I wasn’t supposed to be here. 

When Z was in Pre-K I went to pick him up one day and instead of bringing him to the door the teacher invited me into the class. She told me there was something I had to see. As followed her to the back of the room wondering what he had gotten into, she said “He built New York city!” Sure enough, there it was, a preschool size replica of the clustered city that never sleeps.

I was impressed, but I wasn’t too surprised. Anyone who has spent much time with Z has probably either heard about his love for New York, or seen one of his drawings/creations.

The Statue of Liberty

One time he told me he wishes he lived in New York so that he could look at the statue all day. I don’t know where this interest comes from other than the fact that the Madagascar animals are from there, along with many super heroes.

My mom, who loves to travel (and does so for free thanks to working for Delta) has been trying to convince me for some time now to let her take Z to NYC. I told her that he was too young. It’s so big, so far, so expensive. I want him to really appreciate the magnitude of an experience like that. But the more Z talked about it and the older he got, I started warming up to the idea. This is the last big chance he has before he starts school and the best time to fly stand by is off season days (when most people are in school or working). Plus he has matured a lot in the past year. I know he is not going to run off in Central Park or have a temper tantrum in time square.

So J and I talked about it and decided to give my mom the green light. Z has no idea that less than a week from now he will be flying to The Big Apple with his Me’me’ and Pe’pe’! We aren’t going to tell him until the last minute either. It’s going to be kind of like this adorable video of the girl who was going to Disney World.

Even though I can’t go with him I have been over the moon with excitement on his behalf. There is nothing like watching your child’s dreams come true, even if they might be too young to understand how lucky they are. This week as part of our homeschooling we went to the library and checked out some materials on New York City. After a week of exploring what the city is all about he is going to be surprised with a ticket to see it for himself. I feel like his early interest in The United States and New York City is instilling in him a sense of patriotism. What better way to foster an appreciation for the land of the free than going to one of our Nation’s most important historic cities? If he gets there and his biggest concern is Nintendo World, that’s fine too.

I cannot believe both our teams made it to the final game of the NCAA championship. J has always been a Michigan fan and we love Louisville, so as a first time March Madness bracket participant those are the teams I picked (with Louisville winning in the end). Yesterday was the final four games so my two youngest wore these shirts and showed their team spirit at the park. 

I got a lot of cute pictures of them together, but now that Michigan and Louisville both made it to the National Championship this picture is priceless!

A couple years ago I mentioned Z was obsessed with maps and geography. Well, the fascination has only grown since then. This year he has tackled memorizing and being able to recognize all 50 states.The memory cues that he uses to get them “stuck in his head”, as he calls it, are pure genius. Of course this is coming from his mom who is bias, and thinks knows each of her children are brilliant. I make no apologies. 

 Arkansas– tea cup

Minnesota– a pillow with a bite taken out of it

 North Carolina– diamond

Nevada– kite

and of course many states that look like guns, knives, and dogs. He is a boy.

This video was shot while showing Z a picture of a map and pointing to each one. He can identify any state, in any order, on any US map. I hope you enjoy his enthusiasm in this video as he channels in his super powers to oblige his mother in the making of this movie.

Next up, continents.

We had a nice, but low key Easter this year. The kids did an egg hunt at the church the weekend before and they each got a chocolate bunny from my parents which were part of a part of a fundraiser for SJ’s school, and that was it as far as festivities go. I wore the same dress I wore last year only I wasn’t 3 months pregnant this time.

You can’t really tell in this photo other than my hands and Z’s foot holding her back, but SJ was acting like a wild child. I told my brother (the one taking the picture) that trying to get a family photo immediately after service is like shaking up a soda and then attempting to drink it right away. I don’t know why they are so crazy after church, but between the dozens that he took we somehow managed to got a decent shot. Next time I think I will just hire a 3 year old female stunt double.

The previous week we had celebrated Palm Sunday in a way I will never forget. Our pastor lined up a beautiful service of worship through the arts, and not to brag, but I have such an artistic family that many of them were involved.

My brother Jeremy did an extraordinary painting live throughout the morning. It breaks down the crucifixion story into 14 different segments (the traditional stations of the cross)

 and my brother painted each of them in an hour and a half.

 At the end our pastor had him explain the piece and Jeremy laid it all out according to what time of day everything happened and he made it all very personal. He was crying. I was crying. There were a few hundred people crying and worshiping together in church that morning remembering what Christ did for us. It was inspiring. On top of that Jeremy’s wife (my sister in law) did a beautiful dance with some of her friends. I had never seen her dance before so that was really neat experience too.

I’m blessed be a part of such a talented family and even more so to serve a awesome, majestic, powerful, creative, loving, and LIVING God!

Hello April and hello to having a 6 month old! He’s already half way through his first year. Ezie is all over the place developmentally. On one hand he’s ahead of his peers by having the physical attributes of some one year olds.

Everyone says E looks like his dad.

He’s 18 1/2 pounds and just over 26 inches.

First Easter

He wears some 6-9 months clothes and I find myself putting him in 12 month clothes more and more often. He also has 8 teeth now! Yes, eight teeth at 5 months old. I never even knew that could happen. He had the bottom 2 at 3 months and then nothing for a long time until we noticed all of the top front 4 looked like they were about to come in. I was so busy looking at the top I hadn’t even notice that there were two more that had already shot up on the bottom. In about 10 days he cut 6 teeth.

Ties are for chewing!

 He’s such a trooper about it too. The way these teeth are taking over he’ll probably be opening aluminum cans with them when he’s two. I am kidding, but he is a bruiser for sure!

UT shirts from their Uncle.

It’s quite deceptive actually. Here I have this hearty boy that looks like he can hold his own, when really he can’t even hold his own pacifier with too much coordination.

SJ giving the baby a bath.

He doesn’t scoot, sit up, or roll over. He’s a very observant, interactive, and content little guy though.

I haven’t gotten a picture where you can see his teeth, but they are all broken through.

 As far as being concerned about developmental delays he doesn’t show any warning signs like being floppy or stiff. In fact Z was the same way. He never really rolled over. He mostly just laid there until he started crawling. I think it’s harder for the big fat babies to get around. I know how technical and savvy I must sound right now, but I am a mother of three so that must give me some credit.

I think I wear him more than I did my other two.

That’s 6 month old baby E in a nutshell,  a carefree gentle giant.

The sun did come out at the end of Spring Break.

I still haven’t given him any solids nor has he slept through the night other than one time for 7 hours. I guess with that mouthful of teeth he’s ready chomp into some food pretty soon here and hopeful the sleep will follow. HOPEFULLY.

We went the children’s museum yesterday with some friends.  It was a play date sort of thing. While stoping to nurse E and get the other kids a snack my friend broke out all kinds of organic goodness for  packed up in these adorable little cloth sandwich bags. Fortunately she brought enough to share with all the kids, which was good because all I brought was some easter candy from the church egg hunt in case I needed to bribe them out of the building (it happens from time to time). I call it hush money.

I want my kids to be healthy. Shoot, I want to be healthy, but despite my attempts at new years resolutions healthy habits are often out ranked by convenient ones.

Last night I tried to make up for it by pulling together a recipe from my pinterest board.

 The previous pinner had labeled it “Kid-approved spinach recipes” so I thought it would be worth a try.

My brother, who I live with, is working on implementing videography into his recording studio. You have to be prepared to be filmed at all times when you are around him, and today this little clip showed up on Facebook.

It’s a just glimpse of what I was cooking in the kitchen, but I thought I would share it because the recipe actually turned out pretty good. My kids were eagerly eating something with spinach in it and we had leftovers for lunch today. I was worried that frozen spinach might somehow be void of nutrients, but it’s quite the contrary. Frozen spinach is really nutritious, probably even more than the spinach you find in the produce section. So if you are interested in the recipe from All You here it is.

Spinach-and-Ricotta Stuffed Shells

Ingredients

• 24 jumbo pasta shells
• 1 15-oz. container ricotta
• 2 cups shredded mozzarella 
• 1/2 cup shredded Parmesan
• 1 10-oz. package frozen chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed dry
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten 
• Salt and pepper
• 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
• Pinch of ground nutmeg
• 1 26-oz. jar spaghetti sauce 

1. 1. Preheat oven to 375ºF. Mist a 9-by-13-inch baking dish with cooking spray. Cook pasta shells according to package label directions; drain and set aside to cool. While pasta cooks, in a large bowl, stir together ricotta, 1 cup mozzarella, Parmesan, spinach, egg, salt, pepper, Italian seasoning and nutmeg.
2. 2. Spread 3/4 cup spaghetti sauce over bottom of baking dish. Stuff shells with cheese-and-spinach mixture and place in dish. Spoon remaining sauce over shells and sprinkle with remaining 1 cup mozzarella.
3. 3. Cover baking dish with foil and bake for 35 minutes. Remove foil and bake about 10 minutes longer, until bubbly and cheese begins to brown.

Oh yeah, and today I order one of those reusable sandwich bags. Their called Lunchkins. Isn’t it cute?
Maybe I will be inspired to fill it with healthy snacks for the kids and I. Or maybe I’ll fill it with hush money. Either way I look forward to filling it.

The snow this year just doesn’t quit. I am not complaining though (other than getting sick of wearing boots everyday).

So even though our first spring break hasn’t been the typical tulips, beach balls, and sunshine that you think of with spring, we’ve still had a good time so far.

Meme came to town and we built snowmen and had snowball fights.

Then we met up with “the cousins” at Chuck E. Cheese. We are on Chuck’s email list because they give freebies every now and then, like 20 free tokens for your half birthday. The half birthday thing cracks me up though, because my kids are exactly 2 and a half years apart, so to really do up the 1/2 thing would be stealing thunder from the real birthday! Regardless of that little tidbit, we used up all 40 tokens along with cashing in the winning tickets for some measly prizes. What more could a kid ask for?

In other birthday freebie news, SJ’s birthday package from Totter’s Otterville came with an extra ticket for the birthday child, so we used that yesterday and they played hard!

SJ spent a lot of time dancing in the ballet studio, but she also set up this whole gourmet meal for her baby.

And Z made a new friend.

Here they are in the Otterville grocery store dressed up as mailmen adorned with batman face paint. The other little boy looked like a batman mask and Z had the bat signal on one cheek and Superman logo on the other. When the boy saw Z he shouted “MINE is even MORE COOLER than yours!” I cringed and held my breath to see how Z would respond to this typical boy competitiveness. He just smiled and said “Mine is Batman Superman” and he was so kind about it. I exhaled and they ran off to the ball pit.

I am still hoping to fit in a trip to the children’s museum, and of course Easter is on Sunday, then it will be back to the grind stone. Have you seen any signs of Spring yet?

These are some pictures of our family doing an Easter craft last year.

The significance of these photos is that they were taken on April 3, 2012 which was the last day of life as I knew it.

I heard someone say that you know you are special needs mom when your life can be categorized into two segments: before your child’s diagnosis and after.

I relate to this. SJ’s diagnosis was kind of gradual in the way that we found out, but the first time anyone labeled her as a child with hearing loss was April 4, 2012. As we approach the anniversary of that date I am reluctantly adjusting to the idea of passing that one year mark.

I was out shopping recently when I noticed they had put out the seasonal St. Patrick’s Day displays. SJ’s birthday is right around St. Patty’s day which was part of what inspired the GREEN eggs and ham party theme. That’s when it hit me. I stopped dead in my tracks in the middle of the aisle and gripped my shopping cart as my mind took me on a rapid pace roller coaster ride reviewing the sequence of events that had transpired over the past year.

SJ’s birthday. Not talking. Doctor. Questions. To do list. ENT. Sound booth. Denial. Loud bell. No response.

She. Can’t. Hear.

Pause.

My heart was pounding and I had to catch my breath.

Shortly after her diagnosis was confirmed I remember packing up her little 18 month clothes and I felt like I was parting with “the hearing SJ” and putting all of those memories in a box. As the anniversary of her diagnosis approaches I find myself revisiting some of those feelings all over again. Every month, every holiday, every little outfit that she’s outgrown seems to trigger memories of the valleys that we walked through last year. I still feel like I am walking around in shoes that don’t fit sometimes, but I guess all mothers feel that way and we just need to grow into them. God knows the hairs on my head, he certainly knows my shoes size, before diagnosis

and after.