Trailblazer

This is how my Tiger scout left the house this morning.  He was super excited to leave for his first Cubscout Trailblazers day.  There were bb guns to shoot an advertures to be had.

Thankfully this guy was stuffed.  Still creepy if you ask me.

Fish to be caught.  BRR I prefer fishing in the hot sun. 

Archery was Rex's favorite part of the day. 

A real wolf pup.  Apparently this was the second best part of the day. 

Somewhere during the day my little Tiger turned into a army guy. 

Rex had a great day and was very excited about the Trailblazer badge he recieved.  He is ready to go back next year but hopes its not so freezing cold. 

I wonder.........

I wonder what life for Riley will be like in 20 years.  I wonder if he will ever find love and want to get married. If he does will it be to Ella?  I wonder if he will learn to drive a car.  I wonder if he will be the in the school play or the marching band?  I wonder if he will belong to a sports team?

When Riley was first born I couldn't think past the day,week,month.  I would be completely overcome with with sadness, anger, greif callit what you like but its always came with tears.  It didn't even like to think about him being school age.  As time as past and I have come to understand and know Riley it is getting easier and easier to think about the future.  What seemed so far away is coming so close.  We are getting ready to tranistion Riley from the Guild School's birth to three program into the public school system for preschool and therapies and we also need to figure what we will do to supplement with private therapy.  This was a milestone that I couldn't picture when Riley was first born, and now it is staring us square in the eyes.   Riley continues to amaze and teach us and with each day he reminds me that the possibilities are endless.  I have started to allow myself to think about what the future will be like, and most days I come up with beautiful thoughts of school friends and sports teams.  These daydreams seem to out number those where Riley is excluded or unable to acomplish things, but my mind does play terrible scenes of hurt and tears.  I don't like to think about the possibilities of Riley not being accepted by other kids or being told that he is different but I don't think its realistic to think it won't happen.  It happens to kids who don't have dissabilities so why wouldn't it happen to my kids as well.......my bigger fear is how I'll react.  How will I help Riley deal with hurt feelings.....will I give Rex a high-five after he gives a kid a black eye for making fun of his brother.  I have to be honest...  I might. 

October 2008

Today we take a look back at what Riley was up to a year ago.  Its hard to belive but he wasn't walking yet, but wow was he close.  Listening to Rex talk about his baby brother just melts my heart.  What an amazing family I have!!

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My orginal post from October 2008

This evening I thought I would take a quick video of Rex and Riley playing at the new table that I fashioned. I had this wonderful idea that if I Velcro Riley's toys down they do at school it would help him from throwing them as much. Well the idea is good in theory but you must have to use industrial strength Velcro. At least it slows him down a little. Plus the table and stool are the perfect height for him to practise. He also needs motivation to play standing up and this will help with that as well. I need to dig out the Little people farm that Rex had and get it up on the table so we can work on our pretend play with the farm animals too. Anyway, while I was taking the video of Riley, Rex decided that I need to film him too because he wanted to introduce himself and talk about Riley.

Home alone with Dad

Lions and Tigers and Bears

Well really just a Tiger Cub.  Rex joined the Cub Scouts and had his first Den meeting last night.  He is SO excited over the whole thing.  It amazes me how they are already so invovled and busy.  Saturday they sold popcorn at the local Fred Meyers store.  It took all of Rex's courage to talk to one person.  I'm hoping Cub Scouts will help him build some confidence around others.  He is so shy its painful at time and I know its painful for him a lot.  This weekend they are off to Trail Blazers.  Its a yearly all day event where he can lean archery, b b guns and all kinds of fun outdoor activities.The best part is that it is a father son project.  The family is invited to the monthly Pack meeting but other than that its all Dad :-)  His Den allows the Tigers to wear the orange Tiger tshirt at the beginning so we'll wait just a little bit until he earns his first patch to get the entire uniform.  Justin's pretty excited too because this Pack also encourages the Dad's to build a car for the Pinewood Derby.  I wonder if thats so the dad's actually let the boys build their own car????????? 

Kids for Kids

I had a great morning!  Justin and took Riley to Rex 's school to share about Riley's school and the Kids for Kids Penny drive.  Each year over 60 schools take part in this penny drive and collect pennies to help children with that attend the Spokane Guild School.  I had a ton of fun this morning and Riley was in rare form.  He was in heaven with all those kids to perform for.  The penny drive uses milk bottles with a picture of the poster child and an explanation of the school.  Riley thinks that these are giants drums of some sort.  He had a ton of fun running around with the jugs and making noies. He would hand them to the kids in the front row and then take them away and run to another kid and do the same thing.  As I was sharing about Riley I told the kids that he loved to sing so the kids in the 5-8th building sang wheels on the bus with Riley and the younger kids helped him out with Twinkle Twinkle.  When the song ended and they all clapped for Riley you have never seen a smile so big.    Of course I didn't have my camera this morning so I thought I'd grab a shot of Riley tonight....  ya right.  He won't sit still for anything.  He did give me his famous scared sign though. 

Big Brother Rex

It is so easy to focus on all the things that Riley is doing or needs, but we have tried really hard to make sure that life hasn't been turned too upside down for Rex.  When we learned the Riley would have Down syndrome we decided that we would never try to hide anything from Rex but we weren't going to make a big deal of telling him that anything was different about his little brother.  Justin and I didn't want Rex to ever be afraid to play with his little brother.  Over the last almost 3 years Rex had discovered little things and at times asks questions but really doesn't think his brother is different than anyone elses.  When Riley was born he had syndactical fingers.  When people would notice or ask about them Rex would tell them that his fingers were stuck together too when he was a baby, but Dr. Bruce fixed them.  When I was home on maternity leave Rex went with me to Riley's school to his initital evaluation from the pediatrician on staff.  I kept waiting for me to ask why there was  Dr at Riley's school but he never said a word.   He has since gone to school with Riley a handful of times and even helped us at the Penny Drive last year.   Rex is learning that a lot of our friends children have down syndrome and that they look similar but he still places no limits on any of them.    Before Riley was born Rex informed us that he was going to teach his baby to walk, and talk, and ride a bike....this list when on and on.  When visited about how when the baby was born he would sleep a lot and not really be able to play since he was so little.  With out a blink Rex says "ok i'll teach my baby to sit on the couch.".  Along the way Rex has become such a wonderful big brother.   The boys wrestle and have such fun playing.  This last week while Riley was home sick he would wait at the window for BUBBA to come home from school.  He misses Rex a ton while he goes to school. 

Tomorrow Justin and I are taking Riley to Rex's school to talk about the Penny Drive for the Spokane Guild school.   Rex is pretty excited about having Riley come to school so we'll see how that goes.  I'll share more tomorrow.