Birthday Number 4!

Today is NyCee's 4th birthday! She woke up this morning and walked into my room asking if she could go to her birthday party. So we had breakfast and then headed to the park.

After a couple of times re-arranging things at the park, we finally got situated. The battery on my camera died so I had to take a couple of pictures with my phone. She had about 10 kids at the party. It was a pretty day but very windy and cool. The temps only reached the low 70s.

She received so many great gifts. The party had a Tiana from Princess and the Frog theme. She received Princess and the Frog bedding, doll, beach towel and movie. She received clothes and money, a Dora book, and hair bows.

Both she had Tyler have had like 600 pounds of sugar.

Before finally falling asleep on the couch, she put the all the stickers from her cards and the hair bows she received on her bonnet and on her face.

Today was a great day!

Rule of life #258

Rule of life #258: It is probably not a good idea to turn your back on a 23 month old at a park where sand abounds. We were at the park this evening after dinner. While helping NyCee on the monkey bars, I turned my back to Tyler. He walked up to me smiling with sand pouring out of his mouth. As we walked back to the car so that I could get a bottle of water to rinse out his mouth, I heard crunching. Yes, you guess it. He was chewing the sand.

WOW!!!!!!!

Dinnertime Breakdown

Tyler decided to have a breakdown at dinner time. Both kids are aware of the dinnertime rules. If all of his/her dinner is not eaten, no after dinner treat is given. NyCee ate all her dinner and enjoyed a fruit bar. Tyler generally likes fruit snacks. However, as you can see from the bowl, he did not complete his dinner. As a result of that choice, he was not given an after dinner treat.

From the look on his face and the tear flow, one would think I just sold his favorite dog to the pound.

The Weekend

Nothing too exciting happened this past weekend. NyCee has another dress from her Nana Ida (I seriously think Nana Ida enjoys shopping for the dresses just as much as NyCee loves wearing the dresses. It's amazing how Nana just happens "to see a dress" for NyCee. But that is why God made Nanas).

Saturday night, I planned to go play video games with a friend after church. Well, Tyler's fingers were smashed in the door at church. So, no video games for me. Then on Sunday, I took the kids to a birthday party and he spilled hot coffee on his other hand. Wow! Son, really? Thankfully, his fingers were not broken nor his hand burned.

Speechless

NyCee lost her voice this weekend. It started out as the onset of a cold. But since I do not allow my children to participate in sickness, her body is attempting to rebel in the form of laryngitis. It's kinda cute actually. I don't know how much of it is laryngitis and how much of it is NyCee having fun with it.

There's nothing I can do for it. Her voice will restore when it gets ready. It's funny listening to her attempt to talk. Initally, she kept saying, "Mommy, I can't talk." Now she just attempts to say whatever and her voice is scratchy and cracky.

"But Mommy, I am sorry I made a mess"

After putting the kids to bed, I washed my hair as I am getting it done tomorrow for the Valentine's Day weekend. Once I finished blow drying it, I walked out of my room and tripped on something. I really didn't pay any attention to it as I figured it was one of the kids' toys.

I walked into the hall bathroom and smelled finger nail polish. Immediately, I called Taylor's name as I did not see her in her bed. She replied, "Here I am."She was in my bed. I asked what did she do. Thankfully, I teach my children to be honest so she told me the story.



"I wanted to put this (nail polish) on my fingers like this (making the motion of polishing nails). But it spilled and I couldn't clean it up but I am sorry. I didn't mean to make a mess." Here's the kicker: the nail polish was on my dresser. She got the seat to her easel set, put it up against my dresser and located her nail polish. (She has a light pink color.) The additional highlight: it was dark. She managed to reach and locate the nail polish in addition to polishing her nails in the dark.

She was not disciplined. I gently explained she has to ask for permission before getting certain things. And mommy has to help her with fingernail polish.

She is a child genius.

Striptease

I walked into the kids' room and this is what I saw:


I am not clear as to when my son took off his pants. Let's back up, I didn't even know he could take off his pants. But there they are in the middle of the floor. And there he stands calmly as if nothing has happened.

Family Day

Living Word Bible Church's theme is: "Building Strong Word and Faith Families." Because of that, families are encourage to have family night and married couples are encourage to have a date night. Normally, the kids and I have family day on Saturday morning. We did not have that time this week because I had LASIK eye surgery. So, we had family time today.

I took the kids to Bounce U and Carole and her daughter Megan joined us. The kids spent two hours bouncing and running and playing.

Afterwards, we enjoyed lunch together. It's these simple times they will remember when they grow up. Simply because I am a single mother does not mean we are not a family. Balancing my time is key to maintaining my sanity but also making sure my children get the mommy time they need and deserve.

Today was a good day!

Busy, Busy Week, But I Have Perfect Vision

Oh, my gosh, last week was super busy.

On Thursday, I went to my appointment for LASIK eye surgery. All the measurements were taken for my eyes and it was explained to me why I needed glasses to see things clearly at a distance. When scheduling my appointment, I requested a 10a appointment. It was then I learned there are 2 types of LASIK: custom and traditional. Custom entails putting your specific eye measurements into the computer system attached to the laser. Then, the correction will be exact. Traditional involves making the correction according to the eye glass prescription. And the cost is about $1000 difference per eye. I opted for the traditional.

I had a friend scheduled to drive me and we had previously arranged for an am appointment. Because I chose traditional LASIK, I could not get an appointment until 1:00p.

Friday, I received a call from the coordinator at the clinic advising the doctor (the one who only does custom LASIK in the am) felt bad that I had to rearrange my schedule due to a lack of information. Therefore, he was willing to perform the surgery earlier. This was around 10:30a. The coordinator further stated the doctor would perform the custom LASIK procedure at no extra charge. I replied, "I will be there by 11:45." (I had to call my friend and the clinic is about 35-40 minutes from my house.)

I arrived at the office at 11:43a. The staff was very friendly and it took longer to wait my turn than the whole procedure. It was so amazing. To technical to explain. But I have perfect vision. Things were blurry for about 1.5 hours. After I took a nap, I woke up to a perfectly clear room.

At first, it just felt as if I were wearing my contact lens. It wasn't until I woke up in the middle of the night and could clearly read the clock that it really hit me. This is amazing!

The doctor advised after a month my eyes will be completed healed and I will see with such precision I will be amazed. I am amazed now!

So that bring us to Saturday. NyCee woke up in the middle of the night stating her stomach was hurting. Around, 7a she vomited twice. Nice. Yea for me.

Then, we went to church and around 7:30p she vomited again and had diarrhea. Again, nice.

Tyler had stuff coming out of him that was just disgusting. Again, Nice. So, my Saturday night date night ended before it began as I brought both kids home to attend to them. Thankfully, NyCee's diarrhea didn't kick in until we were home. Tyler, not so much.

I was instructed by Dionne to stay home today from church. That was weird. But I took NyCee to the doctor and she just has a stomach bug. It seems to have passed. Praise God.

So, I have to grade papers, get clothes ready for the week and read over my school assignment for next week.

Last week was very busy but productive. And I have perfectly clear vision!

True, Funny Story

Today, I was speaking with a friend of mine who is a manager at a campus location in San Antonio, TX. He told me he overheard one of his employees on the phone asking for a student. The conversation went as follows:

Employee: Hello. May I speak with La-Sha?
Caller: Who?
Employee: La-Sha?
Caller: There is no one here by that name.
Employee: The name is spelled L-a-S-h-a.
Caller: Oh, you mean La-dash-a.

Okay, that is where I busted out laughing! Since when is a symbol pronounced as part of a name!?!?!?!?!? OMG! That was so funny!

The Fast Has Ended

For whatever reason, Frederick has been on a self-induced fast for the past week. He has barely eaten any food. He'd eat breakfast but no lunch and no dinner. I had resorted to shredding fresh vegetables and cooking them in the meat to get vegetables into my children.

Well, I guess the fast has ended. Lorie, the kids' caregiver, stated he ate all his food today plus a second helping. Tonight, he ate all his dinner plus his applesauce.

I keep reminding myself to enjoy these days because as he ages, my grocery bill will increase.

The Kickoff

Well, this week starts double duty for me. My classes began today and my teaching course began last week. If you didn't know, God is brilliant! He showed me how to balance both work, life, children and church and not be overwhelmed. WOW! He is amazing. If you haven't tried it, I recommend following His principles. Makes SO much more sense than anything I could have ever thought of.

I have 22 students in my class. I started with 7. I am excited about facilitating a course. I enjoy the interaction with the students. This week's discussion was on affirmative action. Some were for it. Some against it. But both sides explained their positions very well.

Grading undergraduate papers is interesting but I always provide positive feedback to encourage them to finish line of their journey.

Togetherness

There are occasions when my children act as though they love each other. This is one of those times. NyCee was brushing her teeth and Little Fred wanted to mimic her.

The Howl

"MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

"MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

Is was startled me out of my sleep at 2:00a. Tyler has figured out that I do not respond to him when he cries in the middle of the night for a cup of milk. So instead of crying, he just shrieks my name. He sits in the middle of his bed, shrieking my name repeatedly until I answer him. (I taught him a few words in sign language.) So when I walk into his room, he is signing the word "milk" followed by "peez" (please).

He is so darn cute, that I cave each time and give him a small cup of milk. When NyCee was his age, she did not wake up in the middle of the night.

They are so different.

New Year's Bling

Check out those earrings. She is truly blinging in the new year!