All for Ainsley

Today we walked for Ainsley!!! It was the Step Up for Down Syndrome in Sac. It was an honor to get to hold the precious girl (and put her to sleep doing so). I learned so much about Down Syndrome and was just amazed by the love and support Ainsley has.

Side note... so I was at LB's house one night and Ains had just turned 1. To celebrate, they had all the decorations from her hospital station on the mantle. Her parents are awesome, so her baby cart card had been saved (the one they put on the cart AS SOON AS THE BABY IS BORN) and I thought I'd had too much wine because the name read "Ainlsey."

I looked at the name several times and finally thought I was safe to ask how you really spell her name. Turns out, LB + family (father in law is a doc) hadn't ever realized the name had been misspelled.

H1N1

There have been some concerns lately about the H1N1 spreading through the schools. I totally get it. No one wants a sick kid, and we should not take lightly the case of the sweet 1st grader who passed away.

I am guilty of pulling Jake from school today. I didn't really do it because there were a few kids in his class who had confirmed cases. I didn't really do it because I didn't want to deal with a sick kid. I didn't really do it because it would be an imposition to keep him away from his brothers for 5 days.

I took him out because I missed him. I thought about how precious life is and how precious he is and I missed him. I thought, "What a great excuse to get my Jake ALL TO MYSELF for a little while," because that just doesn't happen very often any more. And to heck with school for a few hours. We played battleship, legos, and did a few puzzles before it was time to pick Wyatt and G up from school.

Shame on me, right? Somehow, I feel like it was the right thing for us that day.

Soccer friends

So, Jake hasn't been the happiest camper when it comes to soccer. He doesn't like having to go to practice and isn't really thrilled about games. But THIS week, he played a team where he knew several of the players and was extremely excited to see them.

Instead of actually playing, he spent most of the time yelling, "Mom look!!! It's Ricardo! And Nate! And ..." And when one of his friends was near him, he'd completely ignore the game and ask them questions like, "Remember that time..." Unfortunately, his friends' heads were in the game.

This is a great shot of Jake actually getting into the game.

Blackmail

I can't wait for Grayson to have a girlfriend in high school. I have such good dirt on him, I don't think we're going to have ANY problems with him. Too many of these pictures involve him in his birthday suit, but I love the belly in this one.