Ruby is 5!

"Me Booth-day!"

This is what Ruby has been telling us for the last week. She knows her birthday is on "zoon seffen" (June seven), and she has been so excited for that day to arrive.

The kids made her pancakes for breakfast, and we hung out, playing at home most of the morning. Because of our summer nights being full of swim meets and VBX rehearsals and soccer tryouts, we had her 'non-party' just before dinner. Close to 50 friends came over to raise an ice cream cone to Ruby as we sang 'Happy Birthday'.

Ruby loved seeing and greeting her guests as they arrived, but one got an especially enthusiastic welcome: her pre-school teacher, Miss Jennifer. Ruby ran across the yard and tackled her with a hug, grabbing her hand and telling her to 'come. sit'. She also attempted to introduce her to several other attendees.

As we've been made aware so many times before, we have an amazing village around us because of Ruby. She is so loved!

Eli's Birthday

Eli turned 12 today. In other news, I haven't aged at all.

As he has done several times now, Eli opted for a soccer party. This is our favorite type of party because it is literally just everyone running around having a good time: no lunch, no balloons, no goodie bags, no hired entertainment. And we encourage our kids to raise funds/resources for others if they have a party (more than 3 people). Without any prompting, Eli chose Songs for Kids (which we obviously love and benefited from in Ruby's hospital time).

This year was a great crowd, as it always is. Mostly repeat offenders, with a new face here and there. I love that the kids ages (except Ruby) spanned from 10-16; that's just cool.

Oh, and I brought enough water this year; in every other year I would bring more than I had previously, but still not enough to deal with the hydration needs of 20-ish kids and adults running around in a humid hot box. This year I nailed it. #winning

 

Oh yeah, and the kids had a great time too.

Ruby is 4!

And she knows it! We started working with her a few weeks ago to see if she could say 'four' and use her fingers to show it, anticipating the transition from answering '3' to '4' might take some time. Nope! This girl never once answered incorrectly :)

As is typical for our house these days, we were not able to pull off a full-on birthday party for Ruby, but we did invite some friends from the neighborhood over to enjoy a birthday ice cream cone. (You know how Ruby loves ice cream!) She had a great time playing and eating with her friends. 

As a family we celebrated with a special breakfast and water table play that morning. The big kids had a swim meet that night, so we took advantage of that to put a candle in her pancake breakfast.

New York, New York

Just as we did for Eli when he turned 10, we gave Maddux an extended weekend trip for her first two-digit birthday. It was not as easy to pick a destination for our girl; Eli's love for history made DC an obvious win. Lehr and I ultimately decided on New York because of all of the sights and sounds (and food!) it has to offer. I think we picked a winner.

Because we have had some crazy weather in Atlanta this spring, our flight (meaning our trip) was impacted. The week before our trip we had bad storms and tornadoes. Then things calmed down for five days before picking up again big time. Two days before our flight was to leave, we had severe storms and winds to the point where many flights were delayed, rerouted or cancelled that afternoon. So when we arrived at the airport for our flight (two days later!) they were still sorting out the aftermath, meaning over 700 flights cancelled, just that day. Ours was one of them. Because Lehr is quick to recover, he hopped on the phone and stuck it out for 3-4 hours on hold to get us on the next available flights. Unfortunately that ended up being a full 24-hours later. And because our trip was already a short one to begin with, that forced our hand to extend our trip by a day also (meaning the kids missed two full days of school).

Once that was behind us, we had a great time. Just the big kids went with us; NYC is a little harder to navigate with a stroller and a toddler, and we wanted to cover a lot of ground and let Maddux see as much as possible. That first morning, we were in Grand Central Station by 9am. Not too shabby!

The weather was cold and really windy the first two days, but we walked enough to keep ourselves warm. We visited the 9/11 memorial (which includes a water feature that was shut off due to the high winds) and the museum the first day. The kids handled it all pretty well, not getting upset by the images and videos. We were not plugged into the audio tour though, and I think that helped them keep it all at an arm's length distance from affecting them too much. That night we went to Ellen's Stardust Theater where actors frequenting Broadway playbills keep their lights on by serving food and entertaining patrons with Broadway tunes. The wait was insanely long (just over 3 hours!) but the kids really enjoyed it.

The next day we hit the Freedom tower, where we got to take an elevator up 100 floors and walk around the observation deck. This was REALLY cool. The kids enjoyed looking out over the city and seeing all of the buildings from the top. We then went to Central Park (another favorite of theirs mainly because of the cool acrobats and music we saw) before going home to change for a Broadway show. We chose School of Rock because we knew Eli and Maddux would love the cast of kids. They were amazing. AMAZING! These kids not only nailed the acting and singing and dancing, but many of them also played instruments live on stage. This was the best thing of the whole trip for both kids. After the show, we walked through Time Square so they could see all of the lights and screens at night. Another favorite for Maddux (lots of those, obviously!).

The last full day, our main goal was the Statue of Liberty. Maddux's one request was Lady Liberty, but we could not get ferry tickets from the Manhattan side. So we rode a small ferry over to Jersey, then caught the Ellis Island ferry to the statue. We did not go up inside of the structure, but we walked all around and got to take in her beauty from the outside. The kids loved all of the boats and trains we took that day. That night we walked the High Line. This was probably my favorite! The elevated trail was a great way to enjoy the awesome weather that night, and grab food along the way. We ended at Chelsea Market where we had more food before walking through some neighborhoods on our way to the subway.

The final day we only had until noon before we had to head to the airport. I wanted to walk the Brooklyn Bridge with the kids since that was the most enjoyable thing I remembered from my brief trip a few years ago. We ended at a pizza shop in Brooklyn before taking the subway under the river back to the hotel.

We covered a lot of ground. We ate a lot of good food. We took the subway, the ferry, uber and a cab. We visited many neighborhood playgrounds/parks. We ate lots of good food. We saw a totally different way of living from what we're used to in the burbs. We ate and ate. (Did I mention the food?) The kids had a great time and Maddux thoroughly enjoyed herself.

Nine Lives

Maddux is nine! Where that time went, I'll never know. She's gone from a tiny infant who required extra weight checks in her first few weeks to a thriving toddler with more words than imaginable who would make up songs and fill every waking second with her sounds to a beautiful pierced ears gorgeous eyes and freckled face free spirit that both challenges me and fills my heart daily. I can't wait to see what her tenth year brings!

Ruby's Three

Three years...that flew by! This girl has taught us so much about ourselves, our family, and the world around us in those three years. I have a good feeling that she's just getting started too!

The kids and I made her pancakes for her birthday breakfast and then she opened her gift from them (a matchbox car race ramp which she LOVES). We hung around the house playing with her water table and toys most of the day. After her nap, we had pizza (her choice) and then the real fun began.

For Ruby's birthday, we opted to not have a big blowout party, but because so many people love our girl, we wanted to include them somehow in the celebration. Rather than cake, we did ice cream cones (because they are Ruby's FAVORITE), and invited friends in our neighborhood to join us. Lehr also set up a live feed on Facebook so family and friends could watch online.

We had several families over, resulting in over two dozen ice cream cones. I think Ruby's favorite part of the whole night was the birthday song. She got SO excited when we started, and she totally sang her own version along with us.

Double Digits

Ten whole years. A decade. That's how long you've been giving us memories, Eli.

It feels like a whole lifetime ago, the years before you were born... They have been filled with fun and baseball and drums and wild hair and books and soccer and music and laughter and all sports and history and smiles. Mostly smiles. That is what everyone knows about you: you always have the biggest smile on your face!

This last year, your tenth year, has been another great one: you recently told me it was your best one yet! So I thought maybe we'd make a Top Ten List of the best parts of the last year.

1. Soccer: You played two more seasons, sharpening your skills and becoming a better aggressor on the field. 

 

2. History: You read anything about the Civil War you can get your hands on and you love listening to podcasts about all areas of history. At the end of the school year last year, you won a poster contest for your poster about Benjamin Franklin, which sent your poster to the state level. You went back to the Atlanta History Center for a camp this summer, and you've told me a few times that you may want to be a historian one day. 

3. Ruby: You are a great big brother to her, always thinking about her, playing with her, and supporting her with your Team Ruby shirt at school. 

4. Winshape: You and Drew went back to Winshape camp this summer and you enjoyed five days and nights away from home; can't believe how grown up you are.

5. Golf: As expected, once the Masters rolled around, your interest in golf was rekindled and you watched as much as we'd allow. You even created a golf course in our  front and back yard. You, Grandpa Jim, and some of your friends played it for over a week.

6. Running: You ran your first official 5K this year: you, Ruby and I completed the Gigi's 5K on World Down Syndrome Day. You were steady on the course and you ran the entire thing, even through some really tough hills! 

 

7. Maturity: So many ways you have shown your maturity this year, Eli. You bring home assignments from school and complete them all on your own with minimal help from us (your safety unit, your Ben Franklin poster, etc.). Your interest in your sister, Ruby, and her cause is showing in your interaction with others. You stood up in front of your entire class and talked about her and Down syndrome and then asked them all to participate in WDSD this year. Amazing. 

 

8. Swim: You continue to love the summer swim season. Your favorite event is the one all other kids dread, and you smile through every practice and swim meet. 

 

9. Boundaries: You've earned some freedom with your responsibility in the areas of where you can go without us and how long you can stay. One freedom you seem to love is the ability to ride your (bigger) bike all around the neighborhood, checking in via walkie talkie every once in a while. 

10. Innocence: Sorry, but even as grown up as you seem at times, you are still amazingly innocent when it comes to so many things. (In a very good way!) I love that you still play with legos, and that I find you in your room setting up army men for hours. It warms my heart when you ask for family movie night or a date with mom or dad. From your movie selections to the way you play with your sisters and friends, you are still an amazing kid, and I'm so grateful for that.

Maddux's Slumber Party

Each kid loves to think about and plan their birthday party. Even the day after their birthday(s), you will often find Eli and Maddux talking about what they want to do next year. Since Maddux turned 7, she's been talking about having a slumber party for #8.

I was not up to having a house full of girls overnight (no basement makes for a loud party house), but we discussed Maddux having two friends over to do pretty much whatever she wanted. (This could have included the pool, the movies, dinner out, etc.) Maddux chose to stay at home for the entirety of it though. She was very specific in what she wanted: Papa John's pizza, nail painting, a craft, and a movie. Maddux also asked about party bags; this is not something we've done for parties in the past, which Maddux and I discussed. So she decided to make her own goodie bags for them including a bracelet, a ring, some stickers, a shrinkadink animal and lego first initials, plus she decorated the bag. Love her DIY-self!

The girls arrived just after 4PM and all three were playing up in Maddux's room for about an hour. Then we did one of the crafts Maddux chose (ceramic piggy banks that they got to paint and decorate). The pizzas arrived and Eli was a waiter to the girls with pizza and fruit. Maddux offered sparkling water to her friends (she and Eli love love love it), but no one else seemed to share her affinity (which shocked Maddux).

After the pizza, we turned on a few Just Dance youtube videos and it turned into an all-out dance party for about an hour. We followed that with cake and ice cream and the girls changing into their PJ's while I put Ruby to bed. Maddux chose to watch Rio, which all of the girls seemed to like (and Eli...he watched too).

We put the girls to bed on Maddux's floor in a giant sleeping bag, group pile of pillows and blankets. We told the girls they could stay up making bracelets (another craft), talking and playing as long as they stayed quiet. It was just before 10PM at this point. About a dozen trips into Maddux's room to remind them to keep the volume down later, it was 12:45PM and I shut the lights out. That seemed to do the trick :)

The next morning we had pancakes and eggs and bacon (Maddux's choice, of course), and the girls danced some more. We finished up with manicures...each of the girls picked different colored patterns and got all gussied up.

 Maddux and Lehr drove her friends home at noon, because that's another thing Maddux loves to do (ride in the car with friends). 

Ruby's Birthday

We got up at our usual time on the morning of Ruby's birthday (a Sunday), but stayed at the house to celebrate and do gifts instead of going to the early service. We figured the later service attendance would allow for more family time before Ruby's afternoon nap.

The kids were SO excited to give her their gift: a water table. We spent almost a full hour playing with it on the deck before leaving for church. Ruby could not have been more thrilled with her gift, and Eli and Maddux had a blast playing with it too.

While we had a huge gathering for Ruby's first birthday, this mama is not one to pull something like that off more than once every few years. Add to that, an already busy schedule for the the weekend of Ruby's second birthday led us to keeping things very low-key. We went to the pool after her nap and brought cupcakes for anyone who wanted to sing to the birthday girl.

We had been practicing blowing with pursed lips for a while and she mastered the skill just in time for the candles. She sat pretty intrigued while everyone sang to her and then she blew her two candles out. I opted to hold the cupcake for her instead of letting her at it...I was fairly certain she'd wear more of it than she would consume.

Ruby had a blast at the pool, as she always does. She worked so hard in the both the baby and big pool though that she wore herself out. Fairly soon after we did cupcakes, she snuggled up to Kelly and all but passed out.

Ruby's Two

Where does the time go?

The last year has provided so many amazing moments, memories that never fade, and unexpected milestones that it seems an injustice to say it 'flew by'.

Ruby, in the last year, you've started making word formations from all of the gleeful sounds coming from your mouth. You went from a crawler to a cruiser to a WALKER, and now you are full-steam ahead. You're signed up for a two-year old preschool this fall, and you have a huge social group at Gigi's, church, the pool, and any room you enter.

Baby girl, you steal the hearts of this family daily, and we are so honored to celebrate the last two years of your life.

Nine Lives

Another year gone in the blink of an eye.

You had a great year in third grade; your teacher was a he! Your love for reading was as obvious as ever as we often heard from your teacher in conferences or notes home that you were 'sneaking' reading instead of doing your classwork. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree as that was a constant battle for me as a child. We could not be happier that you are happy to stick your nose in a book. And you've started reading more non-fiction, usually about the civil war. Daddy loves that as he has always been very interested in history. That love for history translated into you dressing up as Abe Lincoln for Halloween.

Best. Costume. Ever.

We had our first bout of lice this year, starting with you. (I think you had half the kids in your class lice-ing at one point.) Smart boy: you opted for a head shave instead of incessant lice combing.

You sat the season of fall ball out. Between some behavior issues and our 'new normal' with Ruby, it was not something we could justify doing. That left great 'holes' in our schedule for after school play and family time at night. It was REALLY nice. This also allowed for us to not be burned out in November, which meant you could try basketball for the first time. You were a quick learner and you seemed to really enjoy the season.

After the holidays you also picked up skateboarding. We bought you a board for Christmas and you've gone to the skate park several times. It's not your strength to take chances with a 'risky' sport like that, but you've done well and seem to really enjoy it.

Back on the field in the spring; baseball for the last time in the Pinto league. You had a great season, catching several line drives and stepping up your fielding ability. More games than not, you were found at first, helping to anchor the team. You even showed some leadership on the field during some of the games, reminding the younger players where the play was as each batter came up to the plate.

As always, summer found you swimming, this time at the height of your age group. Your favorite event at the meet (the IM) is the dreaded for most other swimmers. We took you to county again, and even though you didn't finish in the top 10, you improved your times so much over the summer.

Your eighth year ended with you attending two really cool camps. One was a history camp in town; very opposite of the usual sports and active type camp you normally gravitated towards. You loved it though, and you learned a ton. The other was overnight camp. You (and Drew) went away for almost an entire week. You were definitely nervous when we dropped you off (even more so because you and Drew were staying on completely opposite sides of the camp), but it was obvious through the pictures we saw online that you warmed up quickly and had an absolute blast.

Nine whole years under your belt...where does the time go. I love that you're still so innocent, so naive, so willing and interested in just being a kid. I love that you ask, or beg, to go on one-on-one dates with your dad or I. I love that you still want me to read to you before bed. I love everything about you, Eli.