Late December

Well, it seems that once a month is about right. Here I am entirely too early on a Saturday morning. I bolted up last night remembering that I was supposed to tutor online at 10:00 pm (it was 10:06). That's never happened before and I sent a cyber apology to ? , but completely out of my 'routine' schedule. I usually tutor at 3:00 pm during the week. Thank goodness I am not on webcam with the multiple distractions going on around me.

Should I make a pot of coffee or go back to sleep? It is 5:49 am. I wouldn't be up, but Tony woke up screaming at 3:00 am. Tried to sneak in something for him to drink with a little Barney video, but wouldn't the comfort of Mom's lap be so much better (you'd think I'd learn by son #3--ha ha)

So, after several DVRed episodes later I sit here. Ironically, I finished a 'Sex and the City' and now I am watching backed up 'Joyce Meyer' now that's an oxymoron.

Oprah was interesting too, all about discovering your strengths at work. Focusing on your strengths which are not necessarily what you're good at, but what strengthens you. I think I will be a little 'strenghtened' from my little holiday break. I have almost 1 month until my next training/class, which means I can 'focus' on the family, daycare, the house, the holidays (that's all?).

Have to take Joey to remove his stitches tomorrow. He banged his chin on a playpen and had 2 stitches (some kind of jumping stunt). He was very brave at the ER, he's actually a really good patient. I made an appointment for an eye exam (did you know they are required for Kindergarten?)

Tony was cute earlier he was crawling around with an empty milk jug and he crawled up towards me and started babbling and then kind of "bubbu" vibrating thing you do with your mouth. I asked 'Do you want a bottle?', and of course he gets all excited, and I say, "Say 'yes'" and he let's out a big "YEAAA!"

He celebrated his 1st birthday and I can see he is getting more of that one year old curiousity. He is starting to open cabinets, climb stairs, and conquer his domain.

He reminds me of Dom how much he loves his bottle, why do I encourage it? Break the habit.

Speaking of Dom, he is doing well. He loves to play 'Club Penguin' on the computer. Between him, Joey, Alannah, and Joe I don't have a chance of getting any computer work done over break, in fact I might need to make up a sign in sheet. Our basement computer is not getting internet and it's like going to Antartica downstairs anyways.

Need to pick up an appetizer and two exchange gifts for Christmas party tomorrow night. I definitely should want to get out of the house with my husband and have social interaction with friends, but I'm kind of an old lady with the snow, the driving, being out at night with drinkers close to the holidays and three little kids at home. 'Tis the season.

More optimistically, I am looking forward to having a wonderful Christmas and I hope that you and yours will too.

Will blog again in '09'

Late November

At Rock Valley right now, waiting for copy machine to finish, which is the way I seem to end 3 nights out of 7. Getting down to the last couple weeks and soon Christmas! Will need a little break, looking forward to being home on these cold nights. Hmm, that's all I really have to say.

Late October

So, it's been quite a while since I posted here. An update on Joe. His diagnosis is 'junctional tachycardia', which is an irregular heartbeat (arrythmia) that's up to 180 bpm. He had a EPS (study to check it out) and they did catheter ablation (but didn't 'ablate' or freeze any tissues). The reason they didn't freeze any tissues to 'correct' the heartbeat seemed to be because it would cause risk of putting a pacemaker in. This 'junctional tachycardia' is basically sending out crazy electrical signals in Joe's body. I know he is going to try to quit smoking and maybe decrease his caffeine and stress. This will help not to 'aggravate' the situation, but was not the cause of it (he was born with this). He goes back to work Friday (Halloween) and is going to follow-up with his doctor in a few weeks to talk about medication.

My virtual child

So, for my class I am getting everyone to create a 'virtual child'. My virtual child's name is Michael. There are enough Michael Angileris out there, but I like the name anyway. I tried to get a girl, but figures, couldn't even get a 'cyber' girl. The first part asks personality questions, then you choose your child's features and 'voila!' you have a baby (if only it was that easy). Then you have to choose different decisions (ex. will you breast feed or formula feed, will you choose home day care or child care, will you play more or sing more to your child). I tried to choose what I already have with my own, but (like reality) I was making 'virtual' parenting choices when I was overly tired. At my 'virtual'l 9 month baby check my baby was getting intestinal problems and was a little behind in gross/fine motor skills! Wait! Did did I choose singing over active play with my baby....is it because I was supplementing with formula?? ....take it back!! Here I am getting defensive and wanting to start over with my 'virtual' child.

Back to reality....tomorrow I think I will take the kids to Curran's apple orchard. I have 4 tomorrow.

Coming soon: Pictures of Joey's first day of school

I can't believe how many wires I have around this house! I am looking for the wire that hooks up the digital camera to the laptop to upload some pictures, but of course I can only find about 4 cell phone adapters and about that many yellow and white adapters. Instead of going mad with distraction I will just sit and type a bit.

Tonight was Dom and Joey's open house. We went to Dom's hip hop class first (he is really picking it up!). Then to the last half of the open house (which we went to class, art, music, gym, library got stamps on card and then ice cream). It was very busy! The line stretched about 50 for ice cream.

So, when I find the right wires I will put up a couple picks of Joey's first day. He likes that preschool has trains and fun toys and is working on the times that aren't 'playtime'. On Friday, his teacher told me that circle time is challenging because he has trouble keeping his hands to himself and now he has his own taped off rectangle to keep in. We are also keeping dibs on his auditory processing (following directions, listening and understanding). I think he gets it from me. The last couple days better, he sings the songs from school, has made a friend name 'Caden', and we are going to a field trip next week (Dennis Center-science room).

Dom is doing well, his teacher said "He is doing awesome...but he has his moments, mostly laughing at friends" (he gets that from Joe).

Tony is pulling himself up on everything. Today when visiting with a friend, he crawled over to the TV wires, held on and looked at me to see if I 'reacted'.. already! I have a mountain of toys and he goes for the speakers. Good thing he's so cute!

Wondering if I'll be motivated to go to that baby group I saw tomorrow a.m., we'll see.

I'm waiting to get an email through this website. So cool, you raise a 'cyber' child from birth to age 18 and monitor the effects of your parenting decision. It's called my virtual child.com.

That's enough for now.

Summer of 2008

We had a fun summer. Here are some pictures of Dom and Joey. Dom played baseball, Joey had tennis and swimming lessons. The rainbow picture I took outside our front yard. The last couple pictures are of Joey and my mom in Lodi's Crystal Lake.

Baby Tony movie

This is just a little movie that is a quick recap of little Baby Tony's life.

He is 9 months old now, crawling (working on looking up to see where he's going). He is my biggest baby, loves to eat (makes sound effects). Enjoys watching the kids and just now getting to the stage where he'd rather crawl over to the TV speakers than play with mountain of toys.

Sunday evening

Well, I can tell I'm new to this, because I just deleted the message I just typed. So what did I say? O.K. Sunday night 9:25 pm. Kids are asleep and I should be doing school work, but kind of have the philosophy that Sunday shouldn't be for work, oh wait...that's biblical. Anyway, went to birthday party for my niece (5 yrs) at Carlson Ice Arena. Did not think it was ice skating part, so was ill-prepared (kids wearing shorts and tees). Good thing I didn't take the bag of clothes in my trunk to Goodwill yet, that came in handy. Dom did pretty good, Joey hung his skates up after 1 minute and quickly went to Playworld with Tony. Wondering if I will have time for blogging? Will add random pictures now.