Miracles

I don't know how long it has been since I laid on the grass and looked up at the sky.

Today, I did just that. I melted into the grass. I had nothing on my mind. It was blank. It was quiet. 

All I heard were the birds and the wind rustling through the trees.

It was so very nice!

Why don't I do this more often?... was my first thought. And then I realized it only took away from this moment if I wished to have more of it.

Such is life. 

I had been tired, we all were. We had been at Children's Hospital in LA for most of the day on Wednesday for a procedure for Mylie. We were checking her kidney reflux, which we had been watching since she was 5 months old. Both her kidneys had been affected and she has been on prophylactic antibiotics ever since. This had been the cause of her countless UTIs and possibly the cause of her scarred right kidney. The procedure would verify if we had to take more drastic measures to fix it.

The results came back "reflux has spontaneously healed".

"miraculously healed" for us....

Three years of stress seemed to drift away in the wind. I hadn't realized it was there. 

So nice to send it off.

I felt like putting my feet up...

Albert Einstein once said, "There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle."

I live as if everything is a miracle. 

xxoooxoxo

TYSON ALONSO WILLSON

Tyson means "high-spirited".

Alonso means "noble and ready; prompt".

I would add the following to describe my #1 boy:

energetic, confident, active, compassionate, one who likes to debate,

loving, independent, creative, willful, a loyal friend, faithful.

"Mommy, how about you and me go to Corktree for dinner. 

You know, so we can spend time together... just the two of us." 

It was the greatest thing I could hear. I had been cooking dinner for all of us and as I looked ahead to the following few days there was no time for going out to eat together. It was one of those times, when the spontaneity of the moment felt so right. So I finished dinner for Tyler and Mylie and Ty and I went to Corktree.... just the two of us.

Ty is one who is full of life. He leaves nothing unsaid or unnoticed. He says what he thinks and wears his heart on his sleeve. Good or bad, appropriate or inappropriate the boy is pure. 

And he has a heart of gold.

The trick has been to show him when to pause, when to let others speak, when to hold that thought.

I think it's his sense of humor that describes him most. 

Eating out with Ty looks a little like this:

We'll sit down to order and he'll use the menu as a hat for awhile. Then, because the table next to us is open, he'll sit there for awhile and talk to me from the other table. He'll play with his straw and make different things out of it all the while talking about his faith. Then, he'll notice something or remember something and skip over to talk about that. 

He'll make faces and want me to take his picture. Then, he'll ask me if I need to go to the bathroom. 

No, I say. He asks me again. No, I say, should I need to? He's got something up his sleeve, I think. 

He wants to trick me somehow. 

Then our food comes and he gets his burger ready. He eats fast and furious, offers me bites and ends up eating about 3/4 of the burger and a few fries. Then, he slumps over in his chair and says he can't move he is soooooooooooooooooooooooo FULL!!

He'll play with the window covering that looks like it will fall on top of us if he continues. I ask him to stop. He forgets and starts to play with it again. I ask him to stop again. OH, I forgot, he says. We talk about school and he makes up jokes. He starts playing with the window covering again. I remind him that I've asked him to stop twice and if I need to ask again we will leave. 

Ok, he says. He seems to remember now not to play with it. I see him freeze when he goes to play with it again. Wow, he remembered!

Still slumped over in his seat, he asks when we can have dessert.

Ahhh, my boy! 

He's only complained of being bored once this summer. I think that is pretty good!

 Out of the two months we've had off, he's been able to be entertained, 

entertain himself or entertain others. 

No time for boredom. 

That's my boy!

and my girl.... she makes Ty a better person every day, a great brother and a loyal family man!

xoxoxo

Made with Love

Here is the latest brochure that Jamie and I have collectively produced with love and intended to reach other families of children with Down syndrome. 

Our first brochure served its purpose and got us in the groove of getting the message out. 

This new brochure, which has been updated and has many more photos, will now possibly be getting into doctors' offices and SB Cottage Hospital.

It has been a labor of love. 

We both hope that instead of all the negative and clinical information new parents are given in the hospitals, this brochure will bring hope and smiles.

What most people failed to say to Jamie and me in the hospital was a very simple thing:

"Congratulations on your baby!"

Our goal is to be able to get that very simple and important message to new families. 

If you have any ideas, contacts or comments, we would love to hear them.

The writing may be too small to read so if you want to see the real deal 

I can email you the brochure or mail it to you when we have it printed. 

Made with love for all the babies of the world, gifts from heaven they are!

mia

Having a blog brings inspiration to me. 

This blog I'm using as a scrapbook... sort of a thing... for the kids. It's much easier than cutting and pasting and all that stuff. I'm printing each post and collecting them in a book. A book of memories.

It's also to share with people like you, who care about my kids and my family. 

It's sharing time so to speak. How cute!

So, I find that when I'm out and about and I see beautiful images or we are doing something memorable (which is always), I get inspired to bring it here. 

Like this week, when we visited the Natural History Museum. 

Not everyone knows that they have a beautiful exhibit of live butterflies. They are all in this huge greenhouse with benches, fountains and lots of flowers. 

It feels like the Garden of Eden.

When Ty was little he accidentally stepped on a butterfly and one of the volunteers freaked out on him. The following year that same woman yelled at him again for getting near a butterfly. 

That was it for me. We never went back. So, after our three year hiatus, Mylie and I returned.

And it was awesome!!

And that volunteer was no longer there. Phew!!

These images are from the bird houses for sale at the museum. They caught my eyes with their bright colors and I had to capture them. I love love LOVE these houses, as they are beautifully crafted and look naturally distressed. WAY out of my budget though , so I had to enjoy them this way only...

Then because I had Joaquin (my third child) AND Ty I knew I had to take my little cubs to the beach to get out all that boy energy. Mylie and I sat on the sand and watched the boys body surf, yell at the waves, jump the waves, laugh and run all over the beach. It was quite the scene. 

Mylie, so sweetly and silently decided she'd eat the sand. 

and I tried to capture it all...

This picture of Mylie kills me. She looks SO cute and SO annoyed by her hair.  It was blowing everywhere that day in the wind. She was not happy about it, so this face is a face of complete annoyance. I think it is precious. She is so toddler, so fresh, so new to this world. Look at her skin. 

It's perfect.... and her little button nose. I want to remember this look always! It cracks me up!

Wouldn't it be nice to have 32 million dollars to buy this beach home? 

And then because we were so close to Padaro Beach Grill we got burgers and fries for dinner... went home and watched Wipeout and called it a day. 

Another day past, another precious day ahead for more moments of inspiration. 

What will tomorrow bring? 

If we take care of the moments, the years will take care of themselves. - Maria Edgeworth

xoxoxo

Summer Sweets

Ojai Water Park at Lake Casitas is a great place for kids. If you have never been there please let me know and we will take you there!! I'm not kidding. 

Even if you don't have kids, your playful self will emerge as you run through massive sprinklers coming off a playset and merrily coast down the lazy river on an inner tube.

It happens to be 17 minutes from our house... (I've timed it) and a beautiful ride through the mountains to a fabulous lake that seems to be the best kept secret in SB. 

Every time we go, we inevitably have fun..... and lots of ice-cream.

 If you go after 5:00pm it's only $5 a person. Park closes at 7:00. We were so stoked to get in for so cheap... but I guess everyone else thought it was a great idea too and we stood in line for 20 minutes to get tickets all the while drooling over the water park ahead. 

Oh well... ice-cream shack was around the corner so I sent Tyler with the kids to get ice-cream for dinner while I waited in line.

This weekend was all about the sun. We spent time at the water park and on Sunday at the beach. 

Our skin is tender with a new shade of color, hair crisp with highlights 

and our tummies full of summer sweets.

I see my little girl growing up this summer. 

For so long she has been my baby girl. She now is shooting up like a weed (an inch every time we see her doc), she's thinning out (I thought I'd always have a rounded tummy to squeeze) and she has so much more language - sign language. She has learned so many new signs. Every time I sign with her she gives me a hug as if to say: 

"Thank you for talking with me. I understand you and you understand me. I love!"

I've taken for granted the beauty and freedom of language and the two way communication it brings. 

On a very superficial level it has always made sense, but until this year when I thought Mylie would have at least some language I have realized the impact no or little communication can have. 

It is an incredibly personal interaction: I tell you what I feel and/or think and you react and tell me what you feel and/or think. Pretty basic and important. Without language I am missing a great part of Mylie. 

I cannot wait to hear all the things she has to say, all the feelings in her heart and all the things she notices out in the world.

Oh, my sweet toothless boy!

He is 7 going on 15. He thinks he's an adult sometimes and wants so badly to grow up.

I tell him that childhood is too short and adulthood is a very long time...

I think he'll look back one day and say, just like I do, "Wow, being a kid was the best!"

...and I have the pictures to prove it.

;)

And as my husband says, "Once a kid always a kid." or something like that...

Wishing you all a lovely week ahead!

xoxox

The Good Ole Days

Sunday was a perfectly lazy day. We slept in, had pancakes and hung out.

I dressed Mylie in one of her pretty skirts and she was just ridiculously cute. 

I'm so thankful for my girly girl! 

I tried dressing Ty up in cute clothes when he was little but he would not, 

under any circumstances, wear them. 

And he was only 2 or 3 and wasn't concerned with looking cool yet.

 The cute clothes were just too uncomfortable.

Can't blame him.

But comfortable or not, Mylie gets it that tolerating a little discomfort goes a long way towards looking ADORABLE!

Can't blame her either. 

Look at those legs!

These are the good ole days. 

I can just imagine Tyler and my conversation in our later years about when the kids were small, 

and how we used to venture around together, all the poop stories, the challenges and upsets we got through together, those funny moments when we were parents of young kids sometimes volatile and irrational yet our gifts from heaven here to teach us so much about life.

This is Mylie's sign for LOVE. 

She is PURE LOVE...

Sunday evening we went out for dinner and walked down to the beach together. 

In between Mylie's waves and hugs to strangers, she stopped to chat with the elephant outside Carp's Thai restaurant. She gave the elephant a big hug. 

A few people standing outside just watched her and smiled.
It was a precious moment.

Ty found a stick somewhere along the way. 

It was every weapon you can imagine from a light saber to a sword to a slingshot. 

I'm so thankful for my boy of all boys. I've learned so much about the male species being his mom.

Carp beach is one of my favorite beaches in the world. It's beautiful, safe for kids to play in the water, has bathrooms near by and free parking out in front. It's a secret. Don't tell anyone is Santa Barbara!

These are the good ole days. 

They are the memories I will take with me all the days of my life. 

Wishing you a week full of good ole day moments!

xoxoxoxo