Eat, Pray, Love

No - I'm not really referring to the book, although it is a Good Read and I recommend it :) I'm just talking about my daily life.... I eat, I pray and I love..... :)

(Right now, I am praying that what I eat doesn't love my mid section, too much!!!) ...sorry I couldn't resist that comment

Well after much prayer, this little baby of mine has graduated from PREschool and will venture his way into Kindergarten next year!! Hard to believe, I swear he was just born yesterday?

With school out... we have to keep busy without spending 8 hours a day outdoors in the baking heat or 8 hours a day on the old boob tube.... so - for some fun summer loving - we busted out the cookie dough .... and the alphabet cookie cutters... at first, the 5 year old decided to spell something easy....... CAT

The 7 year old decided on DUDE

their 10 yr old friend, that was over for the afternoon, went with a "phrase".

then.... all bets were off.......

There is never a dull moment over at the old casa.

Hope summer is tweeting you well.

Don't forget to eat, pray and love!

xo,

amt

A super-hero heart.

Our Super Duper fantastic Q

This child has the heart of a super-hero. It's made of 100% percent pure gold. He was born to the luckiest unsuspecting parents willing to take on the lifetime commitment known as parenthood. It has not always been a path that one would call easy to get this adorable boy where he is now. You see he had only a few sounds to make at age 2 and half. At four 1/2 he progressed to a few words, making only 3 -4 word sentences. It was a long haul filled with perseverance and loads of speech therapy (among some other forms of therapy). Along that path, he has made countless friends and won over hearts of many therapist from Texas to California. :) Obviously between ages 5 and 6, he made some tremendous progress. He speaks wonderfully - sometimes a little too fast (overly excited that he can speak!!) At 7 years old, he has achieved his first GIANT milestone known as success. He graduated on Friday from Special Education. He begins a new journey, Tuesday, in regular education! We, his parents, are so incredibly proud of him. He's worked hard to get where he is and he is soooo excited to be venturing off to a new school.
Here is the super-hero himself eating a celebratory cupcake. :)

As a parent, I would be kidding myself, if I thought the hard work is now behind me. I know, as this part of journey comes to an end, the next one is ready to begin. For a minute, I am basking in the glory of his accomplishments, his amazing spirit, his perseverance and his willingness to always keep trying. He inspires me to be a better person, a better mom for this Super Hero.

LIFE IS...
by Mother Theresa

Life is an opportunity, benefit from it.
Life is beauty, admire it.
Life is a dream, realize it.
Life is a challenge, meet it.
Life is a duty, complete it.
Life is a game, play it.
Life is a promise, fulfill it.
Life is sorrow, overcome it.
Life is a song, sing it.
Life is a struggle, accept it.
Life is a tragedy, confront it.
Life is an adventure, dare it.
Life is luck, make it.
Life is too precious, do not destroy it.
Life is life, fight for it.

xo,
anna

Mom, I wanna rock and roll

As a mother, one must show love equally to all her little ducks (in my case - monkeys!).....in order to have balance in the household.....

My imaginative, handsome second born child is a total ROCK STAR!

He is absolutely amazingly musically inclined. The other night, while dad was with big bro (baseball date) Marz and I were hanging out at home..... I LOVE music........ Marz - he is MUSIC....... Naturally, I had some tunes playing, while making supper and Marz after playing chef (he helped me make rice and veggies) says to me...... "Mom - I wanna rock and roll!"
Just about anything that comes out of Marz's mouth has something to do with his very active imagination..... I said - "OK go for it....." not knowing what would happen next......
He runs out from his room. Jumps on the coffee table and bust out a mean groove! I know you probably can't believe I let my kids dance on the furniture..... but if you read the last post..... you will know that we have had some challenges with my oldest son and well quite frankly ANY jumping/dancing/running is more than welcome at our house.... If it's on the furniture.... then .... it's on the furniture. I'm cool with it. Although now that they are getting older...... they are under the impressions that it's ok to dance on everyone's furniture..... (opps!) I'm working on respecting other people's property.... we are almost there......
So - I love this series of pictures...... everyday is an adventure with two active little boys. Usually I get all caught up in making sure they aren't saying "butt" too much or that they don't break a leg playing WWF. I sometimes forget to laugh and ENJOY downright hilarious moments my TWO beautiful boys bring to my life.....






If I had to guess..... what the sound track of Marz's 4 year old life would be..... I would definitely say..... James Brown.... I feel good! enjoy the tunes.... AND if you can for one minute today........ go jump on your coffee table and bust a groove in true Marcel fashion......

thank you.....
thank you very much........

Q gets some spectacles.....

My precious adorable first born son just got his first pair of seeing eye glasses.......

Does he not look absolutely delicious? here he is posing for mom....


then checkin himself out in the mirror and I'm pretty sure he thinks he looks as cute as his mama says he does......


We embarked on another journey with Q this week..... Vision Therapy. We began our first form of therapy with Q when he was 2 1/2 - speech.. he is still a stellar student in Speech and truly had come a LONG way.... he is fully verbal and actually talks too fast because he just so darn happy that he can communicate!! He has also endured occupational therapy and physical therapy - for some fine motor delays. The blessing in all of hard work Q has put in since 2 1/2 - it is seeing the joy brings to each therapist he gets to work with. They all LOVE him. For obvious reasons (hello - he's too stinkin' cute) but he's just about the most pleasant kid you can ever meet. He's super considerate and polite for a 6 yr old. He works HARD at every session and he meets his therapy goals with vigor. We have graduated from OT and PT (occupational and physical therapy) and it shows..... He's starting his FIRST year of "big boy" baseball, while he is not the "star player" by industry standards, he's able to keep up with all the kids. (btw - if you ask mom.....he is the star player.....). If you ask Q what his favorite part about vision therapy is..... it's being able to look like his daddy....

beautiful!
I love you super Q!!!
xoxo, mom

This is for you Lawren......

Parenting is a constant struggle. It's a struggle when you are new to it or even if you are an old pro... (NOT ME!) Once I think I have got one stage (sorta) under control they go and hit another stage.... and throw me for a loop. Funny thing is my oldest is only 6!! they have not even reached puberty yet!! arrgh!

Well my story as a parent is one I don't really talk about too much, on the blog.... My old son has some learning disabilities and truly was not able to talk much until about 4 1/2. We've been to plenty of docs and specialist trying to figure out the "label" but really have not been able to pin point one for him. One doc says autism - one says apraxia, one says this - one says that. To me I don't really need a label - just the reassurance that as a parent I'm doing everything possible to help him along his way....... and lots and lots of prayer.........

I do know that when it is all said and done. He will be something truly magnificent due to all his strong will and boundless determination to "catch" up to his peers. Q is an amazing child , I forget sometimes to thank my lucky stars that he is soooooo willing to go to speech therapy and go occupational therapy and physical therapy..swimming.. task..... Not many parents have it as easy as I due when it comes to kids with special needs. Q is very cooperative when it comes to one on one learning and he has come a long, LONG way since he was 2 1/2 (when we started therapies). With lots of help and support from family, friends, therapist and teachers alike....... we will have an "incredible" success story to tell when it is all said and done :) At our current point in time it's a "really great" success story so far......

a couple of posts back - i posted what I've been reading for the past month (over and over and over....) It's a great book called "how to talk to your kids so they will listen and how to listen so they will talk......" {recommended by some really great parents we know - that happened to have just gave birth to our second nephew}........ anyhow this book does not address issues for children with special needs - it's just a plain old communication book. After reading it...... I would venture to say that just about anyone could benefit to read this book and gain better communication skills in the process. Although the "examples" might seem kinda ridiculous if you don't have any kids..... :)

My friend Lawren asked me to share the finer points of the book......well it's the 5 cent version (literally) .... straight plagiarism from the chapter recaps.....i did find a great deal at amazon... when I bought the book "used" for 1 cent and paid 3.99 shipping..... so it was $4.00. Thrift books (green earth company out of portland) anyhow I was soooo pleased to make this because it has helped me capture the major points of the book and I plan to print it off and hang it in every room of our home..... (ok maybe not every room.. )

Lawren - I made the image in pse.....i'm trying hard to learn the program.. muddling thru.... gotta love "control key" + "z".... (undo shortcut) I'm making lots of mistakes....... i used some cool scrapbook paper for the background.

anyhow, good luck.....