Recovering Noah

Ah, procrastination. Definitely my speciality. Last week, I completely forgot when it was Wednesday - thus, no Works-For-Me-Wednesday post. I was completely prepared (in my head) for this week's WFMW , but never got around to actually taking any pictures or typing it all out. It's gonna be cool, though, if I ever get around to it. Next week, perhaps? Anyway, more Dinosaur Math for Eli. Found some really awesome websites that led me to a bunch of links, that led me to a bunch of more links, that led me to 2 day's worth of printing, cutting, and laminating - which led to.... drum roll.... Eli actually asking to do Math! (Insert major happy dance!) Hopefully, I'll get all that ready for next week's edition of WFMW . In the meantime, we are headed to OT and then Nandi gets admitted to Scottish Rite Hospital this afternoon for a series of evaluations and tests and then gets some Botox done on her leg in the morning. I am promising myself that I will not make any Botox...

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama . You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week. Wow, I just woke up. And I did NOT have the weirdest Oscar dreams last night. They did NOT include the cast of Slumdog Millionaire dancing in a bottle of buttons with Hugh Jackman standing next to them in a coat and tie. What?? If you are reading this and are one of those people who interprets dreams, I do not NOT want to know what it means. I'm pretty sure it means that I should've gone to bed earlier and not watched 4 hours of television that congratulated a bunch of movies I have not seen. Because, let's face it. I'm a mother of 3 kids between the ages of 4 and 7. Our movie outings are NOT solely limited to things put out by Disney, Pixar and any movie that promotes itself via Happy Meals. Ooh! Look! They mentioned Wall-E. Hey honey, we've seen that! But wasn't Hugh Jackman great last night? I...

As of right now... Friday, February 20th at 12:05 pm, Noah's video on YouTube (watching Anoop perfom on American Idol) has had over 1200 hits!! People have left the sweetest comments for Noah! I put him in my lap and read them out to him and he gets so excited and babbles and claps his hands. Honestly, ya'll don't know how happy it makes him. He loves it! So, let's hope Anoop gets voted back for the American Idol WildCard week - and don't you know I'll be sending out a personal plea for everyone to vote. P.S. Noah pulled an all-nighter Wednesday night/Thursday morning. Screaming, crying, stimming. You know.... that also happens to be the very same night Anoop was eliminated... hmmmmm... just sayin'. For Mama's sanity... BRING BACK ANOOP!

If you're not reading Nikki's Ethiopia 2009 blog, then you should really head on over there. She was able to meet her sponsored child, Tsehay , (through World Vision) the other day - and she wrote a beautiful post. It really does show the wonderful benefits of sponsoring a child.. not only for the child but for the sponsor, as well.

We're in the middle of watching American Idol right now, and Anoop Desai, the only contestant on the show who's of Indian origin, came on. Noah has had no interest in the show whatsoever - in fact, he's basically been rolling around on pillows in his room all evening. But when I said, "Hey Noah - come watch this. This guy's Indian" .... you know, for no reason, just to include Noah... he actually came running. Holy cow, were we shocked! Thank goodness I had enough sense to grab the video camera. It's rare to see him like this...

Hey everyone. I hope you're all praying for Abby and her battle with leukemia. If you don't know what I'm talking about, you can click on the button to the right of this blog. Abby goes back into the hospital tomorrow and her dad has asked everyone for a special request. I know you all can do it! Here's his original request..................................................... We have a request for all you video-junkies... Abby is most likely going to be in the hospital quite a bit in the next two weeks. It would be really sweet, and very comforting for her, if some of you could make videos of READING A STORY. It could be a children's story, or Bible story... and would be really neat if your kids were involved. I can envision you reading the story, and occassionally holding the book up to the camera so she can see the characters or illustrations. Everyone seemed to have such a great time making videos last time, I thought this would be a great way to comfort Abby whe...

Sorry, due to the raging stomach virus that has hit our household - and the fact that I'm spending a great deal of time in the bathroom wiping bottoms - and I don't have a laptop to sit down on the corner of the bathtub and type... well, Not Me! Monday is getting cancelled this week. Such a shame, too, as this stomach virus has provide me with loads of things to blog about. 'Tis a pity how you won't get to hear how I was NOT pooped on, did NOT step in the..uh.. result of what happens when a kid doesn't make it to the potty on time, and have NOT been up all night with sick little ones. Good thing the dog does NOT have it, too! Now that would just be a bit too much, wouldn't it? So glad that has NOT happened to me. Whew! Aren't I lucky? I am NOT counting down the hours until my husband comes home. Will absolutely NOT call in a pizza at the local pizza place. Will NOT crawl into bed by 7:00 and turn on the TV, - which is good because then I will definitely NOT ...

I love Salma Hayek. She's compassionate, intelligent, articulate. She dives head first into charity work. She gave us the little gem known as Ugly Betty . And she's solid proof that a set of hips make a woman. And then she does this. I adore her. I truly do.

Uh oh. I don't really have anything to post about today. This is my third week doing therapy posts for WWFM Wednesdays.. and I think I peaked at week #2. Yep. Like a big ol ' goober, I pulled out all the stops for my first two posts and now I'm left blogging about the type of shampoo I use on the kids and the organic suckers we give Noah. So sorry. Actually, I've been swamped since Eli got back from England on Monday (I forgot how much of a chatterbox that child is) and we've been diving back into school. So, I thought I'd post some of the flashcards we use with all three kids. Right now, we're really focusing on reading, spelling, and math. We do a little zoology course on the side, but English & Math are our two biggies. We use Sing, Spell, Read, & Write - although we don't do the songs or the writing part. We just do the workbooks. Currently, we are doing "On Track" which is beginning, basic spelling. Here's how we tackle tha...

It's Monday! Time for MckMama's NOT Me! Monday! Sim's coming home today! Sim's coming home today! I honestly don't know if I can contain my excitement. Cartwheels! Dancing around the living room! Mad dash to clean the two weeks' worth of coffee mugs and laundry that have accumulated all over the house! My sweet hubby has NOT been in the UK for the last two weeks with my little boy Eli. They definitely have NOT been stuffing their face with fish and chips and Cadbury's chocolate while experiencing the worst snow that England's had in, oh I don't know, 200 years? I did NOT gloat about that. NOT even a teeny, tiny bit. Especially not while going for walks with the kids and enjoying the lovely T-shirt and flip-flop weather we've been having. Nope, NOT me! And while Sim was away, I did NOT enjoy a fortnight's worth of self-indulged gluttony that included fast food, chick flicks, and a little online shopping. Nope. Did NOT do that. Did NOT do that...

Sim and I really aren't that big into presents. Once you get married it's all "our money" anyway. And I know how much of "our money" is in the bank, so fancy schmancy presents are out of the question anyway. Besides, if any of you know me personally, I don't exactly scream high maintenance . The last jewelry I regularly wore was a nice little stud that Noah yanked out of my nose at 13 months old. Haven't really seen the point in it since then. But I just HAD to buy myself a present this afternoon. I called up Sim just let to him know that I was buying myself a Valentine's Day present TO me FROM him. Would you like to know what was so pressing that I just had to buy it ASAP? Ahhh , yes. Can you guess what type of things we're going through right now?? I'm thinking about buying Sim a set of ear plugs and a bottle of Advil. And you thought romance was dead!

Hey! It's time for Works-for-me-Wednesday - and today we're going to talk about letterboards. What's a letterboard? Glad you asked! A letterboard is basically a tool that has the complete alphabet on it. Nonverbal children (especially those with autism) can use this to communicate via spelling by pointing out individual letters. Got that? Last week, I mentioned that due to Noah's CP, he's not able to use sign language. Traditional PECS didn't work for us, either. Then we found out about RPM - which stands for Rapid Prompting Method. I won't go into great detail here, but you can look at some of my older posts HERE and HERE to find out how RPM changed our lives and gave Noah a voice. Right now, Noah's homeschooled and in first grade. We use RPM to help Noah do his coursework. So, although Noah answers most questions by choosing between two or three choices written on paper, our goal is to get him to independently spell out the answers (and eventually w...

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama . You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week. Here we go ... I did NOT buy myself a new pair of Birkenstocks over the weekend. They are NOT blue. They are NOT gorgeous, and they do NOT look like this... I did NOT just look at that picture and say to myself, "The woman who bought those shoes has STYLE !" I am so NOT in love with these new shoes. I also did NOT feel just a teeny, tiny twinge of guilt for buying my new Birkenstocks - even though I did get them for a steal off of Ebay and they're from Germany and include FREE shipping. I did NOT just try to justify my purchase by saying that they were a steal off of Ebay, come directly from Germany, and include free shipping. I also did NOT try to justify buying my new Birks by telling myself that my current ones are NOT being held together by gorilla glue and a piece of duct tape and that I would probabl...

Dear GPS System, Was that necessary? I mean, really? Was. That. Necessary? All I wanted to do was go to the Tyler Zoo and you led me on a wild goose chase. It's the zoo. In Tyler. The drive should've been filled with highways, gas stations, and Golden Arches. Instead, you led me down one-lane, rural, back country dirt roads in Deliverance, East Texas. Now, maybe because you're just a computer, or a satellite, or whatever it is that you are.. . because you are not REAL .... it probably doesn't concern you to drive down one-lane, dirt roads past houses held up by cinder blocks. Maybe you don't start hearing dueling banjos playing when you see houses with rusted out junk cars in the driveway, 30 feral dogs running around, and about 12 men sitting on the front porch in overalls whittling sticks. Maybe the thought of ending up in somebody's potluck doesn't send shivers down your back, but it does mine. Granted, you did shave 20 minutes off my normal drive. But,...