Don’t worry, we’re still alive!
Hi, I’m Noah’s dad, and I used to blog here. Does anyone remember? 🙂
Wow…! It’s been a while since I’ve written a blog post and I miss it! While our Facebook page has remained very active the last few month, this blog has been sort of a digital ghost town.
For those of you wondering what happened to our regular blog posts about our son Noah let me calm your fears.
No, we didn’t get eaten up by mermaids,
or go back to 1885 to find our long, lost Doctor friend,
or move to some super-awesome-Disney-resort-in-Hawaii-that-I-would-love-to-go-to-one-day.
Nope. It was nothing that awesome. You want to know what’s really been keeping us so busy that we haven’t been able to post any new blog posts these past few months? I’ll tell you….you ready….1, 2, 3….
L-I-F-E…..Life.
That’s really all there is to it. Between work, Noah’s school, enjoying time with friends and family, and all the other joys of life, the blog got put on hold for a while. (Oh, and did I mention there was an issue with my server and our entire site got wiped out and had to be rebuilt? Don’t get me started….)
We really miss sharing Noah’s story with everyone and interacting with our readers in the comments as well. We can’t wait to start cranking out the posts on a regular basis once again. I apologize that the site has gone into no-man’s land for so long, and hope we can still be friends. 🙂
By the way, Noah is doing great! Here’s a recent picture of him from our trip to Klyde Warren Park this past weekend….is this kid getting cuter every day or what? 🙂
What has your family been up to lately? Leave a post below and tell us about it. (Bonus points for sharing a picture!)
About Rick Smith
I missed your posts – delighted you are back and looking forward to some updates on Noah!!! I am sure he is up to all sorts these days!!
Thanks Karen! We are ready to start posting as well!
And oh yes, he is up to lots and lots. If you follow our Facebook page you’ve probably seen all of the pictures. He’s growing up quick. 🙂
How old are your children?
Hi! Sorry to intrude on your chat with someone else but I didn’t know how else to share my brother’s wonderful evening.
We live in El Paso, TX and tonight there was a reception for three artists at the Chamizal National Memorial and my brother was one of them. I would send a picture but I don’t know how 🙁
My brother is 48 years old and has always doodled. After our mother passed away, he came to live with me and I started taking him to art classes. He loved it! He has grown so much!! I am so proud of him!!
My mother always encouraged Joe, my brother, in whatever he wanted to do. I see that you are doing the same for Noah. You and your wife are great parents. Keep up the good work. It is so rewarding.
No worries, we love people connecting and chiming in. Feel free to do so anytime!
As far as leaving a picture, just look below the box where you type in your comment, you’ll see a button that you can press that says “chose file.” You will then be able to upload a picture that will display in the comments. Please let me know if you have any problems.
I’m trying to post a picture. Wish me luck!
I think I did it 🙂
Thank you for your help.
It worked! Your brother looks so sharp by the way. Thanks so much for sharing his picture!
I think he looks sharp too. Thank you! By the way, he is standing in front of a few of his paintings. He had 9 in this exhibit. If you would like, I can share more.
I love his paintings!
Time with your kid family is more important than any blog , but keep the pics of noah coming he maakes us smile when we see him
Amen and amen! 🙂
Thanks for saying hello and I’m glad you enjoy the pictures. Are you connected with us on Facebook and Instagram? We share a lot of pictures there.
Oh sweet! I was a bit worried about the blog but I follow you guys on facebook and instagram so I figured everyrhing was ok with the frequent happy updates on there!
My husband just graduated college and has an awesome full time job lined up with the company he did his college internship with so thats super exciting!
And I am a nanny to 2 adorable kiddos! Ones 5 the other 7 (almost 8) and they are so much fun! I love being with them!!! My husband and I aren’t quite ready to have kids we are going to wait a couple more years and working with these kids really fills up that space in my heart! They make me feel like the grinch on Christmas when his heart grows 3 sizes!! Haha!
So glad you guys are back to the blog!
Thanks for sharing Noah with us! He is adorable! I love watching him grow!
Can’t wait for more posts!!
Your friend,
Ashley (Tulsa, OK)
That’s great, congrats on your husband graduating college. That’s awesome!
What sort of job is he going in to?
Thanks! He’s an accounting major but is doing financial planning! He loves it!!!!
Awesome. There’s nothing like doing what you enjoy for a living!
Please be sure to keep us connected on your story.
Missed your post. I follow you on Facebook, I love seeing Noah grow each day. I have 4 children, 1 boy and 3 girls. Josh who is my oldest (he’s 21) has downs. I so wish when Josh was young that Facebook would’ve existed. It would have been great to share our experience in raising our son. Thanks for sharing your precious Noah with us!
Sincerely
Susan Ritter (Tennessee)
Thanks for saying hello. And I totally agree, today’s social media options are fantastic for connecting with other families and meeting new people!
Have a great weekend.
Yay! I love reading your blog and seeing Noah’s pics. He is beautiful and too cute! I don’t have kids but I do have a nephew born with down syndrome 3 months ago that is the LOVE of my life 🙂 His name is Noah also! We are very excited that he will be coming home from the hospital for the first time very soon. Have an awesome weekend!
You sound like a great aunt! We’d love to see a picture if you’d like to share one. You can even leave one right here in the comments.
Great to hear from y’all!
You sure do have a handsome fella!
You might be interested in something really cool one of our dads in Central Mississippi Down Syndrome Society has started!
Check it out : http://www.runningforlily.com
Oh, and I posted a pic of our little girl who is waiting for us in China! Hoping to travel to bring her home in a couple of months! 🙂
Hope y’all have a super summer!
What a BEAUTIFUL little girl! How old is she?
And how super cool that you guys are adopting. Is everything final with the process?
Congratulations on your beautiful little girl. I hope you are able to bring her home very soon! What a blessing you will be for each other!
She is beautiful!!!!! <3 Congrats on your new addition!!! Her smile is contagious!!! 🙂
OMG….. Noah really does just keep getting more and more cute by the minute. I love his beautiful smile. It makes my day.
Life sure does get busy from time to time. Glad to see your family is back.
Our family has not been up to much new. Our daughter (Jamie) had a wonderful experience at Special Olympics track and field this week. Jamie’s last race was the 200 metre. That is a very long distance for her. At about the half way mark she stopped, saying “I can’t do it” but all the spectators and her peer coaches encouraged her and cheered her on. With her peer coaches, myself and her educational assistant running along side her, she went on to complete the race. Everyone at the finish line cheering for her. Now that is the spirit of the Special Olympics. As her mom, I was soooo proud of her.
Where else do you find such comradery and loving support ? Here is a picture of my proud girl.
What an adorable girl, and how AWESOME on the race! We can’t wait until Noah runs one some day! She looks so happy!
Great job Jamie! That’s a long race…my almost 40 year old legs don’t run that far! You’re an inspiration cutie 🙂
Lol..my legs don’t enjoy running that far either! 🙂
glad you are back Rick but glad you were enjoying life too Noah will be all grown up before you know it treasure this time
Oh yah, we have a lot of fun around here, that’s for sure. 🙂
And we totally agree, it’s crazy to thin that he is already 2 and 1/2!
So glad to see the recent blog and the Facebook post are awesome. I think your post are so important to all of us doing L-I-F-E out there with children and grandchildren who sport an extra chromosome or some other awesomeness, because it keeps the bright days happy and the darker ones encouraging and hopeful. Thank you for sharing your life with us and all the helpful pictures and post.
Hey! Good to hear from you. Hope everything is going well in your world!
Welcome back Rick! Thanks for the update! You’ve been missed.
Thanks for the kind and encouraging words. Hope you guys have been doing well!
Hi Rick,
We have one little girl – Emily. She is 25 months old and has DS. As Noah is a few months older I have always followed your blog for useful tips!!
Emily is doing great – has maybe 12 words ( she has started to put 2 words together recently ‘Hiya dada’, ‘All gone’ and ‘Thank you’ ) and has started to walk in the last few weeks – although she knows she is quicker crawling!! She loves music, dancing, her dog and is a little socialite!!! Yes its all go in our house!!
Take care,
Karen.
PS – we are from Ireland.
Thanks for saying hello, and HOW AWESOME on the speech!
Noah has a lot of signs…and a hand full of words. (One of which being “mamma” which we can’t get enough of!)
Great to see you posting again Rick and lovely to see how grown up Noah is getting. I’m hailing from Ireland too. Sophie is 20 months – crawling like a crazy little monkey, starting to walk, and loving to chat away – signs and a few words (loves her Dada that’s for sure!) 🙂 Great to see all the great photos – going to try post one myself.
Emily Weir (from Ireland) – feel free to email me as sounds like our girls are similar age 😀
Welcome back! We love hearing all about Noah and watching him grow!!! Looking forward to continuing the journey (:
What an adorable little one! Thanks for sharing, and for saying hello. Hope all is well in your world!
Glad to hear you are back up and running. Yes life, especially with our kiddos (then add more kiddos) can get crazy. My little guy auditioned for his first movie recently and he is still in the running for the part. Keeping our fingers crossed that our life gets even more crazier. He is currently yelling at me to video tape his “breakfast show” as he calls it, making cereal. We do this every weekend and now that it is summer he thinks he can do it everyday because everyday is a weekend!! Noah is getting cuter everyday and growing up fast!
Wow,that’s cool. Keep us posted on how it goes.
Your children look like they enjoy fishing, do they do it often?
Ethan loves to fish, he especially loves to cast…over & over & over….He was introduced to fishing through an organization called Cast for Kids. They are a non-profit who team up with local professional anglers in various cities to give a day of free fishing for individuals with special needs. Each kid or adult, accompanied by an adult or guardian goes with the guide an their boat. The guide teaches them how to fish and where the best place on the lake is to fish. If your lucky you will catch one….or two as was in our case. This organization has been doing this for quite some time. You should check out their site castforkids.org for any events in your area. It is free and they provide tackle, poles, and lunch as well as awards. Attached is a pic on Ethan with his fishing guide Scooter from Arizona Fishing Guides. He was wonderful and spent quality time teaching Ethan how to cast and let him drive the boat!!
Wow, Cast for Kids sounds awesome! My father in law is a huge fisherman and can’t wait to take Noah on his fishing boat for the first time when we go to visit in a few weeks. Hopefully we can get some pictures on him with a fish to share!
Have a great day, and please keep us connected with your story!
Welcome back to blogging. I understand when LIFE gets in the way! We’ve been keeping up with y’all on Facebook and Instagram. This is Hollis. He’s 7 months and he’s been enjoying his summer so far!!!
Thanks for saying hello….AND OH MY GOODNESS…. Hollis IS adorable…!!!!!
He sort of reminds me of Noah when he was Hollis’s age. He looks like he is a fan of water / the pool. Am I right? (Noah sure is.)
He is so so so cute!!!
Hollis looks so cute in his beach outfit! What a doll. He looks like he’s “chillin'” and waiting for the girls to notice him 😉
Indeed, very happy to “see” you all !
Thanks!
I was starting to wonder if you’d ever be back. I knew you were okay as we see the photos and such on Facebook but Little Man loves to watch videos on the blog with me.
Let’s see…we bought a house so we’re still getting settled in there. Little Man met with his geneticist at UCSF last week and he’s perfectly fine, no labs, and just another appointment in November. Mama and Daddy are getting tested, though, in a couple of weeks. ::sigh::
Other than that, nothing new or exciting…
Bought a house?? Wow, that’s awesome. Congrats!
I am a new follower to your blog and Facebook page but I have learned to love Noah in such a short time. Our little boy has just turned 5months and boy time sure flies fast. After his heart surgery, he has been recovering really great 🙂 He recently started rolling over all by himself and it makes me so happy because everyone else says he’ll have delays and he is so far beating all the odds 🙂
Here he is now (with his twin sisters), we named him Alphonse.
Thanks for saying hello! What an ADORABLE family! I bet you guys have a ton of fun.
What do you guys like doing for fun?
My girls love biking, drawing (in paper and in the computer) while baby Al loves playing with us in bed while were all watching the skies from the window in our bedroom 🙂
It sounds like you guys get to have a ton of fun! I love it! Thanks for sharing with us.
Please keep sharing about your family. We enjoy staying connected to everyone!
My son was born with ds too. he is almost 22 months old. I have twin daughters too. They are 4 years old. We have some in common!!!! Your son will learn alot from his sisters!!!!
It’s no doubt that siblings are one of the best ways for children to learn. We can’t wait for Noah to have a little brother or sister! (God willing.) 🙂
Yay! We are happy to see Noah back on. Levi says hi to Noah….
Awww….Levi is SUPER adorable…how old is he?
Thank you, he will be 20 months next week:)
Awesome! Feel free to share pictures here and on Facebook anytime! We love staying connected to your story!
Levi has a winning smile!
Thank you:)
Noah is so adorable!
I took the summer off from college to spend my daughter’s last summer of high school with her and also to help my other daughter with her summer math (she is taking Algebra so she won’t have to take it as a freshman)! The pool is about filled so kids will spend all there free time in there! The pic is of my 17 yr old daughter, who happens to have DS, and her Prom date!
This is so awesome! Thanks for sharing. Her prom date looks like a very nice guy!
I hope Noah has lots of great friends like this when he goes to high school!
Hi, we absolutely love watching Noah grow up. Your experiences and your stories are inspirational to us. We are in a really scary place right now with our son Brohdy. We have gotten so much info from you we thought we would reach out to you or anyone else who follows that may have some info on the news we received. Brohdy was diagnosed with severe obstructive sleep apnea but now they think he has Chiari Malformation, they said this is common in Down Syndrome but this is something we have never heard of. So we thought we would reach out to you or anybody that may have gone through this with their own lil one. Thanks for sharing your journey with all of us 🙂
First of all thank you so much for your kind and encouraging words, Brohdy is ADORABLE by the way! Thanks so much for sharing his picture with us.
Also, you aren’t going to believe this but I was personally just diagnosed with a Chiari 1 Malformation LAST WEEK…!!! Crazy, huh? (I’ll post a picture of my brain in this comment….sort of freaky, huh?)
Was Brohdy’s a Chiari 1? (There are different levels.)
Ever person is different, a I was very scared when I got the news, but I met with one of the top neurosurgeons in the country and he actually down played mine. In fact he told me it would not require any surgery and he didn’t even want me to follow up with him…1 year, 5 years, ever!!! Talk about relief!!
Keep in mind every person is different, but this my story with a Chiari 1 Malformation. I just prayed for your little boy, and hope that is the case for him also. But no matter what, I know that God is faithful and loves the heck out of your little boy.
Did they give you any more details about his Chiari Malformation? Did you schedule a follow up appointment with a neurosurgeon? Also how did they find it? Where they doing an MRI on something else and just happen to see it?
I’m so glad you reached out by the way, I’ll answer any questions that I’m able to.
Ok that is crazy that you are going through this at the same time we are. I’m Brohdy’s other mommy! Brohdy was diagnosed with severe obstructive sleep apnea. So we met with ENT and she didn’t think it was his tonsils or adnoids so she wants to take him to the OR to watch his lungs while he’s asleep. She referred us to pulmonology and after meeting with him he said Brohdys lungs sound clear and he doesn’t think the obstruction is coming from his lungs. He asked us a bunch of questions about symptoms that Brohdy has and said it sounds like CM. he said if Brohdy has it he will most likely require surgery to make the whole ( chiari) bigger. He won’t say anything more until the MRI. We’re hoping to do the MRI soon, they want to coordinate with audiology to do an ABR cause they haven’t been able to do a hearing test on our little man because his ear canals are super small. So we don’t know for sure if he has it but he has all the symptoms.
We love your page and adore your family. We find so much hope and inspiration from everything we read here.
Thank you so much!
Deb, thanks for your comment. It sounds like yall are going through a lot.
When do you guys plan on doing the MRI.
Wow I’m super glad we asked you about it, how crazy you were just diagnosed with it. ( Super scary thing to hear when your not expecting something like that ) Brohdy has had breathing issues since birth. The day after Christmas we ended up in ICU at children’s Hospital for a 3 week stay, he was 3 months old at that point. He had RSV , that was the start of this whole journey, we have been in and out of the hospital for 72 days this year already. The last stay they actually did some testing cause they knew something just wasn’t right. When we finally got him healthy enough to do an offical sleep study ( on the 3rd attempt ) we found out but already knew he has pretty severe obstructive sleep apnea. We then saw ENT but she ruled out tonsils and adenoids being the problem, so then we saw pulmonary and he is the one who asked some very odd questions and after spending over and hour talking to him he said he doesn’t believe this has anything to do with his lungs, and then he explained the Chiari Malformation to us. We will be doing the MRI soon then talking to the Nuerosurgeon so at this point we don’t know what level it is. That’s why we are kinda in a panic, we went from thinking it was tonsils and adenoids to this that we have never even heard of.
Thank you so very much for taking the time to talk to us, it means so much to us. I know God will protect our lil fighter!! I’m sure we will have a hundred questions for you after we get his MRI done. I hope that’s ok 🙂
Again Noah is so very precious and we look everyday on FB to see his perfect smile!! You have truely inspired us so much with the things you do for Noah and have given us so many ideas we never would of even thought to do for Brohdy.
We knew nothing about DS prior to Brohdy and I believe your page is one of the first things we found!! Your truely a special soul.
No problem, feel free to ask away.
i wouldn’t loose to much sleep over it to be honest. I know it’s scary (by the way, don’t google it….) but the doctors are really good that work on that if you have to cross that bridge.
Where are you guys located?
We are in Aurora, CO.
And very lucky to be with in 20 minutes of Children’s Hospital.. So we know we are in great hands.
That’s awesome. Noah’s grandparents live near Aspen…We’re about to be there for a week. 🙂
Colorado’s a fun place to live.
Your little man is precious. I have an 8 year old girls and twin boys whom I equally dote over!
I was diagnosed with Chiari Mal. 4 years ago at the age of 30. I had, however, dealt with its symptoms for year. I was diagnosed just shortly after a miscarriage. Mine was a level of 10 so it did require surgery,actually within a week of my diagnosis. It was not a simple recovery but I can tell you that I feel 100% better now. I have your little one on my heart as I can not imagine if I am ever told one of my children have Chiari. I looked at mine in a very positive light. It will be okay. Just another bump in the road. Blessings to you.l
Thanks for sharing.
What sorts of symptoms where you having? Mine were really just light headaches (however they actually think the headaches were unrelated to the Chiari Malformation.)
What sort of Chiari Malformation did you have? Type 1?
Hi there,
I am so glad you all are doing good and look forward to more blogs . My name is Jeannie, our daughter Sophia is 15 months who also has DS. She is so amazing and such a blessing. When I read your story.. I felt such a connection. It seemed as though I was reading our own story. We had a risk for DS but knew no matter what we would love and care for our child. Of course there was fear once we found out she was downs, just not knowing what to expect. There is no more fear, she is great, there was nothing to be fearful of. Started following your blogs when she was only a month or 2 old. Your blogs encourages us and inspires us. Thank you soo much.
Thanks so much for your comments and the kind and encouraging words. Your daughter is adorable!
Please keep us updated on yall’s story!
How ironic you should blog this week. I am a Foster Carer for a little girl with Downs Syndrome. I have had her since she was six weeks old and she is now 13 months old. I have followed you and your family from our day one on the 15th June when this little girl came into our lives and changed our hearts forever. She has been through heart surgery at six months old, what a journey we have been on too. Sadly for us, we found out on Tuesday, this little one will now be placed in her grandmothers care next month. Obviously we are numb, but I will never forget this experience and all the opportunities I have set up for this child. We are now really passionate about these little children, and I will continue to follow you and your lovely family.
You sound like great foster parents, thanks for leaving a comment.
It will be great to see how you end up using all of the passion that you have. There is lots of room to help create awareness in the Down syndrome community.
We missed you, but we sure understand….life has been happening to us too! Noah is beautiful and growing fast!
Thanks Amy!
It’s good to hear from you. How is your family and kiddo’s doing?
Verifying email address
Hey Karen,
I believe you should have gotten an email with a link to click to verify your email address.
Hi Noah’s Dad! So happy to read a new post! We follow on IG and FB and we love seeing all of sweet Noah’s pictures! I came across your blog after our son Liam was born last May (he just turned 1!!!) and just want to say thank you! Here is a picture of Liam with his big sister Avery playing in the baby pool for the first time! (The water was cold!!!!)
Awwww…what an adorable picture! Liam looks like an awesome little guy, with an awesome big sister!
We wish Noah had a sister. 🙂 Maybe one day.
New to Noah!! A friend shared his birthstory on FaceBook with me yesterday! Very inspirational! I look forward to watching this darling boy grow (and it will happen fast … mine are 7, 13, 16, & 19 already though it seems only yesterday the oldest was born!) Thanks for sharing Noah!!
Mary, Thanks for your comment and for following along.
You can read about some of his milestones here: http://noahsdad.com/milestones
Looking forward to learning more about your story as well!
Happy to see that life is getting in the way! We recently took our first vacation since our son Logan was born and I was happy to see just how normal it was. I’m not sure why I ever thought live would be all THAT different after DS, but it definitely is totally normal! 14 month old on the beach, loves playing in the sand, tried to eat it , hated it – life is good 🙂 Logan says hi to Noah too!
How fun! Noah is a big fan of the sand and beach also!
Logan is SOOOO adorable. Thanks for sharing his picture!
Hey, Noah certainly does just get cuter and cuter! I have been following on FB. My son Matthew is 18 months now and has just mastered standing! I am such a proud mum. Here is s recent photo of him out on his trike.
What an adorable little man you have there…and how great on the walking! What a huge milestone.
He looks like he really like that tyke by the way! Thanks for sharing his picture.
Does he have any brothers or sisters?
Spencer is doing great as well! He had the hole in his heart repaired. His pulmonary hypertension and pulmonary stenosis disappeared after that! We are dealing with Hyperthyroid, weekly Speech Therapy, just started weekly OT and monthly PT. Right now he has his first every ear infection – double.
He thinks the sun rises and sets on his sister! It sure makes it hard to keep them from making each other sick!
So great on all of the heart stuff! Thanks for updating us on that, and for sharing his picture.
Looks like he really loves his sister….how awesome! We can’t wait for Noah to have a little brother or sister. 🙂
L I F E is right! We have been the same! Ava had her first birthday last week is starting to gain weight and so far has avoided an heart procedures so hope it keeps trending that way. She is starting to get moble…not crawling but rolling, flipping, shimming and finding a way to get where she wants to go…..simply amazing these little ones are!
Ava is ADORABLE…!!!
Thanks for sharing her picture. Don’t worry about the milestones, they’ll come. Just enjoy every day.
Does Avy have any siblings?
I am so glad to see your blogs back up and running!!!! Even more glad to see Noah’s smiling face!!! So excited to announce my little Elijah’s entrance into modeling….he’s in a talent agency right now and we are awaiting to hear from several companies! He is 2 1/2 and the light of our lives!!! Here is after his last live show!!!
That’s awesome! Elijah is a cool looking dude!
What sorts of things has he modeled for?
Bonn Jour!!!! So glad to read your post each day and so happy that Noah is doing well! he looks like a normal rough and tumble kid!!! As a PICU RN, I deal with kids all day and you know what? I love it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Keep us posted!!! God Bless! MUCHO HUGS!!!
Nurse Rob 🙂
Thanks for the comment and for all you do!
I absolutely love keeping up with Noah on Facebook!! You and your family have done so much in the area of awareness for children/people with Down Syndrome.
My son, MJ, is 2 years old and when I see your pics of Noah they remind me of our MJ (Michael Jr. ).
God bless you and your family!
Thanks for the comment, Michael is awesome! I bet he and Noah would be good buddies. 🙂
Glad you are back. We understand a few things about life getting in the way too!
We can’t wait to hang at the Fun House again soon!
So glad to get your updates in my email- our life has been the same- sometimes we don’t even get to our emails promptly….I love to be a part of your family tho. And I tell anyone that will listen {usually I have em’ in a headlock!! LOL} about Noahsdad.com. You will have a few more jewels in your crown when you go to heaven because of all the people you have given such hope and joy to. Our Devin {grandson} is growing like mad!! He is going to be 4 in Oct- and he says Poppa {grandpa} which makes my husband bust his buttons. We are working on Grandma!!
Thanks for your comment Denise, and for helping us spread awareness! You rock!
Hi! I’m new to reading your blog but isn’t Noah just gorgeous?!!
I have ten week old twin boys, Ollie and Cameron, who both have Down Syndrome – they are truly amazing babies! Like yourselves, we are trying to raise awareness of DS via social networking and we’re following you on FB too 🙂
Looking forward to following your journey x
those boys are beautiful
Hi, you have such very cute boys, i know that God will give you guidance in bringing them into this world, i have a cute little girl too, alexie she is now 19 months old
Beautiful baby boys!!!
Your little boys are adorable! I haven’t many twins with Down syndrome, thanks for sharing.
Do they any brothers or sisters?
Have you found the sunshine sisters on facebook yet? they are twin girls. Your boys are precious and I love their names.
God Bless you and your babies.
So glad Noah’s dad is back bloggging again.. I really missed your blogs! But still, I am able to know that Noah is doing well through your facebook page… His progress is superb ! Well done ! Here is a picture of my darling girl, 18 mths old DS. She has started to walk 2 mths ago and knew many sign language. .and is learning to talk to us…. with only dadadadada… for now… and say some simple words like book, duck, dog… with the alphabet ‘d’ which seems easier for her… love her lots!!
hi rick, its been a while, i am an avid reader of your blogs, and we miss reading them, thanks for coming back. this is my alexie she is now 19 mothns old and i am a super proud mom to her, she now knows how to walk and talks mama and dada. she also knows how to do the chicken dance which we really love watching. hope to hear more stories from you. God bless you more, hugs and kissess to cute noah
Love your blog…….I have found many new idea about therapies and toys as well as just enjoying your journey. Ryan has had a lot in his 27 months of life. He has been diagnosed with a seizure disorder which lead us to fairly risky medication that caused his heart to enlarge and we almost lost out little boy when he was not even a year old. He showed us his strength and perseverance and came home…….with a trach and a Gtube. He needed oxygen, he was on a vent, and couldn’t tolerate pump feeds very well. In a years time, he has shown his strength and perseverance times 10. He is no longer in need of oxygen, no moe vent cause he no longer has a trach. Still has a Gtube but who cares………he is pulling himself to stand….using signing times….and is a happy little boy! We love him more than anything!
So glad you’re back!!! Noah is such a doll!!!
Here are four kids rocking an extra chromosome who need homes soon!!!! They all rock!!! <3
Reecesrainbow.org
Hi Rick,
We love reading about Noah. Looks like you’ve been busy, us too. Bennett has his first apt this summer at children’s hospital in Boston. They have a special clinic program for our kids that is amazing. Do you guys have anything like that in tx? It’s pretty wonderful what they do, we meet with the dev pedi, pt, speech, ot, dentist, nutritionist, cardio, otolangology, and a few others I can’t think of now, all in one day. Have a great summer!
Hi Noah’s Dad. I have been following Noah for some time. It was good you took some time to just be with Noah, moments are so precious. David was my Down Syndrome grandson. He was 2 1/2 when he went to Heaven in 1997. Cause or Community is my way of raising awareness of Special Olympics needs families and Special Olympics. In honor of David’s memory I literally picked up the “Torch.” I am still recuperating from cancer so I have to take it slow. My long term goal is to help some “Champions” go to LA2015 Special Olympics World Summer Games. I started attending Special Olympics events last year, taking pictures, editing small videos and adding them to my YouTube Channel. The smaller towns don’t get the attention they deserve. I have been so blessed in so many ways, including a career in Broadcast, Engineering, Satellite and while I continue to heal, I can help others. My Faith sustains me and I love every single special angel. Last August I became a great grandmother of a little boy, Bridger and was blessed to see his birth. God has kept me alive for a reason and while I am alive, I will pray for Noah, you, his mom, and all the families who are blessed to be the guardians of the most beautiful children born. I don’t have a blog yet, but I am looking into it. I am really glad you are back and Noah is OK. May God Bless you and your family always.
Robin Potter
I just recently started following you on Facebook. Didn’t know there was a blog too. I will have to check it out now that I do. I have 4 babies. ( well not reAlly babies anymore but they’re mine do ill always see them as babies!) Natalie 10, Tyler 8, Rebecca 6, and Dakota is 3. 2 bits 2 girls. Natalie was burn with Down syndrome, we didn’t know until 3 days old. She was a micro preemie born at 28 weeks 5 days. Had heart surgery at 3 months, and one week before her first birthday a tornado ripped through our home, but we were fine. No injuries to either her or myself. She is entering the 4th grade this coming school year. Natalie is considered non-verbal but does have a very few words. We work with her all the time. Our babies are gifts. Your Noah is precious. Natalie actually turns 10 tomorrow!! Sorry this is do long just wanted to introduce my girl and say hello.
Just wanted to say how awesome this blog and facebook page is I lost my Katie 4 years ago but she was awesome and rocked that extra chromosome like no one’s business!!! Being able to follow Noah’s journey and to see all of these other awesome kids brings tears of joy to my eyes. Thank you for this
Carter and mom and dad say welcome back!!!
We missed you guys, glad you are back!!! Our little guy is amazing and already 9 months old, he is enjoying gumming on a waffle fry at the zoo here!
We are glad you are back!!! Your posts always encourage me!!!! Thanks so much!!!
Mindy
I LOVE reading about Noah, and love that you are Noah’s Dad. Our Katy is 8 and has so much personality it is unreal. Everywhere we go in our small town we are Katy’s Mom and Dad. She’s famous! She and her wonderful, older sister (they’re only 14 months apart!) surprise and astound us every day!
So glad that you are back up and running!!! I’ve been loving your regular updates on facebook. We don’t have downs syndrome in our family but love your posts none-the-less. My daughter was born with a Complete Unilateral cleft lip and palate and we have been learning the ropes in accessing services for her in regional Australia. I also have a 6 year old boy and an 8 month old boy. I look forward to seeing more of your posts!!
Do u like this photo of Cesare’s? He is with his sister Lavinia in front of Pope Francis in Rome! Noah we love you so much and we follow you and your parents everyday!
Hi there, Noah`s Dad; we keep reading all about you, good to know you re doing fine !
Hi i love reading about little noah he brings so many smiles to my face.cause every obstacle he overcomes i know my baby boy can too. (: well tell Noah we are glad to see yal back
Glad to see you are back and bringing us joy with Noah’s stories and smiles. I love seeing all the pictures above. Here is big guy on his high school graduation day. Countless hours of OT, speech, and physical therapy, 17 IEP meetings, and 27 fire alarm pulls later he walked across the stage and got his diploma!
Congrats! This is so inspirational and motivational !
Hi my name is deby and I Just wanted to say how awesome is this blog and facebook page is, my baby is 3 months old his name Is Ezra , he is so sweet and I’m in love with him, Ezra is my third child. When I was Pregnant and I found out that Ezra was DS I was scare , but what made me sad was to found out that he had a heart problem, and I found your blog and somehow I felt that everything was going to be okay. He has av canal defect, and they will do surgery the last week of June or the first week of July they want him to be 11 pounds and he is 8.9. I’m not scared because I trust God and His perfect will, but I’m very sad that my baby has to go through surgery, I cry just thinking about it and I know that a need to be strong for him, I am originally from chile, and there is nothing like your blog to help new parents , so my goal is to create something like this in Spanish to help, Much love.
deby
PS: if anyone has any advice about how can I help ezra after his heart surgery I will appreciate it 🙂
Hi Deby. Your little Superman is super cute! I just saw your post and wanted to reply. My daughter, Darcie, had heart surgery last summer. She has a large inlet VSD, ASD and PFO. We were so scared to send her in for surgery but it had to be done. You will be amazed at how well he does. I think these kids are strong fighters and they do so well after surgery. You just have to be careful about how you lift him until his incision heals. Scoop him up with a hand under his head and bottom. Do not lift under the arms. They have to wire the sternum together so you don’t want to lift him up under his arms for a while. If you have any questions please let me know. Darcie’s page is http://www.facebook.com/DarcieODaniel Good luck to you!
Thanks Jennifer 😉
Deby, I understand about there not being more Spanish resources. I’m originally from Mexico and my wife from Honduras. This would help us explain some things better to our family that do not read English. We also hope to maybe translate or create some Spanish information on the blog we recently started… http://lavidagomez.com
Hang in there, we had similar heart issues when Izzy was born, but thankfully with time the heart defect cleared itself. We will send prayers your way.
que bueno 🙂 ,and thanks Mauro
Hi ,
Glad your family doing good !
I’m a single mom with my down syndrom boy , 13 years old from Boibriand ,Qc.
Be bless !
Hi Noah and family. We certainly understand that it is sometimes difficult to keep up with everything. Family life is busy but wonderful. We love reading your adventures and seeing your photos.
We have 4 kids in our family. We have some medical issues we are dealing with. We stay pretty busy with appointments but we are happy. Our oldest son has epilepsy and GI issues. Our middle son has severe allergies and Aspergers syndrome. Our middle daughter has mild CP and our baby girl has mosaic Down syndrome and congenital heart defects.
Our baby, Darcie, had open heart surgery last summer and is doing much better now. She is a tiny little thing but super strong and tough. We got to go to the zoo this week. When Darcie was sick we didn’t get to do many things like that because it was too hot for her. We have a lot to be grateful for.
We have a facebook page for Darcie http://www.facebook.com/DarcieODaniel if anyone wants to learn more about mosaic Down syndrome or heart defects or what our life is like.
Please keep posting about handsome Noah 🙂 Here is a picture of Darcie at the splash pad she is 15 months old.
Well I just HAVE to! Thanks for being out there! Jack was an at birth diagnosis (only, within minutes, not hours like yours) and I just don’t know how we could have gotten through these first couple months without the appt stories to hang on to. Thankfully, we’re in a good spot now, and SOMEBODY found their feet today:
Happy, not appt, stories! Gah!
Oh super excited! We just found you recently, and I added you to my reader. Glad you are posting again! Our little Way is 10 months old, (our 4th little boy) so I’m loving reading all about Noah! Here’s a pic ( minus his 3 big brothers) on a recent trip to DC!
Glad you’re back, and thnx for inspiring our own blog
Our baby girl Izzy was born in October of 2012. One of the Doctors at TCH in Houston saw us doing research on Down Syndrome soon after we found out… she recommended your blog as a great resource. We have been back many a time to catch up on Noah and his wonderful family.
We understand how L-I-F-E makes it hard to keep a blog. I started ours back in January of this year and it is still a work in progress. But at least it’s up and we have started.
http://lavidagomez.com
Thank you for sharing with the world and inspiring others.
m & m & izzy
more recent photo of our Baby Izzy…
Such a cute kid! I’m looking forward to more posts.
Thanks!
great to see so many people share photos in their comments. hugs to all.
I am so glad you are doing this, the blog, the emails. . My DS brother passed away 2 years ago at the age of 59. I cannot begin to tell you how much I miss that boy (man). I absolutely need all of you and your pictures of your children to give me my Down’s fix. I cannot wait to retire in 2 years. The very first thing I plan to do is find some kind of volunteer work with DS children. I don’t think that anyone that has not been introduced to and been part of their life can begin to understand the bond you have with a person with Down Syndrome.
Hi, Rick. Your website is touching millions of lives, influencing them and redirecting to positive energy. Not a day goes when I do not remember u n Noah in my prayers. U r the champions of life. Every blog of urs is worth reading. Hats off to ur lovely wife. My child is 22 months. She started walking at an age of 16 months. Now readying herself for jumping. She skids, dances , somersaults, climbs up n down on stairs on her own. She opens n closes many of the bottles, drawers, doors, taps and much more. She sings with la la lalla la, aa aa aa . Says many words like Hai, bye, baba, mamma, papa, dada, keys, zoo, aam (mango), apple, matchy, kaka, dede (give), come, book. And many things she does like blowing a flute, etc. I think it’s a continuous process of learning.
My wishes n love to Noah.
Thanks for ur patience.
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Hi, posting Aashi’s pic