It's official! Winter in the south has definitely changed.
January 29th 2014, first time we had snow in Florida in over 20 years.
Yesterday, it was such an horrible day for me.
I woke up with a terrible muscle ache in my upper arm and couldn't figure out when or where I hurt myself.
Then, I got news that my grandmother, my mom's mom, passed away in the early hours of Italy time.
Here I am, hurting physically and emotionally, stuck in the house for a winter storm, road closed, screaming kids in the house......I so wanted a do-over!
But today, I woke up and there was white, fluffy stuff all around.It might be cold outside, but something melted inside me for sure.
I like to think that it's her, or a sign of her, snow all around, a way to tell me she's always around me even if I can't see her anymore.
Might be silly but I like to think of that.
Good bye grandma!
You never were the warm and fuzzy kind of grandma, but you did show your love to me, you thought me to be strong and I will never forget that.
Fly away to you husband and to your child that you lost way to early, you were so strong to live until you were 90 years old, carrying inside you the burden to have lost at child when he was barely 20. I never met my uncle, but through you, I loved him just the same.
I can't imagine how hard that could have been for you, that's why I always squeezed you twice when I left your home. Once for me and once for the child you no longer had.
From you I take my green eyes, my dark brown hair that make me different from everyone in my family since that are all darker. I'm picky and have high standard just like you were and I'm proud of being like you.
If you were expecting a post with the announcement that I'm pregnant, sorry to disappoint folks!
This is not it!
I'm happy with my 2 children and that business is now closed.
That said, our family is still growing since we adopted a little kitten!
Let me introduce you all to Shadow (and all the food crumbs under my kitchen table lol)
We owned cats before but if was my life before kids and it was a little easier.
But the kids have asked for a pet before and now there is really no reason not to have one!
Shadow fits right in with his "independent moods" and playful energy.
Here he is, showing off his brand new collar that made him "officially" part of the family!
Cuddling up with my daughter
Playing with my son and his brand new mouse toy
Enjoying the new scratch post my husband bought for him
...and finally just requesting my attention!
If you'd like to see more picture of him and his everyday adventure, hop on Facebook!
But here you go, pictures and memories of my brother's big day!
But let's back up a little and share some horrendous pictures of the preparations of the day before.
Do I need to comment on this one?? I think not!
What do you see here is me, my sister and my mom with ridiculous stuff on their heads, while my brother and my dad just look pretty!
But all was worth it because the next day I was able to sport with hair-do:
I think my mom and my sister looked very spiffy as well!!
What do you think??? Was the night before torture.....err prep, worth it?? I think, yes!
You know, we don't get to dress up a lot so I was trying to get some cute and romantic pictures of me and hubby together......
Well, I guess my husband had other plans! LOL
The kids were amazing. Can you imagine being little and going to a foreign country were you don't know anybody and don't speak the language?? Nonetheless, they were precious, well mannered and managed to make new friends!
And finally, the moment that everyone is waiting for, the picture with the groom and the bride!
Sorry folks, ain't gonna share "those" first times, but wanted to share an awesome week end we had.
Saturday after work we decided to hit the community pool like we do every night (when it's not raining that is) and I was very excited to see my son Gabriel swimming in deep waters and jumping too!!
When we started going to the pool neither of my kids knew how to swim and while Michelle took about a week to master it, Gabriel took few months, but still I'm AMAZED by the progress he made!!! The dude didn't even want to get into water when he could touch with his tippy toes, just played safe in the kiddies part of the pool and now....he's a FISH and my daughter is a MERMAID.
After the pool, we decided to go out for dinner. The kids wanted some fast food crappola while me and hubby wanted something nice. We ended up at Ruby Tuesday.
If you read my blog before, you probably read me saying that I would pay anything to see my son Gabriel eating a beef hamburger. $60 later, he decided to try the chop steak and found it delicious!!! That was a completely new food for him and with his sensory disorders is a huge step and the first time in 5 years!!!! WOOOHOOO.
Sunday was another story. We woke up late but manage to catch the matinee at the theater to watch BRAVE. Can't wait for the DVD to come out as that is definitely a keeper!
After that, we moved the fun to the bowling alley. We hadn't been bowling since Gabriel was 3 years old and my daughter just few months old, so it was definitely the first time for her.
Plus, I got to kick hubby's butt as I scored the most points.....and that's DEFINITELY a first!
Also tried my very first Chobani yogurt...what can I say! I'm hooked!
What amazing things you've done this past weekend?
I know I've been very sporadic. This week has been very tough for me. Lots of meetings with school personnel, phone calls, letters and so on. All in preparation of an IEP meeting for Gabriel that will take place Monday, January 9th (also is 8th birthday). Big decision ahead: meaning I'm crying a lot and I'm sleeping close to nothing.
From one side there is this big desire to believe that Gabriel can handle going to a public school with little or no help. On the other, the biggest fear that it will not work out. Don't give me wrong, I do not expect to go smoothly and I know whatever happen I can always fix it. It's one of those situations where I wish I could go ahead of time, like 6 months from now, to see how it plays out and choose accordingly. Of course, life doesn't work this way.
To sum the situation up for who don't know: Gabriel graduated from a private Autism Center last month after being there of a little bit less than 1 year (HERE) and it's getting ready to go back into the public system.
Should I mention that I also have a daughter in kindergarten going in the school across the street. This school won't enroll Gabriel. Initially they told me that he didn't qualify for his test results were too low (talk about discrimination), then when we tested him again and he scored ok, they told me that they were afraid his behavior might disrupt the classroom. After fighting to have him in a classroom for 2 hours this week and see what his behavior looks like (was totally acceptable), they are telling me that he requires too much work to get him up to speed with the other children, they even complained of him yawning too much. WHAT THE HELL????
The school district is trying to "bully" me into sending him in another school, 20-25 minutes away from here where they claim are available some "extra" services for my son should he have any troubles. The only trouble he has is that he already frequented that school and he was miserable and thus doesn't wish to get back there, not in a million years.
So what to do, what to do? They are playing on my mommy fears to get all this "extra" help and send him to this particular school, but mommy's heart is telling me that I should listen my son and at least give him a chance in the school he wants to go (where I can keep an eye on him since it's only 1 minute and 30 seconds away) and then IF and only WHEN it doesn't work out, thinking of another solution.
I think it's time to get my little bird out of the nest and see if he flies or fall....what do you think?
All will be discussed and hopefully decided on Monday (did I mention that I'm at it from September???) I hope I will be up to the task: to listen without getting emotional, to ask the right questions, to keep my cool and make the best of it.
Wish me good luck and.....I will let you know on Monday!
My husband just celebrated his 30th birthday.....yup, we're getting old!! But we have always fun and to the party we invited the black spider man dude and Princess Rapunzel.
Where have I been??? To celebrate Gabriel graduation of course. December 15th, 2011 will be date that my family will never forget, an important milestone in Gabriel's life and reason of pride in the family.
Some of you are readers here from years and now all about the tales, my worries, my frustration, the progress about Gabriel condition. But some of you are probably here for the first time, so I want to share our journey with you, as briefly as I can.
When Gabriel was born I was a college student and my husband was serving in the Navy. As any parent, we read all the books about parenting and children. We wanted to give Gabriel all the love, warmth and happiness that we could give. With time tho, we found out that it wasn't enough. Something was amiss but we could not put our finger on it.
By the time Gabriel was 3, his sister Michelle came along and we moved away from Italy and established ourselves in the United States of America. Gabriel lack of verbal communication was at the point very noticeable. I had a 6 months baby girl that called me "Mommy" more times in a day that Gabriel ever did in 3 years.
While the ghost of Autism was slowly but surely appearing in our life, we started seeking help from doctors, specialist and professionals. All of them kept telling us that Gabriel "seemed just a little slow" but generally fine, dismissing the possibility of him being autistic altogether.
At 4, Gabriel was tested by the Child Find. His IQ was only 85, had down probably 50 words total and was slipping away from us socially and emotionally. Those tests qualified him for PreKD in the public school, a free preschool program for kids with special needs that seemed to slightly help.
During the summer before he starts Kindergarten sorry goes terribly wrong. Tho he has always been a very picky eater, he stopped eating altogether and when he tried, the food won't stay down. He's loosing weight, sitting idle all day in the living room. No physical grow = No developmental grow. I think was the scariest time of my life and the doctors were useless. I sat down with him everyday, kept a diary with the food that he ingested, what he could keep down, what made him sick and finally understand: Gluten and dairy are a not go.
On September 2008, we started are gluten-free and dairy free diet and Gabriel health and his development made a 180 degree turn. His weight was going up, his smile was back, he was learning in school and at the end of the Kindergarten school year was even able to perform in the school recital, dancing and singing with all the other kindergartens. The road was still long, but progresses were made, his vocabulary was about 200 words now, 4 times the number where he started from.
On August 2009, Gabriel started First Grade and things went down hill fast. The school wasn't providing the services that Gabriel needed and the helped him so much during the past year. No speech therapy, no occupational therapy, his classroom doesn't have a teacher for a long time and when they finally get one, she's totally unprepared and not qualified to deal with Gabriel. Trouble started at 5.30 in the morning with my son crying and begging me not to send him to school 'cause everyone is mean to him. few hours later in the morning, the teacher calls hysterically to come and get Gabriel because "once again he yelled at me, doesn't listen to me and I don't know how to deal with him!" Every time my son comes back from school it's always a new bruise, a new cut, a complaint from the teacher. His health take a turn for the worse after a visit from the police officer at the school that explain that bad people goes to jail. As his teacher always tells him that he's bad, Gabriel starts loosing sleeps over this.
After my countless attempts to communicate with school personnel without success, it's clear to me that I've done all I can and I need to find Gabriel another school. We had to seek help in the private sector and in January 2010, Gabriel is enrolled in ECAC Stacy Berryman and her wonderful staff worked with Gabriel for a little less than a year and simply made a miracle. My boy is BACK.
Sempterber 2011, Staci informed me that Gabriel will be able to graduate from the school soon, so I started to look around for the best school for him. Since my daughter is now in Kindergarten, he expresses the desire to go in her same school, so I start from there and the result is a fight that is still today going on.
December 15th 2011, Gabriel is ready to graduate from ECAC. His behavioral problems are almost all gone, in the past 3 months he was tested again, this time scoring a perfect IQ.....no more special Education classrooms!!!!!! Although the fight with the school is still going and I'm preparing for a big match on January, nobody can convince me that this boy cannot accomplish anything he puts his mind to and no wonder....he takes after me!!!
I love you Gabriel and your smile means a lot more that any score test, but you did it dude!!!! You've shown every body that is possible if you believe!!!!
Enjoy a little video everyone, I proudly show you MY charming, silly, funny and autistic SON :)
.....and nope, I'm not pregnant if that is what you're thinking.
We just got a Betta fish: meet Bob
Isn't he adorable? He's be living on our kitchen counter next to the sink for about a month now.
I must admit, I thought my kids would kill him by feeding him too much or giving him an heart attack by tapping on the glass all the time, but I guess he likes that!
