The Reese's

Two blog posts in one day.... someone get the thermometer! Haha! My last post was serious and this one is about the exciting and fun things that December has brought to us so far! Elf on the Shelf This year we introduced Elf on the Shelf. We kicked off December with the naming of our Elf and watching "Bow" get into some fun things. Now, most nights he does move but a few nights he has taken a little break since it can exhausting trying to locate things that mommy constantly moves around.       Christmas Tree Every year we put up the same old crazy looking prelit FAKE Christmas Tree. Well, not this year. We decided to go all out and get a REAL one! It was so much fun! We went to Tucamoney Farm near Peddler's Village. It was about an hour drive from here and the kids were fantastic (including RANGO!). Here's the pictures from the trip!       And as a special treat here is a video of the Christmas Tree going up! ...

I am sitting here sipping cold coffee because, like every morning, I forget that I have poured a cup and am too lazy to put it in the microwave. Emilee is swinging away in lala land and Connor is immersed in his Ipad, much like he was at 10:30 last night. #parentingfail.  There are some days I sit down and wonder what I am doing wrong as a parent and compare myself to others. I mean, "so and so" doesn't have a two year old and a three month old with weekly therapy appointments. And "so and so" gets to go to work so their children get to get out of the house more than once a week. And "so and so" has a back yard so their kids and dogs can run freely anytime they want. But what "so and so" doesn't have never crosses my mind. Until yesterday.  Most of the "so and so's" do not have a baby with down syndrome. This, at first, was another one of those "so and so" has a normal  child and we don't. But, let me sa...

Throwback Thursday: The 4 December 2009 was a Friday. Kyle and I had set up this awesome weekend to go to New York City, my first time in the "Big Apple". We left from Philadelphia and drove to Staten Island to stay at the Navy Lodge- my first experience in the military hotel system because Kyle was a recent boot camp graduate. We arrived in the afternoon and had big plans for the evening as we were only staying for two nights and wanted to see EVERYTHING! We quickly changed into our "fancy" clothes to go to The Radio City Christmas Spectacular Show with the Rockettes. It was such a fantastic show! Afterwards, we went to see the Rockefeller Tree. And the story goes from here..... we all know it is such a large tree and so special. Well, my first reaction was "where is this tree" as I am blatantly stare at it. As Kyle reassured me that this is the tree everyone comes to see, I reply "It's so small!!" (And to this day, I cannot live it down...

Goodbye November, I am not sorry to see you go. I sat down with my family last night, Kyle, Connor and Emilee and realized that November is almost over. On Monday, December will be here and the month of holiday preparation will begin. Normally I am sad to see November go because the hustle and bustle of Christmas makes me dread the holiday. However, I just can't stand to be in the month of November for another day. We began the month with my returning to the gym, a goal of mine was to get into better physical shape and begin the process of ONE DAY doing the Disney Half Marathon-- one day--probably when I am 40. Anyways, that dream of going to work out and gaining some sanity in my life was short lived. You see, a stubborn baby decided that one day she would refuse a bottle. So I attempted breastfeeding. Then she decided to never take a bottle. Which meant that the evenings were pure torture for my husband as I worked out. We tried every bottle, even a $16 bottle that was suppos...

I had originally claimed I would post this last week but life got busy. Go Figure. So here is the list of ideas for the kids for Chirstmas-- I have attached links so you see what I am talking about. If you have questions just ask! Emilee: Of course we have a bazillion toys left over from Connor's infancy but there are a few ideas the OT suggested specifically for development. We ask that if you are going to purchase any of these toys that they be from the specific brand of Sassy not because I want to be a crazy lady but because they are designed with development in mind. They have the color combinations and stimulation specifically to help babies with developmental disabilities. 1. Sassy Bumpy Ball- 2 . Sassy First Sounds Book and Cube Set- 3. Sassy Keyboard Classic Rattle-- 4. Munchkin Nursery Projector and Sound Machine 5. Sassy Mirror These items can be found online at the link. If you don't online shop, these items can be hard to find in store. The nu...

Who says having a newborn means slowing down?! I have come to realize that nothing is slow when it comes to having a toddler AND a newborn. But, I wouldn't trade these days for anything. When Emilee was born in late August and with her diagnosis my main goal was to continue our lives like she didn't have DS simply because we don't want to hinder her development in any way. I will admit that the first few times taking her out and everyone commenting on how adorable she is was very hard. I would begin to tear up and think they KNEW and were just being polite to me. But c'mon she is freaking adorable. Then we had the realization of everyone with disabilities we saw when out. Like our first trip back to the zoo and as we were leaving the boy who was about seven or older, clearly had down syndrome and was being pushed around in the stroller. Yes, I bawled my eyes out as I walked to the car carrying Emilee. But we came to the realization that it's like buying a new car....

It is after 10pm and I can't seem to find the sleepy dust everyone else has found... I'm guessing they didn't save me any! We returned to Philly after a 2 week vacation to Maryland. It was a wondeful time spent with family. I will have to post pictures and a post all by itself as we were quite busy! My main goal of posting tonight is to update on the littlest stink. Emilee had her first OT appointment tonight and we couldn't be prouder of our strong little girl. With the diagnosis of DS we couldn't, and some days can't, fathom the world of the unknown. Will Millie meet her milestones, what types of delays should we expect, will her regressions last longer? Much like any two month-old we can't really do much to facilitate growth other than feeding, interacting and providing tummy time. Our therapist, Cara, showed us some things but was overall very impressed with the current milestones she is hitting. Emilee was showing off tonight, she pulled out all of ...

September- where did you go so quickly? We have began prepping for Halloween and thinking about Christmas presents, and before you know it we will sign our checks with 2015. I wish time would slow down some, as the kids keep growing so quickly. I feel like everyday I am seeing Connor do something new with his vocabulary (not always for the better). And Emilee is growing like a weed. She hit one month old last week and I just can't figure out where those days have gone. So each month I think I will do a new layout so that I hit on everything and everyone. If, this layout doesn't work this month for me, prepare to get a new one next month! Our Family Update: When September hit, we were ready to get out of the house and back to our normal weekend outings. Our first outing as a family was to buy a TV for our bedroom- silly I know but there is something about just crashing at the end of the day with a mindless television show and being snuggled in bed. Our second outing ...

Obviously things have become hectic in our otherwise chaotic world, and thus is why I have not updated our blog in a period of time I find unacceptable. Plus, I sincerely needed some time to gather my thoughts into words and create a post that would be understood by my readers (there are soooo many of you haha!). The end of the pregnancy: Yes, all things must come to an end and we were all very anxious to meet Miss Emilee. The middle of August I finally hit the point of being miserable and beyond ready to say goodbye to the big belly and hello to our beautiful baby girl. Yaya and Grandad took Connor with them to Maryland for a week so that Kyle and I could finish preparing, relax and spend some mommy/daddy time before the chaos of two kids under two! We used that time to go out to eat and shop and clean and we went to bed whenever we wanted (like 8pm one night). I had a check-up on the 25 August and found out that I was an "easy 2 cm" dilated, I was having contractions ...