On the other side of that door

Sometimes I wonder if anyone ever looks at me with Ethan, and wonders how my life is behind closed doors. I wonder if people pity us or if they are proud of us for raising this child. I wonder what people are really thinking. People often will say something directly to your face but be thinking something completely different. Are they glad that it is me and not them? I know to some these things may sound silly. I really do wonder though. For anyone who actually does wonder, I will tell you that at this time it is like raising any other 3 year old........Mostly

With any child, there are no guarantees. Ethan is a lot like any other 3 year old boys. He loves to get into mischief. He loves to play outside and run through the sprinkler. He tries to do what his older brother and sister do. He learns new things everyday. There are a lot of things that he can do. I will admit though, sometimes I look at all of the things that he can't do and I start to feel sad. I try not to go to that dark place very often. It is hard to keep myself out of it though. I wish that Ethan didn't have so many doctor appointments. I wish that Ethan didn't get sick so often. I wish that when Ethan was thirsty, I could just pour a drink and give it to him. I wish that Ethan could tell me everything that he wants. Don't get me wrong, he tries so hard to communicate and most of the time I can understand what he is trying to tell me. Sometimes I wish though that I didn't have to guess. He gets so frustrated sometimes because he knows what he wants to tell me, he just can't quite form the right words. Like I said, I try not to go to that dark place very often. I will end with saying,
Most of the time, on the other side of the door, we are just like every other family. Every now and then though, I find myself having my own "pity" party and wishing that things were different. Here is a picture of my handsome man.

Another busy week!

Today is the first chance I have gotten to post since last week. We have been busy! We had Dax and Emma's Birthday party on Saturday. Dax wanted to have a pirate party and of course Emma had to have a princess party. So since we were doing a joint party again this year we went with the whole princess VS. pirate theme. It turned out pretty cute. We did a treasure hunt for the boys and they had to dig up a buried treasure from the backyard. The girls had a cute flower shaped pinata. We ended the party with a bit of silly string.










Sunday we worked around the house and took the pool down. That was a pain. We bought the pool at the end of last summer on super clearance. When we put it up this year we did not make sure the ground was level. One side of the pool ended up sinking about 6 inches into the ground. We had to take it down and we are in the process of digging up the ground and making it level. It's a big job.

Monday we had a BBQ/ pool party at my Aunt Linda's. The weather was perfect. The kids really enjoyed going down the water slide and jumping off the diving board.

Tuesday was our catch up day. We had a helper for Ethan and we ran errands ALL day.

Wednesday we played outside all day and did yard work. We had fun with sidewalk chalk. My mom came over and spent the night.





Thursday I went to the zoo with Ethan's class. He was kind of crabby and ended up falling asleep so we left early. We put him to bed at about 9:30 that night. At about 11:30 that night Ethan woke up griping. We brought him downstairs, sucked out his nose and gave him some Tylenol. He fell back asleep and woke up again around 1:00am. He griped for 2 straight hours. When he gripes, he sticks his thumbs in his mouth, chews on them and makes an ayeayeayeayeayeayeayeayeayeayeaye sound. It is enough to make you crazy! I couldn't take it anymore and I went in his room, took him out of his crib and layed in bed with him. He kept twisting and turning, then he would straighten up and become stiff as a board. Then he would start shaking. It seriously freaked me out. We decided to take him in to the ER and get him checked out. It turns out that he has Pneumonia again. This is the second time in a month. So now I am going to make him another appointment with the Pulmonologist and try to get another swallow study done. I can handle the Down syndrome but sometimes the stuff that comes along with it really wears me down. That will be a whole other post though!

On Friday we played catch up on our sleep and I cleaned the house. I caught up on laundry (well almost) and we just had a nice relaxing evening.

Today we went to breakfast with my in-laws and then me and my sister in law and all of out kids went to tons o trucks. It was hot but it the kids still had fun. The best part for me was "running" after Ethan through the fire hoses ;) Sometimes having kids allows you to be a kid yourself.

Sister

My sister Tracy had to have surgery yesterday. She had surgery 2 months ago on her hand. She had some kind of a growth that they originally thought was an aneurysm (or as Tracy dubbed it the handurysm) She gave it a name, Fred. Well, when she went for her checkup last week, the doctor discovered that it had grown back. He was very concerned that it had grown back so fast and scheduled her for surgery again. He even mentioned the "C" word. Anyway her surgery was yesterday and all went well. Fred 2.0 was removed and sent to pathology. We will know more in a few weeks. Coming out of sedation, Tracy entertained the doctors and nurses with quite a few songs, including this one



She must have thought that it was Emma's birthday, except she was 2 days late. Love you Tracy!

Found a new use for the kitchen table

Happy Birthday Emma!

My daughter, who just informed me last week that girls have pee-pee's and boys have nuts, is 5 years old today!!! Happy Birthday Emma!

That girl keeps me on my toes for sure. I walked into the kitchen a few weeks ago to throw a diaper away and saw this in the garbage.



You can imagine my horror as I looked up on the counter and saw these...




My heart dropped to the floor. I called Emma up and she came peeking around the corner. I have to admit, it wasn't horrible. She thankfully cut it from the bottom. She cut off about 5 inches, mostly in the front. So, off to the hairdresser we went.





She got quite a bit cut off, but I think it looks cute!