Some buddies

Here are a few more of our wonderful Spina Bifida buddies. I asked each mommy to send me a picture of their child and then describe their child in three words.

                                                                Loving, Handsome, Adventerous
                                                                            Christian
- I'm adding absolutely awesome. Christian is five years old and has far exceeded expectations. His sweet spirit and determination give those of us with younger children so much to look forward to, and so much hope.

                                                                       Jet - The great!

                                                                    Funny, Flirty, Fearless

Jet is a happy, healthy little boy who just turned 2 in May. He's walking unassisted, has a VP shunt named Rocco, enjoys watching  Curious George, and has a crush on Cinderella. He's on a strict diet of grilled cheese and chocolate milk and just got his first pair of  SMO's so that mommy will quit woryring about him running around on  weak ankles. ;) He's our miracle boy, our sunshine through the clouds,  and the cutest little thing in a tie this side of the Mississippi. Read more about his story, our family, and our journey with SB on our
blog - www.babyboypenny.blogspot.com. :)

 

When Carson was first diagnosed with Spina Bifida I grieved as if I had lost him. I was so confused and so unaware of what Spina Bifida was. Hearing the words "Your child has a major birth defect" are hard. As I learned about it through Google I only became more frightened. By God's goodness I found a group of moms who had children with spina bifida. These ladies had blogs. Blogs with pictures and stories about their own children living with spina bifida. Like a sponge, I soaked up blog after blog. I spent hours reading (I didn't have the business of having  kids in the house then...lol ) and then more hours telling Bob all that I had found. What gave me the most hope and the most strength was their sweet and precious faces. They all looked so normal, which honestly shocked me. I expected this major birth defect to look different. But rather, little boys played baseball, ate ice cream, played with trains. Little girls wore princess outfits, and had their nails painted. It comforted my heart in a way that I can't describe in words. I spent seven weeks waiting for Carson to arrive and in those weeks I studied, and learned as much as I could about what we would be facing ; and I met friends who would help heal my heart. 

One of our first photos

The first time we met

 

Vacation Part 2, Meet a cutie

In my last post I only made it up to day 3 in our vacation ---- there is soooo much more!!!
On day 4 we went to the grand land its self--- Magic Kingdom. By this time Carson just absolutely was so in love with everything Mickey Mouse. It was sooo cute and so great to see his excitement. Every Mickey he saw came with squeals and glee. :) until we saw the actual Mickey or any life-size characters and that was just not cool.

Waiting to ride the boat over. 

My cutie nephew

Me and Charity :)

This was probably mommy's favorite part. 

Everything is bigger at Disney

including smiles

Donald Duck tried so hard to make Carson smile. 

Even blew us kisses. It was really neat there were about 100 people in our area and D.D. Keyed in on us.
I was wearing my Redefining Spina Bifida shirt. He pointed at it and gave me a thumbs up. :) 

Still watching the parade with alot of questions. Why is Goofy holding me? 

Just too cute!!!

We had a blast!!! The best part was of course being together and spending some family time.  We are so
blessed and so thankful for our boys.

My brother Cody is in the middle. :) 

Carson's favorite part of all of Disney might have been this balloon. He would not let it go and played with it all through our vacation. 

 On Saturday- Day 5    We stuck around in Orlando for a few more hours and hit the Hollywood Studios Park

Meeting my heroes. 

Pizza Planet

We watched a Mickey Mouse Clubhouse puppet show. 

Then we hit the road and headed to Tampa. And there is lots more to come.

Sidenote!!!!!!!! 

 October is National Spina Bifida awareness month. Although I am catching up on our vacation..... I intend to include in this months posts some pretty amazing things to talk a little more about Spina Bifida. I want you to see what it means for us and for the others that we know living with Spina Bifida. When Carson was first diagnosed I thought he would miss out on so many opprtunities. Often times Drs. give you a very negative outlook on the quality of life that these children will have. They are so wrong!!!!!! 

A life with Spina Bifida is joyous and full of fun. We just went to Disneyworld. 

So Here's my first little cutie..... eating ice cream! 

 Arwen- She is 1 year old.

Yum Yum Yum

Silly me

I made a mistake, and I do publicly apologize... My last post which is the part 1 of our Florida vacation was lacking.

Very lacking....

For those of you who are not aware. I am a little sister. I do have a older brother. An older brother who might I add is the closest thing to a best friend that a sibling can be. He and I are soooo very close. He and I  used to frequently be mistaken for twins. And we really could finish each others sentences and feel each other pain. Like the time he fell out of a tree in our grandparents backyard.... I felt that pain too. Of course he grabbed me and pulled me down with him. :) We used to be able to argue with each other without saying a word. If you've ever seen Berenstein Bears brother and sister bear are fashioned after us. Yep, they ought to be paying us copyright. :) Really he's an amazing big brother and I have been tremendously blessed to be his sister and his friend.

 In my previous post I left out that awesome brother of mine.

So without further ado...

To Cody!

Here's Cody feeding the birds cheetos.

Here's Cody sitting somewhere

Here's Cody pushing Micah in the stroller. He's Micah daddy. :)

Here's Cody holding Micah

Here's Cody being wishing he had twins

Here's Cody on the safari

here's Cody talking with Bob

Here's Cody playing piano with carson

Here's Cody at cracker barrell

Here's Cody :)

And I know I'm sure by my orneriness you can tell that I am indeed a little sister. :) I love you Big Bro!!!!!

I'm so proud of you too. You're doing great, and I loved being with you and your family!!!

Our vacation (Part 1)

Ok so we just took an awesome, amazing, wonderful, fantastic, much-needed family vacation this month. We were able to spend 2 whole weeks in Florida with our families. I have soooo many pictures!!!!!

Elevator

Me Ma and Pa Pa drove us to the airport. It took quite a crew to get us and all our stuff inside. :)

1 wheelchair with a almost 2 year old in it
1 stroller/carseat with a 4 month old on board
1 very large and over-packed diaper bag
2 large suitcases
1 backpack filled with goodies and a portable dvd player
1 extra little suitcase, cause hard as I tried I couldn't fit everything into the 2 very large ones. :)

The crankiest person and the least behaved was myself. The boys were soooo good!!!! We had a 1 hr. flight to phoenix. Then our plane was broken and we had to spend an extra 2 hrs at the airport. We did apparently see a star. But i've forgotten his name. He was a basketball player. :) I was so impressed (cant you tell) Then the flight to Orlando was supposed to be 4 hrs. It took 5 1/2 because of bad weather, and honestly I am the only one who complained..... Sorry... Shame on me! when we got off the plane about 10 people complimented the boys on their good behaviour. :) Big smiles and proud parents!!!!

It's my first plane flight!!!!!

Carson taxiing Silas around the airport. It was too funny.. he really pushed him in his chair.

 We made it to Orlando late that evening meeting my brother and sister and law. AND my Nephew Micah!!!!

 He is just 12 days older than Silas. It was so great that Charity and I were pregnant together, and we had a blast sharing the the experience but the bummer with that was I was too pregnant to get to be there for Micah's birth. So finally after waiting way too long, I got to meet the little man... He is a cutie and I am the most proud aunt ever!!!!

We spent our first day relaxing and re-cooping, then we headed off for none other the humongous Disney World and it really is a world all its own. Its massive!!!!!! We spent day 1 at Epcott.

Hey Dude! I like your ride!

Thank you again Mom for the tickets. :)

Each ride is themed from a particular country. Our first ride was Mexico. Carson wasnt so sure about Donald Duck in Mexican attire.

Embarrassing photo to show them when they're older

Having too much fun!!!

Break time!!! :)

 To be Continued......