31 for 21 Day 5 The Night Wyatt Was Born....

precious wyatt.....

finally got him back, a little cleaned up!!!

i really wanted wyatt to be born on the 4th of july, but he would not cooperate!   he waited until the 6th of july to make his grand (and quick) entrance!!!    that was a monday, and it was a busy day!    i cooked fajitas for supper and we had a delicious meal!  i thought i might be getting closer to having him, but was not sure!  after a nice hot bath through contractions, we decided to call our obstetrician, who is also our friend, to see if it might be time to go to the hospital.... from the tone of my voice she said it was definitely time!  

proud daddy!!!

we got to the hospital about 9:30 that night, and he was born about 10:15!   i told tim once we got to the hospital that i just could not do this.....i was TOO OLD!  he just laughed.  but those were a pretty painful 45 minutes (i have never used pain meds)!!!!   as i was pushing, i told our OB i just couldn't do it, and she said "ok!"  LOL!!! RIGHT!!!! 

meet the brothers and g-mama....
that's our OB Dr Debbie!

so i thought i would share some of wyatt's birth pictures with you...... we did not have a prenatal diagnosis with wyatt because we chose not to have any prenatal testing.    i am so happy that we had these precious moments with wyatt, not having a diagnosis.   as i look at these pictures, i am fully convinced that no one involved with his birth had any idea that he had Down syndrome!    it wasn't until he was a couple of days old that it was suggested that he might have Ds..... 

blessings....




Happy 11th Birthday, Forrest!

was it just 11 years ago that we were celebrating the birth of our second son, forrest?   for the past week we have been celebrating his birthday!  he and his friends enjoyed a fun game of miniature golf last weekend, followed by burgers at home!  last night, for his "actual" birthday, forrest's gmama and gdaddy took us to golden corral (his choice) for his birthday supper!   we had a fun night!  

forrest has brought us much joy and laughter in his 11 years!  he is quite a funny kid; we never know what he is going to say!  he is very much a "people person," like me, and loves to play with friends.  he is good-natured, and is a terrific big brother!    wyatt ADORES forrest; forrest is so patient with him!  it would not surprise me if he went into the medical field because of his little brother, he would be a terrific pediatric therapist....or physician!  

we visited the potential (and likely) middle school for forrest this week over in pace.  it was very clean and QUIET..... shockingly quiet!!!    he was VERY happy with the school, which i am very thankful for!   and he expressed an interest in joining the band.... oh my!   in 6th grade you are either in band or p.e., so i guess he is going to explore band!  i was a band kid from 7th grade through graduation, and i loved it!   we will see how he likes it!   i think that it will help him to connect and make friends more quickly at his new school in a new town.

we are so thankful that God (and kym and my mama....who both take credit for forrest being born) blessed us with this precious boy, who is becoming a compassionate and caring young man.....

Lovin' My Birthday Celebrations!!!

for those of you who don't know me in real life, i am like a small child when it comes to my birthday.....and anyone else's birthday too!   i believe in celebrating long and hard!!!   celebrating as much as i can!   why not???   who cares that i am a year older...it's inevitable!  everyone else ages each year as well....

i turned 46 on monday, although i still feel like i'm about 22 for some reason....  anyway, since we were all together on saturday, we (i) decided that it would be my "pretend" birthday, because tim would not be here for my "real" birthday!   so we spent the entire day together as a family!   first we got to see forrest get his belt promotion to purple best, which was a fun time!  then we headed out for some lunch and shopping!

we went out to the beach area and ate at "reggae j's island grill" at pier park.   we ate on the porch area, it was such a beautiful day, with a view of the gulf!   i had one of my favorites, coconut shrimp, and they were delicious!   it was a terrific meal!   the guys then took me to "jake's at the beach" so i could get a new "life is good" t-shirt.   if you don't have one....they are THE SOFTEST T-SHIRTS EVER!!!   we also sampled a little fudge at a candy shop and just wondered a bit!  

then we went down and walked on the beach for a few minutes!   there was hardly anyone out there, but it was such a beautiful day!   about 70 degrees and breezy....NICE!!!    to wrap up our fun time, we stopped at "david's sno balls" for my favorite.....red velvet stuffed sno ball!!!  yummalicious!!!  

anyway, we continued shopping the day away instead of opting for a late nap, and i accomplished almost everything on my list!   it was a lot of fun, and we concluded the day with pizza!   no cooking or cleaning for me.....well maybe a little!  lol!   a great day all the way around!

not that that finished the celebration.....on monday, april and clayton took wyatt and i to brunch at ihop!  it was delicious!!!   i had the holiday pancakes meal with pumpkin praline pancakes....oh my!!!!   DELISH!!!   my parents took the boys and i to outback for supper, and although my steak was not the best, it was still a great dinner!    and the boys gave me new charms for my bracelet! 

and today i received a beautiful red Christmas cactus from my friend, wyatt's ot, stacy for my birthday..... it just keeps going!  my in-town girlfriends took me out to lunch today too!  it was yummy and we laughed A LOT!!!   

so this "kid at heart" had a lovely birthday week of celebration!   hope you enjoy your birthday as much as i enjoyed mine!  blessings......

Happy 2nd Birthday Wyatt!

oh my, what a busy day we have had.....hard to believe that just 2 years ago (30 minutes ago!) God blessed us with our precious bonus baby, wyatt!   just a few pics from today as we celebrated his precious life.....

happy boy....

pouty faced boy....

tired boy...

hard working boy....

chick-fil-a eating boy....

playing boy....

birthday party boy....

swimming boy....

"center of attention" boy....

enjoying presents boy....

excited boy......



worn out boy.....



thank you God....we are so very blessed....

True Confessions of an Impatient MAMA!

today will be my "sad" birthday post.  tomorrow will be my joyfilled post, on wyatt's actual birthday!

 i wish wyatt was walking. 

we've thought that he would walk for the past 6-9 months...

he walks holding our hands;
he walks with the "moonwalker" harness with no problems;
he walks holding onto the parallel bars at the pt office;
he walks in the pt office walker;
AND he can take 3-4 steps unassisted when he wants to!!!! 

I JUST WISH HE WAS WALKING!!!!!!

it makes me sad to see all the other children who are now up to a year younger than him walking.  i KNOW that i should not compare him to others.   i KNOW that this is "normal" for kids with Down syndrome. i KNOW lots of facts, but that does not make it any easier for ME!!!!    ethan walked at 9 months, forrest walked a little later.....i never would have imagined that wyatt would not be walking by now.    his legs are STRONG.   he COULD walk if he wanted to.   but he does not have the confidence to do it, apparently.   sure, he's a big boy.....i know that makes a difference; a big difference.....



and i wish that he was talking more.  what is he thinking?   oh i know that he is making great progress in his communication, and he's signing more and more too!   he's getting better at letting his wants and desires be known....sometimes a little too forcefully when he pitches a fit.....ha ha!   but it's just so hard to wait.....

it's so hard for this impatient, prideful, competitive person to wait for these things to happen.  yes, i know they will happen....as i've said before, in wyatt's time.....

Wyatt's 1st Birthday!

well, it's hard to believe that in a mere twenty four hours, wyatt will be 1 year old. sure, at 12 am on july 6th he's officially 1, but i know that it was right about 10:15 pm when he made his grand entrance! i'd been trying to have him for at least two days, really wanted a 4th of july baby, but he wasn't quite ready yet! (maybe God was still giving him that little something extra he was born with? =)?)

but when he arrived, he was quick! we got to the hospital about 45 minutes before he was born! i was just glad that our doctor made it....glad that she encouraged me to head to the hospital when i called her at about 8:45 that night! i remember i was having some pretty good contractions when we pulled up to the hospital, and i told tim that i didn't think i could do this.....i was too old! he just laughed and told me "no, you're not too old, and we're going to have a baby!" when the nurse checked my progress to make sure i was in real labor she laughed at me too (which i did not find funny) when she told me i was dilated to 8 cm already! i even think my doctor might have laughed at me when i told her i could not do this, i could not push him out....she just said "okay...you don't have to...." riiiiigggghhhhhtttt! what an exciting and fast night that was! i praise God for such a fast delivery!

i, of course, had no idea how our lives would change after that night....the surprise of his "little something extra"....that extra 21st chromosome that God gave him. i'd never known such joy and sorrow (at the same time) as i knew those first few weeks....how could this beautiful "perfect" baby have down syndrome? i knew that our lives had changed forever! as much as i knew that God was in control, it still hurt so very much....the unknown, the misperceptions, my lack of knowledge about down syndrome....and only God knew the new friendships that we would be blessed with simply through that little extra chromosome!

but oh what a difference a year makes. there was no sorrow as we celebrated his birthday yesterday. he has brought such joy to our lives and the lives of so many...our extended family, our church family and friends far and wide. he has blessed our lives in so many ways. he has brought people together with a love for him! we've been brought together through his first buddy walk...there were over 50 people on team wyatt last year....and through his open heart surgery in february....over 800 people praying through his facebook group, wyatt's prayer warriors! wow! what a difference his young life has made!

and i am so thankful that God chose me to be his mom; entrusted me with this precious child of His.....peace....

Not Crawling Yet...Whew!

it's hard to believe that our little man is about to turn one in less than a week! i've really been struggling with his development lately. not sure when i haven't struggled with it, to be honest!

i can't remember when i last posted about the crawling questions, but i'm still getting them. "is he crawling yet?"...."scooting?"..."commando crawling?"....the list goes on! and every time i'm at church it's "in my face" more and more. when i'm at home, i don't see other babies his age (or younger) developing more quickly than he is. for that reason, sometimes it's hard to go to church without dreading the questions, etc. it's just hard. and we have such a loving church family who adores wyatt as much as we do... but most of them don't understand that he will develop more slowly.

my friend and i've been talking this week about how hard it is to deal with those questions about developmental milestones. from strangers, from friends, etc. i'm not sure that it will ever be easy. i'm also not sure if i'll ever feel like i do enough for him. i know that others deal with these feelings regularly as well. there's always something else that we should/could be working on. always more research to check out.....way too much to read everything out there. where do you start.....and stop?

i had so hoped that wyatt would be crawling by his birthday. i really thought he would. he's trying really hard. he works really hard. today he had physical and occupational therapy and he did terrific in both sessions! he still stays on his hands and knees and rocks. he scoots forward w/resistance. he can scoot backwards by himself. he's pulling up more. he pivots a lot. yesterday he got himself off his blanket SOMEHOW. we weren't looking, of course! his physical therapist has him walking a lot. he likes to walk with assistance! she keeps saying he may just skip crawling. we'll see.....

as i was thinking about this earlier, though, God reminded me that once he does start crawling and walking, he starts moving away from us. breaking some of those ties of dependence on us! and those movements of independence are just the beginning....who's ready for that? certainly not me! peace...

Focusing on Forrest

today is a day of reflection; our forrest turns 9 today! i love birthdays; birthdays are a BIG DEAL to me...all birthdays! actually, as i'm writing it's about that time 9 years ago that they placed him in my arms! such a cute baby....wow, where has the time gone? right now he's sitting here playing with the lego darth vader tie fighter that he just built....acting out all different scenarios to make me laugh! he's such a fun kid! he's very loving and affectionate! as a special treat i checked him out of school at lunch today and we all went to lunch to celebrate his special day! i always love being surrounded by ALL my guys (i still can't believe i'm the mom to 3 sons!)
i'm fairly certain that forrest is the mirror image of his dad at that age; i can only guess the "grief" that tim put his parents through with his childhood mischief! it's so neat to see how differently God gifts our children, isn't it? forrest is merciful, kind, good; he's independent in some ways, like how he loves to ride his bike all around the neighborhood all by himself! and forrest loves people; he rarely meets a stranger. i'm so thankful that God gave him to us! GOD IS GOOD!