Growing Up

First things first...  A BIG, HUGE, GIANT, THANK YOU to everyone who purchased a Grace's Village shirt!!!  When I would get an email with the name of the person who bought a shirt and/or donated, my eyes would instantly fill with tears because it was as if you were saying "we are standing with you!"  Hopefully everyone has received their shirts in the mail and those that had their shirts shipped to me, I'm waiting on an email from Booster with a list of names and sizes so that I can distribute them accurately.  Guess how much we raised for Gigi's Play House Sugar Land?!?!?

$1,196.8!!!!

***Please don't forget to wear your Grace's Village shirt next Saturday, the 14th, for the Down Syndrome Association of Houston's Buddy Walk, and either come for the festivities at Minute Maid stadium from 10:00-12:00, the walk begins at 12:30, or just take a picture of yourself with your shirt on and post it on Facebook (don 't forget to tag me :-) or e-mail me!  

So, the excitement around Gigi's Playhouse Sugar Land continues because we are having our grand opening on Dec. 5th, so mark your calendars!!!  (insert SQUEAL)!!!

A few highlights from the week...

-Look who got some big girl panties!!!  Grace has been going pee pee in the potty for about a year now, but we are finally getting serious about potty training.  You see, we attempted to really potty train over the summer, but we made a rookie mistake!  If any of you know anything about Grace, she is Miss Independent and wants to feel like every decision was her idea to begin with, so the setting of the timer and going potty every time it went off quickly caused her to reject the potty all together.  Miss Grace will not be controlled by a timer!  When her super awesome teacher at school mentioned to me at our parent/teacher conference that she thought Grace was ready to start really potty training (big girl panties and all) I shared with her what a failure our last attempt was and it took her all of a second to sweetly say "I'm not surprised because Grace likes to feel like she has some control, so I can see how she wouldn't like the timer."  She proceeded to give me suggestions as to how to approach it again.  This is just one small example of why we LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the Rise School.  The teachers know my kid as well (maybe even better sometimes) as we do because they invest so much of their heart and time in her five days a week.  They never make me feel like a failure, but instead act as a safety net in so many ways.  They give me the confidence to parent in a way that is unfamiliar at times (since this is our first rodeo at parenting a kiddo rockin' an extra chromosome) and if I drop the ball, I know that they will be right there to help me pick up the pieces and encourage me all along the way.

Only down side of potty training this little rascal is that she wants to go potty everywhere that we go, which includes the soccer field where the potty is practically in a different country :-/

Of course she picked out Minnie Mouse panties...

-A vision that I hope sticks in my mind forever is one that happened on Monday.  Grace has speech therapy two times a week early in the morning at the Elementary school where the big kids attend.  Since the big kids had half days on Thursday and Friday, their library time schedule had to be modified, which means that as I was walking down the hall with Grace to leave therapy and take her to her school, I saw a class lining up to go into the library.  It took me a second, but I realized that it was Abigail's class (they are never there at that time, so it sort of caught me off guard) only when Grace went sprinting down the hall yelling "SISSY!!!"  When Abigail laid eyes on Grace, she looked happier and more excited than I have ever (seriously ever) seen her in her 8 years of life.  Her eyes welled up with tears (just like mine are right now), her face turned a sweet color of pink/red, and she hugged Grace as if her cup had been filled and was now overflowing.  The simplicity and sincerity of that moment reminded me (once again) of what really matters in life (it's not stuff or our circumstances that's for sure, no stuff could ever produce that sort of a reaction).

This obviously ins't a picture from school, but I think it captures the love :-)

-look at how big these kids are getting!!!  These are their school pictures from this year.

-Abigail had another soccer game in the pouring rain, so after rejecting anything that resembles an umbrella, this little turkey and I went to sit in the car to warm up.

-I got home from Bible study one night and went to kiss the big kids goodnight.  I had to snap a picture of this sweetness, I love that Andrew takes such good care of and sleeps with the bear that I had when I was little (and he still loves Buzz Lightyear).  How is it that watching your children sleep makes it seem like all is right in the world?!?!

-We had our first 3rd grade girls bible study with 10 girls from our neighborhood.  It is such a treat to study the Word with these precious 8 and 9 year old girls and their mommas!  I wish I had a picture of the sweeties, but didn't even think about it!

I guess that's about it for us, hope I didn't bore you to pieces...  Have a blessed week!!!