Maiya was born to be a star!  This week she had her first ballet class and I don't think she ever stopped smiling. From the time we bought her outfit on Monday until she took it off after class on Tuesday she smiled.  She absolutely loved every minute of it! My face hurt when we left because just watching her I couldn't stop smiling either.

In just a week my son will start kindergarten.  He will get on the bus at 7:30 and get home at 3:30.  A whole day without his mommy.  A whole day without my boy.  How will he cope?  How will I cope?  The funny thing is I know he will do amazingly well and the truth is I am not really all that worried about him...I am worried about me.  I am and always have been a very emotional person especially when it comes to my kids.  I would be very content if they stayed little forever and never left me, but since I know that won't happen I just cry with each major milestone.  

Don't get me wrong I am so excited for Andrew and I have been great at cheering him on.  It isn't until I check on him after he is asleep that I wonder "when did he get so big?"    When did my first born become a kindergartner?   Well if you are a first time parent or about to become one let me tell you the answer...it feels like overnight!  So hug them and love them and when the time comes for them to get on that bus cheer for them because it will be hard for them, but it will be harder for you to let them go!

Below is a great story a friend shared with me!  Enjoy!

Every year we rent a house and we go to the beach with my husband's family.  We used to go in September after everyone went back to school and things were a little less crazy.  However this year with Andrew starting Kindergarten we had to go in May, so that meant that Maiya's birthday would be celebrated at the beach!  What a lucky girl if you ask me. 

She decided she wanted her theme to be Little Mermaid so we made it a beach Little Mermaid theme and we all had a great time.  She was so excited and loved every second of her party.  I think it was by far the best party she has ever had...not to mention the best guests...FAMILY!

My mom is an amazing woman.  She has been going through chemotherapy since March and will have to undergo 11 more months before she will be done.  She has six more weeks in her second round which she has to go to every week.  She is staying strong though and I am so proud of her.

In May my mom gave us all quite a scare.  She got really sick and was admitted into the hospital for a week.  She had developed pneumonia and they could not keep her oxygen levels up.  She ended up getting a blood transfusion when her blood cell count dropped dramatically low and once they did that she started to get better much faster.  They did find some new spots on her back and ribs but decided that if it was cancer all the chemo she had left would take care of it.  We are all praying they are gone in 11 months.  She also has a broken bone in her back and that has been causing her huge amounts of pain.  There is nothing they can do for the broken bone, that will just have to heal on its own.

Even through all of this my mom is staying strong.  It is hard but she is a tough woman. She is my hero and I love her so much.  I am so excited to be going back up to be with her next month...and the kids are too!





 

Okay so I am really far behind on posts.  I am working on getting caught up but it is going to take me a while.

Since Andrew's preschool graduation was May 12th I thought that would be a good place to start...not to mention it was the cutest thing I had ever seen.  Watching all these little kids walk down the isle to Pomp and Circumstance in their caps and gowns was absolutely adorable.   They all were smiling ear to ear with pride and it was awesome!  I am so proud of Andrew.  When I think back to the start of this preschool year and all the problems we had at the old school to where he was on this day it brings tears to my eyes.  He has grown so much in a short time and I couldn't be more proud of him.  I still can't believe he will be in kindergarten in six weeks but I know that he is going to LOVE it!

After the graduation ceremony several of us met at the fountain to let the kids play.  We had a wonderful time and I met some really amazing people!

Summer is finally approaching and I couldn't be happier.  I want the warm weather to come and stay and I want to be able to relax and enjoy the time with my kids.  Parts of this year have been amazing and other parts have been hard and confusing, but I am looking forward to the next chapter in my life.

Maiya is about to celebrate her 3rd birthday and she will be surrounded by those who love her the most.  She will also begin her first year of preschool in the fall and hopefully a ballet class. 

Andrew will start Kindergarten next year and is not quite as nervous as he was earlier (I think he is actually starting to get excited about it).  He has been playing baseball and has loved it, so we look forward to the fall season.

My mom is still fighting hard.  She has had several set backs and the one she is going through now is huge but I have faith that God will be with her and us each step of the way and she will end up on the winning side. 

I don't know what the future holds for me.  I do know that some of it is going to be sad and heartbreaking, but I also know that it is going to a fun and crazy ride.  I look forward to it!

Another Easter has passed us and what a wonderful weekend it was!  We started the weekend with a double header baseball game on Saturday for Andrew and then had a wonderful warm sunny day on Sunday.  It was perfect!

Here are some picture from the festivities!

St. Patrick's Day has just been another holiday that kind of came and went in our household without much notice by us until a friend shared with me and idea she read on another person's blog.  The idea is having a very mischievous leprechaun come in the middle of the night and turn the house upside down and green.  So there are a ton of things you can do but I decided to start small this year because I know with each passing year it will have to get bigger.

So this year our leprechaun came and turned my kids hair green, left leprechaun dust (green confetti) all over the floor in every room he had been, hung shamrocks from the ceiling on the stairs, put our kitchen table in our living room, put the chair on the floor the wrong way, silly stringed the kids rooms and hallway and left a tattoo on each kid.

Andrew is five and he never wakes up in the middle of the night well that night of course he did to get a drink and he saw the string and confetti all over the floor and at 4:30 in the morning comes running in my room at full force and volume screaming "the leprechaun came, he made a huge mess in my room!"  That was the end of Andrew sleeping.   So we came downstairs and Andrew couldn't believe what he saw.  He has already started talking about building a trap next year to try and catch him.  :)  Next year I will do more like turn the milk green, tie shoes together, and other little crazy things.  :)  We had such a good time and all though there was a huge mess to clean up after the day was over, it was so worth it to see the kids have so much fun with it.

 ...you did the right thing!

Andrew started preschool in September and by the second week I knew something wasn't right.  When he came home from school and I asked him how his day was he would say fine and nothing else.  I would ask who he played with and he would simply say "No one.  I played by myself."   It brook my heart but inside I knew something wasn't right so I went to his teacher and asked her how Andrew was doing at school.  I asked her if he was playing and interacting with other kids and she said yes that he is very happy.  I told her that he says he doesn't play with anyone at play time after lunch and she said no he usually plays by himself but not to worry that is normal.  I pushed all my feelings aside as me just completely over reacting and wanting to protect my sometimes "socially challenged" child.

After a few more weeks Andrew came home and said a little boy stole his juice box from his lunch.  I couldn't believe it...really?  Andrew being Andrew didn't want this kid to get in trouble so he didn't tell the teacher.  The next morning I inform the teacher and she said she was sorry that she would watch to make sure it didn't happen again.  Well the kid did try and do it again, but this time Andrew stopped him (this was after a long talk with him telling him not to let the kid take his stuff). 

A few more weeks went by and it was becoming much more obvious that Andrew was not enjoying school like he did the previous year only I couldn't figure out why.  He started telling me he was sick and couldn't go to school.  He had no symptoms of being sick and I knew he was not telling me the truth so I told him if he was too sick to go to school then he had to stay in his room, in his bed, with no toys, tv or books.  He did!  All day that little boy stayed in his room and he was prepared to do it again the next day.  What child would rather stay in his room all day then go to school?  I sat down and had a very serious conversation with Andrew and he was crying and just said that kids were mean to him.  I asked him who and he gave me two names.  I asked him what they did and he said that they called him names and would poke and push him.   So into school I go and talk to the teacher again.  She moved one of the little boys away from Andrew and for a while that seemed to work.  Sadly there were other signs that at the time didn't make sense.  He stopped eating lunch, he wouldn't complete his work, he couldn't write his name, he wouldn't even practice writing or any other school work.

Then the day and moment I lost it!  During the Christmas program as I am watching Andrew smile big and wave to us one of those little brats boys starts screaming in Andrew's ear. I can see Andrew telling him to stop and then the kids hits Andrew in the head.   That was it for me and that was it for Andrew.  I was not going to let this go on any longer.  I wasn't sure exactly what I was going to do in that moment but I knew something was going to have to happen before Andrew started to hate school so much that he wouldn't want to go to Kindergarten next year.   Luckily I had two weeks to think it over because it was Christmas break.

I had a stomach ache about this for the full two weeks but decided the only thing I could really do was take him out of that situation.  I found a new school for Andrew.  Now Andrew hates change and I really thought when I told him he was going to a new school (half way through the year) he was going to flip out, but much to my surprise he was so excited.  I knew then that I had made the right decision. 

Now that Andrew has been there two months I can say that my child is completely different.  He loves going to school everyday.  He gets in the car all excited and tells me tons of details about his day and how he now has friends and he plays with everyone in his class.  He can now write his name and he writes it good something he couldn't do when he left his old school.  The changes in him are amazing. 

When I think back I want to kick myself for not doing this sooner, but I am glad that I did it.  I am glad my baby didn't have to spend another day getting picked on and hating school.  He eats his lunch everyday, he plays with other kids, he has friends, he doesn't "feel sick" anymore and most importantly he is happy!

I know sooner get used to the fact that Andrew turns five when he looses his first tooth!  Last Wednesday he comes running downstairs that he thought his tooth was loose and sure enough his bottom tooth was loose.  Not only was it loose but his new tooth was already poking through his gums! 

He was very excited that he was the first of all his friends to have a loose tooth, however being the first had it's drawbacks too.  The fear of the unknown!

On Sunday Andrew came downstairs saying his tooth was really "wiggly" and he didn't like how it felt and he was scared.  I told him that his tooth was almost ready to come out and there was nothing to be scared of.  I tried to wiggle it for him for a while to see if I could get it out, but it just was not budging.  I accidentally wiggled it to hard and made it bleed a little, but I didn't tell him because I knew he would totally freak out.  He was already mad at me and crying hysterically because he was so scared.  I am not really sure what he was scared of.  Maybe because he really thought it was going to hurt or maybe just the no knowing part.  I told him to go to bed and we would try again tomorrow, but he just cried harder and said he wanted it out.  So for 45 minutes I sat wiggling/tugging that darn tooth.  It was hanging by just a small thread but it was not coming out.  I wasn't sure how much longer I could sit there and do that but I also knew it was too loose to send him to bed.  I said a prayer and the tooth popped right out.  Now it was really bleeding!

Andrew immediately stuck his finger in the hole of his mouth and I told him to keep his hands out of his mouth until the bleeding stopped.  BLEEDING???  Let the hysteria set in!  After a few moments of crazy crying he settled down and became very excited at the little tooth in his little hand.  Not to mention the Tooth Fairy was going to come!  So we went downstairs to get our little Ziploc bag to put the tooth in and placed it under his pillow. 

WOW!  When did my baby boy became a young boy? 

Wow!  What a month it has been!  I am behind on posting so I am going to start with Andrew's 5th birthday.  After dealing with all the illnesses this past month I decided that Andrew would just have a small family party instead of inviting all his friends from school.  It was just too much after weeks of everyone being sick.  So a small family party is what we did and it was probably the most fun I have ever had at a party.   There was no pressure to entertain anyone and I actually got to enjoy the party!

We started the day with Andrew's last T-Ball game and a little party to celebrate the season afterward and then we headed back to the house for his birthday party.

I was really worried if Andrew would notice or not that it wasn't as big as previous years but he never said anything until after everyone had left.  He looks at me and says "Mommy I didn't get as many presents as I thought I would but I love all them so much!"  It made me feel good that even though he didn't get as many he still had a great time and enjoyed all of his presents.   

I am still having a hard time believing that he is five!  I can remember when he was born so well it seems like yesterday. 

This time next week I will be waking up in the most magical place on earth?  Where you ask?  Walt Disney world of course!  I am so excited because I have never been and neither have my kids.  This will be our first trip and we get to take it together.    We leave next Thursday and provided I can keep my family healthy it will be an amazing trip.

Now on to keeping the kids healthy.  Last Friday about 4pm Andrew looked at me burped and threw up all over the place.  That lasted for 24 hours and I thought to myself okay well at least we are getting this out of the way and everyone will get it and we will be better by Disney.  Well all week has gone by and no one else got sick so I have been so relieved.  The this morning we are sitting here and Maiya is next to me on the couch.  She does that same burp, my eyes widened and I looked over at her...not 2 seconds later she has vomit coming out of her mouth and nose.  All of her milk from this morning all over her and the couch.  Nothing worse then milk that comes back up. 

Now I am just praying that she was just overheated and not really sick, but my guess is she has the same thing Andrew had, but I am going to hold out hope that she will be okay and is not sick.  She has no fever but neither did Andrew when he was throwing up.

Here is my preschool update...this is day 3 of school and Andrew is loving it.  He says he has a lot of fun and they do a lot of fun stuff (those are his words).  :)  His favorite thing is earning "fuzzies" because if they earn eight or more "fuzzies" by the end of the week they get to pick out of the treasure box.  Andrew already has four just from today, so I am sure he will get to pick out of the treasure box on Thursday.
 
I signed him up to take computer classes this year and he had his first class today and he was so excited about it when I picked him up.  He said that he loves computer class and asked when he gets to go back again.  I told him he only goes once a week and he was so disappointed that he had to wait another week to go.   I am just so glad he enjoyed the class and I hope he doesn't get bored. 

Andrew seems to be adjusting well which is the most important thing.  I asked him today if he made any new friends and he said no.  He said one girl spit in his face because he had the toy she wanted and that some of the boys are mean.  I told him just to be the nice little boy that I know and he WILL make new friends it just might take some time.  He seems okay with that.  I think the thing that makes it easy is that they are so busy doing things he is never by himself and on the playground he gets to see his buddy Nate.   I think that makes things easier for him.

My son Andrew is very shy, which regrettably he gets from me.  Last year when he started preschool he was so upset and scared and his biggest fear was making a friend.  So his teacher last year bent down and said "Andrew I want you to meet Nate!  Nate will you be Andrew's friend?"  Nate said yes and gave Andrew a big hug and the two of them were best friends all year.  The teacher always sat them next to each other and when I would pick Andrew up he was always next to Nate or playing with him on the playground.  It was so cute and Andrew talked about him all the time.

After I went to the parent meeting on Monday to meet Andrew's teacher I got to find out who was in Andrew's class so that when I got home I could tell him all about it.  The first thing out of his mouth was "Is Nate in my class?  I looked at him with sad eyes and I told him that no, Nate was not in his class this year.  Instantly Andrew buried his head and started to cry.  He was embarrassed that he was crying so I took his hand and held it and I said "Buddy it is okay to be sad and it is okay to cry.  Nate is your best friend in school and it is sad that he is not in your class, but you will make some new friends and who knows maybe you will see Nate on the playground."  Our talk lasted a very very long time.  He cried for about 15 minutes and when he stopped I asked him what he was thinking and again his biggest fear was not making friends.  I promised him that I would introduce him to someone so that they could be friends just like he and Nate are and that seemed to help. 

Yesterday Andrew got to go to the school and see his classroom and he meet his teacher and that went great.  I never really got the opportunity to introduce Andrew because right away he went off to play.  He reminded me later that I didn't do it but then said it was okay because he had two little girls from last year that he would play with.  :)  I would be lying if I didn't say I am a little nervous about today.  I have shed a few secret tears because although we did this last year after watching him be so worried about friends and knowing personally how hard it can be I feel for him.

I did find out though that he will have the same playground time as Nate so they will still get to see each other on nice days.  That I am very happy about and so is Andrew!

I will update after his day today to let everyone (family) know how his first day went.  Wish us luck!  lol.

I am looking forward to the coming weeks.  Why you ask?  Well this weekend Andrew starts T-Ball and I am super excited about that.  He has been talking about it a lot for the last week so it makes me even more excited because he is too.  :)  Silly I know, but I really think he is going to be good at this and even if he isn't I know that he is going to have fun.  I need to get my butt in gear and get him some new tennis shoes and a glove and considering he needs that Saturday I will have to do it tomorrow.  :)

He will also be starting Pre-K!  He goes back the first of September and that he is NOT excited about.  He wants the same teacher he had last year and I told him that he couldn't have her because she taught the 3 year olds and he is a big boy and has to go to the next grade.  I have been trying to explain to him that his teacher this year might be nicer than his teacher last year...he is not convinced.  The good thing is I know he will like his teacher so I am not worried about it.  Once he meets her I know he will be excited too.

Andrew's behavior has also improved so I am feeling relieved.  I was really starting to doubt myself as a mother.  If I can't handle toddler/preschool years how in the world am I going to do teenage years?  Thankfully after much praying and talking it out I have been staying consistent with my punishments and I have noticed a huge improvement over the last week.  Hopefully I will continue to stay strong and consistent and Andrew will continue to improve and not feel the need to push back so hard with me.

I hope everyone has a great week!

On Saturday my mother in law and I took the kids to Babyland General Hospital in Cleveland, Georgia.  Have you ever heard of it?  Well if you haven't it is the hospital where all the Cabbage Patch babies are born and taken care of until they are adopted.  :)  It was such a cute place for the kids to go and see all the different kinds of Cabbage Patch Kids and then of course all are available for adoption.

The visit itself is free and it is a self guided tour so you can take your time looking around and if you are lucky you will get to see the Mother Cabbage give birth to a new cabbage baby.  :)  Yes it is true, the Mother Cabbage will give birth for all to see once she is dilated to 10 leaves.  The doctor comes up and helps Mother by giving her an "easyotimy" and says he has never had to do a C-Section (Cabbage Section).  LOL.
Then the new baby comes into the world and the doctor lets two kids pick the new baby's name.

You can tell the staff puts a lot of effort into the story and making this a really good experience for the kids.  I know that my kids had a really good time and I had a great day with my mother in law.  If you are ever in the area and are looking for something fun and unique to do with your kids I highly recommend this place. 

The Legend of the Cabbage Patch Kids taken from their website.  http://www.cabbagepatchkids.com/about/legend/


Pictures from our day.