Life has been busy around our house with work and school and therapy the blog has been neglected. The boys are growing up so fast. Brunton finally reached 20 pounds so now he can be forward facing in his carseat. He loves it, everytime I look back at him he gets all excited and waves to me. I have been struggling a lot lately with things. We went to my nieces 1st birthday party a couple weeks ago and it hit me like a ton of bricks, my Brunton is slowly falling behind his cousins who were born almost a year after him. I know that he will be delayed I am not that nieve, I guess I just hoped that if I worked hard with him that he could stay ahead of the younger kids.

I have noticed that having a child with disabilities is like a roller coaster ride. There are scary moments,thrills, highs, and lows. There have been rough spots, and smooth spots. And overall it has been an amazing ride, but lately I just wish that me and Brunton could get off. The endless therapies and doctor appointments are wearing on me not to mention that most of them fall on days that I have worked the night before meaning that I go 36 plus hours with no sleep. I want answers not more appointments, I want less wasted time in waiting rooms and more time at home building forts with my boys. I want less medical jargon, and more laughter, less questions and more answers. Less worry and more peace. I want less stress, and more fun, I WANT A NORMAL LIFE!!!! I want to wake up in the morning and not have a list of appointments, I want to not have to find somewhere to leave Coleman because it is must too much to take him all the time. Don't get me wrong I love this little boy more than anything in the world. He is the reason I keep going, I will do anything that I need to so that he will have the best quality of life possible! I just want a break. He is doing well don't get me wrong some days are just frustrating!!  Some of Brunton's latest accomplishments are: He can stand up on anything, he says a few words mom, dad, brother, love you, spider,hi, and bye. He can also sign dog, bark like a dog, and he thinks it is funny to scare people by growling like a bear. He is the fastest army crawler that you will ever meet, and he can finally feed himself. He drinks out of a sippy, or a regular cup (just don't put too much liquid in because he is liable to throw it at you when he has had enough----oh the terrible two's). He loves to wrestle his brother and is often the one that instegates it, ecspecially when it is nap time. He has hit the terrible two's right on schedule and though he is a man of few words he can get his point across. He also started nursery in February and is loving it!! He is a wonderful little boy and he brings so much joy to our home even though he is frustrating I would not trade him for the world.

Coleman is doing really well. He started preschool in the fall and is loving it! I love hearing all about his adventures at school. He is a very stubburn little boy but we still love him. He has hit a new stage where everything is either teasing or a joke. Let me tell you the jokes get old when you hear them all day long. Coleman is also big into superhero's so that is how we spend most of our day fighting crime. I feel bad for my little man he has to put up with a lot. He blew up at the Brunton's therapists a few months ago telling them that he hates when they come. He just doesn't understand why no one comes to see him. We have tried to talk to him about it, but how do you explain Down Syndrome to a three year old? Trust me he still doesnt get it.
All in all we are doing well, except for my breakdowns every now and then. Hopefully I will get more pictures on the blog soon!

HAPPY 1st BIRTHDAY BRUNTON!!!!

LOOK WHO IS 1!

I can not believe that it has been a whole year since this amazing little guy entered our lives. It has been quite the roller coaster ride. Last year at this time I was unsure what the future held for us, I was afraid that I would fail this little guy. What I have found is that he has taught me what is truely important in life. He has shown me that even though he has challenges and is slower than others his age he will continue to strive to do his best with the most contagious smile on his face. He has shown me that no matter when he meets those milestones we will still be just as excited and they will mean just as much if not more! Don't get me wrong I still have my bad days when I cry because the baby in front of us is 10 months and walking, has 3 teeth and drinks from a sippy cup on his own. But I am working on it. One day at a time. So enough of my ramblings lets get to the party!

Brunton enjoyed opening his presents and had a lot of help from his big brother Coleman. Actually it worked out well because all Brunton wanted to play with was the wrapping paper, which allowed Coleman to sneak his toys away!

We went to the zoo during the day which was a lot of fun, and then had a party with family that night. Brunton loved his cake. He stuck his hands in it and flung it all over the place. He hasn't quite figured out how to put things in his mouth. His therapist wants us to work on it, but its nice to know he wont put Cole's small things in his mouth :) .

After the cake was the present opening. He had many wonderful cousins to help him open his gifts, and a big brother who took them all to play with. He is one spoiled boy!

Here is so fun things about our little guy:
he is 17 lbs and 26 in long
he can sit by himself, roll faster than anyone, and has started to crawl.
he says mama, dada, and he can blow kisses, and wave
he has the power to make anyone smile even on their worst day.
he loves his brother more than anyone in the world
he trys really hard to flirt his way out of therapy
We love our little Bruntonator and can't imagine our life without him!

Coleman's 3rd Birthday!!

I can not believe that my little man is 3. I can not believe how much he has grown. We had so much fun with him this year. He woke up on the morning of his birthday so excited. We started the day off with what else but present opening.

He is so funny always sticking out his tongue!

He thanked us repeatedly for every gift.

Pots and Pans for his kitchen.

And he named his stick horse Transparent. (no idea where he came up with this.)

Next we went fishing.

Coleman had fun for awhile, and then....

we saw this SNAKE!! Ya me and Cole were done after that!

And then we had some cake (its supposed to be a Brachiosaurus per Coleman's request). He had to blow the candles out 3-4 times. He was so cute.

We finished the night off at the Drive in where we watched Cars 2. It was a wonderful day, and he can't wait to do it all again tomorrow.

Here are some things that we love about our Coleman:

He is so funny. One day he told his dad that he would feel better if he exercised.

He is a GREAT big brother. I know that he will always watch out for Brunton.

He has a great imagination.

He loves to sing- he can sing 3 verses of I am a child of god (which he sings to his brother

he is crying.

He is an awesome snuggler!

He is so smart, he can count to 10, say his ABC's, recognizes some letters, tell you all about

dinosaurs. He uses words like transparent, and radiant. Sometimes he is too smart!

Coleman enjoys:

Playing sports Baseball, Basketball, and soccer

He likes to fish, camp in his tent, and play at the park

He likes to cook in his kitchen, hunt for treasure as a pirate, or arresting us as a cop.

AND THE BEST NEWS THAT WE RECIEVED RECENTLY WAS THAT COLEMAN'S HOLE IN HIS HEART IS CLOSED AND ALL OF THE VALVES HAVE RETURNED TO NORMAL SIZE!!!

Wondering where we have been? We have just been enjoying Holland!!! (if you don't understand, you obviously need to read our older posts:). It has been a busy couple of months so this will be a long post, but theres lots of pictures --thats a plus. I will try to go in order starting in December.

We had a wonderful Christmas, I was worried that it would be depressing since we couldn't take Brunton out, but it turned out to be really relaxing. Santa came to visit us a few days before Christmas and the boys sure loved him! Coleman was so excited he introduced Santa to all of us and then just chatted away about everything and anything!

This was my attempt to get a good picture of the two of them in front of the tree.

Here they are in their Christmas Jammies! So CUTE!

Christmas Day. All Coleman wanted was a kitchen, he spent the whole day cooking pizza for us. He also loved his cars. Brunton was just happy to watch him play. He loves to watch his brother.

Brunton in his new Bumbo chair showing off his amazing neck control and fashionable feeding tube! I am so amazed at how well he is able to hold his head up. Thank you physical therapy!

And the best news of all, on December 29th we visited the Cardiologist who decided that Brunton was doing good enough that he would cancel the heart surgery!!! I had not realized how nervous I was about the whole thing until the relief set in. We are so grateful that his health is improving, and that he is finally putting on weight!!

Brunton got a haircut. Look how good he sits. There are no pictures of Coleman's haircut because it took all of us to hold him in the chair!!

Look at those Chunky Cheeks! We started feeding him baby food, and boy does he love it. Some days I can't get the food in his mouth fast enough. Again I was impressed at how well he is able to coordinate his tongue. He gets more food in his mouth then Coleman ever did.

We went with the Hansen clan to Bear Lake in February. It was a blast we swam, ate, and snowmobiled. Coleman loved going on the snowmobile with his dad, it took all we had to convince him to get off. He was not so fond of sledding.

And Finally Brunton is 7 Months old! Can you believe it! I can't it seems like just yesterday we were sitting in the hospital coping with the unknown future that lay ahead. Now I can't imagine my life without this sweet little boy. Everything he does amazes me. Everytime he meets another milestone or does something new we are overjoyed!

Brunton now weighs 14 lbs and 1 oz. He is able to roll over, both ways, blow raspberries, say dada ( even though I tried to get him to say mama first), he gives his mom kisses (only mom!!), and he is totally smitten by his brother! He will do whatever it takes to be next to him and to get his attention. I found Coleman and Brunton lying on my bed the other day holding hands, and I overheard Coleman say that he loved Brunton and that they would be best friends forever!

So in closing if you are looking for a new adventure let me just tell you Holland is way better than any where else I have ever traveled, and I look forward to many more years here!

October and November updates

Wow time flies when your having fun! We have had a few busy months but I wanted to share pitures from them so lets rewind to October!

We had a great Halloween. We were busy showing off these two cute boys. "T" and I came up with the costume idea. (It was originally a pillow sold at Sportsman's). I had a lot of fun dressing the boys up. Coleman was not to excited about the whole thing, but he did enjoy the candy. (Sorry no picture of Coleman alone, he wasn't having it)

In November Brunton ended up in the hospital for a couple of days with a cold (See previous post). He did great and was out of there in 2 days. We hope not to go back again this year, or ever!

Here is a picture of Brunton'sroom. Not your typical nursery, but it could be worse. At least now we are ready for whatever comes. We have the oxygen, suction, nebulizer and pulse ox!!

Here are a couple pictures of the kids:

Brunton is now 3 months old. He smiles, and laughs. I love waking up every morning to Brunton jabbering away in his crib. He rarely cries. He is doing great with his therapies. I am so proud of him.

Oh and he has become a thumb sucker. I have always secretly wanted a kid that was a thumb sucker! So cute!

Coleman was terrified of santa last year so we decided to start talking about him early to prepare Cole. Well I think that he has caught on. He carries around the toy magazine and tells me all the toys he wants. I can't wait to see how excited he gets at Christmas.

Don't you just love the signature "Down's tongue". So cute.

Well Brunton's had gotten out of control so he got his first hair cut. (He just didn't look as good with a comb over. Much better now. I think that it gives him personality.

THANKSGIVING 2010

We were not able to go anywhere for Thanksgiving ths year because we didn't want to risk Brunton catching anything, so we had our own. It was fun and stress free (well except the stress of cooking a turkey for the first time).

The Guests:

Very cute, but wanted nothing to do with the feast.

Requested to have hot dogs and mac and cheese (should have just skipped the turkey)

The feast!

Here is Coleman and Brunton playing in the tent that we built while awaiting the infamous storm that never really came. It was a lot of fun, we even slept in it!

* Brunton update: We met with the cardiologist yesterday and he is not happy with Brunton's weight. We talked about Brunton's aspiration pneumonia, which he thinks may be atelectasis (collapse of the lung). He has put him on a new medication to try and increase the motility in his gut so that hopefully he will start gaining weight again. He also said the words that I had been expecting and dreading SURGERY. I knew that he would more than likely have to have it, so I was suprised how those words bothered me. I see babies that have this surgery and a lot worse on a daily basis, but they aren't my baby. But as the day draws nearer I am becoming more anxious. The surgery will be at the end of January or first of February as long as we can keep him healthy. We also meet with the ENT doctor at the end of December to set a date to get ear tubes. Wow we are going to have a busy new year! He is well worth it!

And the culprit is.....

So what kind of horrible, nasty, super bug put our sweet little Brunton in the hospital. Was it RSV, or bronchiolitis or some other nasty thing?? Well the results are in.... he had Rhinovirus aka the common cold! Are you kidding me? Something that every person gets this time of year can take a sweet little happy infant and with in a matter of hours put him in the hospital. My first thoughts are great if we end up in the hospital for this then what happens if he does get RSV?? So that is why we have become hermits. The only time that we have left home in the past week was to go to the doctor, and that is all we will do all winter long. Sounds fun huh. I am already sick of the walls of my home that seem to be closing in on me, okay so thats a little dramatic, but I do find that it is frustrating to be homebound. Even to do the simplest of things like running to the store has become quite a production. If people would just keep their sick kids home and stay home when they are sick themselves then we wouldn't have to be as careful. So we are asking that if by chance you come to visit us or if you will be in contact with Coleman that you stay away if you are sick. Because obviously our little Brunton can't handle even the simplest of illnesses. And if you think that it will be okay its just a little cold I want you to think of what my poor little guy had to suffer through in the hospital! To him its not just a little cold.
Any way here is an update on Brunton...
I took him to the pediatrician today so that he could get his first RSV vaccine. He weighed 10 lbs 2 oz, down a little bit from last week but he has been sick. He looked good but I have noticed that he still sounds junky and no amount of suctioning has helped. I wondered if he was possibly aspirating his milk because he seems to get worse after eating and sure enough that is what is going on. After looking at an x-ray it was determined that he has the start of a right upper lobe pneumonia, which is characteristic of aspiration. The doctor is not sure whether this is a chronic thing or if it is just due to his cold. So the plan is to put him on an antibiotic and start him on prevacid for reflux and see if it clears up. If it doesn't clear up we will have to do more extensive testing to see if in fact he does this all the time. We are also putting rice cereal in his bottles to hopefully thicken them just enough to stop him from aspirating it. He will also be seeing an ENT doctor so that he can get tubes placed in his ears. Because of the down syndrome he has small ear canals and the doctors are unable to look in them to determine if he has ear infections. The ear tubes will make it so that we can see if there is drainage thus we can tell if he has an infection. So for now we are just trying to keep him healthy and happy (at least keeping him happy isn't hard!!).
As for Coleman he had an ear infection last week but is doing much better now. This kid cracks me up, he is always coming up with something funny. Right now he is on a christmas kick ( I know way to early to be talking about christmas, but I had my reasons. Coleman was terrified of Santa last year and so I wanted to prepare him early so he could enjoy the Christmas season.) Well Coleman has loved the idea of getting presents and so when the Toys R Us toy book came he was in heaven. You should see the thing it is barely holding together. He spends hours looking at page after page deciding what he wants. The kid even has to sleep with the thing!! I love to see him so excited about Christmas! The other thing I love about this kid is how much he absolutely loves his brother. When Brunton was in the hospital Coleman came to visit and the first thing that he wanted to do was climb up in the crib with his brother. After putting him next to Brunton he leans over, kisses him on the forehead and says "Brunton I missed you all day, I am so glad to see you". He was so concerned about his brother and was very upset that he had to be in the hospital. I just love these two boys. Everyday it melts my heart how much they love each other. Even Brunton will react when Cole walks in the room, or talks to him. I am very lucky to have them!!! I will post pictures soon (I need to charge the battery in my camera).

Blasted Respiratory season strikes our house!

Even sick he is so dang cute!!!

Well this is how we got to spend our night. Not exactly what we had in mind. Brunton was fine on Tuesday morning when I got home from work, we went to a support group for people with kids that have special needs, and then the nurse from early intervention came to weigh and measure him. She said that he looked and sounded great, he was 10 lbs 4 oz. But about 45 minutes after she left he started to sound really congested and was gagging and choking. We decided to wait it out because Coleman has had a cold and that is what we figured Brunton had. But by 5, we were worried enough to call and make him an appointment with the instacare. By the time he was seen the congestion had gotten worse, he was throwing up mucous, and he had a fever. After being examined and a quick trip to the suction clinic the Dr. decided that it would be best to stay in the hospital overnight. So by 2 am he had blood drawn, an Iv placed (which they put in his poor scalp), he had been cathed to get a urine sample, he had a chest x-ray ( in some scary mid-evil looking contraption...glad we don't use those at Primary's) and been suctioned and given breathing treatments. Needless to say we were exhausted! They have continued the suctioning and breathing treatments through the night and today he seems to be doing better. He still has a lot of junk in his lungs and sounds congested from time to time. He also had to have a spinal tap this morning because it is protocol for any infant under 90 days that has a fever to get one. So now we just sit and wait, wait for the test results, wait for his lungs to clear, just wait to go home. Unfortunately I think that this is how our whole winter is going to go. The Dr. was telling me the kids with DS have problems with their white blood cells responding to infections because they are also affected by the extra chromosome. I guess that we will have to become even more hermit like than I had planned. I just don't love sitting in the hospital, its enough to just go to work 2 times a week. This brings up my pet peeve, Please stay home if you are sick!! I know that it sucks, but it also sucks for me to have to sit in a hospital room with a sick child who can't breathe and has to be poked and prodded. Respiratory season is starting and we will all be better off if we respect others by not spreading those nasty germs. (Sorry if I am rambling but I basically haven't slept since Sunday night and it is currently Wed.)