Choo Choo!

I'm FINALLY getting around to posting some of the pictures from Blake's "Thomas the Train" birthday party.  A part from him not taking a nap before and being a little tired and cranky, it went pretty well. I didn't do a ton of decorations but I think  I did ok in that department, I didn't want to go over board. There was a lot of stuff I forgot to take pictures of but that is pretty much inevitable.

 On the cake table or "desert table" there were red choc covered marshmallows, Thomas shaped candy pops, Hershey kisses with special "Blake and friends" labels and Thomas fruit snacks.

The cake turned out moist and cute. I'm actually glad I made it.

(yummm!)

 

 Blake and all the other kids had a great time jumping on the trampoline! Thanks Papa for the great gift!!!

He even opened the rest of his presents on it!

(He got lots of really nice gifts, a lot of Thomas stuff!)

We had a small "coloring station" set up which he seemed to like

We also had a train pinata but he wasn't too happy about everyone hitting it!

(Trying to rescue the pinata)

(Bella's turn)

All in all it was a great party and I think everyone had fun! Now lets hope this next year goes by much slower!!!!


xoxo Tambra

Party Time!

I haven't felt like blogging too much as of late. I guess there isn't anything I feel is worthy of blogging about. However, today is Friday and I thankfully have the day off! WOOHOOO! Tomorrow is my baby's 3 rd birthday. It's a pretty big deal around here and so we're throwing a pretty BIG (kinda) party. A party which I'm doing almost everything by hand (I'm crazy). So I pretty much had to take today off to get started on the cake etc. I cant wait to post pictures of the big day on here! Hopefully I remember amongst all of the birthday chaos to take some!

Well have a good day, wish me luck!

xoxox Tambra

Blake on the day he was born

It gets better all the time

You know when you write a whole blog post and then accidentally delete it? Yeah that just happened to me... anywho..

Blake will be three next Saturday. I know everyone says this about their kids but, it's hard to believe. He is my BABY! The last three years have just flown by. Fuh-reals. He's really taking on the new "big boy" act too. It seems like only yesterday that he couldn't do really anything for himself, was barely talking or communicating at all. Now, such a different story. He wants to do everything for himself. He uses the potty more, tries to get his own snack or drink from the fridge. He is also talking more and more every day. Emett tried to make a list of all his words the other day and ran out of room at 80! That's amazing for a little boy who was barely saying anything just months ago. There are so many little things that I notice daily, that I have hoped and wished he'd do like any "normal" child would. Like sit with me for more than 5 minutes, lay down next to me and watch tv, stay still while I read to him at night, be affectionate towards me, call me "mommy" or Emett "daddy" (he called Emett "da"). These are all things I have noticed in just the last week. It's great and I'm so happy for my baby.

I just wish my kids weren't growing up so fast...

(Bella and Blake May 2009)

 

 

 

 

(Me and my lil's)

(Right before first birthday)

(Newborn Blakey)

(Blake's 2nd Birthday)

Mothers Day

Since today is Mother's Day I decided to share a little about my Mother.

My mom was born in Germany to a German Mother and American /Jewish father who was an American soldier. She moved to the US when she was an infant and at age 3 her mother left her father and remarried another American soldier whom my mother thought was her real father until age 13. My mother actually never got to see her biological father again as he passed away suddenly from a heart attack shortly after she had reconnected with him. That left a huge hole in her heart. My Mother has several brothers and sisters all of which are half most she has never met. She went to boarding school in England and was in love with "The Beatles" during that time but she has always had a love for music which has very much rubbed off on me. When I was a kid, she and I would drive around in the car and sing to whatever played on the radio (mostly classic rock)  and she never cleaned house without having the radio turned up loud! As a kid she lived in several different States and one other country until her family finally settled in good ol' Fresno California where she attended high school. She married for the first (and only) time at 19 and divorced soon after. She was with my father for 11 years but didn't have me, her first child, until she was 32. She was a "single mom" most of my life after leaving my father when I was 3. My mom did everything she could to take care of me and my little sister and has always been (for the most part) a loving and caring mother. I love my Mom and even though we have had some ups and a lot of downs I hope she knows that I love her and I will never forget all the years she took care of me and and how hard it was for her to raise me by herself and make sure I never went without.

     (My Mom as a child, playing in her backyard)

( 3 years old)

( 18 years old)

(My Mom and Dad)

(My Mother, her Grandmother and myself the day I was born)

(My Mom and I circa 1984)

( My mom had this poodle skirt made for me because I wanted to be "50's" for Halloween)

(1996)

Love you Mom, Happy Mothers Day

xoxo tambra

Weekend Rundown

Last weekend was a 3 day weekend for me that started on Friday. It was oh so nice, but since last weekend was a 3 day and this is a 2 day weekend it is zoooming by.
Here's what I wish to get accomplished this weekend:

Clean my house. Mainly scrub the bathtub/shower and mop the kitchen floor.

Take Bella to her dance performance.

Work on some kids birthday party projects

Laundry.

Purchase foood and drink for Blake's party.

Try to relax.

Have a good weekend!

Xoxox tambra

GIVE AWAY!

Hi everyone! 

Erin over at Carosello is doing a really cool give away in honor of her birthday! She's giving away store credits to 3 different shops (including hers) that total $150.00!  Soooo make sure you go over to her blog and enter to win some great stuff!

Enter here!

xoxo Tambra

yaawwn!

Man, Im sure tired. I cannot believe that it's only Monday.. this is gonna be a slow week. Life is pretty busy and stressful lately. I have two big birthdays coming up, Blake's third and Bella's tenth! I have a problem with wanting to make things bigger then they need to be but I figure my kids are only little once and I love to do the crafts and planning for the parties. Only problem is the vision usually ends up being way too expensive for my budget so then I stress out about how I'm going to make it all come together. It's ridiculous but I love doing it.

making blake's birthday banner

another banner

We went to Blake's last "IEP" appointment today. No new developments. There was a little boy today at his class though that reminded me SO much of Blake. He even looked just like him from behind. He seemed a little less verbal than Blake but has many of the same autistic behaviors and mannerisms that Blake has. He even had a special blankey he carried around. It was funny.

On Sunday we went to my step sister's house to hang with the kids for a couple hours and we had a nice time. I was obsessed with her Cricut paper cutter! Oh my gosh, it's great!  The kids had a great time with each other as they always do, picking strawberries and bouncing on the trampoline. Our children our months apart (both sets) so they are pretty close, especially our older ones and my kids LOVE it at Auntie Alicia's, even Blake is starting to ask to go over there now!  Heres a couple pictures:

Blake and Grace bouncing on the trampoline

picking strawberries

Hope everyone has a good week!

Awkward.

Yesterday was Friday and I had the day off from work, It was grrreat! I got to stay home with Blake on a weekday which meant it was just he and I from about 8:45 a.m. until about 3:50 p.m. Getting to hangout with Blake alone is so nice and I think he liked it too. Usually Blake isn't the clingy type. He doesn't want to cuddle or sit by me hardly ever but yesterday he wanted to be with me every second and I loved it. Id wished every day could be like that.

I had a Dr. appointment yesterday and was a little nervous abut having t take him with me because he can be pretty loud and  ummmm well for lack of a better word, unruly. He was actually listening to me though, I would say "Blake come this way" and he would follow me, which was amazing.Yes, he kept opening and shutting the door and was demanding "COLORS" very loudly but once I gave him my phone to watch Bella's dance video he was silent for a good 20 minutes which was just long enough for me to see the doctor.

Something happened yesterday though that was kind of awkward and I realized that it would probably happen over and over and over for a long time. I felt I had to "explain" that Blake is "autistic" to my doctor. I wouldn't have normally felt the need to say this but he was trying to talk to Blake and he wanted nothing to do with him. He completely ignored him so for some reason I felt the need to say " oh, he has Autism, so he gets really into things (the video on my phone) and wont pay attention to much else". I guess I could have went on and on about how he doesn't talk much and so he probably wouldn't have said anything to him regardless. but I stopped there and the doctor just gave a little awkward giggle and said "oh, okay" or something to that extent and that was pretty much it. I don't know if this is what I should do or whatever but it kind of makes me feel better to justify why he isn't communicating with someone so I will probably continue to do so.

Anyway, Im off to do my Saturday duties! Have a wonderful weekend!

Autistic-Like

Today we met with Blake's teacher to go over the findings from his "IEP" (Individualized education plan) appointment we had a couple weeks ago. Basically a few people from the program he is at right now assessed him to see if he would qualify for special education, including speech, etc. His teacher told us that there are three major areas they asses: Cognitive ability, Speech and Social skills (the ability to follow direction etc). His Cognitive ability is very high which is great but his speech and social skills are lacking, he also has "autistic like" behaviors so he is qualified to receive special education services. On Monday we go to another meeting to talk about this more "in depth" which is something we will do once a year for as long as he needs these kinds of services. It was nice to talk with his teacher today. I got to ask a lot of questions which I hadn't really had the chance to do yet. He gave me some pointers on how Im supposed to discipline Blake when he is doing something he shouldn't and some other helpful advice as well. I always feel so mean when Im telling him not to do something because I feel like maybe he cant help it, maybe he doesn't know any better but I know he still needs to be corrected and his teacher was able to tell me how to do that. I gotta be honest, I never in a million years thought we would be going through this. I never thought one of my children would have any learning disability let alone Autism and Im still trying to get used to all of the changes that are and will be taking place. Dealing with a crazy toddler is hard as it is, but imagine the toddler has infinite energy, can't follow simple commands like "come here" and has no real sense of communication. It is all consuming and sometimes it's really hard. I feel so sad and scared for Blake. Everyone says "he's smart, he'll learn, he'll get better" but how does anyone know? What if he only progresses to a certain point and then stays the same, what if he never functions "normally"?  I will say that I already see some (all be it small) improvement and I am optimistic for his future.