OH Lord, please grant me patience to deal with my Blessings.

Happy Birthday Sam!

Today is Sam's 6th birthday!!!  I can hardly believe that 6 years ago this tiny 2lb 5oz, 14 inch miracle came into our lives.  Check out Sam's montage in the sidebar of my blog to see just how far he has come in these past 6 years.  Slow and steady wins the race!  We are all so proud and happy for you little man... you make us all want to be better.  You are Amazing.  

In about an hour I am going to take balloons into Sam's class at school for his birthday treat.  Sam is still g-tube fed and I can see cupcakes becoming projectiles... fun as that might be to have a food fight on your birthday at school... I will bring in balloons (which Sam loves).  Sam has been working on his colors too and I am beyond proud to say that Sam can discern between Red, Yellow, Orange and Black (by pointing) and gets it correct nearly every time.  So those will be the balloon color choices for today (I won't be getting black ones).  

So please join us in wishing Sam a very Happy Birthday... cha cha cha!

Please hurry Santa don't be late

waiting for Santa.... Zero Dollars

 one-on-one time with the big guy....... zero dollars

priceless!

Holiday fun!

The Collins family has been ELFED...

 click here to see for yourself!

And then go ELF-yourself!

so many reasons to be thankful

Happy Thankgiving!  Today is more than just a day to put ourselves into a self-induced Tryptophan coma and watch football... while those are worthy pursuits, today also has another very special meaning for our family.  We have so many things to be thankful for, but Today, Thanksgiving Day, marks 5 years that Sam has been seizure free! 

Whooo Hoooo.... Now stand up and do the happy dance!!! 

To be perfectly honest, I don't remember the actual numerical day that year, but I do know that it was Thanksgiving day so we mark the occasion on what ever day Thanksgiving falls on.  So among many, many other things we are so very thankful for Sam's continued seizure-free status.  

Years ago we got the devastating news that Sam had Infantile Spasms, a rare and severe and life threatening form of epilepsy.  I believe that although his prematurity and extra chromosome have largely impacted his development... it was the Infantile Spasms that robbed him the most. So today we are thankful for another year without seizures...for one less battle that Sam has to fight, for one less medication that he has to take and for all the progress that he has made despite all the land minds that he has stumbled upon.  Truly Amazing!  WTG Sam!

****and OMG did  you notice that Sam is wearing his glasses!!! Don't mind that I cropped the arm splints out of the picture that keep him from ripping them off his face and twisting them into a rumpled ball of titanium, no don't mind that.... just focus on the positive.... HE IS WEARING HIS GLASSES AND SMILING!****

 

Happy Birthday Andrew

Today is Andrew's 7th birthday!!!!  He was so very excited to wake up and find the ground covered with snow.  He put on his favorite tye-dye tee shirts and got ready for school quickly so he could play in the snow.  He is out there right now with Pat making snow balls and waiting for the school bus.  I cannot believe that he is actually 7 years old.... such a little man.  We are so very proud of him.  He celebrated his birthday with friends last weekend at an indoor pool and had a wonderful time.  Next weekend over Thanksgiving break we will celebrate both Andrew and Sam's birthdays with family.  Well I think his day is off to a good start!  He already put in his birthday dinner request... what else... pizza hut!  

We all love you so much Andrew... have a wonderful day!!!!

7 years

6 years

5 years

 4 years

 3 years 

2 years

8 months

3 months

 

Just one of those days

Today has just been one of those days.  I have a splitting headache and between my coughing jags... Sam and Sean have learned some new tricks! (oh joy).  For starters... they have thrown every shoe they could find down the basement stairs, Sam learned how to dispense water from the fridge door and do you think he used any type of container to catch the water... NO!   Sean has ripped several pages out of the phone book. Sam is now able to climb over all the of the safety gates rendering them not so "safe"...Sean climbs on everything and he is also very very close to following Sam up and over the gates... stupid gates.  The 2 smallest monsters have been at each other all day... neither happy with what they have and will do anything in their power to get what the other one has.  Sean looks like he has been through a bar brawl and I am pretty positive that it will be impossible to get a Christmas picture of the boys without any bruises, rug burns or scratch marks on their faces.  Everybody got flu shots and then some on Tuesday and you can tell exactly how tall each of my children are by the distinct snot lines across my clothes.  I am hoarse from repeating "keep your hands to your self" for the zillionth time today.  So basically everyone feels like crap today and is taking it out on everyone else.  And now someone smells really, really bad... and if I can smell it I know it is bad because I have been congested and unable to smell anything for the past 3 days.  Andrew is completely un-phased and is happily building something in his bedroom.  I now need to find out who is stinky before we have a 2319 (AKA visual confirmation of diaper contents outside of the diaper)  

 

**** correction.... evidently there was one shoe that was not tossed down the stairs and it just came into contact with Sean's head.