Peace Love and Hip Hop

The week prior to the below video of Izzy's hip hop performance, she had an outdoor performance. I wasn't able to video that one because she stood in the back row, but as luck would have it she was on the far corner so I did get some shots of her. How super cute is she!









We finished up the afternoon with some face painting.




...and you can't tell in this picture, but Drew attended Izzy's performance in his Boba Fett costume from Halloween. Drew had asked me if he could wear it and I told him that I didn't care, but I needed to check with Pete. I asked Pete if he cared that Drew would be seen by many running through the streets as Boba Fett and he said, "whatever". There is something awesome about a child wanting to wear a costume out amongst the crowds...and there is something even more awesome about parents who embrace it! You go Drew...get your Boba Fett on!

Girl Talk

Tonight after reading to Izzy we just sat and had some good old fashion girl talk. It started by her telling me that a friend of a neighbor was mean to her on the bus. I asked what he said and she didn't want to tell me. I could tell she was uncomfortable so I asked her if he told her something mean? I explained that is what boys do when they like a girl :) It ended up that she was scratching just above her lip and he said she was picking her nose. My immature advice to her was to say, "This isn't picking my nose...THIS is picking my nose (while putting her finger far up her nose!).

We also talked about various kids in her class and who is "good" and "bad" and why we think some of the "bad" kids behave the way they do. I know a couple of the "bad" kids have less than ideal situations at home and told Izzy I thought some of that might contribute to their behavior. We then talked about ways to be a better friend. It was such a fascinating conversation to have with my 7 year old.

Not all of the conversation was serious though. We discussed a friend from last year who has "dated" two of the boys in her current class. Izzy even used the words "broke up" and "ex-boyfriend" in the same sentence! My daughter, who I thought was somewhat naive, has been crushing on a boy named Ty (Uncle Wes got to meet him when he came to lunch at Izzy's school on his last visit) and tonight she told me that he really likes her too! I asked her how she knew and she said, "Because today he told me that I smelled like an old sock!" Yup...that means he likes you alright cause in first grade you just don't openly tell someone such nonsense - heck a friend might find out!

I think I am going to start putting Izzy to bed even earlier than her 7:00 bedtime just so we can spend a few minutes each night catching up on the day's gossip!

Peace Love and Hip Hop

Izzy's most recent hip hop performance!

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Valentine's Day 2012

With another holiday wanting to occupy tomorrow's date I felt I needed to sneak this one in. Just a couple pictures...

The kids woke up to a bathroom door full of hearts! Each heart had a special message on it..."You are a great big sister"..."I love your laugh" ..."Chloe loves you" ..."You make me so proud" ...."You are full or great surprises" ..."You give the best hugs" ...you get the idea ;)


Izzy's fancy hair for school ;)


This also happened to be the day of her Author's Tea at school. Each child shared a book they wrote.






Each child was presented with a rose once finished reading. Such a special teacher!


Drew had a typical school Valentine Party...






And that night we enjoyed a special funfetti cake (the BEST flavor) that I made for those I love the most!

Update on Izzy and her seizures

Many have asked, and so I will answer.

We recently started Izzy on her 3rd medication. We are slowly (and I mean very slowly!) weaning her off of the d
Depakote and moving to Lamictal. This process will occur over the course of the next 20 weeks.

Here is a quick recap.

Our first medication was Zarontin, and while it seemed to work for about 2 weeks, it then stopped. Izzy continued to have seizures and those seizures began to increase in duration. Not only that, but she began wetting her pants.

We moved onto Depakote, and at one point while decreasing the Zarontin, and increasing the Depakote, we were having only 2-3 seizures a day. The goal is: seizure free and side affect free.

Once fully on the Depakote Izzy began to not only have an increase in seizures, but also to have wicked mood swings. I can't really even put into words what a different child she was at times. Everything seemed to be taken to the "n'th" degree. If she was bad, she was oh so bad! If Izzy started to cry, good lord did the girl melt down! She also became violent. It wasn't awful, but if she got mad at someone (especially Drew) she didn't hesitate to throw a punch or kick. She became more sassy, more disrespectful, and just plain mean. I hate to even put this in writing, but I remember saying to Pete one night, "I don't even like her!" It was heartbreaking. I can only compare it to what I think it would be like to deal with some sort of child with special needs and I was just thrown into it. Many an emotional outburst I have found myself kneeling down, taking both her hands in mind and explaining things like she is 2! Oh, and please don't think that I haven't gone to the other extreme of telling her to go to her room and then screaming at her from downstairs for 30 min! Trial and error baby!

BUT, it as if the good lord knew I needed to see my "sweet Izzy girl" and just a couple days after my declaration, we had an awesome day together! She was perfect as pie! It was like my Izzy was back. We read, played cards, baked, ...she unloaded the dishwasher, helped with dinner prep, was kind to her brother. Oh how I needed that!

So...currently we are switching the the new med. The good news is that with the new medication we won't need random blood draws to make sure her liver is okay (did I mention that party?) and hopefully, we will stabilize her mood.

I like to think that through this experience I have gained greater empathy for others. I don't know if I ever really judged other parents...okay, I'm sure i did...but now I look at people struggling with their kids a little bit different. I don't know what kind of special circumstances might be behind either the mood of the child or that of the parent.

Fingers crossed, and God willing, this next med works. If not, we go for med number 4. ...there is a reason there are 26 medications out there currently used to treat this type of epilepsy. We just need to find the right med cocktail for Iz.

Batboy...girl...and dog...

One of the perks of our new development is that we live in a golf course community. With that comes a clubhouse that has fun events we can attend even though we aren't members! Drew got to take advantage of one such party this past weekend. He suited up as Batboy and headed out...



He paused briefly to show off his bulging muscles to a group of picnicking superhero girls!




Batgirl had a few choice words for him...


This led to a battle of the utility belts which included jumping, bumping, some smack talk, and lots of giggles ;) Love these two!!!










Those two are a piece of work for sure! All too soon their little battle of the super folk had to come to an end so that Batboy could attend the party.



Drew's party was on Saturday, but that wasn't enough for these kids...they continued some super fun right into Sunday. We call this "Sunday Superhero Scooter Ride" ...and yes, we costumed Chloe as well.

Bad Boy Drew (wink wink)

Drew got in trouble at school again today. This is the second time in the last two weeks.

When I picked him up from school I asked if he got a sticker (stickers are put on the calendar date in their folder for each day if they had a good day, otherwise a note is written in the box)? His response was, "I don't want to talk about it."

I asked him again. Silence.

I told him either he could tell me himself or I could read the note from his teacher. Drew softly told me that he and Jack had to sit on the bench because they didn't stop talking when Ms. L told them too. I began to have a mother/son chat with the boy about where certain behaviors are expected, and how rowdy play is for home, not school. Apparently Drew didn't like my tone because he said, "I don't like when you talk to me in your serious voice."

Once at home Drew asked how much longer until Jack was coming over to play? * When I explained to Drew that he would not be playing with Jack today due to the school incident he told me, "you're not very nice these days!"

And finally when I explained to Drew that when you get in trouble at school, you not only get in trouble at school, but at home as well he told me, "I don't like how your brain thinks!"

I don't know what it is about that kid, through it all I never got mad or lost my cool...I just kept thinking how much I adore him! He screamed, yelled, kicked, threw things, and was just play rotten and all I kept thinking was how my parenting was going to make him better in the long run. Gotta stick to your guns even when they are in preschool :)


*Jack lives 4 doors away and Drew and Jack seem to play daily! Many days I pick up both boys from school and bring them back home with me while Jack's mom stays at the preschool for meetings (she is a teacher).

**Now being one day later I got a note home today saying how much better both he and Jack behaved today. One day at a time, baby!

My Little Artist

I am crazy impressed with Drew's preschool this year. They recently finished up a unit on art/artists and had a little art show.

Here are Drew's masterpieces...

This first picture was "copied flowers in a vase...just for fun!"



This picture was inspired by Georges Seurat who created a painting technique called pointillism. He used little tinny dots of paint instead of a long brush stroke. It took him as long as 2 years to complete some of his paintings. This is Drew's painting with "dots".



Here is Drew's Michelangelo painting. Michelangelo painted on ceilings and walls all over Italy. His paintings told stories and his sculptures looked like real people. Just as he painted the Sistine Chapel laying down on a ladder, Drew used oil pastels to draw and color while lying under a table. How fun it that! Drew's painting is titled, "Angel on a Cloud".





This is Drew's rendition of Henri Matisse. Matisse was too tired and sick to paint, so he used colored paper shapes to make collages. Drew was to make a colored paper collage to imitate either a "snail" or "polinesia" . I'm not sure what Drew "imitated", but I am also not sure what a polinesia is?!?



Here is Drew's self portrait...he did it with him sporting a faux hawk ;). The artist studied for this piece of work was Da Vinci since he did portraits depicting facial expressions - the most famous being the Mona Lisa.



Van Gogh liked to use bright colors to paint pictures of things outside, especially skies and sunflowers. He used a lot of paint. This is Drew's version of "Starry Night".



Finally this is Drew's Pablo Picasso picture. Picasso was a famous artist who liked abstract art and bright colors. He turned things around in his mind and painted them in different ways. When Drew's showed me this picture at the art show, he paused at one point and told me it was upside down. We immediately let his teacher know who corrected the problem by flipping it the other way. Drew's portrait is titled, "Upside Down Airplane"...you can see how this might be confusing ;)


There are so many things I have loved about Drew's preschool teachers and units studied this year, but this one, by far, is my favorite! ...I even learned a thing or two :)