Tuesday's With Michael - Photographs and Memories

I was down in the basement this morning doing a little cleaning while waiting for Michael to get home from Kindergarten and I ran across a storage bin of Michael's old clothes. In this bin was this cute onesie that he wore during his first Christmas. Also in there was the adorable Santa suit that I dressed him in to take his first Christmas photo. I can't bear the thought of donating them so they will go into my cedar chest for safe keeping.

Also this morning, I had an email that the photography studio we went to a couple of times, Sadies, is closing. :( The photos they took were outstanding and I have uploaded a few from his "first professional shoot". I hope you enjoy looking at our little one. The past five years have just flown by. Now, he's a big Kindergartener, can you believe it?

Here he is in a big pile of Bears! He loved it!



I had this one made into a black and white photo, it looks like it could have been taken in the 50's or 60's.



This is a close up - these photos have not been retouched - don't you love those cheeks?



Here we are, one happy and blessed family. What fun we had that!

Tuesday's With Michael - July 22 - Meet Me At The Fair!

Michael and I went to the County Fair - it was a beautiful day. We had a lot of fun checking out the barns of livestock and other things like floral displays, antiques, home economics items. We rode some rides but Michael couldn't go on a lot of the "bigger" rides but it was still fun!

We went the first day of the fair so a lot of animals weren't there yet.
I thought this little calf was pretty cute.



Goats are a funny - and curious!


Do you have food?


I want to eat your hat!



Michael had fun on some of the kiddie rides.



In addition to the rides, we strolled through the other buildings and I especially liked the antique area. Here's an old fire truck. I played around with Picasa for this photo.



Here is the original photo in living color.



A lovely display of old cameras.


I Love Lucy (and Ethel too). This is a cool cookie jar!

Finally, how would you have liked to wash your clothes in this contraption? Happy Home Steam Washer? Happy? I don't think so. Makes you very thankful for all of our modern conveniences.

Tuesday's With Michael - June 24 2008

Welcome to another "Tuesday's with Michael" post. I didn't have any day trips planned for today, I just wanted to hang around the house a bit. Michael and I played hide and seek and other games in the house. I think Holly would be a great tracking dog - she finds Michael every time! However, since she's such a velcro dog, she gives away my hiding spot every time too! We were playing a little Star Wars and needed another body to be Obi Wan...what do you think of Obiwanholly? She looks thrilled, doesn't she.

Outside I pulled out the slip n' slide - Michael wanted me to do it with him - can you imagine. If I did, I probably would have to be in traction!




After all of the strenuous activities out in the heat, what better to cool you off than a - - - CHOCOLATE MILKSHAKE! Here's what you need. First, some vanilla ice cream - we like Fieldcrest. Scoop out your ice cream into a blender.



Then you need to add some milk..also Fieldcrest (but now marked as Jewel's)


Add some Hershey's Chocolate Syrup to the blender

Oh come on...add some more chocolate syrup! ...turn that puppy on for about 25 seconds, adding more milk or ice cream to get to your desired thickness.


Smile for the camera...


Pour in a cute milkshake glass and...


Enjoy!

Tuesday's With Michael

I haven't posted on this subject in a while. We have either been on vacation or I switched days with Ron but mostly because the weather has been so awful that it always seems like it was cold and rainy on Tuesday's. Well, not today - it was a glorious day!

We left the house at 9:45 a.m. and got home at 5:30 p.m. - what a day!

We did some errands first - post office; a little Kohl's shopping then we headed to Lamb's Farm in Libertyville, IL. Founded in 1961, Lambs Farm is a premier non-profit organization serving adults with developmental disabilities. Lambs Farm has grown from a small pet shop in Chicago to a 72-acre campus located in Libertyville, Illinois where opportunity flourishes for the more than 250 men and women served.

We went to the Pet Shop to see the puppies and to dance with Delta, a Macaw who likes to dance if you sing "La Cucaracha"...she's a hoot! Then we went to the farm to see the animals. Lambs Farm not only helps adults with developmental disabilities, but they also help animals with disabilities as well. All of the animals were so friendly, except for a Llama. Michael enjoyed brushing the goats and sheep in the petting area. They were all so gentle.






We went on a train ride, played miniature golf and had lunch at the Country Inn of Lambs Farm.



We headed back toward our home and stopped off at a garden center to pick up some veggies for the garden. It's going to be a late harvest but you can't mess with Mother Nature.

Our last stop was the new Splash Pad at Central Park in Grayslake. Michael had fun getting soaked and played on the Jungle Gym there as well.




Now, it's nappy time, nothing like fresh air and sunshine...have a good evening.

Tuesdays...Er, Thursday With Michael

I had to switch days with Hubby because we had a large meeting at work on Tuesday for all of the VP's of my company. So, here's my "Tuesday's With Michael" Post.

We stayed around home most of the day except to get our hair cut and colored (just me). We wanted to get it done before our vacation so it doesn't look like we "just got our haircut, haircut"...you know what I mean. Michael did really great and he wanted some "color" in his hair too - he was shy and didn't want me to take his picture, but I finally got a good one!










Here's my handsome guy -






Then, my doughboy wanted to bake a cake, well, I baked it and he put the frosting on it.

Tuesdays With Michael...Preface

This is my first "Tuesdays with Michael" post and I hope to keep this up each week as kind of a diary of my "special" day with our wonderful, yet challenging, young son. I want to take this first "Tuesday" post to explain how it came to be...

We pulled him out of a five-day per week, more "institutional" type of daycare/preschool as we felt that he wasn't getting enough one/one attention and therefore, he started misbehaving and was put on a behavior plan - can you imagine a 4-year old on a behavior plan?.

We were both so upset about the whole situation and were trying to figure out what we could do to help him. Our school district had a Learning Behaviorist observe him back in the fall who recommended a smaller class environment, consistancy between us and the pre-school, etc. We met several times with his teacher and the director at the pre-school but it just wasn't getting any better. I spent hours on the phone talking with the Special Education District in our county but he would have had to have another "Class Action" observation done and that has to be dictated by the Principal of the school he would be attending in the fall for Kindergarten. I emailed the Principal (who we have also met) about the situation at pre-school...do you think he has emailed or called me back? NO! I'm so disappointed with the whole public school system and my son hasn't even started there for Kindergarten!

Being a parent is by far the hardest thing I have ever done in my life! We were both so upset over how unhappy Michael was, I wasn't concentrating at work, making silly mistakes, getting frustrated with work and homelife. As I was driving home from work one evening, I passed by this lovely old farmhouse on a hill with massive Oak Trees in the yard and a sign popped out at me...it is a small Homeschool Prep. I called the number and spoke with Bea, the owner/teacher, she was so comforting to talk to, she had been a teacher in public and catholic schools for over 30 years and has been home-schooling for 8 years or so. We all went one morning to meet her, hear about her program and have a look around. After about an hour, she asked if we'd like to leave Michael there to see how it goes. We were a little anxious, but Ron was working at home that day and this prep is only 3 minutes away. So we tried it, and Michael cried for about 3 minutes and that was it. He cried again that Friday for 2 minutes and that has been the end of it.

School is only on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays so I have asked my manager to test me staying at home on Tuesday and Ron will stay home on Thursdays. Michael has been there for about 3 weeks now and so far so good! We feel so blessed that we found Bea. We have also been going to a child therapist to learn how to deal with Michael's challenging behavior and slowly but surely that seems to be helping us all.

So there you have it, now on to the fun stuff. Last week I took Michael to the Kohl's Children Museum in Glenview - what an awesome place! We had so much fun, I am looking forward to taking him back when the weather gets better. There was a special guest-appearance by a certain BIG RED DOG...can you guess who it was?