Big Changes!

Ok, so I know it has been like a month since I blogged last, and I apologize.  I have been insane crazy busy, first with our fundraiser--which was a success! Will tell more later--and some other really fun things that are coming up.  But tonight I wanted to talk about the big new thing for Dakin: behold the Big Boy Room.

 Sigh.  Big Boy wall.  All Angry Birds and Imagination Movers.  Where did my baby go??  And here is the long, long awaited Big Boy Bed--thanks to a good friend of mine who finally stepped in and took care of the fact he was WAY too big for his bed.  It is a loft bed, so quite high (perfect for us--so we don't have to hunch over to suction him).  She will be installing a drop down side too--she is an awesome woodworker.

Dakin LOVES his new bed.  LOVES.  So thank you to our sweet friend who helped us with it!!

And Another Random One

Another post that is more just for me than anyone else...we will continue with regular blogging tomorrow when I update on our walk!

Dakin is sick tonight...or so it appears. He started with a really runny nose yesterday that escalated into a fever today. The fever has not come back though...so I am hoping it will be a mild one, especially considering everything going on this week with Strolling with SMARD. He is resting peacefully at the moment, thank heaven, as I do not have a nurse tonight either.

Yesterday and today have been wonderful. Dakin was so clingy yesterday (prelude to a cold?) and I got to snuggle with him a lot during church. He was so good in church- he led the line from Sunday School into Primary with all the little boys following him in his powerchair. It was so sweet.

He pays so much attention in church. He was listening to the story the teacher was telling and commenting on it to me. When we got home he was singing the song they learned. He is just a sponge.

He was so excited today when his Speech Therapist brought him an early birthday present of Angry Birds stuff...he wanted to talk to the pig sticker I had on my finger. 'Pig sticker talk to Dakin!' Adorable.

Last thing I want to mention is his new best friend: a Wonder Red doll (from Super Why). He LOVES Wonder Red, and this is the first time he has really attached to a stuffed toy. He insists that I hold her in my hand so he can show her stuff...him playing Angry Birds, the FlexSeal commercial on the TV (he likes old people commercials...haha). I can't sit her up so she can see....oh no, even when it is physically impossible I am supposed to hold her. It'sneat to watch how he tries to interact with her.

Ok, enough for tonight. Thank you for indulging me. :)

Birthday Invitations

Behold...Dakin's birthday invitations...I am going to pat myself on the back here...they are ball pit balls I painted with paint markers and wrote the party info on the back.  I wanted to make the pigs look a little rough...cuz they kinda do in the game, you know?  :)

Special Visitor and AOA #8 and #16

Last weekend we had a visitor!  Dakin's aunt Carrie came to see us all the way from Denver. 

It was awesome having Carrie here!  She is a lot of fun and is great with Dakin--the tubes and paraphernalia don't bother her at all.  So we took advantage of the slightly cooler weather and accomplished some Autumn Of Awesome items: Going to Tiger Creek and Making Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread!



Tiger Creek was good--though they have expanded a TON in the last 18 months so the tour was a lot longer than before and we cut it short because the small one was getting warm. 

And the Pumpkin Bread:  Dakin refused to sit up in his chair to help us bake this, so we did it on the floor.  Why not?

We had a wonderful weekend with Carrie here!  She and Dakin got to play a lot--he was, after all, the reason she came.  He spent the entire weekend saying "Aunt Carrie!  Aunt Carrie!" to draw her attention to any little thing or just to 'ping' her, as he is wont to do with aunts.  We love you very much, Carrie, and hope you come back soon!!



AOA #72: The Marshmallow Gun

So when I saw this post on The Idea Room, I just knew we had to make Dakin his very own marshmallow gun.  So we did!  It was crazy easy (especially when you use your feminine charms to get the guy at the hardware store to cut the PVC pipe for you...)  It took all of ten seconds to assemble and has provided hours of fun so far!

 Target #1: Blocks.  Not a good idea.  The marshmallows just don't have that kind of velocity.

 Target #2: Stacked cups.  Much better idea, if you can get them to stay up despite two fans blowing in the house (yes, it's still 106 degrees here).  But look at his grin!  He loves it!

So, first Autumn of Awesome item accomplished, and the verdict: awesome, of course.  You just have to be careful not to inhale the marshmallow...

Autumn of Awesome

OK. Perhaps it is because I have been trapped in my house for the last three months (it.is.so.hot....) but I am dead ready for fall. Always my favorite season, fall around here signals a return to sanity in weather- temperatures that humans can actually survive in, golden rays of sunshine instead of the brazen blasting hot yellow of summer. And a lot more fun things to do. So I made a list. Of course. I love lists.

Anyhoo, my list is the 100 things I want to do with Dakin before the year is up, so strictly speaking it will be the Autumn and Early Winter of Awesome. Autumn of Awesome works better. A lot of the things on the list are things we do every year anyway, but some are new. Some of them I won't be specific about because it's never a good idea to put where you are going on the Internet, right? So...all of these will be a blog post as well, so I can catalog the memories.

Without further ado: the Autumn of Awesome list:

1.Collect rocks in a basket (sounds strange, but I found it on a parenting website or something...haha
2. Thing I can't be specific about, but it will be good. You'll see.
3. Do something nice for someone.
4. Do an advent calendar.
5. Make black cat cookies (yum!!)
6. Make a gingerbread house.
7. Enjoy Thanksgiving
8. Go to Tiger Creek
9. Go Halloween shopping
10. Do something amazing
11. Do something breathtaking
12. Go to the Dallas aquarium
13. Go to the Dallas Butterfly House
14. Go to the Pumpkin Patch at the Dallas Arboretum
15. Carve a pumpkin
16. Make chocolate pumpkin bread (if you haven't had it, make it. Ah-maz-ing!!)
17. Decorate for Halloween
18. Decorate for Christmas
19. Go to Santaland
20. Get Santa pics done, preferably without tears this year
21. Make a Halloween craft
22. Make a Thanksgiving tree
23. Make a Christmas craft
24. Make tummies
25. Make and get Dakin to acquiesce to enter a table fort
26. Look at the stars
27. Play in the snow
28. Drive around and look at Christmas lights
29. Go trick or treating
30. Awesome awesome thing #2...a party. Specifics later.
31. Awesome thing #3...a wet and wild experience
32. Make play dough
33. Go Christmas shopping
34. Collect autumn leaves
35. Make gingerbread people
36. Make cookies for Santa
37. Make treats for his reindeer
38. Make Christmas gifts
39. Go to the zoo
40. Go to Cherokee Trace drive through safari
41. Awesome #4: new friend
42. Awesome #5: construction project
43. Awesome #6: might or might not work
44. Awesome #7: treasure hunt
45. Awesome #8: important purchase
46. Make ice cream
47. Have a birthday party
48. Play instruments
49. See a movie
50. Kick fallen leaves
51. Press autumn leaves
52. Read our Halloween books
53. Read our Christmas books
54. Make salt dough ornaments
55. Awesome #9: sneaky and secret
56. Awesome #10: sneaky and secret #2
57. Make a tree journal
58. Make a 'collection'. Dakin seemed interested in the collection one of the dinosaurs on 'Dinosaur Train' had. So I thought we could start one for him.
59. Make giant bubbles
60. Blow bubbles outside
61. Make Challah bread
62. Have a Hannukkah dinner
63. Feed ducks
64. Make shaving cream tub paints
65. Make sparkly snowflakes
66. Have Movie Friday
67. Successfully make a homemade bouncy ball
68. Make magnetic silly putty
69. Grow beans in a CD case
70. Make stars in jars
71. Build a rocket
72. Make a marshmallow gun
73. Make toothpick buildings
74. Make pumpkin spice play dough
75. Celebrate Guy Fawkes day
76. Fill bedroom with balloons on Dakin's birthday
77. Watch the Great Pumpkin
78. Watch the Charlie Brown Christmas show
79. Watch at least one Halloweentown movie. He wasn't biting last year...
80. Make a Christmas Child box
81. Go to the park
82. Go to story time at the Mud Hut
83. Slide down the slide at the park
84. Go to story time
85. Dress up for Halloween
86. Awesome #10: meet a big new friend
87. Have an awesome birthday cake (oh, and it will be awesome)
88. Have Christmas dinner
89. Lie outside on blanket at look at clouds. Provided the small one agrees.
90. Do leaf rubbings
91. Go to a craft show
92. Make wassail
93. Make gifts for Dakin's doctors
94. Awesome #11: a moving experience
95. Make gingerbread play dough
96. See friends
97. See family
98. Raise money for SMARD
99. Open presents on Christmas
100.Decorate Christmas tree

Ok, that's all of them! I am looking forward to an amazing end of the year. Now if I could just get it to cool off so we could go outside...

Strolling For SMARD

So this has been going on for about 2 weeks now, but I haven't mentioned it here.  You have read about our newfound Jackson Laboratory friends, and we are now planning a fundraiser to help them expand their research into SMARD. 

Strolling for SMARD will be held September 24th at 10 am at the White Oak High School track.  We will walk a mile around the track, then enjoy a silent auction, raffle and games for the kids. 

Our goal is to reach $5000 that we can contribute toward Dr. Cox's SMARD research at the lab.  All funds raised will go directly to the lab, and donations are tax deductible.

We have already gotten a number of local sponsors, and will be highlighting them soon.  Please come join us for what we hope will be a nice fall morning.  Admission is 10.00 a person, with kids ten and under free.  T-shirts are available for 9.00, with 100% of admission and t-shirt prices going to the lab--straight to SMARD research. 

If you are out of the area but would still like to help, please consider a tax-deductible donation directly to the lab.  You can find our Strolling for SMARD page here.

Please help us find a cure.  Your generosity could help my little boy walk or snorkel or dance at prom one day.  Thank you!!!