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Category Archives looking back

Days of fun for next summer

Posted on September 29, 2008 9:00 am by TheAngelForever

Have you ever done something out of the blue that just shocks you? Last Saturday JL and I did.

While at Six Flags an old friend was there and happens to work at the park. She mentioned that we may want to look into upgrading our day passes. She said that they were running a special where you could upgrade your pass from the day to a Season Pass for the 2009 season, as well as the rest of this fall. The price for this — only $40 a ticket.

I know $40 sounds like a lot, but it really isn’t when you consider that a day pass for this year was $41 alone! Mind you we were able to snag an online sale for our post-Labor Day tickets for $25 each (not bad for 6 1/2 hours of fun). Still if we go more than one time from May to September of next year the passes pay for themselves.

The really nice part, our season passes are good at all of the following parks (15 in all):

(1) La Ronde, Montreal, (2) Six Flags America, Baltimore/Washington DC, (3) Six Flags Discovery Kingdom, Vallejo (does not include Waterworld), (4) Six Flags Fiesta Texas, San Antonio, (5) Six Flags Great Adventure, New Jersey, (6) Six Flags Great America, Chicago, (7) Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom, Louisville, (8) Six Flags Magic Mountain, Los Angeles, (9) Six Flags Mexico, Mexico City, (10) Six Flags New England, Springfield, MA, (11) Six Flags Over Georgia, Atlanta, (12) Six Flags Over Texas, Arlington, between Dallas and Ft. Worth, (13) Six Flags St. Louis, (14) Six Flags Wild Safari, New Jersey, and (15) The Great Escape, Lake George, NY

In addition to this, we also receive five free guest tickets to use on certain days and a coupon book to save within the park. Not too shabby if you ask me. So now we can think about going on trips to some other Six Flags parks close by to us next summer. The possibilities are quite nice actually.

So next year we can look forward to more memories at the park.

The best part is we are pretty much done with Chanukah gifts thanks to this!

Categories:
decisions family fun jl looking back nhl photos play time summer

Always trust your instinct

Posted on September 25, 2008 8:38 am by TheAngelForever

Ever have one of those moments where you just want to slap yourself in the head? Yesterday was one of those days and I should have stopped it long ago.

NHL was diagnosed with seasonal allergies in the spring. He was put on a pediatric dose of Singular. I had been on it as an adult and had wonderful results. Of course at the same time NHL was put on it there was a lot of controversy with the medication and use with children. Our allergist noted the recent studies and told us to watch and see if there were any behavior changes.

Back in April/May NHL’s teachers mentioned to me that he was acting different. He was more emotional, bothered by things more, and just not himself. When we went back to the allergist in August I told the doctor about this. I told him that it was hard for me to guess if it was the medicine or changes in his life. NHL was just finishing up at a school he loved and getting anxious about kindergarten already, so I had a hard time knowing.

The truth is things really started to fall apart in mid-August, just after our appointment. NHL cried for several days that he did not want to turn five years old. A huge red flag should have gone off in my head, but I was not thinking straight. I thought it was thanks to NHL being nervous about kindergarten. NHL never seemed happy, he was always tired, moped, emotions were high and low, and he was extremely impulsive. For the first time we were also having defiance issues.

When NHL started kindergarten things really blew up in our face. Since he started almost a month ago I have only had two days of slightly decent behavior reports. Yesterday was by far the worst. My son actually colored on his chair at school and when told to stop simply switched colors.

I was beyond mortified and frustrated. I did not know who this five year old child was anymore and talking to him was useless. I went home cried, put in calls for all of his doctors and went to my trusty Google friend and started to search about Singular behavior reactions in pediatric patients.

I quickly found this website and forwarded it on to my husband. JL honestly thought that I had written the June 1st entry since it was SO similar to NHL (just a few subtle differences). The allergists office called back within 10 minutes. He asked questions about the behavior. He did note that I had mentioned concern in August. I told him how things had intensified and I was frightened for my child. He asked if NHL was depressed. I told him about the birthday crying and how he hardly smiled these days, except for the smirk after doing something inappropriate. They called back again 10 minutes after the initial call and told me to STOP the Singular immediately and see if we note any changes in behavior over the next 2-3 weeks.

After that I e-mailed NHL’s teacher with the article and asked her to confirm if what was noted by the one parent sounded like my son. She agreed and thought we were onto something.

Most of the night I kept beating myself up. Why didn’t I stop this months ago? How could I do this to my baby? Why was easy breathing and allergy relief clouding my eyes from seeing the true problem at hand? Could this truly be the problem and wil it make things better so the new school can believe me that my child is not like what they have seen all this time?

Please, please, please learn from my stupid mistake. Always trust your instinct. You know your child best and need to be their advocate. Thank goodness I finally saw the light and hope that my sweet little five year old boy will be back in our life soon.

For JL’s view of things you can check it out here.

Categories:
allergies bad news decisions doctor health awareness looking back nhl school

Toddling Times

Posted on September 16, 2008 12:05 am by TheAngelForever

Do you remember where your children were the first time they walked multiple steps on their own? JSL started really toddling on his own in the last two weeks. It made me think back to when NHL took his first steps. We waited so long for that day to come that I recall where we were, what was going on, and exactly what the little guy was wearing.

We were visiting my brother and sister-in-law. NHL had just started physical therapy after qualifying through Early Intervention. He was diagnosed as having low muscle tone and was hyper flexible. In other words he could touch his nose to the floor while sitting and struggled just to have enough balance to stand, no less walk on his own.

We had no clue at the time that this was going on. He was our first born and we thought he was so close to walking for months. He could toddle holding simply a finger, but without it could not.

Just a few days after starting PT we went away for a weekend. All of the adults were talking when we suddenly noticed a little boy walk by us. We did many double takes and then hooted and hollered since NHL was indeed walking on his own. JL quickly went to get the camera to capture these first steps on his own. Before we knew it he went back down the hall on his own. Later that afternoon we went to the Fisher Price outlet store. My little guy walked in the store on his own, chanting Elmo when he saw all of the toys he wanted to go to.

Here are NHL’s first of many solo steps and relaxing on the couch in his Mickey Mouse PJ’s. These were taken July 6, 2005 when NHL was almost 23 months old.

We always joked that JSL would walk for the first time at Uncle I and Aunt M’s house. That was not to be in July when we visited. JSL did things on his own schedule and really started to perfect things this past week. By the end of the weekend visiting for Cousin S’s first birthday he had really picked up speed.

While gathering clothing from NHL to get ready for JSL I found a lot of summer items. Included in this were the Mickey Mouse PJ’s that NHL was wearing when he walked. I thought it was only fitting to take these with us this weekend to get some photos of JSL. These photos were taken September 14, 2008 as JSL turned 16 months old.

Now the adventure really begins as JSL is starting to chase after his big brother. . . . ah the memories!

Categories:
brothers family jsl looking back milestone nhl photos road trip

Plans – they often change

Posted on September 15, 2008 8:53 am by TheAngelForever

When you become a parent, you learn how to go with the flow a lot more. Heck, you also learn how to function (or so they say) with little or no sleep. This weekend would be a great example of that.

Friday we were supposed to leave after JL arrived home from work to travel five hours to see my brother, SIL, and niece S for a first birthday party weekend. My parents left earlier in the day and told me that the rain was horrible going in the direction. By the time JL was home from work it was 3:40 in the afternoon. We knew that by the time we finished packing, loading the car and kids to head out it would be 4:30-5:00 at best. That means with a stop to eat we would not arrive at our destination until 10:00 at best. Add the weather and kids into the travel and it would likely be later.

We quickly looked at the radar of weather conditions for the evening. It looked miserable. The rain showed no end and was quite heavy in the direction we were going in. We changed our plans. Rather than leave at night we would get up VERY early and load the sleeping boys into the car and go before the sun was up.

Dinner was made, a quick errand and everyone went to sleep early. I set the alarm for 3:00 and hoped to be on the road at 4:00. NHL was up at 2:00 and hardly went back to sleep after that. I moved the alarm to 4:00. Since it was shabbat I was doing all of the driving and wanted a little extra sleep. At 4:00 I quickly packed the rest of the items, both boys were up (GAH) and we hauled everything into the car. We were on the road by 5:00 heading to see Uncle I, Aunt M, and Cousin S.

Do you prefer getting up early to drive or doing the trip at night? Although I was exhausted and the sun was not out and there was thick fog, it was smooth sailing at this hour of day. I was pretty much the only car on the road with all of the big trucks. We made it to our destination in just under 5 hours including a stop at Dunkin Donuts for breakfast and a pit stop.

Once we were there the kids quickly started to play. Here is Uncle I reading all of the kiddos a story.

We had a fabulous weekend spending lots of time with family. The kids enjoyed playing with Cousin S and did not want to leave yesterday afternoon. We arrived home late last night. JL and I were exhausted from little sleep. This is what we hope to catch up on soon.

Great photos of the kids playing and of course Cousin S’s birthday party from yesterday coming soon.

Categories:
family jsl looking back nhl photos road trip sleep travel weekend

Seven years later

Posted on September 10, 2008 9:42 pm by TheAngelForever

With the anniversary of 9-11 just hours away, I thought I would point you in the direction of what I wrote last year. It hardly seems possible that 7 years have gone by, yet I know for some it probably seems like many, many more.