Bring on the Bird!!

It's official. School is out for the next week and my dear hubby is home for the punishment, er, pleasure of having 6 of us (plus 3 kitties) crammed into our home for the next 7 days. Oh, and if we're lucky, we'll have 5 extra friends joining us for the big T-Day!

Typically we travel to family on the official start of the winter holiday season, but this year, with a one-year-old who is determined to destroy whatever he can conquer or reach and a baby who likes to doze off every 2 hours, it seems safer to take on the task of making our own meal and staying safely within the confines of our childproofed home! This means careful planning to create a delicious and home-cooked meal on Thursday. In my husband's eyes, this means abandoning hopes of baking my own pumpkin pies *sniff* and skipping the green bean casserole. *gasp!* But there's a 16 lb Tom cooling his heels in the fridge and plenty of sweet potatoes to go around. I even heard a rumor that someone invited Mrs. Smith, who decided to send 2 pies and some whipped cream in lieu of her attendance. Hooray!

Next year we'll still have a one-year-old who will likely be a whirlwind of destruction and so we'll probably be at home again. I'll take advantage of that time to be certain to get all stressed out over how I'll manage to make everything from scratch. Until then, I'll just enjoy my semi-homemade Thanksgiving dinner in my own home with my loving family (and good friends - hopefully) and say, "Bring on that Bird..."

A Random Heartwarming Thought

I had about half an hour to spend with just Evan this evening as I was putting him to bed. After the obligatory diaper change and some silliness while reading the bedtime story, it suddenly hit me ~ life will be like this with Levi too. Someday he will be walking and laughing and rolling around on the floor. He'll even be talking as well as Evan (who understands everything you say but doesn't articulate as well as some other kids his age). That thought instantly brought a smile to my face. It was the difference between knowing this (because I've read it somewhere or have been told this by experts or other parents) and really truly feeling it in my heart. It was a good moment for me. I hope I'm able to hold on that in the coming months as we work on overcoming whatever challenges may lie in store for us.

Challenges

Every life has it's challenges; every day of my life has it's own. Some are big and some are small, but the common factor is that each requires extra effort to figure out a way through the problem. This week, my challenges were many, but most centered around time management (ugh!) and finding a way to get Levi's new supplement into his diet.

Nutrivene-D is an antioxidant supplement designed specifically for people with T21, but it's bitter and as a powder, needs to be mixed into some kind of food that can hide the taste. Unfortunately, that plan didn't work out for Levi as it seems his system isn't quite ready for solids yet. (see Levi's Happenings & Stats for more details) So I got some advice to try using an oral syringe to squirt it into the back of his mouth between the cheek and gum to bypass most of his tastebuds and !VOILA! it seems to be working; crisis averted!

Now to look at that time management issue...