my lilly.

last night when it was just lilly and me, i said to her "lilly since the new baby is going to be a boy... you and me are the only girls in the house so we are going to be best friends." she responded "yeah, we are... riley too."

so sweet.

on my side of the family this soon to be new little baby boy is going to be my mom and dads 8th grandson. riley and lilly are their only granddaughters. so lilly must have realized that and didn't want to leave riley out:) she is such a sweet little girl.

i hope everyone enjoys their holiday weekend!

wordless wednesday

it's been awhile.

i think this might have been my longest break in between posts. it has been a busy last few weeks. thinking back...

max ate a lot of spaghetti. (and yes he is sleeping in his highchair)
we had a very nice time with our new friends, ...rex, his mom and dad.

lilly got her hair cut:)
so cute:) and i forgot how easy short hair is to work with.

lilly and i took max into the dr. last friday, i thought he may still have an ear infection, and then when i called i realized max was due for his 18 month check. so we went in for the appt. and the nurse asked all of the "typical" questions... is max running? no. but he IS almost walking by himself! every other time they have asked me those question i hesitated, with a um... and felt a little bad for max that he wasn't doing those things yet. not on this day, this day i was just so happy that i could say he is doing great at his own pace and i really am so proud.
she went on to wait and measuring his height along with his little noggin. the nurse handed me a sheet with his measurements... it said, head 0%, weight 1%, height 1%. i asked if this was the "typical chart". for those that are not aware babies, children, teens and adults with Down syndrome do have a different chart that are measurement are placed on. the nurse looked a little sad, and responded "this is the typical chart." i cheered for max! wooowhoo max! the 1% you made the chart! lilly and max started clapping. it was super cute. the nurse got a huge smile and said "that is great max, way to go" it was nice to see that she realize it's not a bad thing to be small at the bottom of the chart... he made it! friday was a great day. we really must have been cheering loud be cause when the dr. came in the first thing she said was "i hear max has final put on some chub." oh, and max did not have an ear infection, he's as healthy as can be. we do need to go back this week to finally have his blood work done to check his thyroid levels, we are well over due we just needed to have him healthy for two weeks, and that hasn't been since september.
my new stroller came:) i love it... i think the kids like it too.
today nick and i had our 20 week ultrasound for the baby, it went great the baby is doing wonderful, right on track for the due date. the heart looks good. and it a BOY! i can say that when i heard this i was scared. not disappointed. just scared, my thoughts on the sex of this baby was if it's a girl it would be wonderful... she would be loving, supportive, and never leave us, never move away... she would want live in little chute, wisconsin. she maybe would go away to school, meet someone wonderful and move back home to be with us. i had in my head that if this was a boy he would meet i'm sure some wonderful girl, but move to where ever she was from, maybe i would get luck and she would be from somewhere around here but the odds would be not likely. i think the big thing was that i thought that it would hurt to see another son of mine doing things that max my not be, playing sports and dating(but i guess who knows max may do those things). i thought i would just be easier to just avoid those thought and feelings. but i now have had the day to absorb this all and really think about it. i was nuts. i blame it on being pregnant. a girl could move away just like a boy could. and if i really thought it through another male in this house is a really big positive for lilly and max. he will be there to teach max all of the things a little boy should know... how to pee on trees, how to bug the crap out of his big sister (max is actually very good at that already:) they are going to camp out together, catch frogs, get dirty, share a room and tell ghost stories that make each other scream! i am super excited for this little boy to join in the family fun:)

a few extra days!

i guess the path of the traveling afghan has changed directions! i was all ready to ship it off early to texas... when i got this email from cj... don't ship, sky diving plans were canceled(the afghan was going to jump out of a plain!) so we are able to enjoy it's company for a few more days. i was so happy with the news because i was able to share the story of the afghan and where its been with my grandma minten.

she loved it, she was amazed by the pictures, stories, and families in the journal. she was so impressed by cj for coming up with this wonderful idea she was shocked when i told her that cj and her little girl were in our play group... that i actually know this out of the box thinker:) she just kept say after every page she read...for example "oh sara, look sacramento, california... the villacres family, what a beautiful child" and "what a wonderful thing to be a part of!"
after she read what i wrote for my page in the journal, she said something that she had shared with me before (when someone gave her a copy of what i wrote about her on my blog for her last birthday). she told me how she thought i had a way with words. that meant so much to me the first time she said it and it means so much to me now.

i always had a difficult time growing up in school, like max will be experiencing, i too was in the "special classes" i have a difficult time in comprehending what i read, and so my spell is horrible(God bless spell check!). so to hear people who know what i have struggled with my whole life tell me that,... to me it means i am overcoming that small but in a way, huge battle for myself:)
i am so glad i was able to share this with my grandma.

we are sad to see it go.

today is our last day with The T21 Traveling Afghan:( last night we went over to log home studio and had some beautiful pictures taken, she was nice enough to edit them while we waited so i could get a copy to send with the journal. here are two of my favorites!

i have to say this whole time waiting to be a part of this wonderful project, the biggest thing i wanted to see was what the other families wrote and shared about their experiences with the afghan. i thought i would share my page with all of you. (you should be able to click on the picture to make it larger.)

wordless wednesday

max standing and stepping!

so now max is starting to really enjoy standing:) he is getting pretty stable on his own but still has that new feet wobbliness(not sure if that's an actual word), his newest thing he starting to do is take a step or two! is so exciting he is so proud of himself:) as he should be! i do have to say he is having a hard time because he wants to just start walking before he is stable. i'm not sure what to do for that? i think i'll ask his pt tomorrow.

i had to throw an afghan picture in here:)

wooo whoo max!

and going down with a smile on his face.

miss lilly is such a good big sister, we were all very excited for max and she was cheering right along with us... but, as soon as he was done she said "daddy, mommy watch this! " and started spinning in circles. i try so hard to give the same attention to both kids, what's it going to be like when their are three running around here?

great job lilly!

a few more pictures.

a few pictures of max with the T21 traveling afghan!

saturday night.

he thought he was so funny.

lilly and max with the afghan on the couch watching sunday morning cartoons:)
that's my happy little boy:)

mother's day.

happy mother's day.

it's our turn!

it's here it's finally here!!! we signed up for the T21 traveling afghan project when max was 4 months old. we so very excited to be a part of it! this morning at our monthly play date with our other Ds families our friend lilja gave max the afghan! here are a few of the pictures from today.

so sweet, now only if max would kiss lilja back.

almost max, it was so cute:)
thank you for the kisses and the afghan lilja:)
we had a huge group together this morning, we were going to try to get a picture with just the kids and the afghan but realized they were all to small to listen and just sit for the picture. plus we had three new families there today and one of them was with a 8 day old baby girl! what a great group of kids, i feel so lucky to have them and their families in our life.

we also celebrated ruby and logan's third birthdays (they are not twins... just great friends).

max and lilly in the back seat of the car, on the way to target. max was pooped from seeing all of his friends today (oh, he is feeling much, much better. the meds must be working!).

aunt val, and max sitting on his very soon to be little cousin.

cousin jake giving max one of his many hugs for the day:)

cousin wilson opening his birthday presents... his is turning 4!

lilly watching wilson open his gifts.

lilly and max both love wilson little chair:)

we had such an exciting day, starting with the T21 traveling afghan, meeting and making new life long friends, and celebrating there wonderful kids birthdays:) what a great, great day.

late night.

yesterday when i got home from work max felt a little warm to me, his temp was 102.5 so i gave him some tylenol. his temp went down until it was it was time for bed, i gave him another dose but this time it wouldn't go down, at 11:30 his temp was 103.8. he was showing signs that had pneumonia again, so i gave him a nebulizer treatment. he still seemed to be so unhappy (not like max) i decided to take him into the er. i still fell so guilty that i let it get so bad for him the last time he was sick... i didn't want that to happen again.
so 12:00 we get into the er, they brought us back right away. it didn't seem busy at all. the male nurse took all of his information, i never know if i need to say the he has Down syndrome or not, but i did just incase it wasn't in his chart and i really don't know if other people see it or not.
so it was about 12:20 they gave him ibuprofen, and said the dr. will be right in.
well while max and i waited his temp finally went down and he fell asleep. at about 1:30 the dr. came in. she apologized for the wait, and honestly i wasn't mad(just a little tired and uncomfortable) max was doing better already. i always think why be mad if you have to wait... most of the time they are having to help someone else in a much worse spot then your in, i was just thankful it wasn't max.
the dr. was very nice, she kept saying how cute max was(i really liked that) she asked me what i thought was so bad that couldn't wait till the morning. at first i was a little embarrassed but i just told her that he was just so sick a few weeks back and i didn't want it to get that bad again. i also mentioned that everything seems to hit max so much harder then it hits his sister(since she was home with the same cold).
the Dr. then asked why i think that is? i replied, i would think it's more then likely to do with max having Down syndrome. right away she apologized that she didn't know, she said she honestly couldn't tell. she then said she was in such a hurry that she didn't get a good look at his chart. i thought that was an honest answer. she started checking his throat and ears the whole time asking how maxs heart was and a lot of other knowledgeable questions about max and Down syndrome. she shared with me that she was from over seas and her first cousin was born with Down syndrome. she was so positive about him and how great he is doing, she said he just went to china for the special olympics and how the whole family was so proud because he was the first one in the family to go to china.
she then shared with me that my son has a server ear infection:(, and all that he needs are antibiotic:)

over all it wasn't a terrible night(except for the fact at the start of it max was in some major pain... poor max). max is doing much better today, he did get to sleep a lot... unlike his mom. i think its going to be an early night.

i love this sleeping little boy, so sweet.

wordless wednesday

my flowers.

when i got home from work i saw these beautiful flowers lilly and her grandma elrick picked for me:)

thanks again lilly, you made my day:)

max loved smelling the lilacs, i have to say he enjoyed eating them too:)