Birthday Parties!

Carter Reid is now 1 and Braden Jack is now 3! Happy birthday to our handsome young guys! We've had a wonderful week full of celebrations and I'll post pics soon.

16 years later it finally makes sense!

Mr. Price was my Freshman Art teacher at Seton High School for maybe a week in the Fall of 1992. Well, probably not even a full week. I think class started on Wednesday and I was trying to get out of his Art class by that Friday.

I have NEVER been good at art, although it is definitely a talent I wish I had. So, way back in 1992 entering my Freshman year of high school, I decided that I would take Art instead of Chorus. Everyone knew that Chorus was the easy "A," but I thought that if I signed up for Art, I might actually learn how to be an artist.

I remember the first assignment that Mr. Price gave us. It was a black and white picture of an old woman in a rocking chair and we were supposed to turn it upside down and draw it. Huh. Now how was I supposed to do that? I had no real talent in drawing and I didn't even have a clue how to do it. I kept trying to look at the picture and draw the lines exactly how I saw them. It was awful! I couldn't get anything that I drew to go in the right direction or even be of similar size to the lady in the drawing!

Mr. Price was so encouraging though. He kept telling me to visulize the picture as a whole and break the picture down into shapes that I knew how to draw. At the time I didn't have the faintest idea what he was talking about. So, three classes later I found myself in the school office investigating a schedule change to Chorus. As I was speaking to the secretary about switching from Art to Chorus, he came up from behind me and asked why I was switching. I was mortified. I didn't have the heart to tell him first, so I had just gone to the school office without even speaking with him about it. He was still so sweet and encouraging, but I told him that I was just too frustrated and I didn't see that changing any time soon. (And I proved myself right. After I saw some of the things that these girls drew, painted, sculpted, ect....I knew that I was better off in Chorus. Of course, I couldn't sing either, but at least I could be muffled by the other great singers in the Chorus and that wouldn't be too embarassing.)

Fast forward to now, May 2008. Isa loves Art, and even more specifically, drawing. A little fact that most do not know about Bill is that he is actually a really good artist, but he doesn't have as much free time as we'd like these days, so often I'm sitting with Isa trying to teach her how to draw! I've read some very simple books on drawing to be able to teach her some elementary concepts and she seems to enjoy both the time with me and the fun that she has drawing.

Yesterday we had checked out this book on CD from the library called Joseph had an Overcoat. We've listened to it on CD several times and today was our day to do something crafty with the book. The moral of the story is that you can always create something out of nothing. At the beginning of the story Joseph starts out with an overcoat, but it gets old and worn, so he makes a jacket out of it. Then that gets old and worn, so he makes a vest out of it. Then he makes a scarf, and so on. The items keep getting smaller until he makes a button in which he eventually loses (so at this point "he has nothing" so to say), so Joseph then writes a story about it (hence the theme "making something out of nothing.") Very cute story, and even better that someone else can read it to her on CD!

So today our activity was to start writing and illustrating our own book about Joseph. The picture above shows Joseph in his overcoat. The picture to the right shows "our" best attempt at matching the illustator's version of Joseph. Now I know that my attempt at drawing the overocat isn't the best, but 16 years ago, I could NOT have done this period. It would have been lopsided, one coat arm shorter than another, and I definitely would not have been able to even attempt his collar. But, in the midst of teaching my daughter how to draw, I am also learning. I'm finally beginning to see those smaller shapes in the larger picture in which Mr. Price had told me to visualize 16 years ago. Isa did our Jospeh's face and I think that she did a remarkable job. When it came time to do his hat she said "Mommy, I don't know how to draw the hat." So I told her "Look at the bottom part of Joseph's hat. What shape is that? " To which she answered "a rectangle." So I had her draw that first. Then I said "Now what shape is the top part of his hat?" and she said "an oval." So I had her draw that. Then we discussed what color Joseph's hat was and she chose brown. As we colored Joseph's hat in, the lines that made up those shapes began to disappear and suddenly Joseph's hat started looking more like a hat instead of an oval sitting atop a rectangle. Ah ha! That's how these artist's do it! (Again, I know that our drawing is close to what a 4 year old can do, but that's a lot for me! It took me 16 years to be able to figure some of this out!)

When I went to draw the boots, she told me that I needed to draw a rectangle for the heel and an oval for the boot part! She paid really close attention to the colors that Joseph wore in the illustration and tried to match it in our picture.

We worked really hard on this project. I'm really proud of her. Us. Proud of us. Sadly, I'm quite sure that my picture of the old lady sitting in the rocking chair when I was 14 years old wasn't even close to as good as the one that I drew with my daughter at the age of 30!

Carter's Walking and Talking, Birthday parties

I forgot to mention another wonderful Mother's Day gift that I received. Carter is definitely saying "ma ma" and "da da" now! It's such a sweet feeling when that happens. When he gets really upset (usually when he wants food), he yells "M...O......M." In just a few short days, he is walking all over the place. I imagine by his 1st birthday (May 21st), he'll have it down pat!

Speaking of birthdays....I've been trying to plan Braden's 3rd and Carter's 1st for May 25. I LOVE birthday parties. I love planning them. I love picking out the perfect wording for the invitations (although I'm too cheap to actually splurge on an expensive invitation, so this year I sent them via e-mail.) I just think that it's the one day where people come to celebrate your life with you and I always want that day to be special for my children. I want them to know how much people care about and love them that they consider it important enough to celebrate the day when they entered the world.

This year I chose a Construction Theme for the boys. They are currently constructing two new homes next to us, so Braden has had an up close look at real diggers for the past few months. I love hearing him say "Look Mom, it's Digger Man" when we pull up to our house. He loves playing in his sandbox with his diggers that GG and Papa gave him last year for his birthday. And Carter, of course, loves anything that Buddy does, so he'll love it as well.

The invitation wording, I thought, was cute. Isa and I have been building a few houses out of cardboard for the kids to paint at the party. We're also going to make a home-made pinata out of cardboard and "Caution!" tape. The kids will try to demolish a building with a home made wrecking ball as well. They'll have a "Re-feuling" station that will have juice boxes, snacks, and such that will be in a tool box. Of course, they'll have a lot of fun in the sandbox with some diggers. I can't actually stake claim on this idea though. I got them from Family Fun Magazine. They have some really neat (and very practical, not going to break the bank) ideas. I think that the site is familyfunmagazine.com.

Hope everone is having a great week. Braden's IEP meeting is on Friday, so I'll post when I have more details.

Braden's Speech Therapy

Braden officially qualified for Milford's Special Education Preschool for Speech. We have his meeting this coming Friday to write his IEP (Individualized Education Plan) and set speech goals for him for the next year. He will begin the program next Fall when school begins.

He has done wonderfully this past year, and has made marked improvement with the support services in which he has received through a program called Help Me Grow. If you've never heard of the program you can read more about it here: http://www.ohiohelpmegrow.org/ Hamilton, Butler, Warren and Clermont Counties all have Help Me Grow Programs. They offer FREE services to children birth - 3 years. OT, PT, Speech, and parental support. A lot of the therapists come directly to your home. If you know of anyone needing services for their young children, please pass the information along.

I can't say enough about the women that have helped Braden. He has come such a long way since last year and I'm very proud of him. Thank you to Robin, Anna, Betsy, Melissa, and Janna for taking so well to out little guy. I loved seeing his eyes light up when we talked about you and I'll forever be grateful for how much you helped, loved and doted on Braden. In addition, I'm especially grateful to you for teaching me how to help my son!

I definitely have mixed emotions about this right now. On one hand I don't want anything to be wrong with Braden and I would have loved it if he wouldn't have qualified. But, on the other hand, I've seen how well he has grown with the services and the treatment that he has received, so it's best that he did qualify and will continue receiving those services. Sometimes the worst thing that can happen is for a kid to be right on the bubble, teeter tottering between qualifying and not and then doesn't end up receiving services. I'm happy and grateful that these services will be in place and that my son will be getting exactly what he needs, but I still wish that he didn't have to be there. He'll be going 4 days a week from 9:05 to 11:35. We'll have to decide if Dad's driving him or if he'll be riding the bus! :) Ha ha, Bill.

Mother's Day

We had a wonderful Mother's Day this weekend.

We all went camping with Cindy, Gene, Jim and Jen. Cindy and Gene just bought a new camper and it is so nice! It was roomy enough to fit Carter's pack n play plus our entire family! I was so worried after our last camping experience, but I was proved wrong. The kids did wonderfully and we had a really nice time. If you haven't camped at Eastfork State Park before, check it out here: http://www.ohiodnr.com/parks/tabid/732/Default.aspx

On Saturday, they had an activity for the kids every hour from 10 a.m. - 5 p.m. I took Isa and Braden to make a Frog craft. Their playground was really nice and up-to-date as well. At dusk they were showing Alvin and the Chipmunks. We skipped that in lieu of letting Isa roast marshmellows and make some smores.

We then returned home and everyone took a nap. The kids didn't go to bed until 10 p.m. on Friday night and still woke up at 7 a.m., so we were all beat.

We headed over to Jim and Jen's house for a nice Mother's Day get-to-gether with the Magato and Bolger families. They're such a nice easy to get along with family. It was great to see them again. While there, Carter definitely started walking from one spot to the next. He did it several times. He has taken steps here and there, but this time he was definitely getting from point A to B by walking.

When we returned home tonight, I put Braden to bed. His "bear bear" was downstairs in the van and I was too lazy to go get it, so I pulled the reserve out of the closet. He clearly said "Thank You Mommy!" And followed it up with an "I love you, Mommy." Just like his father, he's not a boy of many words, but when he does speak, it warms my heart. I absolutely love hearing him say "I love you, Mommy!"

So, in one day......one walker and one talker! Not too bad. Now, where is that really nice mushy sentimental card that I asked for? Honey, if you go tomorrow, I bet they'll be on sale and you can get a really nice one for dirt cheap!

Happy Belated Birthday to Lauren (and Kevin, I think) Klasmeier and 5th anniversary to Paul and Monica Bigelow!