Crawling toward a birthday

Our Little Man is just two weeks away from his first birthday. It doesn't seem possible; I just can't believe how quickly these past 11-plus months have gone by!

It took some persuading and a lot of patience, but Zack is not only sitting up on his own, he's also crawling! The two new "tricks" came rapid-fire, one right after the other and now he does them both with such ease.

He's been getting himself in trouble already, though, aiming more often for the garbage can or stray diaper bag than the 4,287 toys we have strewn about the living room floor. (He's currently got a Ritchey's Dairy ice cream container lid in one hand and a baby wipe in the other -- the three new trucks, looking rather dejected just three feet away.)

It's a bit of a crab crawl now, though, with his right foot sticking straight out to the side as he sort of hops his way across the floor, wearing quite the concentrating look of determination.

We decided to forego any birthday presents this year (a request that didn't go over so well at Christmastime) because again, Z-Man just doesn't need anything. We've acquired enough clothing to get us through the next six months and any random blizzard or dry spell we might see between now and Christmas. And toys? Yep, remember all those stray trucks? We're better off with a new tub of baby wipes.

So instead, Scott and I have started a donation page for the National Down Syndrome Society. We're calling it Zack's "birthday wish" and we started with a goal of $500 before his birthday on Aug. 7. We raised that much -- and more -- in the first week -- and have made our new goal $1,000. We're just $80 shy of that goal already, too!

Friends and acquaintances and even a few strangers have made donations for as little as $10 and as much as $100 and our family is just in awe of all of the love and support for Zack -- and all the families like ours out there who reached out to NDSS for answers time and time again.

I've included the link to Zack's donation page as well as some recent photos of his many, many recent accomplishments.

It's been a great year and I can't even imagine what the next 12 months have in store for us.

Happy early birthday, Zack!