Parenting

There have been many times that I have felt that I should have worked better at certain things with Anthony. I feel guilty that he doesn't sleep as well as his younger cousin, guilty that he doesn't eat as well as he should or that it has taken him so gosh darn long to poop in that potty. Let me tell you, I read all the books and I did everything they told me to. I listened to Anthony cry it out for over an hour and it never worked. I read, The Happiest Toddler on the Block, from front to back and did what they told me to. That's right, I sat there and tried to show him that I felt his emotions whenever he was mad. Me: " Your are mad right? Mad, mad mad. Well I am mad also (while I show my mad face and stomping on the ground) but we can't go out right now, but we can play inside if you want." FAIL! I don't care what the author says, it doesn't work on every kid. I tried every hint to get him to potty, I even gave him a potty party that has never had a student not succeed. What does that mean? It means that I took a day off of work and we spent the entire day having a superhero party where we bought a baby doll for Anthony to train while I trained him. We danced and cheered every time the doll used the potty and every time Anthony peed or attempted it, we watched nothing but potty videos and read nothing but potty books. He did great that day and then NOTHING. Didn't matter what suggestions the book gave, Anthony didn't care to listen to them. FAIL, again. I have determined that my kid is just hard headed. He has always done his own thing and not cared what he is "supposed" to be able to do. Still, it doesn't feel great to have the kid who only wants to eat mac and cheese, apples, bananas and grapes. Or the only one in his class that refuses to use the potty. It really started making me feel bad about not being a good parent.

Then, this Friday morning in class I had a conversation with a student who had told me he hadn't done his homework. This was unlike him so I asked him what happened. He told me that his Dad helps him and if his Dad can't then his Uncle helps him. He went on to say that his parents went out and his Uncle didn't get to their apartment early enough to help him. I asked him where his Mom and Dad went and he didn't want to tell me. Another student asked him if his parents had gone out dancing and he just looked down and shook his head yes. He then told me that he had asked them to please not go because he and his little brother were scared but that they did anyway. I asked him if his Uncle ever got there and he said yes but he was already asleep and he was very scared when he got there because it was very late and he didn't know who was coming in. I asked him when his parents got there and he said when it was almost time for him to go to school. I went and sat down and he came up to me and asked me to please not tell anyone because his Mom told him if he did then she could get in trouble. I tried not to show him how upset I felt at hearing this. What parent does this?

Sadly, these are the type of students I have. Not all have parents like this but almost all have parents who struggle as low income parents or want to help but don't have the education or understand English enough to help.

So it made me realize. Yeah, my kid doesn't go to bed at 8 on the dot. But he has a Mom and Dad who always lay and tell stories or read to him before he does go to bed. Our latest story involved Prince Anthony saving Princess lily from fire breathing dragons who wanted to eat her castle full of candy and toys. He has parents who care enough to read up on ways to get him to cope with tantrums without feeling like we don't care. He has parents who play ball with him everyday, who talk to him about his day everyday and who listen to everything he has to say. He has parents who jumped up and down ,danced, hooped and hollered when he finally pooped in that no good potty. Even a Mom who started to cry when she saw how happy and excited he was to have finally pushed that poop out. That's right! I cried when he finally did it.

He will never have to tell his teacher that his parents left him home alone when he begged them not to. Parenting isn't easy but I don't think we have done to bad on it.

Pics from April:

Driving around the neighborhood.

Easter
Hmmmmm...... who can I get next.
Loved his new baseball helmet.

Getting Bodie.

Sweetness

March Madness

Not just in basketball but as far as how this month has been so far. Each weekend so far has been fun filled so a brief recap is in order.

The first weekend in March was The Edwards' annual father/son weekend. Jud, Randel and Anthony set out on their yearly trip to Waco to watch the bears play some ball. I ended up spending my Friday night in my classroom working so it wasn't as fun filled as theirs was but the next day I got to hang out with Sherry and Stacy for mani/pedi's and a tasty lunch.

Some pics of the boys weekend:

The following weekend we set out to Mickeys house, DISNEYWORLD!! We drove for almost 20 hours with a couple of really long breaks to let Anthony get some energy out. Lots of kudos to him for being able to sit in a carseat for so long with only one fit towards the end. We got to Disney a day earlier than planned so instead of still driving on Sunday we got to go to visit Mickey sooner. Seeing Anthonys reaction when we were driving up to Disneyworld was just priceless. I started tearing up to see how happy he was to be there. Overall the trip was awesome. We visited all the parks for 6 days. Anthony loved taking his autograph book up to all the different characters and taking pictures with them. He had rides he thought were great and some where when it was over he said "that was fun, but not so fun."

Some pics of Disney:

The third March weekend was spent driving back home. We did get to make a pit stop in New Orleans where Randel got to see the Baylor bears beat old dominion to make it into the sweet 16. In the meantime Anthony and I wandered about New Orleans and we determined that it's really not that great of a city and don't see any reason for visiting it again. We finally got home at 8 Sunday night. Our vacation went from the time we got out of work until the evening before we had to be back at work. Exhausting but fun.

This next weekend we will be heading back to Houston to watch Baylor take on St. Marys Friday night and if things go well we see them playing Sunday as well.

There you have it. Our March Madness. Can't wait for April.

Hello again!

It's been awhile since I posted anything, sorry to the few family members that actually read this. Anthony has kept us busy and exhausted every day and night but it's always fun to just watch him do his thing. We did make our way to see Sesame street live last week. He loved the show as much as he did last year. This time though he was aware of all the toys being sold for a ridiculous amount of money. I hoped that the toy he had spotted would be forgotten by the time the show ended but it wasn't. Then we walked around afterwards while I told him that I didn't think they had anymore. Finally, I gave in and bought him the light up elmo spinner thingy that if found at walmart would cost 5 bucks but here I dished out 15 dollars. He was so happy to get it and looked up at me and said "see, I told you I wanted it." as if I had been doubting it the entire time. Best part though was as we walked to the car holding hands and he said "Thanks mom, that was a lot of fun!"

I took a picture of him in the exact same spot he took one last year. I figure as long as he still is into elmo that I will take one every year. Whidh probably means that next year will be his last year going to it.

This past weekend we made our way to the great Rio Grande Valley for my cousins baby shower. It was a quick and short trip but I enjoyed getting to spend time with my family. Anthony had a blast playing with his cousin. I wish she lived here so she could wear him out as much as she did this weekend. They played nonstop all day. He had so much fun playing hide and seek, tag, and pretending to be everything imaginable like taking turns being fire breathing dragons.

Hanging out with a little girl he met at the shower. I felt like it looked like I could see this exact same thing in 14 years. Him trying to sweet talk a girl he just met.

Are you sure this is a baby shower cake????

Cheesing with his cousin.

A couple of random pics.

Him celebrating the new year.

This is what happens when we let his hair get to long.

Proud moments

Anthony is a little boy full of energy. He can wear us out during the day leaving us exhausted at night. Everyone knows this about him but something some might not see is what a super sweet boy he is. I don't know how many times a day he comes up to us and just gives us a big hug and says "Mommy, I love you" or "Daddy, I love you". This past week my Mom and I were in the car driving and at a light there was a man selling roses. Anthony said that he looked sad and that he needed a bed. He sat there a little bit then said "Maybe he could have my bed". I started tearing up when I heard that. He cares so much about everyone. He is always asking about others and making sure we are happy. So at the end of the day when we are tired, we sit there and laugh at all the crazy things he did that day but then we proudly talk about all the little hugs, kisses, I love you's that he gave us and sweet comments that he came up with. I think we have raised a great little boy so far.

The following video shows one of the latest sweet things he has been doing. We pray at night with him, which usually entails him asking God to watch over each person in our family. He names each person one by one. Now he has started a new prayer that we can thank his daycare for teaching him. Check out the video for another one of our proud parent moments.

Christmas

These are a couple of videos I had been meaning to post last week. This was the first year that Anthony really understood that Santa came and brought presents for him. So we set out the cookies the night before by the fireplace and waited for him to come. We were so exicted to see his reaction that we woke up before him and taped him as he came out. His reaction was great. You can see him jumping up and down then going to the fireplace and saying that Santa came down it. The funny part is when he sees that Santa ate his cookies and he goes from happy to mad because now he wasn't going to have cookies to eat. Pretty cute. Anthony was pretty lucky to have Santa follow us everywhere we went this year to celebrate with family. He ended up having 5 christmas'. Needless to say he has endless amounts of toys to scatter thoughout the house. Traveling around to so many different homes can be pretty exhausting but it was worth it to spend it with all of our awesome family.










Anthony and Cousin Bodie jammin

Packed full of toys for Anthony

The cookies Santa requested.

I now think Anthony needs his very own pony

Showing off his new soccer cleats, shinguards and ball.

Daddy and Anthony in front of the Capital.

I only eat clean macaroni

On Thanksgiving Anthony ate a whole turkey leg!




Not really, he stated he didn't like turkey and chose to eat an apple and some "clean" mac and cheese. I say "clean" because the mac had been baked and so his first serving had some browned pieces from the baking which he said he could not eat because it was dirty. We served him a second round and made sure that there were no baked brown pieces, he happily ate it since it was now clean.

Today we put up our tree. Here are the boys setting up the lights. Anthony said it was very pretty and liked all the colorful lights.

I am loved

I came home from a long 4 hour meeting that didn't end until 9:15 on Thursday. I was exhausted and not in the happiest of moods until I saw this on our fireplace.



This is what my guys do while I am away. They talk about how much they love Mommy.