Adventures in Home-Schooling!

I have Jayden on a wait list for the VPK program in Florida. It’s voluntary pre-k and free! I’m very excited because I know Jayden is ready for school and loves to interact with the other kids when he goes to Sunday school. The program would last for a year, and he would attend every day for three hours a day. As I wait for April 20th, voucher day, I started to wonder if Jayden was ready for school. I was told that 90% of the kids have come from a daycare or pre-school environment so basically we have our work cut out for us.

I’ve started to work with Jayden at home to try to get him ready. We work together 2 to 3 times a week for about an hour or so. We have been practicing with tracing horizontal, vertical and diagonal lines. Afterwards, we have computer time where we work on reciting the alphabet, letter recognition, and sounds. I just started to introduce capital and lowercase letters, and number recognition. At our last lesson, we worked with scissors and practiced cutting on the line. Jayden LOVED that!

Jayden started out slow. Our first lesson lasted about 10 minutes and then he lost interest. But as time goes on, he gets better with controlling the pencil and is more patient with writing. While we practice, Maya sits and colors. And I encourage Jayden by telling him that when he’s done, we can work on the computer, his favorite part. Now, he’s really getting into it and he really looks forward to our lessons. He pulls up the chair next to mine and Maya sits on my lap, often times reciting the letters and sounds. I’m not really using a curriculum, but if you have any suggestions on other activities, please send them on. I would appreciate it!

Men! Who Can Reason with Them?

My car has been making very odd noises for quite some time. Last week, the noises started to get scary so I reminded Esteban about it and his answer was for me to drive his car to work. That doesn't really solve my problem so I wait a couple of days and ask him again what to do about my car. He wants us to try going to one of those mechanics who works out of his home and I insist on a shop. He thinks we'll save some money by doing it his way etc, but I think we'll waste a lot of time because both of us will have to go to drop off the car and there's the issue of going to buy the parts and I want to be able to pay with a CC and get a receipt etc. Home mechanics usually only take cash, there's no receipt, no warranty... Well, I lost the battle so on Monday, we take the car to the mechanic, who was referred to us by his co-workers...

I program the GPS and realize we are a little over ONE HOUR away. Problem number one! But I don't say anything and start the long ride. When we get there, the mechanic takes a look and decides to take the car for a test drive. I take the kids for a walk to entertain them while the mechanic assesses the situation. As I'm almost around the block on my walk, my husband pulls up in my car with an odd look on his face and says he's had an accident. The car looks intact so I smile confused and try to figure out what he's talking about. What he said next, I did not hear. But he pointed to my car and there I saw it. My windshield was completely shattered. Unfortunately they did not secure the hood before taking it for the test run and it actually popped up while driving and cracked the entire windshield.

As I'm typing this, I'm realizing how horrible this could have been. Thank God, we were out in the boonies somewhere between Haines City and Dundee, a good hour away from home and they were on a back road somewhere with minimal traffic. The air bags did not deploy and there was very little damage to the frame of my car. And thank God, only a few shards of glass fell into the vehicle. No one was hurt. At the time though, I was not counting my blessings. Ok, I admit. I was fuming! Neither man knew what to say and I was so upset, but I was conscience that we were not alone so I bit my lip. They drove back to the house and when I walked up, they had assessed the situation. The brakes and struts were bad and my poor new wheels had no tread on the inside. This could have been a one day fix, but I called the insurance company and they weren't able to send anyone out for the glass until the next day. So Esteban and the mechanic rush off to buy parts and I take the kids for lunch. There's a Walmart nearby so after a leisurely lunch, I pass the time there.

Finally Esteban arrives. It was so late. On the way home, he kept apologizing, but what was done was done and there was nothing we could do. It wasn't his fault, but I kept thinking if we'd only gone to a regular shop, this wouldn't be happening. God's grace was with me though and I did not say anything to make him feel worse about the situation. Thank you God. We had pleasant conversation most of the way home, especially after the kids had finally fallen asleep.

Today, we head back to the mechanics. The glass should have been repaired between 10 - 1pm. But when we get there at 12:30pm, there's no sign of them. I called and was told 45 - 60 minutes max. But an hour and 15 minutes goes by and nothing. Great another wasted day! I had already listened to a good hour of my audio book, gone through my mail for the past week, re-organized and purged my coupons, cut out new coupons, gone through my email... Now all I had left was cranky Maya and my loose cannon, Jayden. I decide (or Esteban decides for me) that I need to get out of there. I took the kids for lunch. The closest McDonald's was 20 minutes away, according to the GPS! But off I went and when I got back, my windshield had been replaced and we were good to go.

Unfortunately, we ran out of time and did not get to finish the second part of the repair job, the tire replacement and wheel alignment. So now, I've called out for tomorrow to stay home with the kids so that Esteban can take the car to get the new tires and alignment. Lucky me gets to stay home with the kids. Believe me, after two days of crying and cranky toddlers, I was so ready to get away from them and go to work. (Is that bad?) But instead, I'll be home probably doing laundry, listening to Maya shout noooooooo, miiiiiine, or shhhhhhare and asking Jayden what number comes after 2, for the hundredth time!

Daddy Pig

Lately, there are a quite a few cartoons out pig families. Jayden loves "Toot and Puddle" and "Peppa Pig". Peppa is a pig and she lives with Mummy Pig and Daddy Pig and her brother George. Daddy Pig snorts an aweful lot and I think that's why Jayden has grown so fond of this cartoon. Now Jayden has started to snort too. One day, I was talking to Jayden and I made a reference to Esteban as being Daddy Pig and Jayden's been calling him that ever since. Esteban is so mad. He truly despises it. He says, "It's ok for him to call me that at home, but in public? It sounds awful." I nod in agreement, but inside I'm dying of laughter. I hear Jayden calling Daddy Pig and Esteban says "No me llames eso!" And Jayden snorts in return and runs off. I can't stop laughing as I type this.

Now Jayden has started to call me Mommy Pig which I don't mind a bit and earlier I heard him refer to Maya as Maya Pig. I think it's hysterical. Especially when he adds in a snort or two!

Build-a-Bear

Jayden and Maya received Build-a-Bear gift cards, a couple of Christmas' ago and we finally went to see what it was all about. We went with friend's from our mom's group, Sharon, Gabby, and Anthony.

Choosing a bear was a very complex thing. Jayden liked lots of animals, but mostly he wanted to run all over the store. Maya was easy. I picked out a soft bunny and she was set. Finally, Jayden decided he wanted the alligator because he was green, the same like my cup Mommy! Here's Jayden after selecting his gator's heart. He got to help stuff his gator.

Then he went over to the grooming station. He got to brush his gator, but what he really liked was pushing the pedal and feeling the air come out of the vents.
Gabby and Jayden worked together.

After that, you get to choose which accessories you want for your new friend. This can be a scary for the parent, but luckily, Jayden didn't seem to be interested. He decided he wanted shoes. I suggested sandals and he agreed. Then he decided, his gator should have undies too. Of course! Here's Jayden showing Green Gator some love!

Maya had no hand in dressing her bunny. Really, she's too small for this. So I chose some pigtails and a matching top. Maya seemed content with the finished product.

Maya took her new bunny back to the grooming station. She was tickled by the "tub" area.

Jayden figured what the heck! I might as well go and groom my gator again too!

Maya was very happy at this point! She's a little blurry, but still cute.

After Build-a-Bear, we had lunch in the food court and went for a walk, but we didn't get far because the kids were captivated by the water fountain. Everytime the jets went off, the kids screamed with joy.

Jayden prepared to make a wish and throw his penny in. This was his first time. He wished for a yo-yo and he was bummed out that it didn't just appear out of nowhere.

Anthony was especially delighted with the fountain. He was so funny and people were stopping to look and smile at him.

Too cute!

What can be better than two smiling kids?

One last look at the water fountain...

Miami Highlights and Pictures

• Valentine’s Night, we put the kids to bed and then went out for drinks and desserts. I haven’t done in a really long time?
• I played Wii for the first time! It was awesome! I liked bowling. I had a rough time with baseball and golf. I was remote challenged, I think…
• Jayden fell into the pool and gave me a scare. Never a dull moment. Must be something about that pool. It’s the second time he’s fallen in on two separate occasions.
• We took the kids to Dave & Busters. First time! Jayden loved the lights and machines. Then he got to pick out a toy after redeeming his tickets. He was thrilled!
• We took a drive to the airport and parked. Sounds silly, but we’ve never done that and Jayden is so into the planes that it was just awesome to watch. To make it even better, there was an old track running along side the airport, where we were parked so the kids ran up and down the tracks for a good while.
• Judy and I stayed up almost every night till really late, mostly talking crap. Gotta love that! We looked at old pictures, reminisced, and caught up on old stories and new ones too…

Here's my cutie!

Jayden's smiley face...
Serious Maya

Jayden's soccer face...

I'm sure she was saying something like "Look!"

Ivanna and Maya dressed as twins...

Becky and Ivanna

Stand by Me

Gabby, Becky and Jayden

Ivanna and Jayden

Here's the best shot I could do of myself with the girls.

Judy's beautiful family...

Corndogs for lunch...

Yummy!

Valentine's Day

Not wanting to be disappointed by Esteban again on Valentine’s Day, I made my own plans. He originally told me he was working so I decided to head to Miami to visit my best childhood friend, Jayden's Godmother. She's a school teacher and off on Monday too for President's Day. Perfect. A girl’s weekend (+kids)... After all Valentine's Day is the day of love and friendship. Her husband would be busy all weekend with his store's inventory so it would be perfect, right? Not so much. Esteban tells me at the last minute that he took the day off, after he had already given me his blessing for the trip 4 days ago. In the end, I decided NOT to change my plans and I felt awful about it.

If he really wanted to surprise me for Valentine's Day, why would he tell me to go ahead and go to Miami? And when I asked him what he planned for Saturday, it was easy to see that the answer was nothing. He said we could go to breakfast, but in my opinion we can do that anytime... Maybe I'm a romantic, but I feel like it should be a special day, time for something different, creative, out of the box. I don’t expect flowers, chocolate, dinner and a movie. Just not the same old, same old... So I did not change my plans and I felt justified, even though some people thought I was nuts.

Here's what I did. On Friday, I left work early so I could get to the store to pick up some things for a special breakfast without him knowing it. When he left for work, I unpacked my car and began work. I got a crock pot for Christmas and he's been dying for me to break it in. So I made a breakfast casserole and put it in the fridge for this morning. Then I got the kids working on a Valentine’s Day finger painting project for Daddy. It came out too cute! And after the kids went to bed, I filled out his card and wrote him a love letter, which I haven't done since 2001! On Valentine’s Day, I woke up at 5am to put on the casserole and found he left me a rose and a card on the kitchen table. Awww! Back to bed. When he woke up, the coffee was ready and the house smelled scrumptious! I used to love waking up to the smell of food and I hoped he would too. We had a relaxing breakfast together and then I head out with the kids, no rush...

I was still sad to leave him and I knew he was crushed, but you just can’t take things for granted. I really felt that he needed to know that. In the end, it was a weekend of love notes and when I came back home, I felt loved and wanted. We had a great talk and you gotta love make-up sex. Now that’s what Valentine’s Day is all about!

A Proverbs 31 Woman

This Valentine's Day, I'm praying and believing that God is going to change my life in a very powerful way. I'm aiming to be a Proverbs Woman. At first glance it seems impossible to be such a woman, but I know all things are possible through Him. I read the scripture over and over again and try to find its hidden meanings, apply it to my life. I meditate on it and when faced with decisions, I ask myself "What would a Proverbs Wife do?" I pray that God helps me on this and that He gives me any clues or insights on how to be a better wife, mother, and homemaker. If you've never read it, here's the excerpt:

The Virtuous Wife

10 Who can find a virtuous wife? For her worth is far above rubies.
11 The heart of her husband safely trusts her; So he will have no lack of gain.
12 She does him good and not evil All the days of her life.
13 She seeks wool and flax, And willingly works with her hands.
14 She is like the merchant ships, She brings her food from afar.
15 She also rises while it is yet night, And provides food for her household, And a portion for her maidservants.
16 She considers a field and buys it; From her profits she plants a vineyard.
17 She girds herself with strength, And strengthens her arms.
18 She perceives that her merchandise is good, And her lamp does not go out by night.
19 She stretches out her hands to the distaff, And her hand holds the spindle.
20 She extends her hand to the poor, Yes, she reaches out her hands to the needy.
21 She is not afraid of snow for her household, For all her household is clothed with scarlet. 22 She makes tapestry for herself; Her clothing is fine linen and purple.
23 Her husband is known in the gates, When he sits among the elders of the land.
24 She makes linen garments and sells them, And supplies sashes for the merchants.
25 Strength and honor are her clothing; She shall rejoice in time to come.
26 She opens her mouth with wisdom, And on her tongue is the law of kindness.
27 She watches over the ways of her household, And does not eat the bread of idleness.
28 Her children rise up and call her blessed; Her husband also, and he praises her:
29 “Many daughters have done well, But you excel them all.”
30 Charm is deceitful and beauty is passing, But a woman who fears the LORD, she shall be praised.
31 Give her of the fruit of her hands, And let her own works praise her in the gates.