46 Feet

Brady decided to make today a great Mother's Day for me! We went to my inlaws for dinner tonight. Brady had been doing a lot of walking today, without us prompting him. The kids were having a great time exploring Grandma and Grandpa's house and Brady decided he would walk from one end to the other. So, that is just what he did! I made Grandpa measure the length of Brady's journey and it was 46 FEET! He walked the whole way by himself without stopping, simply amazing!

I'm a proud mommy on this Mother's Day. I have 4 amazing kids who make every day an adventure. I have a terrific mom and a wonderful mother in law. For all of these reasons I feel truly blessed. Happy Mother's Day everyone.

Lilac Festival Fun

My kids have been out in public two days in a row...wow! Seriously, it doesn't happen very often. Today we ventured with Grandma Sandy and Grandpa Ron to the Lilac Festival in Rochester for the big parade. We were one adult per child, so it was perfect! The kids had a lot of fun watching the bands, firetrucks, police cars, motorcycles...all their favorites. Then we walked up to the park and had a picnic lunch among the lilacs, just gorgeous! Even Allie had a great time as she spent the day giggling and cooing at everything around her, what a dream she is. I wanted to walk down to the pansy bed to get a picture of the triplets next to the flowers. We took a picture last year and it was one of my favorites. Unfortunately, it started to rain, and we had about a mile to walk back to the car. I got a few quick ones and then we started hustling to get out of the rain.

Of course bringing our choo choo wagon out in public means more attention than you could ever want. People thought we were part of the parade as we walked along the street afterward. I must have heard, "Look at that adorable wagon!" a million times! By far my favorite comment of the day was, "Hey mam, are all of them twins?" Huh? "No, there are three of them, so all of them are triplets!" Wow...

I hope you enjoy some pictures from our day! These are for you mom...we love you "Numma" across the miles!!! (my mom is visiting my sister in Minnesota)

Mommy's little girl



Eli and Daddy watching the firetrucks go by!


Mr. Cool relaxin' in the wagon eating his lunch!



Handsome boy!


It was hard to get a picture of Cara, she never stopped moving!



Brady's walking and bringing mommy a flower!!


Allie is pure delight!


Our quick stop at the pansy bed

Our Day with Thomas

What a beautiful day it turned out to be! It seems the weather forcasts are never quite right in Western New York! Mom, Matt, Eli, Cara, Brady, and I had a great time visiting Thomas the Train in Medina. There were very few people there, the sun was shining with a light breeze, and the kids just loved all there was to see and do. One mishap was that we forgot our wagon. Luckily we had the single stroller in the van, so one kid was able to ride while the other two walked or we carried them. It worked out really well because they wanted to explore and romp around. I was very impressed at how age appropriate things were for my kids. I always worry that because they are 2 that things like this will be over the head, but not so!

Here are some pictures from the day (I'll share more another time. My mom took more than I did...)

Cara with her new Thomas tatoo!


Eli petting a horse!


Brady boy petting a horse!


And truly, my favorite picture in a long time. Thank goodness I was wearing sunglasses to hide my tears. Our hero Brady and his daddy walking hand in hand in their blue-plaid shorts...beautiful!


That Brady walked more at Thomas than he has all week! He walked on grass, he walked on the sidewalk, he walked on this carpeted tent area. I'm telling you, I think the Brady cart that he happily pushes around this house may have to disappear! When we unloaded the kids from the van and were walking from the garage to the house, Matt put Brady down and told him to walk. Well...walk he did! He slowly toddled the 15 feet all by himself!

Come on Brady...walk, walk, walk!

I'm telling you, the boy can walk!!! I'm also telling you, the boy is smart, stubborn, and knows how bad we all want him to walk. That is all the motivation he needs to keep pushing his walking toy around the house! Brady continues to only walk when he is in his silly moods before nap and bedtime. He does a GREAT job too! I actually coerced him into taking a few steps on the grass today. Lately we are telling him a lot of things like "The rule outside is that you can only walk like a big boy on the grass!" Sometimes he falls for it, other times he knows full well what an idiotic rule that is and just crawls away!

My mom and I hung up the 4th and final (yes final) swing on the Williams family playground today. Allie know can proudly swing between Cara and Brady in her brand new pink swing! Check out this great pic of my funny foursome!


Another first for the kids tonight after dinner: E.L. Fudgestripe cookies! Yummy! Brady tried to close his eyes to escape this shot and notice the cookie perched on his finger; truly the only way to eat an E.L.Fudge!


Just by thinking about the past few months today, God smacked me right between the eyes with this thought. I was so quick to share scripture on this blog when things were going terribly in our life...I was so strongly trusting in God's promises when the going got tough. I notice that I have let that slip in the past weeks because things have settled down a bit. SO...I'm learning more and more that I have to be as passionate about faith even when the storms of life aren't raging. After all, God's love for me was the same on Jan 21(day of diagnosis) and April 6th (day of surgery) as it is today!! Don't I owe Him the same?
The unfailing love of the Lord never ends! Lamentations 3:22

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Just a reminder: Tonight is the last night to vote for my blog in the Mother of All Bloggers contest. As of last night, the administrators were assuring everyone that all votes are counting, even though a message tells some that they have already voted. Yes, I'm skeptical too, but we have come this far!! Voting ends at 11:59 tonight!

Eating Out...Always a Good Time

So we survived our eating out adventure. I truly think this may be the first time we have gone out with the whole family since Allie has been born (6 months ago). After church we went to Kaboodles Cafe in Elba. I suggested to my mom that she call ahead and make a reservation for as many high chairs as they had. Our gang of six, as well as my mom, and my brother's fam of four descended on the place to celebrate Auntie Kristen's birthday. All together there were 6 kids and 5 adults. The kids did a really great job and I'm sure the staff at Kaboodles is more than thankful to my family for reorganizing their jelly containers, creamers, and sugar packets. It's no fun to have them sorted by color and flavor anyway!!!

They heard it was Kristen's birthday and made her wear a big birthday hat! Then, this group of four women offered to sing her "Happy Birthday." They were wearing matching jackets and all of a sudden they broke out into four part harmony! Come to find out they are a professional group called Mach Four who were in town for a competition! They were terrific...what a treat!

Some Brady news: Today Brady took 8 or so steps on the hardwood floor. I've come to the conclusion that he is totally capable, he just is STUBBORN! I love his stubbornness though, but I wish he would just stand up and take off! As I put them to bed tonight, we just walked back and forth from one end to the other in his crib. If he can maintain balance while walking on a mattress, then I know he can walk anywhere!!! Come on Brady...you have a whole world to explore!

Monday means phone calls, and I'm planning on starting off the week right! I need to bug Strong about getting a scan date again. We are only 2 weeks away from when he is supposed to be scanned (6 weeks post-op). Matt and I don't want to wait a day longer than we have to. We are more than anxious to get his Broviac out...his skin is so sensitive under the dressing and I want him to be able to swim and play like everyone else this summer.

Step by Step

Brady did a little more walkin' today!! He certainly picks and chooses when he will do it. He will ONLY walk on the carpeted play room which makes things tricky because that is the only carpet in our house! I think the soft surface gives him a little more stability and some cushion when he falls.

I'm so glad so many of you enjoyed the video yesterday. Matt worked really hard to get it online. I'm trying to get the kids on tape singing so be watching for that in the next few days.

Tomorrow Brady and I will leave at 7:30 for PT. I'm praying for him to build a good relationship with the PT. We are praying every day that the scans (hopefully in the next few weeks) will show no new disease. We are praying that soon Brady can have surgery to take out his Broviac. I changed his dressing tonight and he was in pain. His skin is getting very sensitive and washing the area burns. He was itching at the site a lot afterwards and it was bothering him so much. We can't wait to have it out so Brady can enjoy everything this summer!!!

Keep the prayers coming for our hero Brady!!

Brady Walkin'

Matt is uploading a video as we speak of Brady taking some steps today! Two different times today he got in the mood to walk! He was having a great time walking back and forth between grandma and I this afternoon. Later tonight he walked to grandpa and Matt got in on tape! The cutest is that Brady kept saying "Brady walkin!"

Brady has his PT evaluation scheduled for Thursday at 8:30. We are going to CP of Rochester which has a pediatric outpatient clinic for physical therapy. I don't know too much more about the facility, but it has been highly recommended to us. Please be praying that Brady will get over his fear of new people and feel comfortable during this appointment. I think we will be going two times a week. It is about 50 minutes each way, so this is a big committment. I'm really excited to see Brady soar!!!

Check back later for the great video!

Sorry about the delay - long story, big headache.
Matt

CLICK HERE FOR BRADY VIDEO