
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
My fish

Monday, April 28, 2008
I received an award!

So I got an award for being such a cool blogger! LOL Christina over at Kwisteena's Kwaziness tagged me for this award! Thanks Christina!
The rules for this award are:
1. You have to pick 5 blogs that you consider deserve this award for their creativity, design, interesting material, and also contributes to the blogging community, no matter what language.
2. Each award has to have the name of the author and also a link to his/her blog to be visited by everyone.
3. Each award winner has to show the award and put the name and link to the blog that has given her/him the award itself.
4. The award winner and the one who has given the prize have to show the link of Arte y Pico blog, so everyone will know the origin of this award.
5. To show these rules.
I'm passing this on to:
Shay at Karl's Kraziness
Christina at Matt, Christina and Kylie
Renee at 3 Little Lady Bugs
Kim at Charlie's Up To
McKenna at Our blah blah blog
Monday, April 14, 2008
Two word strings
This morning I was putting her coat on and in order to put her arms in the sleeves, she had to set down her baggie of Cheerios. Zoe, our dog, approached and sniffed her baggie. Then, clear as day, "NO DOGGIE!"
Yay Payton! I cheered for her and repeated her ... and of course, kissed on her!
Meet Emma Hope

Emma is five years old and she spent those first five years of her life in a Ukrainian orphanage, spending much of her time in a crib. She was so weak that she could not sit unassisted at five years old. A little over a month ago, Ms. Emma was adopted and was brought to the United States by her adoptive family. Emma has Down syndrome, a major heart defect and severe pulmonary hypertension ... her adoptive family was prepared to have her heart repaired.
Soon after being home, Emma thrived. She began sitting unassisted in less than a month and has just done amazing things. Her family scheduled her visit with a cardiologist and Emma had a cath done last week in preparation of her upcoming heart surgery. After doing the cath, Emma's family learned that so much damage has been done that the cardiologist is not recommending surgery because he does not think Emma will survive. This news was a blow they did not expect. They obtained a second opinion and that cardiologist agrees, although seems to be of the mindset that they have nothing to lose by doing surgery, because her lifespan without surgery will be limited.
Please pray for Emma Hope and her family during this difficult time as they search for the answer. Click here if you would like to follow their journey.
My kids love each other
Soccer: Week Two
Super Nanny
About the wiping of the butt (stop reading now if this is too much information for your taste), we still wipe Mason's butt. Can a four year old really get his butt clean enough to not be throwing underwear in the trash all the time? Well, after seeing Super Nanny I was on a mission to have Mason wipe his own butt. So we taught him how to do it himself and wa la, he now wipes his own butt! Wow, nothing like needing Super Nanny to whip us in the butt!
Onto the sippy cup. Mason is fully able to drink from an open cup and has been for a long time. However, when we are home and he is playing around the house, or when we are in the car, he gets a sippy cup. It only makes sense ... sippy cup means no mess. I know, I guess this means that we now have to summon Mason to the table to have his drink. But the child wants a drink in his hand 24/7, so this is a problem. Maybe sometime soon, Super Nanny, but thanks for the advice.
Sunday, April 6, 2008
Always into something
Sort of reminds me of a similar time a little less than a year ago ...

Saturday, April 5, 2008
Mason's first soccer game
Payton is a Young Athlete
Kyle: Payton is going to be the best bocce ball player in the Special Olympics!
Me: No, she is going to be the prettiest cheerleader in the Special Olympics!
We continued on with our conversation, joking Kyle for picking such a random sport like bocce ball. This moment in time was so uplifting for us, because we realized that our daughter would be able to do things that "typical" children do ... play sports, cheerlead, whatever.

Fast forward over two years, Payton is now a Special Olympics Young Athlete. Historically, children were not allowed to participate in Special Olympics until they were eight years old. That was sort of disheartening for parents who had younger children ... were we just supposed to wait to get them involved until they were eight? Thus the Young Athlete program was born, specifically tailored for kids age two through seven.
We have been attending an hour long class every Sunday for the past few weeks. Essentially it is an organized play group for kids with special needs. They have obstacle courses for the kids to navigate, a parachute to play with, we sing songs and sign along with them (as best we can...LOL), etc. It has been really fun for Payton to have this time for herself with either Kyle or I tagging along.
Stepping over the hurdle ... "I can do this!"
Walking the beam ... "This is so easy, I can do this with my hand in my pocket!"
He can write his name!
I just wanted to post a picture of his progress ...
