peekaboo! here I am!

Yess I haven't posted in 9 days. First, there was a big confusion with a good friend of mine and she ended up in jail. After that got figured out, I had to have her back because I consider her family. We got that figured out, for the most part. soon after that, Thursday, Shawn started saying he had a sore throat. I figured it was allergies and tried to get him rested and on some meds. Friday he was sucking down cough drops all day at work and went from a little sick to totally not right. Saturdat it was even worse, he couldn't open his mouth to speak, couldn't eat, couldn't do much of anything except take medicine and sleep. Shawn NEVER gets sick.. EVER. So this was a huge deal.

He stayed home on Easter and just slept while I went to my Aunts and spent time with the family, and Gizelle went with her Wely & Welo to a party. When we got home all he wanted to do was sleep more. I didn't know what else to do. I was up till 4 am with stress and insomnia. Shawn woke up in the middle of the night and went to the other bedroom so he could stretch out. I felt so bad. I went back to sleep, and woke up to him nudging me in tears. it was 8 am. Well hello there final straw.

Off I went, texting anybody who might be awake to drive us to the hospital because there was no way in hell I was going to let him drive like that. Good old Brittany, thankfully she has been staying at her dads right up the street and she is an early bird. She knows that Shawn doesn't cry and is never ill and never complains, so the fact that he is all three at once was declared an emergency. Off the the VA Hospital we went. A few hours in, the figured out the issue. Like I had suspected there was a bad infection, and to my suprise, there was a huge abcest growing on his tonsil. They drained it, 4 cc's of pus. Yum. 

Oh, did I mention that this was our 3 year anniversary? Yea, spent the whole day of our anniversary in there. We made plans that he would take me to get my tattoo on our special day, but that was the last thing on my mind, apparently the first thing on his. Like a soldier, he declared our plan a "mission". and Like a soldier, this mission wasn't over. He started telling me that he wants me to go get it done and for Brittany to be my rent-a-husband. I declined, but when he actual started crying, pretty much begging me to go, I considered. The nurse over heard everything and told me that he would be sleeping the majority of his stay and for me to not feel bad going to do anything I had to do. FINE. I will go get tattood. I think I understood his point After they said he was being admitted. I was just sitting there and I couldn't make him better. Poor Brittany was just sitting in the waiting room. She was thrilled to be my rent-a-husband. Off we went.

Isn't it beautiful? Its the Phillies Phanatic, pretty much the same one that is on the carton of Batter Up ice cream by turkey hill, except for WAY more detailed. I must say, if you are local and you want a tattoo, go to Sinktheink.net and check them out because they are AWESOME! When we got back to the hospital afterwards, he was just getting to his room. In fact, admissions told us what room he was in and we got there before he did! He stayed the night and the swelling went down and he is okay. Not 100% back to normal but he is getting there.

I think that sums it all up for now.  Friday, April 29th is my birthday! I cant wait to sit next to my love and watch the phillies play in some amazing seats. Look forward to pics of that!!!

xoxo - Katie

Hippity Hoo Blaaah

Just another weekend.. Yesterday I spent the majority of the day alone with the girls at home. We cuddles on the couch on a rainy Saturday and watched lots of Disney movies. Aubrey and I played on the doodle board. She mastered spelling out her name at age 1, but I wanted to go a little bit further with it. I would write her name and we would go over what each letter sounded like. She did great. We moved on to mommy, and daddy, and drum. She was playing with her toy drum a little bit before, so it was fitting. I love that Aubrey is so hungry for knowledge and enjoys education. She did so good, and she always makes me proud. I thought, I never did this with Gizelle. I mean, I know she can't sound out letters, but like I said before, to Gizelle her name isn't Gizelle. It's her sign name which is a G in ASL tapped on her cheek. So, since the deaf diva was getting jealous, I thought what the hell lets give it a shot.

I wrote her name she looked at it, looked at me, signed a G then did her sign name. She hasn't totally mastered her alphabet, but she knows a good bit of it. She eventually signed the rest of the letters, and I was proud of her. She has been playing alot of games on NickJr.com and she really likes the ABC games. I must say, though my kids are completely different, they are both beautiful and brilliant. And they both are artist in their own way. Aubrey likes to sing, dance, and play toy instruments (she has been begging for a guitar). Gizelle is fantastic with paper and pen or markers or whatever, even the doodle pad. The doodle pad is a curse and a blessing. It's not messy and is an easy clean up, but if she makes a mistake, shes mad because she has to erase her art.

Pretty good, huh?  She is excellent at drawing facial expressions. the slanted eyebrows and squiggle mouth of a mad face, she makes sure the eyes are bigger then the tears in her crying face. I love her. I think art is so important. I had a huge mirror that I found on craigslist that was from somebodys dresser. We used to sit with washable markers and draw everything we could think of, and she loved using wipes to clean up her mess.

Luckily, I have Shawn here all day today. Yesterday he had to help out a close family friend for the day. Today, he is all ours on this lazy Sunday. I decided that we are going to walk in the March of Dimes, or the March for Babies. I haven't had a preemie baby, infact Gizelle was right on time, and Aubrey almost a week late. I still want to do this. It was hard picking a team name. Every body has names like Adams Angels and things like that. I was half tempted to make mine Just Because. Shawn said we should call ourselves Team Super Cool. I actually considered it. I have never done a walk before, so I just pictured us being called for something "Could Team Super Cool please approach this area?" Yea, so that was out of the question. I came up with "Big Steps for Little Toes". Not really for anybody inparticular, but still for the babies. Perfect.

I don't really like to promote myself. Not me, not my blog, not anything. But if for some reason you want to donate money to our team, Here is our teams link. I told Aubrey she can pick the amount she wants to donate in her name. She declined to 20. I said, 15, she said No even more so like now I am being cheap. I said then how much? She said, 28. so 28$ it is for her. Silly little girls.

Maybe I will write more later, as for now, I am going to hang out with mi familia.

xoxo - Katie

By the way, Thank you all for reading, as always. I see so many page views, but only 7 followers =( If you read the blog regularly, don't forget to follow so I can see who you people are. I appreciate all the views either way! 

Good Days Make Good Blogs =)

Today was a little backwards for my  girls. Usually, Gizelle is the pain in the butt and Aubrey is the angel. They must have had a mental plot against me today. Aubrey and I slept in today which was nice. We came downstairs and colored. She came to me with a green marker and said " I want to color the Phanatic" So I started a google journey to find coloring pages of the Phillies Phanatic. I printed out 2 because I still love to color. Even though she came to me with the right color marker for the job, she decided to color him pink, which I total support because I am all for thinking outside of the box. Shortly after, she takes off her diaper and says she has to pee pee. I already had the potty set up for her, but sometime between those time frames, she took out the pot and put the lid on, so after applauding her for taking another step into big girl world, I realized she actually peed into the hole and soaked the carpet. Never the less, she did sit on the potty and peed so I couldn't be mad.

How does she take her next big girl step? She taked all the markers out into the hallway and sits on the bottom step, takes all the lids off, and colors the hallway green and brown. Aubrey was introduced to time out. She is not a fan. She told me she is so so sorry and promised to never do it again, and accepted the "no coloring for the rest of the day" punishment. Even when she is in trouble, she still talks like such an adult.

Gizelle comes home and is such an angel *insert death by shock here*. I was extremely pleased to read that she had a great day at school, and that the teachers came to an agreement. Gizelle is currently in a half ASL class and a half hearing class since she is a cochlear implant user. She doesn't wear it at all so she actually doesn't benefit from it at all. We have been talking about getting her switched, but since it is so far into the school year it might be too overwhelming for her. The teachers decided that once a week Gizelle will spend her morning in the strictly ASL class where I think she will do amazing. And as a bonus, a nice lady name Melissa will be coming into her class twice a week and she will be spending one-on-one time with Gizelle and working on her ASL which she is already mastering.

Gizelle impressed me today with her signing. The disney princesses, we know as Belle, Aurora/Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, etc, and not as easy to explain to a deaf child. This is where "name signs" come in. To Gizelle, her own name is not Gizelle. It is a "G" in ASL tapped on her cheek, since she has chubby cheeks. So when I asked her who the princesses were, well, I recorded her response.

She said Ariel was "fish", Jasmine was "hat/tiara", Cinderella was "shoes", Belle was "book" and of course Aurora was "sleep". Gizelle always impresses me with her signs/expressions. Ever since I can remember, she has memorized movies, action by action. Before I even knew she was deaf, we had the intro dance to the Backyardigans down pat. Now, shes like a ninja with her eyes! She doesn't miss anything. I love her so much.

She went to sleep early, thank goodness. Shawn decided to take Aubrey to bed, and the dogs followed. I am up with no noise other then TV. This is a rare moment in mommy-dom for me! I am going to continue enjoying my peace now.

I hope everybody has a lovely weekend!!

Oh by the way, I am over 300 views now! This honestly makes me very happy! I see alot of blogs do contests and things of that nature. I would love to do something like that, but I would not have the slightest idea what to do. I mean, I don't really have a make up blog, I don't make or sell anything, hmm.. I guess I will think more into it. I am open to any ideas. Feel free to comment or email me if you have any suggestions.

xoxo - Katie

 KDiamond215@gmail.com

Quick Note. [ DEF FAMILIA ]

Gizelle and I walked in the Fashion Show at her school a few weeks ago, and unfortunately we did not get to stay for the whole thing. I remember hearing the school was selling Def Familia shirts, and I just thought some of the students made some type of group. If I had known ahead of time I wasn't going to stay for the whole show, then I would have bought some shirts and actually found out who Def Familia was.

( Picture taken from their facebook page here )

Today, I was just thinking about a bunch of stuff. For some reason, Def Familia ran through my mind. Google here I come. Def Familia, is a group from New Jersey that makes music and has a goal of uniting the deaf and hearing worlds. They are amazing. I wish I would have stayed to see them perform. You can look them up at www.deffamilia.com Honestly, I looked them up on youtube, and the first video I watched just had me with my jaw dropped. here it is.

 I just wanted to give them the mention that they deserve. If you just read a little about them and watch a few of their videos, maybe you will feel the same. I hope they don't stop doing what they do, I doubt they will.  If they happen to read this, then much love and I am honestly impressed and am so glad to see somebody doing this. I can't wait for Gizelle to get home from school so I can show her the video. I don't know why, but I always get hype when I find videos or things in ASL and Gizelle just looks at me like "I don't care leave me alone". I could imagine being in the room with say, a chinese person, and everytime the chinese person found a video in english they were like LOOK LOOK LOOK. I guess I just don't think it through sometimes. Anyway, I hope you all enjoy my find, and Def Mafia, I hope to see more awesome posts/videos from you guys so you can be re-mentioned here at Mother Of A Deaf Diva.

xoxo- Katie

Suprise! No .. Not really.. [.s.m.h.]

Uggh. So.. Last night, wsa pretty calm and great. I updated my phone and lost all my numbers, which means I had lost Gizelles fathers contact number, which means it wasn't on my block list. I am not trying to shield him out of Gizelles life, just mine. I am done with the crap, the threats, the fact that I have to break Gizelles heart every time he doesn't follow thru with his word. Life has been alot less stressful since I blocked him to be honest. Now, he calls. And I answer. He says Hello??? I hang up. He calls again, and leaves a voicemail. I mean clearly he's upset, but because of the episode that happened last weekend, so is everybody. (see blog title "drama in paradise" for info)

He left some random words, "you right, im mad too. I know your mad, don't put Gizelle in the middle of it" etc.. Gizelle isn't in the middle of anything. This is our battle. Gizelle still picks up her play phone and says she is talking to daddy and I smile and tell her daddy loves you & tell him I said Hi. Now, if I was putting Gizelle on the middle and being a terrible parent I would have threw her phone and told her that Daddy is all gone and tell him bye or something. But no. Gizelle loves her father, as he does her. I would never destroy their bond. It's beautiful. I just need to figure out how I am going about things right now. I word that is on my mind. Custody. I have been back and forth with this word for the past 2 years. Now I am almost positive this is what needs to be done. I do not.. not not not not want child support. I know everybody says she is his child so he should support her, but I do not want or need his money.

All I want is for him to be her father, or to not be her father. I don't want it to be a back and forth she only sees him once a month or whatever. Its not like any other kid. She just can't say I miss my dad, can I call him? She just can't explain how she feels about things. She just can't say exactly what is on her mind. All she can do, is know she's mad and kick and scream. She can know she is happy and smile and act crazy. She knows she is sad and she pucks her lip out and cries. Our situation is far far different then any other.

He has no idea of any thoughts I have on this, so if you are reading this, now you do. If you find out through whoever, then so be it. You would have found out anyway. He called me again. Telling me if he finds out I am trying to keep Gizelle away from him, then he will.. we will just say do very very seriously terrible things to me. And.. he left on my voicemail and gave me permission to use it against him in court. Hmm, apparently I am not the only one think about legal actions.  Kind of relieving, but why would you say much horrible things and give me permission to use it in court? Weird huh?

He called a bunch of times last night, ALL night at that. He even had the audacity to call my mothers cell phone at midnight. I told Shawn, after talking about everything because it has been stressful on all of us, that I can keep ignoring him, but I give it a week and he will be knocking at the door. Sure enough, he knocked on the door around noon, asking to talk. I declined, and tried to explain to him that I am done with everything and that if, for some reason, something happens and I need to contact him then I will. He told me he will stop calling me. Deal. I think ? My mind is on overload with all of this. I really don't feel like dealing with the court, and fees, and lawyers, and all that. I don't feel like dealing with his threats, his ignorance, his mouth and attitude. I guess you can't have your cake and it it too.

Insanity.. I know.. once again, I hope this blog doesn't bite me in the butt.

xoxo- Katie

Oh the madness =)

SO.. Yesterday went okay. Gizelle got to spend a few hours at her Wely & Welo's with her cousins. I love for her to spend as much time with those cousins because she doesn't get to see them as often as alot of her other cousins. We came home and relaxed. I suddenly remembered, crap.. Gizelle's Spring Fling performance is bright and early in the morning!! You would have thought I was psycho trying to rush everybody to bed the way I did. Aubrey likes to sleep till 10 in the morning (which I TOTALLY don't mind sometimes) so I really needed to get her to bed ASAP! She ended up passing out around 11:30 pm, and I of course had to battle my insomnia like it was a war. Am I the only one that when I have something really important to do the next day I end up waking up every few hours and checking the clock? Maybe I am just crazy.

I woke up for good around 6:30 in the morning, Shawn was long gone for work. I tried to creep out of the room and not wake up anybody. I did Gizelles hair, put hair bows in that matched her outfit, as if she would have had any part of that otherwise. Of course, the diva STILL needed to find a way to fit her tiara over her hair bows. This, was the end result.

Uh yeah.. sure Gizelle.. Nobody can ever was you were a boring child, and Unique would be way to mild of a word to describe her. She looks mad because we were arguing about why she cant wear dress shoes because its raining. After she was off to school. I went to go sneak upstairs so I could get ready. To my surprise, "MOMMY YOUR BACK!" was the first thing I heard. Aubrey? I was shocked she was not just awake, but SO awake! She was so excited to get ready. The girls love when I do my make up (I am addicted, I confess) and occassionally I but a little bit of a natural color of eyeshadow on them. Aubrey got a little bit of light brown, barely noticable, but she knew it was there and was excited.  She, too, needed hair bows.

She was sneezy because of the wind. But, she did love her bus ride. She is always excited to go to school, even if its Gizelles. Gizelle performed, she struggled a little bit at first, but she ended with her and the two other girls in her class making a triangle using all 3 of their bodies.

Blurry, of course, because I was in the back and only had a camera phone, but you can tell which one she is. We actually stayed for each classrooms performance because Aubrey was so into all the new songs and signs. I went to take her to get her diaper changed, and in the middle of doing that she decides to belt out the "Colors of the Rainbow" song from Signing Time. I heard a few giggles in the hallway and knew she had a secret audiance.

She was excited to go to the store. I was too, after I seen they had umbrella strollers for 16 bucks. I tried looking for a new one at a few stores. I think Target's cheapest one was like $35! I was dissapointed, because I love Target. Atleast the kid has a stroller now. Living in Philly with all these hills, me not driving, and 2 girls under 5? Yea, we need one of those..

And the grand finale of the day (so far..It's still early.. ya know.. ) We come in and let Tessa out of the crate. Not only did she apparently poop in it, but it looked like she rolled around in it like a pig. Well, I gave her a bath and it wasn't as hard as I had thought. Now I just need to bleach the tub and buy new washcloths. But hey, It beats having a poopy dog running around.

And yet, the day is far from over. Oh crap, what am I cooking for dinner?

.. My brain never rests.

xoxo - Katie

Out and About [busy.busy.busy]

Yesterday was a good day! I didn't write last night because I just had the alot of my mind and I needed to spend some time with my bed. I am guilty of not taking Aubrey to go get her toy for going on the potty yet, but I keep telling her that if you go pee pee on the potty you get presents, and she is atleast putting in the effort by sitting on the potty.

It was nice having Shawn off for a day. We went food shopping, then came home. I love getting Gizelle off the bus when the dogs are sitting at the front door watching thru the glass. They are her big protectors. My mom said the other day she went to put her on the bus, and she had Tessa out with her, and Tessa decided to get on the bus and just smell it out then got off. Weirdo dogs.

I started getting the girls ready for a busy day. Aubrey decides to wear this adorable jean-colored skirt that Aunt Maureen bought her, and an orange tank top. I had an idea for her her hair. It all started the night before, I got her out of the tub and was brushing her hair, and wanted to play with it. Aubrey could care less.

I thought it was pretty cute. They aren't tight. Oh, and that ice cream she is eating, is DELICIOUS. I love coldstone's cake batter ice cream, BUT Breyers & the Phillies combined and made this delcions ice cream called Batter Up which I am now addicted to. Anyway. I ded Aubreys hair, and Gizelle.. uggh.. Gizelle decides she wants to wear her shirt and skirt she wore to school, plus her headband, plus a tiara, plus 1 little tiny plastic hair clip, AND a light weight jacket, dress shoes and socks, and sunglasses. Plus her purse stocked with 2 different lipglosses, some nail polish, her disney princess perfume Aunt Brittany bought her (which smells like cotton candy and I steal some sometimes), and whatever else she could fit. Keep in mind, it was 83 degrees here yesterday. We were off to the park where there is a playground and my nephew Justin was playing baseball. I wore jeans and a shirt and I was hot. Gizelle didn't fight me when I asked her to take her coat off, but she didn't trust me with her purse. She carried this thing up every piece of gym equiptment, down every slide, etc.

My friend Laura and her son Damien were there and it was nice seeing her. I miss having talks with adults. It was a little funny, because 5+ years ago, me, her, and a whole lot of other people would sit exactly where we were sitting that day, for hours and days being teenagers and hanging out. If somebody would have told me then that now at this moment I would be sitting her chasing around my 2 beautiful kids with my husband, I probably would have laughed in your face. It is funny how things turn out.

After the long playground adventure, and Justins team winning (yay!), we had little to no time to waste. We had to jump in the car, drop my mom off, then go to Gizelles school for a meeting about planning for the ASDC conference in June. I have never left Aubrey with anybody that wasnt shawn or I, My mom, or Shawns mom and their household. The school provides babysitters for alot of stuff like this. People looked at me like I was crazy when I pep talked Aubrey. I told her "Now Boog, alot of the kids you are going to play with are like Gizelle and can't hear so we need to use Sign Language with them." We went over the important ones "Please", "Thank you" and "Sorry". I deemed her ready to run with the big dogs. I knew she wasn't just going to walk off with strangers, so I told them I would walk her the the playground they have on premisis and we will see how it goes. I told her, Mommy and Daddy will be right upstairs so if you want to come up just tell the big girls you want mommy or daddy. She said okay, and that she wanted to walk. I put her down, and she took off chasing the babysitter down the hall. She opened the door and Aubrey let out a quiet byeee and took off. *tear, tear*

She went thru the whole meeting from 6-7:45 without any trouble. The school is very good were if she would have even scraped her knee they would have ran up and told me. I was very impressed, and very proud. Some of the babysitters asked me what her name was and told me how perfect and adorable that she is. See it's not just me! Haha. At this point, I think we were all pretty beat. I decided that before we make our last stop we should drop the girls off at home with my mom since the could really use some down time. We had to go to Shawns mom and "have a talk with the boys" aka, Shawns nephews, Tony & Malachi, did something bad and since my husband is the greatest man since sliced bread (self procclaimed, lol) and thier dads are either rarely around and/or not great examples at all. Shawn is the main male role model in their lives, and it makes me proud.

 The boys recently had the privilage of getting a brand new PS3, and we even bought them a paddle because it only comes with 1. Tony, 13, decided to curse out his mother and say and do alot of very uneccessary things that made alot of people upset with him. I was pretty dissapointed. I know that he has been wanting a PS3 for awhile. me and Shawn even made a deal with him. If he goes to school every day and pulls his grades back up, which he can do the work he just says its boring so he doesn't do it, and chooses not to go to school. The deal, was that if he can do that, and stop being mean to his brother, then we will buy him a PS3. Withing 2 weeks he blew it, and gave his mom a hard time and didn't go to school. And now, a few months later, his mom bought him one, and after what happened, she called us saying she is going to sell it. I told Shawn we are going to buy it. We already have one, but we can have one for upstairs and downstairs, and the boys can know its safe. Maybe if they know that we have it, and if they want it back bad enough, they will stop misbehaving.

It was a long long day, and I was just ready to go to bed. Today, well.. I'll just write more later. =)

xoxo- Katie