Driving Lessons

A teacher. Ask Kaliese what she wants to be when she grows up and that's what she will tell you every time. Some of it comes from me substituting last year, but I think mostly it comes from having such wonderful teachers care for her.

For now, she practices on her brother. Believe it or not he is a very eager and willing student. In the picture above she is showing him how to put his foot on the pedal and how to turn the wheel and you can tell he is not missing a word of it. She also goes over his letters and sounds with him. Showing him each one and having him repeat after her. He sits patiently beside her repeating everything she asks him to. He also loves for her to read to him. Now that she can actually read pretty well (instead of just describe pictures in her own words) it is one of their favorite things to do together.

So far, she is an amazing teacher. Especially if the enthusiam of her student is any indication!



Treasure of the day:

These angelic moments...they are really not so few and far between. And lucky for him too, because that precious look gets him out of more trouble. In the midst of chaos, or one of his more rebellious stances, those big brown eyes just soothe the raging beast that would sentence him to eternal time-out! Both of my children have that power. I could be having the worst day, and when I come to the point of crossing the line into being frustrated with my children its like God gives them a visible halo and their adorability factor goes through the roof. In those moments they can say and do the sweetest things. It is truly a blessing to me daily and those precious faces are forever imprinted in my mind.

Spring Has Sprung!!

J

Join Braedyn and I as we walk through our neighborhood on this picture perfect Spring morning!

Treasure of the day:

Braedyn played outside for the longest time this morning. The beautiful sun and warm weather seemed to invigorate him. At first, he played on the swings, slide and various other things in the yard. He even hit a few balls off of the tee ( and yes, he bats left-handed!!) But after that he just took off walking laps around the yard. With bat in hand, he marched on a mission that led him around and around and around non-stop for at least 15 minutes until I finally suggested we walk around the neighborhood. He had trouble staying on the sidewalk, because he is a very "off the beaten path" kind of guy. But as he got used to the sidewalk as his guide - he was off leading the way! He is a walker. I often watch him in different environments: in the backyard, at various parks, etc. He loves to just walk and walk and walk. I wonder what he thinks about or where he is going (in his mind). Is he in fact just a wandering thinker or a determined explorer with unknown destinations in front of him?

Hangin' with my Peeps!!

Well, Brian is out of town this week so its just me and the kids. That kind of makes for some long evenings so going outside is a great way to pass the time and expend some energy. Kaliese has been working really hard on learning to pump her legs to swing by herself. Just as she did with riding a bike, she easily got frustrated and wanted to give up. But we have kept at it and she now does a fairly good job of keeping herself going. I am so proud! We tried that same tactic with writing the number 2 tonight. Again, getting frustrated at first but with the promise of jellybeans she completed two lines of near perfect 2's. I love to watch them achieve new levels of greatness!!!

Treasure of the day:


Ok, who can tell me what he is doing? I watched him with curiousity as he sat there motionless for several minutes, moving only to take a drink from his imaginary cup. Finally, curiousity won out and I asked him.

Note the 'TV' on the wall of the house:


"I'm watching Psycho T mom. See look, Go Tarheels!"

It just melts a mother's heart!

A Person's a Person....

.....no matter how small!

We are still in 'HORTON' mode as the kids still squeal every time they see a trailer on TV and we've read the book countless times (Great movie if you haven't seen it).

Anyway, these are some of the pictures from the park this weekend with Kadyn and Braedyn. Braedyn didn't really want to swing, but insisted on pushing Kadyn. Now from the pictures its hard to tell, but he couldn't actually reach her swing well enough to push her, but that didn't stop him from being 'big' enough to do so (Katie is actually pushing her just outside the picture). And in the second picture he's not exactly in danger of getting hit. It does remind me of "Watch out for that tail! Watch out for that tail!" (for those of you who know what that's about!!!)

These two are really so cute playing together. They just run from place to place as if attached by an invisible string. Hopefully they will always be so close!

Treasure of the day:

I've really been struggling this weekend with a neck injury. I can't turn my head very well and spend the mornings alternating heat and ice just to be able to move around. Brian's been great about getting me everything I need: ice, medicine, hot chocolate and keeping the kids from jumping on me; even in the middle of the night he doesn't mind getting up to help. The kids have been very understanding. Kaliese comes in to gently give me a hug and say "Mom, I'm sorry that you hurt." Braedyn asks me what's wrong. When I tell him my neck hurts he says, " Let me scratch it for you." (Background: He likes to scratch my back and I always tell him "Thank you, that feels much better." So he just assumes that's a cure all for everything!) Sometimes I feel like its my God-given duty and honor to take care of my family's every need. I enjoy it mostly, sometimes its a bit of a struggle - but it's what moms do! As a mom, when in need you feel like you just battle through it while still taking care of everything. I am truly blessed to have a family that insists I sit back and let them take care of me. The encourage words from my kids and the extra effort from my husband truly help me heal faster than any amount of pain relievers!

A Very Good Friday!

Today Kaliese had an Easter egg hunt at school. She was excited to get to wear her very cute dress (compliments of Grandma Bera)! They had an interesting way of making sure all the kids got an equal amount of eggs, as well as make it educational. They numbered all the eggs 1-12, then gave the kids egg cartons with each section labeled 1-12. The kids were supposed to find the eggs and match them with the numbers on the carton. Very cool! Kaliese had a blast! And, oh yeah, she wanted me to make sure that Grandma Bera knew she was very careful and didn't spill anything on her dress today!

Braedyn and I went to the park with Katie and Kadyn. They had fun climbing up and down and all around. Braedyn terrorized older kids on the bridge and flew around the park screaming "FLAME ON!" (for those that don't know - that's the phrase for the human torch in the Fantastic Four). It was a beautiful day and they were both very cute!!

For more pictures of both events Click Here

Treasure of the day:

Braedyn Rhys - a beautiful child, gift from God, entertaining, adorable and can be oh so sweet! But don't be fooled - he has his moments. I brought a big chocolate cookie to the park today for Braedyn and Kadyn to share. Braedyn was very excited! I broke it in half and then before giving Braedyn such a big half, I again broke off a piece that would better fit in his hand. Well, he completely lost it. Running around angrily wailing with heart-broken yet piercing screams. You would have thought I had thrown the cookie into the dirt and ground it in with my shoe! I mean I literally thought - REALLY?? This is your reaction to this??? How dramatic! If only I could show him the bigger picture so he could understand just how small of an issue this really was....

And then I think, how many times has God watched my reaction to someone or something and thought: Kelly, REALLY???

Invasion of the Little Green People

Happy St. Patty's Day! Not that we're Irish, but we need an excuse to celebrate. Though, I have been asked occasionally if we have an Irish background based on the spelling of my kids' names. Anyway.

The kids played in the backyard while I grilled porkchops. They love when we 'cook outside', cause that's automatic outside time for them!

Treasure of the day:

Kaliese was visited by a Leprechaun at school today. Apparently he gave them all chocolate gold coins and they made a cute hat. You know, its a common analogy that moms wear many different hats: a cook, driver, maid, teacher, etc. But very few of us have such a tangible display to show for all our efforts as this:

And all of them have meaning: the sombrero from Barcelona, the princess hat from the Renaissance Festival, the cowboy hat from her 3rd birthday, the tinkerbell santa hat from grandma Bera, the clown hat from Ringling Bros...not to mention the ones she makes herself: her first day of school, the indian hat from Thanksgiving, the chinese hat from the chinese new year, and of course, her shamrock hat. Oh and on her desk is her 100 days of school hat! What memories! And all this at age 5!

The Ultimate Transformer

Braedyn has seriously gotten into the whole Transformer bit (as well as the Justice League, Spiderman, Fantastic Four, etc). He understands it so well that he has become somewhat of a "Transformer" himself. In extreme contrast to the holy terror depicted in the previous post, here he is calmly and adorably playing with his transformer friends. He was so cute playing by himself. Talking with each character and putting them into action (and yes, he can tell you the name of each one!) Both of the children actually had very good days---maybe because they knew we were going to see "Horton Hears a Who!"

We took the kids to breakfast and to the movie Saturday morning and they loved both (as did mom and dad)! Kaliese thanked us both several times for breakfast and the movie. Of course, as soon as the credits rolled Braedyn pipes up with "Mom, watch it again?"

Treasure of the day:
I don't exactly remember what it was for, but Kaliese remarked to me "Mom, you're the best in the whole world!" Oddly enough this isn't an uncommon phrase for her. Sometimes its because I did something out of the ordinary for her or made her favorite dinner; sometimes its for no reason at all. I can't help but wonder when her perspective will change. I will still be the same mom I've always been. Doing my best to keep their best interests at heart whether they like or not and sometime they will like it and sometime they will most definitely not. But apparently for now, the good Kaliese sees in me far outweighs the bad (or at least unlikeable). We all know that there is a tragic point in time where a child's view of their parents is skewed temporarily because the perspective of what is good and what is right meshes together into an alternate reality for them. So between now and then I will be searching for the magic solution to permanently affix the rose-colored glasses view of me to the eyes of my children --if you find it, please let me know!!

Boy Gone Wild!

Inspired by my lovely sis-in-law, Sara, I have decided to re-up my blog (most of you didn't know I had)! Hopefully I will be motivated to keep this one going.

I was also motivated by the need to vent about my youngest. Someone has apparently been praying for my patience, because it has been tested!! Wednesday I had a busy morning of cleaning up after Kaliese "got sick", running her to the doctor and then to school. Later that day, Braedyn decides to cover both arms and his jeans with a black marker. Next, he grabs my compact out of my purse and crumbles all the powder all over the playroom floor. Luckily, they both clean up with a little effort.

Yesterday, Braedyn decides to be a rebel. After a few minutes of timeout in his room I go in to find he has emptied two bottles of teething tablets! The bottles held 375 total - we counted 222! I can almost guarantee that no more than 50 were used to begin with, so that's over a 100 unaccounted for! But before anyone calls DFCS, Poison Control said that they were basically harmless and yes, I have put them out of reach - again!

This child is just found in the most unusual places doing the most unthought of things. Whether its sitting in his top drawer of his dresser, hiding behind the entertainment center or sleeping on the shelf of his toybox - he is definitely an "out of the box" kind of person!

Treasure of the day:

While reading with Kaliese last night, she continued to amaze me with her progress. We were reading a book about a farm and she conquered words like 'nightfall', 'make-believing', and 'settle' without skipping a beat. She struggles with stopping at punctuation and adding inflection, but at one particular point she read about the 'squawk' of a goose. Not only did she know what the word was, she spoke it in the most perfect imitation of a 'squaaawwwk'! You had to hear it, and I'm not sure she could do it that perfectly again - but it made me laugh!