I Finally Watched The Princess Bride

The 411:

I think I saw this movie way way back in 87. Parts of it I remember and others not so much so I believe I had never seen it in it's entirety.

As a huge Rob Reiner fan I was excited to sit and watch the whole thing from beginning to end.

We start off with Peter Falk reading his sick grandson Fred Savage a story that has been passed down from generation to generation. A classic love story filled with adventure and excitement as Westley searches for his childhood love Buttercup.

He left her on a farm when they were much younger to find a way to make his fortune and come back to marry her. She hears his ship was attacked and believes him dead and is heartbroken.

Prince Humperdink, heir to the throne of Florin forces Princess Buttercup to be his bride but before they could wed she is kidnapped.  She is saved by a black masked man who she believes killed her dear Westley. She send him down a hill but realizes he is her love and jumps down the hill herself.

Westley and the Princess must fight all kinds of obstacles to be together but true love prevails.

The message; true love never dies.

What I enjoyed about the movie is how I could watch it with my kids. It's a love story but there is adventure, sword fighting, giants, bad guys, quicksand, weird creatures, comedy, and more. It is a fun movie full of action and fantasy.

It was a fun ride and I am not sure why I waited so long to enjoy it. AND there is Billy Crystal as Miracle Max

My Crazy Baby Cracks Me Up! #TBT

I love, love, love my kids. I also love, love laughing and I have a lot of very funny people in my life. My sister, my friends, Bek and Teresa, my husband but honestly there is no one that cracks me up as much as my daughter. She is 3 months shy of 3 years old but she is FUNNNNY!!!

Maybe it’s because she is so tiny that you don’t expect the random things to come out of her mouth. Maybe it’s because she is just friggin funny. I don’t know, the point is this…she makes me laugh more than anyone else I have ever met. On top of being funny she can be the sweetest baby girl on earth.\

I love her “I’m sorry”, whenever she hears that you hurt yourself, or don’t feel well, or when she walks by you and knocks into you (even if she doesn’t). I love her roars when she plays with dinosaurs or other animals.

I adore the way she holds your face (one little tiny hand on each cheek) and demands a kiss, “give me a kiss.” Then she plants one on your lips and says, “thank you.”

I love all the made up songs she sings and the way she wants to dance whenever you put a dress or skirt on her.

I love when she asks you to sing with her.  I love that she knows so many songs. “I want Fabulous“, and “The Sun will Come Out Tomorrow”, coupled with most Christmas songs, Nursery Rhymes, T.V. Themes, whatever her heart desires and she has no problem singing them at the top of her lungs as we walk through the supermarket. She usually does a medley of about 10 songs complete with “everybody” as she gets to the chorus. She’s my natural born entertainer, making up her own songs too.

But sometimes she just says thats that are so funny. Like today when she put her hands behind her and said, “I’m shaking my booty. Look at me, I’m shaking my booty.”

Friday, she left her little TY Wilbur pig at my son’s school. She almost hyperventilated in the car when she realized. “Oh, oh no…I left my pig at school. He’s on the table where I was eating snack. Oh no, he’s going to be all alone. Oh no!!” I told her we would call the school and that Ms. Kate would take it home for the weekend and it would be ok. She seemed fine after that. Then at about 7:30 p.m. last night she said, “I miss my wittle pig.” I turned and said, “awww you miss your little pig?” She said, “yeah, I want to see him.” How friggin cute is she? I told her that Ms. Kate was taking care of the pig and we would see him soon.

Last night when she and my son were using me as their own personal jungle gym, they both ended up sitting on my lap at the same time. She turned to me and said, “Mom, are you Santa Claus?” I laughed saying “why, because you are sitting on my lap?” I was actually concerned about the question and what she actually meant because she is just too damn smart.  She said, “yeah, we are sitting on your lap, do you feel like Santa?”

Today she was lying on the floor moving her arms and legs, I asked her what she was doing and she said making snow angels. Cute!!

She has no problem telling me or anyone else, “no, I don’t want to.” If we don’t give her what she wants she also has no problem screaming like the banshee girl she is.

Standing Steady After Hard Times Takes Patience And Unfortunately, A Whole Lot Of Practice

Life has a way of really kicking you in the pants sometimes. You are going through life sometimes feeling great, other times feeling moody but if you are like most of us you really try to make the best of it. Why be moody and miserable when you can choose to be happy.

While we all have different circumstances, different upbringings and different methods of dealing with things, I think we can all agree that we are generally all the same.

We are people who feel deeply, get stressed, love unconditionally, work hard, feel weak, drained, unexcited, excited, blessed, we can go on and on with this. However even though we all feel the same things, the things that take us to those emotions are different.

Maybe you get stressed over bills while another gets stressed over driving on the highway. Or maybe you get excited when you see a new pair of boots that you absolutely must have while another could care less about new boots but gets excited over a song they haven't heard for years. What I am trying to say is we are different but the same. Get it!

My life last year took me to some of the darkest places I have ever been. I cried like I haven't cried before. I am shocked that I can still muster up a good cry now after the river I cried in 2014.

It could have been the worst year of my life. It could have been. However, even after all the crying I managed to smile at work, greet everyone with a kind word and a smile because I was taught that you may be the only kind word or kind face someone sees. So always treat people with kindness.

During my dark days I woke up and kissed and hugged my children telling them all the loving things parents tell the little people they love. Coming undone wasn't an option. I had to still stand steady and get through my life. There was never a day I didn't think I couldn't do it. I would cry at night when my kids were sleeping. I would cry and pray for strength and the words that may or may not be necessary when it came time to tell everyone what was happening.

Handling my personal stress this way is something that has been present in me for way longer than I care to write about. Life for me, like a lot of people, has always been a struggle. There are too many heartbreaking things to even write about here because that is not what this post is about. Let's just say, as a child from 7 there were people in my life who didn't do the right things by me either out of fear or for their own personal gains. Whatever! That was then! I cannot change the past. I will never as long as I try no matter how much I change, pray, beg, be able to change MY past.

So...

When you feel like you can't; know that you can.

When you feel unloved or uncared for; know that you ARE loved! Someone loves you. You may not even be aware, or maybe you think they don't because things have changed. Maybe you haven't even met them yet. BUT there is someone who loves, will love or wants to love you.

If you are religious and believe in a higher power, YOU ARE LOVED.

When you feel like life is better off without you; know that LIFE is better! You are necessary! Maybe your best time hasn't happened. Things happen for a reason.

Whether the cause was someone else, something else, or even yourself. It will get better. It Will! I know because for more years than I care to write about, my life has taken so many twists and turns that I am amazed I can remain standing steady. With that said,  I am not surprised I am still standing steading. Life is hard for everyone. It is just different things that make it hard.

Being your best self doesn't mean having the newest boots. It doesn't mean having another person in your life to make you complete. Being your best self means, being YOUR personal best. It is your journey but do yourself a favor and do whatever you can to make your Journey the best for YOU!

Smile at another person today. You may be the only smile they see! While you are at it. Smile at yourself today. Walk up to the mirror and get to know yourself again. That person is pretty damn amazing.

How To Turn An Amazon Fire TV Box Into A Monster High Doll Bed #tutorial #monsterhigh @amazon

My niece got us an Amazon Fire TV for Christmas this year. It is pretty damn cool and we love it. But this post is not about that. I noticed the box was pretty cool with it's overhead compartment which had housed the power cord. In the past I have saved boxes thinking I would do something with them but end up tossing them a few weeks later during a clean up purge.  Not this time!

Last month I grabbed the box while waiting for my daughter to finish reading her homework to me and stated playing with it. I must have tried about 15 different configurations before settling on the one that would eventually become a bed for Monster Toralei.

The box!

At first I thought the legs would be made of crayon then worried about marks on the furniture

So I rolled up some magazine strips with a pencil and wrapped it with the tape

The legs

Ta Da...legs!

Next I measured some foam sheets to go with the bed colors

And hot glued it down. I also hot glued at this point the sides of the bed and added a coordinated bed for the cabinet

A Monster High banner as decoration

And Toralei now has a bed

#TBT Play Date Central

Originally Written - Thursday, September 08, 2005

Mom has had me so busy with play dates lately that I have had no time to blog. Bitch! She thinks I need friends and need to be popular. I hate it! I have to share my stuff, have kids messing up my room, taking my snacks, pushing me off my own ride on car, sitting on my Wiggle couch, saying "Mine" when they know damn well it isn't.

Why the hell is it whenever mom meets a new mom with a kid my age that she suddenly sets up a play date?

We were at the library the other day and there was another kid there. She was nice enough; she said, "chase me" so I did, she said, "sit with me" so I did, she pushed me down, I got back up thinking, "ok, buh bye B'otch. I walk to the door to leave and mom is handing over her phone number to make a play date. Hello, did she not see me trying to escape this little pain in my diapered butt?

 Anyway I guess this means another play date is being scheduled for the near future. Wish me luck.

IEP Meeting Continued Part 3 - To Send To Kindergarten or Not To Send To Kindergarten

Originally written January 25, 2008

The longest story in history continues….

If you are interested, here is part 3 of the IEP meeting.

Anyway…

So there I was sitting in the meeting listening to a Kindergarten teacher and Nina talking to my son on various things. He was counting, writing, playing Leapster, answering their questions, whatever when  I heard “Mom is concerned about Kindergarten. She is not sure if she is going to hold him back a year or not.” The other says, “hold him back? He is so ready. He is so smart. He is actually ready for 1st grade.”

Part of me was beaming with pride and the other part was horrified. Did they not hear what I have been saying for the past 2 years?

I have NEVER doubted how intelligent my son is. I am the first person to state that he amazes me with what he knows. Hell he even had his own blog when he had time to write.

My son knew his letters, numbers up to 20, shapes and colors before he was 22 months old. He knew how to spell house, blue, cat, dog and various other words before he was 3 and he taught himself how to write his letters the summer of his fourth birthday and Spy Kids, Xbox and a few other words over the past few months.

I am well aware of how smart he is. So I turned and said, “please don’t misunderstand why I am thinking of holding him back”. I know how smart and ahead of his peers he is. The reason I am considering holding him back is because he is not socially aware. He does not know when someone is picking on him, mad at him, hurt by him, directing a question at him in a crowd or even if someone is about to beat the crap out of him.” I saw it happen with my girlfriend’s son, he was really angry with my son and my son thought it was fun and games. He walked into the room to see my son laughing and my friend’s kid hitting him with fists. My son had no idea there was a problem with this. He thought it was fun and they were playing. Eventually a kid in school would notice this and he would become a punching bag with the other kids jumping on the band-wagon”.

[Excuse me as my son tells me to take him to time-out. What the F?] OK I am back...

Anywhoo where was I…”although I see him getting better and becoming more assertive I am not ready to throw him to the sharks”.

The kindergarten teacher leans back in her chair and says with a smile, “well, I don’t know about us being sharks. We are more like dolphins.”

“I meant the students, sorry.” I tell her.

Before the meeting Nina had offered up the option of a self contained class. It is a smaller class with kids needing extra help with various things, mostly speech.

I actually have a friend whose daughter is in this class and she speaks very highly of it.

So as I had mentioned in my last post, I have a decision to make on how I proceed. I can hold him back in Pre-K to give him an extra year to catch up or not. I can start him in regular K which everyone says he is ready for or I can do the self contained class but wait there is something else..I can do the self contained class with the regular kindergarten class.

Nina mentioned that she would work with us to keep him as mainstream as possible and while she hasn’t done this often she wants me to consider if I plan sending him to the self contained class that I also bus him over half a day to stay with his peers in the regular kindergarten class. He would do gym, art, whatever with them. They call it “the specials”.

If you know me, you know that I will not be putting him on a bus. So this means I would be shuttling back and forth 5 days a week along with my daughter who will be going to pre-school 2 days a week in September.

If this is the course I chose I will do whatever it takes for the better of my son, now I just have to decide.

I am going to go through the registration process and eventually after I weigh all options and sit down with everyone to see what will best benefit my son I will come to a conclusion.

ahhh….now that I have that off my chest. I can move on with the potty training of my Goddess.
Tomorrow is another day!

FREE Preschool Online: CHALK Preschool Review #freeschool #preschool #education

We have had so many snow days in the very short start of 2015 that these kids will never get used to a 5 day work week again. Averaging at 4 days or 3.5 days due to early starts and early dismissals the kids in my town as well as many across the East Coast have a need for home education programs that will keep their mind working and learning. 

Although we don't home school we are always looking for ways to keep the kids minds on education. If they are going to be plugged in we want to balance it with computer websites and games that they learn and love. Sometimes they don't even know that a particular website is educational. They simply think they are learning and Chalk Preschool is one of these sites.

Chalk Preschool is FREE to try. Not only this but it is full of really fun, educational, interesting information that will become your go to online source for activities, printables, lesson plans, and more. Using songs, colors to teach basic concepts about weather, shapes, numbers and reading. 

These days preschool needs to be supplemented. Education has taken such a turn and my kids would never have been ready based on today's school. This is a great way to add to what you are doing at home and what they are getting in structured preschool.

The CHALK Preschool also has a Parent Portal where you can create a username and password, put in your child's name and birthday so that you can personalize the schooling based on your child's age.

What I love most:

• They use colorful, fun, edits including cartoons and real life that get kids interested and laughing. Whether they are talking about weather, colors, spelling, sounds, math, animals, months, seasons, geography, kids will be entertained, engaged and eager to learn!
• There is so much to see: Music Videos, Webisodes, Kid’s Talk Shows, Interactive Books, Step By Step activity projects with colorful photos and videos, Daily Lessons that change daily. 
• Watch Ms. Christina and the kids with your kids. They will  love it. You will love it. It is fun for all. 
• Tons of songs that you won't be able to get out of your head but your kids will absolutely love!
• Kids love watching kids! The Chalk Preschool uses a lot of real kids in their videos. Even my 9 year old was entertained.
• You can also play on any device. Perfect for on the go kid.

My daughter loved the videos about How Do Things Work especially the one on recycling. She was shocked to see what happens to her water bottle during the recycling process.

This site is great for Summer too. Keep the kids engaged and learning. It will give them the head start they are going to need in this world's elementary education curriculum. 

Dumb and Dumber To Didn't Disappoint - "I Liked It A Lot" -

 

The 411 by Maria:

I am a huge fan of the first Dumb and Dumber. My husband and I thought it was hysterical but you really need to be able to laugh at stupid. If you find stupid dumb, this is a movie for you. We are huge fans of South Park and Tosh so that should tell you something. We find dumb hysterical.

Dumb and Dumber starts out awesome. Lloyd and Harry are much older. Harry has been spending the past 30 something years visiting and taking care of Lloyd in a mental institution as a disabled invalid. He is still "upset" over Mary and Harry tells him he has to let it go. Well Lloyd has been spending the past 30 years playing a practical joke.  

This time instead of searching for love, the guys are searching for Harry's long lost daughter. He needs a kidney transplant and Lloyd decides to help him get one by finding the girl. The guys are on another road trip that gets them into all kinds of crazy situations.

I thought it was a funny movie. I loved it! Yes there are some crude jokes like Lloyd trying to steal a hearing aid for Harry by sticking his hand under an old lady laying in a bed. "Do you have the diamonds up in this turkey underneath you?"  There are a lot of poop jokes but all in all if you like stupid humor these guys don't disappoint.

The idea of these grown men searching for a daughter that Harry didn't know he had while Lloyd is secretly falling in love with her is perfect Dumb and Dumber. 

Oh and Kathleen Turner as Fraida and Bill Murray as Ice Pick just add to the fun!!! 

A Date Night Consists of Kids, Pizza and A Movie - The Best Of Me Date Night

The Notebook is right up there in my Top 5 movies so I was pretty excited to watch The Best Of Me. My husband not so much as he is more of an action movie, history buff lover but since it was Valentine's Day and we were snowed in, we knew we could fit in more than one movie for the night. The kids pretty much went into their rooms when we asked them for some alone time.

When my husband and I are together we don't watch a whole lot of romance movies so I was excited to light a candle, get some drinks, chocolate and snuggle under a blanket watching two people fall in love.

I am a fan of James Marsden who is very likeable in every roll he plays in my eyes. While this was a romance about two people having a second chance at love there is a little action for my action junkie husband for it not to be too sappy. I didn't find it overly sappy and thought the characters were sweet and fun. I love seeing the first kiss to them finding their way back to the place they were before.

The lines are romantic and I found myself remembering the first moments shared with my husband and everything we have been through to get us where we are today. The good and the bad. It was very warm and romantic. We never have date nights. We never spend time alone and this was really nice. I tried not to get too teary eyed as I didn't want to embarrass myself but if I were to have watched alone there were times I knew I would be doing the ugly cry.

I almost forgot to snap a photo of the movie for my review.

The Best of Me Candle was vanilla and made my living room smell amazing. Nice touch!

Thanks 20th Century Fox for allowing me to connect with my husband if only for the length of a movie.

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary prize pack containing a movie, Domino's Pizza gift certificate, two glasses, a candle and blanket. No monetary compensation was offered or received

My Poor Mom And The Diaper #TBT

Originally Written - Tuesday, July 05, 2005

Ha! Ha! You should have seen her face. She was beyond upset. Today I decided to give Mom a thrill. I would surprise her by showing her I knew how to take off my diaper. I have been practicing unbeknownst to her and was saving it for just the right time. Mom was on the phone with Aunt Teresa and I raced behind the rocking chair, took of the diaper in record time and opps wouldn’t you know it; it was then that I felt that urge. You know the one; the one where you just push and relax and then you feel like having another chocolate chip cookie or something.

I crouched down, pushed, relaxed and flew out of that corner like there was no tomorrow.

I was standing up on the rocking chair, trying to see if I could see my butt nuggets when Mom squealed. She was getting a clear view of my naked butt and she was not happy. I heard her tell Aunt Teresa, “He has no diaper on!”

She said my name again but I was busy trying to figure out if there was a way I could distract her before she saw my butt babies. I never get to inspect or touch them. She takes my diaper off and throws it away every single time. Damn it, they are mine and Mom and Dad constantly throw them away. I fight them every time I see them going for a new diaper but they catch me, lie me down, clean my butt, (all the while saying PU), throw a new diaper on me and then throw everything in the trash. It is not fair!

Mom took me off the chair and got in my face. “No, Handsome!” Damn, there is that word again. No, don’t take the diaper off? No, we don’t squat in the corner? Or no, we don’t stand butt naked on the chair? I can’t figure her out.

She cleaned up my butt balls and left the room to throw them away and probably blab to Aunt Teresa.

Just then I noticed a little ball that had escaped Mom and the paper towel. I bent over, picked it up with my fingers brought it to my face for closer inspection and then I heard it. “NO! HANDSOME1 No!” She scared me and I dropped it. Damn that woman, she must have eyes in the back of her head. The next time I get a chance to inspect my butt marbles I will make sure she is in the bathroom, then I will hide them under my pillow for inspection at a later time. They must be worth something if my parents keep taking them from me and I intend to find out. Until next time….

IEP Meeting And My Drop Off Hell! #TBT

January 19, 2008

So we had an IEP Meeting for Handsome! It was called because I am trying to extend the hours of his current SEIT (Special Education) instructor. Her name is Caroline and I adore her. We have worked with tons of awesome people. There was Kristie, Michelle, Tara, Brandi, Beth, Caroline, Andrea and God damn it what was her name? I loved her too. I can see her face and hear her voice but her name is lost to me at the moment. Anyway…I love these women. They are a wonderful bunch of people and some of them have truly cared for my son above and beyond a therapist. I have found friends in most of them along the way and stay in touch with all most of them.

Caroline, came on board in September.  She attends 2 of his 3 class with him (getting there 15 minutes after he arrives and leaves 15 minutes before he leaves). When she started I mentioned that mostly his academic abilities were very advanced however his social abilities needed some work. She was going to work on helping him assert himself into social situations which is something Tara had been helping us with all along.

OK, back to the reason for the meeting.

The whole things started on November 9th (it was a Friday), when my son told me that he didn’t want to go to school. He always wants to go to school so I figured he must not be feeling well so I kept him home.

The following Monday he still didn’t want to go. I told him that school was his job and that he had to go. I didn’t think much of it but when we got to the school he said, “No,  I don’t want to go” but he got out of the car and went anyway.

The next 4 drops offs were the same.

After about 2 weeks he started crying that he “couldn’t” go to school and I had to drive away a few times because I couldn’t get him to go into the school. On those days I held Mommy school a and kept talking about how important it was for him to go to school. I told him that he wants to go to Kindergarten and this was the first step.

Thanksgiving came and went and I thought we would get through this phase.

December, I started walking him into class and staying because he would shake and cry saying “you can’t leave.”

Right before Christmas I was walking him in and headed to the office to sign in. The desk is fairly high and he put his arms as close to the top as he could and as I was signing in he said, “Hi, I am Kevin McCalister and I am here for my room.”  If someone is actually reading this, Kevin McCalister is the kids name in the movie Home Alone. In Home Alone 2, Kevin does that line when he checks into a hotel after losing his family in an airport.

As we were walking to his class, Caroline mentioned that maybe he is afraid of being HOME ALONE. Well, maybe that IS it. His dad, the Teach and I discussed this and took Home Alone away vowing we wouldn’t discuss it or let him “act” as Kevin and see what happens.

That was before Christmas. After Christmas break I thought we would be fine and excited to start back at something he loves. Man, was I wrong.

It was actually worse. There were tears, screaming and kicking of the door when I left. I started the tough love thing probably a little too late but I totally understand the abandonment fear because hell, I still have one of my own.

I walked out the door standing against the wall trying to distance myself from the fact that the child who was crying wasn’t mine. It was impossible but over time I did learn to just ignore the cries and wait until the stopped. It was never more than 5 minutes before he calmed down.

He was counting on Caroline a lot and when I left would yell for her to hold him. I had not been sending him on Fridays because I didn’t want him to also feel abandoned by her too.

The last two weeks I started calling in the women who heads up these IEP meetings to try to calm him because I couldn’t leave the school until I knew that he was calm and involved in something.
She (Nina) would go in and talk to him and he would stop crying in less than a minute but now I felt like I was counting on her.

Long, drawn out post here….so that’s the history…now let’s cut to the chase.

The meeting is to extend Caroline’s hours to have her there from the moment he arrives until it is time to leave and also have her there the 3 days he’s there.

Hopefully, the Board considers that he will be aged out in May and allows this for the next few months.

Tomorrow; the decision that I have to make in regards to Kindergarten.

Addendum: I am happy to report that Handsome is a well adjusted 5th grader now and has none of these problems going to school. He actually wants to be the first one there and runs into the school every morning.

#TBT Rough Housing With Dad

Originally Written Sunday, June 26, 2005

Rough Housing With Dad

I have to tell you about my Dad, I have been noticing that he has not been hitting the treadmill the way he used to. I love the old man and being well.. his kid decided that I would make it my mission to make sure he gets the recommend amount of activity he needs to keep him fit.

Every night I hand Dad my blanket and some pillows and we duke it out. I run down the hall and he hides. I love his face when he thinks that he scared me. He jumps behind various walls of the house and waits for me. I hear him giggling to Mom and asking her where I am. She narrates my trip down the hall. "He's at the bathroom, rounding the kitchen, coming NOW!" What do they think I am, friggin deaf? Hello guys, I'm in the same room?

Dad jumps out and I pretend to jump in shock. Dad laughing and breathless asks Mom, "Did you see his face?" His enthusiasm is really quite sweet. I hate deceiving him but he just gets such a kick out of it. You've got to love the guy!

YOU GOT ME DAD I DIDN'T KNOW YOU WERE THERE

What The Hell Is An I.E.P Anyway #specialeducation #TBT

Originally Written January 18, 2008

Well fact is I happen to know what it is. It is a term used in Early Intervention Services for an Individual Education Plan. My Handsome has been in Early Intervention Services for almost 3 years now. It started with speech in 2005.
I have spoken very little about my son’s early education (here is a little background on why the whole process was started in the first place) on my blog because the whole process is such a bore and truly mostly unnecessary. While I agree that early intervention is very important, I think that most professionals fail to consider personal life experiences and base everything on a few charts written up by other professionals.

Today, while sitting in yet another IEP meeting with a bunch of people as we decided on how to proceed with my son’s services, I was reminded of my first impression of these people.

I walked into the meeting armed with an envelope of pictures of my son. I was ready to roll up my sleeves and beat the shit out of anyone who said anything I considered negative or personal. This was my son, a 2 year old baby who just welcomed a new sister into his life and these people, these strangers were going to tell me how I should handle him and his speech delay based on calculations they come up with from interviewing him. Interviewing my 23 month old!

I threw the envelope on the table as I wheeled my sleeping newborn in her carriage into the meeting. “This is the boy you are about to discuss. I know he is only a name on all that paperwork. Here is is.” They were excited to look through the pictures and said that they wished more people came in with them. I softened a bit and waited to hear what they had to say. I agreed with only about 25% of their findings and felt that a lot of things were taken out of context. I had sat down the night before and gone over all the paperwork and there was a lot of it. Every therapist who sat with him for 10-20 minutes had a report of about 10-18 pages long. I had made notes in the margin and highlighted things that I wanted to address. Things that were incorrect, taken out of context or had changed since the interviews.

The group decided on speech therapy, occupational therapy and special instruction. I thought and still think that everything else is totally unnecessary and tell every new therapist that starts exactly that.
The meeting today was nothing like that first meeting. Because I am in their face and make myself available, say hello when I am in the building they know me, my daughter and my son by face and name. The meeting which included my two kids today (who were awesome by the way) went really well.

I think this post is long enough so I will stop here for now. Tomorrow I will write more about why the meeting was called today and the decision I have to make. Until then I wanted to leave this message for my son.

Baby Boy, everything I do is for you. I want you to always know how proud I am of you and how far you have come. I have recently watched some video of you from a year ago and I am floored with your advancements. You are incredibly smart, very interested in learning, love writing, recently your newest addiction is Xbox. You play for 1.5 – 2 hours as a reward for doing well in school. You beg to play it daily but the 3 school days are enough for now. I put you on a timer and you know when it rings your time is up and shut it off. The therapists and every professional in that meeting were extremely impressed with how intelligent you are. You are a little shy at times but occasionally you are very much the social butterfly wanting everyone to talk to you. You are a big help to me with your sister and I love how you play the big brother role for her. Helping her with her shoes, coat, turning on lights or setting up a game for her. You love reading books, pretend playing and reading along to tapes. Your sensitivity surprises me sometimes. You don’t like me to be angry with you and cry when you feel I am mad.

I love you with every beat of my heart. You are my heart on legs and I can’t wait to see what you do next.

Love Mommy

TEETH FAIRIES: A BABY TEETH TRADITION - Video Review

The 411 by Maria and Goddess:

We love Teeth Fairies for so many reasons.

1 - She is adorable

2 - The box she comes in makes us smile

3 - The book she comes with colorful and sweet. We love the story and the art work.

4 - The whole shebang makes kids want to take care of their teeth by giving them someone they can see and feel that wants their teeth to be the best they can be.

5 - Her crown has a pocket for your little ones teeth. Goddess remembers the time that she lost a tooth that she had placed under her pillow before bed time. When she went to check again before she went to sleep it was gone. It took all four of us, 35 minutes to locate that tooth. With the crown you never have to worry about it getting lost again because the pocket in the crown sits atop your fairies head wherever you place her for pick up from the tooth fairy!

For more details here is our Video Review:

We think this is a great gift for kids from their parents, their grandparents, the Tooth Fairy after the loss of the first tooth, or whomever wants to make a child smile. There is nothing like a toothless, especially when those teeth are healthy, clean and white!

Valentine's Day Gifts Don't Have To Break The Bank - Earrings That Look Amazing And Are Cheap!

I have never heard of Orrous but have learned recently that I love them!

Recently I received  this pair for review:

18k Gold Plated White Shell Pearl with 6 Graduated Cubic Zirconia Drop Earrings

I love them!

 

They look beautiful with your hair down

What I love about them is truly how pretty they are. They look like expensive earrings but are currently under $15.00 on Amazon. 

Get them now before it is too late and show someone you love how much you love them. 

They look good with your hair up!

My only suggestion would be to get a different box. I received them in a red box which I found beautiful but after opening twice the cover came off. Gift them instead in a better case or trinket bag.