*sigh*

so this is an e:mail i get today:

"Michael did not turn in homework today in math. He is also having great difficulty in being quiet and not turning around to speak to his neighbors. I have moved him twice and it has not helped. Any help you can give me in this matter is appreciated."

and i feel like the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. and now i know how irritating it is to have a child who does this. michael is a very smart boy. but the horomones have taken over.... stupid puberty all its effects!

31 for 21; why?

so i had this nice long blog about why i was participating in the 31 for 21... and then the internet happened and it wouldn't post. ugh. and now it's 10:32 pm and i am super sleepy, so you will just have to check back tomorrow to see my answer!!

he does all his own tricks.

my little man has some smooth moves!



don't you like how he's picking his nose??

i need some motivation this morning...

i have big plans for my living room today; yes, i have this ungodly obsession with moving things around; but for the life of me, i cannot get motivated.... ugh.

my kids make it really easy to blog *lol*

so this morning, i get up, pick up olivia and then head to brandon's room to watch him play with his new train table this morning before breakfast. here's a picture of the really cute table that i got for $50! great deal right? :)

well, i put olivia down and let her play with her brother for a few minutes, and while i'm waiting i lay down on sam's bed to watch. for those of you who don't know, sam has a bunk bed that he shares with brandon. sam's on the bottom and brandon's on top. so as i'm laying there i look up, and here's what i see above me (you can click on the picture to make it bigger if you can't see):

translation for those of you who need it or can't see it too clearly: do not sit on sam's bed. i almost died laughing, and i know that olivia and brandon probably though i had officially gone bonkers. still, this stuff is too good to make up! man, i love my kids!

2 little monkey's taking a bath!

how cute are they?

welcome to holland; 31 for 21

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability - to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this......
When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.
After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."
"Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."
But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.
The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.
So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.
It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.
But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."
And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.
But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland.

c1987 by Emily Perl Kingsley. All rights reserved

this is one of the first things i remember reading about having children with disabilities. and i decided to post it, just in case any of you missed it. it's beautiful and the thing about it is that it's perfect to describe all children. there are no "perfect" children (except our own of course ;) and regardless of how your child got here, regardless of what "flaws", they are all beautifully and wonderfully made... God knows just what we need. and sometimes we forget that. we forget about the bigger plan, and that life is not just about us....