Elmo Mania and the Park

Hey Everyone, we hope you are all staying warm!! It seems like the whole US got a cold-snap this week. It is supposed to get down in the single digits here tonight! That is kind of rare for around here from what I understand.

I just wanted to share some pictures of the last few weeks . . .

First we had a nice surprise visit from our friend Kathryn from Tennessee. Kathryn used to babysit Mary when she was a little baby, so Mary enjoyed seeing her again!

Just a cute picture of Mary pretending to be Darby from "My Friends Tigger and Pooh" and "slapping her cap"!!!

We also went to Darden Towe Park in Charlottesville. . .


Mary really enjoyed the slide. . . .


And we've done lots of playing with Elmo lately (not to mention reading Elmo books)


How many Elmo's do you see here??? (I count six!)


Mary seeing double!


Elmo and Jackson having a stare down.

Jackson all ready for bed. . . .

Jackson out for the count. . . .

Hope you enjoyed the pictures!!

Mary saying the Alphabet!

We final got an OK video of Mary saying the Alphabet. She usually doesn't skip letters, but I think she was a little nervous being on camera!

. . . and now presenting Mary on the Harmonica!!

Here is a cute little video of Mary playing the harmonica, with mommy accompanying her. . .



Mary would play a note and then Kate would copy it, Mary absolutely loved it! We have been working a lot with Mary blowing whistles and playing harmonica to give her little lungs and diaphragm a workout. It is great for increasing her breath support and even her vocal volume.

P.S. and of course she is STILL wearing her Tutu!!

Mary's New Tutu!!!

Mary had a visit for her birthday from her Aunt Angie, who just returned from Iraq about 3 weeks ago and her Uncle Jason. They gave Mary a Ballerina Tutu and Crown and magic wand for her birthday. Well, it just so happens that Mary's absolute favorite book that her mommy reads to her every night before she goes to bed is the book "Just the Way You Are" with Elmo and Zoe.



Mary calls it her "Tutu Book". So needless to say, she LOVED getting her Tutu. She hasn't taken it off since she got it. You can see this in the pictures below:

Mary's 22 Month Birthday

For Mary's 22 Month Birthday Party we had lots of family from both Michigan and the D.C. area come and visit. It was nice to see family that we hadn't seen in so long and some that Mary and Jackson had never met. Ryan made a North Pole cake, complete with marshmallow snowmen sporting Christmas scarves and little frosting black-hats and Santa's workshop made out of graham crackers. Here are some pictures of the festivus!

Christmas Day Pictures

Ok, continuing to catch up on Mary's Blog, here are some Christmas Day pictures. Everyone really had a good time and WAY too many presents!!!!



Merry Christmas!!

Christmas Eve Pictures

Hi Everyone!
My apologies for not posting these sooner, I'm playing a little catch up.

Here are some pictures from Christmas Eve:


As you can see, Jackson learned to sit on his own, with help from his cube that he got from Uncle David. Mary had a great time with her cousin Billy and loved seeing Santa Claus.

I'll post some pictures from Christmas Day a little later today. Busy Busy!

Pre Christmas Pictures

Merry Christmas Eve Everyone! I know we'll have tons of photos to post after Christmas so I figured I would catch up on these before the big day. We've had grandparents and cousins visiting so lots of excitement. Here goes!

Well a few days ago, Mary's friend Anna had her second Birthday. She came over to open the present that Mary gave her. Mary was very excited to see Anna open it.


Jackson is learning to sit up on his own now and doing quite well, but I think he will stand before he sits and walk before he crawls!

Jackson, like Mary, absolutely loves Sam! (I think the feeling is mutual!)

A picture of Jackson sitting. . .

Jackson with Grandpa Bill. . . do you think they look alike?? hmmm. . ...

Mary made Christmas cookies and took them to the rescue squad with Grandma and Grandpa!


Mary absolutely loved playing with her cousin Billy! They were SO cute together. Here Mary is showing Billy how to use the gear toy.

Here Mary and Billy are playing with Puzzles. . .


Billy is reading Mary a Tigger story!


Now Mary is telling Billy about Trucks!!!

Just a cute picture of Mary telling daddy something. . .


Have a great Christmas!!

Mary Driving!!

Some of you may have seen this already. It is a video that we took of Mary last week while the weather was warmer. She is driving her KidKart mounted on a Z500 demo power base. We rigged it up with a mini-proportional joystick, which Mary is much better at using than the proximity switches we were using before.



We are submitting the order for Mary's own chair now and hopefully if all goes right we will have it sometime this spring!! Here is what Mary's chair will look like:


"Popstar Pink" is the color she chose, she is very excited to get it!

Video of the Day!!

Here is a video of Mary holding the camera and counting and playing with her butterfly.

Enjoy!

Hope everyone is having a good December!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!

We hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. We are going to catch up on some pictures from the past few weeks, so here are some slideshows:

The first one has some pictures of the kids from Thanksgiving. Mary and Kate decided to bake some pumpkin pies and take them up to the local fire/rescue guys to thank them for everything they've done for us. It is always better to see them when it is not an emergency!



The second slide show are some fun pictures that I took of the kids in the playroom yesterday. Mary was having lots of fun playing with her little brother and visa versa:



These last few pictures are from when Mary's great aunt Danielle visited us a few weekends ago. It was great to see Nellie again and it was great for Mary and Jackson to meet her. We hope to see her more this spring and a lot more when we move to New York next year!



Again, we hope everyone had a great thanksgiving! We truly do have a lot to be thankful for!!

Mary's New Stander

Here are some pictures of Mary in her new stander! She even chased Sam to the end of the street today and was smiling the whole way! She is doing much better than her ambulance ride and ER visit yesterday - lets pray it stays that way!










We woke up to a light dusting of snow and then we had flurries in the afternoon - winter is arriving!

Hope everyone had a good day!

Kate, Ryan, Mary and Jackson

VeggieTales Live!!

Hi All! We drove of to Woodbridge, VA yesterday (Near D.C.) to meet some friends and see a very special show. . . we saw VeggieTales Live- God Made You Special!! Mary was SO excited, that she wouldn't sleep the whole ride up! She really enjoyed the show and she did really well. It was our first opportunity to use our new MAX EasyS stroller and we LOVED it. Mary was so comfortable in it all through the show! I'm attaching some pictures from the day. I would recommend this show to anyone with children. If it is ever in your area it is definitely worth the drive and price of tickets!

Larry the Cucumber and Jr. Aspragus

Mr. Lunt (The Gourd)

Bob the Tomato!!

Mary and her new friend Emily

Posing for pictures!!

The whole crew (L to R- Heather, Emma, Mary, Jackson, Ryan, Nate, Diana, Emily)

Mary hanging out with Elmo and Larry the Cucumber in her new stroller!

Lastly, a super cute picture we took of Jackson today! His eye is looking a little better!!

Mary at Camp Holiday Trails

Today was a beautiful fall day! 70 degrees and not a cloud in the sky. . . and Mary got to go to day camp! It was a wonderful experience! Camp Holiday Trails is a camp for children with chronic illnesses located here in Charlottesville. It has been operating for 35 years! And it is absolutely beautiful!! Mary had a wonderful time at the camp. She played with all the other children and she even got to ride a horse!!! (Mommy was SUPER excited about that too!!) Mary had a super good time, but it really wore her out. I the ride home she was so tired she was asking for her Bipap.
Here are some pictures from the day! Enjoy. . .



P.S. Her horse's name was patchy and he was the oldest horse there. . . he was 34 years old!!!