Help me cure Angelman Syndrome!

I am writing this blog today because of my first born son,Chance. He is the light of my life. He also has Angelman Syndrome. I've mentioned it before on this blog and this time you can help me. Angelman Syndrome is caused by a random deletion on Chance's 15th chromosome. It has caused him to be non-verbal, he cannot walk, he has seizures that are sometimes very severe. He also suffers from severe sensory dysfunction and somedays it makes it very hard for him to handle all the sensory input from the world which makes it hard to live a full life. Through all his struggles he remains happy and full of love.

The Foundation for Angelman Syndrome Therapeutics works hard every day to cure this syndrome. It has already been cured in a mouse model. Any money this foundation takes in goes straight out to research. Last year they won $250,000 in a charity contest and used every cent to fund a clinical trial that is currently in progress. This year they are in a contest through Chase bank. They need help to win, and it only takes a few clicks.

STEP ONE: "like" Chase Community Giving here:http://www.facebook.com/ChaseCommunityGiving
STEP TWO: Vote for FASThttps://fb.chasegiving.com/charity/view/ein/26-3160079/ref/index
We can do this together <3

If anyone would like to share this picture or links please go right ahead, This means so much to me! Thank you! 

Back to school!

So my oldest is in bed all ready for the first day of school tomorrow. As a mom to a special needs kid, its a bittersweet day every year. I'm sure all parents feel this way no matter the abilities of their kids. But I am anxious.

 Anxious the teacher will understand his non-verbal communication, that everyone will treat him with the dignity and respect he deserves. That his neuro-typical peers see him as a peer and not just some kid who can't talk in a wheelchair. That the staff treat him as if he were their own. I have so many fears relating to him at school, especially considering all the stories you see in the news about teachers and school staff abusing non-verbal children. And my son has no way of telling me if something is wrong. It scares me to my core, to be honest.

But it is also amazing, it gives him the opportunity to be with his friends, to learn how to be a friend. He will get to experience new things, meet new people, learn new concepts. He is such a problem solver when its something that interests him, this I think will help him learn. It's hard to say what he actually absorbs from school since he cannot verbally express what he knows. But in my heart I feel he is learning along with his neuro-typical peers, just maybe not in the same way as them. This is a hard concept sometimes for the school to grasp that he is able to learn the same things as his general education peers. They have no way to test him and prove it because he cannot always control his fine and gross motor movements to show them.

But despite that I will continue to push for him to be fully included as much as he can handle due to his sensory overload. He loves school so much, his teacher, the routine, all the other kids. Last year his year ended so well and he has the same teacher and aides so I'm sure this year will just be a great continuation.

Time for me to sleep as its time for me to get back in to routine and hope for the best. <3

First week of trying summer school

Now that my 1st grader is on summer vacation he is making it very obvious he misses school. I know he loves his friends and teachers but the routine is also so important to him. So since I have been attempting (unsuccessfully) all year to get organized with homeschooling Daniella, I thought this would be a good opportunity to get going again.

So I got some more supplies, planned it all out for our first week. We did fourth of july theme activities and had some fun doing crafts and worksheets.

Chance was more interested in playing bubbles and watching movies but did participate a bit with his ipad apps that went along with our theme.

This next week I'm going to try and do a bit more than last week, I'm still trying to ease in to this routine but hopefully we will have some sort of routine by the time Chance goes back to school! My favorite site I found for printables http://www.overthebigmoon.com/

4th of July! Independence Day!

I love this holiday!! Such fun memories playing with friends, BBQ's, fireworks, carnivals, good times! Love all the new memories we will be making with our kids on this day. However this year will not be as exciting, temperatures are pretty high today and our little ones do not care for loud noises even if it creates beauty in the sky. I'll be doing some fun crafts with the kids indoors today, along with just relaxing and hopefully catch some fireworks in the sky from our front porch tonight. As the kids get older I hope to instill the same patriotic feelings I get on this holiday, to remember everything this country has been through to get to this point. How in no way are we a perfect nation but a pretty darn good one, I am so proud to call home! I'll leave you with my favorite patriotic song from my childhood and will hopefully post some blogs over the next few days of all the crafty fun we've been having!

Babbabox Review - fun stuff for kids!

My husband found this BabbaBox company in one of his entrepenuer magazines awhile back. It looked perfect for Daniella since she has become so creative recently and I've been struggling with activities to help with our homeschool adventure. So we signed up and it took about 6 weeks before we got ours (depends on when you place your order- but it ships out the 3rd of the next month after your first order then every 3rd week of the month after that). It's a monthly subscription of $30 so it didn't seem to much considering how much it would cost to drive around and pick up the supplies and plan and find ideas. So this past week was pretty exciting when we finally got our box! Each box has a theme and this months theme was 'you are what you eat!'.

Everything is packaged so nice and neat and the instructions were easy and fun for my 3yr old.

All the supplies we needed to make the crafts were included I didnt need anything extra.
I also learned you can add a sibling pack for $10 a month to get double the crafting supplies!

 We had so much fun making our place mate, shopping list folder and reading our story next we will download our free app for the ipad (or android) that was included. There was also measuring cups so the kids can help with cooking and a pizza cutter for homemade pizzas. And a sample of all natural kids toothpaste! 

Daniella's placemat where she drew all her favorite foods and grouped them together.

reading our story

Our picture shopping list we made!

 I cant wait for next month and will post some videos of Daniella and I doing the crafts together!

                         

                                  http://happychaos4life.blogspot.com/p/disclosure-policy.html

Click the picture below for a 20% discount code on your first box if this looks like something you'd like to try with your kids! 

Walker Edison Bunk Bed Giveaway Event!!!!

EEEK My 2nd Giveaway Post!! 

 I know as a parent of 3, one with special needs, nice beds are hard to come by. Here is the PERFECT giveaway for growing families!! 

I am so excited to announce   BunkBedsAtoZ - (http://www.bunkbedsatoz.com/) is giving away a Walker Edison Bunk bed worth ($549). Use the rafflecopter form below to enter and make sure to mention Happy Chaos Blog referred you to enter! 

Big thanks to our Host - Children Teaching Mama
 (http://www.childrenteachingmama.com). 


The giveaway will run from June 20th to July 10th at 12:58pm and is open to United States residents 18+ and older. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway 

Copy-Kids Eat Fruits and Vegetables DVD review & giveaway

I was asked to review this kids healthy eating DVD with my little ones and write a review. I was actually pretty excited since this is my first review and its with something I could include my kids on. 

Healthy eating is definitely a priority in this house and I'm lucky all 3 kids love their fruits and vegetables.  BUT they still get picky!! Some days Daniella will only want to eat Yogurt ALL DAY LONG. So I was hoping this would broaden her horizon a bit. The other two still just eat what I give them, so far. 

So I put the DVD in and Daniella loves movies so she was excited we got a new one in the mail, we sat down together, I had Chance with us and Isabella was napping. I liked that you can pick and choose which food segments you want to watch first and they are short segments so its kind of interactive. I let Daniella pick, so we watched the Avacado and she loved it, both Daniella and Chance were laughing and giggling along with the kids in the video! Then we watched a couple more and she asked to eat, so we went to the kitchen and found some of the same things they showed in the video and she sat down and we watched it all again while she snacked on Broccolli Avocado, Bell Pepper.

I would reccomend this dvd for anyone that wants a cute fun video for their kids to be introduced to some new fruit & veggies and make it fun and exciting to try! 

Enter below for your chance to win a copy!!

More information on the Copy-Kids company and DVD's::

http://copy-kids.com/

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Homemade all natural bug reppellant

 Bugs are in season around Happy Chaos Casa, so I'm trying not to load the kids up with tons of bug spray full of crazy chemicals, I found a few recipe's online so I can make my own with Essential Oils. --



Daniella seems to attract the bugs really bad, so she has bites all summer long, this year I'm hoping to use this mix with better results!! Check out the link to Soap Deli News with the recipe I used. I'll update in a few weeks to report the results !
http://www.soapdelinews.com/2011/06/natural-mosquito-repellent-recipes-and.html

Father's day giveaways!!

Here are some great Father's day giveaways!! Let's win some stuff for Dad!!



http://www.lifewithtwoboys.com/2012/06/fathers-day-gifts-from-dale-and-thomas.html

http://mamanyc.net/2012/06/super-dad-fathers-day-giveaway-kenmore-gas-grill-home-depot-610/

http://www.thriftyniftymommy.com/2012/06/nivea-fathers-day-giveaway-june-1st.html

http://www.daddoes.com/5911/the-great-fathers-day-gift-giveaway-2012/

New Projects

So now that summer is about to begin, I've begun the organization of the house in preperation of having all 3 kids home 3 months straight!! And since we live in the oven of Texas (San Antonio) with 100+ temps pretty much all summer, we dont get out much, hardly even the back yard as its just too much for the little ones! Of course we do have SeaWorld San Antonio 15 min away so we certainly take advantage of their water park as often as possible.

So with that in mind I started thinking of ways to declutter and make summer easier to have all 3 kids fully entertained at the same time. Last summer was easier since Isabella was an infant and basically ate slept and pooped, as infants do.

My first project was to purge the plastic toys which I kinda did, about 50% anyway, then I organized them all and gave Chance all the bigger toys in his room. Then I decided to use all the left over diaper boxes I had to build a toy bookshelf out of them!

Cut tops off and laid them out

Poked holes with a screwdriver and attached the boxes to each other with zip ties

Lots of tape to support it up, could use duct tape

final product except I will be adding contact paper on the insides and cover in fabric on the outside

Mommy's day!

I love this day, the day to celebrate my lifes purpose. Being a mommy!! I've always known I was going to be a mom, I know its not for everyone, and everyone does it differently. I L O V E love it!! Some days are crazy hectic (well every day is really!) My kids are everything to me and I am so lucky to have them all 3 in my life :)

Still trying homeschooling

I'm still plugging away at trying to homeschool  but she is definitely a challenge, I am having my own challenges of getting organized for it too, plus MIL has been here 5 weeks and totally thrown us off what little rythym we had, now D is watching way more TV than I'd like, and Isabella is not quite walking yet so its hard to handle her physically while trying to do stuff with Daniella so I'm kinda failing at it for now, I have 7 more weeks of MIL and I need to get something figured out soon. MIL has been great though, she does all our dishes and keeps the kitchen clean, so you'd think I have tons more time to do fun learning stuff with the girls, C has just started to get in to a good space neurologically so I think it will get better soon, hopefully before summer because all 3 littles home with me for 3 months we have to get more creative or I will lose my mind !! Last summer was great, although we were pretty much with out a vehicle I got through it. I think it will get better if we can move to a better neighborhood, and have a better living space for kids. We just ordered a subscription to a monthly kids craft box. So hopefully that will help jumpstart ideas! I am also hoping I start blogging more, I think this helps get my crazy thoughts more organized LOL ... I guess we will see!

My life is a Jason Mraz concert

This morning I've spent it listening to Jason Mraz. Love him! His music is so happy even when its not always about the greatest things in life. He has a way of lifting my spirit. My happy chaos life is every week some kind of roller coaster. Today is no exception. C had a seizure this morning then of course he was super crabby all morning (understandably so). After a nice bath he seems to be better. D has been off and on sick but she seems better I think its mostly the time change and weather changing. I'm still trying our homeschool preschool a little bit everyday. C is on spring break so its a little harder to fit it all in. Plus I am so excited my mother in law is coming over in 2 weeks to spend 3 months with us. She live in the UK currently so we havent seen her in years. It will be so nice to have the kids nana living with us. Plus she will be able to babysit which will help me and J get back to one on one time <3. So as you see, the day is full of fun and not so fun stuff. But overall I smile. Life is always good in some way.

 jasonmraz.com

Best Song & Video!!

Adventures in homeschooling and balance

Wow, I havent posted in awhile, but my lil sprite fairy D, decided it would be a fun experiment to spill milk out of her mouth on to my laptop keyboard! So I had to wait a while before we could buy another. I have started to explore homeschooling, and we are trying to focus on a homeschool program based on learning the nature and the natural rhythms of the home. I really really like the program but I'm struggling to find the balance in using nature to learn and our need of electronics in our home. We are very mindful of the TV the kids do watch, but at the same time I feel guilty for them watching. I think my struggle comes from the fact that we have C with his complex physical needs I cant always be fully engaged with D all day long, in fact I cant always be in the same room with her and she is still at that age where her curiousity over comes her and all sense of 'this might not be a good idea' goes out the window. So I'm working on balance, making sure when I have the opportunity the TV is OFF the majority of the day and her and I are side by side engaged and mindful of everything we do. I do also struggle with the fact that C needs the cause and effect toys and videos to get his playing done, he cannot handle the sensory effects of paper, crayons, sand, grass, flowers, dirt, etc. So I have to find alternatives things he can put in his mouth or be engaged in visually but not hands on. We are so lucky to have the ipad and the many wonderful apps that can accompany us moving in to a more nature based, mindful lifestyle. It's not perfect, I find some days our lives revolve around staying inside and I'm busy with things the kids cant participate in, we will get there, I have several role models to help.

I've also chosen to homeschool because I've been learning how kids best learn, and how the schools seem to be very counter intuitive to this process. Hours of homework in Kindergarten and Elementary school, Expecting preschoolers and kinder kids to learn to read and do math; which I KNOW I didnt have to learn to do math until first grade, the only math I learned in kinder was to count to 100. I really cant see how putting so much pressure on young children is a good thing. I know if our homeschooling doesnt work out, I will be trying my hardest to get the girls in to a montessori program, I wish there was a waldorf school in town too but I know the montessori school program would suit Daniella really well. For now I will try my hardest at home to nuture a love of nature and the miracles of mother earth <3

Mondays

I normally like mondays, it's when my oldest goes to school and i just have the two girls during the day. But today I am dragging so much, the coffee's not working, my toddler was up until 1am which felt like 2 because of the time change, mr. C got sick in the middle of the night so I had to clean him up and his bed luckily he went back to sleep and woke up fine for school. Baby is still teething which feels like has been going on 10 yrs! And today I still need to clean up Mr. C's bedroom, the playroom, make some appts, and sweep the floor in between keeping the girls out of trouble and hopefully keeping them from screaming their heads off all day over various things. So this monday is in no way a good day, but I am now playing catch with Ms. D whether I like it or not as I just got a soccerball to my head while she was yelling  'CATCH' her new favorite word!!

Mondays....

Since becoming a stay at home mom 2 yrs ago. Mondays have become alot different but also kind the same as when I worked. I still have to get up early, and do lots of paperwork and make lots of phone calls, the big difference is now I do all that with diapers, sippy cups, and kids that only get fussy when I'm on the phone with people I've been trying to get a hold of all day!! ugh! But even with all that and the sleepless nights, big huge messes, whining and crying, I wouldnt trade this life for anything. My kids can drive me crazy but at the same time melt my heart and make me laugh. They are waaaay better than working with adults!! : D