Shark Attack

Justin got a new towel for his birthday and it's a shark!  He opens his mouth wide whenever we reach out to wrap him up in it.  So funny!!

Be the Church

Yesterday was our church's fourth annual "Be the Church" Day.  "Be the Church" is serving in our community and doing practically the things Jesus taught.  We did tons of different things this year!  There were even more opportunities to serve than last year.  A group of people did automotive repairs for our older members.  Several people packed boxes for our military and missionaries.  We served a meal at our Impact Inner City Church.  A group went to the local park and handed out bottles of water.  There were lots of people who took homemade cookies and passed them out at a nursing home.  Last year we had a great time weeding and trimming a bush at one of our homebound member's homes. 

This year we cleaned up our neighbor's yard.  They are an older couple and the wife was recently diagnosed with lung cancer.  They are consumed with doctor's appointments and chemotherapy and testing and there is no time for the spring yard clean up that is so necessary here in Houston.  This year was MUCH harder work than last year.  We were the crew leaders on this project and so we spent a lot of time beforehand preparing for everything that needed to be done.  Randy started out on the roof raking leaves off.  He was up there almost an hour!  You can see the pile he accumulated on the ground.

I spent the day running around getting supplies (we had to make a mulch run), keeping the kids on task, and keeping track of Justin.  Justin did not sleep well on Saturday night and so he was wandering aimless and needing lots of love.  Fortunately he was able to play in our backyard and Randy could keep an eye on him from the roof.  When I ran inside to print a coupon for the mulch, I found him playing with the water hose.  He had managed to get the last few drops of water out and he was trying to drink by putting his face into the tiny puddle the drips formed.  I promise I had given him a drink!  After not too long I fed him some lunch and he laid down for a little nap.  Love those baby monitors! 

We had several other people from our church help us and we started on the flower beds.  I got a blister after about a half hour of raking the deep piles of leaves from around all the bushes.  Travis had his hard hat on so he wouldn't get hit by any falling debris.  I am not sure if that was necessary, but he wore it the whole morning.   He made friends with one of the teenage girls who was there with her mom.  Her name is Alexis, but Travis called her Alaska!  One of our great finds was some flagstones that form a path to the bench you can see in the picture.  We found about 8-10 stones and everyone got excited when they found one!  I had forgotten they were there!

I was so busy that I didn't get near as many pictures as last year.  (That and my camera battery was almost dead.)  We worked for four solid hours and we didn't get a chance to trim their bushes.  We will try to get to that later this week. 

The whole block ended up getting in on the party.  Our neighbors from across the street came home and offered to help along with their children.  And our neighbors on the other side of the house we were cleaning up came out with their sons too.  The little ones helped hold the trash bags open for us to put the leaves into.  Justin enjoyed having the help!  He was covered in dirt by the time we were done.  I threw him in bed without a bath, but that was the first thing we did when he woke up!

I had no idea how many leaves were in their yard until the bags began to accumulate.  This is what we collected in our driveway...

And this was in the neighbor's driveway!!

I counted at least 50 bags plus three trash cans full.  It was amazing what we collected.  Plus we put out 30 bags of mulch.  And another neighbor planted some flowers in pots for them.  We only had 6 people from our church who could come, but God sent our other neighbors to help with the rest.  Fifteen of our neighbors came out to help our little group finish the enormous task!  Our neighbors in the house we served were very grateful and we were so happy to be able to help them in the small little area we could.   And we had a great time visiting with our neighbors and working together for something way beyond ourselves.

More Doctors

I said this was our doctor week, and we had two more appointments today.  Since Justin had a birthday we went to the pediatrician for a check up.  We talked a lot about gluten-free diets and Justin's eating/food absorption.  That's one thing I am a little concerned about.  Justin is never going to grow very tall or be very large.  He has our genes plus DS working against that, but I think he still should grow a little faster than he is growing now.  He eats a lot of food and I am not sure where it's all going!  The doctor agreed to do some blood work and check some of his vitamin levels to see how that is going.  Then we can check with a GI doctor is that is a problem.  She also mentioned about the celiac test.  She wanted to repeat it every two/three years.  I had always thought it was a one-time thing, you either had it or you didn't, but she said that it can develop later.  The only way to be sure is to test for a genetic disposition.  I thought that's what we were doing, but actually it's only a test for the antibodies that are formed from eating gluten.  So if you're on a gluten-free diet, the test won't do any good, because there won't be any antibodies!  And the genetic test is too expensive for insurance companies to cover.  Interesting information!  So we have to wait for the blood work to come back before the next step.

Then after therapy we went to the opthamologist.  Still has the myelinated nerve fibers in the left eye, but no change in his sight.  He still crosses his eyes some, and he is far sighted, like most young children.  She didn't recommend glasses yet, since his eye still seems to track and focus fine with the other eye covered.  She seemed a little more concerned about his vision, but without him being verbal enough to tell us he is having any trouble, she doesn't really feel it's necessary to address anything.  So, back in a year!

Bluebonnets and Fun at the Park

I have been a bad Texas mommy this year, and I nearly let bluebonnet season pass us by without getting any pictures.  I promise there are a few bluebonnets in the pictures, although nothing like the usual overabundance.  But, at least I tried. The unseasonably warm weather really brought them out early and then they vanished before I could get to the park for the pics.  I really like these red shirts I got for the boys.  They look good against the few bluebonnets!

And of course, since we went to take pictures, we had a picnic lunch and played at the park.  We ran into our church's playgroup and also some other good family friends completely unintentionally.  Our therapy schedule got rearranged and so we were able to get to the park sooner and we ended up with a little treat!  So both boys had a great time.  Justin crawled all the way up these stairs, and he even alternated feet!  (He prefers leading with his left.)  He got so good I didn't even need to stand by him.  He scurried up the stairs and then slid down the slide.  About 10 times!

Then he wanted to swing, and we have perfected the double swing.  Justin can hang on without any assistance and he could swing all day like this.  If I try to hold onto him, he gets upset and pushes my hand away.  It's cool how strong he is getting!  Travis enjoyed playing with his friends, Justin loved swinging and sliding, and I was able to visit with a friend.  It was a great park day for us all.

Another Endochrin Appointment

These appointments are becoming so routine that they hardly aren't even worthy to note, but I thought I would tell about it anyway, just because this week ended up being Dr. appointment week.  Monday was endochrin and we went through the usual measuring and sizing routine.  Since thyroid influences growth they are really watching his growth.  His head circumference is the biggie since the can only grow his head, not shrink.  Justin has been wearing 18 month clothes for about a year now, and he only got new orthotics because of the girth of his foot, not the length or width.  The only thing that seems to grow is his belly!  He is just getting into 24 mo/2T shirts, and he can't fit the one piece 18 mo. outfits, so we're into the next size of those too.  We are just now getting into the clothes Travis was wearing when Justin was born.  Kind of a cool milestone!  Anyway, his head grew sufficiently that the doctor was satisfied.  We had to do more labs to monitor his thyroid.  We don't know the results yet, but they did get him on the first stick!

Family Pictures

We had our family pictures taken and these are some of the best.  Travis was not in a picture mood but somehow the photographer managed to get some smiles.  Justin was his usual hammy self!

This is my favorite of the boys.  It completely shows their personality.  We have a few cheese balls in the family!

Justin is Three!

Can you believe it??  This one is hard for me to believe.   Justin had another birthday and he keeps getting bigger every day.  We celebrated by going and getting some family pictures taken (that's another post) but I got a few "making of" pictures to share.

I didn't really want any "real" pictures with the number blocks, but they let me borrow them while we were waiting for our pictures to load.  This was at the end of the session and the boys were beyond "cheese".  This was the best one I got.  Travis wouldn't smile and you can see Justin wasn't too thrilled either.  But I still think they're cute!

After pictures we went to a paint-it-yourself pottery place.  Justin picked out a letter "J" to paint and he and Daddy worked on that while Travis painted a football box and I worked on a family plate.  We'll show the finished product after they bake.  We let Justin pick out the colors and he chose white and red so they painted the background all white and then Justin smeared on some red after that dried.  It kind of looks like he bled on it, so we're anxious to see how it turns out.

Then we ate a yummy lunch at Pei Wei.  Justin ate his lunch, my lunch, and Daddy's lunch.  I guess the morning's activities made him hungry.  This is when we're done and ready to go home for nap.  I love guys in polo shirts and this just makes me smile.

We were almost ready to call it a day and head for bath when we got a call from Ami wishing Justin a happy birthday.  She was bummed that the gift she had ordered had not arrived but while we were talking, the doorbell rang and as if on cue the present arrived.  So then the guys spent some time perusing the new Elmo books Justin received.  They are great and you can tell which ones Justin likes the best.  He is turning into quite the reader.  When he's serious about something, he gets on his stomach so he can see it better.  I love the boys enjoying a little "Where is Elmo's Blanket?"

It was such a fun family day.  These are the days I will treasure for always.  Justin had a great day.  He giggled and played.  He is so expressive that there's never a doubt what he's feeling or thinking.  He is learning more every day.  He has picked up more signs and he uses them perfectly.  We're trying to get him to do three fingers to show he is three, but that's one of the really hard things for him (finger isolation).   So now he just holds up all his fingers and laughs at us when we ask him to show us three fingers.  Justin says that it's good to be three!