My Love & Thanks for My Healthy Family

Merry Christmas from The Lindsey Family

All Aboard the Polar Express

Last night we took Sheridan to the Polar Express train ride in Old Sacramento. His Becca came with us (I thought she would really enjoy being a part of this for him, and as you'll see from the pictures below, I'm chopped liver next to His Becca - and yes, that is what we call her - Sheridan's name for her is My Becca, hence, His Becca).

In one hour we road the train from Sacramento, CA to the North Pole where we saw Santa and his elves, then back again. The conductor narrated our ride from the book Polar Express. Some of the characters from the book visited us on the train.

But really... I didn't care about any of that. In fact, I've never even seen the book before (or the movie).

I only cared about Sheridan's excitement. Talk about wonder.

Bundled up for the ride

Don't worry folks... this particular train was part of the props. Stationary props.

Everyone is encouraged to wear pajamas... so we did (and I had a moment of panic that Gary, Becca, and I might be the only people over the age of 7 to be in our PJs, but a lot of adults wore them, too - whew!)

Waiting to board the Polar Express

Looks like trouble

Sheridan isn't too fond of random conductors

But he loves the trains

Each car is decorated with a different theme - ours had all the misfit and forgotten toys

Eating oatmeal cookies (courtesy of the Polar Express)

Oh, and those spots on his head... he had a nasty fall about a month ago when he simply lost his balance, skinned his forehead (I nearly had a heart attack), but it's healing up really nicely.

The "waiters" came around with the book and showed the pages to go along with the story

He can't believe his eyes... seeing the North Pole for the first time

He was soooooo tired by the end - way after his bed time

See? I'm chopped liver :)

A Very Musical Christmas

Sheridan loves music. Is drawn to music. Seeks out music. We sing to him every day, all day long. Poor boy... one day he'll realize what a poor singer I am and ask me to stop. Until then, I sing sing sing my heart out. And he plays all day long with every toy he owns that plays music (sometimes he plays 2 or 3 at a time - he's quite the Maestro!).

For these reasons (and because he absolutely loves and thrives in music therapy), Sheridan's second Christmas was FULL of music. He has enough instruments now that he will either (a) form his own one-man band or (b) form a family band.

My mom came over the morning of Christmas Eve so Sheridan could open her gifts (including a sweet set of wheels) and my dad and Gary's mom and brother came over to celebrate Christmas morning by having breakfast together and opening gifts.

Sheridan got everything from drums, a recorder, and zig zag blocks, to sandblocks, a xylophone, maracas, jingle bells, a parachute for musical games to... wait for it... a ukulele. He needed a child-sized "guitar" to go with our big family gift... an acoustic guitar.

I don't know what it is about the guitar specifically, but he is drawn to it. Almost obsessed with it at times - even during music therapy. Sometimes he tries to "escape" whatever we're doing in music therapy to sneak behind the therapist and strum her guitar. He loves it. Strum strum strum. He's actually getting quite good strumming the guitar, so we opted to buy one for the whole family (neither Gary nor I play at all, so I'm hoping to take a couple lessons to at least learn common chords in children's music).

One day, if Sheridan wants it, the acoustic guitar is his. That was my intention when I bought it. For now, he can enjoy strumming it... or strumming along with is ukulele. He LOVES his ukulele. Better yet, he loves strumming the ukulele, pausing only to bang the drum a few times, then returning to the strings.

I'm pretty excited about having so many instruments around for him. He's so happy and energetic exploring each instrument. Of course, one of his favorite things to do is "ride" in his big gathering drum while I push him back forth and spin him around while singing "row row row your boat..." - a little trick we learned in music therapy :) He also likes putting his Grover puppet in the smaller drum and pushing Grover around. Awesome.

I was bummed I didn't get more pictures of Christmas morning, but that just means we were having too much fun to take pictures! Here's what we did capture:

Merry Christmas!

I can never choose just one picture of Sheridan for our Christmas cards, so I do 2-3 different cards each year. You're lucky because you get to receive all three!

Merry Christmas, Everyone!

Our Local Ds Family is Growing!

It was so much fun... eleven families who have a child with Ds all got together at Jen's house for a Mommy & Me cookies, muffins, and tea party for the holiday. The children ranged in age from 5 days old (yes, you read that correctly) to 3 years old.

It was so much fun to get together, see the kids play together, cry at Santa (a very brave Santa who endured LOTS of pictures and crying babies, but plenty of happy babies who were thrilled to pull on his beard). It was so great.

Here's a picture of the group (names are below the pic):

starting at the top row from left to right
Mom Sarah & Eva, Sheree & Gabby, Me & Sheridan
Cori & Joey, Amy & introducing Delilah Rose, Jonna & Gracie, Jen & Joaquin
Monica & John Michael, Susan & Christopher, Jennifer & Madi, Michelle & Cody

Throw It Away

Sheridan wasn't too sure about Santa... he kept making his sign for "throw it away" - I think he wanted me to throw Santa away :)