Synagis Shot

Oh my, my, my. Walker was approved for his synagis shot and we had his appointment. Poor baby. He never, ever cries when he gets shots. Ever. He cried and cried and cried and then cried some more. We felt terrible for him. He was off all day long.

The good news is that he is weighing in at 20 pounds 3 ounces! BIG OL' BOY!

Welcome to Holland

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this......

When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.

After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."
"Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."

But there's been a change in the flight plan. 

They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.

The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.

So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.

It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.

But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."

And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.

But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.

- Emily Perl Kingsley 

Festival of Lights at Moody Gardens

I love this time of year. We always seem to be doing something Christmas related on the weekends with my family. We went to the Festival of Lights at Moody Gardens and had so much fun. The lights were great! We had kettle corn and also made s'mores on their s'mores pit. Walker and R watched an Elf juggle fire and we ended the night at Gino's. We had so much fun.

Top of the Nice list! 

All bundled up ready to see the lights.

Daddy and Walkie

Walkie and Momma with her Starbucks

R photo bombing!

Nana and Walkie

This is exactly why my mother is not allowed to take pictures. She took this one and said, "That's a good one. Y'all should use it for your Christmas cards." And she was being completely serious. 

R threw Walkie in the bushes.

Ready to go home.

Walkie LOVES his Uncle J

At Gino's.

This happened

So this happened last week:

And this happened last night:

Happy Thanksgiving!

There is nothing more exciting than having a child and celebrating the holidays. I have never really enjoy Thanksgiving, its true. My grandparents use to video tape us going around the table asking what we were thankful for each year and my usual response was, while mean mugging the camera, "nothing". I was clearly the most pleasant child.

Last year I took it really hard not getting to spend Walker's first holidays at home and going all out. But this year I am soaking up every thing and making sure he is nothing but happy. He had a fantastic time at Nana's house for Thanksgiving. He sat in his high chair next to Izzy and played with his new Christmas themes bath toy. My mom always has something Christmas related to give us at Thanksgiving. The toys were a huge hit with the kids. Walker ate so much turkey! He was the only grandchild to even eat food and I think he ate his share and also Izzy and Adam's share. My mom did an excellent job cooking Thanksgiving dinner all by herself. Walker and Adam were fighting for Nana's attention. He spent some time with his Aunt Nancy and Uncle John. He was nothing but smiles and giggles. The only thing missing was R; he was working. But Walker ate Thanksgiving left over with R after his Thanksgiving day nap.

Ha, Ha, Ha!

It's hard trying to get three little people to smile at one time and one camera. 

Yadams: My mom says I need to sit in the chair and get my picture taken.
Walkie: Well, I'm sitting here.
Yadams: Mom!

This was what Walker was like all day long!

"Mommy and Me"

Aunt Sissy and Cousin Adam 

Uncle J is working nights so he was sleeping Thanksgiving  day away.

Precious!

Nana and her grandbabies 

Hey there cutie!

Gobble til' you Wobble!

My mom made a pumpkin pie for R.

"I'm what?"

"I AM Daddy's Little Turkey!"

I think I have been shopping on Black Friday since it started. We use to spend Thanksgiving at my grandparent's in Canyon Lake, so I would go with my mom and Aunt Nancy to the outlets in San Marcos. Since I started, I have only gotten in to two altercations. One with a little old lady who got in my way at Kohl's and then last night at Target with a drunken young adult who cut in line. I love it! I always go to Target for their sheet set and blankets.

For the past couple of years I have taken R with me. He gets so pumped up! He hates standing in line in the cold but when they doors start opening and the line starts moving, he's filled with energy! We always plan out where we are going and out strategy for the day. At Target they pass out these maps and R keeps repeating where he's going and where I am. It really is fun! Even though he had to go to work this morning, we got a lot of shopping down last night and I think we saved $258.70. That's not bad at all!

We picked this little guy up from Nana's house and he wasn't ready to go to bed when we got home.

We hope all of you had a great Thanksgiving with your loved ones! It's Christmas time y'all!

Wordless Wednesday Has Some Words

Walker for some reason has resorted to wanting to be right by me until he falls asleep. He no longer likes going in his crib and falling asleep on his own. The other night he woke up at 10 and we put him in bed with us. He had fun kicking R until he fell asleep. He hates R being in the bed.

And then I woke up to this:

Somebody is getting their bed lowered. 

Pumpkin Waffles

I've been trying to give Walker a variety of food to eat and this week he tried pumpkin spice waffles with pumpkin spice butter.

"I don't want this"

"Hmm...maybe I do"

"This is mighty delicious, Momma"

Random Pictures of Walker

Yeah, good ole Sissy putting the baby to bed again. 

Looking super cute in his red hoodie.

Such a precious boy!

Chewing on a piece of turkey meat. 

Great Grandma Mo made Walker his stocking. 

Super cute! 

World Prematurity Day

Today we wear purple to spread awareness for prematurity around the world. On one of the preemie Facebook pages they had pictures of different cities around the world who lit bridges or monuments purple to support this day. 

Walker will forever be a preemie. He may be a former preemie but we will always show our support. Look at how far we have come and what great knowledge we have to share to other countries about prematurity. That is just another reason why I love living in the US of A!

Here are some of our family friends who participated with us:

One tiny...
25 weeks 1lb 14 oz
Always strong...

"What do you mean I was tiny?"

"Do you still think I'm tiny?"

Cousin Izzy showing her support for Baby Walkie .

Beautiful Cam showing her support for her preemie friends!

Aunt Julie of course showed her support for her favorite brother's little boy.