five & two

incredibly patient

creative and curious

sucker smiles

so long crib

dear beatrix,
this is just the begining and mommy knows it. we got back from our trip to michigan and i knew the time was right for you to move out of your crib and into the bottom bunk bed. well, my head knew that it was time. my heart on the other hand was screaming, "no! not yet!" i am finding over and over again that you are ready for many things that i am not. i guess it is the fact that you are probably our last baby and that being the case it is hard to let you move from phase to phase. as i was taking the crib down for maybe the last time, i couldn't help picturing you and micah as babies. we brought you home from the hospital to that little bed, a bed that your daddy worked so hard on refinishing when we lived in canada. a bed that sat empty for awhile and when many months later we brought micah home and laid him in it for the first time i am pretty sure that crib cried too. though neither of you slept in it at the beginning it sat there waiting for you to enjoy it. eventually you both grew to love that safe little space. i enjoyed watching you make it yours by bringing to bed a different stuffed animal every night. sometimes it would be one of the frog puzzle pieces, or whatever you had played with in the bath tub that night. the past few months i would hear you stirring in there, sometimes calling out mama and i would come in and say good morning sweetheart and you would stand, grab lovey bear and lift your little arms out to me to pick you up out of there. sigh... as i said my heart is not ready for this change, but you my little one are. i don't want to hold you back and so we packed the crib away.
i love you,
mama

road tripping it

for christmas and to welcome 2011 we took our first family road trip to michigan with several (and i emphasize several) stops along the way. this is just a small sampling of the pictures that i took but i wanted to get a few up before a month goes by. we brought along our portable dvd player which helped ALOT! when that didn't work, nice soothing music helped out and led to very nice nappers.

post nap

matt and i were amazed at the great attitudes from both micah and beatrix.
which led to a happy mommy and daddy and many more plans for more family adventures.

here we are stopped in the mountains sometime right before ashville north carolina. we had stayed over in atlanta the night before. it was cold in these mountains with several glimpses of snow. since the coats were packed in tight in the trunk we wrapped the kids up in blankets to take this picture at a road side scenic stop.

just a picture i really love...mainly because matt looks so happy and content.

the first time touching snow

we stopped for a late breakfast in hendersonville nc right outside of ashville to see matt's uncle and aunt. she made us a delicious breakfast and uncle dan had fun playing legos with the kids.

day two of driving was already wiping my man out!
he got a good power nap though and we left to drive the rest of the way threw the mountains to ohio where we got to stay with the parents of my roommate from college. we stayed there two nights so i would have plenty of time to catch up with my roommate amy who lives across the street from her parents with her family of 5 and then my other roommate from college melissa came to be with us on monday. it was a wonderful time of catching up! we even got to go out for lunch. i love those two girls so much...it was amazing seeing them again and i am so thankful that after all of this time we can still pick right back up again.

micah went sledding with amy's two older kids for the first time ever! this grin was frozen on his little face the whole time. he did say to me on more than one occasion that when he is older he is going to move to michigan.

the first couple of days in grand rapids we laid pretty low. micah didn't really want to leave his cousins. we did manage to talk him away one afternoon to go and do a bit of christmas shopping and to see santa claus. (side note-i was a little surprised that in the land of freezing cold they couldn't find a santa with a real beard...strange as it may seem every mall in west palm beach has a very real looking santa. this is sounding way more snobby then i am intending it. i am really just stating an observation. hahaha) anyway we went there and then that night we went to matt's parents for a grandchildren cookie party. matt's mom made cookies with all of the grand kids while the big kids watched movies and ate way too much pizza. i had pics of that night on here too but i somehow deleted them after i uploaded them. i will put them on a different slideshow...fyi for matt's mom :)

road tripping it part 2

this was taken Christmas morning.
we really thought all of the kids would be up crazy early, but it was only ours that were. beatrix cried in the night and so when i finally got her back to sleep i heard a little voice from the top bunk that said, "mama can't i go and check my stocking?" i told him no and that it was only 4:30. when i retold that story to his father, who was up at 6:00 due to a similar Christmas excitement, he was pretty proud to say the least. from 7:00 until the other kids got up at 8:30 it was just our little family in the living room. matt had made a fire and we decided to let micah open his stocking while he was waiting. in it was a watch, which had been on his wish list, candy and silly bands. the rest of the morning was a great time of opening gifts with steve and vera's family and having a delicious breakfast together, complete with cinnamon rolls and egg casseroles.

micah and briana, steve and vera's youngest really bonded over our visit.

micah opening his triceratops pillow pet, which are all the rage this year.

bea and uncle steve opening her tools from daddy.

later that afternoon we headed over to Matt's parents for the whole family celebration. this is Micah with Olivia, Peter and Dajana's little one and Elise, Mark and Katie's oldest.

Beatrix with her new jewelry.

Micah excited to open his Ice Age 3 dvd from grandma and grandpa.
(side note-he watched it 5 times driving back to florida and laughed every time like it was the first time he had seen it.)

the wednesday after Christmas we took the kids down to the outdoor ice skating rink in grand rapids. it was micah's first time skating and he was so excited. matt and micah brought their skates all the way from florida! we had to go!!

first time around

trying it out by himself

we met up with our friends the sopers.

micah loving ice skating and catching on pretty quickly
(side note-while i am taking this picture matt is whispering in my ear that we seriously have to get him into hockey when we get home cause he is a "natural" skater.)

beatrix getting in on the "skating"

after this day i really didn't take too many more pics. i don't know what happened. i slacked off i guess. we left two days after this pic and headed back to ohio for a new year's eve night with some friends. the next morning we snuck out of the house early in the morning and started the drive back to south florida. it rained all the way home! and i mean every step of the way. saturday night right before we got to atlanta we got a text message from matt's brother saying that we weren't going to believe it but it was snowing like crazy. you see we went to michigan because we missed family, but we also really missed snow. and there was some snow, but it really only snowed one night while we were there. we laughed about it! i will say it was nice being up north but it was also really great coming home. especially since the day we got home it was 75 and with another text from matt's brother we found out that the snow storm the day before had turned into a blizzard.

FYI mr. harrison

From one of Matt's former students today...

I'm in English class right now and we're taking a grammar diagnostic test. Thanks to your teaching in high school, I'm practically a genius compared to the rest of my class.

wonderful moments

moments are great, aren't they?
once in awhile a moment will hit you.

it's great when it hits while you are actually experiencing the moment. i was working away. cooking dinner and beatrix kept yelling to help. i wasn't being my most patient self and kept refusing her. i stopped. and thought to myself, "self, you really don't want to be one of those mother's that never lets your kids help you in the kitchen just because you want it done faster, do you?" and i knew i didn't. so i pulled up her stool to the counter and got her a butter knife and let her cut up mushroom stems to her hearts content.

i stepped away and looked at her through the camera and thought, "this is one of those moments. and you almost missed it."

i'm glad i didn't.

the mess

this is my daughter, Beebs.

this is what my daughter wanted to wear all day...

this is my daughter wearing her swimsuit all day and rolling around on the floor in the kitchen..

this is my daughter, wearing a swimsuit all day, after rolling around on the kitchen floor, watching tv with a marker in her hand...

this is my daughter.
under the table.
i don't know why.
she's just our little mess.

a potty attempt

we thought maybe Beatrix was ready to start potty training. so one night before we left for christmas vaccation, we tried with the whole family helping out. we sat her on the potty and told her if she went she could have a marshmellow. we waited two hours! we tried everything. micah even tried "reading" her a story or two. we laughed, we encouraged her, we really thought she was going to do it. and she did. in the tub two minutes after she got off the potty. obviously not ready. yet!

happy birthday Matt!

matt's birthday was the 29th of November...and yes it has taken me awhile to get these up on the blog. for his birthday he asked for roast dinner (what guy out there doesn't love roast?) and i baked him homeade bread and for dessert he requested pumpkin pie. it was a fun day celebrating him and the kids loved relighting the candles and blowing them out for him.

impact

Learning How to Read

Hearing the laughter of my peers, sweat starting to dribble down my legs-this was my English class every day. I was never that bright when it came to English class. I used to think English was hard back home in the Bahamas, but it was a joke compared to my new teacher. He was also a college teacher, meaning we were doing college work. He grew up in Detroit and considered himself to be a hard teacher, and no one could intimidate him. After everyone became familiar with the teacher we began reading a book in class. Each day the teacher would pick someone new to read in the class room. I used to laugh at other people and make jokes until one day it was my turn. That was the worst teacher I ever had, but now I look back and am glad that he pushed me.

My best friend in high school was Adaric, he was from a small island called Aruba. English was not Adaric's first language. He had a hard time speaking English at first and his thick accent didn't help much either. In English my teacher chose Adaric to read one day. After he messed up a couple of times and everyone laughed, he decided he did not want to read anymore. That was the worst thing he could have said; from that day, if someone had to read it was Adaric. As time progressed his reading got better and better, even though he despised reading out loud. I used to laugh at him and always volunteered him to read in class. He hated me for it. Then that one day came around where I volunteered Adaric to read and my teacher gave him the option to pick someone else to read. Of course, Adaric chose me!

As I began to read, everything was fine until I mispronounced one word and I could hear someone chuckle. I got really uncomfortable and tried my hardest not to mess up again, but this only made me more nervous and scramble the words more. When I was done reading, my teacher looked at me and asked if I was illiterate. I laughed because I really did not even know what that meant. Class finally ended and I went on with my day. The next day in English class, of course I had to read again. As soon as my teacher called my name to read, my legs started sweating and I was extremely nervous. Right when I started I had messed up already and of course, here came the chuckles again. I messed up more and more and everyone laughed more and more. Everyone tells you, you shouldn't care what people say, well if you get put in the situation-you care! That went on for months and months until I started to get aggravated and talking back to my teacher saying "I'm not reading anymore." One day I got the option of gambling. If I won, I didn't have to read any more; if I lost, I had to read for the rest of the year. Sure enough, I lost.

Every day I walked into English and got the chills; just the thought of me reading and messing up, gave me the chills. Months went by and I was still reading almost every day in class. I read poems, books, anything that had to be read was done by me. I honestly don't think I went through one class period of reading without messing up and getting laughed at. I guess this was karma for always volunteering my friend. Now I am the one getting laughed at. I would try to get out of reading every class period, and every time I tried, it just made it worse. All my teacher wanted me to do was read and not have any excuses. At the time I didn't realize it. When I would talk back, my punishment sometimes would be reading in a girl's voice or something crazy like that. All this time I would think about how much I didn't like English class or my teacher. I didn't realize how much better my reading was actually getting.

At the end of the year, my class mates were so used to me reading we would make a joke out of it. Every class period my teacher would say, "Who wants to read?" and everyone would reply "Scotty does" and he would say, "Scotty? Great!" I would just laugh and begin reading. I still messed up, but I learned how to laugh at myself and have fun with it. Then it happened, after reading a whole story, I didn't mess up once. My teacher looked at me and said, "I know you probably hate me, but your reading has improved so much." At the time I just shook it off and really didn't think about it too much. When I look back on it now I realize he taught me more than just how to read; he also taught me to laugh at myself and not to worry about what other people say. He taught me a life lesson that I could not have learned on my own, I really appreciate him as a teacher and a person. After a whole year of stress I can finally say with pride, "I can read."

This paper was sent to Matt's email before we left for Christmas break. It was from one of Matt's former students who is now in college and was writing a paper for his class. The student didn't say anything to Matt about the paper or his thoughts, he just sent the paper and let it speak for itself. I don't talk nearly enough about Matt on here and his impact on his students. Almost monthly he gets some kind of communication from a past student thanking him or telling him what their college professors think about their paper writing abilities. If he ever doubts that what he is doing is important I want to redirect him to this paper. I don't know too many people who would be patient and persistent for a whole year, just so some kid would get better at reading and in the process become more confident. He really is answering his calling of being a teacher. Babe, the last 5 years I have watched you teach with passion, love and determination. Your students hate you at the beginning of the year and adore you by the end. They always come to see that the reason you are so hard on them is because you love them enough to believe they can do great things. Keep on going. I know you are tired, but what you are doing is valuable and life changing. i love you