Special Olympics

Hey FYI-- Special Olympics World Winter Games start in Feb. on Feb. 6-14. Check out the website at www.idso.org/ Watch the little clip. It bennefits everyone to watch it!! You can get on this website and donate or volunteer. Our family is going to volunteer at the games held in Sun Valley. There will be athletes and their families from all over the world. I can't wait! This is Cobes training for the Olympics. I hope you enjoy it because it took over 5 1/2 hours to upload! Alright, after 5 1/2 hours of waiting, I stopped it and started over. Then it only took 5 minutes!!! GRRRRRRRR!

Super Hero Drama

In case any of you are wondering if Spiderman still makes his occassional visits, maybe this will answer your question. I never imagined that the Spiderman phase would last so long. However, after a few nights of bad dreams about bad guys and green goblin, we had to sit the boys down and explain to them what was real and what was not. We had to explain that Green Goblin and the Joker were just actors, and inevidably, so is Spiderman. That kind of took the magic and thrill out of the super heros for Cbugs. I feel sad. The whole super hero thing has fizzled out since then. It's like the end of an era. It is like finding out that your children don't believe in Santa any more. In fact, the whole Santa thing did come up in this little talk we had about reality. I had to say, "Well, Santa is as real as you want him to be." Needless to say I changed the sublect really fast! Skater has kind of a super hero identity crisis going on. He has been exposed to so many super heros, that he doesn't know which is which. In this picture, he is wearing a Batman cape, an Optimus Prime helmit, and even though you can't see it, he is wearing a spider man mask too! Oh, and he was holding a Darth Vader light saber right before I took the picture! And of course, he is in nothing else but a diaper. The picture of the boys in with the boxes is their version of Ironman. I refused to buy them costumes, so they made their own!

BaPtIzEd

All right. I have a confesson to make. Besides he fact that I have been crazy busy, like most are during the holidays, the actual truth as to why I have not been posting blogs is because I got a new camera, and while it is easy to take pictures, it is not so easy to upload them to my computer. I finally took the time to read the manual today, and I got it figured out! Yeaaa! So here is a picture of my nephew's baptism that we went to over Thanksgiving. This baptism was very special. He had the opportunity to be taught by the missionaries, and now wants to be a missionary himself. It was so good for him and his whole family to have the missionaries in their home. They have all changed for the better! Congrats Kennyoun!

Happiest Baby Alive!!

Need I say more?!?!

BIG BrOtHeR

I put the Cobester in his bumbo chair so that I could clean my room, and when I walked around the corner, this is what I saw. I grabbed a camera and snuck back around the corner before Deets knew that I saw him. Cobester is so lucky to have such great brothers!

Halloween Pictures--Finally!

Our whole fam got into Halloween this year--Yes! Even Shane was a good sport. Cobster was Mr. T---I pitty the fool!

Skater was Indianna Jones--of which he was very proud. If any one asked if he was a cowboy, he was quick to protest--"NO! Anna Jones!"

Cbugs and Deets were Transformers-Bumblebee and Optimus Prime.
Shane and I were Cave people. Shane even carved his own club. It was awesome.I will add another picture that a freind took of us as soon as I get it from her.
And of course there was the pumkin carving.

They turned out sooooo great!

Very sCaReY!

Another Touch Down For CBugs

CBugs had his final game of the season last Saturday, and he went out with a bang! He ran in the ball for a 40 yard touchdown and then made the 2-point conversion play following. Skater wants to play sooooo badly! He keeps saying "baby football" because CBugs keeps telling him that he can play on a baby football team--and of course, Skater believes him. When we got to CBugs' game, there was a box of extra flags and balls on the side lines, so Skater took the initiative to put on a set of flags and grab a ball and go running onto the field with the team. We had to chase after him to stop him from getting ran over! The bad thing is,he still has 4 whole years before he can play!!! Fantastic. How am I going to hold him back for 4 more years!?! I told Shane that he is going to have to coach next year so that Skater can at least practice with the team.

Cookies with grandma

My mom came to Twin to visit last weekend, and one of our traditions is to decorate Halloween cookies, and since we would not be going to Poky for Halloween this year, grandma brought them to us!! The boyz were pumped. Deets decorated one that was supposed to be grandpa John--It is the cookie that has mean eyebrows! Cbugs decorated a Ironman cookie, and I'll bet that you can guess which one skater decorated! Thanks Grandma!

Who needs a girl when I have Skater?

As much of a boy as Skater is, he loves vacuums, brooms with dust pans, make-up, bags, and in this case, the neighbor girl's church shoes. He was pretty proud of himself when he came into my bedroom to show me these shoes. I was surprised to see that his diaper was still on! Ususally, he would be in shoes and shoes alone! Skater's favorite toy is the neighbor girls' pink and purple trike. I owe them a new trike. Skater has worn theirs out. He loves tea parties at Addi's house, the neighbor girl two houses down, and he plays dolls with the best of them. I don't know if it is because we are surrounded by girl neighbors, or what! But who cares! I can't wait to black mail him with this someday!

Thank YOU ALL!!!!!

Okay, I am using this blog as a family journal, so I have to log this. Just bare with me! I cannot tell you how many times I have noticed people (usually older people) watching me (or I guess I should say Cobester) from a distance. Most of the time they get the courage to approach us, and when they do, they say something like "I was so drawn in by your baby, I just wanted to take a closer look". Sometimes they notice Traits of Down syndrome and then realize why they were drawn in, sometimes they don't. But they all recognize his strong spirit. Pretty amazing. They always tell me how beautifull he is, and they usually have some kind of story for me, or words of encouragement. I can't tell you what a comfort it is to me that people, not just my family, accept him and love him, and they don't even know him. They don't have to know him for very long to feel his sweet spirit. I had it happen, yet again, while I was at the store today. So thank you to all of you who have given such great support to Cobester and our family. Your support has given me great strength, when others, who are ignorant to the world of children with dissabilities, say derogatory remarks without realizing that they are being offensive. I have found the strength to say "It hurts my feelings that you feel that way about a group of children that you know nothing about. Maybe I should bring my son in for you to hold. Maybe that would change your mind on the way that you feel about children with special needs". Support from friends and family has softened my heart, and has helped me learn to be defensive in a kind way when the storm blows, and in turn, has proven to be a good teaching tool to those who are ignorant. THANK YOU ALL!!!!

Victory for the Cobester!

The Cobester has mastered the art of rolling over! Some of you may recognize how significant this is for a baby only 5 months old with Down syndrome, and some of you may not. They usually don't start to roll over for several more months due to low muscle tone in their bodies. But not the Cobester!! It is amazing to me how much I have taken for granted all of the little things, like rolling over, for instance, that came so easily for my other boys. I guess sometimes I lose site of the miracles that take place every day. I didn't realize how much of a miracle rolling over is, or even a baby that can nurse without difficulty, or a baby being able to hold up his head, or how much of a miracle it is for a baby to grasp onto a toy. The list could go on and on. It takes hard work and effort on all of our parts, especially Cobesters', in order for him to master milestones of develpement. Each milestone reached and mastered is a victory none the less, and causes reason to celebrate. Too bad I didn't realize that 3 boyz ago! Thanks for keeping me grounded Cobester!

Deets lost his first tooth!!!

He thinks he is pretty hot stuff! Now he is finally big like his older brother. Don't grow up Deets!!! You promised!

Go Cbug!!

This is the first year Cbug is old enough to play flag football. He was pumped! So we signed him up for it, and the rest is history. My camera is not the greatest, but he is the one in the middle of the picture with the red shirt on, running the ball for his first touch down ever!!! His team is the Buccaneers. He wanted to be the Colts--oh, maybe it was dad who wanted his team to be the Colt's?!? None the less, he is having a blast and he is pretty darn good at it!

Cobesters' Therapies

Some of you were wondering what The Cobesters' therepies are like. Well, here you go! These are pictures at a session of his physical therapy and a session of his occupational therepy. Speech therepy is no fun to take pictures of. His speech therapist works on stengthening his jaw and helping the muscles in his tongue and neck get the excersises they need in order to develope strength needed for speech developement. I don't have any pictures of his developmental therapy available either. It is about the same as occupational therapy--at least for now. It will change when he gets older. Regardless- aren't we so lucky to have these therapies and all of the dedicated people who help the Cobester?!? Cobester works soooo hard at his therapies! He is self-motivated, which is encouraging to us because one trait that most Down syndrome children share is lack of motivation- They naturally have low muscle tone, so everything is more challenging for them, making them not want to try as hard. Thankfully, Cobester has genetics on his side!!!

Rubba Dub Dub 4 Men In A Tub!

The Cobester does NOT like taking baths by himself, so we decided to try something else. He was okay with this until Skater decided to start splashing.

LET'S PUT A SMILE ON THAT FACE

Da Boyz think that it is soooo cool that if they swallow water melon seeds, water melons will grow in their tummies (thanks to dad and his tall tales!!!) However, this time, the water melon was not eaten to grow water melons in tummies, they wanted to make their mouths look like the Joker's(from Batman) mouth.

TALENT???

As it turns out, Deets has an unusual talent for making hats out of what ever he can find!!! In case you can't tell, the last picture is bubble wrap.

Like Father Like Son

One of the Cobesters' favorite things to do is to fall asleep on dad's chest. Good thing dad enjoys this because mom is a little too lumpy to be doing it!!!!

Dad Is An Artist!!!!

Pacos Bill and Tony Stark (Iron Man) are in the house!!

Rock Star!

It's official. Skater has been selected to joined the "Necked Brothers Band" !!!!

FALL AT THE SCOTT HOME

It's the most WONDERFULL time of the year!!!!! School has started and peace and quiet is in the air. We had an amazing summer full of swimming, hot dog roasting, parties with friends, water fights, building playhouses, and so much more! As fun as all this was, I am sooooo ready to have a schedule back, and have a little time to relax without kids running in and out of the house all day long. Oh, and for those of you who know how great this is for me--the boys get to ride their bikes to school!!!!!!! I am thrilled! Skater and I get some alone time while Cbug and Deets are at school and the Cobester is taking a nap. It is heavenly. Skater and I have developed a, much needed, closer relationship because of this time together. We watch "Sign Time" together which is a DVD created to help kids learn sign language. It is great!! I highly recommend it!!! The sign language is playing a duel role in our family. Skater has speech delays, and so the signing is really helping him, and the Cobester will, most likely, not start talking until he is 3 or 4. It is always nice to kill 2 birds with one stone. Our family has had so much fun learning the signs. We work on learning a few different signs each week for family home evening.