Snow!

Today was a mix of luck and fate and a wet cold front that let Will have Dad all to himself while they played outside in the lovely snowfall. Will rolled out snowballs and Dad hoisted them up to make a same-sized snowfriend for Will. Then it was off to the lonely garden beds to search for some importande add-ons. Will thought it was hilarious when I observed that his snowman's hairdo looked like Mommy's.

Theo is ONE!

We had a little party to celebrate Theo's one year milestone. His Godmum made a yummy carrot cake and of course it met Theo's approval. I had to do some "tablescaping". The square footage of the dining room table is the only place in the house that I can fiddle and primp and It stays that way! This time I took some bright mini daffodils, added some blue and a fresh green then finished with a collection of favorite board books, blocks and brightly coloured nesting cups.

Here is the birthday honouree, taking a little pre-party nap, but still holding firm to the balloon bouquet.

Cake! And a birthday serenade! Theo was a little shy about all the attention. It's easy getting used to being part of a crowd here, so when the spotlight is suddenly on you it might seem odd.

Meet Maddox. She has something important to say!

If you are familiar with Facebook

You might find this page interesting. It is a collection of various family blogs/websites about living with someone who has *a little extra*.

Happy New Year

The wave that Christmas is came and rolled away with its usual swiftness. I like to look back on the pictures to take the time to let the happy memories settle. Here is the house dressed for the holidays;
A Christmas urn at the front door

The family room tree.

And at night. Whoa! This is what it looks like after some Christmas season wine:

The living room tree light up at night.

I love cooking and Christmas is obviously an opportunity to do lots of it. Decorating the tables is also fun!

Ready for dinner.

The kids table awaits the smallest diners.

A seasonal urn on the sideboard

After the Christmas day celebrations we travelled to two more feasts! It's nice to make a big yummy dinner, but it's nice to be a guest at a big yummy dinner too!

Sort here, sorta not.

Like the warm summer breezes that make you want to take a deep breath and give your mind a chance to remember that it's summer and your supposed to be taking it easy, this summer has gale-forced it's way past and here it is back-to-school Halloween Remembrance Day! Whoa.

I guess that is what has driven me to the blog. I needed to get down in black and white some family stuff details so I don't actually think that we missed, like, a whole year!

Lots went on this summer, but our computer went to summer camp so it was hard to write about it. Actually, our computer languished at Staples for over three weeks while they tried in vain to solve a problem that would only crop up within minutes of plugging it in at our house. So after the initial 3 week visit it returned another two times. In the end it was the freaky cable that runs from the computer to our monitor. Anyway, with everything that was going on we didn't really have time to focus on the computer's problems and we just became a computer-free zone for almost all of the summer. Sort of. The Ipad filled in a little, but it isn't quite the same as the computer.

Life in a size 7 family is lovely and beautiful minus the wacky and weird. I think we are still in a net positive position, but it's like economics, we can fiddle with the numbers to tell the story we want them to.

Mitchell and Olivia have had their share of employment opportunities through the summer and into the fall. Mitchell bringing in hay at the farm and now a gas hop at a local gas station. Olivia was junior waitress (I don't think that is a real or accurate term, but she'll fill me in I'm sure) and is now babysitting and looking for something a little more retail-y. Mitch has a full plate with travel hockey, student council and other various committees and work (Mitch also travelled to Spain in August for World Youth Day). Olivia is busy dancing, volunteering with a great swim program for kids and young adults with special needs and babysitting. Jack is also playing travel hockey most nights of the week and generally staying out of trouble. Jack is an excellent help to me and I think Jack and I make some sort of dynamic duo when it comes time to get him and Will ready for the bus in the mornings. Special Olympics has come to our neck of the woods and Will has tried golf and is now part of a regular weekly gym night. Will also attends the special swim program too. Theo makes sure that if I happen to ever sit down I'm nursing him at the same time as he has made it plain that no form of latex or plastic are ever to cross his lips. Never. Mark has assumed a new role at work that is keeping him pretty busy, but very happy too. Oh, and we had to put the cat down. Poor Kitty.


That's the thumbnail version of our reality these days. It's really much more freaky than that. If I flipped open the day timer here you would get a nice visual of what a jammed up day looks like. So, in actuality I am located in only a modest number of places:

1. Nursing armchair with phone, Blackberry and remote control within easy reach, (which is OK if I have the coffee too).
2. In the truck (really a SUV, but I don't say "SUV" because that's too many syllables). I can nurse and change diapers in that thing too. I have it all pimped out in the back so that I can rush to the back and grab diapers and wipes, or nurse (which is OK if I have the coffee.)
3. In the kitchen. In truth, it is often the case that the cold coffee is still hanging in there when I start making dinner and I sip away at it and tell myself it's such a treat!
4. In the laundry room. Yeah, with the coffee.

I am going out on Sunday nights to a writers group which causes some household inconvenience, but that just reminds everyone here how lucky they are to have me. I know, I have no business writing when there are so many other things to do, but the beauty of writing is that once I've finished something it stays done! I don't think that can be said of anything else I do. I am, at the moment, finding it very hard to complete some of the writing assignments as they become longer and more technical, but I just do what I can and don't stress about it because if something I enjoy becomes stressful then what good is it?

Today I am looking forward to a ladies shopping weekend, which apparently will also be including the guy that cannot tolerate non-breast drinks. Maybe two and a half days of shopping will cure him of that.

Back to breastfeeding

It's been two months now and during that time I have found myself perched in a new place that I am normally unaccustomed to.

In front of the TV.

I never watched TV during the day, and now I find myself in a big cushy chair at all hours of the day. (Theo is such an angel to sleep through most nights now!! Woo hoo!!). However, watching TV during the day has been an awakening.
Has TV ever gone downhill in even the last six years! Here are some things that have stood out to me:

1) The new word for decorating your home with it's various accumulated flotsam is "curate". So, when the various events in life and the changing of the seasons have you rearrange your clutter and tchatchkas, you are curating your home. That sounds so high brow doesn't it? Personally, I love to come up with "tablescapes" for the various times of the year. I can't wait for a friend to call and ask what I'm doing so I can tell them that I am busy "curating". That sound so much better than saying "laundry" or "loading the dishwasher". I have to thank Nate Berkus for that bit of modern lingo.

2)Rachel Ray is perky and infinitely cheerful, but she has big man hands. There's nothing wrong with man hands, especially in a kitchen setting. I call man hands "meathooks" sometimes, so it's all good for R.R. to posses such a physical attribute. I have to admit though, I find her hands distracting sometimes. I notice her stylists are aware of this and use large chunky bracelets on her wrists. This becomes even more distracting to me when dangling bits of bracelet sweep through the food or are dunked into the food. The Barefoot Contessa (Ina Garten) has man hands too, but she uses them to her food-preparation advantage and does not try to disguise them. She, wisely, does not talk with her hands like R.R. does.

2)There are a LOT of TV judicial shows. Personally, I love Judge Judy and could watch her dole out the endless commonsense spankings all day. I only know that if I were in a litigious situation myself, I would not want all of mankind to know my business and would be quite satisfied to have it dealt with in a normal closed court of law.

3)Male daytime TV personalities are wearing more and more makeup and some have had obvious "work" done on their mugs, making them look more and more effeminate. Nothing wrong with that I guess, but I hope the male people in my life don't get any ideas because I don't want to have to start competing with them in the who looks prettier department.

4)7 pm is now the line that divides the non-cursing shows with the cursing shows on basic cable stations. The f-bomb can now be part of you family prime time TV viewing.

5)Apart from Dancing With The Stars and American Idol, there is no such thing as a "family show" anymore. No more Happy Days/Little House On The Prairie/Carol Burnett/I Love Lucy type offerings that a family can sit around and watch together. I guess that is why the TV is a polarizing entertainment tool now. Everyone off into separate areas to watch the narrow range of fare that appeals to them.

6)TLC is a modern day circus freak show. Instead of 50 cents to enter a tent and see the fat lady/the world's smallest man/crocodile boy etc. You just pay an extra $12.00 a month on a cable bundle and you get an endless stream of human oddities.

7)There is an absolute absurd amount of programming that cheerleads for the flimsy fare the entertainment industry offers up. So much rah rah Hollywood hype that regurgitates an endless stream of useless factoids of the shows/the stars/the gossip under the guise of "Entertainment Tonight" or "Access Hollywood" or "E! Now". I think the industry is aware that if they don't keep waving a red flag in front of you you are going to wander off to something else. Like your own real, and probably more amazing, life.

8)How many Vampire stories can one generation be entertained by? Are we that shallow now, or are writers that shallow now?

9)How many Jerry Springer shows can there be? How many women are out there who are unsure of their baby's paternity? Can't Maury and Jerry and that other bald guy have found all the errant baby daddies by now? How exciting can it be to watch this scenario played out again and again day after day after day. I have noticed that, in the interest of beating almost exact competing shows and keeping viewers engaged, they've had to find mommies with more babies with even greater numbers of possible daddies. I've also noticed a trend in inter-family hook-ups that cross generational lines. See #6.

10)I have a suspicion that if you were to have the chance to really inspect any TV remodel/home makeover, you'd notice a lot of little errors and construction boo-boos. I think this because when builders have even a luxurious amount of time to complete a job, mishaps still occur almost every time. I would be more amazed if a team of people with a preposterously brief amount of time could pull off perfection. I often wonder if the homeowner has recourse to demand any fix-ups, or if they are left on their own when the production crew packs it in.

I've narrowed my own TV watching to the weather channel, the cooking channel and Coronation Street. I also watch the home remodeling shows on occasion, always looking for the imperfections I know are there.

I bet you didn't think a post labelled "Back to Breastfeeding" was going to be a critique in modern television offerings did you.

March break is upon us

Mark and the oldest three kids are off to sunny and warm Florida while mom and Will and Theo enjoy a colder and weaker version of the sun. Today we visited Will's pediatrician to discuss his thyroid, which wants to be a little sluggish. We are upping is synthroid level for one month to see how he responds.
We also went for a little walk and Will was a photographers assistant while we took some new pictures of Theo.
Will was also excited to pack his backpack in preparation for his March Break camp. He is going to attend Tues., Wed., and Thurs. The kids in Florida will return on Friday and we can enjoy a family weekend before getting back to the routine again.

Here is a picture Mark sent from his Blackberry. It looks like they didn't waste a moment getting into the relaxed vibe.

Welcome Theo!

After much hesitation on his part Theodore Hunter Anderson made his grand entrance on Jan. 12 at 5:52 pm. He's a typical man, arriving just in time for dinner! He weighed in at 8lbs 8oz and measures 21.5" long.
Everyone is doing well!


Theo meets the rest of the family.


All the boys, including the mischievous Will.


Jack and Will on shovelling duty the day after Theo came home. Thank goodness we got home before the storm.

Will's makes a cute crocodile.

By the way...

I've changed my job title. I'm no longer a stay-at-home mom, or a domestic engineer, or a house wife.

I'm a professional parent. With a fifth child on the way I'm also an executive professional parent.

I don't get why the government will pay a stranger to look after my kids, but they won't pay me to do it.

Hmmm.

fall beauty

Here are the newly redone urns at the front door. Why do I record these types of things? I guess it's because I want to be able to look back and know I really didn't live in the laundry room, or the car, or the kitchen sink.

Here is the view out front. We look over a cemetery. You would hardly notice that with all those huge and changing trees.

Removing boundaries.

When we brought Will to our very first meeting with a geneticist Will was only days old. As he sat contentedly in his car seat an older doctor told us things we had already read and then gave us a hopeful message that Will might one day bag groceries, or work in a funeral home, "because they are so comforting."

I wish we could have met someone like Ben Majewski that day.

Back to school means work for mom

Look at these happy back to school kids. It reminds me of the Staples commercial about "The Most Wonderful Time of the Year". It wasn't really Mitchell's first day, but he is on the leadership committee at school and was to be on hand to direct the grade 9 new comers around the sprawling school. Will is in grade one now and spending a whole day there now. Jack is happy with his grade 6 teacher and Olivia is looking like such an excited 9th grader, don't you think?

As has been the case for each year Will has attended some form of school (since he was one!) September usually brings a few hitches of some degree that require ironing out. This year is no different and small meetings about lunch/recess/toilet breaks have taken place. Most of my energy has had to go into dealing with the buses though. Today is designated letter writing day for me and I will be putting together an advocacy letter to send to the director of the bus company, the school trustee and the school superintendent. It seems that the regular bus cannot stop 50 feet from it's usual "set in stone until we say different" bus stop and let Will off on our driveway. We live on a road with no sidewalks and in the winter, snowbanks force the kids onto the road to walk home. Long story short, it is a recipe for disaster in my opinion. The bus company's only solution was to send out the "short bus" (We can see that budgetary constraints mean nothing when pride is on the line at he bus terminal. How much more is sending a bus on an additional trip twice a day for an entire year, as opposed to stopping a bus 50 feet from where it normally stops?) If the only solution to ensure my son is safe is to segregate him, we are moving backwards. How is taking a "special bus" going to help him develop important independence skills? What message does it send that the automatic default for people with developmental disabilities is to separate them from the rest of their peers?

So today it's me and the computer and some well chosen words to a few important people.

Monica and David

I learned about this movie through a diversity and inclusion conference happening in New Orleans for HR professionals. Mark received an email about it and was happy to see this movie about a married couple with Down syndrome included in the email. The story of Monica and David is a timely one for parents of younger kids, as it gives us an opportunity to see potential and set goals for independence. I would love for the staff at Will's school to watch this, to give them an idea of the vision our family has for Will's future. Will can only be bolstered by a community that has in mind a future with more options for him, instead of less.

I also was interested by the families of these adults who could admit that they are unwittingly participating in setting up boundaries for their children. I suppose when you envision a future for your child that involves limitations, you are suprised to arrive at a future where there is more possibility than you imagined.

Conny Wenk is at it again

capturing children and families in the most intimate and beautiful ways. I can't believe the talent Conny has with a camera. She was obviously born with the ability to focus in on a person's spirit and uses her camera as a way of conveying her gift with us.

Here is her new website dedicated to the beautiful spirits of children born *with a little extra*.

I'm going to bookmark it and visit often. It certainly is a day brightener, :)

Yes, I know the new school year is around the corner...

...but I thought better late than never for the June graduation pictures. Please don't hold my bad timing against me. It actually just seems like last week Olivia was all dolled up and looking like the lovely lady she really is. She graduated from 8th grade and looked so suddenly grown up. Both dad and I were so surprised and proud when she won the "Good Samaritan" award. Please notice the pink shoes. Olivia will want you to observe how ultimately cute her pink, peep-toe pumps are. She loved those shoes so much. We are trying to think when she will ever get to wear them again. It won't matter if she ever does wear them again, she'll find a place in her room to display them. She might even redecorate her room around them.



Here is the whole family, assembled and colour co-ordinated right down to the book-end purple accent children. We had to really rush the photo session because hello, the dance was about to begin and the dance took priority over posterity apparently.

Here is Will with his wonderful teacher and lovely aid under the graduation arbour. The very same arbour that big sister Olivia marched under the night before. Yes, our clan got a lot of use out of the beautifully decorated school gym this year.

Will, holding the ever important kindergarten graduation certificate. I don't know if they really let you into grade one without it.

It was during the kindergarten graduation that Mrs. B, Will's wonderful teacher interviewed each graduate and asked them what they wanted to be when they grew up. I was a little nervous as it involved an actual working microphone and a gym filled with staring and unblinking eyeballs all trained in on the interviewee. Will, the second interview, without missing a beat, loudly and confidently proclaimed he wanted to be a firefighter. Not even a "fireman", but the PC approved term "firefighter". Not every kid in the class was up to the task of the interview, but that day, Will certainly was. The audience was comforted with the fact that there were also 7 dentists, a police officer, 2 dolphin trainers and an astronaut coming down the pipe. Here is Will playing with his Little Village fire station. For Will, it's all about the firefighter right now. He loves watching Fireman Sam and reading the two measly fire fighter themed books we have over and over again.






Closely following the firefighter theme around here is Will's obsession with his guitar. Well, his guitar, and dad's guitar and big brother's guitars and dad's electric, do-not-touch-ever-if-you-know-what's-good-for-you, fancy Rock'n'Roll Hall of Fame electric guitar. He sings and strums and performs his travelling minstrel act throughout the house. Here, an open door allowed the neighbourhood to have their own private concert.

And here is my little punkin and me snuggled up at the cottage on a cool day. It looks like he won't be my littlest punkin for too much longer. He's going to be a big brother come January. Yes, my last little punkin will graduate out of grade 8 in 2025. Looks like we'll see a lot of that graduation arbour.

Happy Earth Day!

Easter fun

It was the most beautiful Easter in recent memory. Some thought it was freakishly warm, but any interview with a person with more than 15 Easters under their belt brought reminisces of warm Easters past. We were all enjoying the chance to actually wear Easter type clothing at Easter! We travelled on the Saturday and again on the Sunday to enjoy TWO wonderful feasts. Will enjoyed the egg hunt on Saturday (and again on Sunday morning at home.) The Easter Bunny has pared down his usual bounty of chocolate and goodies, which seemed just fine with everyone here.

Will knows to check out all the nooks and crannies for eggs.


Look at the booty!


Jack enjoyed rounding up a few for himself too.


As with all of our family get-togethers, some sort of physical activity becomes competitive and most partake in showcasing their prowess. This year a few egg-hunt skipping ropes were pressed into duty for an all-out skills competition. There was group skipping, singles, double-dutch. The older ladies (like me) participated with remembering old skipping songs. I took lots of pictures, but I think that some of my non-kid relatives would kill me if I posted them here. Let's just admire the height Jack can get when he skips:

Hershey's Better Basket Blog Hop

I've been kind of shirking my blogging duties over the past year or so. I've sat back down and started to be a little more productive, started snooping around at familiar old blogs and discovering some new and exciting blogs. Because of this absence I can't wait for someone to send me a lovely virtual Easter basket from Hershey's, I'm just making one myself to forward along in the blogger world I haven't been a part of for so long.

Anyway, the point of this is to raise money to the Children's Miracle Network, which benefits children's hospitals across North America. For each blog that forwards a nice Easter basket, Hershey's will donate $10. to CMN.

Here is my yummy and entirely calorie free basket:

Well, OK, why stop at a Easter basket when they have invented such a thing as an Easter hamper? Here are enough Easter treats for all the kids and your extended family who are coming over for dinner.

To participate in this fun fundraiser the rules are as follows:

HERSHEY’S BETTER BASKET BLOG HOP RULES

-Copy and paste these rules to your blog post.
-Create a blog post giving a virtual Easter Basket to another blogger – you can give as many Virtual Baskets as you want.
-Link back to person who gave you an Easter Basket.
-Let each person you are giving a Virtual Easter Basket know you have given them a Basket.
-Leave your link at BetterBasket.info/BlogHop comment section. You can also find the official rules of this #betterbasket blog hop, and more information about Better Basket with Hershey’s there.
This started as a meme of Hershey donating $10 per each blog participating to the Better Basket Blog Hop to Children’s Miracle Network up to $5,000 – but after so many bloggers participating, Hershey decided to donate a total of $7,000 honoring the kindness of blogger community .

Now for the fun part...sending off my Easter Hamper. I wonder if these folks will remember me?

Melissa at Banana Migraine

Christina at Prince Vince Meets the World