Just us - there’s a little of the before, but mostly it’s the after...

It Brings Me Joy

to see my Monkey jumping on the bed.

I am so very blessed for these moments.

The moments that many other parents never have the opportunity to cherish.

While my first instinct is to correct the Monkus and make her sit down, my heart takes over and I take in every aspect of the moment.

She was standing on her bed, touching each letter of her name.

She tried to name each letter, and knew that there was an "A", "D", "I" and supposedly an "E" in there somewhere, but didn't get the sequence just right.

I think that having her full name spelled out for her genuinely confused her.

She was expecting A-D-D-I-E and when she got to the "S", it threw her off.

Even without naming each letter perfectly, I was still just enamored with watching her.

She can jump on her bed and tries her best to spell her name and each miracle moment is an absolute gift from God that I am so very thankful for.

In the moments after these pictures, I started searching for the "E" to modify the letters on the wall for Addie.

While I know she should learn to spell her full name, she only hears "Addison" when she is in big trouble!

Not surprising, Restoration Hardware no longer carries the exact letters, and ebay failed to come through for me as well.

So....if anyone happens to have an extra "E" laying around from Restoration Hardware, let me know.

It would be put to very good use - to teach a miracle Monkey to spell and recognize her name, while jumping on her bed.

Dinner in Crazy Town

Today was a very hectic day and this beautiful day followed a night of extremely limited, interrupted, restless sleep.

I'm pretty sure my virtually non-existent sleep resulted from Monkus knowing that she was going on a field trip today, thus resulting in being so excited that she didn't sleep, which meant I didn't sleep.

This evening I got home in just enough time to make a dinner not approved by dietitians everywhere.

My less than five minutes of labor intensive kitchen culinary skills produced a cinnamon raisin bagel and yogurt.

I do what I can.

Halfway through Addie's meal, she saw a raisin on my plate.

She looked at me, looked back at the raisin and looked at me again.

She then asked, "What's that?".

I told her it was a raisin at the same time her little fingers were going to pick it up.

She proceeded to put the raisin in her mouth and then started shaking her head in disgust and saying, "Bug!".

As if!

I have failed as a mother if my Little Monkus thinks that I would let her pick up a bug, much less eat it!

We are both extremely sleep deprived, that is the only explanation I have.

It Only Took 40 Years!

Congratulations to my favorite older youngest brother!

He got engaged last night and we are all beyond thrilled to have Detra as our future sister in law!

If she can withstand our crazy family, then she is definitely a keeper!

Howie - marry her before she changes her mind!

Next...

Next on our non-existent list of "Things to do with Addie", is the fine game of tennis.

Jaycob's Mommy was sweet enough to pass along the email with all the details of a summer tennis program for children with special needs.

Since Jaycob enrolled, we enrolled Addie.

Addie adores Jaycob and he is such a huge helper and friend to Addie.

With Jaycob nearby, Addie was ready to give it a try.

Chris is bound and determined to help Addie figure it out.

Since Addie hasn't officially made it onto a golf course just yet, the tennis courts will have to do for now.

~~~

June 22, 2013

Happy Independence Day!

My brother and his girlfriend hosted the Independence Day celebration today.

Addie loves seeing her Uncle Howard and she loves having extra little ones around to play with

and she especially loves...

Bama the kitty.

My brother grilled 42 hamburgers, countless pieces of chicken, ribs, hot dogs and my veggie burger and still managed to find time to stop and smile for the camera.

Total Photo Blooper - Monkus accidentally hit Julien right in the face!

After lunch we even got to meet Bentley!

I could have held him all afternoon.

He is absolutely precious!

Addie was beyond thrilled to have the opportunity to hold him!

She was in heaven!

Beautiful Detra with her nephew Bentley.

Happy 4th of July to you all!

Not a Circus Monkey

One of the gifts that so happened to end up in the UPS truck and then to our door during Julien's absence was a new bike with a temporary semi flat tire.

My Little Monkey, dressed in her Christmas pajamas and Julien's shirt, promptly wanted to give it a try.

Although we have been working so hard over the last few years on walking, running, and climbing stairs, riding a bike has not made it to our list of accomplishments.

It certainly is not for lack of trying.

I tried putting on her shoes, adding in her very important bike helmet, pushed her around the house for her to get the feel of how her feet and legs moved on the pedals, all the while she tried and tried.

I finally gave her a big hug and told her that we would keep trying because riding a bike was so much fun, but also took a lot of work.

I love how she is determined and wants to succeed.

We took a break and upon arriving back home, tried it once again...and this time, it wasn't Monkey's inability to pedal the bike that prevented her forward motion.