Trying to stay positive..

We spent another afternoon at the park. It was a little hard for me to clear my head though. Today I went to the central enrollment center to give them our acceptance letter into base housing and to enroll AJ into Pre K for the Elementary school on base. Well, the enrollment began 3 days ago and now there is a waitlist for the Pre K. They said chances are, AJ will not be going to Pre K. I feel so disappointed. AJ and I were both excited about him starting school. I really believe that Pre K and early education would have really benefited AJ. If I can't find a solution to this, AJ, Ronde, and Jamal will begin daycare in January since I will be starting the Nursing program then. I talked to one of my best friends, Sam, today and she reminded me to think positively and if AJ won't get into Pre K, that I can still give him the education he needs from home. So I will be buying some work books and more arts and crafts supplies for AJ and Ronde, and we will do our own Pre K from home.

Park and Panera

Yesterday evening, we went to a nature trail near our house. There are 3 playgrounds along the trail. We always go for a long walk first then afterwards, we take the boys to the playground. There were a lot of kids out there playing so it was good for my boys to interact with other boys their age. They usually only play with girls since that's all my friends seem to have. Thank goodness T-Ball season is a week away!!





After the park, we went to Panera to grab some dinner to go. It's so cute that my boys love Panera since that's where Andre and I met for the first time. Ronde loves the french onion soup. Jamal and AJ love their macaroni and cheese.

Enjoying the small things

I will miss his toothless grins..

these little toes..

Yogurt covered smiles..

I just love my boys imaginations. Playing guns while Ronde has his shirt tucked into his underwear and wearing goggles. He would make a cute police officer one day.

Base Housing

Today has been stressful. We were offered a second house on base. The first house I turned down because it was a very old town home. I had my fingers crossed that the next house that was offered to us would be one of the nice brand new homes on base. Just our luck, we were offered another old house built in the 1950's that will be torn down in 2013. We have no choice but to accept the house or we will be put at the end of the wait list again.
There are some good features about the house. It has an extremely shaded yard which will be nice for summer time. It has a big fenced backyard and the street seems very quiet. You just have to drive past all the big fancy houses to get to ours..haha. I know we will be moved out of this house into a new house eventually when they tear ours down to build new houses. I will just have to be patient. May 23rd is the day we move!

Tuesday

Just a normal day around the house. I completed 2 quizzes for school this morning. I only have 2 more weeks left of this semester and I'm feeling accomplished. I'm ready to move on to the next semester..summer session. AJ and Ronde got puzzles for Easter. AJ is amazing at putting together puzzles.

Here are more of Jamal's funny faces. Every time I'm about to take a picture of his, he scrunches up his face. I guess that's his way of smiling for the camera..haha!

Jamali

Jamal has been full of personality these past couple days. He makes the funniest faces (as seen in the top right corner..no he wasn't crying). Mostly he is becoming so independent. He's figured out that he doesn't have to open his mouth to eat food if he doesn't feel like it. Jamal has also been an attention hog lately. He will start to cry if you aren't playing with him. I can't complain though because he brings so much joy to me everyday. I just hope some of his grumpiness is coming from teething. I just can't wait to see that first tooth!!

ps. I call him Jamali most of the time =)

Easter

I think we've had the best Easter this year by far with all the Easter events and egg hunts we had. It made my day when AJ came running in my bedroom this morning yelling "The Easter Bunny came!! Come look at what I got." I love seeing them all excited about things. I'm pretty sure the only thing my kids ate today was candy.
I baked some cornbread to bring over to our friend's Julie and Emerson's house for Easter dinner. Julie pretty much had all the food under control. We ate corned beef, collard greens, red potato wedges,deviled eggs, and cornbread. Jamal ate a little bit of everything except the eggs. After our early dinner, we did another Easter Egg hunt with the kids in the house. It has been pouring rain all day. The kids really enjoyed themselves and kept each other entertained.

Spring Portrait with Friends

I thought this was such a cute portrait of the kids. It was taken at the Eggstravaganza Event. These are AJ and Ronde's friends.. Mimi, Sergio, and Leilani.

Harrah Easter Eggstravaganza

We went to another Easter event with some good friends of ours, Julie and Emerson, and their kids. It was a completely free event including hot dogs, snow cones, cotton candy, popcorn, face painting, balloons, about 7 inflatable bouncy houses and slides. The Easter Bunny was there again. We missed the Easter Egg hunt but we will be doing our own tomorrow on Easter. We had a great time. I'm glad the kids got to see their friends.
Tomorrow we will be going to Julie and Emerson's house to celebrate Easter. I hope everyone has a great day tomorrow!

iPhone Pictures of Jamal

Since we were so sick these past 2 weeks, I never got around to posting Jamal's 7 month old post. He will be 8 months soon! So I decided to share some iPhone pictures I've taken of Jamal over the past month. He is such a ham! I love him dearly. I always have my phone handy so sometimes it's the first thing I grab to take pictures of Jamal. So what has he been up to these days?...

Eats 6-8 ounce bottles
Wears size 3 and sometimes size 4 diapers
Weighs 20.3 lbs
Wears size 12-18 month clothes. I still can't believe it!
Still sleeps through the night
Eats yo baby yogurts
Drinks juice
Officially on table foods.
Hates eating baby foods..he'll whine and cry the whole time
I feed him soft fruits, veggies, whole grain bread, rice, cheerios, and mashed potatoes
He just learned how to clap. So exciting!!
He wants to get into everything including the baby wipes. He tries to pull them out of the package.
Obsessed with my gold necklace that I wear everyday.
Still not crawling but he can hold his whole upper body up with his arms.
Sits and rolls like a pro
Still sleeping through the night and takes 2 naps a day
Twirls his hands and feet just like AJ did when he was a baby
No teeth yet
I love when I pick him up out of his crib after naps..he grabs onto me like a panda bear and holds me so tight.
He makes the funniest little faces..you will see from the pictures below

I think I covered everything but I usually end up forgetting something. He is so amazing and we love him so much!