TWO!!

So 2 is a great number!
* I have 2 of the most AMAZING kids who absolutely love each other!

Addison LOVES her big brother, and Aiden is so great with her. Always playing with her and sharing even when he doesn't want to. She also does everything he does! Too cute!!

* I love that my kids have 2 parents that absolutely adore them and would do anything for them! Love that my kids have a dad who loves them so much!


*I have the 2 BEST parents in the world! We don't know where we would be without them!!

* My parents have 2 of the most AWESOME children on the planet! ;)

* I am very thankful for my job, and have 2 groups of really great kids!

* And the BEST reason for 2 being a great number...Addison will be 2 in exactly 16 days!! I can't believe she is growing up so fast, but she amazes me more and more every day. Her vocabulary is great, and she has the best little personality! She is our little princess and we love her so much! Absolutely couldn't imagine our lives without her! Happy almost 2nd birthday to my precious "baby" girl!!

Kindness

This past weekend was a difficult and tragic weekend for Tucson. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords was the victim of a pre-meditated shooting. The shooting took place in front of a Safeway and 6 other people lost their lives during this horrible event.
This tragedy has reminded me how much we need to show kindness to everyone, and that there isn't enough kindness in this world. So I decided to show an inspirational video about The Power of Kindness to my students at school. I also challenged them to perform at least 1 simple act of kindness every day for the whole week. I started the challenge by canceling some of their homework for the week! :)
Here is the video in case you're interested in watching.
Kindness

Now I challenge EVERYONE to remember to show KINDNESS to everyone they come across!!

Sick!!!

I hate being sick! Unfortunately for me, it happens often :( I was thinking back, remembering the last few times I've been sick. It seems that I've gotten sick every 3 weeks for the past few months! I guess that's what happens when you have 2 little ones and work with other "little ones"! Here's hoping that after this cold gets better, I don't get anything else in 3 weeks!!
To a HEALTHY New Year!!

Happy New Year

So far 2011 has been pretty great! :) We've had some great family time together and have been working on getting the house more organized! We've even started a new cleaning routine that hopefully should keep things running more smoothly!
Now that it's January, the next thing we have to look forward to is Addison's 2nd birthday! I can't believe my "baby" is going to be 2 this month! Where did the time go? I am really excited for all the new things we can do now that she's getting older! She loves to play with high heels, where my make-up, and let me do her hair. I CAN'T wait until she's old enough to go and get pedicures with me!! :)
Another fun event coming up will be the arrival of the newest member of the family, Andrew Grant Camacho! My baby sister is having a baby!! She's due February 9th, but we really don't think he's going to wait that long to join us! Please send happy baby and easy labor vibes toward my sister!!
May 2011 be the BEST year ever for everyone!

Parenting

Why oh why does parenting have to be so hard? When you throw a special need into the mix, all hell can break loose!
Aiden was recently diagnosed with ADHD. We've tried behavior modification techniques, change in diet (completely eliminated milk and drastically reduced his intake of sugar and artificial colors), and went to parenting classes. Nothing was working and his focus at school was getting worse, so we talked to his doctor some more and decided to start medication, Ritalin. He is on a very low dose in the morning to start, with the possibility of adding an afternoon dose when he goes back to school (he's on Winter Break).
So we started the medicine a couple of days ago and we've noticed a huge difference in his focus and behavior! HOWEVER we had a VERY difficult day today. The kind of day that made me need to run away to Target by myself after Ben got home from work.
I just don't know what else to do! I feel like an absolute failure as a mom! I don't want him to feel like he has to act out to get attention, and I know he doesn't like acting that way, but know he doesn't know what else to do.
I will keep searching for ways to help him and myself with dealing with this obstacle!

Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone has a wonderfully magical Christmas! We are excitedly awaiting Santa's arrival, especially after he (uncle Tim) called Aiden today! Hope Santa is good to everyone tonight! :)

Betty Crocker? Umm...I think NOT!!

So I am not a baker, AT ALL! My kind of baking requires a package of dry cookie ingredients and I can add the egg and oil, even then I usually manage to mess them up somehow!
Well tonight I decided that we would make gingerbread men cookies for Christmas. I got the packaged dough that I didn't even need to add anything to, piece of cake right? WRONG!! Who knew you'd need a rolling pin to roll out the dough? Not me! I don't own one!
So I get the counter all floured up (luckily I actually had four) and break open the package. I read the directions, ROLL THE DOUGH!?! What am I going to do? I know! A glass! That's round right?!? So I flour up the glass (I have some knowledge of baking) and get set to "rock and roll", but what happens? The darn dough sticks to the darn glass! Ugh...so our gingerbread men came out a little lumpy and all different thickness levels, but they sure taste good!
And the most important part? Aiden had a blast cooking with mommy! He LOVED getting flour all over the kitchen, AND mom LOVED it too!! Now I need to go REclean the kitchen!