Happy New Year!!

2010 was another hard year, with my Aunt Fran passing away. I miss her and Grandma each day.

I also have been having a hard health year, now with the blood clot and coumadin added on. But I wanted to think back for the fun, happy things over the year:

John and I celebrating our 10 year anniversary in St. John's!!!
Our 4th of July family weekend in Falmouth!
Lizzy making her First Communion!
Frankie turning 4 and starting the older kid classroom at school!
Lizzy turning 9 and celebrating at American Girl!
Lizzy starting the 3rd grade and joining the synchronized skating team!
Frankie starting ice skating lessons!
John starting a new job!
Earning some rewards for my Discovery Toys selling!

Fun Christmas Activities!!

As promised, I wanted to mention all the fun activites we did this past month for Christmas!!

John and the kids went to The Boston Pops concert, (I was laid up that weekend). My friend, Anna was singing with the Pops, and they loved the concert, Santa and the Grinch song. Frankie could see santa from the balcony too. : )

The same weekend, they also went to the alumni BC Winter Wonderland, complete with Santa, gingerbread house making and a horse drawn carriage ride!

The night before Christmas Eve we did the Enchanted Village at Jordan's Furniture! The kids loved all the old time village scenes, complete with authentic smells! With yummy blueberry muffins after. : )

The Millis Wonderland is also a favorite! We went with our friends on a friday night, and drove through the grounds that are lit up with many different diplays, trains, scenes, etc. They take donations to benefit the Salvation Army too!

We made our annual trip to Plaster Fun Time to decorate Christmas ornaments one Saturday night! A great time to go because it is not crowded, at all! The kids take their time and made great keepsake ornaments to put on the tree each year.

Tonight we had the kids' cousins and aunts and uncles over for munchies and then watched the 7:00 Westwood fireworks. Very fun in the snow too!

We hope to go to donwtown Boston tomorrow to see the ice sculptures, and maybe the Stone Zoo Zoolights tomorrow night!

Happy new year! Here's hoping for a great 2011!!

Indefinitely

Indefinitely sounds so long, doesn't it??

The doctor last week told me I have to stay on coumadin indefinetely! It just sounds so long, maybe the rest of my life. And wear the miserable compression stockings that long too! Now, I know there are worse things and people will say, "It could be worse", "think of all the people with worse things", yet I am having a hard time adjusting to this!!

The coumadin is a pain because of all the blood checks, twice a week for now. Risks associated with bleeding too much, etc. They even said not to ride my bike! And the stockings are uncomfortable and I'm dreading wearing them this summer already!

Just have had so many health issues and this one has just thrown me for a loop! Can't seem to shake it, I know I need to focus on positive, but it's just not working well right now!

Here's hoping for a better 2011.

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas, just a little late. : ) We had a nice one, celebrating with John's family on Christmas Eve and my parents on Christmas Day! Lizzy sang at Christmas Eve Mass, what a joy to hear them sing! She also was in the Christmas pageant the week before, playing Elizabeth and an angel. : ) I cried!

The kids enjoyed the big snow storm that followed Christmas!

We have done many fun pre-Christmas activites that I will post details about soon!

Christmas thankfulness:
Lizzy singing at Mass and being in the pageant.
Christmas eve and all the cousins playing together.
Frankie still believing in Santa; cookies and stockings on Christmas Eve.
Christmas morning!
The story of Christmas from Luke.
Ghee and Pa arriving and staying till today!
Playing in the snow.
Ice skating outside.
A warm fire.
A week off from school!
Baking : )

Blood Clot - Yuck

Last week I got a blood clot in my right calf. I had one right after Lizzy was born so I knew the signs and I went in early. They did the ultrasound to confirm. Frankie was with me, but he loved seeing the pictures of my leg on the computer and was asking that they turn it so he could see. : )

So I am on coumadin and lovanox shots, ouch! Every morning and every evening another shot in the leg, I alternate. I just can't do it in the tummy, even though I did when I was pregnant with Frankie. I did one in the tummy this time and have a green, blue, purple yellow bruise the size of a walnut; have a hard time looking at it!

So I am slowly recovering, just amazed how everything hurts!! And I am so tired and out of it! Just making dinner is an effort and I need to sit down in between each step of preparing it! I sleep and sleep and wake up exausted and aching! But at least I caught it early and I am at home, not in the hospital! Oh and I can't remember anything!

Eventually things will get easier. And making dinner will even be easy again. I guess for now it is make easy meals and rest as much as I can.

But I am going to make a happy list: (My mom said she started this yesterday)

- A good brownie meeting with Lizzy's troop
- Going to see the sheep at the church down the street in the pretty snow
- A warm house and hearing my heat come on
- Lizzy getting to be Elizabeth and an angel in the church Christmas Pageant
- Frankie loving his ice skating lessons

Happy Thanksgiving!!

This was in our church bulletin last week!

I am thankful for the mess to clean up after a party because it means I have been surrounded by friends.
I am thankful for all of the running around and ““dropping off”” at school, sports, dance, and friends because it means I have my wonderful kids.
I am thankful for the clothes that fit a little too snug because it means I have had enough to eat.
I am thankful for my shadow that watches me work because it means I am out in the sunshine.
I am thankful for a lawn that needs mowing, windows that need cleaning, gutters that need fixing because it means I have a home.
I am thankful for all the complaining I do about the government because it means we have freedom of speech.
I am thankful for the spot I find at the far end of the parking lot because it means I am capable of walking.
I am thankful for the big heating bill because it means I am warm.
I am thankful for the piles of laundry and ironing because it means my loved-ones are nearby.
I am thankful for weariness and aching muscles at the end of the day because it means I have
been productive.
I am thankful for the alarm that goes off early in the morning because it means I am alive.

Take time to appreciate whats around you!

Edaville Festival of Lights!!

We went to the Edaville Festival of Lights this weekend, very fun time had by all!! Since it was the second weekend open in November is wasn't too crowded. We waited for a few minutes for the train ride and it was spectacular! The train was warm, a little too warm for me, (but I tend to overheat easily) and away we went. There were lights everywhere and all kinds of lit up houses, characters and animals. There were some really cool ones that the light moved so it looked like the bear was throwing a basket or the frog was jumping in thr pond. Frankie is at the age where is was all so magical to him and he was SOOO excited.
After the train we did some rides; rocket ship, tilt-a-whirl, carousel, caterpillar, and went in the trains. The line for the ferris wheel was long and since it takes a while to load, we decided to skip that. But the wait for everything else was fine. We enjoyed just walking and seeing all the lights, when we first pulled up there were more than we imagined!
We ended the night with the snacks and hot cocoa. : ) YUM!!
It may be the last Christmas season for Edavilee, I am really happy we made it this year!

New Family Touched by Albinism

We had lunch today with a family with a little girl with albinism. Cute little Hannah is 14 months and has albinism, and we got to meet her and her mom, dad and grandma today! What a fun lunch and such a nice family! Hannah was diagnosed early on, at 5 days I believe. She goes to the same doctors' office as Frankie. And she loves elephants like Lizzy. : )

It was great to finally meet them, as we have been trying to find a good date for months. I can remember back to when Frankie was 1 and still having a lot of questions and anxieties. So it is nice to be able to answer some questions for others!

I was also thinking about how all the families I have met or talked to with albinism have been so kind, friendly and great people to be around!!

I always look forward to out bowl-a-thon in February to get everyone together and love to add new families who will come!!

New Blog

I am helping with Frankie's preschool blog!

It is just up and running, but hopefully a great resource to other preschool parents and parents with special needs children in general!

Skating!

Frankie took his first skating lesson this past week and can't wait to go back! He askes me every day if it is skating lesson day again! He learned to skate when he was 2 1/2, but this was his first formal lesson, and he did great! He recently learned to get back up from the ice when he falls, and he was doing that great too. Most of the other kids hadn't been skating, so he was doing more than them and felt proud of himself.

He keeps mentioning wanting to play hockey, which scares me a bit. Seems hard to see that small puck?? Although it is quite a contrast on the ice. We will see. : )

For now he just loves to skate, and be like Lizzy too. I asked him his favorite part and he said, "the whole thing"!

Happy Birthday Grandma!!

I still miss you every day! But I know that you are peaceful in heaven again this year. Watch over us. We love you!!

Lizzy's Synchro!

Lizzy had her first synchronized skating competition yesterday!! Her team came in 4th place and got medals too, they were very happy for their first competition of the season!
I was impressed with their speed and difficulty of some of the maneuvers. I think they will only get better with time. I could see Lizzy doing very well as part of the team with her strong stroking and attention to detail, as far as foot position, edges, etc. Great Job!

Fun with the CCTV

Today Frankie and I met with his TVI, from the Carroll Center, at the library to use the CCTV there. He had used one at the Perkins low vision clinic once and one other time at a friend's house, but just for a bit. The one at the library today was old, and black and white. I was surprised, but it did the job.

Frankie picked out a Curious George book (that we had not read yet!) and we put it under the magnifier and read the words and discussed the pictures. Frankie's TVI asked him what he thought about black writing on white or vice versa. He said white on black, which has so much less glare! I could see the white words on black better myself. She was asking him about the pictures and he enjoyed it and liked to move the book around. He also liked experimenting with the buttons. : ) At one point he was looking at a helicopter on the CCTV screen, when she took the book out and asked him where the helicopter was, he said he didn't see it.

I felt like it was great for him to get more exposure with various technologies. His TVI said we will continue to experiment and expose him to technologies until we find something that works best for him and will aid him in elementary school. So I feel like it was a good start and he is on his way! We also enjoyed exploring a new library!

Any Regular Readers??

I am finally updating again! I know it has been a while, but are there any regular readers out there?? I put a link to my blog on Facebook and have it on my email, but wasn't sure about posting each post to Facebook?

So just curious, who stops by to read?!

My Favorite Discovery Toys

I have sold Discovery Toys for 8 years now!! I thought I would take a few minutes to review a few of my (and my kids') favorites.

Infant: Super Yummy Teether

Frankie had this one when he was a baby and I love the vanilla smell. "Imagine five teethers in one that encourage sensory exploration while soothing and comforting your teething tot. A light vanilla scent stimulates sense of smell."

Toddler: Castle Marbleworks

This has been around for a while, Lizzy loved it and Frankie too! Children can put together the castle and then roll the balls down to the bottom. It is always a hit in my house with kids of all ages! "Your child will have fun dropping the 3 weighted chime balls down the track of this marble run building system! As balls race, spin and zig-zag, your little one learns to predict the balls’ course."

Preschool: Busy Farm

I had a hard time deciding, but picked Busy Farm. The kids love sorting, counting, matching and just playing with the farm animals. "Moo! Quack! Oink! Greet the Busy Farm friends: 36 colorful soft-molded animals ready to play language-based, reading readiness activities involving colors, sorting, matching, counting, and alphabet awareness. Set includes 12 double-sided Activity Cards."

School Years: Wiz Kidz

We have had this one for a number of years and Lizzy loves it. Frankie has been starting to play now that he is learning letters too. "This family game for all ages reinforces vocabulary, phonics, and word categorizations in record speed. Players pick a card from the alphabet letter stack and a card from the answer stack. Then it's time to think fast to generate as many logical associations as possible."

Joy of learning sets combine favorites from each category into a discounted bundle!

Some great toy ideas for the holidays!

2 Slow Days, Kind of Nice!

Lizzy has been sick with a stomach bug since Monday night, she was sick mostly that night and has been recovering yesterday and today. I hate to see my kids sick, and luckily she is quite healthy! So I felt bad that she was sick, but the slowing down for 2 days was quite nice! Today she was feeling better, (not quite well enough for school), so we have been decorating turkeys, playing games and watching a movie; instead of trying to be 7 different places throughout the day for both kids! I do enjoy the slower pace!

Sometimes I am torn between having the kids do all the activities they want, and just having time to relax, play, etc. We have tried to find that balance, but some days seem especially, busy, like short Wednesdays! So a day or so of staying in does feel nice. : ) I like time to just enjoy my kids and spend time with them. Next Thursday they have off fro Veterans' Day and I am looking forward to going out for the day with them, lunch, playground and a little shopping. : )

Happy Halloween . . .and November!

We had a very busy, fun-filled halloween! There are so many parties, events now, you have to pick which ones to go to, there are just so many! Much more than when I was a kid. : )

Last week Frankie's class walked to the pumpkin patch to pick a pumpkin, listen to stories and have a picnic snack, beautiful day. On Thursday they used the pumpkins to decorate. The parents came in to help and the kids sang songs too! So funny to watch them trying to remember all the words and do hand motions.

Friday Frankie could wear his costume to school and Lizzy had black and orange day. Friday night was Lizzy's school party, complete with haunted hallway!

Saturday we carved our pumpkin, the kids did it all by themselves and made a whole person carving! Then we went to the Let's Motor party at night; games, goodies, fun!

Sunday we got to see all the cousins in costume at Nana's. : ) Then the boo at the Franklin Park zoo, complete with trick or treating, crafts and, of course, animals. We saw the lion up close!

We rested for a bit with pizza before heading out for 2 hours of trick or treating! I stayed home and gave out candy! I get tired just reading about it all! The kids had a ball, definitely a lot to do!

Now on to a great fun filled November, I'm sure!

Ward's Berry Farm

We really enjoy going to Ward's Berry Farm!! We went yesterday for a hayride and pumpkin picking. The hayride is about 30 minutes round trip, and then we got to get off to pick pumpkins for a while. The kids loved browsing all the different sizes of pumpkins and gourds. We got one big pumpkin and many gourds. : )

There is a hay stack to climb, one of the biggest kid attractions, swings, slides and animals to pet and feed! My kids were so into the haystack we didn't even make it to the animals.

Always a fun day and we enjoy strawberries in June, blueberries in July, and pumpkins in the fall. Last spring we also went on a hayride in the spring and planted tomato plants!

Yard House - pretty kid friendly!

We went with our good friends, Anna and Ben, to the Yard House tonight. John and I had a gone a few times before for special occasions and sat outside; nice view, weather, food, drinks! I hadn't really thought of it as kid friendly. So we went early tonight, and it was already crowded. We were seated right away, though, in a circular large booth, kids loved that. We got a few yummy appetizers to share. The kids menu was 12 pages of mazes, coloring, etc. and they usual kid fair meals. For drinks they could get a soda or lemonade with different flavors mixed in, there were many sides to choose from and a big fruit pop for dessert. It is also very noisy inside, so therefore very kid friendly too. So it was a fun evening and I was happy that it was as kid friendly as it was!

Lizzy sings in the Church Chorus

Lizzy started rehearsing with our church's children's chorus last month, she loves it! She really enjoys singing. She sang at her first Mass last weekend! There were only 4 girls up there, she did great! It makes me so glad that she wants to sing in church and get up there and do it! She is full of spunk and is also so loving to others!

From Oceanspray.com . . .

Frankie and I made these scones with all the cranberries we had from the Edaville cranberry festival. Came out pretty good!

CRANBERRY CORNBREAD SCONES
INGREDIENTS:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cornmeal
1/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup butter
2/3 cup milk
3/4 cup Ocean Spray® Craisins® Original Dried Cranberries (I used fresh cranberries)

DIRECTIONS:

Preheat oven to 400º F. Grease a large cookie sheet.

Combine flour, cornmeal, sugar, baking powder and salt in medium bowl and stir until mixed. Cut butter into flour mixture with a pastry blender until coarse crumbs form. Add milk and stir with fork just until a sticky dough forms. Gently stir dried cranberries into dough.

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead gently about 10 times. Pat dough into a ½-inch thick circle. Cut out dough circles with 2 ½-inch biscuit cutter and place on cookie sheet.

Bake 14 to 18 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm or at room temperature. Makes 10 scones.

Frankie Learns to Swim!!

Frankie learned to swim yesterday!! He started level 1 swimming 5 weeks ago, yesterday was the last class and he swam on his own for about 10 feet. : ) He went from his teacher to the wall, and then pushed off the wall back to his teacher! I felt so proud and he has been telling everyone of his success!
He usually has one other child in his class, but yesterday was a private lesson. : ) I was just amazed how quickly he went from not swimming to being a swimmer!! Lessons start again in a few weeks!

Frankie's IEP

Alright, i am going to be good about posting!

Frankie has his big IEP meeting every March, and we have had 2 follow ups since; the last one was last week! His classroom teacher and specialists had glowing things to say about him! He is doing so much better attending and listening in circle time, playing and interacting with his friends, starting to write his name and recognizing letters! I was so pleased, we have been working on letters a lot. I have tactile letters where he cantrace the letter with his finger and it feels like sand paper, he loves them!

So he continues to get once a week O&M and once every other week vision services. He is working on cane training, which may help him as he gets older.

The director at his preschool has started the transition to kindergarten process and has had meeting with the principal at the elementray school, I just cannot believe that he will be in K next year! He still seems like my baby, even though he will always tell you he is a big boy!

Thinking back to him when he was 4 months old and first diagnosed, it is hard to believe how far he has come! I love the fact that he is playing with his friends so much more and initiating play!! At 4 months, ireally didn't know that we would ever really see. He is such a blessing! Funny too. : )

Oh My Gosh!!

I can't believe how long it has been since I blogged!! I REALLY want to start up again!

A few updates on our family:

Frankie is in his second year of preschool! He loves it and his IEP is pretty good too (more on that to follow).He will be transitioning to K for next fall! He is learning to swim, he plays tball, is starting basketball and skating!

Lizzy started 3rd grade! She loves her skating and is on the synchronized skating team this year, skating twice a week! She plays violin and sings in out church choir, yesterday was her first Mass singing!

John started a new job closed to home, which he enjoys a lot. I am co presidnt of Frankie's PTO, more to come. : )

So far 2010 has been a better year than 2009 was for us. Aunt Fran did pass away in April, so that has been sad for me every day still. I think of her and Grandma every day!

Things to be happy about today:
Beautiful day!
Going for a walk
Lizzy finds out about student council!
She passed basic 5 in skating over the weekend

NOAH Bowl-a-thon 2010

We enjoyed our annual bowl-a-thon yesterday, with 65 people bowling together!! We had 5 children and 1 adult with albinism, some old friends and new ones! It was great to have so many people together for a common goal!!

It is great for me to get to talk to other people who have albinism and who's kids have albinism! They understand the sun issues, doctors appointments, school struggles, but most of all how much people with albinism can do!

Thanks to all who came out to bowl and donated to NOAH!

"I can't see the Patriots"

We went to a high school basketball game this afternoon, that my brother-in-law coaches. Lizzy had a great time and loved watching and cheering, especially since she has started playing basketball this year.
Frankie, on the other hand was more interested in eating. About half way through, he said "I don't really like it because I can't see the Patriots". He watches the Patriots on TV with Daddy, and thinks every sport is them. It was a little funny, in this respect, yet I felt so sad that he truly could not see the players or game. Makes you realize his visual limitations. Just feeling a little sad tonight. But I'm sure he'll have me smiling again in the morning!

Let's Motor

Frankie had his first class at Let's Motor yesterday, he loved it! He had a one on one class with the owner which started with stretching and yoga. He and Lizzy make up yoga moves, so he loved this. He then got to do an obstacle course and some tumbling, jumping and climbing. In the beginning he painted a fish for the new mural and the session ended with a lollipop!
Let's Motor specializes in kids' with special needs, and the director has had other kids with albinism. It was very nice to have some work with Frankie who really gets him. We are excited for next week!

Happy 2010!!

Wow, it has been SO long!! 2009 was a HARD year, so I am looking forward to 2010 being better! With Frankie's surgery last year, his recovery, IEP stuff, Aunt Fran's brain tumor, and the passing of Grandma, is was a sad year. I pretty much forgot about blogging. But I am going to try very hard to get back into it this year!

Frankie loves his preschool! He is in the same school he started at the end of last year, with the same teachers! They are talking about pets now. They were supposed to bring in a stuffed pet to play in the classroom with; dog, cat, etc. Since he likes Curious George so much, mostly all of his animals are monkeys! : ) So he wound up bringing in a meerkat!

Lizzy loves school too! She is in second grade and skates, does ballet, plays the violin and basketball!