It's getting pretty scary over here!

Well, it's past the first day of the month in which a holiday is being celebrated.  I have spoiled my kids, and they wanted to know why I have been slacking.  The Halloween bins had not been dusted off and brought out of the garage, and we were teetering on the edge of chaos!  How selfish of me to take a little time for me!  No worries, they have busted me out of my vacation bubble, and I can now say that we are decorated for Halloween, and yes, we are the only house on our street that has decorated for Halloween, and the kids were beaming with pride when cars slowed down to admire our work tonight.

Moms on break!

For the first time in 12 years my best friend and I are enjoying a weekend away without any kids!  It has been so much fun to catch up and laugh and do a whole lot of people watching!  We have no schedule, no one else to dress or remind of table manners!  It has been epic!  :)

I have to say that one of the most common questions that I get when people find out for the first time that I am a mother of a child with Down syndrome is, "Did you know he had Down syndrome before he was born."  I am always upfront that we did know, but it didn't matter.  Is it a question that is asked as a barometer of our morals?  What difference does it make?  Then why do I feel compelled to then explain why we had an amnio to confirm the diagnosis?  What does it matter?  We were going to be parents for a second time after suffering a devastating miscarriage, Rory was finally going to be a big sister...  What did it matter when we found out?  Trust me, it doesn't make us better people or better parents because we knew our son had Down syndrome before he was born.  We loved him from the moment we found out he was coming, and as with everything that comes with being a parent, are you ever ready for anything?

A person's a person..

It's Down Syndrome Awareness Month!

Well, I've been a failure at blogging lately….who am I kidding.  To say that it has been sporadic since we brought Brendan home from the hospital would be a little more accurate.  I started the blog after Brendan was born because I figured that it would be an easier way to keep our family and friends, and anyone one else who cared, up to date on Brendan's battle to come home.  At least I met the goal there! Then blogging became something to do to keep memories of our family, stories and pictures and good little black mailing bits that could be brought out many years later!

Today, October 1, 2014, it's hard to believe that they little fighting Irishman is almost 7!?!  How did that all go by so quickly?  We won't talk about how The Princess is closing in on double digits and the Littlest Kilbride is in Kindergarten???  Yikes!!!

I digress…back to the reason of the blog for today….  Just about 7 years ago we were brought into the Down syndrome family, and boy have we learned a lot!  We are still learning, advocating, and stumbling and bumbling along the way, but we have learned that we are not alone.  You have been on this journey with us, and so have so many other families that we have never met.  So this month I am going to attempt to blog something everyday in support of Down Syndrome Awareness month and also in support of 31 for 21..other bloggers who will post everyday of the month (31) in support of the third copy of the 21st chromosome.  Some days won't be about our journey…some days you'll be overloaded, but hey..I'm just trying to set a goal here!

So, click on the 31 for 21 button on the right side of the page and check out some of the other blogs there!

Happy October!!!