Dinner with the Erbe's

Lee and Sylvia came over Sunday night for dinner and cards. I'm not sure who had more fun, the kids or Grandma and Grandpa!

5 minutes for Mom's Photo Contest

I want my kids to really have a great childhood and sometimes that means we play in the puddles.

If I get picked as a finalist I'll let you know. The winner will walk away with $1,000. I'll keep you posted.

Sebastian's skills

Boy does Sebastian have some verbal skills. Tonight when we were putting the kids to bed, Alexandra had baby lion because it was her turn. Sebastian had her princess watch and was conversing with us about it. Paul started to try to get the kids to trade so that Alexandra could get her watch. His words to Alexandra were "If you give Sebastian baby lion, he'll give you the watch. That'll be a good trade." Sebastian says, "That is not a good trade.". We laughed so hard. You would think he would be just repeating what Paul said but he's putting his own words in with what Paul said. He's also doing really well with prepositions which is cool. Tonight he said the watch was on his arm and sleeping beauty was on the watch. The OT has asked us to work on that so it's really cool to see our work is paying off, again!

Great News for Sebastian

So, It's been just a few weeks but we are getting good news from the Teacher of Sebastian's class. She stopped me today and said that Sebastian is doing really, really well. He's interacting with the other kids and he's interacting with the teachers well. He sits well at circle time, he responds when questioned and the music doesn't seem to bother his auditory issues. She is recommending that he go with a regular classroom in the fall. That's what we wanted to hear! Yippeee! He'll finish out this year in the ECDD class and then we'll have a new IEP to change our plan for next year. I am so excited! What great news! Praise God!

A great Sunday afternoon

It has been so nice here that we can't help but be outside. I finally got my batteries charged for the camera and took some pics. After dinner I made some cookies and they enjoyed them at the picnic table. Ah....Good times!

Mama I like your....

So yesterday I changed my clothes so go get my hair cut and Alexandra says, "mama, I like your shirt". I said thanks honey. Then Sebastian says "mama, I like your pants." He's been doing stuff like that lately. I laughed. He comes up with the funniest stuff. You see my pants were just an ordinary pair of off white shorts.

Let them struggle

Yesterday Sebastian was not excited about going to school. He cried when I left and it was hard for me to leave. I'm seeing though that Mrs. B the teacher really has a way with Sebastian and is really good at pushing him. She had him on the monkey bars this week and that's something I would have never done. I watch him struggle with tasks every day and some days I just stop the struggle and do those things for him. As I was watching Sebastian outside yesterday I thought, you know sometimes God allows us to struggle because what's on the other side is so much better for us. We can't see it but He can and that's why he allows it. As Sebastian struggles to put his shoes on and I verbally encourage him and not physically step in, every time gets easier. He is putting on his own shoes, pants and shirt. That's all because we've allowed him to struggle to figure out how to do those things. He's better because of the struggle. As his mom, that is one of the hardest things for me to grasp. I have such a love in my heart for him, I want things to come easy, but they don't for him right now. I have to see further into the future, that the struggle now will pay big later. I've got to keep reminding myself of that.

Sweet Kisses

Atticus has been pretty stingy with his kisses. He also really hadn't learned how to pucker and actually kiss. I would ask for a kiss and he would shake his head no. I have continued to ask. Yesterday he tried to open mouth kiss me which was a little yucky. Today, we were playing outside and he was very busy with the cars and the balls. I was sitting on the step and he came up, climbed up on the step and puckered up and kissed me twice. He then hugged me. Oh, so sweet. I was especially glad it wasn't an open mouth kiss.

The prayers of a little boy

One of these days I am going to video tape Sebastian praying at night. The way he prays is just the sweetest thing. I also know that when he's 16, I won't remember it. He prays for family members and dogs and he puts his hand on each of our heads and prays for us. It is just really cool and I don't want to forget it.

Back to our routine

Today was the first day back for Sebastian at Preschool. I talked to him about it this morning and he said yes he was ready to go back and see Ms. B and Mr. Travis. What's funny is that he didn't ask about school at all while we were on break. Alexandra was not happy about Sebastian going back to school either. I'm still struggling with Sebastian going to school. Some of it is that he misses his rest time and he really struggled that week he was at school. I still haven't figured out why I'm still struggling. I have a great relationship with the parent pro and the teacher so I guess I'll just keep processing. Alexandra was talking to me on the way home and said she wanted a peacock dress. I told her it would be difficult to make so she couldn't have one. She said she would buy one. I asked if she had money. She paused and said, "I have an idea, I'll find money on the ground. I just have to start looking." I had to laugh. I told her yes, she could find money and then save it so she could buy the dress. She is very, very resourceful. It's pretty amazing.

The things they say

Two funny things came out of the mouths of my babes tonight.

Just before dinner was over Paul asked the kids to pick up the toys in the living room before I gave them a bath. Paul then grabs a blanket and lays down on the couch for a short nap. I said to him, "what are you doing". He said, "oh just taking a little snooze". Alexandra said, "How are we going to clean up all the toys with Daddy snoring on the couch?" What's really funny is that Paul doesn't snore.

Tonight after bath I was drying off Sebastian I asked him if it was a good back. He said, "yep is was a good belly button and back bath mommy!" I laughed. He has a fascination with his belly button. He mentions it quite often. Oh the things they say and focus on!

The power of accountability

Last night we hosted Home group. I told the group that I was having a hard time getting things done. I was doing really well with sorting clothes and washing windows but not work and vision stuff done for my new venture. I'm hoping to get a grant to put together a blog community and a book series to help educate parents on the development milestones for their children. I've also had to write a letter to get Alexandra released from our current school system so she can go to a better smaller school system in the fall. Well, after telling everyone that last night and getting prayer, I sent off two emails for the development milestone site and the letter to our school system is addressed and ready to go in the mail. You would have thought the rain here today would have put me in the mood for a nap but instead I got a lot done. I think part of the reason is too that I totally cleaned the house yesterday and I got all the laundry done yesterday. I pretty much have nothing to do today in the house so I had to do those other things. Whatever it was I'm glad I got all those things done.

Getting back to reality

Oh, it's been quite a transition back to reality. I miss vacation. The boys got sick the week we got back and I think we're all just about well again. Alexandra and Sebastian are on spring break now and we are loving the weather. Atticus is so funny, he will run away from me and try to hide from me when I tell him it's time to go inside. Spring has also motivated me to clean windows and keep the house picked up. Also I've been grilling. Ah, how I longed for these days back in January and February. I do think though that I will spend a large amount of my time this spring and summer pushing the kids on the swings. Alexandra can pump but Sebastian isn't quite co-ordinated enough to do that so I have to push him. If I push him, then Alexandra wants me to push her as well. Atticus is funny, he doesn't care at all what the other two are doing. He plays in the toy car, he plays with the balls, he pushes the toys around. It is so funny. I'm finding it hard to blog as much when it's so nice outside, I'll try to keep on top of it a little better than I have. Sorry for the little break!

Mystery Reader

If you didn't know, which I didn't, March is reading month. Alexandra's preschool had mystery readers and She wanted Pa Pa (or my dad) to read. He agreed but said we'd have to pick the book for him. Last night Alexandra started to pick books. The first one was about Human Development. I told her no. Then she picked a easter and religious traditions book that had no pictures and lots and lots words. So I directed her to a fire dog book and a bakers counting book. As you can see and hear he did an awesome job and the kids seem to really enjoy it. It was so cool to see him reading to Alexandra's class.

Wordless Wednesday - My boys

A haircut for Granny

When we were in Florida my mom thought it would be a good thing to get Alexandra a hair cut. Just to trim her hair up. Both Alexandra and I told her no. So, after I got home I thought about what she said (see mom, I do listen to you)and I talked to Alexandra about it. She thought it would be fine. So, I trimmed it. Here's a pic of the new do. She's not real thrilled with it since it's too short to really braid it but other than that I think it's really cute a little shorter.

I think it was harder on me

Today was the day I had been dreading for a while. Sebastian started his preschool class today. We all headed to the school. Sebastian went right in and started to play. We had to check in with the lunch lady and once we left he started to cry. We peeked in the window and the Teacher told me that he was upset and she was holding him. She told me to go. I started to cry as we walked out the door. Alexandra asked me what was wrong. I told her that dropping Sebastian was hard for me and it made me sad. I could tell she didn't get it. I cried more on the way home. We got home and got Atticus to bed and Alexandra was getting ready for rest time. I started to cry again. Alexandra said, mom you don't have to be sad, I'm not sad. He'll be back in a couple of hours. Plus, you have that other boy in the other room." I laughed through my tears and I said, "I also have you". We picked him up around 3:30 PM and he was really happy to see us. The Teacher said he did really well and got a star on his hand for helping to pick up toys. She said they played in the gym and he was kicking balls and running around. He told me as we left that he had a good time and wanted to go back. He fell asleep on the way home and he slept in the car for about an hour. He was a little out of sorts tonight, I think it'll be a few days or even into next week to transition out of his nap time.

I of course analyzed why this was so upsetting to me to leave him at preschool today. I cried when I dropped Alexandra off but I also knew she and I were both ready. I hadn't prepared myself for this like I did with her. I think my other concern was that the teachers wouldn't get him, like I get him and maybe they won't but that doesn't mean they can't help him. I also don't want him to be mistreated. It's not that I get that feeling but it would pain me to know we made this decision and it hurt him in some way instead of helping him. I guess I'll leave it at that for now. I'm sure I'll have more thoughts tomorrow.

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The time of our lives

Sorry I haven't been able to update via utterz but my cell phone hasn't been working in Port. Yesterday we were in Cozumel and it was awesome. We snokeled, enjoyed the ocean on a private beach and had an awesome ride on a catamaran. We also had a great time yesterday at dinner with our new friends Kelly and Chris and Wendy and David. Ask me about the game show the Quest. I won't blog about it here. We arrived in Progreso this morning and it was raining and cloudy. It was still warm though. We visited a mayan ruins site and it was fantastic. I'll post pics soon. We enjoyed climing the ruins and seeing the country side of Mexico. Progreso is a fairly new port and the city isn't quite the tourist mecca that Cozumel is. We've had rough seas most of the time but Paul has not been sick anymore. Tonight we'll enjoy another delicious dinner with our table mates and then hopefully have a warm and sunny day at sea. We'll arrive back at Tampa at 7 AM on Saturday. This trip has been a great time for Paul and I to reconnect and just talk about stuff and really cut loose and have a great time together, like we did early in our marriage. This was well worth the money for the encouragment it's been to our relationship. Please continue to pray for my mom and Russ as they are still taking care of the three little ones. I'll post more soon!

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