A Belated Happy Mother’s Day

B, Holidays, Parenting

Beth_And_BoysYesterday, was Mother’s Day.  Of course, mothers deserve more than one day so I’m making my post today.

OK, it’s also because I don’t post on Sundays, but mother’s do deserve more than one day.

B, in particular, deserves at least 6 months. I’m not sure how the family would function without her. She drops the kids off at school, does the laundry, remembers which medications each child is taking and when their next dose is, picks the kids up from school, takes them to doctor’s appointments, runs errands, and more. Somehow, she also fits being a fantastic blogger/freelance writer/social media maven in there as well.

I’m in awe of all that she does for our boys and for me.  She’s the most amazing woman I know and every day  I find myself loving her more and more.

Unfortunately, with the hectic stresses of day-to-day life, "thank you’s" are often forgotten.  So I’m going to pause here and say Happy Mother’s Day, B, and thank you for all that you do.

To all the other mothers out there, I hope your Mother’s Day was a fantastic one!

Welcome To Allergy Season

Medical, Spring

allergy-sourceThe past couple of days I haven’t felt so well.  It began early Tuesday morning.  I woke up with a horrible sore throat.  I hoped it was just the result of sleeping with my mouth open, but the pain didn’t go away as the day wore on.  Even taking Sudafed, ibuprofen, and throat lozenges didn’t help.

The next day, the throat pain had minimized, but in it’s place was a bad cough.  (Yes, just like NHL’s.)  The coughing was so bad, that I began to feel nauseous.  The day after that, the coughing remained, along with congestion and some trouble with my balance.

I believe I know the problem behind all of these symptoms:  Allergies.  The flowers are in bloom and with them pollen levels are rising.  We’re in the midst of what I like to call "spring snow."  Big white bundles of pollen drift through the air like a snowstorm.  It might look pretty if it didn’t wreck such havoc with my sinuses.

Do you suffer from allergies?  How do you handle it when the pollen attacks?

Battling Against The Cough

NHL, Parenting

cough-battleNHL has asked me many times if I’m proud of him.  Usually, it’s over a trivial matter such as being chosen at random in Hebrew School and winning some chocolate.  Where my pride in my son really shines through is when he sees his limitations… and then exceeds them.

NHL recently had a band and chorus concert.  As we approached the school, we could tell he was nervous.  He kept insisting that we were going to be late and got angry when we wouldn’t let him storm into the building and instead insisted he remain calm.  (For the record, we were about fifteen minutes early and it was going to take us only one minute to get in the building.)

As B went to drop NHL off in the area that he’d wait until it was his turn, JSL and I procured some seats.  B took a long time coming back because, apparently, NHL’s anxiety was getting worse, not better.  I definitely sympathized with him.  I clearly remember the anxiety I felt before my grade school orchestra and chorus concerts.

As NHL’s group’s turn neared, we could see him by the door with the rest of the kids who were ready to perform.  He was having trouble standing still and we could tell he was talking non-stop.  Two classic signs of NHL-anxiety-overload.

The doors opened and NHL came in.  He was in the back and the band performed their songs.  NHL seemed to do well (though, to be honest, I couldn’t see him that well from where we were.)  Then they left.  NHL wasn’t finished, though.  It was chorus time.

This time, NHL was situated right in front.  The first two songs went well, but then NHL ran into a roadblock.  He began to cough.  His allergies have been bothering him and although he’s taking medicine, he’s still prone to coughing fits.  We could see his face go red as he struggled to breathe, stay calm, and keep from coughing enough to sing.  At times, it looked like he might lose it entirely and begin to cry.

He didn’t, though.  He powered through and sang louder.  He even began to dance a little while he rocked out to the songs.  Yes, his coughing fits came back every so often, but he didn’t let them slow him down.  He just coughed into his arm and then returned to his singing.

I was in the stands videoing the whole thing with a big smile on my face.  THAT is why I’m proud of NHL.  He’s a talented kid and when he doesn’t give up he’s able to rise above what holds him back.

Flowers, Up Close, and Personal

Photos, Spring

One of the things I like about spring is that I get to walk around with my camera taking photos of the flowers.  Another thing I like about spring is taking said photos of flowers and looking at them on my computer to see all the little details that you usually don’t see when you normally look at the flowers.

All of the shots below are just crops of the larger photo to highlight the smaller features.

white-flowers white-flowers-close-up red-flower red-flower-close-up pink-flower pink-flower-close-up peach-flower peach-flower-close-up 

This last one isn’t a straight crop.  I took a macro shot of the flowers and cropped from there.  The first photo is a further-away shot to illustrate what these "heart-like" flowers looked like.

heart-flowers heart-flowers-close-up heart-flowers-closer-up

Have you walked around to take photos of flowers?  Make sure you get in close to capture the details you would normally miss.

Don’t Judge A (Mo Williems) Book By It’s Cover

Books, Review

big-guy-took-my-ball

Disclosure: B received some Mo Willems books courtesy of Disney Publishing Worldwide both to review and to help celebrate the Pigeon’s 10th birthday. No other compensation was received.  I wasn’t asked to do anything, but I liked this book so much (as well as the other books), that I decided to post a review as well.

A few weeks ago, we were given the opportunity to review a few Mo Williems books,  While B has her review live today, I thought I’d add in my own thoughts as well about A Big Guy Took My Ball!, by Mo Williems.

Our boys love the Elephant and Piggie series.  They quote them endlessly and love re-reading them over and over.  Now that JSL is learning how to read, he’s finding that he can read these books himself as well.  Nothing is a better confidence booster for him as he sharpens his reading skills than reading a book from beginning to end with little to no help.

I was first attracted to A Big Guy Took My Ball! because it seemed like an Elephant and Piggie tale about bullying.  After all, the story involves Piggie playing with a ball and some big guy taking it from him.

After we read the book, however, we found out that there’s a twist.  Not to give too much away, but it turns out that this book isn’t about a bullying situation at all.  Instead, it is about how people can rush to judge people based on the way they look and based on misunderstandings.

I loved how Mo Williems’ characters handled the situation once the misunderstanding was cleared up.  The characters realized what they did wrong and did all they could to make things better.  They even learned that many pre-conceived notions you have can be wildly wrong.  This serves as a great model for children who are learning to navigate tricky social waters and who might run into people who look or act different.  The world would be a better place if more people lived life following Elephant and Piggie’s examples.

A Big Guy Took My Ball! will be released on May 21st, 2013.  As of this writing, you can pre-order it on Amazon.com for $5.48.

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