Joey's Nine Month/Christmas Portraits

Our little pumpkin in his Christmas jammies..

Doing the superman pose.

And showing off his talent up on all fours.

Daddy put on Santa sleeves and gloves for a few poses. Joey kept trying to eat the gloves but eventually we got a few pics.

This is the only pose Joey wanted to be in.

Our little goofball.

Joey was having no part of being on the couch! This was the closest we got to a picture on any prop other than the floor.

And last but not least, my favorite.

We got a smile...YAY!

Sweet Potatoes!

Joey has been eating sweet potatoes for months now. However, he has only had the puree, bland, nothing added. Yesterday he tried the real deal (yes, complete with butter, brown sugar and marshmellows!) After several bites of the sweet potatoes right off my fork, I tried to slip in a bite of mashed potatoes with a little gravy on them. He instantly started gagging and spit them out. It was pretty funny. I think we may be in trouble now! He sure did love those sweet potatoes. He had this look on his face like "why have you been keeping these from me?" It was too cute!

Ordinarily we would have spent Thanksgiving with my family in San Diego, but my Dad needed time to recover from his surgery. So at the last minute we decided to stay here and spend the day with Tony's family. Thank you to Tony's cousin Kim and her husband Bruce for having us over and thanks to the entire Scribner family for sharing their Thanksgiving with us. We love you guys and we had a wonderful time!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We are thankful for so many things this Thanksgiving! Just a few of the things that we are extremely thankful for:

• That we have a happy and, for the most part, healthy baby;
• that this past year, because of Joey's Ds we have met some of the most wonderful families and made some friendships that we know will last a lifetime;
• That we have such wonderful family and friends who have stuck by us over the years and who have been so supportive of us this year in particular;
• That my Dad's surgery went well and he is at home recovering;
• that we are both gainfully employed, despite the tough economy, and working for such great people (even if I am at work this morning);
• Jen and the entire Sanchez family who have made my return to work possible and who have welcomed Joey into their home and loved him like a member of their family;
• That Tony and I have each other, a great marriage, and are adapting well to our role as parents;

Here are a few quick pics from my phone (sorry I have not had time to download any others from our camera.

Our happy baby.

Joey is all ready for winter

Enjoying his first waffle!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Sarah Pailin on 20/20

I just read Jen's post on Sarah Pailin on Oprah. While I did not see that one, I did see her last night being interviewed on 20/20 by Barbara Walters. I was surprised how much of the segment was about Trig and learning about the Ds when she was pregnant. Although Barbara used some improprt terminology, such as "Down baby," which is not preferred, overall I thought it was a good positive interview. I am glad they brought to light the statistics on abortion rates among women who receive a prenatal diagnosis of Ds. Maybe this will jump start some more discourse on the subject and generate some outrage (as it should). I think it is unfortunate that the tag line they chose on the video clip was somthing to the effect of "Sarah considered abortion when she learned...." That is not what I got from her interview. What she really said was that abortion was not an option for her. I also breathed a major sigh of relief when I saw that Trig Pailin was shown as a happy, overall, healthy baby. He is very very cute too!!! The Pailin family was shown treating him very lovingly and like a typical baby. I hope that opens some eyes out there for people who have misconceptions about children with Ds.

I have to admit, that despite her flaws, I have always been a huge fan of Sarah Pailin. I think that she has been treated incredibly unfairly and horribly by the media. This interview just made me connect with her even more. Here is a link to where you can find the segment. Sorry I could not link all the way to the story. You have to scroll down on the right and find it.

Anyway, we took Joey to the Stanford Down syndrome clinic for an appointment on Friday.... More to come on that hopefully tomorrow.

Joey's Pa Pa

My father, Joey's Pa Pa and namesake, was recently diagnosed with prostate cancer. He just had a bone scan and we are happy to report that it came out normal. So I don't think it has spread. But he still has to have surgery and we are all a little scared. I love my father and I absolutely love watching him and Joey interact. Here they were on October 31, 2009 hanging out together.

We are praying that he has a speedy recovery and as easy of a time as possible getting through this. We love you dad!

Joey is 9 Months Old

Joey was nine months old yesterday. I cannot believe how fast time flys by when you have a baby! At nine months old he is, among other things:

• Rolling all over the place
• crawling backwards a little bit
• Drinking water from a cup with a straw
• leaping from his belly to being up on his hands and knees
• rocking back and forth on his hands and knees
• eating baby food or baby cereal twice a day
• laughing when you lift him into the air
• splashing like crazy in the bath tub
• blowing tons of raspberries
• babbling some (not a ton) but he has his moments when he babbles like crazy
• sleeping through the night (still)
• gives kisses (well he opens his mouth a little and pauses his raspberries for you to kiss him)

He is amazing and we are so very proud of all his accomplishments. Although we are saving his "i did it" shirt for when he sits on his own.

At Joey's nine month well baby check up this morning he was weighing in at 18 pounds 5 ounces and measuring 27 1/2 inches tall. He is in the 75th percentile on the Ds charts for boys. The doctor said his growth is perfect and he is doing pretty well. Joey started the RSV shots (Synagis) which he will have to do once a month until April. And... I almost forgot to report.. the results of the MRI were normal... THANK GOD! no tumor! We love this baby so much!

Here are some more pics from our recent trip down to San Diego. Here Joey is enjoying some play time with his Cousin Ellie.

Carving pumpkins on Halloween

Hanging out with his Auntie Cara and his Cousin Walker

Laughing at Uncle Mac with Auntie Cara

Playing with Grandma and Pa Pa

Getting a bath in Grandma's kitchen sink

Joey loves his Pa Pa

Laughing at Pa Pa

Going shopping at Nordstrom with Grandma for Joey's first pair of shoes

Halloween 2009 (better late than never)

We spent Joey's first Halloween in San Diego so that Joey could go trick-or-treating with his cousins Walker and Ellie.

Here Joey is helping carve his first pumpkin.

He dressed up as a bear. It was so hot in San Diego that we had to go without the leggings. Look at Joey checking out his big soft belly...

All ready to go...

As were Spider man and our little ballerina

Joey rode around in the stroller and clung to his candy bag like a real trooper.


Here he is checking out his loot.

We let him pick out a piece to taste.

Yummy!