My name is Shannon,wife to Ryan, mother to Jeremy, Gabriella (Gabi), and Preston, and step-mom to Christopher and Anthony. My daughter, Gabi, was born with Trisomy 21 (also known as Down syndrome) and Tetralogy of Fallot (a heart defect). Gabi had open heart surgery February 2, 2000 to correct this defect. Our site was created to keep friends and family up to date, and to provide a resource for those parents faced with a new diagnosis. Feel free to drop me a note with questions, concerns, or comments. I hope you enjoy your visit here! If your visiting my blog because you have received news that your loved one has Trisomy 21, please feel free to contact me. My email link is found in my profile (click on "view my complete profile" to get there). I would love to hear from you.
It has been too difficult to keep up both blogs, so I decided to move all my posts over to Gabi's World (my original blog). After all, The Graham Crackers are part of Gabi's World, too! I will keep this blog here for archive purposes. Click on the Gabi's World button above to see our more recent posts.
A year or so ago, before Gabi was potty trained, Gabi pooped her diaper while my husband was waiting for me to get off of work. He had to change her in the parking garage at my job. He told me the story after I finally came out of work. He said it was so bad that he was throwing up while changing her. I still joke with him to this day about it. This video is of dads changing diapers. Don't worry, it doesn't show any of them actually throwing up, but it is so funny to watch them being all creative in their techniques to prevent it.
Preston was getting too big to keep taking baths in his infant bath, so I bought him a new seat for the tub. This is him enjoying it: Also, we bought a new car seat for him since he is too big for the infant carseat now. It has a 5 point harness belt on it. That was a must for me! He turned 9 months old yesterday. I can't believe his 1st birthday is right around the corner. Which also means so is Christmas!
The above pictures were taken today of Preston! They are so adorable! Our pediatrician told us whatever color Preston's eyes are by the time he is six months old is the color they will stay. Well, at 6 months, Preston still had that blueish grey newborn color eyes. Just this past month Preston eye color has changed (He'll be 9 months old next week). Looks like he is gonna have a brown hazel like mommy and daddy. But, his tearducts did finally clear when he was 6 months old. Thank God for that! We were wiping his eyes every few minutes before that, and Preston hated it when we would wipe it.
Ryan is not so much of the romantic type. So, I have learned to appreciate the little things he says and does because I know that is how he expresses his love for me. I almost posted this many times, but I'm glad I waited. You'll see why. First let me tell you a few of the little things Ryan has done lately.
The first one happened during a conversation we were having about Preston. Preston was smiling like he does most of the time, and I said to him, "One of my favorite things about Preston is that when he smiles, he smiles with his whole face!" That's when Ryan said one of his "little things." He said, "He gets that from you." I thought that was so sweet that he noticed my smile the way I had noticed Preston's. Here is a picture of our boy smiling with his whole face: The next "little thing" came when I realized that Ryan was about to return to Prison Ministry. Which means...once again, Ryan had filled his entire week's schedule up. This is how his week was scheduled:
Mondays- he met with some guys from church for their weekly accountability meeting. Tuesdays-he did prison ministry. Wednesdays-he attended Life University classes at church. Thursdays-he had choir practice. Fridays- I work Saturdays- I work Sundays- I am too tired because I work nights and we spent the day in church.
So, Ryan decided not to return to prison ministry just yet, and we decided that it was absolutely necessary for us to start spending some alone time with each other. We had not had a "date" since my mom and dad were here just after Preston was born. It's been over half a year. We decided to make a date night for Tuesday, August 21st. Tuesday morning, I had just got Gabi off to school and went into the kitchen. Ryan had already left for work. This is what I found on our dry erase board that we use for our appointments: I was going to originally post those things, but just never did. Then yesterday, I called Ryan while he was working to ask him about the size shirts he thinks his boys will need for the Buddy Walk. Ryan often doesn't hear his phone do to them playing loud music and because of the saws, air compressor, and nail guns they work with. So I got his answering machine. He sang a part of a song by Blake Shelton in his message:
If you're callin' 'bout the car I sold it. If this is Tuesday night I'm bowling. If you've got somethin' to sell, you're wastin' your time, I'm not buyin' If it's anybody else, wait for the tone, You know what to do And P.S. if this is Shannon, I still love you
That is probably the most romantic thing he has ever done. Instead of realizing he was trying to be romantic, I leave him a message saying "What was that all about? Are you trying to tell me something?" Later, he told me he had put that on there about a week ago. All of a sudden, EVERYONE heard it today, and that I was the only one who didn't think it was the sweetest thing. I do now, but it was so out of character for him that I just assumed he wasn't trying to be romantic. Plus, if you know the song, it has to do with a man waiting for a woman who left him. So, I was confused. Here is the video for that song...it really has a great story to it:
