Giggle Giggle!!

NOTHING beats the sound of a baby's giggle.

Tonight Luke giggled for the first time. YUMMY! He was snuggling with his Daddy and having a fun ol' time when it happened. Mike buried his face into Lukie's neck and growled as only a Daddy can and Luke broke into a giggle. Mike called me over and of course everybody wanted in on the action so within minutes most of the mob was watching as our newest toy (Luke) kept us entertained. Could he be any cuter? Hmmmmm, nope.

We also put Luke on the rug tonight to give him some tummy time. Now that his chest is healing, he can stand more movement and he loves it. Mike and I stare in awe and amazement as our supposedly "slow" baby wriggles and writhes his was around the carpet. Our continual mantra that we say is obviously Luke did not get the notice that he has Down syndrome and that he is supposed to do things on a slower pace. As he gets older he may in fact "fall behind" but we feel like he will always be right where he needs to be.

I love having a kid with Down syndrome. Every person in this family will become a better person from being around Luke. We will all learn to slow down and enjoy life more, to be more selfless. I hope. He is so sweet and I am smitten.

I am posting a couple of pics of Luke with his Dad and his biggest brother, Mike.

Let the race begin. If you happen to swing by and peer in our windows you are likely to see 6 people making crazy faces all just to make a baby giggle. Life is sweet.

I'm Still Here!!!

Bet you thought I had dropped off of the face of the planet, huh? No such luck!

Life has been pretty hectic and tiring since Mr. I'M STARVING!!!! (his words, almost verbatim, I swear) returned home. I kid you not, he just does not stop eating--ever. We are amazed at the quantity of milk that he can pack away. I am beginning to think that the legendary hollow leg actually exists. As a result he has been gaining weight rather rapidly. Okay, the truth is, at this pace the boy will be morbidly obese by, say, hmmmm, next week??!! In fact as I write this post, my husband Mike is sitting with Luke on the couch and he just finished feeding him. Luke is still fussing a bit. Mike looked at him and said, " You can't possibly still be hungry!" I said, "Wanna bet?"

Luke had his stitches removed last Wednesday and his incision is healing so well! The official call as of now is that the left valve is still leaky and that we will continue to watch it. Hopefully it will close into less of a leak thus eliminating the need for any future surgeries. Luke was very chatty with the 2 cute female interns and flirted away. His wily charms worked and he will taking them both out for sushi next weekend. Not bad for a 3 month old I'd say....

I am trying to get life to a somewhat normal place again. I still have to be careful about bringing him out in public (germy awful place that it is and all). We have to handle him carefully as well. No picking him up under the arms, we scoop him up under the bum and back instead. I am still a paranoid freak although the tendencies to shoo everyone away are dissipating. Being home again means back to laundry, house cleaning, carting kids to and from wherever they need to be, paying bills and such. Wait, that's right, those things AREN'T getting done. So if you drop in, I will blindfold you until we get to a clean room. Hmmmm.....do I have one of those? Call first!

I have resumed running (read jogging) again. My friend, Michelle, and I will be running one race every month until July when we will lose our ever loving minds and run a 1/2 marathon. Why am I doing this, you must be asking yourself (I know I ask myself that all the time)? Mike has been out of high school for 20 years now. I know, I know, dang, he's OLD! That being said, I do not want to go to his reunion in August looking like I am still expecting when the baby will already be 8 months old. I realize that that statement makes me seem as deep as a puddle, oh well.

Short post. Sorry. I will write more tomorrow and post current pics of the Fat Man and the other kiddos. Truth be told, the only reason I posted tonight was that I am receiving calls and e-mails from my mother and her twin sister,Judy wondering why I haven't blogged. They are double teaming me! You can thank them for more of my senseless rambling.

We'll talk more tomorrow, about dawgs and dawters (said with NY accent of course!), okay?