HAPPY BIRTHDAY LITTLE WAFFLE

I wanted to do a through the years in pictures thing but my computer is in the shop so I don't have access.
I can't believe she is six!!!(and we all get to be sick for her big bowling party!)
I will post pictures from the party later.

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I love school books!!!

Going to college I occasionally get refunds from my student loans, you know, once a semester.  Today was that day and it allowed me to first of all send my poor dear Mac book out for repairs(yipee I have been dying with out my girlie!) and second I was FINALLY able to buy the math curriculum I have been dying to start with Little Waffle.  It should be here in a week to 10 days and from what I understand we will probably fly through it.  I love that is holds the parent/teacher by the hand and tells you exactly how to teach.  That has been a tough area for me as a new homeschool teacher.  

I was also able to reserve our room for the homeschool convention we are going to in March and I am starting to get excited. While I really am looking forward to some of the seminars what I am REALLY ready for is the shopping!  I still would like to get a grammar/writing curriculum and some more science stuff. I just love the looking!!!!  We should have tax money by then also so I should have plenty to shop with. 

SOOO happy stuff behind me, time to post a little update on Baby Waffle.  It turns out our insurance doesn't cover speech unless there is a medical need for it (what would a medical need for speech even mean????) so we have switched tactics and my ped is sending us to CDSA (Child Development something something, lol) They are a state agency that works with uninsured or underinsured people.  They will do a FULL eval on Baby Waffle and determine what or even IF any intervention is needed and manage his case.  We start with a hearing test on Feb 21 and will schedule everything else from there.  We also have a Ortho consult on Feb 10th to see what or if anything needs to be done about the short leg. 
I will update this blog as I find anything else.

For now I should really get to working on my assignments for my own school work.  I am outta here! 

my horrible night at Olive Garden...

Ok, so horrible might be too strong a word but it was not the best night ever!  We had a surprise party for my sister in law at the Olive Garden and yes, we had a big group but really we didn't even get menus until I swear we had been there for a good 30 to 45 minutes.  REALLY!!!  We were the only ones of our group with little ones and it was really getting rough.  Baby Waffle can really only stay good for so long and he was really getting hungry.  I finally had to ASK them to bring bread.  Baby Waffle very wisely stuck his crayon in his bread to hold it because it was hot! 
While we waited, Baby Waffle was entertained by the balloons and by making his super tall cousins grab the ones that had broken free from the ceiling.  Little Waffle spent her time drinking 'wine' (sprite in a wine glass) and showing off to all her aunts.  The food was ok when they brought it, I was happy to find they have the soup,salad, breadstick thing at dinner too! Things got better once we finally had food but it was very dicey for awhile.  Dinner ended up taking close to three hours.  Once the cake came out the little Waffles were happy and Baby Waffle climb in the birthday girl's lap and proceeded to poke his finger deeply into the cake over and over to get the good stuff! 

crossing my finger for another good night for Baby Waffle....

I forgot to mention today that we had a FANTASTIC night last night.  Maybe it was the shots, maybe just a fluke what ever the reason, Baby Waffle fell asleep about 9:15 last night and SLEPT ALL NIGHT LONG UNTIL 7 AM!!!!  He slept in the bed with me but I didn't go down when he did and I was up and down all night with my tiny bladder.  Usually the smallest movement wakes him.
SOOO my prayer for tonight is a repeat of last night, he was out by 9:15 or so BUT I put him in HIS bed sooooo we will have to see what happens.  fingers crossed but even if he ends up in my bed I wont mind as long as he doesn't freak out screaming and wakes up as happy as he did today!!!!! 

Night all!

weigh in day

I was all ready to title this post weigh in wednesday cause it sounds so catchy but then I realized duh, its Tuesday. I still will post my weigh in info since I did weigh. I can't believe I have to actually post a number this high but it is what it is so I guess to get it down I have to own it, right. I weighed in today at 257.7. That is down .2 since the last time I weighed but it is still higher than I have ever been even at the time of delivering either child.
So my short term goal for the week is simply one pound and no snacking after 7 pm (8 at the latest if dinner runs late) also to get exercise in at least 3 times.
Ttfn

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Baby Waffle's 18 month well visit

So baby waffle donned his shades and coat and off we went for his well visit.
He was in a great mood and didn't really complain at all until she hit him with the second(& third) shot but I digress.....
He is 27 pounds and some change for weight putting him in the 75%. Where the interesting part comes in is height. He is 95th for height with his right leg coming in at 34 1/2 inches but only 33 7/8th with his left leg!!!
We knew something was up a long time ago because everytime we had a visit in those first few weeks after birth they came up with a different lenght for him. I never made a connection though until he got mobile and his little leg always seemed to give out and he would(still does) fall down alot. It finally hit me one say maybe different nurses were measuring different legs. Sure enough it turns out one leg is shorter. When the doc looked closer she said it looks it is something between the knee and ankle but admits this is out of her expertise so she refered us out to see an ortho specialist. Will update when I know anymore.
One other thing came of the visit, his doc is sending us for a speech / hearing eval since he has no words yet. Will post more on that later as well.
Other than that our little man is great. Maybe so great that he will give me my ipod back sometime soon. ( everyone on facebook knows he ran off with it yesterday and now ir is no where to be found!!!) I use my ipod to get to sleep at night and I have to say I didn't sleep a WINK last night!! One of my stepsons left his bani behind when he left for the Navy, I an trying to get it charged up. I hope he doesn't mind me borrowing it!!
Guess that is it for now. With the busy day we had Little Waffle had it easy we only hit phonics and handwriting today. She didn't seem too upset about it. Lol.

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happy Year and a half to Baby Waffle!!

Wow how time flies!!! Baby Waffle still doesn't speak but that doesn't mean he has nothing to say. He is constantly bossing us around in his own way. I love seeing his ppersonality develops day by day.
I thought I would post this rare photo of the wee Waffles blaying together.

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everybody loves Glee

Get it boy

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a day at our school

Today started getting a little rough so I thought a few pictures of us actually working were in store! Along with one that explains why things started looking up!
We had fallen a bit behind having to leave for kindermusik and science class yesterday so not only did we play catch up but also Little Waffle was so eager to do extra in her handwriting that I decided to go insane and do tomorrows assignments too. Tomorrow is payday and we need some serious groceries so this will give us more time to get that done.
On a side note, yesterdays local groupon was for a haircut from a day spa for $20. ($48 value) I have decided I can't use it until I lose 10lbs so it will be a treat of sorts for me. So please keep on me to keep me on track. I need to lose 10 from tomorrow because I didn't weigh today so I don't really have a starting point. :)
Well I am off to relax( as much as I can with laundry about to bury me....)

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a day at our school

Today started getting a little rough so I thought a few pictures of us actually working were in store! Along with one that explains why things started looking up!
We had fallen a bit behind having to leave for kindermusik and science class yesterday so not only did we play catch up but also Little Em was so eager to do extra in her handwriting that I decided to go insane and do tomorrows assignments too. Tomorrow is payday and we need some serious groceries so this will give us more time to get that done.
On a side note, yesterdays local groupon was for a haircut from a day spa for $20. ($48 value) I have decided I can't use it until I lose 10lbs so it will be a treat of sorts for me. So please keep on me to keep me on track. I need to lose 10 from tomorrow because I didn't weigh today so I don't really have a starting point. :)
Well I am off to relax( as much as I can with laundry about to bury me....)

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playing around

I think I may have figured out this blogger droid so I just wanted to test it out.. it seems you must have to wait a bit for it to post which would be why I posted two very silimar posts yesterday.
So here is a test. I am going to try adding a pic and see what happens.

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Date Night

I thought I would post a little something early because tonight is date night, whoo hoo.  My hubby and I have birthdays about a month apart so we decided to celebrate together and go to dinner and a movie.  We were supposed to do that about midway between the two but that basically falls on New Year's so we are just now getting around to it so it is off to dinner and to see Tron, just have to decide where to eat.

I should say today was a light day for schooling.  We have a class in 'town' (we live in town but I just mean out of the house) for Little Waffle and Baby Waffle has Kindermusik so we didn't get much at home work done.  Little Waffle did bring her hand writing to Kindermusik which was nice it kept her busy for a minute and got today's work done.  She learned about water at enrichment day.  We are supposed to play a game with her reading and she practiced her poem in the car so we are pretty much on target for the day.
Well that is it.  I wont have pictures to beef up my posts for awhile until my computer is fixed or blogger for driod decides to work for me.  Anywho, ttfn.

technology hates me!!!

For those who questioned those last couple of posts from me. I attemped to post from my phone with texts like blogger says you can but apparently not so much. I am trying blogger for droid now so let's see what happens.
My mac is so completely shot. It is going to cost almost $400 to fix, which yes I could buy a pc to replace it for less but I am apple faithful through and through. It is a good price to pay to fix it. Honestly the guts are fine, its the case that us shot. Baby Waffle has terrorized it! One two many times knocking it to the floor I guess.
Ok so putting that aside, school with Little Waffle is going great. I have lessons planned out for two weeks which has been great. I found if I don't write it down, it isn't happening.
Little Waffle has really impressed me with her memorization skills this week. We added memorizing to our list and she started yesterday on a poem from our phonics program which helps with the short vowel sounds. She has gone around all day today reciting it for anyone who will listen. Its not 100% but it is really close. She has always excelled in memory though so I shouldn't have been surprised. :)
Tomorrow Baby Waffle finally gets some time, we start Kindermusik again. He was a little hesitatant last semester but I think he is going to warm up this time he really seems to love music now!
OH and I can't belive I almost forgot to mention he FINALLY spoke! Poppa was his first word!
Well now that I wrote a book I am going to go try to post it. Fingers crossed it works better than those last two!!!!

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stupid technology!

I attempted to post a very long post from my phone with blogger droid and apparently epic FAIL!  I am so aggrevated no way I will remember it all so here is a synopis:

-funky posts from the last few days came from trying to mobile blog from texting obviously does not work!
-my mac is hanging on by a thread and will cost about $400 to fix so I am on minimum techoloy contact for the immediate future
-homeschooling is going great Little Waffle has a great mind for memorizing
-Baby Waffle starts Kindermusik tomorrow
---- last but not least Baby Waffle FINALLY said a word (and just 4 days shy of turning 18 months go figure!)  He said Poppa (of course not mamma or dada)

--Guess that is it for now, I am hijacking Little Waffle's computer to post this so I should at least be able to post a little daily until the big repair but we will see.....  TTFN

busy day

Ok so yesterday was a super busy day so although I SAID I would post I didn't get a chance to. I was up at 5:30 am to drive my friend about and hour a way to the airport so she could see her long distance boyfriend up in PA.  They met online and when they met he was in our state but his family is in PA and his time here ended so he had to go back up there.  They haven't seen each other since October so it was the least I could do for 'love'.  So since I was in the 'big' city (Raleigh) I spent a couple of hours shopping in the homeschool store and organic food stores which we don't have nearly the same of here and then came home. 

I was home long enough to take a nice nap and had to head back out to a fun filled (note the sarcasm) birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese.  You know, the party wouldn't have been so bad if old Chuckie was the way it once was, with the big animated creatures and what not but nowadays there is just one big head that barely does anything and a couple of tv screens.  Just not the place it used to be. The kids had a ball though, even Baby Waffle, so I guess that is all that matters. 

Now today we get to go to yet another birthday party, this time however it is at my Sister in laws house so it wont be so bad.  She wisely invested in her own personal bounce house a few years ago so ready party at any time!

The best part of this post I guess has to be to mention that we did a trial run at letting Grandma keep Baby Waffle.  This is the first overnight ever for him and SUCCESS!  He slept better there than he does here so I guess when the time comes in March he will survive so Daddy Waffle and I can go out of town to the Home School convention.  I am getting very excited. 

Speaking of Home Schooling, an update is well over due on how Little Waffle is doing. I am not sure I ever mentioned what we are working with but for Phonics we use the Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading and for Handwriting we use Handwriting without tears. For now we are mostly concentrating on these two subjects with math in everday situations added in (such as explaining fractions while she helps me cook) and loosely working in History by reading aloud the Story of the World I and doing some of the activities in the activity book.  We mix in science by doing little projects that interest her. (currently she is fascinated with yeast so we made a 'friendship bread' starter and her job has been keeping up with it daily.  We are on the last day of making the starter and later will attempt to actually make something with it.)

    So for Phonics--  she really suprised me yesterday when she stopped sounding out the words outloud.  She is slow between words but it is not nearly as painful as hearing her sound out every single letter.  ;0)  I am very proud of the progress she is making.  We have so far flown through the short vowel sounds, the consonants, s endings on words and two letter blends at the end and beginning of words.  We will begin dipthongs next week and I have to admit I am excited to start this section.  This must be a word they made since I learned to read because frankly I have never heard it and I am fairly certain I am a pretty good reader. 
   
 In handwriting she is really above par.  Little Waffle has always been blessed in the fine motor department and it is really benefiting her here. We started this year with the kindergarten book from HWT and she FLEW threw it.  When she rushes she may mess up some letters but over all she has GREAT handwriting for her age.  When I have time I will upload a picture of one of her writing projects.  While I was shopping yesterday I went ahead and bought the first grade books.  I occilated alot on if we should just do practice sheets for awhile but I think moving on in this department is the best idea with her.  She was probably actually ready for this level when we started which is why we finished so quickly. 

  There isn't much to say on the other subjects yet.  She is adding small numbers and can subtract a little too,  She is also getting the concept of fractions in theory because she likes to bake ALOT!  We don't actually have any kind of math curriculm at this point but I think that is ok afterall she isn't even 6 yet (that comes at the end of this month!!!) 

So there you go, everyone is now up to date to where we are.  I may break this off into too blogs, one for all my crazy rambling and one to keep up with schooling but for now, SOME will tell you I have enough trouble doing one blog so we will stick with this for now!!!!! 
Gotta run it is almost time to leave for the other party.... ttfn

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Started the New Year off right, a good knock down drag out fight with the hubs. It is all good though because it kind of blew the dust out.  I sometimes think it is a good idea to fight once and awhile for just that purpose.  No one is perfect all the time and no couple is happy 100% of the time!

The problem is the fight was about Baby Waffle.  I think we are at an impasse, we don't now how in the world to handle him.  He is already WELL into the terrible twos and he isn't even 18 months yet.  He isn't really saying much but boy does he have his own opinions about EVERYTHING.  He has decided not to go in his booster seat unless HE wants to do it and bed time OMG it is getting horrible.  At least for a while he would go to sleep even if he wouldn't stay asleep.  I dare say the one night I blogged about where he slept so well is STILL the only night he has done that.  Now though he is thrashing about crying out and just full on freaking out to try to fight sleep.  It is just not a happy time in this house most of the time for the poor little guy. 

I fully suspect much of this is due to his lack of expressive language.  That boy is all over receptive. He surprises me everyday with the things he understands but still to date he has not said Mama or Dada even once.  I hope something changes soon so he can stop being quite so frustrated all the time.  I am intending to call and get him evaluated but lets face it I am a bit scared of what they will tell me.  I know deep down whatever I find out it is better to find out sooner rather than later and get working on correcting, adjusting, relieving or what ever.  
 I guess I will end with a video of baby Waffle, everything has been all about the little Waffle lately I wouldn't want anyone to think I don't love them both!!!!