Calling All Box-Tops!

Hailey's elementary school is collecting Box-Tops for Education labels. I'm asking all my family,friends, and blog-buddies who don't currently collect them for their own children to please start keeping a little pile of these and send them to us each month.

The money earned is going to go towards new playground equipment!! Hailey's school is one of the oldest in W.R. and they have original playgrounds. Her pre-K playground is new, but once she gets to 1st grade she can't play there anymore.... So, if you can help in anyway we'd really appreciate it and so would all the kids at this school!! Plus Jack will be there is just another year so he needs something to look forward to!!

Here are some of the items you will find these labels on:

I'll be posting how many 'Team Hailey' collects at the end of each month. If you'd like to join in the fun (and good cause) just email me at sljohnson0929@yahoo.com and I'll give you a mailing address to send the labels.

January: 10 labels (collected in 2 days!) we had a short notice.

Aspergers Syndrome In Our Eyes Ch. 1

I took these words from this wonderful book. Hailey's psychiatrist recommended it to us and now it is one of my treasured keepsakes.  I'm only doing the first few pages now...I'm going to do a new chapter every now and then. I know when we first got her diagnosis and even when we were just searching online for some answers I soaked up every bit of parental experience I could get from other blogs. Maybe some of these pictures will show another parent they are not alone.

I knew something was different about Hailey by the time she was about 16 months old.

Hailey loves people...but doesn't care too much for touch. She would stay in her crib for hours and never call for me to come get her...she will tell you to stop rubbing her back or touching her hair. If she initiates the contact then it is okay. This is really hard for me because as her mom I want to kiss her, and love on her. She pushes me away a lot. Sometimes she can be really ugly about it and I know it is not personal. But the only affection I get from her is basically our kiss, hug, and special kiss (rub noses) when we say goodbye/goodnight. And they say children need like more than 15 hugs/touches a day (it's probably more than that). Well I'm the mom and I feel like I need more than I'm getting :-)

She would much rather get her loving, caressing feeling from the 4 blankets, 3 pillows, and 15 stuffed animals in her bed.  When she was this age they had to be placed a certain way and only be particular animals.

Her attachment with Bunny and Night-Night started extremely early. I can remember bringing Bunny everywhere by 8months and Night-Night before her 1st birthday. She also loved her Boppy (passie). We waited till she was almost three to break her of it at night, but she was ready and she gave it away to Santa.  Bunny goes to K-4 with her everyday to help with any meltdowns and poor Night-Night has been sewn back together once and is in need of another repair.

When children don't bond well with other people they have an unbelievable way of bonding with animals.  Some animals don't respond well to her 'loudness'...like our old cat, but my mom's dog, Max...they were great buddies! Our current dog Pedro is not as special to Hailey as Max was....her tolerance level is not as high now and she doesn't care for him in her face...he's still quite young and rambunctious.

 

Oh my...we say all the time that she is our little daredevil! She will  climb anything, ride anything, and is an awesome driver! At three years old she could drive a golf cart like a pro!! Right now though, she doesn't realize how dangerous things can be. She thinks she can direct traffic at her school and the cars will just stop because they will see her. I'm having to hold her arm and watch her like a hawk right now because of this obsession with stepping in front of the cars!

So far we haven't had any broken bones (I'm knocking on the computer desk)...but she's been to the hospital with a pencil hole in the roof of her mouth...I've pulled her from oncoming cars in her school parking lot because she want's to 'stop' them, she's fallen out of our trees in the back yard after climbing out a little too far on the limbs...yes twice...she didn't learn after the first time! She's just now 5 so I'm sure I've got a lot more coming my way!!

 

Stay tuned for Ch. 2 to learn more about this book and my little Hailey :-)

p.s. I posted earlier today so check it out if you haven't already.

MDA Hop-A-Thon

Jack and Ralston had a fundraiser at their preschool on Thursday and they were on the NEWS! If the video doesn't load below...click the link HERE. Ralston is wearing an orange shirt and Jack is in his Alabama shirt. Hailey made it towards the end, but I'd have to pause it and point to her little head popping up in the background :-) But she was so excited to see herself too! We saved it on the DVR so we got to pause/rewind a few times that night!

Gospel Grins

My Aunt Bo-Bo sent me these this morning in an email...I thought they were cute and so I'm going to be nice and share....I learned that in kindergarten!!

We did a little baking...

Daddy was gone all last week for training in Mississippi so when he got home on Friday we decided to have a cake waiting for him! Jack and Hailey helped me mix it up and then had a wonderful time cleaning off the beaters.  I don't think I even had to put them in the dishwasher they got so clean :-)

I wonder if I can fit this whole thing in my mouth?!?

Pedro was just wishin' that one of them would drop something....anything! But he was a good boy and stayed out of the kitchen.

This was our finished masterpiece! Too bad I forgot to take any pictures of when Darren got home and we all ate it :-) It was very yummy and we were all very happy that he was home. Especially Hailey...she'd been waiting all week to play her Princess Wii game and he had taken the Wii with him so she just could not wait for him to plug that thing back in :-)

Here are some pictures from Darren's trip....He didn't take them...They were given to him on a cd from the school.

He's the one in the green/white hat

a lot of these guys are from undercover drug units that's why their hair is long or they have lots of facial hair... They came from all different parts of the U.S.

I guess after class they got to go outside for recess ;-)

I couldn't find Darren in these pictures, but I thought they were too cute not to post! (I know..they're not trying to be cute but it still looks cute!)

Back in Warner Robins!

Tonight was our church's Ladies Salad Supper. We try to have on every month. I was making a chocolate chip cheese ball and Hailey wanted to help me so I grabbed our matching apron's that my Secret Pal gave me!! Aren't they adorable?!? She loves hers!!  She helped me mix everything together

then Jack starts yelling " I want an apron too!!" So I gave him an apple one that hangs in my kitchen!  He helped Daddy with the mac-n-cheese!

 

The Lineberger Farm

Some of you know that my mom recently started a part-time nanny job with the Lineberger Boys.  She goes out to their house in the afternoons right before they get home from school and stays with them till their dad gets home from work.  For those of you who don't know this wonderful family, they have 5 boys ages 16, and the other 4 are 13. Their sweet mother passed away this past Nov. I wrote a post about it here.  My mom is loving her new job and can't wait to get out there each day to help the boys with whatever they need.  They pretty much live on a huge farm :-) Well...it could be, but they only have a few chickens and pigs. A couple rows of veggies growing and of course a LONG dirt road! But oh my goodness, did my kids have a blast the other day when we went out to visit!!  They have been there before (this is where we have our 'Trunk-or-Treat) but it is always dark and I don't think they realized it was the same place :-)

First they got to see the barn kitty! She was so sweet and friendly and then totally surprised the kids by climbing the trees!! They had never gotten to see that before.  All the other cats they've seen have been indoor cats :-)

Then it was off to see the farm animals!

I was really taking them because the boys were getting pretty rowdy with their bottle rockets and I thought it'd be a good time to get the little kids away!

At the hen house...

  

Hailey sat their and talked to them for such a long time! They were so attentive to her...I'm sure they thought she'd brought them something to eat! I didn't realize chickens ate EVERYTHING! They eat as much leftovers as pigs do!

Then we walked over to see the pigs!!  Boy are these guys loud! And they defiantly were hoping that we had bought them something to eat. Next time we will be a little more prepared with snacks! There were 6 pigs (2 to a pin) The boys train them to compete in the local fair with the school.

There was a beautiful view on the way back to the house. You could see the moon starting to rise.  This is the field that we all park on to do our Truck-or-Treat and have the bonfire each year.

Once back at the house Hailey had to have one more round on the trampoline with Luke (one of the 4). He taught her how to do a summersault. Jack on the other hand wouldn't even get on :-)

Speaking of the bottle rockets.... I'll let you see how the Lineberger boys do them!!  This is Hunter giving the example. He is also one of the 4 'little boys'  That's what we call the quads (they were actually born all boy quint's but Zachary was stillborn.)