It's Been A While...

So it's been a while since I posted and well things are what they are. Alyssa will by 5 in December and it seems that time has flown by. Tony turned 14 in June and that freaks me out even more. We took Lys in for EEK testing to see if she was ready for Kindergarten and while she is great in her cognitive abilities her motor skills are severely lacking. A lot of this has to do with the fact that her dad is handicapped. He has had a pretty severe back injury since the 80's and moves with caution and can't do a lot physically. Alyssa has picked that up so jumping and running are a bit stunted. We are getting her tested again and then we'll see if we can get her into free preschool.

I was doing research on preschools in the area and it is expensive. There is one close to our home that charges $10K a year. That is like a semester at college anymore. I understand wanting to give your child a leg up and to help them excel but seriously? I just want my girl to be around kids and to have a great experience. She is already talking about her first day of school and is dying to go so it will be a month from the time the testing place receives her app until they schedule her testing but it will be worth it.

All in all things on my end are ok. I struggle daily with living with a physically handicapped person who has a very serious mental illness that stems from the pain of the physical injury. There are days when little things can set him off and then there are long stretches where we are pretty good. We are in a bad stretch as of yesterday due to outside entities messing with some financial issues which have put him in severe panic mode and with a lot of suicidal ideology. This puts stress on me and on the midget and I can already tell that there is going to a good three or four days when I won't be eating or sleeping much based on the stress. Thankfully I work with amazing people and have some pretty awesome friends but still, the stress brings on tears for no reason. I can't cry in front of the midget because she begins to cry too and I can't have that. I try not to let her know that I am hurting but sometimes it happens. In any case, this too shall pass.

I will try and keep you updated as far as the midgets progress and with any funny stories she presents me.

Take care

Eat It... Don't Play with It!!

So, here it goes..

I seem to be be saying, the above a lot lately. Lys will be 2 in December and it seems that, while she is a magnificent eater, she likes to touch and roll her food around a lot in her hands. She thinks it's funny but tonight with the pasta and sauce it was more messy than anything. Ugh. However, I have been blessed with a child who eats well.

On to the next thing, my girl LOVES to be upside down. Seriously, everytime I turn around she is either standing on her head or standing upside down in my chair. It's so funny to see that smile and have her think she is the bees knees when she does it. My girl is definitely a source of happiness. I have been going to one on one therapy along with group therapy. My group therapy is Healing through Laughter and it is amazing. I would love to share what I have learned with anyone who wants to know. Just message me, but the point I am making is laughing and smiling with my Midgie has definitely helped. I never realized how healing laughter can be until group.

Now for the final part of this post, I have found that as a mom, wife and woman I do a TON of cleaning. I really don't like to use too many chemicals so I found a book that gave me ideas as to how to use ordinary stuff that I have around the house to do some great things without the extra expense. I would love to hear from you ladies if you would be interested in some of my findings and how well the work as well as sharing some of your tips and tricks. I will probably do a post nonetheless in the next few days. Cleaning, cooking and parenting tips are all parts of being a mom. Thank you ladies for your following.

Amber

Collaborative Giveaway Winner

Hello Ladies,

I know that many of you were directed to my blog based on the collaborative giveaway that was put together by my friend Alex in our Facebook group. I should have done a post long ago about what I was actually giving away but between the handicapped husband, the two year old, high level college course work and my own crap it got pushed to the wayside. For that I totally apologize to ALL of you. However, Alex has picked the winner for my part of the give away and it is:


                                                          Cristina Santos

So having gotten that out of the way let me post the pics of her win. I appreciate all of you and I will get back into this blog thing again soon. I have several fun stories about what has been going on around here. 

Thank you all again for following my blog!
Amber

  

Sorry for the delay...

Hi Everyone,

So sorry that I have been lax in my postings here. I was so busy with school and all the drama that has gone on this summer that my blog has taken a back seat. Now that things are looking to calm down I can get back to posting.. Woooohoooooo!!!!!!!!!!

So we, Lys and I, recently went on vacation. We headed back east to attend the wedding of my childhood friend. I have known her for 33 years. It was a crazy crazy week and I was honestly ready to come home after two days.  However, once we weren't surrounded by a gazillion people I enjoyed myself.

Lys got to be out in the woods and was finally comfortable out there on day two which then proceeded to downpour. Hooray in on respect and a big thumbs down on the other. She was around other kids and came home with a bit more of a vocabulary. We are getting two and three word sentences now. Probably, we are the only ones who understand her but they are there. I think her dad is happiest with the sentence "My Dad" which she is saying with quite a bit of frequency.

She was around a lot of animals *4 cats and 4 dogs, one of which was a St Bernard* and cried hysterically the first day. By the end they were great from afar. So, that's not too bad either.

On the funnier side, when we went out for lunch at the Mexican restaurant one day they made us fresh guacamole. My child the proceeded to hog the bowl for herself and basically ate guacamole for lunch, avocados, tomatoes and onions. Changing diapers the next day was NOT a pretty task lol.

So that is my adventure in it's basic form. I will be back soon since I have a grrrrrrrrrreat story to tell about being at camp in the woods with a group of LARPER's. Funny and awesome all in one.. Should be interesting.. Can't wait to share. And in case you are wondering this is the link to the definition of a Larper lol

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Larper

Little Girls Shouldn't Smell that Bad OR Adventures in Poop

Hello Everyone, 

I am sorry that I have been MIA lately but things have happened around here that have limited my computer time. Now having said that as I was changing a diaper this morning I realized that between my two kids I must have the smelliest children on the planet.

This issue with BOTH of them has started from birth. Tony had a bowel movement before he was delivered c-section in 2001 and Lys well my husband told me as soon as she was fully delivered she let loose and had a major "explosion". So, within hours of birth etc my two kids have pooped either in me or on me. Yeah, I know it's gross but it's a good beginning to the story.

Now anyone who knows me knows that Tony has what is called Mega-Colon and has had issues with bowel movements since a very young age. It results in him being a very stinky child because he can't go. However, that is slowly working itself out and I am hopeful that he will out grow it and be fine. Now, Lys on the other hand has no such issues. She is just naturally stinky. I think I have the picture around here somewhere from when she was a few months old. The poor thing hadn't pooped in over a day. And when she did it was EVERYWHERE. Her father felt obliged to go get the mask he wears when painting in order to help change her diaper. It has since gotten worse. The smell at least. The child poops at least once a day and inevitably it's the stinkiest part of my day.

This morning was the perfect example. I have NO idea why but the poop this morning was the color and consistency of chocolate frosting. I will never ever look at frosting the same again let me tell you. The smell was so gross and I kept repeating over and over that little girls should NOT smell this bad. I cleaned her up and sent her on her way but the idea stuck with me.

I apologize for the poop post but it's been "brewing" for 18 months lol. I will post again soon and on a much more pleasant subject.

Enjoy your weekend all

Amber

Yes My Kid IS Normal.. You Wanna Fight About It?

Hello Everyone!

Soooooooooooooooooooooooo recently I was talking to a friendand fellow mommy blogger (well yesterday) about the fact that my 18 month old was saying only a few words. I was worried about Lys having a speech delay. Between us we came to the conclusion that I shouldn't listen to those that say their almost 2 year olds have a ginormous vocabulary and relish in the fact that she knows all her body parts, follows instructions (as well as an 18 month old can of course), is funny, silly, smart, devious, and basically a NORMAL child.

So why was I freaking out? Well that came from the fact that there are others who have kids her age or older who seem to have these amazing powers of vocabulary and sportsmanship and are all around "superkids". I have this thing about being compared to others and it drives me nuts. Yet it's always out there. Some peoples kids are better than mine, better behaved, more advanced blah blah blah. And it pisses me off that these parents would dare say anything to me about my kids. When my son was in soccer he was an only child and was used to being first and getting his own way. The husband of an acquaintance had the balls to say to me "Where are the parents of THAT kid?" knowing full well he was mine. I layed into him pointing out that his son, who was a bit older than mine, was not the second coming of Christ and instead was a bully and a little jerk. I did the same thing when one of the parents on my son's t-ball team had the balls to make comments about not only my son but many of the other kids on the team because they were not as athletic and "good looking" as her kids.  And while there have been no disparaging remarks about my daughter, the implied slight to her intelligence and development pisses me off and I made it known that I did not appreciate being told that my kid was "retarded" because she isn't exposed to 10 million kids and people on a regular basis. I am not a social person and prefer my solitude. I take my child out and she sees children but there are never any kids her age at our park. Not my fault, I make the attempt and she is very social when she gets a chance. So, to all those who seem to think its OK to make remarks about another persons child unless you know them and their story.

Long story short, My kid is normal, both my kids are normal. They are smart and kind, funny, silly and loving. And if you want to say otherwise, we are going to have words.. Got it???

The Great Sippy Cup Adventure

Happy Saturday Morning Everyone,

Yesterday was the day we decided to introduce the sippy cup into our repertoire of daily drinking activities. My reasoning for this is that she has figured out if she turns her bottle upside down it squirts her water everywhere. Yeah, that's not cool especially on my furniture. So, the sippy cup came out of the cabinet. Our first foray into it was NOT fun. My kid does not want to work for her drink. Well she didn't anyway. Once she got the hang of it the sippy cup was a hit. Now, it's a small sippy cup so multiple refills were necessary.

Now there is no saying whether she will use it for very long because I caught her trying to drink out of the bathtub cup and trying to drink out of the empty water bottle as well. Now, while my kid isn't talking very much she does understand and she is smarter than your average bear. I am hoping she'll talk soon because the whining is driving me over the edge. But in the meantime our sippy cup adventure has begun and we are learning something new everyday.. Oh did I mention she can no climb onto my furniture without any help?

Enjoy your weekend!