Welcome 2013!



Happy New Year to all!  We finished off 2012 with lots of celebration and some struggles, but are happy to invite 2013 and all it will bring!  We had a nice Christmas despite all being sick.  We have enjoyed some time off together, some of which were sick days from work and school.  We rang in the new year all comfy at home.

2012 brought us our first new house and all the fun and firsts that go along with that.  We saw lots of new firsts with Will too.  We had some fun family times and a couple of exciting trips too.  We hope 2013 is filled with as many good times and firsts to celebrate!

 

Recently my sister and I have been talking about the 'shiny' pictures.  How Christmas cards and social media make you feel like everyone else has it so easy and perfect, even though we all know better.  And whether we know better or not, we compare our family’s imperfect insides to other families’ shiny outsides.  Here's my shiny picture.  Even though they aren't all my kids, they each make my life shiny and happy.  My life is far from perfect, but most days these kids make it feel that way.

 

 

Will has been challenging me more and more with things he won't do and won't try.  His stubborness can be exhausting.  He continues to refuse food and, yes, I have tried EVERYTHING.  He gets grumpy and frustrated when I try to work with him on shapes, colors, letters.  He can not express himself other than to say 'no', so I hear it constantly.  Sometimes its cute...mostly it is frustrating.  In my positive column though, he did finally have fun with the shaving cream in the tub.  Its a small step, but I need to focus on the positive:)  He didn't touch it much, but he used his shovel to move it around.  So although it didn't do much for sensory work, he did get a wrist work out and fine motor skill practice.

 

 

And we were sick about two weeks before Christmas.  All of us.  High fevers, sore throats, congestion and coughing like we have never coughed before.  I had pneumonia amid other issues and it took us all about until Christmas to feel better.  Poor Will was miserable.  Kiddos with Ds get the upper respiratory stuff pretty bad when they get sick because all their anatomy is small, including airways.  He has lost 3 pounds in the past month either from being sick or being stubborn.  He slept a lot and layed around for a week, but managed to stay mostly happy.  This is one day during our quarantine.

 

 

We did make it to Wildlights at the zoo!

 

Helping decorate cookies at Grandma Sandy's house!

 

Wrestling with his cousins at Crandall Christmas:)

 

Christmas eve at Gaga and Papa's house.  Good food and good company!

 

Uncle Ricky got me solo cups for Christmas (among other things).  I like them a lot but they aren't much fun without Uncle Ricky here to build the tower.

 

Christmas round two at Grandma Sandy and Grandpa Jim's house.  Lots of presents!

 

 

When we finally made it home, Santa had stopped by our house too!  He left Will a chair, jeep, microphone, books and puzzles.  Elmo wins the top prize thanks to Aunt Kelly!  He also loves his car garage from the Browns and has already spent hours making the cars go up and down.  He is thankful for ALL his presents and got spoiled a little bit:)

 

So we have high hopes for 2013 and hope we are not disappointed.  We wish all our family and friends the same good things.