Wow, it's been 6 months already.

Today has been 6 months already since we lost Shana. For those that are new you can read it here. There still isn't any closure to what happened. We are STILL awaiting autopsy results. Tim and Dawn have been told that it is not a priority because it is not a criminal case. So we are still waiting.....

So much going on....

August has been such a very busy month for us! I guess we are tying to cram as much stuff in as we can before summer comes to an end.

Two weekend ago we had a fantastic time. That Saturday we went to my Aunt and Uncles (My Dad's brother and his wife) for a belated birthday celebration for Cooper. They are the kids Godparents but were on vacation when we had the party. When we got there my Aunt mentioned that she had invited her sister's family (her kids are 7,5 and 4). Which was great because I haven't seen A in at least 10 years. My Aunt then mentions that A just lost a baby last week. So I'm thinking a m/c until she starts talking about a funeral! Turns out Gerard passed away at birth. So A got there and when we were alone (or as alone as you can be with 6 adults and 10 kids!!!) I told her how very sorry I was about the baby. Her and I ended up sitting down and talking and crying for about 45 minutes. We missed dinner!! I certainly can't understand exactly what she is going through because I have never lost a child but I can understand a little bit because of what my brother and sister in law are going through. A told me that at her 20 week u/s they found out there was something wrong with the baby. They were thinking Down's Syndrome and decided that they would have an amnio just to know exactly what to expect. A came to terms with the fact that the baby was probably going to have Down's and they would all get through it. Turns out that Gerard has Trisomy 18 and would most likely die at birth. A said that the only thing keeping him alive was her. My Aunt's family is EXTREMELY religious. So the only option is to go full term and pray for the best. So for 20 WEEKS she knew that her baby was going to most likely die. I just can not imagine knowing that. It is heartbreaking. From my experience with Dawn I knew that A would most likely want to talk about Gerard. So we talked about her delivery and everything else. She showed me tons of pictures and my heart just breaks for them. She was allowed to keep Gerard in the room for 2 days. I didn't realize that they would let Moms keep their babies for that long. But A said that on day 2 she dressed the baby and called the nurse and told her to take him and run or she would not want to let him go. A is doing remarkably well and my heart goes out to them.

And then on that Sunday we went out to our friends Jeff and Kelly's house. Madison LOVES playing with their 4 year old daughter Kasey and their son is 2 also. They live up on a mountain in Naples with an awesome view of Canandaigua lake and they have 60+ acres. So the kids just ran and swam and had an awesome time! After dinner they got out the 4 wheelers and the dirt bikes and the kids rode on the golf cart and loved it! That was a fun night for sure!

This past weekend is the first time I have spent a weekend without children since Madison has been born. Yes she is 4 and a half!!!! Ryan and I went to PA for the weekend to go 4 wheeling and it was such a nice and relaxing time! It was really nice to spend alone time with Ryan. We are actually going back this weekend without the kids again! We are going with 3 other couples and I can't wait!!!!!

We finally found it!

Ryan and I decided long ago that we were going to bypass the local public school and opt for a *private school for the kids. We went to our first open house when Madison was 2! Yes, I like to plan ahead =) We have seen schools that were way too small. I mean 30 kids in the ENTIRE school. That was too small for us. We have seen schools that were AWESOME but way too much money. And by too much money I mean $17,000 a year per child!!! That is just crazy! Madison is headed to Kindergarten next year and I was starting to feel like we would never find a school that we liked.

My biggest thing was that I really wanted a school that was K-12. There was really only more school that we had left to look at and if that didn't work out then we were going to have to look at other options. We went Tuesday night for an Open house to Charles Finney and it was perfect! It was exactly what we were looking for. I am so excited that we have FINALLY found the school we were looking for. And the tuition for it is actually reasonable! I'm excited that we have found a good school for the kids and that it has a lot to offer academically as well as different clubs and for a smaller school it offers a lot of different sports as well. I'm really excited for the kids to go to this school!

I really wanted Madison to go to a half day Kindergarten and we have that option at this school which is awesome. However Madison will get out of school at 11:45 and Cooper will get out of preschool at 11:30 and it is about a 25 minute drive in between schools. So now I have to decide if I keep Cooper at the preschool that Madison went to and figure out a way to pick them both up or do I put Cooper into a preschool that is near where Madison will be going to school. Choices choices!!

*People get totally nuts when they find out that the kids won't be going to our local school. I think people have the thought that if it is good enough for my kids it is good enough for yours. So some "friends" would gossip behind my back pretty much saying I was a snob because the kids were going to a different school. There is nothing wrong with our school district and it is actually one of the best in the area. There are a lot of great things and not so great things about public and private schools. So I'm not here to debate the issue this is just our choice =)

That would have been nice to know LAST week!

My in laws visit every Wednesday. They come over after dinner and spend an hour or so playing with the kids. Last Wednesday we had them babysit so Ryan and I could go out. We can home and chit chatted for a bit about nothing and then they left. This past Wednesday they came over and said "oh by the way when we sat on the couch in basement last week we noticed that the dog has FLEAS"!!! Are you effing kidding me??!! You are telling me this now?! They said that they FORGOT! How the heck do you forget something like that! So today I went out and bought flea bombs for the house. We set them off before we left the house and we took the kids out to dinner and for ice cream. We only had to be out of the house for 2 hours so it wasn't too bad. I also picked up flea shampoo for the dog and he got rubbed down as well. I hope we got them all! It's just nasty nasty nasty!

Happy Birthday Cooper!

Cooper turned 2 on Friday. I can't believe that my baby is two already! He is growing up way too fast. Part of me is sad to see him growing up so fast and not have him be my little baby anymore. He is such a little chatterbox! He is constantly talking and talk in sentences as well! He is going to be the class clown some day. If he gets a laugh out of you he will just keep doing it over and over, he loves the attention! He is so loving also. He loves to give "big hugs" and he will smack his lips at me for a kiss! He is still in his crib. More because I'm not ready to move him out of it than anything else. He is almost ready to start potty training. He knows when he has to go to the bathroom and tells me also. And his biggest change is no more binky!!

Madison had her binkys taken away when she turned 2. It was because her teething were shifting from the pacifier so the doctor said we really shouldn't give them to her anymore. We went cold turkey with them and she was perfectly fine. Since Madison's were taken away at 2 I knew that we would take Cooper's away at 2 also plus I could tell that his teeth were shifting from them also. But I'M NOT READY! When he wakes up he lays quietly in his bed with his pacifiers until I go get him. I didn't want to lose that! But it was going to have to be done! He was very excited for his Elmo cake for his party and I told him that after he had Elmo cake there would be no more binkys. I kept reminding him all week about the cake and binky. Saturday morning came and he stuck both pacifiers in his mouth (he would sleep with one in his mouth and one in each hand!!) and then he took all 3 into the bathroom and threw them in the garbage!! My heart was broken =) Naptime came and he was FINE! Not a peep out of him and the same at bedtime. He was such a big boy about it!!

He was very excited for his party! We had it at a local YMCA. They set up a bounce house and got out scooters and balls and the kids had a great time!! After they played for an hour we had pizza and then the big Elmo cake! Cooper would not even look at his presents until he had his Elmo cake, he was so excited for it! He was grinning from ear to ear when everyone sang to him. It was adorable! Present time was CHAOS!! Cooper was not interested in opening his presents at all! So Madison and some of the older kids were opening them. I had to put the brakes on that though when presents were being opened and the kids were walking away with the stuff and I didn't know who gave what! It was a great party though and all the kids had a great time!

Our PA trip

We had a GREAT time last month in PA. Here is how it went.

The kids did OK in the car. They were not interested in the DVD player AT ALL. They love play McDonald's so I did the trip locator for one. So we kept assuring them that we were stopping at one and they were very excited! So after 3 hours of driving we pulled into the play McDonald's. And surprise it was a regular old McDonald's! Well that didn't go over well at all! But they survived!

After we checked in to the hotel we went to Sesame Place. Cooper really enjoyed the rides! He was having a great time and did really well on them as well. Much better than I expected since he doesn't really sit still yet!






















Madison had fun but she has been to two local amusement parks near our house that has a lot of big kid rides which she loves! She prefers the roller coasters to the kiddie rides. The faster the better! So there were only two rides there that she really enjoyed. They had a roller coaster and another drop down ride that she loved!

We also had breakfast with Elmo. It was very pricey for the type of food that was served. Madison hated the characters!! She wanted nothing to do with them. She stood outside of the restaurant with Ryan while Cooper and I were inside. He did well with the characters. He would get his picture taken with the characters if I held him but wouldn't let me put him down!

All in all the park was really nice and really clean. I'm glad that we went.

We also went to the Philly Zoo. That was great! It is a really nice zoo. We got to see Giraffes and zebras and lots of things that we can't see at our zoo. Kids did really well again. We were there about 4 hours and then Cooper had had his fill and was done. So we headed back to the hotel and played in the pool and on the playground for the rest of the day.

We also went to Adventure Aquarium. We didn't get there till 11am since we went to Breakfast with Elmo first. And it was BUSY!! Busy is an understatement. There were so many people there that it was hard to get close to the exhibits and I wasn't comfortable with Cooper being out of the stroller. But Ryan and Cooper managed to get their hands in to the string ray tank and the shark tank! Madison and I didn't want any part of that =) We didn't stay at the aquarium long because there were so many people there. Had we gotten there earlier I'm sure it would have been fine.

Our last stop was the crayola factory. It cost $30 to get in (Cooper was free). I thought this was a bit pricey since it is basically a big store and then you get to paint, color, paste, etc... But the kids had a good time doing the crafts.

Overall the trip was really great and I am so glad that we went. Kids did great! There was pretty much no nap for Cooper the entire time we were gone (he still naps 3 hours a day). And they sat up giggling and talking at night also. It was really cute to listen to it!

The drive home was LONG! We were all tired and the kids were arguing and there was lots of yelling!

Next weekend we are off to Buffalo for a long weekend. We have a family reunion and then Madison and I have a bridal shower and then we are going to take the kids to another aquarium and to Niagara Falls!!

Fake Bloggers

There have been a few blogs that have been outed as fake the past few weeks such as the Baby April Rose hoax and the Cynthiaa/Aiden bug blog.

I admit that I got completely sucked in to Cynthiaa's blog. In the beginning of February she blogged that at 38 weeks pregnant she had lost her baby to a cord strangulation. I cried my eyes out as I read her posts about losing her baby. That is a loss like no other and a loss that you never get over. I couldn't imagine how you deal with such a loss.

It was only 3 weeks after Cynthiaa lost her baby that we lost our niece. My Sister in law went into labor at 32 weeks and Shana was born and lived for 3 hours before the angels took her. I contacted Cynthiaa for some advice on what to say/do for my brother and sister in law. She emailed me her thoughts and said she would be happy to talk to Dawn if I wanted to give her her contact info.

Not too long after she started changing the name of her blog and it pretty much was one day she was mourning the loss of her son and then all her blogs had to do with fashion finds. But everyone grieves differently so I didn't think much of it. Then a few weeks ago I clicked on her blog and she had made it private which was really strange. And then I was reading another blog and it was mentioned that Cynthiaa's was a hoax.

This bothers me GREATLY because we actually lost our niece and my brother and sister in law will never be the same. And for her to make up this story for readers and attention is deplorable. And thank goodness I did not pass along any contact info! Can you imagine how betrayed you would feel if you had divulged your feelings to someone that you thought was going through the same things to find out they are a fraud? I think that this fake blog bothers me the most because it is something that we are actually living through.