Grand Opening

Well now that I have officially been blogging for almost two months now it is time to have my Grand Opening and celebrate where this blog is going and all who visit me each day.  I never knew it would be so fun to get all my thoughts together and put them in one place for all to see.  I truly have enjoyed it and I love to hear that others are enjoying it also.  I know that everyone has met the characters and I have decided I want to share a little bit more for you, some background if you will. 

 As you may know my daughter is getting ready to turn 12 and my son is 7 and has a dual diagnosis of Down syndrome and Autism, PDD-nos. I have left out this little bit of info and have been trying to figure out how to share it.  I am sure you might have seen this on the side of my blog and well I didn't want that to be the first thing everyone saw when they opened my blog so I am trying this out for size and I think this is going to work just fine.  I have only recently started acknowledging that we have a dual diagnosis. I thought that if I didn't say it or talk about it and nobody knew about it that it just wouldn't exist. I finally had to look this diagnosis straight in the face because my son needed help, we needed help. It is funny how at one time we where confused and worried about the diagnosis of Down syndrome but Autism left me scared and empty. I longed for the interaction I saw in other kids and I only wanted one diagnosis. I know strange that I even wanted one, but I have accepted the diagnosis of Down syndrome along time ago and children with Down syndrome are no different than any other child, they just might take a little bit longer to get to the same places everyone else is at and you throw autism in the mix and well things get a little sketchy.  Now that we are addressing his issues fully armed we are moving forward again and it feels good. I don't want to leave the impression that he does not interact with us because that just isn't true, he is totally engaged with us now and moving forward with this everyday.  Our biggest problem is crowds, loud noises and restaurants.  I do not have any big solutions or remedies to try. This blog is just about a family dealing with life and having fun. 

 I know that this post seems a little  strong on the special needs side of things and you wonder how does my girl fit into all of this?  Her brother is just her brother to her and she loves him very much.  She is turning into a very caring, understanding and patient person that is going to do great things in life because of what she has learned from her brother.  Our lives will never be the same and thank goodness for that.  So thank you again for stopping by for my Grand Opening and I do hope you come back for a visit and I know that all Grand Openings send their guests away with something so I am going to splash some extra pictures in for fun and I hope you take from this post that we are doing fine, growing as a family and basically we have been blessed with two wonderful children.