Later

Later tonight I will hopefully have a picture of Shelby in her Halloween costume to post!

Toys

I don't remember liking a whole lot of toys as a kid. I liked stuffed animals, and I loved books. But not so many toys.
My husband and I traveled to our favorite store with Shelby yesterday and Jeff wanted to peruse the toy aisle. There is a lot of stuff out there! Nothing really for a baby as young as ours, but all kinds of developmental toys, tech toys, board games, make-believe, anything you can imagine. For Christmas we agreed to pretty much get each other stuff for Shelby. Now remember I said how there is an array of toys out there now, well, I have a feeling we will be able to duplicate some of our purchases anyway.

A Strange Realization

It is easier on me when Shelby has a runny nose cold than a dry congestion cold. I find it makes my life much easier if I have a snotty nose to wipe rather than a congested one to suction out.

(Can ) Father-son bond of Dick and Rick Hoyt

Thanks to my mom for sharing this video with me, I have seen the Hoyts on the Iron Man Competitions before so some of this video was not new to me and get ready it is a true heart wrencher. All of us who are parents just want our children to be normal and have every oppurtunity afforded to them, but few of us are as challenged by our children's abilities to provide them this as Dick and Judy Hoyt. But wherever there is the love of a parent, there is God's love making things happen. Please read below the writing of Rick Reilly and then enjoy the video.

STRONGEST DAD IN THE WORLD

[From Sports Illustrated, By Rick Reilly]

I try to be a good father. Give my kids mulligans. Work nights to pay for their text messaging. Take them to swimsuit shoots. However, compared with Dick Hoyt, I suck.

Eighty-five times, he's pushed his disabled son, Rick, 26.2 miles in marathons. Eight times, he's not only pushed him 26.2 miles in a wheelchair but also towed him 2.4 miles in a dinghy while swimming and pedaled him 112 miles in a seat on the handlebars--all in the same day.

Dick has also pulled him cross-country skiing, taken him on his back mountain climbing, and once hauled him across the U.S. on a bike. Makes taking your son bowling look a little lame, right?

And what has Rick done for his father? Not much--except save his life.

This love story began in Winchester, Mass., 43 years ago, when Rick was strangled by the umbilical cord during birth, leaving him brain-damaged and unable to control his limbs.

``He'll be a vegetable the rest of his life;'' Dick says doctors told him and his wife, Judy, when Rick was nine months old. ``Put him in an institution.''

But the Hoyts weren't buying it. They noticed the way Rick's eyes followed them around the room. When Rick was 11, they took him to the engineering department at Tufts University and asked if there was anything to help the boy communicate. ``No way,'' Dick says he was <>told. There's nothing going on in his brain.''

"Tell him a joke,'' Dick countered. They did. Rick laughed. Turns out a lot was going on in his brain.

Rigged up with a computer that allowed him to control the cursor by touching a switch with the side of his head, Rick was finally able to communicate. First words? ``Go Bruins! And after a high school classmate was paralyzed in an accident and the school organized a charity run for him, Rick pecked out, ``Dad, I want to do that.''

Yeah, right. How was Dick, a self-described ``porker'' who never ran more than a mile at a time, going to push his son five miles? Still, he tried. ``Then it was me who was handicapped,'' Dick says. ``I was sore for two weeks.''

That day changed Rick's life. ``Dad,'' he typed, ``when we were running, it felt like I wasn't disabled anymore!''

And that sentence changed Dick's life. He became obsessed with giving Rick that feeling as often as he could. He got into such hard-belly shape that he and Rick were ready to try the 1979 Boston Marathon.

``No way,'' Dick was told by a race official. The Hoyts weren't quite a single runner, and they weren't quite a wheelchair competitor. For a few years, Dick and Rick just joined the massive field and ran anyway, and then they found a way to get into the race officially: In 1983, they ran another marathon so fast they made the qualifying time for Boston the following year.

Then somebody said, ``Hey, Dick, why not a triathlon?''

How's a guy who never learned to swim and hadn't ridden a bike since he was six going to haul his 110-pound kid through a triathlon? Still, Dick tried.

Now they've done 212 triathlons, including four grueling 15-hour Ironmans in Hawaii. It must be a buzzkill to be a 25-year-old stud being passed by an old guy towing a grow n man in a dinghy, dont you think?

Hey, Dick, why not see how you'd do on your own? ``No way,'' he says. Dick does it purely for ``the awesome feeling'' he gets seeing Rick with a cantaloupe smile as they run, swim and ride together.

This year, at ages 65 and 43, Dick and Rick f inished their 24th Boston Marathon, in 5,083rd place out of more than 20,000 starters. Their best time'? Two hours, 40 minutes in 1992--only 35 minutes off the world record, which, in case you don't keep track of these things, happens to be held by a guy who was not pushing another man in a wheelchair at the time.

``No question about it,'' Rick types. ``My dad is the Father of the Century.''

And Dick got something else out of all this too. Two years ago, he had a mild heart attack during a race. Doctors found that one of his arteries was 95% clogged. ``If you hadn't been in such great shape,'' one doctor told him, ``you probably would've died 15 years ago.''

So, in a way, Dick and Rick saved each other's life.

Rick, who has his own apartment (he gets home care) and works in Boston, and Dick, retired from the military and living in Holland, Mass., always find ways to be together. They give speeches around the country and compete in some backbreaking race every weekend, including this Father's Day.

That night, Rick will buy his dad dinner, but the thing he really wants to give him is a gift he can never buy.

``The thing I'd most like,'' Rick types, ``is that my dad sit in the chair and I push him once.''

Because the Weather is So Beautiful

Autumn has come to southeastern NC. Finally. And today was a beautiful day for Mama and Shelby to enjoy the weather.

Of course, we also should tell you that being outside is one thing that Daddy and Shelby see eye to eye on.

Muppet Movie - The Rainbow Connection

The words were beautiful but there is just something about watching a puppet frog sing it in the woods that is so special.

Now, I just have to get a copy of the Muppet movie on DVD for Shelby.

I forget

if I am supposed to sleep when Shelby sleeps or do work then.... I am already a victim of "mother's amnesia."

Is the Grass Greener?

Suzanne recently showed the pictures of her beautiful boys in her last two birth announcements. She has five boys. There was a family in our parish growing up that had five boys and another with five girls. I always asked my mother which she thought would be more stressful, a house of only boys or girls.

Mom always answered the same. Boys.

I have three younger brothers.

I'm the only girl.

My husband and I decided immediately that we did not want to know the sex of our baby before she was born. I guess I should mention here that Jeff is one of four boys. No girls. So it was nothing short of miraculous to his family when he called to say he had become the Daddy to a GIRL. His mother told me I broke the mold and my "genes must be stronger."

The reaction from my family was also one of excitement. My youngest brother had demanded constantly that we find out the sex of the baby and went so far as to suggest to my parents that they contact my OB and have her email them the sex so I didn't have to know. My parents knew better than to try something so silly. My father told everyone after I called to say we had a daughter that he thought I had never let myself think I might have a baby girl. Maybe he's right, maybe I did that subconciously. But I honestly had no idea what I was having until I heard my husband yell, "It's a GIRL!" in the OR.

I wonder is the grass always greener? I wonder what it would be like to have a boy or a household of them like Suzanne and Rachel
. Actually I don't have to wonder that hard. I lived it. But I know it must be different to be the mother of so many. That's a lot of football and baseball games and impromptu wrestling matches in the den and forts and swords made out of sticks. And then I think, I only have one daughter, what about the family I knew growing up with five little girls? That's five sets of pigtails, five itchy Easter dresses, five senior proms, FIVE WEDDINGS!

My brother-in-law and sister-in-law have a little boy. When we said we wanted to have another baby in the next two years, they immediately seized on the idea we were "trying for a boy." When we looked at each other, shrugged and said, "not really, we'd be just as happy with another girl," they seemed a little perplexed. I mean, doesn't everyone want one of each? Sure we would like to have one of each at least! But children are gifts from God the Father himself. When we got pregnant with Shelby we wanted a baby. Any baby. We were beyond even asking for healthy. That's why we didn't find out the sex and why we won't find out the sex of any future babies. As badly as I wanted a sister, I thank God for giving me three healthy brothers. And I would love for Shelby to have someone to love the way I love them, brother or sister. No the grass isn't greener,on my side of the fence it's the same sweet Kentucky bluegrass it always was. And believe me, it is for you too.

Fishers of Men

If I had had a son, I would be a proud mother to have him become a priest. Maybe someday I will have a son and perhaps he will be a part of the priesthood. I am so blessed to have my daughter's Godfather be a priest and this video shows some of the reasons priests are such blessings to all Catholics.

Wondering....

how to start my newest writing project. Being a Catholic mother who works outside of the home has generated interest in writing possibly an article maybe something longer about mom's in my situation. I struggled with going back to work. I wanted nothing more than to stay home with my daughter. But as I've said before, no matter how we ran the numbers, we would be homeless if I did.

I have to wonder, how do other moms do it? I am reminded of a wonderful pediatrician who was a member of our parish growing up in Raleigh. She had three children and worked still as a doctor. Her healing hands were meant to not just be known by her children but by the children of others who she saw in her practice. Being a doctor was another vocation along with being a mother. So, if you know any moms who are Catholic and work outside of the home, send them over to my blog and I will see what I can do to get in touch with them.

Here We Are

Mama And Shelby

A Blessed Event

On September 30 Shelby Clare was baptized into the Catholic faith. She is now one of every 6 people blessed enough to belong to the family that is the Catholic church.

Because Someone Reminded Me How Much I Love These and This Song...

The Rainbow Connection

Written by Paul Williams and used by Kermit the Frog, of The Muppets, Jim Henson Productions

Why are there so many songs about rainbows
And what's on the other side?
Rainbows are visions, but only illusions,
And rainbows have nothing to hide.
So we've been told and some choose to believe it
I know they're wrong, wait and see.
Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection,
The lovers, the dreamers and me.

Who said that every wish would be heard and answered
when wished on the morning star?
Somebody thought of that
and someone believed it,
and look what it's done so far.
What's so amazing that keeps us stargazing?
And what do we think we might see?
Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection,
the lovers, the dreamers and me.

All of us under its spell,
we know that it's probably magic....
Have you been half asleep
and have you heard voices?
I've heard them calling my name.
Is this the sweet sound that calls the young sailors?
The voice might be one and the same.
I've heard it too many times to ignore it.
It's something that I'm supposed to be.
Someday we'll find it, the rainbow connection,
the lovers, the dreamers and me.
La, la la, La, la la la, La Laa, la la, La, La la laaaaaaa

If you enjoy my blog

check out these great sites too and find out what Suzanne, Danielle, Rachel, and Holly are saying about faith, family and life in general.

"Our State Fair....

is a great stat fair, don't miss it, don't even be late! It's dollars to doughnuts at our state fair, the best state fair in our state!"

We traveled to Raleigh yesterday for the State Fair. Shelby didn't really get it, but come on, she's three months old. We enjoyed the food and exhibits (especially our favorite, the garden exhibit). We missed out on rides (none with a baby), most of the animals (as someone, who shall remain nameless but was not me or Shelby, claimed the smell made him sick), and the grist mill (because it was a little too loud for the baby's sensitive ears). But we still had a great time and are already planning our trip for next year.

Want to see how other kids prepare for the state fair, check out some award winning recipes from Danielle's kids...

Doing Better

We've had a couple of trying weeks as my mother-in-law stayed with us which, as everyone knows it is a trying time when any relatives stay with you for an extended period. But this last week we were in the process of going "back to normal" or as normal as life with a three-month-old can be.

Now the schedule is supposed to begin. I hate schedules. So, we'll see how this goes.