31 for 21... off topic... Nathan

One of my biggest concerns when we received Micah's diagnosis was that Nathan would no longer have the playmate close in age to him for which we were hoping.  It was exaggerated by the fact that we lost twins almost a year before conceiving Micah and that loss was still fairly fresh in our minds.

Fast forward to today.  I do receive little stabs to my heart when I see Nathan playing more with Matthew than with Micah.  And that occurs primarily, I think, because Matthew is a lot more mobile than Micah (I'll address Micah's lack of walking ability in a future post... thanks for the question, Colleen), which is understandable.  But Nathan has figured out that Micah loves to give hugs (well, not to just *anyone*), so he practically bowls Micah over with hugs these days.  It's insanely sweet.

We have learned a bit about siblings of individuals with Down syndrome since I was pregnant with Micah.  And Mark went to a seminar at the NDSC convention in July with Brian Skotko, MD, who is a sibling himself and a huge advocate for Down syndrome awareness (I hope to remember to blog a bit about him this month too).  I think I've already seen a benefit to Nathan having Micah as a sibling.  Nathan fits a lot of the stereotypes of a typical first-born.  He is VERY extroverted and likes to be the center of attention.  I wonder how much worse that would be if there weren't therapists coming to our house every week who spend time focusing on MICAH, not Nathan.  That drives him absolutely insane... to the point that I've tried to schedule most of Micah's in-home therapies while Nathan is in preschool.  But I KNOW that it's good for Nathan to see someone else in our house getting attention that he desires for himself.

We moved to MN a year ago.  Nathan had his first day of preschool in MN on October 12th, 2009.  It was a record snowfall that day.  Here's a pic:

Can you believe that was a year ago?  Today it's 80+ degrees here!!!

Anyway... I have also neglected to post pictures of Nathan's first day of preschool this year, as well as birthday photos.  So here ya go!

First day of school:

The first thing he finds in his new classroom is...

(do you think McD's donated all that stuff? brilliant, yet annoying, marketing, huh?)

 Ah, an art project... my very active little guy loves crafting!

And... Nathan turned FIVE years old in September.  Hard to believe... five years ago I brought home the little boy who made me a mommy (and he was the only one I got to bring home when I checked out!).  For a walk down memory lane... here is a video of us finding out that Nathan was a boy.  We had my perinatologist put the pictures in an envelope and we opened the envelope at a party with some friends.  On the phone on a conference call were friends and family who couldn't be at the party.  It was great fun to have the "gender reveal" be a fun event with everyone. (for those of you who are reading this post in your email and not on the blog, you'll have to click here to go to the blog posting to see the video)

And here's our little burrito

Age one

Age two

Age three

Age four

And the fifth birthday party...

Because it's just not enough to feed the kids cake... I had to make a "candy" cake

Happy birthday, my dear sweet boy.  I love your boundless energy, your love for life, your love for others (including your brothers), your love for God, and your snuggles.