What at week!! First off, Merry Christmas!!! I truly love Christmas, love the lights, the atmosphere, the sheer joy it brings to my boys and the shopping...well maybe not the shopping (however I did discover the art of online shopping this year)
This was also Zachary's first Christmas. It seem sort of strange having an almost 11 month old celebrating for the first time. My other two were so little at this time of the year.
Sadly this years Christmas festivities were filled with flu, fevers, coughing and funerals.  Last week at this time, we were replacing interior doors in our house and getting ready for a drive out to London (about 3 hours away) to support a dear friend who had lost her Dad, when we received a phone call from the school saying Carter was sick. And so our week began...
While we were in London, the older boys stayed with a girlfriend of mine...poor Carter cried the whole time. This was actually the 3rd fever he had in the past 4 weeks, although each time the fever broke and he went on his way, but I thought we better get him checked out.  So as soon as we returned from London, off to Urgent Care we went.  Thankfully (although sometimes it's annoying) there was nothing they could find wrong. Upon our return from the clinic, I walked in the door to find Peyton was brewing his own fever.  That was the start of the dreaded flu spreading through our house the week before Christmas.  So our well layed plans to have a date night, finish our shopping and sit back and relax was thwarted.
But amidst all the chaos, we truly had a wonderful Christmas...all 5 of them!  Yup, I said 5, beginning on Thursday with Ryan's Dad and ending at my parents on Sunday.  We did end up cancelling our Christmas Eve plans due to our sickness (so now we only had 4 lol).

Now that I have bored you with all my Christmas details, we truly had a wonderful time and were blessed and spoiled. Now Ryan heads back to work tomorrow and I am going to enjoy a day at home and try and bring some order to this place we call home, while the boys play with their new toys.

Zachary is crawling in full force, time to break out the baby gates. Each time I see him take off, I truly sit in awe (although I don't get to sit for long!).  It is amazing to actually watch a miracle happen in front of your eyes. I'm already thinking about the next step though, as we were told once he starts to pull himself up they will look at sizing him for afo's or orthodics of some sort. He doesn't plant himself flat on his feet, he stands on his heels, which of course is not good for balance. So I'm looking forward to next Thursday when we head to Spina Bifida group at Bloorview.

And I promise some pictures soon...:)

Moving Forward!

I know it's only a little movement...but at least he's going forward! :) and since I took this video this morning he's been going farther and farther. Of course the real way to get him going are those puffs on the floor...food, always the way to a boys heart :)
I am still in shock that I can sit and write this post, as we could only "wait and see" what Zachary could do...and of course he always amazes us.

So one of the services that we have in Ontario is called Infant Development.  I had sort of forgotten about them, but now that they have been here, I'm so glad we finally met.  Katie came over on Wednesday. The first visit is filled with paper work, but somehow we managed to do more than paperwork.  We chatted about EVERYTHING, and 3 1/2 hours later...I couldn't believe she had stayed that long! I had to check the clock 3 times to believe it was right. So aside from the obvious connection we made, I feel she is going to be such a valuable resource. I still feel there is so much I don't know about what's out there and how to apply for things or find things that could help us. And not only is this her career, she also lives it, having two boys with Down Syndrome. So I really feel like she has a bigger concern for her clients.
Infant Development is set up to help with in home therapy, (following along with the therapy Zachary is receiving at Grandview) a resource for any grants or tax credits (paper work etc) will accompany you to appointments if you want, and just anything little that comes up that you're unsure about, she will even help me find daycare when the time comes.
She is coming back on Thursday, I am looking forward to what she has for Zachary and some help for me with government forms. :)

10 Months!

During my hiatus, Zachary also turned 10 months!  I know, I know, I say it every month, but where has the time gone?!
He is such a delight and loves to flirt and is still working on moving those crawling legs forwards, rather than backwards.  He is sleeping through the night (oh boy does that feel good). He wasn't even up too much before that, but to have a full nights sleep is beyond fantastic. He still loves to be swaddled, which is sort of funny, wrapping up this 20lbs turkey in a blanket...but whatever works right :)

So I think I'll start my return to blogging with our annual gingerbread house decorating. The boys seem to truly love doing this, I mean what kid doesn't like to have 6 different bright coloured candies sitting infront of them?! :)
This year I even let them eat them! That thrilled them as well and that may now start a new tradition. I think I'm going to have to start making one of my own to keep around until Christmas.

Alright, time to get my butt in gear. I can't believe how long I have neglected my blog. I have spent the last weeks enjoying every word of the other blogs I follow and haven't had the time to sit down a plow through one of my own. The past few weeks have been busy, but just ordinary life busy. We've had strep throat, ear infections, green snot, coughs and all the other fun stuff that seems to come with this season.Our Christmas tree has gone up, we finally celebrated Peyton's birthday, we've had two Christmas concerts, got my back-to-work date :(, almost completed our Christmas shopping, decorated our annual gingerbread houses and finally got to meet someone from Infant Development.

So hopefully within the next week and a bit I will be able to stay on top of all this and have longer posts to fill in all the gaps of our little adventure we call life.

In the meantime here are a few pictures...everyone loves pictures and maybe they'll buy me a bit of time :)