Meet the Bunny!

Today we went to our town's "Meet the Bunny" event and it went way better then our visit with Santa. In a word Daniel did awesome. He gave the bunny a high five and even sat on his lap. We are sooo proud of him!! Here are some photos of our outing.....

Me and the Easter Bunny!!

Ok - So It Looks Like the Bunny is Going to Eat Daniel

Yes - It is an Inflatable!

And Yes I Had To!!

New Uses for Breathing Tubes..

Recently Daniel has been playing with the tube that is used to connect to an air bag that we had when he had his trach. He uses the tube to make elephant sounds, which is quite funny, and shoots cotton balls out of it, another funny little thing. Yesterday I finally got smart and connected the ends together and made a circle. A good lesson for shapes, however, Daniel thought it was more fun to wear it. It was so much fun for him, he fell asleep with it. Hence, this photo....

First Day of Spring = Snow??

The first day of Spring has finally arrived and we are still wearing boots.....

Because of SNOW....

ENOUGH ALREADY!!!!

HAPPY SPRING!!! (Maybe)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!

May Your Day Be Filled With Luck!!

Zing, Zang, Zoommmmmmm......

To circus fun!! This morning we spend a fun-filled morning at the circus all thanks to Sam. Daniel got to enjoy the circus not only with us but with Kira, Uncle Jeff and Aunt Vicky and had a blast. Though he enjoyed it all, he did love the zebras and elephants. We almost had a melt down at the end of the show when Daniel wanted more elephants but luckily the moment passed and off we went.



Here are a few photos for the day. The battery in our camera died half way through the show and of course I left the other battery in the car. Oh well - Enjoy.....

The Proud Daddies....

And No, We Did Not Plan the Sweater Thing

Zebras

Apparently this Elephant Knows How to Paint

More Elephants

Still Wearing His Circus Hat

Eating Cheese...

Yesterday Daniel ate a whole piece of slice cheese all by himself. It all went down the right direction and no pieces fell out. And yes, we are extremely excited and proud of him. Granted it took him almost 45 minutes to eat the one piece, it is a huge step in the right direction and gave, at least me, some hope that he will become a full fledged eater and all the weeks we have spent with our feeding therapist is working. After sooooo many months of just trying and really not getting anywhere, it is wonderful to see this achievement. He has been more willing to try different things and seems to be getting the hang of things in the recent weeks. Though I know that his g-tube will remain in for the near future it is nice to think that maybe one day it will come out. I am keeping my fingers crossed that it was not a one time only thing since he was a little less agreeable to food this morning.

Though I think Daniel has no clue how huge this step is, it is great to see the big smile on his face when we dance around for joy for him. And so we are off to our weekly feeding appointment to share our achievement. Here's to food no matter what you eat.

Playing It Forward...

A very good friend of mine in entered into a photography contest featuring photos he took during the recent Presidential inauguration. The contest FOTOBAMAWEEK Photography Contest, allows photographers, amateur and professional, to share their vision and perspective from this moment in history. Both photos are awesome and I want him to win. So, "playing it forward" please visit the following two sites and vote for either both or the photo you like the best. Here are the sites:

http://www.fotoweekdccontest.org/bin/Rate?image_id=1006401069
http://www.fotoweekdccontest.org/bin/Rate?image_id=1006401070

Thanks in advance and please vote by 11:59 p.m. on March 15th.

Here's hoping Edward wins!!!!

Daniel's First Fun Race

This morning our very good friend John ran a skiing fun race whose raffle proceeds went towards Daniel's Voice. The race featured over 104 racers with Daniel drawing number 1! Daniel "raced" with Uncle Mike and finished in 1 minute and 16 seconds in the under 2 group. His "race time" even allowed him to finish in first place!! Though he hasn't taken his medal off since the race ceremony we are very proud of him and extremely grateful for the wonderful and thoughtful friends we have.



Here are some photos of our little racer....

Coming Down the Mountain

The Hand-Off After Finishing the Race

"Watching My Friends, Coop, Ky and Robbie
Come Down the Mountain"

"My Little First Place Racer"

Celebrating St. Patrick's Day A Little Early...

Since today was soooo nice we decided to head off to Hoboken and celebrate St. Patrick's Day a little early by watching their parade. Mind you I love St. Patrick's Day (and no it's not because of the beer or how close it is to my name). From Daniel's face, he "inherited" my love for it too. The parade was awesome and we were able to get right down on street level so Daniel could experience all the pipes and drums first hand. He even got to take his first light rail ride since we knew parking in Hoboken would be a nightmare. All went well with the exception of coming home when we reached our stop we couldn't get out of the train since we pushed the wrong button to open the door. So we took it one more stop and doubled back. No worst for the wear. We also got to see my dear friend Stacey, who Daniel just adored. We even think he got her name down.

Here are some photos of our day. Enjoy!

"Bring on the Fun!"

"Got My Flag Ready and Waiting"

"High Five for Being Irish"