Tracy Gumfory

I Can Thank Down Syndrome For That...

Please stop what you're doing and go over to Holly's blog to marvel at her beautiful little Brooke. She has written an amazing post about perspective and achievement, for our babies, and for as as parents. Please go read it here. She inspires me.

Thank you, Holly. Knowing you is just one more thing that I can thank Down syndrome for!

Auntie Bits

Please pray for my dear friend Bits. She and one of her children have been hit with that wrench and hit really, really hard. Hard times come and hard times go. There is usually a reasonable hope for good times to return. When there is not that hope, there is despair. It is truly desperate times when it involves our children. Then hard times become suffering and torment, and no matter how bad things have been, that damned wrench just keeps coming back to hit them again and again, leaving bigger bruises, deeper wounds, injuries that will not heal. That cannot heal. That damned wrench has claimed far more than it's pound of flesh and I hate knowing that it still flies, bloodied with their pain, to hurt them again and again many more times before this is over. Please pray with all of your might for my friend and her child.

Keep your head above water Bits. You will get through this.

Click on the Music Player to hear this beautiful song*.

Did you ever picture your life like this?
No shooting star to grant your wish.
Are you everything you hoped you'd be...
or caught somewhere in between?
You dropped your nickels down a wishing well
and prayed for luck to cast it's spell,
to bring you closer to your dreams,
that always seem just out of reach.
You pray to God the moment when
you feel the current pull you in.
Tryin' to keep a head above water
has never been harder.
Even when it feels hopeless...
you're gonna get through this.
Head above water
gotta fight from going under
even when it feels useless to wish...
you're gonna get through this.

Have you ever felt like giving in?
Tried for hours but just can't win?
Tell yourself you're not good enough?
The struggle alone is just too much.
No one's there to hear you scream.
Gasp for air but just can't breath.
Did you ever think you'd see the day
when you'd watch your life get washed away?
You pray to God the moment when
you feel the current pull you in.
Tryin' to keep a head above water
has never been harder.
Even when it feels hopeless...
you're gonna get through this.
Head above water
gotta fight from going under
even when it feels useless to wish...
you're gonna get through this.

Did it ever hurt so bad
that the thought of feeling lost
would never end?
Well you will think again.
Tryin' to keep a head above water
has never been harder.
Even when it feels hopeless...
you're gonna get through this.
Head above water
gotta fight from going under
even when it feels useless to wish...
you're gonna get through this.

~Theory of a Deadman
Head Above Water
The Truth Is...Album

*Can anyone tell me how to make the music play automatically?

Well then...

July 8th came and went this year without any notice until days later...

It was an after thought this year, that date that seemed to have such profound significance just one year ago. Jack, you've come a long way, baby...and so have your Mommy and Daddy.

Three weeks ago, I brought home a swimming pool. The water park would cost $228.00 for the package deal that we could use for roughly six weeks, since they go back to school the second week of August. The pool cost $249.00, plus no driving, no parking, no inevitable registration ticket for the van because I am incapable of ever paying for it on time, no over priced concession stand food and drinks, no wet seats in the van, no eeewwww every time I see someones diapered baby in the water, and we can use our own pool until it gets cold, whereas the water park closes after Labor Day every year. The pool took less than an hour to assemble and start filling. It is NOT my fault that the Dearly Beloved decided that the entire back yard had to be cleaned up, taking a full day, before the pool could go up. I would have made the kids clean up the area the pool was to be set up in and done the rest later as incentive for the kids to be able to get in the pool!

Two weeks ago I brought home a swing set. Again, it was a great deal, and all three kids love it. I bought a baby swing for Jack, and there's a nifty saucer thing that will encourage his abdominal muscles to strengthen while he balances himself in it! That took a full day to assemble.

Last week, since we are a family of five now, and since the front porch glider canopy is long gone, and cannot be replaced anywhere, and it's only a two-seater anyway, and looks really junky and broken down on the front porch, I brought home a new glider. The old canopy-less glider is now under the tree in the back yard, and the new glider resides on the front porch, shiny, gleaming, smooth and canopied! Which really has nothing to do with us being a family of five, but it's just the perfect size for My Love and I to sit on the porch in the evening breeze.

And The Dearly Beloved said to me, "If you bring anything else home for me to put together, I'm going back into the house and pretending I never saw it. You're on your own." I'm pretty sure that he meant it, but I'm not going to test it out. I did see his chest swell out quite a bit when he saw how much fun Jack was having on the swings and saucer while The Girlie and The Poddest of Pods were whooping it up in the pool.

I love my new job...been there since June 8th! At my old job I was working about 80 hours per week with nary a thank you, all for $50.00 per week travel reimbursement. This job? I'm working about 40 hours per week for roughly the same pay, but the travel reimbursement for two weeks paid for the swing set, the pool and the front porch glider, including tax!

A huge thank you to the Dear Daddy for all of your hard work and for all of the great fun your children are having as a result!

New Toofies

Poor Jack has been miserable trying to cut his last first molar. It's taken twice as long as the other three to come in put together...but it's finally in as of this morning! It's tooth #8, on the bottom left!

Letting Go...

A few nights ago, Jack was standing next to Princess' kennel having one of his nightly holler-fests with her. She licks his fingers and when she stops, he hollers at her to do it again. Suddenly he let go. He stood for all of 3 seconds before plopping down on his butt. I tried to photo-document the event, but with Jack down, Princess laid down and they had a staring contest instead.

Despite the fact that I absolutely forbade Stoopid Katee* from telling me any new thing he does until I've already told her that he's done it for me, she reported last week that she let go of his hands and he stayed upright for a few seconds in a standing position.

Other fun stuff he's taken to doing is pushing the dining room chairs across the floor and walking behind them full speed, sometimes faster than his little legs can carry him, and he's all but running around furniture now, instead of cruising. Some not-so-fun stuff: his Father allows him to crawl from the couch to sit on top of Bailey's kennel and sit up there like he's king o' the kennel. What? Really? Who is this man? It amazes what what Jack gets away with doing around his Dear Daddy. The bathroom door is always closed now. He has not discovered the lid to the toity raises, but he has figured out to use the brute strength of his arms along with the traction of bare toes to skinny up the side of the bathtub, over and in...head first. He's narrowly escaped injury only because he's only allowed in the bathroom when someone is there to prevent a topple. We're aiming for walking by two. I keep hearing how much trouble he'll get into then, but really, the boy gets into tons of trouble now!

There are so many moments in our children's lives that make us burst with pride. Who knew some of the biggest would be so simple. I asked Jack, "Where's your nose?" and he poked his own nose several times hard enough to smoosh the tip down. Katee taught him that! Then I asked Jack, "Where's Mommy's nose?" He lunged forward and sank all five sharp little nails into the tip of my nose! Yep, he actually made me bleed, but he found my nose!!

*We love you, Katee!