Mommy & Daughter Date

Today Jovie and I had a wonderful Mommy/Daughter date!

I took her to see Disney On Ice, and it was so much fun to hang out with my baby girl.  She looked so pretty dressed as Cinderella.

Of course, she had to have a snow cone!

Afterwards she told me that she wanted to go to a restaurant, so I treated her to Applebee's.  No worries, the boys all hung out at home playing video games.  It was probably good for Carter to have some guy time.

Thank you baby girl for one AMAZING day out.  I hope that you don't forget it....I know I won't!

Jovie's Birthday

Here is my long overdue blog post.

Jovie had an excellent birthday!  We made cupcakes and had Happy Meals for dinner.  She insisted on wearing her crown that was given to her by her preschool teacher.  What a cutie pie!

A couple of days later we had her birthday party.  Most of our family came and we had a fun night of Olympics and pizza.  The kids had so much fun playing with their cousins.  It's been a long time.  There were times when Carter got a little overwhelmed with all of the noise even with his hearing aid off, but with a little love from his Aunt Stacy, he warmed up by the end of the night.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

To my baby girl....

Happy Birthday to you!

We are now very proud parents of a four year old girl. 

What can I say about Jovie.

Well, this little darling came to us with an extremely easy labor.  I remember that she cried for the first hour until I nursed her.  Then she settled right down, and was a very easy baby from that point on.  It's a good thing that she was so easy, or else we probably wouldn't have tried for a third baby.  I know, I know...she's going to be a TERRIBLE teenager, but we've got awhile to worry about that.

From day one she adored her big brother.  They are still the best friends. She and Mikey are always finding new games to play like Transformers takes over My Little Ponyville, or Disney Cars vs. Super Pony. I hope that they can stay this close for their whole lives.

She has had a very big year.  Since her birthday last year, she has become an amazing big sister, has started dance class, AND preschool.  She's even learned to write everybody's name in our house (even if her e's are backwards).  She's still into Disney Princesses, but has added Dora to the mix as well. Jovie knows at least 20 signs, and uses them daily for me.

She still has the middle two fingers as her security.  Maybe we can break her of that before her next birthday.

Yep, there she is with Rude Off.  Actually, Rude Off has a little buddy that I hadn't mentioned yet.  Her tag reads Thunderbolt, but her name is pronounced "Horsie Funderbolt".  Wherever you find Rude Off, Funderbolt isn't too far behind.

We love you so much Jovie Jo.  Thank you for bringing sunshine into our lives each and every day.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Shedding Some Light On Our Future

Sometimes I wonder how having a sibling like Carter will affect Mikey and Jovie.  I think that it's a worry that most special needs parents have.

At first, I was very concerned about how much they would miss out on with having a brother with limitations.  In the VERY beginning, I started thinking that there would be no way that we could go on a family vacation, or that we would miss out on fun things because of Carter. I know that these things are unrealistic, but I have to admit that it was something I would think about. How would Carter affect them?

I sat down with a friend who assured me that those things would still happen, and that my kids were definitely going to be better people for it (thank you Gretchen for that conversation). She even told me that she was thankful that her kids would be able to grow up knowing Carter.

It's true that we haven't done too many things this Winter while we're trying to keep Carter healthy, but we've still had a lot of family fun. I now know that having a child with disablities is a new kind of normal and we're still going to be able to do all of those things that a "normal" family does. I honestly don't worry about it any more, although there may come a time when I do again.

These thoughts came into my mind again this week while we were watching the Olympics. Of course, I'm talking about Alex Bilodeau.  Who is Alex Bilodeau?  If you don't know, I'll happily fill you in.

Alex Bilodeau is a men's Moguls skier who recently won the first gold medal for Canada on home soil.  The reason why I'm drawn to his story is that he has an older brother who has Cerebral Palsy.  There are so many interviews, and so many quotes about how having an older brother with a disability affected his life so it was hard to choose just one:

"I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have the same perseverance if I didn't grow up with him," said the 22-year-old from Montreal. "I'm someone who never quits, even in training. I'm going to fight until the last moment, until I crash really bad."

"In training, it's just like competition and I'm fighting until I can't go any more and until I'm on one ski or something. Even then, I try to pull it back. I grew up with the mentality, `If my brother would have that chance, would he take it? Would he try more?' I always – I always – come to that same answer and it's, `Yes, he would try more.' That's why I can do it."

"He wakes up in the morning and he's got that big smile; he goes to bed and he's got that big smile," Alex said. "And you look at him, and he's got all the right to complain. How many times do we complain in a day? I don't even think I can count mine. That's when you put everything in perspective and you say I should just shut up and swallow and go train."

"My brother is my inspiration," Alex said that night on TV, tears welling. "He taught me so many things in my life."

Wow.

I can only hope that Carter can give the same inspiration to Mikey and Jovie.

But you know what?

I don't need to hope, because I know that it's already there.  I can see it when they look at him.  I can see their compassion growing. All I can do is thank God for giving us this wonderful gift.

The Story Of Rude Off and Head Lifting

Meet Rude Off

He was purchased two years ago at a thrift store.  His nose would light up and he would sing his theme song when you pushed his belly.  Rude Off has been attached to this little girl since the day that he came home with us.

She grabs on to both sets of legs and makes him fly through the air just like the movie.  He sleeps next to her all night long.  He gets stuffed into her purse. Poor Rude Off.  He's been through the washer so many times and gets thrown around all day long.  His nose no longer lights up, but his song still plays.

Rude Off has been making trips to see little Carter.  Little Carter doesn't understand what's so special about Rude Off, but maybe he will one day. For right now, all that Carter can concentrate on is lifting his head while he's on his tummy, and guess what....he's finally starting to do it!!  You have to lay him on his elbows, because he doesn't know how to move those into position yet, but he can lift his head for at 30 second intervals while he's propped on his elbows now.  Go little C!

Christmas

Here is the completed Nativity.  Isn't it precious?  Thank you to our Secret Family for making this holiday season extra special for us. Your notes made us reflect on what Christmas is really about.

Our Christmas was spent at home this year. On Christmas Eve Michael brought home a new Wii game, and we made a bunch of finger foods.   We had a few visitors throughout the day which made it even more fun.  Here are the kids in their new Christmas jammies.

Carter looked so cute in his big boy jammies.  It cracks me up because they are a size 3-6 months.

The kids woke up at about 7:30 Christmas morning.  Carter slept in until about 8:00, and then he wanted in on the action.

Major sleepy eye.

Carter loved his new floor mirror.

Check out these gorgeous gifts!

A Secret Santa snuck these gifts into the back of Michael's truck.  How sweet is that?!  You won't believe what was inside of each one.  Each of the kids got some REALLY nice outfits that included socks, pants, shirts, and hoodies from our favorite store.  Carter got a very soft blanket too! Then one of them had a huge box of chocolates, a Christmas CD, and a photo keychain.  The card was very nice telling us to believe in Santa Claus, and there was a letter that told the story about "Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus".  I am seriously floored at how kind this person was to do all of this for us.  Your generosity is too much! Thank you from the bottom of our hearts. The kids loved their outfits, and they were the perfect size. You'll never know how much this act of kindness has meant to us.  We feel very blessed.

We spent the rest of the day hanging out in our pajamas. It was the best Christmas ever!

Carter is nine months old today.  Can you believe it? Nine months old. He's moving right along with things.  I've noticed that I've been lacking in his therapies for the last couple of weeks with the holidays, so for the last two days we've been doing some major workouts. 

I started him back up on cereal, and as you can see he loves it.

NOT!  This is Carter saying "Are you trying to kill me?!?!"

He's actually doing pretty well with it.  I just need to stick with it so he can keep getting better at it.

My Sweetheart

Today was Michael's birthday.  He had to work, but once he got home it seemed like we had a lot of visitors and phone calls with birthday wishes.  Thank you to everyone who helped us celebrate today. I know that it meant a lot to him. I'm very proud of Mike for all of the hard work he does.  He really is the best husband that I could have found. I'm a VERY lucky girl!

Jovie had a Preschool program last week, and she looked so pretty.  She and her best friend, Lauren are in a class together. As you can see they have similar taste in clothes.

Mikey had a mini talent show in his class on Friday.  Michael and the grandmas attended.  He was so worried because he "doesn't have a talent....he only knows how to do Kung Fu" which I assure you he does not.  We taught him how to say Merry Christmas using Sign Language and he did great! What a cutie.  He's getting to be so big.

Carter had his first Synagis shot today.  This is the vaccine for RSV, and for a baby his size it costs $2200 a month.  He has to have it once a month for 5 months, but THANKFULLY our insurance is covering it.  I also swallowed my pride and asked the Pediatrician to fill out a form to get a Handicapped plaquard for our car. I do fine carrying Carter and all of his accessories most of the time....but lately it's been REALLY hard finding a parking spot at the hospital.  Usually if I do find one, it's so far away from the building that I'm exhausted by the time I get inside.  I usually take the stroller, but there are some appointments where it is such a tight fit. I guess we'll be sportin' a plaquard for awhile.

Our Secret Family is still delivering little surprises to us.  The Nativity is almost complete.  I'm going to share a picture when it's all done.  Our kids kept asking when we could be someone's Secret Family, but since it was a little late to do that, we decided to start leaving little gifts for our Secret Family instead.  The kids have had a blast with it.

Secret Family and Dance Class

So, I mentioned in the earlier post that Jovie had her dance recital today.  She did awesome!  She's too darn cute with how seriously she takes dance.

We've had a few little surprises at our doorstep the last few nights.  A Secret Family has been leaving us pieces of this adorable Nativity scene with notes telling us how each piece is a symbol of Christmas.  The first night we got the background, the second was the Manger, and tonight we got the donkey with the cart.  Our kids are LOVING this, and can't wait to see what comes next.  I don't know if our Secret Family reads our blog, but if they do Thank you!  I can't believe how thoughtful people can be.

Our Halloween

I haven't gotten that article scanned in yet, so I'm going to try my very hardest to get it posted tomorrow.  Instead, here's how our Halloween went...

The kids had a fun time.  I felt like a bad mom because we didn't even carve our pumpkins until Halloween day.  Ughhh!  I hate it when I procrastinate (which if you know me, I do a lot of) and end up rushing things like this.  In my defense, we had planned on doing it the night before, but time got away from us because Carter had a random bad day with his breathing.  Here are the older kids carving away.  Jovie's pumpkin was so tiny but took the longest to get the seeds out of.  It was one of those rare moments when Mikey was being extremely helpful and cute about getting all of the seeds out.  Carter slept through all of it.

Here's the very cute outfit that my grandma sent for Carter.  Awww...isn't he the most precious boy!  He had just woken up so there were no smiles coming from him.  Can't you see how he would have a crooked smile...just like Edward?

Finally, it was time for the good ole' trick or treating.  Jovie was thrilled that we colored her hair purple.  Carter is looking at me like "seriously... what are we doing?", and Mikey was all business.  Get the candy and move on!

We have another big week ahead of us.  Tuesday is the big "hearing aid day" for Carter.  We're so excited!  Thursday we meet with the Pulmonologist to discuss the sleep study.  She already sent us a letter with the results, so we know that she thinks that CPAP would be beneficial to him.  No problem... bring it on!