Irritated with the Preschool schedule.

I have been really irritated with my son's preschool schedule lately. Currently he attends the ECSE Preschool class in Anoka. He loves the school and is doing Fabilious.

However, I have been quite upset lately with the class schedule he was put into. Currently he's in the P.M. class. How they determine this, I have no idea, nor do i want to know how they can determine that a 3 year old will be okay with the 1-4 schedule. Hello people! Do you not keep in mind that 3 year olds need to have naps still? I mean really, come on! Who is making this crazy decision anyway..

So, when Austin comes home from school, he's completely exhaused, screaming with frustrations, and is impossible to calm down. So, by the time we eat supper, he's basically falling asleep in his food by 5:00 p.m. I try to keep him up as late as I can, usually it's 7ish, so he's not up at 5 a.m. and then completely exhaused for the next day.

I think trying to adjust to this schedule is going to take time for me and for Austin. I think what we need to do is feed Ausitn dinner when he gets home from school, give him a bath, put him in his jammies, and hopefully he poops out by 7p.m.

Now, that would be just super if I could make that happen!

Uggh, preschool..Now I know why I didn't like school so much when I was younger... :)

Saying goodbye to my baby, as he moves onto preschool.

The day has finally come. I thought it would never happen, nor did I really want it to. I have been watching my 3yr old grow up for the past 3 years, and it is now time for me to let him go.

He is going to fly like bird, soar like an eagle, and achieve to the highest depths his world will let him go. I have no dough that there will be bumps in the roads ahead, but we will travel those bumps together. There will be times when you feel all alone, and no where to turn but during those times honey, just remember I am right there with you. Obstacles will stand in your way, but just know those obstacles no matter how large or how small they are, your little mind can over come them.

You will meet new people and develop friendships that will hopefully last a life time. There will be cruelty, hurt, and resentment that come along with those friendship. Always remember that you can catch more files with honey then you can with vinegar, and remember to just be the bigger person, and not let those times get you down.

Always remember that you can succeed in anything you do, and always strive to be the best that you can be. I will love you no matter how many times you fall down, no matter how many times you have to get back up and try again, or no matter how many times you show you just put your whole heart and soul into something and just could not make it work. I will always love you for you, and I am so proud of you!

You have come so far these last 3 years, to which I never thought you would. You have proven me wrong with your developmental disabilities, and that's just to show me, that you can achieve anything, and will succeed to the highest degree in your education.

Good luck today on your 1st day of school, and Enjoy yourself!!

I love you sweetie!

Oh my how 3 years have gone bye.

Prepping for a party can be a lot of work. I spent the whole day before deciding to make my kido his b-day cake. He’s so into Thomas the Tank engine that I thought I would try to make him, his very own Thomas B-day Cake. After slaving away in the kitchen for literally 4 hours, by the time it was all said and done, I had one heck of a cake. Take a look at that!!! It looks to me as though I missed my calling in life.

For Austin’s b-day we took him up to the cabin in Forest Lake. The weather was great, and we had a fun time celebrating with family. We let him open some of his presents early, so that he could keep himself occupied for the day. His first gift was a parachute. Of course he has to play with it right away, and can’t wait. So, mommy and Daddy are his victims to do as he will, but we all enjoyed playing with his new toy.

He got lots of new toys, and fun things for presents. The one thing that he hasn’t gotten yet that finally came in, is a Wood Playset for the back yard.. (Setup of that is for a whole other post.)

As the afternoon past and evening got closer, Austin and the rest of us were getting hungry. We ate supper, celebrated with “Thomas decore“ great food, family and lots of conversation.

After dinner, I finally was able to bring out my masterpiece. The Cake. Now, Austin had not seen this cake yet, until now. I was so excited to see the expression on his face. I think I left him speechless, which was my intent.. Look at his face!

Daddy had to help him blow out the candles, because Austin’s still got some trouble with the whole blowing out of the mouth concept. (Notice he’s got 1 finger up in the air, because Brent’s got only 1 candle left to blow out!)

Austin loved his cake, and presents, and I must say I loved celebrating my son’s b-day with him. Happy 3^rd b-day sweetie! We love you!

Eye Drs. & a 2 ½ year old don’t mix!

Morning came and we arise to a major event today. Today was Austin’s checkup at the eye doctor. We spend the morning getting ready, eating our breakfast together at the table and we even managed to squeak in a few sessions of Winnie the Pooh on the computer before it was time to leave.

Austin cooperated very well with me through this whole process, and when it was time to get ready to leave, he obeyed me without any hesitation. In the car we go, and were off and running by 7:00 a.m. Through the traffic we go, waiting on the road due to slow pokes and mommy missing the exit and having to back track, we finally arrived at the clinic at 7:40 a.m. just in time for our appointment.

We get out of the car and I have Austin’s complete cooperation. We go and check in. The lady behind the counter says do you have a co-payment? I said, yes, and handed her my Bennie Card, and off comes $22.00 of the debit card. I love the Bennie Card! Basically it’s $250.00 of “Free” money to help cover medical expenses. Who wouldn’t love that!!

Up the elevator we go, and we sit down in the waiting area. As we wait for the doctor, I think to myself, okay, this is starting off rather well. Austin’s being a good boy so far, but can he hold out for the visit? We wait for about 10min for the nurse to call our name. All of a sudden, I hear “Austin Carr” I wheel the stroller in, past the doors and of course, Austin’s now throwing his normal fit. “AH CRAP, this is going to be a bad visit”.

At this point I am completely embarrassed because he’s throwing this fit. The nurse asked me to sit in the chair and hold him, so she could take a look at his eyes. Yeah right, this is going to work out well. He’s now screaming and unwilling to participate. The nurse doesn’t get any cooperation from Austin, so she can’t get a good checkup on him to see how he’s progressing so we basically get nothing accomplished with her.

The Doc comes in, and she tries to do a procedure on him. She tries to put this prism looking thing in front of his eye. All it does is help magnify the eye, to see if one is dominating his vision over the other. Lone and behold it’s the same old process!! Screaming and unwilling to participate. UGGH CHILD!

After coming to the conclusion that since Austin’s wearing his glasses, were basically doing all we can for him at this point. Until we can get him to cooperate with us more at the clinic, were not going to be able to get much more out of him at this point. The Doc suggested for us to come back in 3 months for a re-check and see if we can have better success next time.

As were leaving the clinic, I made a statement to Austin saying that here we are, we paid this $22.00 for him to see the Dr, and he’s not cooperating. The Dr. heard my comment, and she said, you could stretch it out to 4 months if you want, but nothing too much longer than that.

I think to myself, I just spent $22 on this visit, over 1hr 45 min driving to the eye Dr. for Austin today and now I am completely frustrated because we got no results from this visit and now, we have an appointment to go back again in 4 months just to do it all over again, and for what? The same results? Absolutely nothing?? UGGH you have got to be kidding me!

I head back to work after this visit. I am completely frustrated, discouraged, and upset, but I think I have now figured out a solution to our next visit. Solution for next visit: Bring along another family member, hold Austin down with force, and basically tell the Dr. they need to get a read on his eyes, or coming back to these visits is basically point less. Until Austin can cooperate fully and to the extent that’s needed for them to get the information they need this is just a big waste of my time and money.

Easter Celebration

Our typical Easter gathering involves usually about 20+ people from my family gathering at someone house for a nice warm meal. However, this year was different. There were only a few that showed up for the festivities but yet smaller seemed to be better. The meal time was rather enjoyable, because my little guy decided that he was going to take a nice nap for his mom. He was sleeping the whole time we ate dinner, so it was nice to not have to worry about him, and I could just enjoy myself.

The meal time consisted of way to much food; there was enough to feed an army and then some. It’s like we can’t say let’s just have a few things, no, they have to splurge and basically purchase a whole grocery store for one gathering. There were so many options, you couldn’t just pick a few things and be satisfied, and you had to come back for seconds, because you missed half the good stuff the first time around.

Of course after the meal, there are always desserts. We had a delicious yellow cake with chocolate frosting, and Cream da mint whip topping, and yes it was to die for. My mom also went hog wild with all the chocolate candy because now she could finally have it again. Who in their right mind would deprive themselves of chocolate for lent? I wouldn’t. It’s a necessity to life.

Now meal time was over, and I was stuffed. I felt like I had just inhaled over 2,000 calories. I could barely move, let alone thinking of getting up out of my chair. So, instead, I decided to plop down on a comfy chair, put my feet up and enjoy some conversation with the family. Lone and behold just as I get myself comfy, my little guy wakes up. I think to myself, perfect timing. It’s alright though, I got to enjoy my own time with my family, and now I was able to enjoy it with my son. The discussions we had with one another were rather entertaining for the day, along with just being able to enjoy everyone’s company since we don’t get to see each other that often.

On the way home, my husband and I were reflecting back on the day. We were talking about those who weren’t there this year, but yet were there in spirit. We missed them dearly, but we knew that they would always be with us. We talked about this and that, and how we were so happy that we were able to celebrate with those whom are still with us, and gave thanks and cherished the moments with our loved ones.

Easter Egg Coloring

This year, I decided that I would put my guard down, and not worry about messes, spills, or stains, but yet for my 2 ½ year old to experience the fun and pleasure in Easter Egg coloring.

Here we are, prepping our die, and waiting it for fizz to die down, so we can start coloring our 3 dozen egg. Yes, my ma went a little crazy on the eggs, so that way we had more than enough to practice with. We then just had to get Austin to understand and learn the process so he could enjoy a new activity.

First I thought this could get messy, but yet we kept it under control, and did pretty good not making to big of a mess. The only mess we had is that I spilled the cup of pink liquid right at the beginning, so we had to re-make the pink coloring. Oh well, as they say, shit happens. And here I thought Austin was the one going to make the mess, instead, it was me!

As were starting out this whole process, Austin thought he was going to be cute, and put the egg into the cup all by himself. Ah, I don’t think so, kido, mommy has to assist you so you don’t miss the cup, and have the egg go all over the floor. So, we combined our working efforts, and did it as a team, and egg #1 was a successful dunk.

Patiently we waited for the eggs to be colored, and then I let Austin decide when the eggs were good and ready to come out. He’s now attempting to dig it out all by himself, and look at him go, can he do it? He couldn’t quite get the blue one out, so I had to provide a little assistance with the process.

We worked together as a team, and we got the egg out of the water, and take a look at our finished product. The two of us made a great team, I couldn’t have asked for a better partner in crime to do it with.

Way to go AP! Our first successful Easter Egg coloring adventure!

How a 2 year old can make fun of his Uncle.

It's a quiet evening at home. My family and I are all gathered at the dinner table. We seem to get into series of strange topics at the table.

This one topic we were talking about the other evening was how when we eat spaghetti, that it can make some of us retain some gas. My Bother is one who can't seem to tolerate spaghetti, because the acidity, and it in turn makes him gassy but yet, he eats it anyways.

Austin is at the table with us, and it's not like a 2 year old can understand what our adult conversation was all about. But of all people he decided to be cute and make fun of his Uncle, not knowing what he was doing.

The noises you are about to hear are totally out of the blue for Austin. But, he was also starting to learn how blow with his mouth that week, so I think he was trying to do something of that sort.

So, as he started to make some farting noises, I in turn had to take this opportunity to make fun of my brother with it, and in turn, we got this cute video.

Take a look.

Baby gets a Boo Boo

The sun’s shining, the temperature is just right and the fresh air smell all are the signs of spring. Saturday rolls around, Austin and my Husband and I decided go outside and go to park. Now I will have you know, you can’t just go to the park for a few minutes with Austin, he likes to spend as much time there as you will allow.

At the park, Austin loves playing on the jungle gym, climbing up and down the stairs, and going down the slide repeatedly for about an hour. He finally decided that he wanted to take a break from the jungle gym and go on the swing. So, of course I say sure, and off to the swinging land he goes.

Austin likes big a big boy, and swing in the big swing, and not in the kiddy swing. So instead of him throwing a temper tantrum while we’re at the park, I give in and say ok, you can go on the big swing. After pushing him for a while, I ask him if he is done. He signs more, and of course I should have know that. He loves to swing; he could swing for hours if I let him.

After I give him a few more pushes on the swing. I look at him for a brief moment, and he beings to sign all done. But, before I could get to him to stop the swing, he decided that he was going to be a “big boy” and get off the swing himself. Not a good idea, this is just an accident waiting to happen.

Sure enough, I am not fast enough on the draw, and Austin slides off the swing, and goes face first down on the ground. He skinned up his face, got a few scratches on his nose, and a bloody mouth. I must say, he scared me to pieces, but he was a trooper, and he screamed for all about 10 seconds.

After the screaming was done, I took a better look at it, and decided that I should take him home and play Dr. Mom and fix him up. He got mad and threw more of a temper tantrum when I said we had to leave. He didn’t want to leave; he wanted to keep playing even though he was injured. Who know he was such a tough cookie. So, we get in the house and I clean him up, wash his face, and put a few dabs of some antibiotic ointment on his scrapes, and he’s good as new.

So, the lesson I learned is to not let you 2 year old get his way on the swing, and if he does, at least be on the other side of the swing, so I can stop it. Oh well, accidents happen, and I am sure this is just the first of many more to come.