Happy Heart Day

Three years ago today this little firefighter was a fighter of a different sort....

Three years ago today he had open heart surgery (his 2nd in 2 years).

Reid, I am so glad you are our fighter... our little rascal... and our silly, snuggly, sweet, and funny little boy! We love you and are so glad your heart is healthy and strong now! I will always look back on this day and be so grateful for those that worked to help mend you and make your heart strong! 

Happy Heart Day! xoxo,
MOM

A New Tradition For Our Family

We as a family are starting a new tradition... I am stealing the idea from over here. 


We had "the talk" this year with Luke...and no not the "talk-talk" ;)... the red hat and white bearded guy talk....and tears gushed from his eyes. It all came about quite innocently with an email he read of mine to a friend about wishing our kids could stay little forever and always believe in Santa and he snickered at first and said, "Oh I knew...." but then it got quiet....and then his little face scrunched...and then eyes became glossy...and my sweet guy layed at the bottom of my bed and had a real. good. cry. He said it was so much fun to believe, he was really devastated. I was devastated that he was devastated and you know what... I had myself a little cry right there with him at the end of the bed. I wanted to rewind that whole night and wished I had never written the words...
But, then I ran across the idea of the Advent calendar, the non chocolate one, and being intentional with our days before Christmas and using it to really create the Christmas spirit that ultimately we want our children to experience and know and pass on... so it helped me to come to terms with this new chapter for him. I chin-upped and decided we were moving in a different direction with our tradition...and I started to get excited about it.... and even sneaky about it because he had no idea what I was up to! 
So, today when he came home from school I had our new Advent calendar out waiting for him where he would see it as soon as he walked in. I bought one big enough for us to put little notes in each day of the week with an activity or good deed...or yes, maybe even some chocolates ;). 
My thought ....for our new little tradition was this.... the day #1 little door will have a note already inside it from me that states.... "Tonight the family will make a gingerbread house and brainstorm/write down ideas for the other 24 days". So, I bought a cute little gingerbread house kit...wrote my note... and had high hopes that this new tradition was going to be Norman Rockwell-esque, right from the start...day one was going to showcase the beauty and spirit I dreamt of.... and it would have ..... IF "short stuff' had not grabbed the scissors and cut his brother's homework into small pieces, and big brother not kicked him in the shins for doing it...and the two of them not tossed books about the room while in time out... nor continued to squabble at each other the remainder of the evening... Norman Rockwell it wasn't turning out to be, so sadly making our gingerbread house tonight needed a rain check.... day #1, is being moved to day #2, pending their new found good behavior. The good news is we now only have to think of 23 other activities. 
But, this is how I plan to start it each year... making our annual gingerbread house and brainstorming ideas together on day #1. I want our days to be filled with not only family activities but also times of doing something special for someone else.
I definitely want input from my family but a few ideas I have already brainstormed and prepared for are;

• Leave a box of Christmas dog bone biscuits on our neighbors doorstep for the dog the boys "dog sit" for on occasion (the ones below crack me up...the biscuits are shaped as mailmen and cats) 
• Leave bags shown below of hot chocolate mix on neighbors doorsteps (we have several widows on our street so these are for them in particular)
• Bake cookies and take to neighbors (I found these cute bag kits with name tags at Home Goods)
• Bundle up and go "night time" bike riding through the neighborhood to see the lights
• Make hot chocolate and popcorn and watch a movie together
• Slumber party under the tree
• Purchase a toy to take to the local fire station for Toys for Tots

I look forward to hearing my boys' ideas as well, and Luke already told me, "Mom, I know what will go in door #24!". We also have a tradition on Christmas Eve where we get up early...go get coffee and donuts..and head out to deliver special "care packages" Luke puts together to give to the homeless (an idea he came up with all on his own about 5 years ago). It usually takes us hours.. we drive all around finding our next special person and we end up with amazing stories from the people we encounter. There is a gentleman named Robert that we look for first, we have hunted him down the last 3 years and he is surprised every time that we remember his name. I'm just sad he's still out there. So this activity will be written down and go in door #24 along with another day of collecting supplies and putting them together.

What are your ideas?? What do you all put in your Advent calendar if you do one? According to my calculations after my contributing ideas my boys will still need 14 more ideas.... so would love your input! ...okay I am asking for it, please do tell! :)

Bagels = Zeros.... and Some iPad Love

In case you didn't know....... bagels look like zeros. ....Reid told me so. 
A week or so ago while making bagels Reid shouted out, "Mom..... ZERO!!" while proudly holding up his bagel. I stopped and looked at his little face.... and realized he was connecting that a bagel is shaped like a zero, therefore it was a zero and....well, I squealed.... yes, like a girl.... no, more like a very happy momma that was celebrating that her child had made this connection and then picked that little guy up and twirled him around. These little connections are BIG connections in our world! I didn't even know he knew zero yet.
So what do you do when your child brilliantly declares bagels look like zeros? Well.... you plop him on the couch and document it baby!

and then you eat those zeros bagels!

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One of the BEST investments we have made for Reid..... which we have seen contribute to much of his progress in number and letter recognition is the iPad. I love this thing, absolutely LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it.  He is so independent with it and navigates himself around to the apps he wants to work in that day and I feel ZERO guilt because he is playing and learning all at the same time. 

If you have thought about getting one for Christmas or are on the fence..... my advice? Get it. The advantage it gives our little ones with special needs is HUGE. In my opinion it is worth EVERY cent!

The app Reid is working on below is the iWriteWords app (it also has a # section) and I believe the one with the letters is from his Starfall ABCs app.... both are must haves. 

Other items worth mentioning are the Big Grips Frame shown below in blue and the Just Mobile stylus. The Big Grips Frame goes without saying... you want to protect your investment and we have found this one to be perfect for Reid's little hands. We had our iPad about a month before we bought this and we had too many close calls with falls so I feel much better with this on! The stylus is something we decided to purchase to help him with gripping an item such as a pencil or crayon. This is also one of his IEP goals so this stylus is helping us achieve that I think. We bought it in yellow to resemble a pencil but they have lots of different fun colors. He loves using  it to trace letters and numbers on the iPad... and sometimes you will even find my goofball with it behind his ear to be, well, ahem ....a goofball. 

Wordless Wednesday: My Buckaroo

The Elephant in the Room

Okay, so let's talk about it, the elephant in the room.... Yes, yes I do know it is a bit early to "Christmas-y" up my blog but this is the deal....  Each. And. Every. Christmas...... it sneaks right up on me even though I plan for weeks for it and before I know it I am sitting amongst the dust that flies from eager little fingers ripping open presents and I vow to do it differently the next year and savor it just a bit longer. 


So this year..... I'm doing the sneaking up on and decided to start with my blog ...though with the red and white stripes on the side I don't think "sneaking up on it" is the right wording ;). The truth... I miss my old blog background and cute scrolley side bar buttons and sometimes I pop on the blog forgetting I had it changed and I get this jolt... hmnnn, maybe it is because of those stripes, hmnn might need to re-think them. Toby says he feels like he needs to visit the barber shop each time he's on. lol


Anyway.... "Christmasy" it is for awhile. I have reached out to have help with both my last 2 blog backgrounds. This time around Masto Mama Designs helped me, and she was great to work with. I love color and patterns and fonts and eventually I want to figure out how to create my backgrounds for myself.... but for now it intimidates me a wee bit too much! Santa... if you are reading this Photo Shop would come in really handy for this! xoxo