Memorial Monday

We spent Memorial Day at the Airshow. My Dad is a huge Aviation buff and has passed on the love of airplanes to Boog. When we got in the car I asked Boog if he new where we were going, his response was "Nana home". So I asked what else, "Papa". Then I told him we were going to see airplanes! Boog got super excited and began to chant " Nana, Papa, Airplane, yeah (propeller noise)" over and over again.

Here are some of the pictures of us all at the Airshow.

Hope you all had a fabulous three day weekend. What did you on Memorial day?

Lunch Date

A dear friend of mine came over to give Boog his handmade belated birthday present and for a lunch play date with her son EJ.

Boog with his new Dino (that was made with love from my friend)

Littles eating lunch with EJ

The Kiddos

I have always felt socialization for young children is incredibly important. That being said I will admit that when Boog was a lot younger I didn't know many people with children his age, so most of his socialization was with adults instead of peers. I feel this was some what of a mistake on my part and here is why. Boog has always been super social, but he tends to gravitate towards adults and older children (around 8 or 9 years old).

When we are at the playground he ignores other children his age and tries to play with the big kids, the problem is most of the big kids want nothing to do with him because he is so much younger.

Even in preschool (I found out at the meeting) he will play side by side with kids his age (totally normal, that doesn't really change until 4 years old) and will constantly try and engage the teachers in play instead.

So with Littles I have changed my approach. I now have several friends with children right around Littles age so I do as many play dates a possible. It give both Boog and Littles more peer interaction. I have also been taking Littles to music class and this summer I also signed Boog up along with Tumbling class. We are going to have a busy summer filled with plenty of peer playtime :)

What do you do to insure your children have enough peer socialization?

End of Year Meeting

Yesterday morning I had my first preschool review meeting. I wasn't sure what to expect, but it was a wonderful experience! The meeting was set up, because when Boog started the special education preschool, I had been pushing for the 5 day a week program. The teachers at that time felt it was a better fit for him to start in the 2 day a week program and do a reevaluation at the end of the school year. I agreed since the school year only had 3 months left and the reevaluation would be here in a blink of an eye. Sure enough the 3 months have come and gone and next week is the end of the school year.

I new Boog was doing well in class because of the short conversations with the teacher when I came to pick him up. This was a 45 minute meeting were I got to sit down and have all my questions answered and be told his progress in a more detailed manner.

Once in the meeting I was surrounded by four wonderful women (Boog's current teacher, his speech therapist, the school's child psychologist, and his new teacher for next year) who dedicate their live to improving those of young children.

The speech therapist was the one who began. She started off by telling me how he was in March (when he first started preschool). He was not willing to leave the classroom for speech and would have a meltdown. I had already know this so it wasn't a big surprise, but what she went on to tell me was.

Then in April he would just say "no, no" and wave his hands and wasn't very compliant during speech. But in May he was her "Super Star"!

Que the tears, yes hearing that he was her super star made me begin to cry. I consider myself a fairly even tempered person, at least in public. Generally I don't show too many displays of extreme emotion to people other than family and very close friends, crying being one of them. But when it comes to Boog and his improvement with his speech delay and the people who help him, I become overwhelmed with so much joy and happiness I can't seem to contain the tears.

The speech therapist continued on to tell me that he now comes to speech prepared to learn and when the others kids don't cooperate he sits and waits. "He almost seems annoyed that the other kids won't sit down and pay attention" she said and then told me that he walks over to the cabinet where she keeps her flash cards, pull them out, bring them to the table and start doing them. (At this point they needed to bring me a box of Kleenex).

The meeting continues on and I find out that he is doing great and passed all his objectives in his IEP (individual education plan), but two (there were 12). They want to have him start the 5 day a week program in the Fall, to create a more consistent routine. The theory is that since he has improve greatly in three short months with only two days a week, 5 days will really help (hopefully) him blossom.

I say hooray to this!! The more school and speech service the better, anything to get him a head start to a bright future. What a great meeting!!!

Wordless Wednesday - Memories

Boog meeting Littles for the first time!

Always Lift Your Spirits When You Are Down

I have been sick for six days. It is amazing how a simple cold can really get you down in the dumps. A cold makes even the simplest task seem daunting and unmanageable. But when you are a Mommy it doesn't matter if you are sick and all you want to do is spend the day in bed curled up with Nightquil, watching old movies that you enjoyed as a kid (mine is Labyrinth with David Bowie). You have to get up and pretend to the best of you ability that you are Super Mommy and that a silly cold has no power over you.

So yesterday that is exactly what I did! I got up and got the kids and myself ready, packed them in the car and headed to the park. The sun was shining and it was warm with a slight hint of wind, and the kids had be couped up for days, they deserved to go out and have some fun no matter how I felt.

Once at the park I really start to enjoy myself, how could I not, the kids were running around laughing, with the biggest smiles on. They say laughter is the best medicine and it is completely true. I know that saying  implies that the person who is sick is laughing, but hearing my children laugh and enjoy themselves is so much better!

I love photography, and I have two of the best subjects! So while we were at the park I took plenty of photos of the kids. I don't have the best camera, but I am pretty pleased with the shots I got.

Lovely Littles who always shines so bright! She truly is my shining star. She always make the world more vivid and bright whether it be her dancing, laugh or just the simple look of curiosity on her face when exploring the world.

 And then there is Boog, who since the moment he was born has been my heart and source of strength. Seeing him struggle with his speech delay, but still always managing to be the sweetest and caring little boy I have ever met (in the picture above he told me "Mama I Love You" and blew me a kiss) makes my heart fill with joy.

My two loves playing at the park and just being little kids made this Mommy feel a hundred times better. That is until we got back home and I realized how tired I was. I guess I used a lot more energy than I thought trying to keep up with the two love bugs. Then I was wiped and needed a nice long nap! Oh well it was totally worth it :)

Good Ol' Baking Soda

So here is my all time favorite cleaning product, ready for it, BAKING SODA! 

Yes, plan old baking soda! It is amazing stuff! Why baking soda you may ask. Well is safe and natural. Ever since I have had children I have been weary about using too many chemical for household cleaning. This has become amplified by the fact that for whatever reason Littles' bedroom is a black hole for odors and fumes. 

I swear her room sucks in the air from all over the house and holds it there. I can make dinner at 5 pm (nothing particularly smelly) and at 8pm when I go to put her to sleep her room still smells like dinner is cooking.

The worst part is when I clean. If I use bleach anywhere in the house, like to clean the toilets or sinks in the kitchen, her room smells like an open bottle of bleach So I only use bleach when absolutely necessary (to disinfect, along with other cleaners of that sort) and open all the window in the house to make sure her room doesn't retain the fumes.

Instead my go to cleaning product is Baking Soda. I use it to clean their bathtub, in with the laundry to make my detergent more efficient, sinks, refrigerator, the list goes on and on. I also use it to deodorize the garbage bin, the garbage disposal, and the dishwasher.And my new discovery the carpet!

Boog has been potty trained for five months and is doing great, no accidents during the day! I am very proud of him, but occasionally at night he doesn't make it to the bathroom in time and ends up going on the carpet in his room. So his room ended up having the faint smell of yearn (even after I cleaned it up). I tried everything I could think of to get rid of the smell. My carpet cleaner, a cleaner that is suppose to have enzymes that eat up the left over yearn remnants, nothing was working. Then it hit me like a ton of bricks, Baking Soda!

So I tested it out and sprinkled it all over Boog's carpet and let it sit from early in the morning until just before bed, then I vacuumed it up. Sure enough my 6 dollar, 13 pound bag of baking soda (I buy a huge bag from Costco) beat out the 10 dollar, small spray bottle of yearn eating enzyme cleaner!

So here I am proudly proclaiming that I love you Baking Soda! You make my cookies and muffins fluffy and my house clean!

I Did Not Expect This From Littles

Having a little boy and a little girl you start to see a difference in the way they do things. I can't say for sure if it is truly a boy vs. girl thing or just their personalities, but either way they always seem to amaze me.One of the biggest examples with my kids was walking.

Boog walked at exactly 9 mos and Littles did too. Boog was always a bit clumsy! He would walk and be so focused on getting to the object or place that he didn't pay attention to his surrounding, mainly the floor and toys that were laying around. So needless to say he took a lot of  headers into furniture or crash to the floor. His clumsiness stressed me out so much! Now that he is older he pays attention and doesn't have hardly any trip and spills.

Once Littles started to walk I expected the same thing to happen, but she was the exact opposite. She was very cautious (and her being cautious has carried over to most of her other activities too). She watched her footing and stepped over objects that crossed her path. She still had her fair share of boo-boos, but nothing like Boog did.

From the first couple of difference I had noticed I thought that my little girl was going to be a lot less stressful in these early years. She is more cautious and she is cleaner, she even cleans up after she makes a mess without me asking her too.

When Boog was younger he explored everything, and a lot of the time he used his mouth to do it. Like dirt, he touched it, looked at it, and yes tasted it once or twice. Okay no big deal I can handle that. Littles like to explore too, mainly she observes thing with her eye and hands, everything that is expect gross things! She loves to lick the trash can, try and play in the toilet and eat dirt!

The girl LOVES dirt, to play in, make stuff with, and to EAT! She actively seeks it out and first thing before playing with it, she decides that it should be a snack first.

I kid you not, each time she goes outside I have to watch her and make sure she doesn't eat the dirt.

I really don't understand this at all. I mean of all things I expected her to be less likely than Boog to do nasty thing like eat dirt and lick trash cans.Thank goodness after weeks of me telling her "Dirt is not Food!", "Spit out the dirt", and "Yucky!" she isn't putting it in her mouth nearly as often.

 Am I the only one with a child that has a taste for Dirt?

Surrounded By Art, Love, Learning and Encouragement

Since the kids and I are home all day I try and make it as fun as I can. I am also always on the look out for cool new ways to make learning fun. When I happened upon this cool contact paper that is a "chalk board"I became very excited. So my first thought was to turn Boog's bedroom door into a chalk board.

The end result, a place to create lessons for Boog! Each morning I write the letter of the day, a math problem and a place to practices his shapes (even Littles gets involved by adding her own scribbles and a super cute "Meow" for the cat drawing). We use the letter in a word, phrase, and point it out through out the day. As I said before repetition is key for improving Boog's speech delay. The math problem is to encourage his budding skills with numbers, he can count to 10 all by himself. Simple, fun, and educational, just what this Mommy was looking for!

Although education is very important, I also believe giving your children praise and self confidences is equally important. I found an easy way to do this is by proudly displaying their artwork in our home. Yes I do place some of the artwork on our fridge, but I don't stop there!

Little's Art!

Boog's Art

Boog's Art

Boog's Art

I hang their work in paper frames and tell them how wonderful they did, but I also have Boog describe the master pieces by color, shapes, etc. I am always trying to get as many words as possible out of him!

And last but not least, I am a big fan of positive reinforcement. Yes I do tell them "No", "Don't", "Stop" and many more "negative" words to instill correct behavior, but I also tell them "Yes", "good work", "Nice job at being kind to your brother/Sister" and so on. I also do a "good behavior" chart and reward them when they reach their weekly goal (something small like a piece of candy or coins for their piggy banks). I use the chart by Melissa and Doug, pictured below. And yes I am behind on updating the monthly calender, bad mommy!

Please share what you do to surround your children with Art, Love, Learning and Encouragement! I am always looking for neat new ways!

Who Knew A Haircut Could Be So Emotional!

My Husband has been bugging me to get Littles haircut for well over three months now. I have put it off and put it off. I just wanted to let her hair grow out, I didn't want her to have bangs. Unfortunately she is in a stage right now, that as soon as I put a hair clip in (to keep the hair out of her eyes) she pulls it right out.

Littles ripping out the clip I just put in

So today I broke down and took her to get her first haircut. It is funny, with Boog I couldn't wait to get his first haircut, but with Littles I was dreading it. I find it very puzzling, I mean come on, it is just hair!

Normally Boog gets his haircut at home. Our neighbor comes over and cuts his, mine and the hubby's hair. It is great and easy. But for Littles first time I wanted it to be special, so I looked for a nearby kid's salon. I found one that looked really cool, so off we went.

Once there Boog was really excited, so I decided to have his cut too. Normally I stick to the round little kids haircut for him. I find it adorable, sweet and very Boog. This time I decided to go for something a little bit older looking. Another tough step for me to take, making him look older. I want him to stay little forever (okay not really, but letting go of the baby boy look isn't easy).

Boog going from Baby Boy to Little Man!

He did great! Normally at home he wiggles a lot and the haircut is a bit difficult because of it. At the Salon he got to sit in a cool car and loved every minute of it, the haircut was a breeze.

Now it was Littles turn. I pictured her screaming and crying, but leave it to my kids to do the exact opposite of what I expect, she was an angel!

Littles waiting for her name to be called to get her haircut!

I hate to admit this ,but right as the hairdresser was snipping off the first bit of hair I started to tear up. Then I thought to myself, "Who are you? You aren't the type of Mom to cry over something as silly as this?'. I was really shocked at myself and here is why.

One of my favorite books as a young girl was Little Women. I loved that book and read it over and over again, along with  Jo's Boys. The only part of Little Women that I couldn't stand was the part after Jo cut her hair and she started to cry. She wasn't crying because she did a selfless thing (she cut her hair to earn money to send her mother to see her sick father) or for the fact that her father had been wounded in the war. She was crying because she had lost her long beautiful hair. I always thought, " It's hair, it will grow back. Get over it!". Now here I am 20 years later, about to ball like a baby over the fact I had to cut my daughter's hair, unbelievable.

The tiny bit of hair I freaked out about.

Once I came to my senses and remembered it is just hair, I realized how cute my kids new haircuts are. The visit to the salon was a totally success and the kids were happy as pie!

Littles munching on her yellow lolly sporting her new do :)