A Good Day

Me: Seth, how was your day today?

Seth: I not hit anyone today.

Me: That was a good choice, sweetie.

Comic Relief--School & Son

So with the state budget freeze this week, life got a little interesting for us educators. In Greene County, where I am a school librarian, the copier got taken away from the teachers. Locked up….in a closet—I am NOT joking. Some teachers commenced to using the printer as a copier, but that didn’t last too long either since the funds used to buy the ink cartridges are the same funds! We were really challenged to use our technology this week (hee hee, see below). I am glad I have a copier at home.

We had a bad storm this past week and it knocked out our internet at school. For those who don’t know, our campus is a completely wireless campus and all the teachers and students have Apple MacBooks. So, along with the copier being taken away, we no longer had the internet to rely on. Let me tell you –this gives a whole new meaning to library time. No, we don’t close the library—we have a contingency plan for checking out books (pen, paper, and patience) and students actually visited the library to do research in BOOKS, since they could not access the internet. It was just like old times.

On the school front, the Internet did start working again after Wavelength replaced a small line—we did not have the bandwidth to support student use, but teachers could check email and I could check out books…Praise the Lord!

My son is going through a stage, I pray. He is not listening to adults. It has almost gotten to the point when I pick him up from school, I look forward to seeing him but I do not look forward to what the teacher has to say. It is not entirely his fault though—he has had many teacher transitions this year and it has really had an impact on his behavioral development (at least that is what I am hoping). Sometimes, I think I have failed as a parent in getting him to listen to me. We have been taking things away from him (as punishment) during the last several months as well as using timeouts. These methods have been somewhat effective. He does realize that there will be consequences for his actions. He even said, “No Handy Manny and no Go Fish (card game)—too bad for me!”

We went out to eat the other night at Mongolian Empire, where Seth enjoys eating egg drop soup. He declared it was, “Delicious.” Rob nor I had ever heard him use that word before to describe anything. We continue to be amazed at his vocabulary development. He proceeded to take his bread and hold it on the wall in that same restaurant and we told him that the wall was probably dirty. He then asked us “Why? Did someone pee on it?” Oh geez.

The other night we took a walk after supper since the weather has been so nice. Seth decides that he has to potty while we are out on our walk and goes to pull down his pants and water the grass. Long road trips have caused this. But not in our neighbor’s yard! I snatched him up real quick and explained that we do not do that in someone’s yard. We hustled back home and I am proud to say we did not have an accident.

A Tribute to Gabe

Today is Gabe's Day. This blog entry is a tribute to Gabe and his family. I have included a poem from the book, Letters to Heaven by Thena Smith and Lynne Carey. Patrice came across this poem shortly after Gabe's passing and she feels God is speaking to her and Matt through it. We love you Matt, Patrice, and Jonah. We love you and we miss you, Gabe.

HOLDING GABRIEL’S HANDS

Just a few days ago
We could not understand
That this would not be a joyful day
Of holding our new baby’s hand.
All of the preparation
And joyous days of waiting
For Gabriel to join us
Were supposed to end with celebrating.
Our special little angel
Was to be our pride and joy
Our precious gift from Heaven
Our darling little boy.
But that was not to be
And too quickly he was gone
Lifted up to Heaven
To hear the angels’ songs.
We know where our darling is
And we will get through this sorrow somehow
For as for our Gabriel’s tiny hands –
Jesus holds them now.

from Letters to Heaven
By Thena Smith, Lynne Carey

Answered But Continued Prayer

Rob and I recently visited the Williams family to welcome home Baby Jonah. We were unable to be there for his first homecoming, but we made it for his second (Jonah had been in the hospital due to some breathing issues and had a scope done.). Jonah is such a sweet baby and he has come so far from first being born. Our visit was awesome, and we learned a little bit about Matt, Patrice, and Jonah's routine. Jonah's eating schedule is pretty much like any new baby's. He sleeps a lot and he begins to stir when he gets hungry. He is eating pretty good according to Patrice.

We also got to witness Jonah's nightly dressing change first hand, and as Patrice explained on her blog, A LOT goes into that.


Jonah behaved very well for his dressing change and seemed very content once it was over and he got his bottle. It was quite an education for Rob and me; and Matt, Patrice, and Debbie (Matt's Mom) were happy to answer our questions. On a future blog posting, I want to break down all of the dressings that they use and the financial part it, which is quite expensive. We enjoyed spending time with Matt, Patrice, and Jonah but of course our time was too short. We are planning another visit for the summer in which maybe we can take Seth.

Please continue to pray for this family. Send them a card or an email if you get a chance. Kind, thoughtful words are very uplifting to them and they are so grateful for the thoughts and prayers.

Easter Elvis?

We got this bilingual toy drum out of the attic (from toy rotation) this past weekend and you would have thought Seth had a brand new toy. We have been working on counting in Spanish and French with Seth and this drum counts in English and Spanish. I don't think Seth was as taken with the counting as he was with the music. My child has a soft spot for Mariachi music. What can I say? Patrice, I know you are so proud. He broke into some crazy dancing as seen in the above video--I don't know where he gets his dancing skills, but he has got some rhythm.

Egg Hunting and Birthday Parties

'Tis the season for fun-filled Saturdays. This weekend, we had an Easter Egg hunt to attend and a double birthday party at Jump Fit. Friday, we let Seth "practice" finding eggs in our yard.So, Saturday morning, we headed to Ben and Eulalia VanFosson's for their Easter egg hunt. It was kind of chilly, but we had a fun time just the same.























After Seth's nap, we headed to Jump Fit, which is one of 3 indoor inflatable kids' funspots around Greenville. These things are popping up everywhere, and are a good way for kids to burn energy, let me tell you...Happy Birthday to Laycie and Josie, two of Seth's classmates. We had a fun time and Rob and I even got in on the action with the kids.