my hubby gets creative reading a book to our daughter

Found this hilarious video of my hubby reading to our daughter. I remember cleaning up for the night and down the hall I hear this strange voice. I grabbed the camera and found this...LOL

How CUTE!

How cute is this! My love bug asked daddy to help her do her nails. Daddy gladly complied :-)  Spending time together cleaning and doing things around the house. Later going to look at some blueprints for the future office!

Your Daughter can read!!

I walked my daughter into class this morning and her teacher comes up to me and asks "When did you teach your daughter to read?" I told her that I started her on the Your Baby Can Read program at around 4 months. She starts telling me that the other teachers noticed her reading things around the classroom and she decided to give my darling a little test. The teacher said she read this poem for her and she was blown away. I gave my love bug a big hug and kiss for her accomplishment! A very proud moment for me :)

Investing quality time into your kids pays off!
Your Baby Can Read is an amazing tool! Going to buy it for our son...money worth spent x2!

How we handled the situation at school

The stress I endured last night not knowing what really happened to my daughter was unbearable. I reached out to close friends and family for advice and their take on the situation. My husband and I had a long conversation about how to handle this and we decided to just hear the teacher out.

My love bug seemed happy this morning and eager to go to school. She seemed unaffected by what happened.  We did our best to talk to her yesterday about it and nurture her so she knew we loved her and cared for her. Guiding your child during difficulty is so important even though you feel weak within.

When we walked into her classroom, I didn’t want to see her teacher because to me she was the enemy. My husband was right by my side. I smiled politely and said good morning. My daughter was happy to see her and started showing off her new chap stick and pillow that she brought in. I asked her in a calm yet concerned voice “What happened yesterday?” She seemed nervous and her hands were shaking a bit which could mean a few things but she assured me that it was an accident and that she will try to find ways to keep my daughter in bed by providing her with books.

It’s the most helpless feeling in the world not knowing what really happened and trying to find the courage within to trust this person. So I got some assurance that the teacher would supply her with books and hopefully this will not happen again especially since my husband and I were both there and trying to find a solution for this. I didn’t want her to think we were attacking her because that is not a good way to build relationships but I do hope that our presence and lots of questions really helped her realize that we are not pushover parents and that “Accidents” like this are unacceptable.

My daughter was brought to tears at school

So today I pick up my daughter from school and there is a note from her teacher saying that my daughter bumped her head on the plastic cot during nap time. When I asked my darling about it she seemed to have a hard time explaining it but said she wasn't listening to the teacher. After a few attempts to getting her to tell me what happened she told me the teacher pushed her and she bumped her head on the cot and started crying. My heart almost stopped. Did this teacher intentionally hurt my child? Was my daughter confused about what happened? I was always searching for a reason to yank her out of school but now that she's on schedule do I teach her to flee this problem. My hubby and I went to the director to talk about what she told us. The director said she will talk to the teacher and we will have a conference together in the morning.

Can I tell you how stressed out I am with all this!? Has anyone experienced something similar with their child and day care and how did you handle the situation?!

How evil and selfish - 2 boys dead!

For those of you who have not been following this story from the beginning, today was a tragic end to the remainder of the Powell family.

In 2009 Susan Powell went missing leaving her 2 boys Charlie 5, at the time and Braden 3. Her husband Josh Powell became the person of interest. Susan's parents got custody of the boys last year. Josh Powell was allowed to have supervised visits with his sons. Today as the boys arrived with a case worker for their scheduled supervised visits to their father's home. Charlie who was 7 and Braden 5 ran into the house and Josh slammed the door behind them. The case worker heard explosions and the house went up in flames. Authorities are calling this a double murder suicide.

I don't know about you but to me this guy pretty much admitted he was responsible for whatever happened to his wife. The guilt and the stress was so unbearable that the only thing that made sense was killing himself and the boys!?!? Unbelievable!!! I can't imagine what was going through this guy's mind and how long this evil been growing within him?

Stories like this make me appreciate my own family a lot more and realize how sometimes the things we focus on in life are so petty!

Hugging my loved ones a little harder tonight and praying for the families that are affected by this tragedy!

Good School horrible lunch

When I interviewed Mila's school I got a chance to see the little kids getting ready for lunch. I noticed that in each classroom about 50 percent brought home lunch and the other 50 had "School lunch" that was ordered from a fast food restaurant. Those who ate fast food, had 4 nuggets on their plate and a fruit cup. The other children brought sandwiches, rice, veggies etc. It made me wonder why parents pay soooo much money for their children to be in the best school but not care about what their kids put in their mouths. They spend a lot of money of their fancy cars they drive their kids in but not in the quality of food?? This does not make any sense to me!!! Are they really lazy or just don't know that nuggets are bad for you?? Don't they realize that fast food causes obesity and lots of other illnesses?

I have been very careful as to the types of foods I expose my daughter to because I don't ever want her to be confused about food choices as I was as a kid. I strive to give her the best nutrition possible. Her teachers always say how well she eats and that they've never seen anything like it. I hope she sets an example for other kids if their parents are not taking that responsibility close to heart. And I hope this post will really help parents step up their game in providing better food choices for their kids. It's not easy doing the right thing but it's totally worth it for your offspring!

This is what I packed my daughter for lunch today:

Basmati Rice with wild Tilapia
Chopped Red Peppers
Sliced Cucumbers
Sliced Peaches

Rushed my daughter to the doctor after school!

I pick up my love bug from school and her teacher says she's been rubbing her eye and she "might" get pink eye since she's new at school. Although her eye looked slightly red I rushed to the doctor. We got seen within 20 min and got prescribed some eye drops "just in case."  We don't have family insurance and at check out I paid only 30 bucks! What a deal!!!!!!!! I'll save you the story for another time as to why we don't have insurance but I am starting to believe it's a lot more cost effective to save money and pay for medical care yourself!

Separation Anxiety Part 2

Why did I take her for granted, why didn't I savor those moments when she would hold my hand?? When she would look to me for guidance on how to deal with selfish kids, how to buckle herself in, how to cut her food!! I know this probably sounds like I'm talking about her in passing but in reality those moments are gone, they are only memories now.

During her second day of school something very unsettling happened. During the playground hours she opened the gate and started walking out. This was definitely a good reason to pull her out. But was I being unreasonable? I did not feel that my child was safe at the school so we transferred her to my number once choice school. It was closer and a lot more expensive but was it worth it knowing I had peace of mind?

The expensive school was like eye candy for any kid or parent. My darling loved being there. The program even reminded me of a Russian pre-school I used to attend as a toddler. The structure of this facility was just what I wanted for my little free spirit. 

As each day went on, I started looking for flaws of this school also, trying to find a reason to withdraw her. I pep talked myself out of it. I don't want to show my daughter my insecurities. It is not my personality to bounce around from one thing to the next. So I knew this was it and I had to commit and stop looking for a way out.

A whole week of school went by. My darling seemed to behave so much better at home. I look forward to spending time with her every day after school. I have more patience for her and my attention is 100% on her when she is with me. My relationship with her has drastically improved and getting more hugs from her means the world to me!

This change was not easy, especially for me but it has helped me grow and appreciate my love bug even more. I guess its true what they say, "Absence makes the heart grow fonder!"

Not a smooth start to 2/3/2012

Do you know when your body starts feeling achy and slightly warm right before you get super sick? Well, last night was exactly how I started to feel. Moving around became a challenge and all I wanted to do was to lay down. I started loading up on vitamin C by eating like 5 tangerines and a bowl of berries...LOL

My hubby came home and noticed a less energetic me and quickly made me his special drink he vows cures everything - Organic Wheat grass with water. As much as I hate the smell and taste of this, I drank it knowing he had the best intentions for me.

Every morning I'm usually the first one up, however today I was looking for reasons not to. The aches were still present and my mind a blur. This reminded me of college days when I did have a choice to stay in bed all day.

I knew I had to make my daughter breakfast and lunch and forced my body up. It's amazing the strength you find within for your kids. As I got everything accomplished I completely forgot that today at school was Pajama day.

My little love bug looked so cute in her uniform but as soon as we walked into school, I realized she was going to be an outcast because everyone was wearing Pajamas. Of course I started feeling like a horrible mother for not having it all together. Why is it that we strive to be perfect for our kids and if something does not go according to plan we lash out at ourselves and assume we're bad parents?

Separation Anxiety Part 1

Not to long ago my hubby and I started looking at starting our own business and with that came a lot of time into research and consultations with professionals. I absolutely love anything to do with business. But as we submerged our selves into growing a business our relationship with our daughter started to fall apart.

I used to devote hours to doing projects, reading, going places and cooking together with my little love bug but as that attention started to fade she started to act out. Everyone talked about children going through terrible 2s but I was certain it started at 3. My daughter would misbehave to the point that I would watch myself become more and more impatient with her and therefore was creating this toxic relationship I vowed I'd never have with my daughter. My husband would let her watch cartoons to help with this bad behavior but for me, numbing your brain with a moving image is reversing all the teaching and time that I've invested into my daughter.

I strongly believe that television, video games, and computer games are the worst thing you can do for your child! So, as we started focusing more and more on business I started giving a huge deal of thought into putting my baby into school. Many who know me know how much I've wanted to home school her but with a second baby on the way it started to make more sense to start researching all our options.

After interviewing 4 preschools, I've noticed how excited my little darling was in that environment. As a mother I felt proud that she would do great  and decided to enroll her in a Christian school.

The first day of school was the hardest on me. My darling was so excited. We packed the lunch bag together with all her favorite snacks( strawberries, cucumbers, peppers and tomatoes) As we started driving my mind was searching for reasons to turn around, to go home but despite my internal protests I knew I would follow through with this task.

We walked to her classroom and she was soo happy to be there, she didn't look back to see if I was still there, she was right at home. It broke my heart seeing her fully occupied and not looking back to see if I was still there. 

As I went on with my daily routine the pain became unbearable. Tears just started pouring out of me with no end in sight. I arrived at the gym and somehow managed to pull myself together. Memories flooded my mind of how we would do everything together and all of the sudden I was alone, learning to walk on my own again.