For your viewing pleasure

It's more than half way through October, which means it is past the halfway point of Down syndrome awareness month.  I had a plan to be more faithful in my blogging this month, what can I say but life got in the way.

To make up for it, here is a video of Brendan and some of the things he has been doing in the last year...

Saturday...

We took a trip to the Sensory Friendly movies to see Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2...

You can't really see it well but Brendan has his own drink of Fruit Punch that keeps him happy through the whole movie..and don't you dare try to touch it!

Good thing we got the movie in this morning because shortly after we came home Brendan was off doing his laps around the house with his baby doll carriage, and then I heard screaming.  I'm not sure what happened but the baby carriage wheel got all caught up in a plastic bag and Brendan was mad as hell!  So I fixed that and then I saw these...

Yeah, I guess he had a good ol fit of rage!  He'll be bumping into walls for a few days while I work to get the new ones in!  Oh Joy!!!

A brother first...

a brother always...

Ready....

Set...

GO!!!!

Big brother carrying little brothers lunch box home from school.

Oh the joys of moving with an IEP

There are so many steps that you have to take as a parent of a special needs child.  Then there are the extra steps and leaps that you have to make when you are a parent of special needs child in the military.

Our family moves every 2 years.  We were lucky 2 duty stations ago because we were able to stay there for 3 years!  Every time we move we have to travel down the path of the special education in each different states, and it has been pretty straightforward so far, until now.

To say that I am frustrated and upset would be silly....I have much harsher words for what I am feeling about this process of getting Brendan on the right path in school with the correct services.  On the positive side, he has an amazing teacher, an amazing aide and fabulous Speech therapist.  On the other hand, I have not nice things to say about the Special Education Administration within the school.

We finally have the first IEP scheduled in Florida next week....wish them luck, trust me they'll need it!

It's Down Syndrome Awareness Month!

Maybe Down Syndrome Awareness Month will get me off of this blogger strike, or perhaps "blogging shutdown" would be more appropriate term for today,  just kidding.

I'll be sporting my brand new Down syndrome bracelet that my cousin told me about.  I think it looks fabulous, don't you??

I thought I would also let you see how Brendan is celebrating day 1 of Down syndrome awareness month...

That's right, he trashed the playroom!!  Just proof that he really is a 5 year old little boy who just happens to have Down syndrome!

4th of July

We did celebrate the 4th, but it was a toned down holiday than our normal fare...

We started with a brand new American flag on the house!

A little "Mommy-Rory" pool time

Brendan was catching up with a Sox game

Bryan grilled up hot dogs and hamburgers on our brand new grill

We ended dinner with "fabulous fourth" cupcakes....Brendan just wanted to eat it and not pose for pictures..

Rory is a poser..

..so is Jack!

It of course was pouring about the time that we were going to head out to watch the fireworks...so we just hung at our house and enjoyed the neighborhood fireworks..

 

Roughing it

So here we are in our new house, but all of our "stuff" has yet to catch up with us.  Actually I'm starting to wonder if it's ever going to get here especially since we found out yesterday that all of our crates are still sitting in storage in Texas because the total weight of our shipment was never put into the system.  Well, I almost put something into the system for them!!!  We should have an update today, fingers crossed...

Anyway, this is how we have been living, and it's not all that bad

Our cozy kitchen...

Rory's Room...

The Boys Room...

The Master...

Of course there is no washer or dryer here yet, so that means we have to make some trips to the laundromat.  I was paralyzed with fear at the though of making the trip to clean the clothes with my 3 precious ones....but off we went!!

This tranquil scene lasted just long enough for me to load 4 washing machines...then it was over!

This move may go down as our worst move, but we've made it so far with our wits, and maybe a few beers.   It can only get better from here!