Step Up

Coming up in October is an event, that I am ashamed to admit, I knew nothing about until Noah was born. It's the annual Step Up for Down Syndrome. It is an event where people, whose lives have been touched by Down Syndrome, come together and celebrate the things that make us so indelibly unique. And lets get one thing straight right off the bat...it is a celebration. Not just a celebration of the participants with an extra chromosome either. No, it's a celebration of all the things that make us different, and special, and wonderful.

This will be our family's second year to participate. Our first opportunity would have been three months after Noah was born, but those three month had not given us the perspective or the time to vanquish the uncertainty and the fear that came with our new diagnosis. So, we sat that one out. The following year however, we showed up in force. We even had our own shirts made. It was pretty easy to have a good time.  There was ice cream, pizza and an entire herd of inflatable bounce houses.

Needless to say, we will be participating this year. More importantly, Noah will be actually walking with his team this year. This is the part where I ask you to help. You can click the following link and signup to walk with Noah or simply make a donation to his team, Nitro Noah's Locomotive.

http://www.ezeventsolutions.com/fr/dsamemphis/2012stepup/NitroNoahsLocomotive

All the proceeds will go to The Down Syndrome Association of Memphis and the Mid-South to help advocate for people with down syndrome and assist new families by offering comfort and educational materials. This organization continues to help our family and community to deal with the many intricacies that come with a diagnosis of Down Syndrome.

In other news. All of Andrew's wild ways have caught up with him and he actually broke his arm. One minute we're relaxing on the front porch swing, the next minute Andrew losses his balance while being goofy and sitting backwards. He landed just right and broke both bones in his left fore arm. So for the next few weeks he will be sporting a Tiger Blue cast.

He was ridiculously shy upon getting his cast. He didn't want to go school because he knew people would look at him and ask him questions about his arm. He must have gotten this lack of desire for attention from his mother because I would have loved to have everyone chatting me up about my cast at his age. He has since loosened up a little, which is good, because we've been very busy.

First off, we love to party and the boy's cousin, Elle Kate, had her 2nd birthday celebration. The boys had a great time, especially Andrew who doesn't get a lot of chances to play with "girl" toys.

After one particularly stormy night here in the city, the morning revealed a cloudless sky and an uncharacteristic stiff breeze that made for perfect kite flying conditions. Andrew was more entertained by a piece of drift wood he found on the banks of the Mississippi.

We also had an opportunity to check out the Germantown Festival which had one of Andrew's favorite things...bouncy houses. The broken arm did little to deter him from pure bouncy house joy.

  

We wrapped everything up with some relaxing time on the back deck. Some members of the family relax better than others.

Random August

We let a whole month go by without a post. I’m not sure how that happened. I’d like to say we were super busy but that’s not really true. August was actually been pretty light on planned activities and full of random outings and adventures. Taylor started a new job and Andrew started a new year at school, so we had a slightly elevated level of chaos and disorganization. We still haven’t completely settled into our new routines of making lunches (can I mention that I hate making lunches?! One year down, only 16+ years to go.) It didn’t help that our home office has become an engineering command center, with complicated computers, monitors, and printers that I’m afraid to touch. But I finally got our home computer set up again in its new home. A small victory, but I feel like we are back on track!

With school starting, we tried to squeeze in as much last minute summer fun as possible. One of our favorite spots, the Botanic Gardens, has a new tree house. Andrew checked out the view from the balcony. Noah preferred to stay on the ground.

While the new tree house was well-received, it couldn't replace the long-standing favorite, Finders Keepers. We had to spend some quality time there too.



The boys played with this water fountain for at least half an hour. They were both soaking wet, and we didn't have any dry clothes, but no one seemed to mind. Probably because it was a million degrees.

Andrew is trying to hold Noah's hand, but Noah is suspicious of his motives. Smart kid!

Andrew built a log cabin, complete with a chimney. Here he is giving it a trial run. If a little boy can fit, I'm sure Santa can too.

Andrew's best bud from summer camp was having a birthday party and Andrew was so excited. There were rumors of a big waterslide. The party was in Collierville, so I was less excited. Collierville is a long drive from midtown, so we rarely make the trip (by rarely, I mean never.) Still, we packed some snacks and drinks and made a day of it. Since we were already out there, Andrew and I wanted to see what the town had to offer. A four year old enjoys nothing more than checking out a new playground, especially one with a spray park.

We wrapped up August with some much-needed haircuts. The boys were looking very shaggy. This was Noah's first time in a real salon, and he did very well. Andrew still acts like he's going to loose an ear with every snip.

So that wraps up our summer fun. School has started and we're ready for some new adventures. Which hopefully will come with some cooler weather, too.