Daniel's Way

My brother came to NY again recently and we got to spend a little time on Thanksgiving. We were hanging out and I was drinking a cup of soda with some ice.  The kids had come and asked for ice and after a few cubes for each I had told them it was enough. With that they went on their way and my brother and I continued to catch up.

At one point Daniel came back and asked me for a hug.  I gave it to him.  My brother says, "oh! oh! It's coming"

Then he asked for a kiss. I gave it to him. My brother says, "get ready!"

Then Daniel says, "Can I have more ice?"  My brother says, "told you" we broke out laughing.

Did I give him the ice? Of course, even though I knew full well how he got it.

The next time he came with the same song and dance he did not get any ice, but it is good to see how his little brain is working.

Nemi's Lunches

You know how I have my monthly dinner calendar, well I just finished Nemi's lunch calendar for December. This is a first - thankfully it is a short month. We will see if I do it again or not. Wish me luck. :)

Here is the link that helped me get started, but by no means am I gonna do so many different types of lunches.  

I created five lunches one for each day of the week and then repeat them throughout the month. 

Snack Time Heartbreak

I am pretty in tuned with the time frame I have in the mornings to get the kids fed and dressed in time for Kimani to take them to school when he gets home from work. To the point that I am a bit prideful about the fact that the kids 'are never late to school because of me'.

Well..... never say never.  Today not only did I "get up" and start my duties late, but I totally forgot to place a snack in Kimberlee's backpack and Nehemiah went to school with no backpack at all [I mean you can see this was a really bad morning for me]

Fast forward a few hours and, like I do everyday, I asked Kimberlee what she had for a snack.  She begins to tell me how she did not have a snack in her backpack because when she left I was in the bathroom and I forgot and she did not get a snack.  I said, 'I know I am sorry - so what did you eat?' and her eyes opened up so big and she exclaimed. NOTHING! it was like she was saying "what do you mean. I didn't have a snack what else was I gonna eat!" the tone in her voice broke my heart in pieces.

To top it off she told me all her friends were eating their snack and she just sat there with her water.  [poor girl didn't even get milk - it was just a sad story all around] Kimani had to hold me to his chest as I cried I felt so bad. I could just imagine her sitting there looking at everyone eat.  urgh!!!  I'm gonna cry again.
_________________________________________
UPDATE: (NOV. 21, 2012)
I contacted my daughter's wonderful teacher regarding our conversation about snack time and below is the response from her.

Mary Leslie via gmail.com	1:21 PM (2 hours ago)
to datneesmith

We gave her a snack yesterday... she had a cheese stick :)  You were still PLAYED!

Datnee Smith datneesmith@gmail.com	3:34 PM (3 minutes ago)
to Mary

oh! snap...  I want my tears back. LOL that is too stinking funny. 

Nemi's birthday

Last year Nemi's birthday was quite an ordeal at the school this year.  I made for him cake pops to share with his classmates.  I even created the display box to hold the pops.  Unfortunately, not all the pops fit in the display so I had to improvise and arrange them all around.  We had so many pops even the teachers and the aides got a couple.

Once we arrived at the classroom we had to wit a few minutes for him because he was coming from his group therapy session and was not finished yet. Suddenly, we hear a commotion and it was Nemi with his aide, two other teachers and like an entourage of kids.  His aide told me that he kept inviting his friends to the 'party' as he made his way through the hallways and so they came and so did some of the teachers.  That was so sweet.

The kids in his classroom had been told that it was Nemi's birthday and when they saw us with the cake pops they got really excited and sang him the Birthday song and almost on queue music began to play everyone began to dance.  It was so much fun. At one point I was looking for Kimberlee and she was at the front of the class dancing with Nemi and his other classmates.

The best snack time celebration for Nemi ever. I am so thankful to his teachers and the kids at that school so much who love Nemi and all his ways.

Kimberlee says...

the other day Baby Naomi had been crying while I was seasoning some chicken for dinner and I asked Kimberlee to go talk to her little sister.

And suddenly I hear Kim's little feet running to her sister and she says, "Hi! I'm Kimberlee and I'm here to help you!" and she begins rocking her chair to quiet the baby down.  I laughed so hard.

Nemi and his toys

We have put away a few toys from the kids because there are too many and they are just everywhere.  Today, Nemi asked me for his teddy bears, which are a few TY toys he plays with and when I gave them to him he was so excited and this is what he said,,, with is broken speech... too cute

"oh! wow!  

"that's so exciting

"I lost you

"That's ok I apologize!!"  

Awww!!! too cute telling the toys sorry I lost you and apologizing for it. 

Baby Testing

So this past week I took a whole bunch of blood tests I should've taken earlier in the pregnancy if we'd known earlier.  LOL!  So now I am just waiting on the glucose (orange soda) test. Yum!

Life is full of Surprises!

I know it has been quite a while since I have written. It seems like once our camera went kaputs I just kind of gave up on the whole connecting thing. Now that we have a new camera, I feel like I have so much to share.

Well, the funniest story I can start with is that this very day ( Thur 4/5/2012) we found out we were pregnant with our fourth child.

Yup! we were a little shocked as well.

The kicker is that while at the doctor's office I was sent to do a sonogram to see how far along I am since I have been on the pill for the past 6 months (the ones that I thought get rid of your menstrual) and I remembered I had only missed one pill about two months ago.

When the scanner was placed on my belly a big baby face appeared. The tech said, 'Datnee, you're not a little pregnant. You are 19 weeks along.'

Yup! we were a little shocked at that too!

I've been pregnant since December. Wowsers!!!!!!

So the next question was, 'well, do you want to know what you're having?' Sure, might as well since we are just getting a boat load of news today. She searched around a bit and then said it is a girl.

What! How cool! Boy - girl - boy - girl. The exact opposite of my friend Leah. How awesome!

The news that it was a girl actually gave me a great deal of peace. I am really happy to know it is a girl.

At the end of the sonogram we called Kimani in to see the baby and told him I am almost 5 months along and his jaw dropped to the floor. We all laughed because I had warned them he would be very shocked, but I had underestimated his reaction. "How can that be? There is no way!" He said. 'Well, there is a way', the midwife told him.

Over all we are pretty excited to add another family member to our troop though we had actually decided to close up shop and be a happy family of 5. Too late for that.

We are just now in high gear to get our living situation addressed to get a better place to accommodate us all. We'll see how far we get with that. I am thinking we are in this little place one more year and then we will definitely have to move.

At first you think you have about 8 months to have a baby, but then you are told you will meet your bundle in about 4 months and things begin to melt together in your head.

Yeah! 4 months - that is a bit shocking too. Whew!!! Breath in breath out. We can do this.

- - -

As for me I really had no idea I was pregnant. My body was a little sore here and there, but dealing with kids on a daily basis it is easy to ignore that as everyday activity. I had no nausea, no body weight changes - everything still fits, my eating habits have not changed, nothing out of the ordinary at all. I had recently had two blood tests and I assumed if I was pregnant my PCP would have mentioned something from those tests. Well, I guess he did not check for that.

For whatever reason, recently when Kimani got home I was compelled, no driven - literally- to go to the store to get the test. I was not even sure why I was taking the test. It seemed like a bit of a waste of money since I expected a negative result. As a matter of fact, the next morning when I took the test I forgot all about it and it was hours later when I went back to check the results.

And surprise!!!! Two lines.

Tangled was Here

I recently posted our very own skit of Dora the Explorer and what a good laugh we had.

Now here is our second production.

The movie Tangled has been available to stream on Netflix for the past few weeks. It is a great movie. I get into it every time I put it on for the kids.

As we are watching the movie one day Nehemiah turns to me and says, "Hey, you are Rapunzel's Mom."

I responded, "Wait, are you saying I look like Rapunzel's Mom?"

Nemi, "Yes"

"Why, because of my hair?"

"Yes!!"

Really. I proceed to let my hair down and as I sweep my hair across his face I begin to sing the sun flower song.... "Flower gleam and glow... Let your power shine" and Nemi just melts of laughter...

We have a good time with that. As soon as the kids begin the song, my hair goes down and I become Mother Gothel...

Another Nemi Story

Recently while the kids were cleaning up before bed time I had told Nehemiah to take the handle portion of a broken sand castle shovel and put it in the trash.

Instead he put it back in the toy bin. Like all obedient children do.

A few days later we are all having dinner together and Kimani had to step out. As Kimani makes his way out Nehemiah became very interested in looking at the door. When Kimani opened the door to leave the broken shovel handle popped up from out of no where and Nehemiah began to crack up...

I said, "Nemi, did you booby trap the door?" and with the biggest smile he says, "yes!" HA HA HA HA !!! it was so funny we all busted out laughing.

I need to do a better job at keeping track of these stories. My little munchkins are so funny and they have such a good sense of humor all around.

Pony Rides

It was Eowyn's 3rd bday party this past weekend and I gotta tell you it was a wonderful celebration. At first the stress was palpable only because there was a great threat of rain, but once a few drops fell and the clouds moved along everyone was able to relax and just enjoy themselves. Marisol had created a sandbox where the kids went looking for "gold". And you know kids and sand are always a hit. They had a good time playing there well after the "gold rush" was over.

They had individual horseys made out of a stick and a horse head attached to it and each child got to decorate their own horse as they wanted. That was a great idea.

And then it was time for pony rides. The horse, Teacup, came in to the backyard giving each child a ride around the deck and Kimberlee and Nemi had a good time as well as all the kids that rode him. They all got to feed the horse carrot before he had to go home.

I wish my camera was working to have gotten more pictures because it feels good as a parent to see your child, along with everyone else's, playing and having fun. Seeing them right at that moment and know they are all having a good time.

The kids came home beat, but we had to bathe them before putting them to bed since I feel weird about putting them to bed with bug repellent spray all over their bodies. Right after that they crashed and slept well.

The next morning Nemi woke up opposite his usual self. Usually he wakes up saying, "I want school" and he gets right up to get dressed. This day he woke up and I said, "come on, it's time for school" and as he laid himself back on his bed he said, "No, no school. I want pillow!" Boy did I totally understand that, but alas I had to force him out of the house. (wait is this a sign of things to come as he gets older and begins to not want to go to school every day like he does now - I hope not).

Well, all of that to say, we had a wonderful time at the party. Happy Birthday sweet Eowyn, here's to many more pony rides..... or at the very least super cool birthday parties.

Stealth Nemi

Recently, Kimani and I were talking about the fact that Kimberlee waits until she thinks we are asleep to sneak into our room and jump in our bed with us. Yesterday, she got caught right at the door to our bedroom and Kimani called her over and asked her if she was ok, knowing her intentions, kissed her and sent her back to her bed. Surprisingly, she did not come back.

As he told me the story we began to remember how Nemi would tip toe his way to our room and would walk right up to our faces to see if our eyes were open. He was so quiet I would often be startled to see him in front of my eyes in the middle of the night. Other times he would go next to one of us and if we said go to bed he would go around the bed to the other parent and try to get in the bed that way. That technique worked more often than not.

Dora was Here

Yesterday (Friday) Kimani had come home from work and he was on the lap top looking for a movie for us to watch once the kids had gone to bed.

It was about an hour passed the kids bed time and they were feeling it. For no good reason and with no set time to put them to bed the kids were just hanging out with us. So to play around a bit I said to Kimberlee that I was Dora the Explorer and began to sing the opening sequence song. Then I said to her that Nehemiah was Boots; she was Isa the Iguana and Daniel was Benny the Bull.

Kimberlee then turns to me and points to Daddy and says, "What's his name?" I said, "That is Swipper the Fox"

What I did not expect was for Kimani to turn around and laugh like Swipper (ha ha ha) and he said. "you'll never find her now" and he took Kimberlee's kid sized Dora doll and he hid it in the closet all the while I was yelling Swipper No swipping, Swipper No swipping, Swipper No swipping.

OMG!! Nehemiah and I began to crack up so hard. Kimberlee and Daniel ran after Daddy (Swipper) to rescue the Dora doll and when she could not reach it she began crying hysterical. It was the funniest scene ever. I could not move I was laughing so hard. Boots (Nemi) was laughing, but hiding from Swipper behind me and Isa (Kimi) was screaming to get her doll back.

I think what made me laugh so much is that I thought Kimani was completely consumed by the movie search so when he turned around and joined us in our make believe world, it surprised me so much. He jumped right into character. It was unexpected and on point I was literally rolling on the floor laughing.

Potty Training Follow up

It has been now a few weeks since we began to officially training Kimberlee on the potty. The last post regarding her potty training progress I was going to just go for it and let her sleep with no pampers overnight.

Well, she did pee on the bed, but it was only one time. She woke up wet that night and when I went to change her she was burning up with a fever that showed up out of nowhere. I gave her medicine and slept next to her over night to make sure she was all right. The next day she was still feverish so I did put a pamper on her to avoid any accidents. However, she woke up the next day with no fever and a clean diaper.

Now we don't even buy pampers for her anymore. She has been doing great. She used to announce when she had the urge to go so that I would go with her, but the past few days we have found her on the potty all by herself. She takes care of business and then asks to be cleaned. So proud.

Smooth Sailing

Recently we went to a friend's house to hang out with them and go in the pool on a hot day. I was not sure how Daniel was going to react as it was the first time getting him in the water. We strapped him up with a life vest and laid him on the round inflatable. Small enough for his little body to fit right in and be comfortable. Well, he floated around the pool and before we knew it he was sound asleep. He spent a good 35 minutes sleeping on the raft as we played all around him. it was so cute. As a mom i was never further than arms length away from him... just in case.

It was so sweet to see him sleeping as he floated around. We almost did not want to wake him up.

Nehemiah's update

Well since I published and update on Kimberlee and Daniel, I had to continue the brag night with some 411 about my boy Nemi.

He finished first grade with flying colors. Getting several 100% on spelling tests. He did really well. At the beginning of the school year it was considered that if Nemi had a hard time with the class work then the curriculum would be adjusted to suit Nemi's learning needs. Thankfully, the curriculum was never altered. He did all the lessons along with his first grade class. He was fully transitioned to have lunch with his class in the cafeteria. Previously, he would have lunch with his special needs class in the classroom. However, he progressed so well socially that they began to shift him to the cafeteria. At first it was only of Fridays, then it was Thursdays and Fridays and so on until he was in the cafeteria all week long. that was a big step as lunch with 75 first graders can be overwhelming and noisy in comparison to eating with five others kids in a classroom.

Now he is in summer school gearing up for second grade. We are looking forward to another successful year.

So proud of you Nemi, keep up the good work.

Daniel One Year Later

The little chubster, Daniel, turned one a few weeks ago. He is so big already.

-He began to walk about two and a half weeks before his birthday.

-He has three teeth up top and three on the bottom (which is odd because teeth usually come in pairs - so in my head there should be four up top and bottom).

-He gets pretty bad diaper rashes as his teeth come in, which I feel so bad for him every time.

-His hair has it's own personality. We style it differently depending on the occasion. It varies from sleek with some baby oil, to pulled back in a pony tail, ninja/samurai style or even just left out - curly and wild. To us he looks gorgeous every which way.

-He talks a lot. Well sort of, he tries to repeat what Kimberlee says most of the time. He says, nana for juice; Daddy; No and a bunch of sounds that make sense only in that situation.

-He, like his brother Nemi, has been wearing clothing bigger than his chronological age. At the moment he wears 18 - 24 months stuff.

-Loves sleeping with Mommy and Daddy.

-He looks for his brother and sister when ever he wakes up from a nap or in the mornings.

-He loves to drink out of open cups, though he loves his bottle.

-He throws kisses with his hand.

-He gives kisses and high 5's when asked.

-He is very mushy in terms that he loves to be kissed and hugged and carried and cuddled.

for his birthday we had grandma Aida, tio Alfert, his cousin Nano, god-mother Marisol with Kiana and Eowyn as well as his siblings and of course Mommy and Daddy. We had a beautiful BBQ with delicious brownie pops for cake.

Over all it has been a great and exciting year with all three kids hanging out with us. Daniel is a wonderful addition to our family as his brother and sister love to play with him and feed him and help him (sing of things to come).

Love you Daniel. Continue to learn and soak the blessings of the Lord.

Potty Training Kimberlee style

I am so blown away by Kimberlee's progress with potty training. Since I decided to actually follow through and leave her without diapers she has not gone #1 or #2 in her pamper. She has been going to the bathroom consistently. She has not peepeed on herself even during nap time, nor in the car (even as far as NYC).

I am gonna jump on and follow her lead and just let her sleep through the night without diapers. I have actually skipped over the pull up stage all together. So proud of my stinker. I told Kimani that it seems like she was totally ready to do it I just needed to stick to it.

Here we go with only undies to sleep. I hope to be back to give you the update.

Nehemiah to be a baseball player too cute

I found a baseball team for special needs kids and Nehemiah is so excited to go and play some ball. He is mostly excited about running around free around the field.

Kimberlee squeezes back

I had something to say about this when I first typed the title and now I have no idea what it was.... great!!!!