milestone | The Angel Forever

Category Archives milestone

Big brother’s new bike

Posted on March 28, 2009 5:38 pm by TheAngelForever

Dear NHL ,

Just a week ago we went on an outing to buy you a new bike. We finally found one that you were a pro with and bought it for an early birthday present. Then things went a little crazy. We were trying on your helmet at home when your little brother gave us all the scare of our lives. I can not even imagine what was going through your mind as you witnessed everything that evening. You were brave and helped Daddy to look outside for the first responders. My heart broke as I carried JSL to the ambulance and I heard you crying.

For the last week you have been pretty understanding about all of the attention being on your little brother. You have helped us to give him his medicine, tried to make him laugh, and changed the television to Sesame Street to make him happy.

Last night you finally got a chance to test our your new bike at home. Like a champ, you went and showed us your stuff. Just a few years ago we wondered if you would have the strength to ride a regular bike, and now you have. We are so proud of you! Your hard work in physical therapy has made your muscles so strong!

Today it made me smile to watch you go up and down Nana and Papa’s street and then around our block. You were so proud of your new bike, but the truth is you should be thrilled with your fabulous acomplishment.

Way to go big kid – I love you!

Mommy

__________________________________________________________

Dear Kid Saturdays at Cutest Kid Ever

Categories:
Dear Kid Saturday milestone nhl photos weekend

Web woes and workouts

Posted on March 12, 2009 8:44 am by TheAngelForever

You may, or may not have noticed that my blog was down for twenty hours Tuesday into Wednesday. It was a very frustrating time for JL, myself and even more so the hosting company for our websites. We just switched our websites to a new hosting location a few weeks ago. After years with one place, the service had declined significantly and the down time kept increasing.

We were floored when this happened so soon after switching. The difference here was the new hosting company was on top of everything. They were in constant communication with JL and the other people that had their websites on this server. In the end, the down time was huge. However, the customer service thus far has been incredible.

Things are still not 100% fixed. Comments are being moderated that had not in the past. In addition to that, the e-mail notifications of comments are not working at all. This means that I have to go to the control panel of my blog to retrieve comments and reply back to people. I am slowly catching up with this.

On a brighter note, I am still working out every day. Since I started I only took Sunday off. Tuesday while upset about the down website, I did some research online for more Leslie Sansone DVDs. I went to Best Buys website and found that they were on sale. It was great that I could also track down whether or not the local store had the DVD that I wanted in question. When I saw that they had several in stock I packed JSL up and we went to the mall.

When I arrived there nothing was labeled with sale prices. I grabbed two of the DVDs that were interesting to me and went to the register. Both of the DVDs scanned for $6.49 each! Needless to say I now own two new Leslie Sansone workouts.

The workout that I was most interested in was the 5 Mile Slim Down. It had glowing reviews online. Fitness Magazine also voted this DVD as one the best for 2009. I had wanted this from the start , but could not find it locally before this. I immediately picked it up.

Yesterday JSL asked me to "keek" = kick. He saw the DVD and wanted to walk and kick with me. So I put it on. I did about an hour which got me through mile 1, 2 and 3. All I can say is WOW! The third mile really worked out the legs with lunges and other more challenging moves, but I loved it. Oh my goodness, did I just say that?! What I really liked about this DVD was it was Leslie Sansone alone. She talked you through the workout and was not chatting it up with other people. It was a nice change from the other DVDs that I have tried.

The other DVD that they had was another 5 mile workout. Thanks to the price it was a great time to buy it. Since I have been using them and would like variation it seemed like the perfect opportunity.

I have not tried this one yet, but it looks great. I will update more when I have actually worked out with it.

Seriously, where is the real me?! Or is this the real me? Maybe what I needed was to find the right workout that made me feel like I could do it. Leslie Sansone makes me confident about doing the workout. After I am done I feel energized and wonder when I will have time to do it again. This is new to me. I am the girl that used to cringe and hate PE in school. Now I look forward to sweating because I know that it means I am getting a good workout. Sure, I hope that it will help me to drop some pounds. However, more important is that with the assistance of the Leslie Sansone Walk at Home DVDs I am getting my heart and the rest of my body back into shape. This will help me to be a better wife, mother and person in general. A perk is I am also going to be ready for the walking at Disney World in a few months.

P.S. – Please note that the review of the Leslie Sansone DVDs is not being sponsored by anyone. This is a product that I found on my own (with some research), paid for the DVDs myself and highly recommend.

Categories:
decisions exercise fun me moments milestone

Sesame Street Live 2009

Posted on February 24, 2009 9:53 am by TheAngelForever

Over the last three years JL, NHL and I have seen three different Sesame Street Live shows. Each one has been fabulous and encouraged us to come back for another. This year the show was Elmo Makes Music and it lived up to our expectations. The show started with Bert, Ernie and Rubber Duckie coming out to introduce the letter and number of the day.

Soon after this the stage exploded with even more favorite Sesame Street characters. The kids in the audience went wild as Cookie Monster, Telly Monster, Prarie Dawn, Zoe, Grover, Big Bird, Elmo and others joined the group.

JSL and Cousin S were taking it all in. They just sat there watching as the characters danced and sang fun songs on the stage.

The little guy started out on my lap and eventually got fussy and wanted JL. At that point I took over with the camera duties. For the first half of the show Cousin S was happy dancing in front of Uncle I to the music. It was so fun to watch her with the Mamba number.

Here is the way the kids looks after the switch off.

The boys

After a while JSL started to get into the show. He was telling JL each time he saw Cookie Monster and Grover. They were definitely the highlight of his show experience.

Cousin S was excited when she saw Count. She demonstrated her count laugh (priceless) and stood mesmerized with the happenings. She was also quite fond of the part on Elmo’s World.

Soon after Elmo’s World it was time for the characters to take a break before the second half. Here are a few more photos from the start of the show.

While waiting for the second half of the show the kids played by our seats and had some snacks. They also sold the $8 Elmos balloons that we did not purchase. The boys talked about seeing Cookie Monster and Grover again.

Little did we know that a mystery would take place. The mystery of the missing Sesame Street characters. The two in question are seen below. They are fuzzy and blue. One may be seen eating a cookie and the other with a Super cape.

Why the mystery? Neither of these characters showed up again in the second half of the show! There was much disappoinement, but they did get over it. During the second half of the show Cousin S also made up her mind that she wanted to sit with Uncle JL and JSL. She made herself right at home and enjoyed the view.

The rest of the show was more fast paced than the first act. Bert came out for a 1970’s Disco number, Big Bird and Baby Bear (we all cringed when he showed up on the scene) sang Rockin Robbin, the Count did a tribute to the number 8, and there was the finale. Here are some favorite photos from the end of the show.

If you ever have the opportunity to see a Sesame Street Live show I highly recommend it. They put on a highly entertaining production for a reasonable price. I hope we will be able to see them again in 2010!

Categories:
family fun jl jsl milestone my boys nhl photos show weekend

The 2009 Sesame Street Live Pre-Game Show

Posted on February 23, 2009 12:47 pm by TheAngelForever

We arrived at the theater for Sesame Street Live about an hour before the show started. We wanted to make sure we had time to find parking and settle the kids in. After looking at the Sesame Street merchandise, that we did not purchase, we went to find out seats and take our winter gear off. The three kids sat down to check everything out.

As you can see JSL brought his Cookie Monster stuffed friend and Cousin S brought her Baby Elmo. NHL preferred just to sit back and wait for the show. He was afraid to move, go say hello to friends or do anything. He simply wanted to sit and watch the stage. In fact he got quite upset with photo taking that disrupted his view.

Meanwhile the two little kiddos were having fun checking out each other’s stuffed friend.

The little kids got a little antsy waiting, so we gave them some snacks brought from home. They enjoyed and then Cousin S decided she had to explore the theater some more.

Finally the time was near. We had to get the kids seated. When we started JSL was sitting with me, Cousin S with Uncle I, NHL solo and JL taking photos.

The lights went out and Big Bird started to talk to the crowd. It was finally time for the show!

The trouble with word families

Posted on January 27, 2009 9:12 am by TheAngelForever

All of my years of teaching and being in a classroom have taught me that no child is always an angel. My kids are no exception to the rule. The only real angels here are those made in the snow.

NHL makes a great snow angel, but he still know how to get into plenty of mischief.

So why am I bringing this up?

Yesterday, when I was picking NHL up from school his teacher pulled him aside and told him to wait since she wanted to talk to me. Of course like every parent, my heart immediately went to my toes and I wondered what had happened. After all of the other kids were gone she explained things to me.

The class was working on some more word families. For those of you unfamiliar with this term, word families are group of rhyming words that have a common ending to them. An example: the "at" family: hat, cat, sat, mat. . . and so on.

The word family that the class was working on yesterday was the "it" family. Can you see where this is going?! As soon as she said it, I knew what NHL had done.

Apparently, NHL was excited to rhyme and went ahead of the class. He added words to the family and sure as, well the word in question, he added the sh to the end sound and formed a familiar adult word. NHL’s teachers said he wrote it on the board when he was told not to. He was so excited to share.

You may think, wow why didn’t he stop? The thing is he was not trying to be disrespectful, he really was naive and had no clue about said word. Sure he probably has heard it coming from a mouth or two in the family (not hubby’s), but he has never used it or said anything. Once the teachers talked with him about why the word was not acceptable he stopped. Since they realized he had no clue, they did not give him a warning for his so called actions.

The parent in me laughed and thought it was funny. At the same time, the teacher in me knew that other kids were probably howling and laughing at the word my naive child had created. It immediately made me recall when I was student teaching in first grade and doing short u words with the kids. I was being observed and was using the word "duck" to rhyme. You best believe that I carefully selected kids to answer so I did not get the wrong -uck word! Of course nobody could have prepared me for little Z who came up with his own short u word. He said "butt" and would not stop. He was chanting "butt" and made up a little "butt" song. From that moment on Z was forever known as "butt boy" in my eyes. Ah, the joys of kids and teaching!

This has taught me that I need to cherish these moments. Before I know it, my naive kindergarten kid is going to be gone and he will soon learn more street smart items from his classmates and world.