Spring has sprung

Spring is my favorite season so I was so excited to let Captured Studios take Easter pictures of the boys a couple of weekends ago! The weather was PERFECT and they both did so well. These are my sneak peeks and I can't wait to see the rest! I can't get over how old Noah looks in these pictures. My little boy is turning 4 in about 6 weeks and it just BLOWS my mind! {sigh...} Anyways, Captured Studios had baby chicks at the photo session and the boys both loved watching the chicks hop all over the place. At one point, they had Collier lying on his belly on a blanket and the chicks just swarmed him; one jumped on his back and another got right in his face and before we could do anything, it pecked him in the eye! Luckily, he shut his eye in time (at least, I think... he did have a tiny little red spot on his eyeball but it went away the next day). Of course, it scared him and he started crying for a little bit. After he calmed down and we knew he was okay, it was slightly funny because just HOW many people can say they've been pecked in the eye by a chicken? Now Collier can!

Un-Luck of the Irish

Do you feel like when your kids get sick, it's YOUR fault? Like you're the one that exposed them to the illness? Even though I know that's not entirely the case, I do feel that way... especially with Collier, since he's still a baby. Despite the fact that I have done as much as I can to keep my boys out of the public since our bout with RSV, some nasty, sickly germs have still managed to infiltrate my home. Collier woke up on St. Patty's Day with YET ANOTHER cold. He's congested, coughing, sneezing and crying because he feels terrible. I guess I should be grateful that it's nothing worse... but GEEZ! Two colds, an ear infection and RSV/brochiolitis since December?! This is nuts! I know there are far worse things going on the in the world around us but I sure would like a teeny-tiny break for longer than just a few weeks. We've literally bounced from one thing to the next... from him getting sick in December, to Dad's cancer diagnosis/beginning chemo in January, to RSV in February, and now another sickness. I'm ready for life to ease up on the gas just a tad bit...for my sanity! On the up side, Collier should be building quite the immune system in little body. So needless to say, our St. Patty's Day was spent indoors, despite the GORGEOUS warm weather and the least of my worries were wearing green to avoid getting pinched. I hope your St. Patrick's Day brought better luck than ours did!


Collier sleeping in his carseat to keep his head elevated


Poor baby cuddling with his blanket

Admiring the Tulips in Holland

{This is the perfect depiction of what life is like with a child that has special needs. I ran across this on the internet and had to share.}

Welcome to Holland

Written by Emily Perl Kingsley

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability – to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this…

When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip – to Italy. You buy a bunch of guidebooks and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum, the Michelangelo David, the gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.

After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."

"Holland?!" you say. "What do you mean, Holland?" I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy.


But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.

The important thing is that they haven't taken you to some horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.

So you must go out and buy a new guidebook. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.

It's just a different place. It's slower paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around, and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills, Holland has tulips, Holland even has Rembrandts.

But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy, and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life you will say, "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."

The pain of that will never, ever, go away, because the loss of that dream is a very significant loss.

But if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things about Holland.

The Past Few Weeks...

Collier got to swing outside for the first time


Noah rode his tricycle outside


while Collier rode alongside him in his stroller.


Collier practiced standing


and worked on sitting.

Noah had a blast at Jackson's birthday party!


and played...


and laughed...


and goofed around with Daddy.


but made sure to take a photo break with mommy & Collier


He even went down the slide with Daddy


and his friend, Ethan

But Collier wasn't as impressed with the slide... maybe in a year he'll like it better!

Big Steps

Noah finished the Physical Therapy program on Feb. 25. He is now taking some steps independently and has learned how to ride a tricycle (it's an adaptive tryke for special needs). He had a blast pedaling around the therapy center so we're on a list to get one for him to play with at home. Because adaptive equipment is VERY expensive, they have programs where donations help pay for a portion of the costs. On his last day of therapy, he took around 6 or 7 simultaneous steps without falling down or losing his balance. And since he's been home, he has walked about 5 feet at one time. He definitely came a long way in those 2 short weeks and I'm so proud of his determination and endurance. This little guy walked on a treadmill, at an incline, with ankle weights on... that's hard core stuff for a little boy! It so strenuous for him that he would come home and take a 4 hour nap!. It would be like an adult lifting weights for 3 solid hours. He's one tough little guy!

Since we missed the first week due to sickness, they are going to try to work him back in for another 1 - 2 weeks in the next few months. I can't wait to see where he is after another 2 weeks. He's just so close to walking now!

I'm sure most wives feel their husbands are deserving of such a title as World's Greatest Daddy, but Jamie really outdid himself during Noah's therapy. He took off work and drove Noah back and forth to Birmingham for each therapy session. He realized just how hard it would be on me to be out of town, in someone else's home with 2 kids (1 being a 3 month old, the other being a special needs child). It was his suggestion that in order to make it much easier for me, he would do it himself. He drove to Birmingham on Sunday evenings, took Noah to therapy Monday morning and would come back home that afternoon; work Tuesday and Wednesday, then head back to Birmingham after work, take Noah to therapy on Thursday and Friday morning, and drive back home Friday afternoon. Now doesn't that deserve Daddy of the Year?! :)

He recently told me that he loved getting to participate in the therapy with Noah. That's always been my responsibility, since I don't work, so Jamie rarely gets to be apart of it. He also told me that he really enjoyed the one-on-one time he got with Noah. I'm sure Noah loved getting his daddy all to himself, too. I am so very thankful for my sons and a husband that invests in their lives!


{Daddy's Boys}