Downcast Oh My SOul

What a week thus far. I was struck down with the dreaded Strep Throat for a few days and the house went into shambles. Mommies just can't afford to get sick. If that wasn't enough to make me cry my husband got stuck at work ate two nights and the kids were less than respectful in their behavior. Might as well kick me when I am down. YES this is a whiny post and yes I am seeking attention. I wish my mom was here. There is something about moms making everything ok. I just need a hug.
I have a lot to do and hopefully hubby can help me to get the house back together and get the kids back in their place. I hate spring. It wrecks havoc on their moods and behavior. I want to get everything down so we can actually enjoy some outdoors time this weekend. We went to the park last weekend and they had a blast. We need to get their new bikes out and let them skin those knees already.

Rey Rey

Reynaldo loves Music. Jim gave him his old Rio to use and we have some good music on there for him. I think it has really helped him lately just coping with life and his moods. I just had to share this cute picture of him. He is taking a hip hop dance class and I can't wait to see the show. He will not show me any of the moves yet.

Baby Girl is now sitting up. She thinks she is such a big shot. I am under the weather today with a really bad sore throat and cough. It is off to the Dr. for me tomorrow.

Pics From Uncle Seth and Aunt Frans Visit

Dominic refused to be in the pictures!!! He took them moving very very hard!!!!!

Before the birds chirp

I have been up since 4 am. For some reason I couldn't sleep anymore. I prayed aimlessly for anything that came to my mind. God has woken me up before to pray and I usually will have a person laid on my heart but not today. Instead of going back to sleep I got up then and answered some emails and sorted laundry and cleaned up the house. Fran and Seth are stopping by this evening to see the kids before they move to the opposite coast. Dominic is really sad about it. He was ok until he heard how far they are going to live. We have been blessed with an Awesome Godmother for Dominic and Godfather for Kiarrah.Fran is Dominics Godmother and Seth is Kiarrahs Godfather. They love all of the kids immensely and have played such an active roll in there life. Most importantly I know that they are praying for the kids and model their lives to be a good influence on them.
I have a lot to do today so I am going to sign off for now.

Gracie in her own time

I am totally amazed at how much my baby girl is now doing. It is almost like it just happened over night or as soon as she turned 8 months. She starting rolling over on March 21st. I had not seen it so told my dad that he must be lying. She actually did it for Pop pop several times while we were in Indiana. I finally saw it on last Friday morning. She is actually doing really well on sitting up. She can balance herself for quite awhile. She is also managed to roll around on the floor trying to get to her goal. Usually it is a toy of her sisters or to newspapers. What is it about babies and paper? Her two bottom teeth are almost all the way in. We have had a cranky few days. She loves to eat and is finally putting on some weight. She loves to watch her brothers and sister. They can make her belly laugh by doing the simplest things. She is really enjoying her time with Sophia. They make eye contact more often and will smile at each other. I am especially amused when they roll into each other. They both have this look on their face like " Hey how did you get here". They are going to grow up to be the best of friends. I am going to ask her mommy if I can share a picture on here of the two of them. They are so cute together.
The boys are taking their Terra Nova testing this week. Dominic was very excited about it and Reynaldo flat out responded with " I hate test". Sorry little buddy but this has only just begun.
KiKi wishes that she could take tests. I am still praying about what to do with her for next school year. I want to do what is best for her. That reminds me that I need to contact the child study team and speak to them.
Jim and I went out last night for a rare date. We were only out for two hours but man did it feel like heaven. We went to Wallie World and gazed into each others eyes as we walked through the health and Beauty department. LOL It doesn't matter what we do, we always managed to have fun. He was in rare form with his Johnny Bravo impersonations. We went and grabbed a bite to eat afterwards.
I must get back to work and get some things accomplished. Just thought I would throw an update out there for those of you sharing in my life, spying on my life and just plain living vicariously through me. Speaking of spying on me I am quite curious to why some of you wont just come out and say hi. I do not bite and would love to know who is reading my blog. I do know who some of you are thanks to site meter. I know that Elizabeth is checking it out and then I have some peeps from high school who are logging on. Just drop me a line. Lets catch up

Nurturing

I read this post today by Kari that is called Don't water the weeds. Boy did I need to read this. As a mommy to a child with FASD I sure can fall into the category of wasting water on the weeds. It is so easy to do that. My goal this week is to really concentrate on Nurturing my children and using this approach.

Pictures from Easter

Auntie Jaimeers and KiKi
Gracie

Jake

If you get a chance could you please go to this site and encourage this family. I used to nanny for the family that are good friends with Jake. I can't even begin to imagine how this family feels.

The return to the Sickies

Greetings from Chilly New Joisey. I didn't want to lift my sleepy head from my pillow today. I have just been so tired lately. Yesterday was a busy day. Tuesday the girls and I fly home without a glitch but were exhausted from the whole day of travel. There is just something about flying that makes me tired. We had an awesome trip but more about that later. When I got home Reynaldo was still not feeling good. Dominic woke up Wednesday with a really sore throat again. I ended up taking the two boys to the Dr and took Gracie so that they could weight her and check her ears. She was extremely uncomfortable on the flight home and I was really worried about her ears due to all of the congestion she has been having. Come to find out that all throats are still infected. We are starting a new round of antiboitics. This will be Reys first round. Hopefully we can get rid of it this time. Gracie doesn't seem sick at all.
These kids have missed so much school this year. and to think that the germies have not been as bad as they have in the past. Kiarrah thank God is healthy and happy and back at school. She sure missed everyone. Well almost everyone. She was sure to tell me who she didn't miss from school. We had to have a talk about not telling that person that she didnt miss her. She is always so blunt. I have explained to her that you don't have to like everyone but you need to be nice and not hurt feelings. When she doesn't liked someone she is very passionate about it.
We had a wonderful trip to Indiana. It was a very low key long weekend and the kids has a good time. KiKi spent some good quality time with PopPop and MeMa. She went to see Horton Hears a WHo with PopPop. My dad actually liked the movie too and knew the whole story line. Mema colored eggs with Ki and they made fruit salad together. Ki also spent time with Aunt Mindi coloring and Auntie Jaimeers. She went to visit a friend with her and then we went out to lunch one day together. Whenever I get home I love to go to a great resturant called Hacienda.
Easter Sunday we had the family over for a yummy dinner of Ham and Polish Sausage that Grandpa makes, fruit salad, sweet potato casserole, California Vegetable Bake and bread. Everything was so delicous. Later in the evening we had sandwiches and potato salad and a relish tray. Jaimee made her banana pie and mom made a lemon meringue. Hey do any of you bakers out there know how to make that pie so that the crust isnt so moist?
We also played cards. I think that is a total Midwest thing. We played Euchre and played a few games of Bunko with Kiarrah. She really enjoyed that.
Our flight out was quite the nightmare. New York had major winds. We ended up sitting on the tarmack for 2 hours before we took off because they were only using one runway. Kiarrah talked the ear off the lady who sat next to us. Thank goodness we won't see her again. At first it was cute but I could tell after awhile that she was getting annoyed. I was sure to thank her for being so patient with my daughter. When we got to Detriot we missed our connecting flight and then they were not going to be able to get us to Indiana until Friay evening because everything was booked. Instead they could get me to Chicago so we did that and My father drove the three hours to get us. We hit a lot of traffic and didn't get to their house until almost 8 pm. It was a very very long day. My dad was so tired after driging there and back.
The boys enjoyed their time with daddy although Reynaldo was misreable without me. He is just so attached to me and hard for him to be away from me. It didnt help matters that he wasn't feeling good. He made it clear that I can't leave him again.
Anyway I am back to the daily grind. I will try to post some pictures later. I need to unpack and get my house back to order. Three boys alone in the house are slobs for sure.

I've Been Tagged

Caroline has tagged me. I actually love these things. Here are the rules
1. Link to your tagger and post these rules on your blog.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.
4. Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog.
I have done this before but I will try to think of things I haven't done before.

1) I love eggplant! Especially cooked with feta cheese in pasta sauce. Yummy.
2) I wanted to be a writer when I was in highschool. I used to write for the school paper and also made it twice on the next generation page in the Tribune.
3) Not so shocking, I love to take pictures. Especially candid shots. I have boxes and boxes of pictures to scrapbook.
4) I used to be in Choir in High School and can sing pretty ok as a second Alto. I used to love to sing Karen Carpenter songs especially. You will usually catch me singing a long with the radio.
5) I am a major worrier. I hate that about myself and I am trying to work on it with God's help
6) Scalloped potatoes make me puke. I am not sure what it is about them but UGH!!!!! Funny thing is that everyone else I know loves them
7) I was a professional nanny for almost 15 years. That is how I ended up in New Jersey after high school. I planned on coming out here for a year as a nanny and then would go to school and ended up staying out here, fell in love with my husband and the rest is history.
I am going to tag
Shannon
Desiree
and
Jaye

Boys Rule?

Strep has hit the little peanut. She is so miserable. I feel so bad for her. Daddy took her to the Dr. yesterday and she is now on antibiotics. We are leaving for Indiana on Thursday. Hopefully she will be feeling better and the plane ride will be ok for her. I will admit I am a little nervous to be going with both girls even though I know we will be fine. I am almost packed. Just need to get the stuff in bags. I have the stuff already pulled out and in piles.
The boys are actually excited that the "girls" will be gone and they are gonna do boy things cause you know Girls drool and boys rule according to them.
Not much else going on here.

A Little of This and That

Can someone spell busy? Life has been crazy busy here but I seem to thrive in a chaotic lifestyle. Maybe that is why my sister thinks I can manage 4 children like it is the norm. This week I have been filling in as a nanny for a friend whose nanny is sick. I am taking care of a 6 month old and a 7 month old. I love every minute of it and which it could be more of a permanent Part time situation. The girls really enjoy each others company and I actually have time to get little things done. The two of them are so adorable when they lay under the activity gym and stare at each other and then try to grab each other's hands. Their interaction is so sweet. We make quite the scene when I take the kids to school. I carry Gracie in her sling and push Sophia in her stroller. I wish we had a double stroller.
The girls and I are getting ready for our mini trip next week to Indiana. I need to start packing and prepping. I do not want to leave it to last minute like usual. Kiarrah is very excited. I am just trying to figure out the best way to travel with two car seats. I pray that we have a good flight with good weather and no delays. I need to make sure that I prep good carry on bags for a situation like that.
Dominic just got over strep. I hope it's over in the house. I am so sick of all of the illnesses. I think it is due to the fact that we have had such a mild winter.
We had the boys IEP's at school and I am pretty pleased with them. We are going to be getting the services that we need. Jim went with me to the one for Rey and after a little friction we were able to express our concerns and let them know what we expected. Now to figure out what to do with Kiarrah for this Fall. We had planned to have her home schooled by a friend but after speaking to the Neurologist I am just not sure if that is the best thing. Any advice. She is extremely bright and high functioning just has a major lack in impulse control and hyperactivity. She is extremely bossy also. I could really use some input on this. Kindergarten registration is in May so I have until then to make up my mind. I need to sit down and figure out the pros and cons and also find out what the home school rights are in New Jersey.
Not much else going on here. A lot of our friends are going through struggles and that has all been so heavy on my heart. I want to help and reach out. My time is limited but I am making it a priority to do what I can.
On another note I have applied for college. I am anxious but scared to get my butt back in there. I keep playing with a major but in all honesty I have realized that I keep trying to run from what I know I am supposed to do. I want the easy way out. I know that is not what I am to do though. I would really like to pursue the nursing and work in the child psychiatric department. I know I have a long hard road a head of me but I am not going to listen to people tell me that I can't do it. I have a passion there. I am just going to start out school part time and go from there. Heck it is never to late to start. I am not going to waste this life.

Little Miss Peanut

My Handsome Fellows

KiKi is Back

My KiKi girl is finally feeling better. I took this picture of her when she was really down and out with Strep this past week. Where did her infectious smile go? Doesn't she look pathetic. I will try and get a smiley picture of her tomorrow.

Prejudice in 2nd grade?

I am so livid right now and need some advice on how to handle this. My son came home from school today because some little girl in his class told him that she was going to be mean to him because he was black!!
How would you handle this???????????

My FFF for this Week

I love this picture of Jim. I can't beleive that we are going to be married for 14 years next month. Isn't he a hottie?? Gotta love those eyes.

Friday Rundown

I have been out of touch in the blog world. Can't wait to catch up with everyone. Not much going on in the homefront. The sick germs have invaded our home and I am doing everything I can to evict them. Miss Butterfly has Strep right now. SHe has been so mellow and sick. I have enjoyed the mellow part immensely but not the sickies. Finally today her fever is down.
Been a busy week prepping for IEP meetings with the school. Reys is on monday and I am already tense about it. Jim is going to go with me for support. I want so much more for this child and all they care about is the fact that he is passing. I have been working with him on a daily bases and that is the only reason he is reading. He is a yr behind. It ticks me off that I have to fight so much for him to get him what he needs. This no child left behind crap is exactly that.. crap, Whoever came up with it must not have special needs children. Ok off my box.
Dominic still loves to read. He is enjoying the Captain Underpants books. I would love some recommendations for books for him. He is 8 and into chapter books. I just bought him 2 biographies for black history month that he is ready to read.
Gracie is being cute as ever. She has been spending a lot of time on her belly and is trying so hard to rool over and get on her knees. She sees the other kids running around and she wants to be moving with them. She gets so excited when they are around but she also loves her QUIET( yes that does happen for a few hours a day) time cuddling with mommy. She managed to bring her toes up to her mouth today by pulling on her footie jammies.
I sent in my admission papers for School next fall and did the financial aid. I am excited about that. Not much more except I have been working on my Ebay store to try and supplement our income. Check it out if you get a chance.Kiarrah's Closet

Thursday

We are enjoying life here. Things just never seem to slow down. I guess that is life with 4 kids. My sister claims I have a gift of going on in life like having four kids is normal. LOL Isn't it? I guess for some people it isn't. And to think I would love another one.
Gracie is gaining weight. She is now 13.7 pounds and 25 inches long. She is now in the 5 percentile. YEA!!! She loves to eat and how dare you eat anything in front of her with out giving her some. She will start hollering at you and start smacking her lips. She has quite the personality and sure makes all of us laugh. Her brothers and sister adore her. Kiarrah is doing better with her but I still have to closely monitor her with her because she gets rough or get a sudden jolt of energy and doesn't stop to think that she could hurt Gracie. Fetal Alcohol Syndrome is some nasty stuff. I wish I could get into her mind and truely understand what she is feeling. Everything is so off all the time. It is like two minds are trying to run one body.
The boys are doing ok. Reynaldo has been having issues with cycling. Spring is upon us and his Bipolar seems to get so out of wack this time of year. I am trying so hard to learn when he is at the breaking point so that he can be redirected but I am not always so lucky. Please keep us in prayers because this gets so difficult at times. Dominic is doing great. Just sassy and fresh like most 8 year olds.