It's Christmas time!

The Christmas cards have not yet been sent, the presents are not all yet wrapped, and Jackson and I have yet to make holiday cookies, but we've been too busy having fun. Here are some of the highlights of the season so far:

On December 1st, a special friend came to visit. We call him Freddie and for 24 days he appears in various locations throughout our house to watch for good behavior and kind acts.

These are some of our attempts at getting a Christmas photo. We did not have time to get family photos taken this year, so here are the best two of my home made photo session.

This year we attended the Down Syndrome Network Christmas event and had our picture taken with Santa. Jackson told Santa that he would like a scooter with 2 wheels. I hope Santa comes through.

We also took the boys up north to Williams, AZ to ride the Polar Express. Jackson spent 3 hours in the car looking for the train tracks. He kept telling me that he thought he could see them on the side of the road.

Everett was not as excited about the anticipated train ride.

Once aboard we were served cookies and hot chocolate. As Greg noted, the hot chocolate was served and cleaned up about as fast as it was in the movie.

After the reading of the Polar Express book and arriving at the North Pole (in the middle of the desert) a special visitor came onto our train... This was Jackson's expression once he spotted the visitor who was handing out bells from his sleigh.

We also shared in Jackson's Christmas program this week. I have just been enjoying how excited he gets about everything these days. He woke up the day of his program ready to go and promised to sing really loud.

Had to share this awesome moment captured just before the program.

Fall 2010 Re-cap

Wow! Can't believe I haven't posted since August. Well needless to say it's been a BUSY Fall and we are all finally on vacation. This upcoming week marks no school for Mommy & Jackson, no therapy for Everett and a quieter week at work for Daddy. So alas, I will take a deep breath and try to give a long overdue update of my wonderful family.

Sometime back in August we finally flipped Everett's car seat to forward facing. I just love being able to look over my shoulder to see his sweet face and all of the amazing things he can do with those legs.

And since Everett has mastered the skill of sitting - we've been out and about exploring new things. A new favorite family activity is bike riding. Everett does really well in tow and sometimes Jackson will sit besides him, but most of the time Jackson likes to ride his bike too.

I just love the next two poses we captured of Everett.

Then came Halloween. We'll it actually came and went, but we did manage to go "pumpkin picking" which in AZ is basically some pre-purchased pumpkins that are spread around amongst the corn field. Jackson is hold two pumpkins not because he couldn't decide, but rather because he is always making sure he gets one of everything for his brother.

Everett was a "pumpkin" for halloween this year. Thanks Mom for finding the cute costume.
Therapy for Everett continues to progress and we are constantly adding new things for him to work on. Check out my baby kneeling. We're not yet crawling or standing, but all the potential is there for him to just take off one of these days.

Then came time for Thanksgiving! This year was extra special because I had a new assistant in helping me get ready for the big day. Jackson was so excited not only because he'd been learning about Thanksgiving in school, but because he was able to help make the cookies, stuffing, set the tables and he even woke up with me at 5am to put the turkey in the oven.

And to help me keep focused on the blessings in life - GOD granted a little prayer request on Thanksgiving morning. For months now we've been trying to get Everett to drink from a cup. It actually became a speech/feeding goal that I was loathing. Every time I would place a cup in his hands he'd toss it to the ground. I was really starting to think to myself, "What's the big deal if he's still drinking out of a bottle at age 30?". So in the midst of cooking the turkey, watching the NYC parade and preparing for our 20+ guests - I had this little voice urge me to give Everett a cup. This time he did not toss it, rather he did this:

In November, we also had another pre-arranged hospital stay. After some strange sleep patterns developed, Everett's neurologist order an EEG that showed "some unusual activity". Based on the findings we were asked to do a 24-48 hour video monitoring. As I suspected, it was more like 72 hours, but we did have our own room so that was awesome. The results showed that he is again having seizure activity (non-convulsive seizures) both during awake and sleep times. We are currently trying out some new medication and monitoring his development.

I have continued to keep busy with school. This semester I completed two more courses and am beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel. I also was able to complete 90 of the 360 hours of internship I need to complete for my certification at a Teacher of the visually impaired. This was probably the toughest semester yet as I had to balance working very part-time, going to school, being mom and learning braille. It was tough, but good and I'm really excited to have passed my braille proficiency test. Next semester I will be taking nemeth, which is the braille math code. I've already been informed it's tough, so the spring may be just as hectic as the fall.