The Williams Family: July 2010

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

Summer 2010

I was discussing with Michael this morning what happened to the summer. Michael goes back to work in a couple weeks and he has training all week next week. I asked him what have I done this summer? Here was his answer:

Lot's of stuff!

We went to Phoenix, Arizona for a few days over Father's Day weekend. Michael loves the Yankees, so we saw a game against the Arizona Diamondbacks and stayed at the Arizona Biltmore, a 5 Star Hotel from the Waldorf Astoria Collection for only $90 a night! Great deal. They had 8 pools and a waterside. Courtney and Eric babysat Isabella (first long time away from us- she did great!), and Ed and Teresa watched Alexander. It was truly a relaxing vacation. The speeding cameras every mile on the freeway are absolutely ridiculous, but aside from that, we had a wonderful time.

We went camping in Barton Flats (on the way to Big Bear) with Michael's family for a week after the 4th of July. Catherine came down from San Jose to join everyone. Isabella slept little, and Alexander didn't like the bugs buzzing by his ears, but aside from that, the weather was great, the food was tasty, and we had a fun time. My favorite part was the smores by the campfire each night, and watching the millions of stars in the sky each night. The sky was bluer, the trees greener, and the clouds poofier. The air was fresh, and bike rides were fun. There were hot showers and flush toilets. Bonus! We even purchased a new tent (our first!) for the occasion. We also needed one for our emergency supplies.

Summer Signing Time! I have been planning, preparing, and teaching Summer Signing Time, Baby Signing Time, and Kinder Signing Time Classes all summer. I am just finishing up a 6 week course at the Yucaipa Community Center with 7 families. I just also concluded 2 back to back 4 week courses through the Beaumont Adult School. I taught Baby Signing Time at 9am, then Kinder Signing Time at 10am. We had a lot of fun. The curriculum for the older class was new, so that meant a lot more prep time for me for each lesson. Each week I teach two days a week. Before starting at the Adult School (Parent Academy), I taught every week for 8 weeks at the Banning Public Library.

Two Little Hands Productions: I am the Co-Author of Enhancing Literacy Instruction Through Signing Time, and How to Use Signing Time in the Classroom. These are two separate guides that are 10 pages each that I wrote with two different people from the Signing Time Academy. They can be downloaded for free from www.SigningTime.com. They each took a lot of time to research, write, review, and edit. That took up a lot of my time this summer. I read the book Dancing with Words by Marilyn Daniels in preparation for these packets, as well as for my own information. The book discusses the research and benefits of using sign language with hearing children.

Read, read, read! I am on a Harry Potter rampage. I have already reread the first 3 volumes of Harry Potter. The last movie comes out in two parts starting this November. I hope to finish all 7 books by then. It may be a challenge when Michael returns to work, and the books double in size for #s 4-7... But, I enjoy the break and love the books. I enjoyed relaxing one day when I drove out to Desert Hot Springs by myself. I soaked in the pools all day and read my book. I also ate yummy chocolate chocolate chip layered cake.

Raising two children. Michael and I have been busy with everyday tasks of raising two little ones. Isabella is 14 months old now, and finally walking. Alexander just turned 3 years old and can't stop talking. We go to Mom's Club activities together (Petco Tour, Cherry Valley Nursery Tour, park playdates, Father's Day crafts, Kid's Book Club which I host at my home, playgroups, storytimes...) and the Beaumont Library for storytime, learning centers, crafts, and more!

Family Time: We have enjoyed just spending good old fashioned relaxing family time together at home. We enjoy having Michael around and love to play Choo Choos, work in the garden, clean and organize the house, read books, play Star Wars, watch Disney movies (and of course Star Wars), go to Church activities, visit both in-laws (Yucaipa and Moreno Valley, as well as Grandma Iottini's in Riverside), and our favorite is to go to the San Diego Zoo and Wild Animal Park. We have family memberships and love it! We have also visited the San Bernardino County Museum in Redlands. And I also enjoy shopping (without the kids...).

The Bachelorette and So You Think You Can Dance! These were the only two shows on TV that I faithfully watched all summer. I had a goal to have our family watch less TV this summer. Mission accomplished! Our big fancy 55" Sony TV died on the 4th of July and has not been replaced yet.

We celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary on July 16, 2010. We had nice plans of the Farmhouse Restaurant for a nice leasurely breakfast, having both kids babysat by Michael's family, sleeping in, and visiting the Palm Springs Tramway that afternoon and evening... However... Alexander, Michael, and I all got either food poisoning or a stomach flu for 24hr each the day before our anniversary and on the anniversary. Lovely... So now the Palm Springs Tram is back on the to do list.

Walking with the kids: I was awesome at exercising at the beginning of summer. I walked the kids in the double stroller most mornings to the Chatigny Community Center to get free breakfast and lunch. They loved the novelty, and I needed the exercise. The free food ended mid July, and so did my morning walks... It also got really hot for a while... excuses, excuses... Now when we drive by the community center, Alexander points to it and says "dinner!" Too cute!

Swim Lessons: We are both taking swim lessons with the kids in Banning. We are the only two in the class- cheap private lessons!. Alexander is doing great! He finally kicks and paddles in the water. He jumps in with no fear, and can hold onto the sides and scoot from one side of the pool to the other without help. Isabella just kind of chills in the water. The lessons are every weekday for two weeks in the evenings.

Haven't quite done it yet... frequent visits to 24 Hour Fitness in Redlands... cleaning and organizing my storage boxes in the garage... starting the Sole Proprietorship for Little Ones Love 2 Sign! (I did get an EIN number from the IRS... That's progress!), finishing up a Living Trust and Will (I started it at least!), completely catching up with my blog (I'm trying...). Palm Springs Tram.

Thanks yous to Michael... He has kept the entire house clean and organized this summer. He is constantly vacuuming, picking up toys, changing diapers, feeding kids, putting them down for naps, playing Choo Choos, babysitting while I teach and catch up on doctors appointments and go shopping, scubbing floors and showers, vacumming the garage, building storage shelves, doing dishes, and more for our house. He has also spent countless hours in the yard and garden weeding, mowing, relocating plants, and making our garden and front yard beautiful. Thank you, my love!

Sunday, July 25, 2010

Happy 3rd Birthday, Alexander Jordan Williams!

Happy Birthday to You!

We visited the Frugal Frigate bookstore in downtown Redlands. Too cute! They had the little table under the stairs.

Alexander and Mommy went to the Redlands Temple to walk around together for the first time. Mommy and Daddy go every month, but this was Alexander's first visit.

Fun with the sprinklers in the back yard.

Enjoying Daddy's foot massager.

Great Grandma Bobik and Alexander.

What my 2 year old can do... (from a proud mom)

Alexander Jordan Williams will be 3 years old tomorrow, July 26, 2010. This is an exciting time! Before he turns 3 years old, I would like to share what my 2 year old can do...

He frequently says, "It's so good to see you." He learned this from Ms. Laura, the librarian, who comes to our home each month and reads for Kids Book Club (part of Moms Club). She sings a welcome and goodbye song: "Hello, friends, it's so good to see you! (repeated 3 times)...it's so good to see you today." Then in closing, "Goodbye friends, it was good to see you (repeated 3 times)... it was good to see you today!" He also likes to sings the entire song randomly throughout the day. Such a gentleman...

Alexander knows his entire alphabet. He can recognize all 26 uppercase and lowercase letters. He is working on letter sounds. He loves the website www.Starfall.com. It was fun activities with letters and learning to read.

He knows how to count 1-13. When he gets to 13 he just keeps repeating 13... Too funny! He can recognize his numbers.

Alexander loves to listen to stories and "read" books. He will spell words on the page, and all over the house. Mommy has much of the house labeled in hopes that he will start to recognize some sight words and increase his vocabulary. When he is focused, he can listen to a long story and remain engaged the whole time. He will sit and read his books for a long time when he chooses to.

When he was younger, he would stand in his crib and tell long, elaborate, and fanciful stories to himself. He had wonderful expression and was very engaging (although not at all intelligible...).

Alexander is a master puzzle maker. He loves to take apart and put together puzzles. Most puzzles he does have 24-48 pieces. He can do the 24 piece puzzles in a matter of minutes.

He starts preschool at the Wellwood Center in August. This is a county sponsored preschool program to help him with his speech delays and difficulty in following directions in an educational setting. He doesn't perform to well when being tested. He is very stubborn and only wants to do things on his own terms. Most of his delays are in speech, especially with articulation. That doesn't work out too well in public education. After being tested by Beaumont School District, he qualified for the additional support of an IEP and preschool 5 days a week for 3 hours a day. His friend Ryan Smith will be in the same class. We checked it out last month and he loved it! The teacher is great, the playground is wonderful. There are 3 aides (I think), and no more than 12 students. Nice ratios. They have academic centers, storytime, speech pull out time, a listening center, playtime, snacktime, and they are responsible to have a job and help keep the classroom clean. The best part is that it is free (as long as he qualifies- if he is moved out of the program, we are on our own to find a preschool and pay the tuition)!

Alexander still loves Signing Time! He uses his American Sign Language everyday. He enjoys teaching his little sister Bella how to sign new words. He uses his signs to clarify his words. For example, his green is "feen," which Michael and I never understand. To avoid frustration, Alexander automatically signs green when he says "feen" so that we know what he is trying to say. Smart kid. His vocabulary is pretty good is ASL. He knows more words verbally now (when he was 24 month old, he only knew 6 words verbally, yet he had about 2 dozen ASL signs he would use to communicate his needs and feelings). He now knows hundreds of words and picks up more daily from books, Word World and Super Why on PBS, www.Starfall.com, imitation (be careful what you say around him...), library time, his parents, and more!

He is taking swim lessons with Isabella at the Banning Public Pool (private lessons- we are the only ones in our class!). He is actually kicking and paddling in the water (with Michael holding him). He can hold onto the pool's edge and move along from one side to the other. He has no fear with jumping into the water into Michael's arms.

He is still wearing size 5 diapers. He has expressed no interest in potty training... We are getting sick of buying and changing his diapers. The kid looks like a 4 year old! He is 36 pounds (approx) and probably 38" tall. He wears a size 4T shirt and 3T pants.

We went camping for a few days up in Barton Flats with Michael's family. He slept like a champ (Bella did not...). We survived 3 nights of little sleep. Alexander slept in the trailer with Papa and Isabella slept in the tent with Mommy and Daddy (in our arms in the sleeping bag- no pack in play sleep...). Alexander had a great time, except for the bugs that loved to buzz by his ears. He would hold his hands over his ears and say bees all day, even if they were gone. He loved to sit on the bar of the bike and go for a ride (he wore his cousin James' extra Spider man helmet for safety) around the campsite. Aunt Catherine even came down from San Jose for the campout. Fun stuff.

Alexander has memorized his home phone #. It took him less than a week to memorize it. He loves to talk on the phone with his Mema and Papi (Leslie and Gordon) and his Grandma and Papa (Teresa and Ed).

He loves to play with his Daddy's Star Wars toys, and to watch Star Wars movies. He identifies the little toy figurines as men. They are blue men if they have a blue light saber, and green men if they have a green light saber. The toys are special collectibles Michael has had since he was a child. It is very nice of him to share them with Alexander. Unfortunately, some seem to be getting lost, and the collection continues to dwindle.

Alexander will celebrate his 3rd birthday tomorrow with a small birthday party. The theme is Thomas and Friends. He loves Thomas! We are keeping the party small and simple. His cousins James, Marissa, and Ashton will be there, along with a few close friends from church, and the immediate grandparents. Alexander still struggles with sharing, and we don't want too many timeouts or drama with too many kids to share with. Fingers crossed!! Rumor has it he will be getting some new Thomas toys and a kid friendly camera (since he is always trying to take mine). Then, just before preschool starts, a Star Wars backpack will be a special gift. There is also a surprise Thomas insulated lunch bag hiding inside! Such fun... We will have an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen, use the bounce house from Mema and Papi, and let the kids play Choo Choos with Alexander.

Brief Bella update:

Age 14 months

Finally started walking. Happy, fun girl who loves to play with whatever Alexander has. Eats anything and everything in sight. Strong personality. Favors Daddy at the moment. She can say "Ma Ma" but is not consistent with it. Says "ga ga" and "ba ba." Has no official first words yet. Doesn't talk, just babbles and grunts a lot. Not quite the storyteller Alexander was. Uses some basic ASL: eat, more, food, milk, hat, please, thank you, bye, hi!, drink...