Good Morning Peter C

This handsome young man is my nephew Peter. His parents are sweet friends of ours and also Emilia's Godparents. That makes us family in my book, which makes Peter and all his beautiful siblings, our nieces and nephews.

Peter gets a post of his own today because I do believe he is one of my... or should I say Emilia's most loyal followers. He is the first one to check in on her in the morning. OK, I don't know if that's because he's figured out the quickest route to the computer or he is just a morning person. But he's always one of the first ones on the "blog".

He's there to see her after school(all our kids are in the same school) and has a genuine love for her. He loves to hold her and play with her. He will never see me and not ask about Emmie. If I post that she's not feeling well he will always make sure she's OK.

Probably without even realizing it, he is one of her biggest advocates!

And I would be remiss if I didn't say that ... Theresa, Maryann, Billy, Susie, Lucy, Carrie, Chrissie, Paula, Danny, Andrew, Elizabeth and Richie are also her most loyal followers, and take such good care of Emmie. They love her like another sister.

Peter (hubby) and I are so blessed to have you in our lives!

You are all my favorites!!! I love you all! See you at lunch today.

And BTW, who is babysitting tonight while Uncle Peter and I are at " The Greatest Show on Earth"?

No Ringling Brothers is not in town. It's the Ballet Culmination!!! LOL

Raffle and Giveaway!!!!

Stacy and her family over at My Cup Over floweth, are having a fundraiser to support the adoption of their son Solomon!


This beautiful family needs our support to bring home their little boy! Please check out their raffle and giveaway!!!

Stacy made me a bracelet, actually, like the one in the picture, and it is beautiful!!!! Everything is hand made!

She even sells them on ETSY!!

So hurry on over!!!!

Thanks!

Emmie's Unibrow!

This kid is hysterical! Bella took these pictures last night, when she noticed Em had a macaroni sauce unibrow! Did macaroni with sauce have to be her most favorite food? Couldn't she have decided on something a little neater to be her first choice?

How many extra laughs have we had since Em was born!! Too many to count!!!

Emilia Went to School!

Emilia and I had the pleasure of visiting the sixth grade class at St Peter School. All my kids attend that school.

We went to speak about the myths and misconceptions of Ds. It was our first gig together and it went beautifully.

The children had put together questions for me and Em to answer. I received the questions in advance, and it's a good thing! They were such well thought out questions that I needed to do a little research myself to make sure I had the best possible answers.

Here are some of the questions.

What is DS?
Why do people with ds speak differently?
Do people with ds age faster? (I loved this one)
Can people with ds play sports?
Can people with ds handle adult responsibilities?
Is there a cure?
Are people with ds more emotional?
Why do people with ds look similar?

Aren't they great questions !!!

The kids were polite and asked questions throughout our little talk. And I do believe they were interested in what I was saying.

It was (thanks to these kids) one of my proudest and happiest moments as a parent of a special needs child.
I hope I answered their questions clearly and I above all hope that I cleared up a lot of misconceptions about Ds, and all special needs people. On the inside we're all the same. And hopefully there are ten more advocates out there ready to speak up if they ever hear anyone speaking in ignorance about our special kids.

Thanks guys for having us to your classroom! We had a great time.

Mrs. Unger, thank you so much!!!!

P.S. E and J... be GOOD!!!!

How Emilia Cares For Her Baby

I think Bella filmed this. I just found it on the camera. The crying baby in the background is Peter.
We were forced to buy Emmie this little doll yesterday while we were in Target. She slobbered all over it and I couldn't possibly put it back on the shelf. She actually does like it but she's too funny with her handling technique here.

Sorry it went sideways, I think Bella was trying to get a full length shot of Em.

Thankful Sunday

A very thankful and blessed Sunday is upon me and my family. Some weeks the thankfulness is hard to find. Some weeks I'm looking at the small, beautiful things in my life, some weeks I sit here and struggle to find something... anything. And I always do. This week was easy.



Bella all dressed up in her First Communion dress. We had our May Crowning at school on Thursday. It's a tradition to honor Mary as the Mother of God. One of the graduating eighth grade girls, crowns a statue of Mary with flowers. One of the second grade girls hands the crown to the eighth grader. All the children in the school carry a flower and sing in their most enchanting voices. It's so beautiful. Bella was not the one handing the crown , but she did read in church and did a super job. I wish you could have seen the little one that was handing the crown over. What a face of importance she wore. And the eighth grade girl was Sarah. If you saw my Thriller post she was one of the zombies. Wish I had a picture of her too. She looked beautiful in her white dress and did a great job. I remember being at the May crowning when I was in school too. it was always something everyone looked forward to


And just to clarify, As a Catholic I must defend that in no way, shape or form do we worship statues. We just have them as reminders, like photographs of friends, of the people who went before us, paving the way as Christians. Role models. And who could possibly be a better role model or intercessor on our behalf than the Mother of God.

So I'm am very thankful for this beautiful tradition.


Now I can put this dress away for Emilia!




And speaking of Emilia Faith!!!! Yes she is sporting a not so fashionable hospital bracelet. Let me start with she is completely fine and still sleeping on this beautiful Sunday morning.

Peter has been working in the bathroom. Fixing tiles in the shower. He worked non stop yesterday. At about 7:30 last night he needed to go back to Home depot for something. I told him to wait until tomorrow but he had a momentum going and felt if he stopped he'd never start again. Well, who am I to stand in the way of progress.

When he left, Em was in Bella's room with one of the girls, or maybe alone. Which is fine. I could her her playing. Not one minute after Peter left, I hear Sophia yell at poor Andrew. " What did you give her to eat, what's that white stuff in her mouth"??

Well Andrew was innocent, he gave her nothing I was sure of that. I was in the kitchen and I figured she must have found some paper or a wipe. No big deal. Sophia was more upset than she should have been so I went to see for myself.

It looked like she had found an old bottle of milk somewhere. She had a thickish white liquid in her mouth. And she wasn't too happy with the taste. For a second I had decided it was just milk, then I remembered the bathroom. I sent Sophia to see if the door was open . Then the realization sank in , this was not milk it was ADHESIVE GROUT!!!

I immediately rinsed out her mouth and had the kids call Peter to come home. Thank goodness he had just left and was back in about a minute.

We went straight to the ER. I had no idea how much she had actually swallowed.

They were wonderful at the ER. No bad parent looks at all. No tsk, tsk for forgetting to close the door. Just helpful wonderful people. And when you bring in a possibly poisoned baby, you go to the head of the line!! YEAH!

Anyhoo, they called poison control and the ingredients in grout are not absorbed into the body. That's a good thing. Anything swallowed will be pooped out. Their only concern was that lime is one of the ingredients and can cause burning of the esophagus. After seeing her drink a bottle in no time flat they ruled that out. They also had no fear about anything aspirating into her lungs because she did not vomit or cough at all.

So I am VERY THANKFUL as is our whole family that Miss Em is fine. I'm ten years older, but Emmie is fine.

And the girls did an awesome job holding down the fort last night. The little ones were sleeping when we got home and the house was still standing. For this I am also very thankful.

And there is a beautiful family I have recently had the pleasure of meeting here in blogland. They are in the process of bringing their little boy Solomon home. In an effort to raise money for adoption fees this extraordinary family makes Solomon beads. Everything by hand. Yes!, they make the bead!! They are BEAUTIFUL!!! You all have to take a second and go see for yourselves. I have a bracelet and it's a work of art.



And to all who gave everything for our freedom, let us never forget. Let us never take it for granted. And let us always be Thankful!

Have a blessed and happy Sunday and Memorial Day!

It's Coming!

This is the picture of summer!! Hats, sunscreen and a beach towel. All sure signs!!


OK we're working on the hat...


OH and squirt guns. What's a boy to do???

Emilia's a Princess

It's official, thanks to Kelli. Princess Lindsey passed this award onto Emilia. She gave Emmie this award waaaaay back in January and I forgot to make it "legal".
In order to get to know Princess E better she will answer some questions about herself and then name some more Princesses. And I apologize now if you were already named WAAAAAAY back in January . But you can never have too much royalness! I don't think that's a word. But I like it, LOL

OK, question #1

Princess Emilia, what is one of your most favorite things to do?


I love to ride around the neighborhood in my royal chariot. it's so much fun!





Question # 2

Princess Emilia, do you like to dress up?


I sure do!!! I love to wear dresses. My favorite outfit is my new yellow tutu. Mommy says I need one in every color. I didn't know it was so much fun to wear a tutu, everyone should try it out!!






Question# 3

Princess Emilia, who do you like to spend time with?



Oh, that's an easy one. My family of course. They are lots of fun and always make me laugh. My older sisters take really good care of me. Just like little mommy's . And my big brother plays really cool games with me.


And of course my best friend. Mommy says her name is Emilia too! She usually goes where ever I do. Weird huh? she's a lot of fun and always does what ever I do.







Oh, here I am cruising again. I'm not so crazy about wearing hats. But mom says I better get used to it if I want to ever go outside.






OK Princess, last question then you can name the other Princesses. You seem to be very serious in this picture. What's up with that?

Well I guess it's the t shirt. Mom says that she's my advocate. That's a big word and I don't really understand it yet. I think it means she really likes me or something. Anyway I got this really cool shirt and mom says that I should always be proud of who I am. And that I can do whatever I want. Well almost anything, mommy absolutely refuses to let me eat paper and it's sooooo good!!!
Mommy says that I can teach people to think differently about Ds. I'm so little but mom says people listen to me. That's pretty cool. I have a serious face in this picture because I want everyone to know ... I mean business!



Now the fun part.

The new Princesses are:

LC, from The Adventures of Pudge and Zippy

Alayna, from The Life & Times of Aidan and Alayna

Sammi, from The Bates Motel

Anna, from Banana Pants

Ruby, from Ruby's Life


Wear the crowns proudly girls and pass it along . Remember all the girls in blogland are Princesses!!

Maybe some one should start a Prince award!!!, I'm just saying....

Where is Everyone???

Normally I would never offer up a picture like this but I felt the need to share. Bella took this picture last night. This is what happens when you have two and a half kids sick( Olivia , Sophia and Emmie, Em is on her way to better) and the mom is down too.

At least we have a picture in case the baby disappears into this mess. We can use it to track her. Hopefully she and the cat will stick together. There's safety in numbers.

ZHU ZHU Pet Attack

Name - Pipsqueak
Offense - Attacking a defenseless baby





Evidence- golden locks stuck in his still spinning wheels
( and he's also destroyed evidence, trying to rip off his warning label which read .. KEEP AWAY FROM HAIR)

punishment- long term corner time

The victim- Miss Em.
Status- fully recovered




This cute yellow rodent looks harmless enough, but underneath that sweet face lays a wild, vicious creature.

Miss Emilia was attacked yesterday while taking her routine nap. Somehow Pipsqueak made it into her playpen. Since the flood Emilia has been sleeping in her playpen in Bella and Sophia's room. Pipsqueak is the current pet of Bella. Rumor has it that Bella's mother, stupidly left Pipsqueak on a shelf next to the playpen. Easily reachable by Miss Emilia. Waking from her nap Miss Em apparently invited what seemed to be a friendly gerbil to come and play with her. For unknown reasons he quickly turned on her and attacked. Emilia's mother heard unusual wailing coming from the room and raced in to see what was wrong. What she found was horrifying. Pipsqueak's wheels had become entangled in Miss Em's hair. Emilia's mother sprang into action and ran for her handy dandy scissors. Being extremely careful she snipped the entangled locks of hair from Pipsqueaks wheel.
Pipsqueak was immediately transferred to solitary confinement.
Miss Em made a complete and quick recovery.

Emilia's mother would like to state, for the record that even though she is an avid blogger she never once thought about running for her camera instead of the scissors! That would have been WRONG!

THRILLER!!!!!!!!!!!

From left to right, my "niece" Carrie, Olivia and Sarah. Three of the loveliest zombies I've ever seen.




WHAT A NIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Saturday night was unbelievable!!! The kids and faculty of St.Peter School put on the best show in town!!!!

It was called, So You Think You Can Dance... With The Teacher's

Grades seven and eight along with teachers formed amazing groups and performed dances , choreographed by themselves to songs from the decades. They danced from the 50's to the 90's.

Olivia was in the 80's, my personal favorite! The song they danced to was Micheal Jackson's ... THRILLER.

They were AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Before each dance there was a video interview. They were all hysterical. In the 80's interview the kids are "going along" with the idea of there being a national competition for the winners to attend. They are so funny. I love how wonderfully faculty and children play along.

We even had local celebrity judges.

And for our listening enjoyment the fifth through eighth grades sang some fabulous songs in between the dancing. It was great to see the kids get into the music, and have fun with it!!!

It was one of the best nights we have ever shared with our school community and one of the proudest moments as a parent.

The 80's won the competition. They all worked so hard. All the decades were great. All the kids were practicing before and after school . They all put in many hours and the night showed it.

Thank you teachers and children for this exceptional treat!!!!!

Thankful Sunday

Last summer riding Thomas the Tank Engine



Sunday , Sunday. Where does the week go. This was a busy one, actually which one wasn't, LOL

Thankfuls this week:

Miss Emilia Faith has great ears! Audiology confirmed her hearing is near perfect.

Summer is almost here! That means some MUCH NEEDED down time. This year was just crazy. Five kids going in five different directions. Too much.

My seeds are growing well that I planted. I have zinnias and morning glories , sun flowers, and forget me nots.

Thankful the pretty birds are back. Some new ones this year too. Oriels , I think. I love to watch them from my swing in the yard.

And two years ago today, on May 23rd 2008, I called my doctor and received the results from the AFP Quad test I took. Positive of course. I felt the life being sucked out of me during that phone call. Almost five months to the day later, on October 22, 2008, Miss Em was born and filled all our lives with unspeakable love and joy.

What I'm thankful for is I can look back on these dates and remember how distraught I was, and see where I am right now and never have to feel that way again. I'm not afraid of Ds anymore. I'm not afraid to speak about it, to share it, to flaunt it, I dare say. To challenge people. I want everyone to see and know what I know. One six pound, ten ounce, eighteen inch, ball of wonder taught me that!


And speaking of a ball of wonder, Miss Presley and her family could use some prayers. Miss P will single handedly take on the world one day (I'm completely sure of this), but today she is in the hospital , and not feeling well. Please pop over to her blog and leave a word of support and a prayer. I know it would be welcomed.
Everyone have a great and blessed Sunday

BAER Test

Why does she let them do this to her??? These are the type of pictures that randomly appear on my camera. Too funny.


OK for about a year Miss Em has been going to the doctor to have her hearing tested. She has been going every three months. The test they do on her is just a basic sit in the box and see how she responds to sounds around her. That's fine but there is also another person in this box with her. Sitting directly across from her. Sorry , but you could be dropping bombs on her left and right and that's not going to get her to respond to sound. Why, when there is a perfectly good face to look at. It was becoming very discouraging because they obviously we not getting an accurate score on her hearing. Seriously , her last test had her almost deaf. I know she can hear but I also need to know how well... precisely.

A few months back I read a post written by Kelli, her daughter is the exact age as Emmie and she was having a different test done. It's called the BAER test. It is very accurate.

I started to wonder why Emmie wasn't having this test. So I sent Peter to Emmie's next appointment, and he asked them why we are doing this basically useless test on Emmie when there is the BAER test. And guess what, he was met with some opposition! They tried to tell him that Emmie would have to be sedated and blah, blah, blah!!! Are you kidding me. Seriously! My immediate reaction was... sedate her! let's get this done.

Peter was against sedating her and suggested that he take her there at her nap time. She would fall asleep and then they could do the test. They agreed! And the optimistic mom, said it would never work.

Two weeks ago, Emmie went in. And like magic, feel asleep. They did her right ear and the results were great. Her hearing is fine. Yesterday, while I was at the dump on a field trip, Peter took her back and they got the left ear done! No sedation, just a nap!! The results were great again. The kid can hear!!

Kelli, I am so grateful that you mentioned that test in your post. Because of that we were able to have it done on Emmie and now we are certain that her hearing is good!

What A Dump!

Literally! HAHA! Andrew's class went on a field trip to RI's finest! The one and only... landfill! Curiosity got me a ticket on this trip.


I learned a heck of a lot about recycling! Got to watch it being sorted and spit out into these cut cubes. These are all spoken for. Sold! I guess other countries don't generate enough trash! These cubes will be recycled into something, useful!


And here's a picture of the busy bees dumping , dumping , dumping! I also learned that this dump will have to close in 2025, never to open again! By then it will be filled to the brim with trash!

RI better get an alternative quickly!


You never know where your day will take you!

Melinda I'm soooooooooooooooo sorry I was late for lunch duty!!!!!

Worth Reading

Emmie's pic has nothing to do with this post. I just like to put a picture in with my posts.


There was an article in this morning's paper that just made me feel good.
here it is. It's definitely worth reading.

Another First

Something else happened on Sunday. Andrew learned to ride a two wheeler. No more training wheels for this big boy.

And no comments on the purple helmet! He has five sisters and is fine with the color purple!! Plus, his mother said he wasn't riding without a helmet and that was the one available!

Thankful Sunday, on Tuesday

Hello! Well I skipped my Thankful Sunday post because in a word the day was SCRUMPTIOUS!
It was one of those days that you wish you could just hold the sun up a little bit longer. Our weather was picture perfect . We started the day with Church, and then we went to a mother/daughter brunch hosted by a sweet friend at her beautiful home.

After that the girls and I went home to join the boys in some much needed yard work. So this week I am thankful for friends, family and my garden. In the summer it is one of my favorite places to be. It's our little piece of peace. Where everything is OK. So I'll share my thankfulness with you in the form of photos of a perfect day.


Miss Emilia showing us exactly how to eat a cheerio. Top picture, one at a time, or bottom picture , by the handful!


Getting some love from Andrew

a flower crown

Trying to take a picture in the last moments of sun.

Two Princesses.One making a crown adjustment.


Emmie trying a hula hoop.

click to enlarge


And one person I am truly thankful for is Bella. Her heart is so gentle and loving. Here she made three stones and placed them with our sleeping angel. One for Sweet Carly, one for my Aunt Emily, and one for Pablo. Three very special people who we will miss forever. She even sprinkled rose petals over them.


A little gardening.
And a bubble to end a perfect day.

Emmie's First Marshmallow

OK folks this is a long one. Anyone not in for the long haul, the beginning is cute , then it's just me killing time until we get another marshmallow. At around 3 minutes it starts to get good.

Emmie loves her marshmallow's.

CAUGHT!

Red handed!!! Little Miss paper freak! Can't resist a good nibble. Found a box of her Dad's business cards and just had to have a little taste.



Also couldn't resist this envelope. Look how perfectly she nibbled the corners off. And trust me , she left no crumbs. Chewed swallowed and digested! I was going to renew our zoo membership. I guess I can renew online. That envelope is useless now.

OK! and yes she is in that great t shirt again. I washed it yesterday and put it right back on her.I love it!! It just needs an orange tutu to go with it.

Wordless Wednesday

I'm so jealous!! I'll never be this cozy again.