Bluebonnets for Our Littlest Texas Transplant

March 23rd is World Down Syndrome Day, and that is why I took these photos of Roman in his gold bowtie that was gifted to him by the DSA here in San Antonio when we adopted him.  (Blue and gold are the Down syndrome colors.)  The tie was way to big for him then, but now he is rocking it.  These bluebonnets were in my neighborhood if you can believe it.  I brought Brian along to be my assistant photographer and my official snake checker.  I am happy to report that there were no snakes to be seen...just this cutie pants.

Seriously, does it get any cuter than this?!  I, for one, am in love.

 

Another 4th Generation Aggie!

 Genevieve applied to three colleges and got into all three before Christmas. She has decided that she will be going to A&M where her sister is. She, like Hannah, will be a 4th generation Aggie. My grandfather, my dad and all his brothers, my mom, and Brian and I all went to Texas A&M.

People keep asking me if she's excited, and I realized I really wasn't actually that sure. I asked her and she said that yes she is happy that she got in and somewhat excited. However, she said that she is enjoying her senior year so much she just wants to live in the moment not really think about next year.  She and Hannah are so very opposite. Hannah couldn't wait to get through her senior year and go to college.  

With college applications and her play behind her, Genevieve's focus right now is on her senior thesis which is on the feminine genius using the books, the Odyssey, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, and the play Antigone for her defense. She is also in the middle of basketball season where she is the starting center Post and usually starts the game with the ball tip.  She is also working, has a very full social life, and a constant stream of babysitting requests.  This makes it so that we rarely see her, and she doesn't even make it home for dinner most nights. When she is home with free time she is painting, drinking hot tea, or snuggling with Roman.  She loves to take Roman on walks when the weather is not quite so bitterly cold.  I often will go with her if I have time and we have our very best chats during these walks.  I am working on her senior photo board and gathering pictures for her senior banquet. Once we pick a date for her graduation party her announcements/invitations will get printed.

The aforementioned play that she was in was a one act Little Women in which she played Meg, the oldest sister.  She killed it and we were so very proud of her!  She particularly shined during the engagement scene in which she gets very flustered and played it to a tee.  That scene filled the audience with giggles.

In costume

Throwback Post #2 (Christmas 2022)

Christmas wasn't quite what we expected in 2022.  Roman had just gotten off his wound vac and we were doing dressing changes twice a day.  They gave us permission to go to my hometown which was just a 4.5 hour drive away.  Since living back in Texas, we go every year for my absolute favorite childhood tradition of the big Cousin Christmas Eve Extravaganza.  We had a wonderful time with my extended family, but Brian and I were both getting increasingly concerned about how his wound looked by Christmas Eve.  

My beautiful girls

By looking at him, you'd never know what was under that cute button down.  He is such a tough guy!

Of course, Judah would be sitting at the dessert table ;)

The matriarchs :)

Uncle D, Cousin Mark, my daddy, and my Cousin L
A side note from present day: My second cousin, Mark, was just diagnosed a few days after Christmas in 2023 angiosarcoma.  He went into the hospital on Christmas Eve and missed our annual extravaganza.  Prayers are appreciated!

Two generations of women

The whole party!

 Unfortunately, by the day after Christmas when we called his surgeon, they said based on the pictures we sent that we did need to come in as soon as we got home.  We were packing the van already, so by that afternoon we were up at the hospital.  He had an infection and was admitted on the spot for another surgery the following day.  And so continued our saga...

A New Year's Resolution

I have decided with some prodding from my husband to give blogging another try.  Since it has been a year since I last posted there is no sense in trying to catch up like I could if I was only a couple of months behind.  I had a few posts started, so I will go ahead and finish those up and then move right into the present.  I am still not actually sure how I will fit this into my schedule since Roman is still managing to keep me busy despite not having to drive across town two or three times a week or be in the hospital.  We are in major catch up mode with feeding therapy that isn't close by.  Not to mention that he is running now, trying to climb, frequently a danger to himself, and living the terrible twos despite the fact that he's the physical and mental equivalent of a one year old.  Why, oh, why couldn't he have been delayed in the terrible two's also?!  His cuteness more than makes up for it though!

He loves his siblings so much!

Over Christmas he had strep throat.  Poor guy!  He's determined to get all the diseases.  He has Covid and RSV again this past fall.

Daddy had to miss the Christmas Eve festivities with all my cousins, aunts, and uncles to stay home with this sick boy.  He started antibiotics that morning and was already starting to turn a corner.

The Snake Farm

I have been trying to go on a field trip to the Snake Farm for years and it never works out.  I finally just bit the bullet and planned a last minute trip there with some friends (back in May), and I am so glad I did.  I almost feel like it was better than Sea World which I know sounds crazy.  It was definitely better than the zoo.  It's not a flashy place with rides and food, but you can see the animals up close, and they have a bunch of programs and accessible staff to answer questions.  They have way more than just snakes.  That is just how they started out.

Here's a white lion cub playing with a ball right behind the boys

The roosters and chickens are just walking around free.

The Snake Program with a Burmese Python. 

Hands on experiences!

You can feed the bison.  Drew was too afraid to get their slobber on him, so he didn't do this successfully.  He was trying to throw it to them, but it would fall where they couldn't reach it so I had to put a stop to that.

They were very slobbery!  Look at that tongue! You had to put it right on their tongue.

Someone got braver.

These goats were feisty!  If you had a bag of food, they were just plain uncivilized!  They surrounded me and got their horns all stuck on my legs.  Then they had the audacity to try and eat my dress.  I literally had to tie it up before they destroyed it.  

 It was shady and comfortable, and Roman did great there.  It is pricey, but they don't have a ton of things to make you spend more money once you are in.  We'll definitely be coming back here!

Bluebonnets of Texas

I've been wanting to take pictures of Roman in the Bluebonnets to send to his birthparents, but I am bad at planning and executing that kind of thing.  So after Mass in Dallas we drove past a field of bluebonnets and Brian said we should just do it.  I would never be so spontaneous, but all I needed was a little nudging and someone driving the getaway car so we didn't have to park and make it a big thing.  Genevieve was my assistant and the rest of the family stayed in the van.  

My assistant took a selfie while I was setting him up.

I didn't end up liking the blanket in the pictures, but this blanket was my father's when he was a baby and it has sentimental value.

 "I feel sorry for all families without a Roman in them." ~Genevieve

He can't sit up unassisted, so it makes this tricky without special photography baby props.

My absolute favorite!!!!

My dad loved getting Roman cuddles which he is usually pretty willing to hand out.

Sea World, a Bad Mommy Moment, and a 25 Year Reunion

 

Homeschool Day at Sea World

Sea World had a homeschool day that was discounted tickets and everything was shut down except for the animal exhibits and some educational programs.  We haven't been to Sea World since moving here because every time we have  started to get the tickets we'd just cringe at the cost (plus the crowds!) and cancel the plans.  So when this came on my radar I jumped at the chance to take the younger boys, especially since they don't even remember ever goin because they were so young or *cough* not born at all *cough* Bob.  The educational talks were not well planned out or executed.  It was hard to get to them all because of the times and locations not being orderly and the ones we made were so crowded that we often couldn't see the demonstration at all.  That was due to there only being one of each talk for the whole day.  If they'd had repeats of the talks then not everyone would have been in one location at one time.  However, the boys had a blast and learned a thing or two.  A each exhibit, there was an educator to answer questions which made up for missing most of the events.  The beluga whales had a large seating area so we could actually see what was going on, but they were in breeding season and "refused" to come out and perform.  We did see the dolphins and whales though.

After a memorable Mass

So, don't judge me but this particular Sunday it finally happened.  Everyone always asks me if I have ever left one of my kids.  Brian had gone to another Mass because he had to work on Sunday which is a rare occasion.  So It was just me and the seven kids.  I was so very impressed walking out the door that we were totally on schedule leaving and there were no wardrobe issues.  We discussed on the way there that Judah would get to sit next to me this time.  As we are nearing the parking lot, 25 minutes away from our house, I start giving instructions to the kids and Genevieve says, "Where's Benjamin?"  (Yes, she still calls him that and no one even notices anymore because he goes by Judah with everyone else, minus his dad.)  Anyway, panic overtakes me. I do make sure she's not kidding or mistaken before I make a U-turn and have the kids drop in through our security cameras to talk to him and tell him we are on our way back.  Hannah looks up another Mass time at a church closer to home.  We basically just have time to grab him and turn around to go to Mass at a different time and place.  

Judah is old enough to stay home by himself, but because Drew is just two years older and is a homebody he hasn't ever stayed totally by himself.  He had been looking for his Religious Education homework and was in the school room when I turned off all the lights and left.  When he realized that he had been left, he looked for the home phone, but it had been left on the Lego table and was dead.  He never found it.  Then he sat on the couch and cried and prayed until we dropped in through the cameras to tell him we'd be home soon to get him.  How sad is that!  When we got home, I ran in to get him and said that he finally got to stay home alone like he'd been asking.  His response: Yeah, but I didn't want to to be this way."  Ouch.  I felt like a winner of a mom!  

I don't count the kids when I get in the van because they all have a fairly regular seating arrangement and everyone has another person on their row.  I rely pretty heavily on the other kids to say, "Hey, we're missing so and so."  Guess who sits next to Judah in the van...Bob.  He was reading and never noticed that Judah didn't get in the van.  Guess I need to return to counting.  

Gratuitous Cute Baby Photo

And Another

My 25 Year High School Reunion

Our whole family drove up to Dallas for the weekend so that Brian and I could go to my 25th (Yes, I'm old) high school reunion.  I went to a small private school, and I hadn't been back since my 5 year reunion.  It was actually really fun to see some of my class.  This is a mere 13 people from our class of 69 students, but it made it so we could all thoroughly visit and catch up.  I'm really glad that I went!

Brian and I before leaving for the reunion.  The kids stayed at my Mom and Dad's house and got some grandparent time.

Spring Break

For a few days of our spring break, we went to stay at Brian's parents condo on the lake.  It is near their house, so the girls actually stayed with the grandparents and the boys stayed with us.  We could walk to eat, play in the hot tub, read, and play games because there was no Wifi or TV set up yet which was really nice actually.  One day, an old friend came over with new games and we played games nonstop for ten hours.

It was a really relaxing trip actually.  Roman accidentally got "pushed" on the first day to four hours between feeds and I was so worried how I'd make up the ounces that evening only to find that he was hungrier and started actually eating enough more than usual to make up for the missed bottle.  He went to 5 bottles a day and hasn't had to go back to 6 bottles since.  He even took a 7 oz bottle that day which he hasn't ever done again, but he's still getting enough (24-27 oz/day) and gaining weight.  Yay!

The following week was spring break for our nephew (from Indiana) so they came through for one quick overnight visit.  He brought his virtual reality game and let the boys try it.  One of the games is walking off a plank that is super high in a city.  Brian couldn't do it, but I did it even though I thought I was the one afraid of heights.  I was just better at playing the mind game of reminding my brain that my feet were on solid ground.  

So cute!

Yes, somebody got a giant cookie in he middle of Lent since Mommy was at the doctor with Roman.  :)

Our favorite restaurant in all of San Antonio!

Isaac was hooked.

This was actually the first day he got his helmet, but he didn't have it wrapped yet.  More on that later.