milestone | The Angel Forever

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New medicine taking skills

Posted on July 25, 2009 9:02 am by TheAngelForever

Dear NHL,

Things have been so busy that I have never stopped to really tell you how proud I am of you. A little over a week ago we shocked you with some news. We were going to have you try and swallow allergy medicine. When we upped your dose of the liquid medicine it was just too much for us to give you now. You were not too happy with this, but we convinved you that it was a good milestone. The first time was not a good experiene and involved a little yelling on my end. After this Daddy took over and was your coach. I think when he told you that he was not able to swallow a pill until just before we got married was huge inspiration to you. Now you are able to say that you learned to swallow a pill at five years old WAY before your Daddy and maybe even before me! The photos were captured a day or two after you started.

1. Getting ready to take allergy pill, 2. Not happening this time, 3. Some more water, 4. All gone!

Now you usually get the allergy pill down on the first or second try. Go NHL GO!

Love,

Mommy

__________________________________________________________

Dear Kid Saturdays at Cutest Kid Ever

Categories:
allergies Dear Kid Saturday milestone nhl photos

Tennis time with 15-Love

Posted on July 7, 2009 9:47 am by TheAngelForever

When I was growing up the neighborhood kids used to play tennis a lot. At first we would simply hit the bouncing yellow ball around the street in front of our houses. As we got older we bought more sophisticated tennis rackets and started to play on actual tennis courts. My brother and I used to go to play for fun during the summer months and would have a great time.

Several weeks ago NHL came home from school with the paper advertising a program called 15-Love. I had heard fabulous things about 15-Love and was intrigued. They actually have a beginner programs for children that are 4-6 years old. From their website: " 15-LOVE’s mission is to serve inner-city youth, ages 4 and up. We welcome everyone, of every background and tennis ability, including summer lessons for adults." The program for kids is 30-60 minutes once a week and at a park close to where we live. It seemed like a nice option to add to NHL’s summer.

Last week we went to the first session. I was floored with how many children showed up. It was a nice sized group of 4-6 year olds, plus a lot in the next age group. Clearly 15-Love had done a great job getting the word out about their program for the kids of this area.

NHL was very excited. He has never played tennis before, unless you count using the Wii. He quickly ran onto the court to learn all about tennis. The kids did some drills where they walked the tennis ball "dog" up and down the court, dribbled the ball with their rackets and listened to the instructors.

1. Waiting for directions, 2. Walking the tennis ball, 3. Taking the "dog" down the cour, 4. Enjoying the activity, 5. Trying to bounce the ball, 6. Showing he is listening

The instructors were fabulous. They were patient with the kids, really explained things in child friendly terms and they were not afraid to work with the kids when they were frustrated with an activity.

At the end of the hour NHL declared that he loved tennis. He talked about going to buy his own tennis racket. I asked him if he was excited to come again and he said he could not wait! Of course JSL may have a different opinion. The little guy was definitely bored just watching everything going on. Eventually he got out of his stroller and found a stray tennis ball that kept him amused …along with his shadow.

1. Having fun with a tennis ball and shadow, 2. Hey Mom look at me, 3. Running near the court

This week I will definitely bring some items to keep JSL entertained more while NHL is out on the court. I do not want to see this little face pouting again.

Categories:
exercise interesting jsl milestone nhl photos summer

Wiggle tooth time

Posted on July 4, 2009 9:34 am by TheAngelForever

Dear NHL,

When you woke up yesterday morning we never could have known that a huge milestone would happen during the course of the day. Sure, you went and played tennis for the first time with the 15Love program. Of course, we were all excited to see the sun for the first time in days. You trying out tennis and kept talking about going again next week. We had lunch with Nana and Papa, you introduced them to Phineas & Ferb, and then we went shopping with them.

For dinner we had corn on the cob. You were so excited to see one of your summer favorites. You immediately chomped into the corn. Seconds later we heard you yell out to us. You told us that something happened to your teeth and they were moving. I must admit that I did not expect anything. I simply thought you had something stuck in your teeth since Dr. N told us it would be a while before you lost any teeth.

Since you were upset I looked in your mouth quickly. I immediately noticed something was up. Your previously straight bottom front teeth were now at a different angle. When I tried to move them, they really wiggled! Your reaction to this shocked me some. Rather than be excited that you were joining all of your friends with a wiggle tooth, you cried. It was so sad and cute at the same time.

Daddy and I could not convince you that it was fine to continue eating dinner. Instead, we managed to get you to call everyone to tell them about your tooth. This morning when you woke up I wanted to check again. Much to my surprise when I touched both of the botton front teeth – THEY moved! Yes, there is not only one moving tooth, but two of them! Looks like we need to find that Tooth Fairy pillow and hope that you are like me and they come out without the dentist like poor Daddy.

NHL, please do not look at me funny when I cry later on. I know that seeing your toothless grin in the not too distant future is going to bring tears to my eyes. Once again I know that my little boy is growing up way too quickly before my eyes.

Love,

Mommy

__________________________________________________________

Dear Kid Saturdays at Cutest Kid Ever

Categories:
Dear Kid Saturday milestone nhl photos

Toddler name games

Posted on June 8, 2009 8:58 am by TheAngelForever

JSL recently went to the doctor for his two year check-up. Everything went well during the visit. The only concern the doctor had was that JSL does not refer to himself by name. Well, that isn’t entirely true. When he wants to, the little guy will say "Me JSL!" Of course, he rarely does that. Instead he insists on showing his quirky sense of humor. When asked by the doctor for his name he quickly replied "Me walk kick!" Walk kick = Leslie Sansone….the walk aerobics DVD guru that JSL does with me all the time. When he states that this is his name he gets a huge grin on his face and giggles. He is definitely showing his sense of humor and knows how to answer when he feels like it. The doctor was not too amused, but she just did not understand his mini toddler crush on Leslie Sansone.

The other day the boys were playing on NHL’s bed. I went in with the camera and asked him the burning question . . ."What is your name?"

Here is a video of his reply for the day:

Oh and just in case you were worried, he has not ditched being "Walk kick" either. This morning when asked his name, he immediately replied with his usual answer. *sigh*

Have any of your kids done something similar? For now, I am just going to chalk this up to a quirky toddler sense of humor.

Categories:
doctor jsl kid talk laughs milestone nhl video

Up up and away…finally on the way

Posted on May 19, 2009 11:57 am by TheAngelForever

As our first trip on an airplane neared I felt pretty at ease. The calm nature actually scared me at times since it is not like me. The Sunday before we left I had 95% of our clothing packed and ready to go. Of course, leave it to the 5% and other items to be the biggest pain.

Friday night we got the kids into bed early since we had to leave for the airport bright and early. Then the fun started. JL realized that our scanner was not working and we needed copies of the birthcertificates for the boys. Thank goodness my father bailed me out and went to the grocery store at 9:00 that night. When I got home we had all of the additinal suitcases out to get ready. I packed one, sat it up and saw something. There was a hole and I could see the contents of the luggage. Oy! Back to the drawing board it was for me.

JL and I finally went to sleep at about 1:00. Our alarm went off at 5:00 in the morning and we met my parents to head to the parking place by the airport at 6:15. We were lucky and scored online boarding passes for Group A on Southwest airlines (more to come about that in the future). By 8:30 we were on the plane and ready to go. NHL sat with Nana and Papa and JSL sat with JL and me. NHL was eager to go and had fun looking out the window:

Meanwhile JSL was busy reading the on board snack card. He was scoping out what was included on our flight.

We were very lucky and both of the boys were wonderful on their first flights. The flight attendents on our Southwest trip down were fabulous. We had one male flight attendant that kept on the microphone telling hilarious jokes. It certainly helped to break the tension of the turbulance that we experienced. The boys ate their snacks, played with toys and about 30 minutes before we landed this is what JSL looked like:

After landing we made our way to the Magical Express area. This is the bus that guests of the Disney Resorts may take. We opted to allow them to collect our checked luggage and bring it to our rooms. After over an hour and a half we were on a bus heading to Pop Century – our resort of choice. We checked in and were told that the rooms would not be ready for 2 hours. We went and had lunch at the hotel and called an hour later to find that everything was set. I went off to get the stroller that we rented from Orlando Stroller Rentals. It was waiting for us at Baggage Check and had amazing instructions included (kuddos to Shannon for a classy act).

We dropped our things off at the room and went to the Magic Kingdom. We had about an hour before we had to head to the Contemporary Resort for our 5:30 reservations at Chef Mickey. During that time we wandered around Main Street, got the boys 1st Visit buttons, took some photos, and saw the show in front of the castle. Just a taste of the magic for the boys who were melting in the 98 degree weather that greeted us in Orlando.