The Many Adventures of Penny & Porter: 2011

Thursday, December 29, 2011

Happy Birthday Jesus!

Merry Christmas! May your 2012 be filled with many blessings!

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Cookie Time!

Penny wanted in on the Christmas cookies this year. She loves to help us in the kitchen!

We went over to Aunt Missy & Eric's house to get our cookie on! And she loved every minute.

"Penny made it!" She was so proud of her cookies!

She had a lot of fun eating them too :)

Yum Yum in the tummy! Merry Christmas!

We haven't really been talking up Santa this year. Instead, we've been telling Penny the story of how baby Jesus was born in a manger and how we're going to have a party for his birthday. She runs around saying "Jesus is coming to Penny". And sometimes, she goes to the front door to see if Jesus is coming. She is so excited for His birthday! I'd love for our Christmases to come to be filled with this same sentiment, hoping that we don't let ourselves get caught up in the presents and that we remember what the season is all about. But, I still want a Santa picture every year. So, we set out to our local mall to see the big guy. I wasn't sure how it would go- Penny is in another mommy-phase, where she wants no one buy me. She doesn't really like strangers. But, armed with monkey, she did a pretty good job sitting on Santa's lap. She was so confused when he asked her what she wanted for Christmas...she just wanted to get off his lap so she could ride the carousel at the mall! I'm calling this year's photo a success :)

Sunday, December 18, 2011

2012 In Review

I love looking back through the posts from this year and thinking about just how much fun we've had! From our excitement regarding Aunt Nic & Dave's engagement in January, to celebrating our little lady's 1st birthday in February, we've had some amazing times! You can follow along through the links on the bottom left of the page, that show each month's posts.

This year we said hello to some amazing new friends like Lily and Sophie and cousin Kylie :) And we found ourselves missing some important people (most notably Great Grandma Thompson, who passed away in January). There are still days when I go to fill an envelope with pictures of Penny's latest and greatest for her...we know she would be so proud and excited by all Penny does!

We got family photos taken in June- love them!

We had the opportunity to do a bit of traveling. Daddy went to Cardinals Spring Training- what a great year to go- he was there for the start of the World Series season- the last season for Pujols and LaRussa :) Daddy spent some time in Arizona with the family at Aunt Meggie's. And, we went to Ohio to see Great Grandma Jeanne and some aunts/uncles/cousins.

We started swim lessons at our local community center. Penny loves the water, as long as it's warm! She's not a fan of the cold in general. Since we started lessons, Penny has taken to swimming in the bath tub- she lays on her stomach and does a mean breaststroke kick to move herself across the tub :) Penny enjoyed swimming with her cousins Emily & Chloe in New Jersey this summer. She still talks about it, months later!

We visited Knoeble's this fall. Penny enjoyed all the rides, as long as someone could go with her. She loves carousel rides and we like to go on them whenever we see one (we've ridden at our local mall, two different ones at Knoebels, and the Please Touch Museum).

We started the year with a little girl who had recently started walking and said only a few words. We're ending the year with a crazy kid who can speak sentences, run and jump. This fall, she conquered the big kid side of the playground- she walks up the ladder to the big slide all by herself and slides down :) She loves her swing set and we love spending time out in the backyard playing!

Penny has really started to play with her friends this year, which is awesome to see! I love to see her run around with Luke and Mason :) We love to see the way she talks to our neighbor, baby Liam, who will soon be a toddler too. She had a blast with Ella, Lily, Mady, Myah and Leah this fall- seeing her play with my college room mate's kiddo's was such a happy time!

We've been blessed with so much this year. We've really enjoyed all the time we were able to spend with friends and family and wish that we had more time for fun!

We are looking forward to 2012, when we'll welcome baby Squirt to the family, celebrate Meg & Chris and Nicole & Dave's weddings and have all sorts of fun!

We wish you and your families a Very Merry Christmas and all the best in 2012!

Baby Squirt

In July we found out we were expecting baby #2! Here's his picture at 8 weeks:

We are so excited Penny is going to be a big sister! She shared her news with some family in August :)

In late August, we had our 12 week ultrasound and a test called the sequential screen. Here he is at 12 weeks:

Soon after, we found out that our baby was "high risk" for Down Syndrome. We entered a high stress period where the medical community started to talk about our baby like he wasn't a baby, which made me incredibly sad. We'd seen him a few times already and at 12 weeks, he was sucking his thumb and swimming around. He was ours and we were his!

At 16 weeks, we decided to do an amniocentesis to find out for sure. Here's baby Squirt at 16 weeks:

We got the call in early October, confirming that Squirt was a boy and that he has an extra copy of his 21st chromosome. Again, the genetic counselor talked about him like he wasn't a baby. But we knew, he was our baby and we loved him! After initially being terrified by the diagnosis, we were lucky to be put in touch with a few amazing families from our local Down Syndrome Interest Group and some amazing mommy bloggers from the Internet and we quickly realized that Squirt is going to have an amazing life. 60 years ago, he may have been institutionalized. Today, he will have therapies and resources that will help him succeed and we hope that one day he'll live his dreams, just like his sister, whether they involve going to college or finding a career that makes him happy.

In late October, we were ready to share the news with our family and friends:

Most of you already know that in March, Penny is going to be a big sister. Since finding out we were pregnant in July, we've learned a few things about our baby- we know IT'S A BOY! We know this because we had an amniocentesis confirming that he has Down Syndrome. As you can imagine, we're anxiously awaiting his arrival so we can learn more about who he is and the amazing love he will bring into our home. Over the past three weeks, we've learned quite a bit about Down Syndrome through reading and talking with some amazing families who are part of our local Down Syndrome Interest Group. We know that our baby will be welcomed into a supportive community and are so grateful for the guidance these families are able to provide.

Please don't feel sorry for us. Instead, please pray that our little boy will be healthy- that he will have a healthy heart and digestive system, good eyesight and hearing. Please pray that his struggles will be few and that the love and happiness he brings into this world will be great! We had our 20 week ultrasound last week and so far things look really good! He doesn't show any of the typical "markers" or physical abnormalities that can be common with Down Syndrome, so we're hoping for the best. We can't wait to bring him home :)

If you'd like to learn more, visit the NDSS website at http://ndss.org/

And, if you're a sucker for beautiful stories, visit these blogs: http://www.kellehampton.com/ and http://letters2daniel.wordpress.com/

They are just two of the amazing families who are helping us realize that an extra chromosome may change our lives, but that it will be for the better!

Love, D, RC & Penny

Since then, we've loved the opportunities to see Squirt up close. Here he is at 20 weeks:

At 22 weeks we had an ultrasound to check his heart. And here he is again at 28 weeks, so we could check his growth (his hand is covering his face and you can see his knee and leg):

Most of these ultrasound pictures are taken by an amazingly supportive tech named Mary who has made our Perinatal visits stress-free and enjoyable. She's super-supportive of our decision to bring Squirt into the world and she's been nothing short of awesome!

We've been doing research and learning as much as we can. And, we've been so excited that with each ultrasound, we learn that Squirt is growing just as he should be. His heart looks healthy :) And, he swims and kicks just like his sister. We've found support in the most unusual places. We have no doubt that Squirt will be surrounded by love when he arrives! We can't wait to meet him!

(But please don't get any ideas Squirt- keep growing and kicking from the inside until late Feb/early March, love, Mama)

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Mason visits Penny

We had some visitors this past weekend :)

My friend Melissa and her family came to visit. Melissa & Mark's son, Mason, is only a few days older than Penny. It was so exciting to be able to share our pregnancies together and now we're having fun watching these two grow up together. It's been a whole year since we've seen one another, so it was great to catch up!

Penny and Mason had a blast together! We did an art project and played.

Love!

They ran and played and chased each other around the house. I love seeing them together :)

We can't wait to get together again!

Away in a Manger

Aunt Meggie and Chris sent Penny a Christmas gift to open early- a manger! Who knew Little Tyke's made a manger? Not me, but we certainly love it!

We've been talking about how we're going to have a party for Baby Jesus' birthday. She keeps telling people "baby Jesus is coming" and has been having so much fun playing with her manger set.

We've also been opening one door on our Advent house each day. Penny loves to see what is inside each door really looks forward to checking the Advent house!

Penny lined up her "guys" so they could smile for a picture. She told me to wait and said "look at mommy guys and say cheese". She also picked up Mary and said "look mommy, Mary Christmas". I love this age!

Penny also has her very own Christmas tree. I saw this idea on Pintrest and was so excited to make one for her. We've been having fun putting up our decorations.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas around here :) We can't wait!

Oh Christmas Tree!

Every December we head to a local Christmas Tree farm and search the fields for the biggest and best tree that we can find. The horse-drawn wagon takes us out to the fields and this year, Penny was so excited to ride the "hayride"!

We got to the fields and started our hunt for the perfect tree. It didn't take long to find her!

From the minute we got out there, Penny wanted to head back to the horses. She kept pointing and saying "hayride this way".

Daddy had to carry the tree back to the loading station by himself again this year. As usual, people stared as the giant tree walked towards the workers.