Priceless

Pouring Rain

Cardiologist Appointment

Three Little Kids

Trying to Fill Out Five Pages of Paper Work

Hour and Forty-five Minute Wait to see Doctor for 4 Minutes

Priceless

Happy Birthday Carpenter!

I truly can not believe it has been 4 years! 4 years ago we had the long awaited early delivery of our first son, Carpenter Brooks Long. Though his birth day was a shock of timing and of learning he had down syndrome! It was a wonderful day! God had given us such a beautiful son(don't tell the other's that he was the cutest baby!)! I can not believe how lucky we are! Everything Carpenter has done he has had to work at! He is so strong!

Carpenter still loves elmo, his siblings, balls, cars, trucks, books!

Link to his birth day info!


First Mother's Day with Carpenter:


First Steps:

Have you forgotten?

How many people have forgotten about 9-11-01? I mean I still remember those tragic events but I don't think about them everyday! There for a while you can't get it out of your head! Those vivid memories of where you were, did you know someone, God help us!

I wonder why we are so divided about terrorism in America. When the Japanese struck Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941. I think that Americans then were more united! That seven years after that attack it still was very real to them and very close. This is an assumption because I was not alive then! Why are we not united on the global threat of terriorism?

As I was coming back from taking Carpenter to the MC, I was listening to talk radio and they were doing a moment of silence in NYC and around the country for the victims of 9/11. I was coming down Stone Ave. and I see the Fire Deptartment on the right! They had all of their firetrucks out, all the lights were on, no siren, no sound, but all of the firemen were standing outside in a moment of silence, of prayer! It was amazing to see this little tribute! It warmed my heart that people had not forgotten! That they as firemen understand the gravity of the situation! A special moment I would have missed if I was not stuck at a stop light!

Chaos

MY life lately has been very busy! Don't get me wrong I love having stuff to do, I love the anticipation! But lately, things have been very busy!

Marley has had school work, strep throat, and volleyball practice. Can you believe it? Strep throat, already! This early in the year! But this is the first time she has played volley ball and she totally loves it!

Carpenter has his usual appointments and school! But his birthday is in 6 days so we have alot of extra doctors visits dealing with specialists! I love these appointments to see how he is doing, but they add a little extra running around! Plus I didn't even give people a week notice for Carpenter's birthday party! Isn't that horrible! I had planned it in my head but between the wedding and just life in general the time has sneaked up on me! So those of you who were given short notice, I hope you will be able to come out and celebrate Carpenter's special day!

Sadie started back school last week! She just went one day to MMO! But she loves it! I just took Sadie to the doctor yesterday and she has a Kidney infection! Lovely, huh? I thought she either had the infection or strep throat like Marley! She has had a fever over 103 for a few days! When I read Anne's blog about Kit, it helped me recognize the signs! So Anne, you helped me to diagnose in poor Kit's illness! Sadie's stomach sickness, when she came home from Gran's I knew she wasn't feeling well! She usually never wants to come home! Then other signs made sense also: pee pee accidents, temperature, waking up at night in pain, and so on! So Sadie is stuck to my side right now, which I don't mind because she is growing up and I love the little snuggles I get! But she is heck to get medicine down! She held the antibiotic back in her throat this morning, and we thought she had swallowed it, but no she spits it in my eye! Medicine = FUN! Info in UTI's.

Rowan is doing alot! He stood up by himself 2 weeks ago for the first time! He is getting closer to walking! But I am unsure how long it will be because he can crawl really fast, and can get himself to go where ever he wants too! He has been really whiny though lately, he is cutting teeth! I think he has been more ill with teeth than any of our other's!

So hopefully things will calm down! But we have the BW in 18 days and then Rowan's 1st Birthday!!!!!

Too Cute for Tuesday!

Target Diva


Just hanging around!

The Truth Hurts

So on Tuesday morning, I took Carpenter to a developmental pediatric doctor. We have seen this doctor two times before. The doctor is there to evaluate where Carpenter is in a lot of different aspects! The doctor is a really nice guy. When we were in the waiting room, he enjoyed played with all the toys and was very verbal! Then we head back into the evaluation room but whatever the doc wanted him to do, he wouldn't do it. The doctor got out some paper and Carpenter drew some circles and lines and stuff. The doctor got out more paper and Carpenter tells me he needs to pee pee, which is good because he is telling me more! And he did go! And he was excited! The doctor put out blocks, and Carpenter would not even stack one block!!! I was so frustrated! He can stack blocks all day long, that is a very old skill! No words, nothing! Should I be surprised? Carpenter has seen doctors and therapists all his life, and now that he is getting older he is testing them, are you going to make me do this?

Now that he will be turning 4 in a couple of weeks, I am panicking! Just wanting him to get more goals accomplished. Am I doing enough to help him? I don't want to fail any of my kids! But to say that I am terrified of the public school system is an understatement! The whole goal of going to the dev. ped. doc is to see where he is and what is the best classroom environment. My goal is to have him in a regular kindergarten classroom with a shadow. So I told the doctor this, and he said as pleasantly as he could say, "we'll I think he is going to be in a special education classroom" (the tears are swelling up in my eyes, and I am just praying that I will be able to keep the tears in)! And then he said "but he sure is a cute boy" (I guess this was a comment just to make me feel better, a compliment to ease the pain, I don't know why those are needed, I guess he saw in my eyes the need to escape quickly)! I have heard of some special needs classroom stories that are terrifying, but some are good. I never thought I would want to teach in a special needs classroom, until I saw the Meyer Center with Carpenter.

How will he do at school? I want him to go to our local elementary school and not be switched around every year! How well will he do in the classroom? Will he like his school lunch? Will anyone pick on him? I will hurt anyone that dares too!

Peace, dear Lord, I need peace! A prayer for peace about this whole situation!

I could write more but I think I need to get a break from all of this!

Pacifiers!

I just want to say that we have been without Pacifiers in the Long family for 3 days/2 nights! Poor Marley, she has had to listen to Sadie cry herself to sleep for 2 nights! I set a date to get rid of the paci's after the Grandparents had to watch the kids! So, we have made it this far, Sadie is still mentioning hers but I just tell her that the garbage man picked them up and they are gone forever! You may wonder why I have let it go on for so long, with 3 little ones, I was just trying to get everyone asleep! I am still sleep deprived myself, so anyway I could get them to sleep without a fuss I did!