Wisdom from Grandpa

Grandpa Mike says, "Life isn't all green beans.  Right AJ?"

AJ says, "It's corn too." =)

Those People

I was trying to convince AJ to wear jeans as he rarely does... he responds, "Mom, those are for people in France and Paris." 

Duh!!!  Or as he says, "der da der"!

The Greatest Mother's Day Ever

 This Mother’s Day was the greatest I’ve ever had.  AJ was asking for days if that day was "the day".  When it finally was the real day, Auntie Megan was in our bedroom very early to pick up Alliana.  Alli had spent the night at our home.  We had all went to an Angel’s game the night prior and were exhausted from yelling and staying after super late to get a few autographs.  AJ slept in my bed (twin size!) and awoke to me telling Megan where my car keys were.

                He heard Alli telling me “Happy Mother’s Day Auntie Dani” and he sat up quickly.  He verified that this day was truly Mother’s Day and then said, “I’ll be right back”.  He ran downstairs and came back up with a card stapled to a lunch bag.  He made both in school just for me. :) He eagerly handed over his gift to me and said, “Happy Mother’s Day Mama!”  

                The card had a handmade picture of me with brown yarn string hair.  I had a gorgeous necklace, rosy cheeks, and a beautiful smile.  It obviously is a perfect representation of me. :)

Inside it said:

• Around my house, my Mom always has to "keep me safe".

• She likes to "do fun stuff" but she doesn't like to "go to work". 

• She cooks lots of "breakfast" for us. 

• My Mom looks prettiest when "she is anywhere".  

• My favorite thing about my mom is "she is here". 

  The bag was beautifully decorated.  Inside was an adorable handmade gift.  It was a frame made out of four popsicle sticks with pieces of puzzles glued to them.  The puzzles were flower pictures and inside the frame was a picture of him and the words surrounding his picture said, “I love you to pieces”. 

                                 What made mother’s day most special was that AJ was so excited to give me his gift.  He followed it up with a sweet, gentle kiss and my favorite words in the whole world, “I love you, Mama”.  Throughout the day he brought me flowers he picked and gave them to me with another tender kiss and my favorite four words.

                Oh AJ, how I wish I could keep you as my little boy forever.  As I’ve found myself thinking all along, this surely must be his greatest age.

                I LOVE YOU, MY BOY!

AJ's First Attempt at a Full-Sized Basket... Score!

AJ is TOTALLY into about handball.  I've never seen him so driven about anything yet.  I love it!  While playing handball out front on the garage one day (as we do almost every day after school), I shot the handball in the basket. 

He had fun with the idea and wanted me to keep shooting it.  I talked him into taking a try.  He was resistant at first, saying, "I can't make that, it's too tall". 

He's been taking a basketball class with the local parks and recreation department and is loving it.  He's showing great improvement, but has never even attempted at a full-sized basket. 

Well he finally gave it a shot... AND HE MADE IT!!!  It was awesome.  He even made it in the second time as well. 

So fun seeing him break through his limitations and achieve success! :)

True Talent

Alliana and AJ performed in the talent show this year.  They sang a song that is one their friends know and has a beautiful meaning, Firework.  We had a blast from the preparation to the final show. 

Here is a fun video of the kids going a bit crazy after non-stop practice.

And here was the big show! 

They had a blast with the face paints and loved receiving flowers at the end.  They loved that their friends joined in to sing along.  There was a bit of problem with the sound...  AJ's microphone was very quiet, but Alli found a creative solution (that AJ wasn't crazy about) :).

Mr. Business Man

AJ, Megan, Alliana, Victor and I were hanging out at an ice cream shoppe after school, having gotten a special treat for Alli's 11th Birthday.  I took the opportunity to discuss the upcoming science fair with Megan.  I thought it would be great if Alli and AJ did a project together as it would be there last chance ever (this is the one and only year they will ever be at the same school due to their age difference).

I showed the form to Megan and AJ walked up to the table.  He said, "I'll fill it out" and whipped out a Sharpie marker from his shorts pocket.  He started filling out the form like a little business man making a sale.  It was sooooo cute.  You could see how much he loved having this marker in his pocket. 

Later he made sure that if he ever lost this Sharpie he could get a replacement.  We bought our first replacement yesterday. :)

AJ's First Hike!

A couple weekends ago some of my girlfriends invited me to go on a hike with them in El Moro Canyon, between Newport Beach and Laguna Beach. It sounded great! I have been wanting to hike for months now, especially with other moms and kids. I've been looking for a way exercise with AJ, in which we can enjoy each other and have fun too. Health is definitely becoming more valuable to me and I want to instill that into AJ. This was the perfect opportunity for us!

The other kids going were at least 10. AJ is 6 1/2... that is quite a difference. I had hesitations about going, but decided we should just get out there and try it; we'd learn along the way.

Sunday morning we met the group at 9am. AJ had a great attitude, but had no idea what we were about to do. He liked the fact that other friends were with us though. We started to walk the trails and learned that many were closed as they had been washed out in heavy rains in the few weeks prior. We found one that was open.

We walked up a large hill... up and up and up. About 10 minutes into it, it became obvious that our pace was slower than the rest of the group. AJ started whining about having asthma and his legs hurting and everything going wrong. I tried to motivate him through it. I told him lets go slow and steady, not worry about staying with the group, and just give it our best try to get on top of the hill. After some coaching, he pulled through.

We not only made it to the top of that mountain, but continued on three miles out! It was continuously up and down, not many flat stretches to relax on. At one point, we reached the bottom of an extremely steep hill. It was very symbolic. I saw it coming up and tried to motivate AJ beforehand to know that he could make it. I took some great pictures of him working his way up that big mountain. He made it up, slowly and steadily, without much of a problem at all. I was so proud!

On another part of the trail, we found fossils! Dirt had washed away from the recent rains to uncover five fossilized shells on the path. One was very large and they were all in perfect shape. It was awesome to see them in nature - and even more awesome to share that with my son.

On the way back, AJ tripped on a loose rock and scraped his knee pretty badly. He was very upset to see it bleeding. I picked him up and carried him for a few minutes. I cuddled with him and told him he'd be okay and that we just needed to make it back but that I couldn't carry him the whole way. I put him back down and he just kept right on going.

Shortly before making it back, it started sprinkling rain. We just stayed focused and before long it was done. AJ was the youngest kid on the entire trail. Many adults looked at him surprised that he was out there.

Throughout the six mile hike, AJ kept a great attitude. He was not always all smiles, but he tried his best - and did an EXCELLENT job! I was amazed this boy could go that far and long. He helped motivate me as well. As soon as we got down the hill he said, "I miss it up there". CUTIE!

YEAAAHHHH AJ!!!!! I love you baby!