IEP

Josiah had his first IEP meeting today! It has taken us about 9 mouths to get to this point and it has finally happened! Yeah! Seeing that I was not blogging much during this time I will give you a run down.

December 2009- Josiah was 16 months old, and not talking. After talking with some wonderful ladies at church, we decided to call Early On.

January-March 2010- Testing, testing, and more testing. We had early on came out to evaluate him and they did find a large language delay. Then we had many a doctors visits to make sure his hearing was okay, and his lead levels were also okay. All the tests came back fine. His ears work great, and he did not have too much lead in him. :-)

April-July 2010- Speech Therapy at Henry Ford Hospital. Because he qualified for early on, they provided 10 free speech therapy sessions at the hospital. I loved speech therapy, because they really taught me how to get Josiah talking more. I was SO sad when we used up our 10 sessions!

August 2010- Detroit Public School came out to evaluate him to see if he qualified for special education services. They found a large enough delay with his speech that he did qualify.

Today! - We have a plan! He is going to get a teacher that comes to our house once a week to work with him, and then he goes downtown once a week for a preschool type program. I'm happy we have a plan for our little peanut!

Fit Throwing

Josiah knows how to throw a good fit, and he knows how to throw GREAT fits in public. I have heard it said a countless number of times that when this happens the parent should just walk away. The thinking is that the child will see the parent walking away, stop crying and then follow the parent.

I don't think this works. I would go so far as to say I don't think this ever works. To prove my point Donnie and I did a very scientific study with Josiah. We were in the fount yard and I told Josiah that it was time to go for a walk. He did not want to go, so I told him I was going to leave without him. To make this safe, and very scientific, Donnie hid behind a tree to see what Josiah would do. When I got to the end of our block, I turned around and there was no kid in sight. Josiah was still at the house, all alone, and IMHO petty happy about being all alone.

I think I know why this does not work. Kids know from a very early age that you would never leave them alone in public for very long. I'm not sure how they know this, but they do.

Also, I think Josiah would be a okay if I left him forever in the yard only to be taken in by a dog pack to be raised as a dog boy.

Clothes

I'm not a fan of clothes shopping. I hate to admit this, but most all of my current clothes have been gifts from my mother. Before writing this post, I tried to think of the last time I bought myself new clothes, and this was the only thing I could come up with. This is also true with Josiah. 99.9% of his clothes have been given to us. (God is so good!)

Now, I have bought "new to me" clothes much more recently. Donnie and I are big fans of both Salvation Amy Thrift Stores, and Value World.

This is all background information to this story. Today Josiah and I were at the mall so Donnie could get some homework done. I have been told H & M has super cute Cars movie t-shirts for toddlers. So while we were at the mall, I wanted to check it out. However, I could not bring myself to go inside.

My thought was....what if a child not much older than Jo made the shirt that Jo will wear. I also thought about the working conditions that whoever made Jo's shirt would have to endure.

When I got home I did some looking online to check things out. Not only did I look at the H & M site, but also Gap, Old Navy, Children s Place, and even Wal-Mart. Every site said that they never use child labor, and they treat their employees very well all around the world.

I'm not sure I buy it....What about you?

Whats Your Price?

When I went back to work as a nanny, even though it was the same family, the job was different. I'm now a nanny/household manager. (please note: I do not make nearly as much as this article states I should...I think I will bring this up to the family I work for! :-) ....also please note that this article is not exactly what I do now, but its close.)

Now when I went back to work I was given the option of just being a nanny for them, like I was before, with the same pay as before. Or I could be a nanny/household manager and make quite a bit more. The part that concerned me about the household manger job was cooking meat. As most of you know I do not eat meat, and I never cooked it. It was a matter of ethics to me. However, when they told me how much they would pay me I suddenly changed my tune. My ethics went right out the window. Sad but true.

On Friday I made a super easy pot roast that the family really liked, so I decided to make tonight for Donnie. I'm now cooking meat for everyone! How sad. :-)

Nuts of Death

Its that time of year again! Chestnuts are starting to fall. I swear, one could get killed by one falling on your head! Next time any one you come over, remember your umbrella to protect your head!

I have been worried about Josiah and the chestnuts. He likes to play on the sidewalk where they all land. However, we have made it into a game! I taught him to kick them! Now anytime he sees a chestnut he kicks it into the grass! So far so good.

So, if you need any chestnuts kicked, Josiah's your man!

As most of you know, Josiah has a speech delay. So when he started saying "no" a few weeks ago I thought it was great that he had a new word! I do have to say, he says a really cute no. Its not sassy or mean, just a very matter of fact no. I think its really cute.

However, he says it a lot.... like any time you ask him a question. And this has become humorous. A couple of Sundays ago, Josiah was at Sunday school and the teacher asked him if he wanted to read a story about Jesus and color a picture. He looked her right in the eye and very matter of factly said "no". It was really funny. Both the teacher and I were laughing really hard.

I have a feeling his no's will get less cute in the future.

Swim Lesson

Josiah had his first ever swim lesson Wednesday night! I have been wanting to try swim lessons with him for awhile now but never got around. I even tried having him take lessons at the Livonia Rec Center, but the class was filled.

Then I remember Goldfish Swim School. I knew about them through City Mission, and I have always remembered the name, because I thought it was so cute! They have two locations, so we went to the one in Farmington Hills, and the first class is free!

When the class started I was a little nervous. This was some serious stuff! The other toddlers in the class were like fish! One girl could even swim underwater! However, he did great in the lesson. He even went down a little slide into the pool!

I'm SUPER impressed with the school and the class. But here's the bad part. The classes are expensive, really expensive. Now that I'm working we could change our budget around a bit and we could do it, but I'm not sure I'm willing to do that.

So I think I will be checking out other places. Anyone know a good place for swim lessons?

The Peanut is Two!

Its official, Josiah has been two for two days now! His birthday was a really fun day! As it turned out I did not have to go to work until 11 am so Donnie and I got to celebrate with Josiah in the morning. Then grandma and grandpa came over and we had ice cream cake. Sadly Donnie was in class for that part. :-(
We got Josiah a Thomas train set and a mat to play with it on. He loved the mat! I was sort of surprised! Grandma made him a car/puppy blanket! His two favorite things in one blanket! He was really happy about that!Grandma and grandpa also got him a cars book, a stuffed lighting mcqueen, and a booster seat for the table! However, I think of all these things he liked the ice cream cake the best. He's a kid after my own heart!

Detroit 187, Good or Bad for Detroit?

As most of you know I love Detroit. And 90% of the time I love living here. Sure it has its downside, like lack of nice parks, but I still love it. I'm not sure if I'm going to love this new show on ABC called Detroit 187. I want other people to come to love Detroit as much as I do, and I'm not sure if this show is going to do that.

I did go to the ABC website to check out the page and this is the first thing I saw;

Sound Off

Do you think the detectives in Detroit 1-8-7 can save their city?

This does not give me much faith in the show. I'm not counting on detectives to "save" my city. I'm counting on myself and my neighbors to do that!

So what do you think? Detroit 187, good or bad for Detroit?

The Park

I have a pet peeve. (well..I have a few, but this post will focus on one of them) My son has no nice places to play near our house. This is one thing I do not like about living in Detroit. We do have a playground a few blocks away, but I would never go there. The weeds are taller than Josiah! If anyone out there can do anything about this, I would love it. :-)

Seeing that there are no nice places to play near us, we have found some really cool parks outside of the city. One of them being in Southfiled on 9 mile. On Wednesday night Josiah and I headed over to play while Donnie was in class. People have always told me to cherish this time because it goes by so fast, and to be honest I did not really believe them. Trust me, when Josiah is screaming in rage because he can not have more blueberries time goes really slow.
However, today at the park he went up and down a little slide all by himself! Holy Cow! When did he learn how to do that? Maybe people have been right this whole time! So I'm learning to cherish this time that I have with him. I do have to admit, he is super cute!

New Job

As I posed yesterday, I'm back to working as a nanny! And it just happens to be for the same family I worked for before! I'm calling my absents from them a really long maternity leave. The story about how all this happened is great, so I have to share.

Donnie had been out of work for a few months, and then decided to go back to school. During this time money was getting tight so I was revisiting our budget, and discovered we had a problem. We could not make it just on his unemployment.

We had many ideas; I could work part time, I could work full time, we could live off our savings, and me stay home. With all these options we decided to take two weeks to pray and see what the Lord was wanting us to do.

Well, I got a phone call at about day 10 of our two weeks of prayer. The nanny that had took my job when I had Josiah had just given the family her two weeks. The family I nannied for was shocked over this, and the mom called me to see if I could help out until they found a new nanny. I told the mom that I would be willing to come back full time, and I got my job back! It was a win win for everyone!

God is so good!

Change is in the air!

Hello Everyone! I know I have not blogged in a very long while, so I will fill everyone on whats going on with us! Great change has occurred in our lives in the past few weeks. I will list them to make it easier to follow.

1.) I am back working full time. I have to say I really like this change. I'm sure that makes me the worst mother on the face of the earth, but I can deal with that. I'm working as a nanny for the same family I worked for before.

2.) Donnie is going back to school! Donnie got laid off of work in May, and decided it would be easier to find a job with a degree. So he is going to Henry Ford Community College to study computers. His classes are at night so he is Mr. Mom during the day.

3.) We have internet! With me going back to work, and Donnie's unemployment checks we are rolling in the money ! (hehehehe) So with all this extra money floating around we decided we could have our internet back! YEAH!!!!

4.) Josiah is turning 2 on the 13th!!!!! Let me tell you, the terrible twos have started early! On the bright side we are going to have an ice cream cake on his birthday, and I do LOVE ice cream cakes!

Hope everyone is doing well!!

Break In Part 2

I'm back at my mom and dad's today, and thought I would post more about what happened yesterday. Here is a timeline of our day.

9am- Josiah and I leave to spend the day with my mom and dad

9:15am- Our house is broken into. I was not aware of this because I have a bad habit of not having my phone with me.

9:45am- I get to my mom and dad's and they tell me that the alarm company has been calling.

9:50am- I call the alarm company, and they tell me that the side door, and motion alarm went off. They said they sent the cops to check into it, but I'm not sure if they ever came.

10am- My dad leaves to go check on our house. I know...my dad's the best!

10:45am-My dad calls to say that someone did break in, but he did not see anything taken.

11am- I talk to Donnie, tell him whats going on, and he leaves work to meet me at the house.

11:45am- Donnie and I get back to the house to see what has happened. Somehow the person did get in the side door, and tried to take the monitor. So this is what we came home to

Nothing was taken. Not the gps, not the cash we had, nothing. Thank the good Lord!

We did file a police report and all that good stuff. I'm just so happy nothing was taken!

Before we left that morning Josiah was playing with crayons on the kitchen floor. When I came home one of them was broke from the person who broke in. I can't really put it into words but this really upset me.

I think Donnie and I work hard to fill our house with joy, love, laughter, and fun. Then to have a stranger break into our house to try to steal these things is really upsetting. Donnie and I both feel very victimized. Its an odd feeling. However, I still LOVE our house, and LOVE my neighborhood. It would take a lot more than someone breaking in to change these things.

I'm here!

Hello Everyone! (well....maybe the two of you who still check the blog) I'm back! Currently I'm at my mom and dad's house, and jumped on their computer!

So we had a interesting day today. Our house got broken into! They tried to take the computer monitor, but they could not get it unplugged so they left it on the floor. I will try to post more about this later.

In the meantime here is a picture of the peanut. He is now 17 months! :-)