Busy Bees

Life has been busy and I've been slow to update. In between some big things happening around here, there are so many little every day moments that we love. Some days, daycare pick up runs smooth...some days it's chaos. Every day, these three are so happy to be reunited! Pax's teacher captured this sweet moment for us recently. 

Since our lessons at Ursinus in March, we've been working on our skills. We're happy to report that Penny is officially swim team ready! Now that she's over her fear, she's happy to be swimming with daddy, learning so much from him. Turns out, she's quite a natural at backstroke. Luckily, she's got mommy's kick ;)

Mr. P had his first Special Olympics experience. The Young Athletes Spring program was track. We only made one week between the rain and our schedules, but it was awesome to see where we will be headed!

And this kid...he's into everything! Climbing, pulling up on anything he can and crawling fast and furious. 

Dada, Nana and catch are his first words. He loves to play ball! And, he loves to eat...he likes everything except cottage cheese and bananas.

I'm hopeful that I'll get back to regular updates here soon. In the meantime, check us out over on Instagram- mammat10.

Welcome to My House

Things have been a little crazy around here these days. Way back in February, we started looking at houses. While we've had nothing but an amazing experience in kindergarten at our elementary school, we know the district isn't going to work for our family in the long term. We've kept our eye on the market and decided that it was probably time to start the process. On day one of actually visiting homes that were for sale, we walked into a house that we hoped would become our forever home. There was one slight problem...the day of our visit, a big orange sign had been posted on the front door of the home...SHERIFF SALE what????? Unbeknownst to us and our realtor, the home had entered the short sale/foreclosure process. We decided to take a chance on the home and put in a bid. Our realtors warned us that banks are difficult to deal with and that we probably wouldn't get the home. We put money into inspections on a home that may never become our home. We continued to search and didn't find anything that we liked even half as much. We waited and waited and waited. The bank missed deadlines and was generally non-responsive. 

We continued to work on our current home, getting it ready to test the market. We continued to look and thought that maybe we'd wait another year. Then, all of a sudden, at the very end of April, the bank said yes. And they decided that they wanted to move fast, as the house was set to go to Sheriff Sale on 5/25. So, on 5/24, we bought a new house!  

In the meantime, our realtor worked with us to make this happen! We sell on 6/17. 

We've got a lot of work to do! I'm incredibly emotional about leaving this house behind. We built this house and turned it into a home filled with so many memories. We etched our names into the garage floor the day the concrete was poured. RC & Danielle...did the 2007 versions of us know what this house would become? We had no idea! We've celebrated holidays with family and friends. We brought our babies home here and spent many sleepless nights rocking them to sleep. We comforted each other here during times of trial and have overcome things together in the safety and security of this house. I hold dear to my heart photos of our late grandmothers, Gram Kadingo and Grandma Thompson, visiting with us here in our house, snuggling my babies. We witnessed so many "firsts" here in this house. We confronted Down syndrome during Porter's pregnancy and said good-bye to our angel baby here. We have loved and lost, conquered and overcome, risen above and grown here. This house has been amazing! This house is my happy place! This house gave us a neighborhood of playmates and some of the best friends we know. This house connected us with amazing neighbors who have been so supportive of all our kids. This house and this neighborhood will be terribly missed. To our Pimlico Farms family- you have no idea how thankful we are! 

While we're looking forward to what's ahead and we're thankful for every bit of what we leave behind, we're hopeful that our new house, new neighborhood and new school will be right where we're supposed to be. As long as we're together, we're good! We're excited to welcome our family and friends into our new house and to fill that one with amazing memories as we turn it into our home!

Catching Up

After all the February birthday fun, we've been keeping ourselves busy. We're having fun making new traditions, getting used to life with three kids. 

Some people make corned beef and cabbage for St. Patrick's Day...we get Shamrock Shakes...

We celebrated Porter's extra chromosome on 3/21, World Down Syndrome Day. 

We were so happy that our daycare and my office agreed to be pet of Rock Your Socks this year...we're so lucky to have a community that supports Porter and his Homies!

Penny and Porter did a round of swim lessons at Ursinus College. The lessons are two weeks and are pretty intense. They were fabulous! After some tears on day one, both kiddos showed so much improvement. 

We've been trying to keep up with what they've learned by swimming with daddy at the Y a few times a week. Penny was so excited to get her Orange Band, which means she doesn't need to wear a floatation device in the Y pool anymore! 

Pax-rabbit celebrated his first Easter. He decided to celebrate by crawling over Easter weekend!

The kids had fun doing egg hunts. We took our crazy to Nana and Papa's for the weekend. It's a whole new level of chaos when all the grandkids are together 💗! Let's just say, we get noticed in church! 

While we're thankful for our Peeps all year around, we do like to send an Easter shout-out to all of Porter's Peeps! We 💛 our Peeps! 🐥

Penny's keeping us busy with dance and gymnastics. The kids have been doing lots of shows on their stage. We were all about March Madness this year...so happy for Villanova! Penny's kindergarten teacher told us she was her first student to ask for a game update during the school day :) She takes her fan girl status seriously! 

Mother Nature has been a bit confused. We've had huge temperature swings and have been trying to get outside when we can. Sometimes that means getting outside for snow play in April. 

Overall, we're trying to adjust...as Pax gets older, we're able to have more adventures. I'm still adjusting...I am some days overwhelmed. I guess you could say that cooking dinner while trying to keep three kids happy is not my favorite time of day, but we're figuring it out. Now that he's mobile, Pax is into everything. Especially playing ball with his brother and sister. 

This is my favorite time of day. For all the chaos and craziness, there are these little moments of perfection. It's been so cool to see their relationships growing as Pax does. They're so lucky to have each other. We're so lucky to have them. 🍀

8 Months

Pax was eight months yesterday.

He lost two pounds while he was sick and isn't quite as chubby these days! He's starting to move a lot- mostly backwards and in circles. He does lots of baby yoga- that photo above is one of his signature moves, along with plank and downward dog. 

He celebrated with some hamburger. He doesn't want baby food...he wants whatever is on my plate! He is doing great with Cheerios and little pieces of soft foods. He loves yogurt! He's got 8 teeth to use when he eats!

We've made a little progress on the sleep front and he's waking twice most nights (which is huge progress after all the ear infection/hand foot & mouth/bronchiolitis sleepless nights). 

He now cries when mommy leaves. He's got intense love for Penny & Porter and loves when they play ball with him. He's got crazy grip strength and can palm a playground ball...we joke that he's already got a better arm than mommy!  He has recently become "everybody's baby" among the daycare crew...Penny & Porter's friends love him dearly! 

Life with 3 kids is chaotic...I'm still figuring it out. Laundry and dishes are a full time 2nd job. I've finally gotten brave enough to take all 3 on adventures...some days are easier than others. There is little sleep and much love. 

Happy 8 months Paxton! We love you!