Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Welcome to our Planet


TUESDAY, JANUARY 13, 2009 07:36 AM, EST
Hello everyone,

Life here on Planet Trisomy 18 is not so bad. Brianna is improving daily. She is sitting up all by herself for a good 10-15 minutes and when she is not sitting up she is trying to crawl. She now rolls over, pulls her knees up underneath her, gets her arms in position and pushes on all fours in one quick move. Smiles so big and bold once she is up. Then she rocks back and forth moving her knees forward. She is so close to moving her arms but they are just so heavy for her. Remember these babies have very weak upper bodies so for her to lift up in on all fours is a tremendous milestone.

Jerry and I are looking forward to this coming weekend. We are going to meet a little girl (with Trisomy 18) and her family. Her name is Annabel Grace and she is......3 1/2 years old!! To see this gorgeous little girl you can visit her website. www.annabelgrace.blogspot.com

Have a blessed day.

Thursday, January 1, 2009

Happy 2009 Everyone

THURSDAY, JANUARY 01, 2009 04:02 PM, EST
Happy New Year!! This holiday season has been the best ever. We celebrated Christmas Eve by going out to dinner with family and friends and then attending the candlelight service at church. We spent Christmas morning here in Orlando opening gifts with Jerry's parents, Doug and Helen and then on the 26th left to visit family in north Florida. After a very nice, relaxing visit with the family we returned to Orlando in time for New Year's Eve. And the neatest thing happend New Year's Eve (and if I didn't see it myself, I would have thought it was a set-up). My nephew, Shawn and his fiance Christina came over with a homemade Spanakopita (Greek Spinach Pie) that Christina had made. In her family Spanakopita is served on New Year's Day and the person who makes it puts a quarter in the pie and whomever gets the quarter is supposed to receive good luck the following year. Well, a little after midnight, I cut the pie in various oddball sizes and walked around and made sure everyone received one. Oops...I didn't give Bri one, so her daddy picked up the smallest one on the tray and took a bite of it "for Bri". Then he promptly teased Christina about her cooking because there was a piece of tin foil in it. That's when Christina said, "no, that's the quarter!! wrapped in tinfoil." How neat is that. Bri got the good luck quarter.

And then....you do know what happens to the first person who falls asleep on New Year's Eve, especially when guests are still around....that's right, they get their toenails painted...bright red. The lucky recipient this year was Jerry. Check out the pics. That's Bri with her lucky quarter and Jerry with his gorgeous toenails!

On that note, Happy New Year to everyone once again.