A quick update on Sammy’s recent CT: No growths were found in his ear canals! That means no major surgery for now, which is certainly reason to celebrate! We’ve scheduled another procedure for mid-December to ensure the growths found in his ears in July have not returned. There will be a couple opportunities to look into his ears at that point through various means, to be on the safe side, since we don’t want to run into any problems once we reach Kenya. We are currently working on connecting with a North American ENT who works at a hospital just a couple hours from where we’ll be living, which will allow us to continue to check up on his wee ears after the move. Thank you so much for your prayers!!
Photo Friday is a little glimpse at our week in pictures. To see more, follow @TheMangoMemoirs on Instagram!
Sammy’s Superheroes joined forces for the fourth year in a row earlier this month at the Step Up for Down Syndrome Walk! We gathered with a whole lot of our friends in Duluth to celebrate and spread awareness of the awesomeness of those we love who have Down syndrome.
Little Sammy had a pretty great Superman costume (complete with puffy muscles) that he absolutely refused to wear the morning of the walk. Oh well, at least I had his official shirt as a backup!
My sister Jenny was among our team members this year, along with her kids. We lost count of how many times these two went down the slide together. Sam insisted every time they reached the bottom that they do it again. Jenny got a good workout that day.
I’m so sad that this may be the only group photo we have this year. I need to see if the event photographer has one. Every other year we’ve captured a great one of almost all of Sammy’s Superheroes. Boo.
This is Sam’s future girl, though, let’s be honest, he does have a few others in line, as well. Rauri’s mama, Alexa, was one of my students years ago when I was student teaching in a nearby high school. We reconnected when I saw her post in our local Down syndrome family group just over a year ago while she was still pregnant. Rauri is going to move mountains with her amazing mom cheering her on! But seriously, see how they’re looking at each other? Swoon.
Ella was thrilled to push our friend’s little girl once it was time for the walk. This girl is mother hen through and through.
Raise your hand if you’re ready to walk!
So many great friends and role models to catch up with during the walk. I can’t tell you how amazing it is to have parents to watch and talk to who are a bit further along on this parenting journey.
After we completed the actual walk portion of the event, it was time to play! Superman took off after his Supergirl.
She was flying!
And they both went sliding. What a good sport, Daddy-o.
Toward the end of the walk, when things had quieted down a bit, Sam made a new friend.
The two of them sat for quite a while, mimicking one another and playing. Sam was amazed by this gigantic yellow jacket. And honestly, so was I. I know the mascots are typically college students who are obligated to attend these events and probably put up with a lot of crazy kids being a bit too rough with them. But even after all that, this UW-Superior Yellowjacket sat down on the track with my boy and gave him undivided attention. I know, I know, it seems like a little thing, but in that moment, and now looking back on it, it was really special. So yes, I’m thankful to that ginormous bee (more so the awesome student inside that costume) and the moment they created with my Sammy.
Will we be at the walk next year? Not in Minnesota, but maybe we’ll hold our own at Tenwek Hospital! I know a bunch of little boys over there who love to dress as superheroes, so I think Sammy will likely have a brand new squad in Kenya. When it happens, I’ll be sure to get a group photo. 🙂
We looove to travel in our family, and that’s what we had planned to do the last week of summer before jumping back into the swing of school. The thought was to rent an RV and drive around our favorite enormous body of water, Lake Superior. Doesn’t that sound great?! But as the time approached, we felt like we had been traveling and camping enough through the summer, and a week at home doing fun things in our own city would fill our need for adventure. Because, for real, this is where we live. Gorgeous. And plenty to do in the warm weather months. (I may not say the same during the frigid winter months.)
We’ve got a pretty great water park near the lake that Ella asks to visit nearly every time we drive by. When we decided to stick around town, I packed a bag, grabbed the swimming suits, and we “went to get gas” at a station near the water park/hotel. While Pete was “paying for gas inside” he was actually running across the parking lot to check us in at the hotel. When he came back, we moved the car to the hotel parking lot and asked the kids if they’d like to stay for a night. Their response?
Yup, that about sums it up! We spent every hour possible in the water.
And then we spent lots of tokens in the arcade. Obviously, Pete is working on passing off his riding skills to Ella.
We also played mini golf outside after dark with two lovely friends who were in town and also staying at the hotel. Sam crawled from hole to hole, picking up our balls and dropping them in each hole. I think he wanted to make sure we scored well. I needed all the help I could get. No joke!
At some point during the week, I took the kids to Target just to spend time in the toy department. We must have walked up and down every aisle looking at all the toys and games and play sets for at least an hour.
This guy thought it was pretty great. I so wanted to buy that snail for him. But I didn’t. Good job, mama.
One gorgeously sunny morning, we hopped on the train and rode it up the shore.
No matter how many times we take the scenic train, we just love it.
Ella found a stash of books on board all about trains.
And the boys took a nap. Well, Pete did anyway. Sam munched on crackers. Nom nom nom.
After our train ride, I suggested we get ice cream. In Silver Bay. It was an hour drive up the shore, which we thoroughly enjoyed. We talked about what we had done through the summer and what the new school year in a new school might look like. And then the kids ate Superman ice cream on a porch in the sun. (Do you spy their blue lips?)
At the end of the week, we spent an entire morning having brunch at a park with friends and the afternoon at another park with friends. Pretty much a kid’s dream, but it was so great for the adults to spend time catching up while all the kids played. Whenever we get together with friends like that, I feel that’s how life is supposed to be. I so easily get caught up in the need to check everything off my to-do list and forget to make time to spend with the people around me. I never regret a moment of the time I spend with them and, seriously, I could care less about my lists when I get to sit and really connect with other people. I have to remind myself of that sometimes. That day at the park was so very good, investing in friends and letting the lists wait. That’s something I’m really trying to focus on this fall, especially before we take off for Africa. Spending time with other people is really like nothing else.
WE’RE BACK! To the classroom…to fall…to the blog!! With the start of school comes the return of a bit more structure, quiet, and time to write! Things were quiet here on the blog for a good part of the summer, but now that school is back in session, so is the blog. Yay!
Jumping right to it, Miss Ella landed herself in second grade last Tuesday! This year looks a bit different for her. As we’re getting closer to our big move, we decided to send her to public school. We loved her Montessori school, where she’s attended since she was three. With just a few months before Kenya, though, we thought this might be a good opportunity to be in a large school where she can experience what a different kind of education is like. Honestly, I was so nervous about this change. I prayed about it a whole lot and was worried it would just be too big a change for Ella. Pete and my sister kept reassuring me she would do beautifully. And they were right. She has loved it! Each day, we talk about what she ate for lunch in the cafeteria, the books she found in the big library, and what games she played during gym class. She even spent Saturday afternoon at a new friend’s house. I’m incredibly thankful she was able to build her base for learning at the Montessori school, and I’m glad she’ll be able to round that out a bit with a few months of public school. Homeschooling is up next, so you better believe I’m soaking in every moment of ‘off you go to school’ I can get.
We took her to the school a week before classes started. We weren’t sure if anyone would even be in the building when we dropped by, but we did manage to find one teacher in the office. And guess what? That teacher turned out to be Ella’s 2nd grade teacher! Thank you, God, for your amazing timing.
This is what happens when you suddenly realize your child needs school supplies for her new school. Target, I love you, but Walmart won in the last-minute-back-to-school shopping department. Target would have been able to provide for me had I only needed Trapper Keepers and Kleenex. (They still make Trapper Keepers?! My childhood dream come true! Though they are banned from Ella’s school because they are way too loud to constantly open and close. Just Velcro doing its job.)
Ella put this on the day before school and told me she was ready.
First day of school!!
Sam did not want to leave his sister’s classroom. I don’t blame him. I felt the same way. (Why yes, he was still in his jammies during drop off. This mom is getting used to the earlier start time.)
Sam wasn’t sad for too long. After taking Ella to school, we went home, put on more presentable clothing, and swung over to his preschool for the open house. Was he excited when we arrived? I’ll let you decide.
To say he loves his school is a slight understatement.
Later in the afternoon, we walked up to get Ella at school. We now live within seven tenths of a mile from school, so she’s a walker. At least it helps me get my steps in everyday! And I’m thankful we likely won’t still be in Minnesota when it gets really cold this winter. Who wants to walk half a mile to school when the air hurts your face?! No thank you. For now we’re enjoying, though.
Sam’s big day came on Friday. This year, he’ll be there Monday, Wednesday, Friday and will stay through the end of lunch. Last year he was there just two days a week and came home before lunch. He’s growing up!
Sam loves the kitchen and babies at school.
He also remembered right where this table was, though it was completely covered when we arrived. He pushed the cover onto the floor and got right to work.
He’s in the green group this year, hence his green shirt. (Sorry, Uncle Adam, it’s John Deere and you work for Case. Had he been in the red group again, a Case shirt would have been perfect.)
This guy cruises with a walker! I love seeing him be so independent. Sadly, though, this is his last week with it in the classroom. Sam has yet to walk on his own but has the strength and balance to do it. We’ve decided to remove anything that might be holding him back from stepping out – literally – on his own. I’m quite sure once he realizes he can walk, he’ll be chasing the kids in his class. He’s ready!
This beautiful girl told me she loved her first week in her new elementary school, and that makes this mama’s heart so happy. I had no idea how difficult parenting decisions could be until we had to start making them. Could what I do change the rest of her life? Yes, it surely could. But I have to remind myself that I am not pulling decisions out of a hat. When we pray and ask for God’s guidance and we seek the wisdom of those who have gone before us, I believe God blesses our choices. And that makes the hard decisions a bit easier to make.
So we’re into a new school year! We think the kids will continue in their current schools until Christmas when we’ll head to Colorado for a month of training and (hopefully!) leave for Kenya the beginning of February. Please continue to pray with us on our journey!
Update on Sam’s ears: Last Wednesday, Sam had a CT on his ears to check for growths that we first discovered in July. We haven’t heard the CT results yet, but his doctor will be back in the office tomorrow. We’ll post results as soon as we can. Thank you for your prayers!
Hey, hey, it’s Photo Friday! I know it’s been a quiet summer here on the blog. I’m working on sorting and editing photos so I can at least get those up before the end of the summer. The kids will soon be back in school, and I’ll have time to write! We’ll just keep loving on summer until then. I hope you’re having an awesome summer, too!
And we were there to see it! I asked Ella what she wanted to do with Daddy on Father’s Day this year. She thought for only a moment before exclaiming, “Let’s take him to a baseball game!” So that’s exactly what we did.
The Twins happened to be playing in Minnesota on Father’s Day. And they were scheduled to play the NY Yankees. Such a legendary team. I’ve wanted to see them play for a long time, though I assumed it meant the Twins would not be winning the game. (Sorry, Twins, I have to be honest. But you proved me wrong!) The game turned out to be very exciting – and we won!
We sat way up high in a family section and had an incredible view. Also, we were in the shade for the entire game. It was such a hot day, had we not been in the shade, we certainly would not have made it to the end.
Sam sat in his seat for nearly the entire nine innings! I had thought he might get antsy or bored after a while, but he loved all the activity. However, we did have to block a few items he tried to throw over the railing.
This kid. He’s so much fun.
After the game, we got to run the bases! We waited our turn and ran from base to base, Sam giggling the whole time on Pete’s back. Such a fun memory!
We sure do love our Daddy. Happy Father’s Day, Pete!
