Thursday, February 28, 2008

Oh, too funny

Alexandra heads down the stairs tonight and here's how the conversation went:

Me: What are you doing out of bed?

Alexandra: Something is wrong mom?

Me: What?

A: Well, Buddy got out of his bed, he didn't turn on the light but he's in my bed, he won't leave so I can't go to sleep.

Me: Ok, I'll see what's going on. (I head into the room to find Buddy in Alexandra's bed reading a book.)

Sebastian: Mama, I reading.

Me: You need to be in your own bed, reading.

Sebastian: Oh, you right mama.

I put him in his bed. I smelled something. I asked If he had poopy.

Sebastian: No, I not. Bubba poopy.

Atticus is in a whole different room. It's funny. He won't tell me when he is, but he'll lie to me when he isn't to get out of bed. I'm hoping his escape tonight starts to push him to wanting to be in his own bed.

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Wordless Wednesday - Pure Joy in a bucket



It's amazing at 4, she gets it


Today at lunch, Alexandra picked up the national right to life newspaper. On the front was a picture of a girl holding a sign that said "Abortion Kills Babies". She asked me what the sign said and I told her. She first said, they want to kill Bubba? I told her no that it happens when the babies are in their mommies tummy. She said I don't understand why people would kill babies. I told her I didn't understand either. She said mom we need to make cards and hand them out to people. The cards needed to say, "Stop killing babies". She told me she wanted to hand them out to people at church. I told her I thought people at church probably agreed with her position to stop killing babies. Just so you know, we have never talked to her about this. It's so interesting to me that she gets that killing babies is wrong. My little activist, she makes me so proud!

Thursday, February 21, 2008

My Trip to Old Navy

Since it's Thursday, I got to get out of the house this evening. I decided to head over to Old Navy to see what kind of sales they had. I found a few things and headed up to the register to pay. I went to a lane that had a woman and a man behind the register. The woman said hello and said that she was being trained. The guy, leaned over the counter and said, what you doing later tonight? I paused, said, well later tonight I'm watching Lost. He said, oh, you want a cuddle buddy? I replied, I already have one, note the diamonds on my hand. "Oh, that is just too bad." I said I also have 3 kids that he probably didn't want to have responsibility for. "Oh I love kids, I'm doing my student teaching right now". Ok so that means he must be about 10 years younger that me. What? Even though it was probably harmless flirting, It made this 34 year old feel pretty good. Especially since he is 10 years younger than me.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

Wordless Wednesday - Precious Daddy Time

That's a new verison of that song

For the longest time Alexandra would sing the "Veggie Tales Theme song" like this, Broccoli, Celery, combery, Veggie Tales. Paul and I would giggle to ourselves and say I wonder what Combery tastes like. Yesterday in the car she started to sing the song but with a little different twist. "Broccoli, Celery, gotta pee, veggie tales.". Now I don't think she really did but I laughed so hard I almost did.

Sunday, February 17, 2008

It's a wonder what a few days can do


Thanks to all who have called and emailed to check on me after my post about Sebastian. I needed to process and pray and have a great conversation with our OT Joann. She has been a gift from God for me. She's acquainted with the system and what options I have. She also told me that she thinks they are pushing him through to the ECDD class so that he does get more help not because he's really as bad as they say. As we've done more self help things over the last few days, I see that he struggles but he's working on it. He can get his pants up part way but can't get them all the way up. He can sometimes get his boots on and can always get them off. He can put his own socks on. He's getting there. I also have been thinking also about the end of the conversation I had with Joann. I mentioned to her that I feel too emotional to be Sebastian's mom. She said, "Oh Heather, you are so much stronger than you feel right now. There are no mistakes Heather you are meant to be his mom." I feel my emotions, after I get through them, spur me on to make things better for him. If I didn't care so much for him, I wouldn't be going through this. As I've talked to some people about what's been going on with Sebastian, I've heard of so many moms who are living in denial that there's anything going on with their child. I can't do that. I love him too much to let these things go. Although, it will be tough emotionally for me, we'll keep working at this for him. Our long term goal is that he starts kindergarten with no seen problems. I guess this isn't just Sebastian's journey, It's my journey too!

Saturday, February 16, 2008

It's time to vote!

The voting for the Love is.... photo contest is now open. If you like the photo further down the page please go here. I would love to win the gift card. You only have two more days left to vote. Thanks for the support!

Thursday, February 14, 2008

A new journey for Sebastian

We had Sebastian's evaluation with the PET program today. There was a psychologist, speech pathologist, social worker and an ot. Our OT didn't make it and neither did the OT from the early on program. I was disappointed with that. After almost 2 hours of questions for me and tests for Sebastian, they came back with news I wasn't expecting. After a conversation with our OT, Joann, I figured they weren't going to be able to offer much to us. They do want him to be in an ECDD (Early Childhood Delayed Development)classroom. He's a year and a half behind in his self help skills like putting on and taking off clothes. They also think his sensory issues warrant him being in the special class. The good news is his speech is right where it should be along with his cognitive problem skills. Now I need to go and visit the classroom where they want to place him and see if it's something we want. Then we have another meeting with the team at the pet program to set goals for him and decide what we want to do. I know that what we've done up to this point has been great for him. It just always hard when someone tells you there's something wrong with your child. So needless to say I'm struggling with this. When you are pregnant, you never ever think somethings going to be wrong with your baby. That happens to other people. Now here we are. When praying today I felt God saying you know we all have our stuff, even your kids. It's easy to see Alexandra's issues, they are just like mine. Sebastian's are different. I'm not trained to help him. I feel like I can only go so far and now we need someone professional to step in. I just want to make sure that he's in a good environment for learning and socialization. In a moment of tears, I cried out to God that I'm not equipped to be Sebastian's mom, I'm too emotional. Clearly I heard, you are exactly the person to be his mother. I'm not sure what that means but I'm trusting that God knows what He's doing.

Tuesday, February 12, 2008

Happy Valentines day


Alexandra is so excited about Valentines day. I baked this heart cookie for school tomorrow and she put the hearts on. She also picked valentines for all her classmates and wrote their names on them. She was so proud to write them herself. I was very proud of her too. She wrote her own name on about half of them and then got tired. I can't really blame her. All the rest she just put a big A on them.

This is what a twiddle bug looks like after going through the Vacuum


I had to fish this out of the vacuum cleaner tonight after he got sucked up. Alexandra was afraid we'd never see him again. The look on her face endured me to stick my hand in the dirty vacuum bag! He's going in the washer tomorrow.

Sunday, February 10, 2008

Write from Karen Photo Contest


Karen is doing it again! Here's my photo for the contest. This is from 2006 when Atticus was not even a month old yet. Alexandra got down on the floor with him and gave him a kiss. I think it is the epitome of Love. That's what Karen's theme was for this contest. I'll let you know when you can vote for me!
Photo Contest at writefromkaren.com

He really is his father's son


Tonight Sebastian was straggling behind while Alexandra and Atticus were in the bath. I came out of the bathroom and asked Paul where Sebastian was. He said he was in the living room reading his latest copy of the Economist. This is a very heady magazine just in case you haven't heard of it. I asked Sebastian what he was doing. He replied "looking at pictures". I said, "is it very interesting?" His reply " nope". I laughed out loud and Paul rolled his eyes.

The Audition

For some reason, Alexandra has decided that she needs to audition for a dance competition. I don't know where she got this from and no we have not been letting her stay up and watch American Idol. What I love is that Atticus is also auditioning in his own way. He's actually funnier than she is.

So this is what happens when I'm not here...

We had a craft night at church on Friday night which means that Daddy was home alone with the kids. He took a video of just a few of the antics that happened that night.

Tuesday, February 05, 2008

What a sweet girl.


For some reason I have had a really hard time getting rid of Alexandra's baby and toddler clothes. I decided I would go through some and get rid of some of them. I have a friend who will probably have kids in the next couple years so I'm saving some of my favorites for her. Anyway, Alexandra wanted to try on some of the clothes and was so disappointed they didn't fit her anymore. I found some really cute dresses and I got all nostalgic about how cute she looked in this dress when she was small. She looked at me for a few seconds, then smiled and came over an hugged me. She could tell that I was feeling sad that she was no longer that small. I always wanted my kids to have empathy and I saw that in that moment. Made me proud!

Monday, February 04, 2008

This boy loves his dinner




Although he would not cooperate with the camera you can see all the goulash on his face, clothes and head. I even saw him lick the bowl. Too funny! This does a mom's heart good.

Our SuperBowl party




We decided (at the last minute) to have a few people over for the superbowl. We really didn't care about the game but a great time to socialize. What you see on Alexandra and my friend Jan's head is a neck brace that Jan's husband had to wear because of neck surgery. He's been cleared to take it off for a while each day and Alexandra thought it made an excellent hat. She also had a nice time watching the game on our Friend Ron. I think everyone had a good time even the youngest attendee Thomas who slept in his mom's arms.