School, how I love thee!

School is just wonderful!  Last week, we had our first homework assignment for The Twizzles.  It was so much fun to work with the boys designing "F" vests for their "Letter Parade" at school.  We had to find items that start with the letter F.

Frederick is "reading" to Future one morning before school.  It was just so cute, I had to share.

Here is Future coloring his letter F.

I thought that Kindergarten homework was fun, but Early Childhood School homework is SO MUCH BETTER ;-)

Frederick is coloring his letter F.

Here they are taking each others colors every time that I turn my head to finish my part of this homework assignment.

I loved the part of searching for graphics online to print for them and stick on the F vests.

Here is Future being so serious with his homework assignment, while sticking the pictures on his F vest.

Aaliyah didn't want them to have all of the fun, so she helped me cut the graphics for them to stick.  I am so glad that their names both start with the letter "F" :-)

Capturing rare moments...

Saturday mornings usually start with someone crying.  I just knew that would not be the case today with the time change. No luck, Twizzle #1 (Future) has completely adjusted to the time change, Lucky Him! So, I decided to join him in his tiny Cars bed to see if he would go back to sleep. Big mistake because Future took that as 'Rare Cuddle Time with Mommy'. I couldn't blame him. Just me and him is rare.  So, he started making too much noise (typical), and Twizzle #2 started to squirm in his bed. Now, it means 'Rare Moments with The Twizzles'. So, we grab some clothes and head downstairs for breakfast with just us 3. I always forget to capture these moments, but I know there is going to come a day when we are all up before daylight headed out to soccer, football, baseball fields and dance competitions with Big Sis. So, here is a snapshot of our Typical Blue Green breakfast. My twins are pretty much color coded. Twizzle #1 gets blues everything, and Twizzle #2 get green everything. I will have to share about that simple organizational tool another day :-)

Happy Valentine's Day

I received these pictures from school on Valentine's Day. Outside of my new wedding ring, these pictures were the best.  It is just uncanny how much they look alike.  One day, I will get them tested to see if they are identical.

Happy Valentine's Day!

 

Sign Before They Can Speak

Thanks to contributing authors Emily and Kathleen for the following article.


A key to surviving in a troubled economic system in which opportunities to achieve a decent standard of living will be limited, is versatility. Of course another being, the ability to communicate articulately in a variety of ways with the widest possible audience. This includes bilingual ability as well as the ability to communicate in non-verbal ways for the benefit of the disabled – primarily the deaf.


At the same time, a growing shortage of qualified interpreters fluent in American Sign Language has led to more career opportunities – and if current trends continue, it's likely that skilled ASL interpreters will have little problem securing lucrative employment in a society where such a commodity is destined to be in short supply.


Signing Before They Can Speak


A great deal of research has clearly demonstrated that the early years – ages 2 to five – are the best time to educate children in different modes of communication and language. This goes beyond the spoken word (though it is an optimal time for children to learn a second language); many young children have an aptitude for signing as well. This can be taught at home or some child care programs have begun to teach it in their curriculums.


This really isn't as odd as you may think. As you may already know, many indigenous peoples around the world, including American Indian nations, have used sign language for centuries to facilitate communication with other tribes with whom they do not share a language. Some paleontologists and anthropologists theorize that Neanderthals – who apparently lacked the vocal mechanism to produce many spoken words – depended a great deal upon hand gestures to communicate.


In fact, recent research suggests that sign language is innate. An article published in the Boulder Daily Camera in 2003 presented strong evidence that babies as young as six months old communicate with their hands:


"...by 6 to 7 months, babies can remember a sign. At eight months, children can begin to imitate gestures and sign single words. By 24 months, children can sign compound words and full sentences. They say sign language reduces frustration in young children by giving them a means to express themselves before they know how to talk." (Glarion, 2003)


A study funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development is also cited, demonstrating that young children who are taught sign language at an early age actually develop better verbal skills as they get older. The ability to sign has also helped parents in communicating with autistic children; one parent reports that "using sign language allowed her to communicate with her [autistic] son and minimized his frustration...[he now] has an advanced vocabulary and excels in math, spelling and music" (Glarion, 2003).


The Best Time To Start


Incorporating sign into pre-verbal youngsters early childhood education as a way to communicate can also strengthen the parent-child bond – in addition to giving children a solid foundation for learning a skill that will serve them well in the future. The evidence suggests that the best time to start learning ASL is before a child can even walk – and the implications for facilitating the parent-child relationship are amazing.


Co-written by Emily Patterson and Kathleen Thomas


Emily and Kathleen are Communications Coordinators for the Austin child care facility, a member of the AdvancED® accredited family of Primrose Schools (located in 16 states throughout the U.S.) and part of the network of child care preschools delivering progressive, early childhood, Balanced Learning® curriculum.

The Twizzles turned 3 and go to School :-)

It was a great day on November 18, 2010.  The Twizzles woke up, and had their first day of school.

The school is so beautiful.  Of course, they walked in they had been going to school there for months.  I wanted to be there so bad, but SuperDad took so many pictures for me to relive the whole thing.

After their long first day of school (3 hours), we had cupcakes for them waiting at home.  Some people think The Twizzles have beautiful BIG eyes.  Seeing those eyes looking at the cupcakes were the cutest thing.

Scary Alphabet - ITP, HSP, viral infection, OMG!

This has a been a week of medical acronyms that makes me so happy to have a very attentive husband and a Biomedical Engineer as my best friend.   Techie baby woke up about a week ago in pain.  His legs were hurting really bad, and he couldn't walk much at all.  It really alarmed us!  He was on some new decongestant medication, so we thought that it was related to that.  We stopped that medication, and gave him ibuprofen every 8 hours to combat the pain.  By Sunday, blotches began to appear on his legs, and he was scratching like crazy.  This made me very alarmed, so I started to research.  I found an illness called purpura (bleeding under the skin), and I really didn't want to believe it so I stopped researching.  I called the doctor first thing on Monday, and all of my men went off to the doctor's appointment while I was at work.  My husband promptly called me to tell me ITP was the initial diagnosis.  ITWHAT!  ITP is idiopathic thrombocytopenic purpura or immune thrombocytopenic purpura, and the first word has a definitions that no one wants to hear about any illness - without apparent cause; describes a disease or disorder that has no known cause.  Can you believe that?  This was not what I wanted to hear on the call.  So a solution of steriods is pretty much the only solution.  Oh, and OTC pain killers which we were doing already.

At least there was an outcome and a solution, but it was a bit much to digest for a Monday morning.  We just kept him comfortable the whole day.  So, by Tuesday morning, his left eye was almost swollen shut.  I thought maybe a bite, and my husband thought maybe he got something in his eye that irritated it.  We started the pain killer routine, and he started to move around like his independent self.  By Wednesday morning, he woke up with 3 or so huge bumps all over his head.  And, it seemed that he didn't have his balance when he tried to walk.  That sent me into SuperMommie mode.  We started packing up for a day at the hospital.  I sent off necessary emails and texts to make sure people knew what was going on, and sent prayer requests to my warriors.  We took Aaliyah to Kindergarten and headed off to the hospital. 

When we made it to the emergency room, the initial nurse says if his doctor mentioned HSP as a possibility.  We just looked at each other.  Then, the doctor comes in and says the same thing.  We were dumbfounded, and started researching.  I emailed my best friend, and Future started researching on his phone.  HSP is Henoch-Schonlein Purpura (HSP, Anaphylactoid Purpura), and they both said that this is exactly what Frederick was going through over the past few weeks or so.  Henoch-Schonlein purpura (HSP) is a form of blood vessel inflammation or vasculitis. Classically, HSP causes skin rash, pain in the abdomen, and joint inflammation (arthritis). Symptoms usually last approximately a month. Recurrences are not frequent but do occur.

After hearing this, we were a little relieved, but still scared of the acronyms.  Frederick had a CAT scan and was hooked up to an IV.  He didn't like any of that, and I knew that it was going to be tough.  This is a little blessing that has to be fully dressed at all times with even his socks and shoes most days.  For him to just be in underwear with no pool or bath tub was very unnerving.  He finally calmed down after a few minutes of fits, and then he immediately went to sleep in the hospital.  Future and I were relieved again to see him resting comfortably.

Another hour goes by, and the doctor comes back to visit with results.  "Viral Infection" is what he and our pediatrician felt was going on.  The viral infection was triggering his body's inflammatory system to react everywhere.  The inflamed spots were his head, joints, feet, and possibly his ears (Future figured that one out).  All of this means, yet another treatment plan of just pain killers.

I am so happy that God always has a plan.  For the past two months, we have had a lot of ups and downs because of Techie Baby's body just not treating him right.  This is how God's plan works.  We started the process of getting The Twizzles in school recently.  One of those appointments for qualifying for school resulted in a bad hearing exam for Techie Baby.  That hearing exam started a series of appointments that resulted in this viral infection.  If we wouldn't have gotten the bad hearing exam, then we may not have known until too late that whatever virus was taking over our blessing's body.  Thank you God for all that you do!

Mommie's Little Helpers

How many of you are as blessed as I am?  I have four wonderful blessings, bringing up the rear are The Twizzles.  Being my SuperMommie self, my Saturdays are filled with errands, cleaning, washing, organizing, etc.  My blessings are following in my footsteps.  


I started off the day with pillow fluffing and sweeping.  Before I knew it The Twizzles decided they wanted to vacuum and sweep.  Princess Liyah wanted to fluff, and my oldest, Tonee, had already starting blessing us with her culinary arts of cooking breakfast and cleaning the kitchen.  Giving your blessings these skills early can seem to be breaking child labor laws to some, but I think that if you don't teach your blessings early how to 

1. Help you and your family by giving a helping hand, 
2. Showing that you love your family by giving a helping hand,
3. Being a productive citizen at home and in the real word by doing your part,
4. Earn respect and achievement by giving a hand instead of having a hand out

they will not be productive in life, and feel that they are entitled to things instead of feeling that they have earned things. I really have an issue with blessings children feeling that they are entitled for things instead of trying to work for it.  You see I changed my normal word to children.  When they are doing the steps above, I consider them blessings.