a bunch in the past week so it probably smells even worse now. Maybe you should decide first if you still really want it in the house.

10 - Get a haircut. Also, figure out why your forehead keeps getting bigger. Ask the lady if you’d be better off just shaving it all off now.

11 - Get Michael signed up for a hunter’s education class. You’ll probably have to go with him to get him to go.

12 - Find something to wear to Leslie’s wedding this weekend.

13 - Make sure you’re still picking up Lilly from daycare at 2:30 everyday. Also, figure out a way to make the 40 minute trip from school to daycare in 30 minutes because you leave school at 2:00. (perhaps a faster car)

14 - Go to Lilly’s cardiology appointment tomorrow morning.

15 - Make an appointment for the dentist. Five years is probably long enough of a break.

16 - Get a flu shot and that other one Mari says you need “for Lilly.” Make sure you’re sitting down when they stick you. (I hope she doesn’t keep using the "do it for Lilly" card.)

17 - Get ready for your cousin’s wedding. Go to the store and try on your tux at the beginning of next week so it has time to get up to where the wedding is at. Pack your bags, you’ll be gone from Thursday afternoon to Sunday evening. Figure out how Lilly will be picked up from daycare on Thursday and Friday.

18 - Lubricate the hinges on your bedroom door. Lilly keeps waking up when you peek in on her.

19 - Find time to go on a date with your wife. You guys need it.

20 - Get your wife something for her birthday that’s next weekend.

21 - The hundred or so horses that were making laps in your backyard last week managed to dig up and break the wire for the invisible fence. Fix it properly, not just by twisting the wires back together like you already did.

22 - Post something on the blog.


Well, at least I got something done.