Last but not Least

Don't forget that October is National Down Syndrome Awarness Month!

Please take a moment to forward Edie's blog to someone you know before the months end and tell them what a beautiful baby she is. And what great things she and her friends at The Bell Center are doing. I truly feel that Edie and her extended family of friends who also have DS are changing the eyes of the world. Not to mention making a HUGE, wonderfully positive impact on all of those old, outdated statistics! "You Go Girl!!" quoted directly from Dr. Cortopassi himslef!

Just Checking In

I am headed home tomorrow to my babies and I can not sleep from the excitement! I have been in Dallas for a few days working and spending all of my free time searching for Edie a replacement Halloween costume. I have had absolutely zero luck with this. At this point I can not help but wonder "what does it really matter anyway". Edie will be just as happy no matter what she is. My mom had actually given her a cute pink kitty cat outfit. Not necessarily a costume but it is warm and with a little painting of whiskers it could be just purrrrrrfect!

Aside from the costume search I have also been looking at several Christmas outfits, Baptism Gowns, dresses for upcoming fundraiser, and Birthday suites. These are just a few of the events that will be taking place in our household over the next several months. Among many others. We are all staying so busy and loving being a family. I never knew how much love a little girl could bring to my life. Now I know and I love every minute of it!

I explained to Edie and Mr. Punkin Head that he will be going home soon after the Trick or Treaters. Edie and I sat with him Sunday night and counted his suckers. Edie would pull them out one by one. Every now and then trying to get a taste on one. She would pull them out, I would count, we would put them back in and do it all over. We did this until she fell asleep. Just for Edie I may keep him out a few extra days, weeks or months After all - out of the 100 toys she has to play with the things she finds most interesting are Mr. Punkin Head and Ziggy's pink poodle toy. Go figure!

Boo Fest

Edie did so many new things these past few days. She sat in the shopping cart for the first time as well as in a big girl highchair while out for dinner over the weekend. She did great! I have realized that I have to remind myself that Edie is growing, and fast. She loves being a big girl and sitting alone. The clothes that I look at everyday and have said to myself several times "there is no way she can wear that - it is way too big". Well guess what - it is not! Some are even too small already. My baby is growing up right before my eyes and I still see her as that 8lb little angel we brought home 9 months ago! One thing that we did realize today is that her Halloween costume really is way too big. Edie had big plans to be a snail. But after taking it for a test drive this afternoon everything about it is too big not to mention she hated it and cried the whole time we had it on her. So we will try the Snail Costume next year and look for something that is a better fit.

Our neighborhood hosted the 2nd Annual Boo Festival on Sunday. They had a space bounce, a space bounce maze, a space bounce slide, several games, face painting, hot dogs, snow cones and a race car train ride. And it was all FREE!! Scott also set up a tent for a m.i.l.k event where he also gave away free Home Organizer CD's. These are pretty cool. It is a software that you upload to store your families pictures and information with a digital ID. You can do a digital inventory of your homes possessions. There is an electronic animal recovery system and an home organizer file for all of your home documents. Pretty neat!

The best part of the weekend (for me anyway) was the two times that Edie cried for me. This has never happened before. Edie is usually quite content. Once she was playing and started crying out of nowhere while I was out of the room. The other time I had gone upstairs and Scott said she crawled to the bottom of the steps and started to cry. Scott picked her up both times to console her but she did not stop crying until her mommy held her. I have to say it felt good. I know you mom's out there know what I am talking about. Of course I do not want Edie to ever cry - but it is nice to know that she is finally starting to feel that same bond towards me that I have had for her since January 14th, 2008. I love our little Ladybug so much. She is such a joy in our lives.

Nine Months

I can not believe how fast time has passed. Edie is now a little over nine months and we visited Dr. Cortopassi for her check up today. Edie is:
40th percentile on the Non-Downs chart!
75th percentile on the Downs chart!
18 lbs 3oz
27 1/4 inches long
and...an Angel

She is doing so well. Dr. Cortopassi is so pleased with her progress. She had three shots today and cried just a little. She could not have done any better. She continues to amaze us. Edie can now drink from a straw and is still working on using a cup. We have been given the green light to start giving her finely chopped meats and bananas. And we can now eliminate one of her bottles and just do a little snack instead. So we will start this new plan in motion.

After we returned from the Dr. Edie helped me with dinner by sitting on the kitchen floor and pulling out all of the plastic bowls and lids from the cabinet. She played by herself for quite some time banging the bowls on the floor and chewing on a basting brush and our plastic measuring spoons. During ARCs visit today we were advised to buy Edie more challenging toys and to encourage her to explore things around the house. Edie loves toys and she gets bored with the same old thing. So I am excited to see what we can find and what we can get into around here!

Punkin Head

Edie's Gigi gave us this Pumpkin Baby last year to hold candy. We placed it on our steps and after Edie discovered it one day she can not pass by without saying hello. She will now crawl to the bottom of the steps and look up to it saying "oooooo....oooooo". It is just her size and she loves it!

Buddy Walk 2008

We attended in the PADS Buddy Walk Sunday with our friends and family Amanda and Harry and their two daughters Reece (pictured above) and Riley (pictured w/Edie below). Summer, Mindy, Gigi, Giddo and Nan. The weather was great and we had a good time. Edie was totally pooped by the end and fell fast asleep in my arms.

We were new to this event so we mostly observed. Scott and I decided early on that we would focus on fundraising for The Bell Center for the 3 years that Edie attends and afterwards we will focus our attention on fundraising for PADS, therefore we did not have a team for this Buddy Walk. PADS is an organization we will be involved in for the rest or our lives. We have made many great friends through PADS. I am sure we will grow closer to many of them for the years to come. Thank you to Amanda and family, Summer, Nan and the Shunnarah's for joining us in supporting this wonderful organization!

If you would like to learn more about PADS please visit the link on this Blog.

Pumpkin Dress

Edie looks so precious in her handmade Pumpkin dress. Thank you again Ms. Jackie!

Roll Tide!

We enjoyed a great Bama game this weekend with several of our good friends while Edie stayed with Nan and Pawpaw. This is my friend Ashley Caldwell - mother of Edie's friend Charlie. The game was close which made it very exciting to watch. I forgot how much I like live football games. We tailgated with several other couples and had a great time catching up.

Mr. Postman

I discovered this weekend while at my parents why so many have been asking "What exactly is this fundraiser thing all about?". I have wondered why many missed the Live Entertainment . Silent Auction . Food . Fun blurb at the bottom of the save the date card. Well...it's because sweet Mr. Postman covered it with a nice white sticker bar code. I found this to be true after picking up the one we had mailed to Edie's Nan and Pawpaw and realized the sticker was concealing some of the wording! So if you pull off the sticker it will unveil what this fundraiser is all about. Sorry for the confusion everyone!! Invitations with time, location will be in the mail soon! We are looking forward to seeing you there!

In case you missed it the 1st time

Just in case you did not see this picture the first time I wanted to share again. We had it up for a short while before I changed the page layout. This is Edie at the Disney store at the Galleria. She had a ball in the sea of stuffed animals!

So much has happened since my last blog. We have raised over $1000.00 for "Team Ladybug"!! Edie's blog has been visited over 2200 times since it first began in May!! I turned 32!! And Edie is saying "da-da"!! Scott and I went to the Dave Ramsey Live seminar (glad to know we are on the right track - sad to know according to Dave I must give up my pedicures). We later had dinner and went bowling. The score was 387 to 415 after 3 games and guess who had 415? Me! That's right Edie - Mommy beat Daddy in bowling! It is not very often that I win at an event that requires athletic ability unless you count cheer leading (b/c it certainly was not softball in high school). So I am happy to gloat.

I left this morning for Vail, CO. This will be a short trip so leaving was not quite as hard this time. I do have to tell you though that when I went up to kiss Edie goodbye it was pitch black in her room. I reached in her crib to try and find her head and when I reached in Edie greeted me with her tiny hand. She had it straight up in the air and it was the first thing I touched. I held it for a few moments before kissing her on the cheek. I wanted so bad to pick her up and hug her before I left.

I can not wait to see her Friday morning. Each time I get home late after a trip and she has already fallen asleep it is like Christmas eve when I was little (who am I kidding - even now). I can not sleep the night before and I wake early to wait for Edie to wake up so I can hold her and play. I can not wait for Friday morning!!

Ziggy can't believe it!

Ziggy almost (well did) faint when she looked at the fundraiser page and saw how many of you out there love Edie so much! I reassured her that you all love her too. I am just as amazed as Ziggy at how many of our friends and family have been so generous. We never imagined this link would have reached over 1000 in less than one week! We are so grateful to everyone who has given so far and we look forward to seeing how well "Team Ladybug" does at the race! Thank you everyone! I can not wait for the party - which by the way we have been blessed to have the Cajun Steamer offer to cater the event! Yummy!!

First Anual Ladybug Fundraiser

If you are local hopefully by now you have received a "Save the Date" card for our First Annual Ladybug Fundraiser on November 22nd. If you have not it should arrive any day now. There will be an invitation to follow with full details. This fundraiser also coincides with the fundraising page found to the right of Edie's Blog. If you already know you will not be able to attend the fundraiser we would love for you to still participate by donating through Edie's fundraising site.

We hope you can join us for the fundraiser. We are looking forward to it as we will have live music, good food, and a silent auction. So far we have received gifts for the auction from North Shelby Animal Clinic, Wrapsody, Dance Etc., The University of AL, Bromberg's, Ballentrae Golf Club, Summer Classics, Smart Skin Med Spa, Total Fitness Consultants, Marriott Grand Hotel Point Clear, a SanDestin trip, a Smith Lake trip, Golds Gym, and Michael's Restaurant. We are still working on some others. We are so excited to say the least!

If you do not receive a "Save the Date" card please post a comment and let me know as we may have the wrong address. And if you live out of town but would like to make a special trip for a very special event we would love to see you!

"Boo"

Edie's "Boo" tutu and her new friend Rusty.

Meet the families BBQ

We ended the weekend playing in the stuffed animals at the Disney store and meeting our dear friends Ashley and Eric Caldwell and their son Charlie at the "Meet the Families BBQ" at The Bell Center. Jim n Nix sponsored a BBQ dinner for all of The Bell Center families and the runners for the marathon in February. Eric is running for Edie on her relay team. Team Ladybug!!!

Mommy, Daddy, Baby and Ziggy too!

We also enjoyed the nice weather this weekend playing in the back yard. Can you tell Edie loves her daddy!

Go BAMA!!!

We had some friends come over Saturday to watch the game. Edie and her friend Alex had a good time playing and cheering Bama on to another victory! Alex needed a little consoling after the AU game since she is part Auburn fan, not by choice (it's her daddy's fault).