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

Making a change around here (blogwise)

So I have been really slacking on posting lately, this summer has gotten crazy! Our homeschooling summer has been up and down, one good part is the addition to the kid's cousin joining us a few days a week. Having that extra kid around has really pushed me to step up my game on planning and implementing things with the kids.

Dry Erase table with Dry Erase crayons

Homemade Cloud dough (8 parts flours 1 part Baby Oil) 

I've started using more communication methods with Chance although he still doesn't have much interest I'm at least making it available at every opportunity to model using it for him. We are now going to start trialing newer devices that may be more adaptable for him and grow with him. He starts school in a couple weeks and I'm looking forward to him to go back to be with his friends and teachers. He is not a fan of summers especially Texas summers which result in us staying at home almost the entire summer due to the extreme heat.

This is our PODD book I use in addition to our Conversa 

I've also stepped up on my painting. It is a passion of mine and I'm actually getting outside interests in it! Not just my lovely husband complimenting me! I've sold my first commissioned painting and have listed several new ones on Etsy and hope to get more interest soon! http://www.etsy.com/shop/shaunamoreno

I'm going to continue to blog as often as possible but not as many giveaway posts. I do have a couple reviews in the works and hope to have those out in the next week! I'm still new to the blogging stuff so I'm learning as I go and still figuring it all out.

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/

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!!

Playtime and meditation in Fall

So it's fall and in Texas that means it's outside weather! We are not living in a gigantic oven anymore, there is coolness to the air and the ever present sun is still shining everyday. I love it. This is why I moved here 5.5 yrs ago. Now we can talk walks outside with out heat exhaustion! I've been feeling kind of weird through this transistion of season, very disconnected but yearning to be grounded again. It all and always comes down to the distractions we have. We have so many computers and gadgets and tv's it's so easy for us to be doing 10 things at once. Dont get me wrong, I love my Facebook. It keeps me connected to all the other families out there with a child with Angelman Syndrome. They are my support group and my family. But I need to keep perspective and I dont need to be checking every second of the day if they have posted updates. This time of year I start to feel the desire to be more connected to our earth, maybe since I was born in October. so now instead of watching TV when the girls are napping, I will meditate, listen to wind in the trees, the cars going down the street, the creak of our house settling in for the cold weather.

Being a mother up to this time has been fantastic and continues to be. D is almost potty trained, I is learning to crawl, sit up and eat baby food, and C is his happy crazy self as always. I am constantly challenged by them to do better and learn more. It's so weird how this life that I've had continues to be so hard yet so fulfilling at the same time.

Life gets so crazy for us sometimes. Hubby has been self-employed since I met him. This kind of employment is not easy and not for everyone. You have to be resourceful. Money does not always come in regular intervals like for employees of a business. You have to wait for money, or you gets tons of it in one big bunch but then you dont always know when the next bunch is coming. This lifestyle has made me resourceful to say the least, I know how to stretch a dollar, and we know how to budget to big bunches to make it last until the next. It has also taught me what's really important. Some people seem to think it's better for a family to have steady money coming in and more money than you may need. Although it does make life easier to have more money, I dont think it makes it better. Life should be great with or with out lots of money. I definitely appreciate having money and lots of stuff to buy. In fact I love shopping, going to store and buying fun stuff to bring home. But I know for sure my families happiness has nothing to do with whether we can buy stuff or not. I actually really love this. I hope my kids see how we are living our dreams and always make the best of whatever our situation is. I hope they never see us stress over money, and they see us work hard for everything we have. I know they will never see my husband and I fight over money. I know we do get stressed from it here and there but there is never a doubt we will be ok. And I hope my kids grow up knowing if they follow their dreams they can make any situation happy.