United States -- 50 or 52?

You may think that I'm being crazy. But, unfortunately I'm not. I learned something this week that has totally rocked my world and i don't know how to handle the information. Therefore, I'm turning to you ... all 2-3 of my faithful readers ... please help me figure out this information.

As a child, I learned that there were 50 states in the United States. Granted, I'm not sure that I could name them or write them all in correctly on a map. But i learned that there were 50 states. There were 48 states on the mainland and then alaska and hawaii were also included. 48 + 2 = 50. Right?

This week, I was at the Hope Child Development Center in the greater Birmingham area (hold the comments on that one!). The teacher was teaching her 4 year olds about our country.

Teacher: How many states are in the United States?

The class was quiet.

Teacher: Well, there used to be 50 states, but now there are 52.

This was repeated multiple times. The class then sang our country's song ... no, not the star spangled banner as you might have assumed ... it was "Our Country Tis of Thee".

Hmmm ... what are the other two states? Where was I when these states were added? Did Obama add in some extra states? Does Chicago now qualify as a state because the 2 Big O's (Obama/Oprah) are from there? Is there a North/South California that I missed? What about East/West Virginia or Old/New Jersey? Or whatabout the states of Illiterate and Uneducated?? I think that might be more appropriate.

What made me sad is that the parents chose to send their child to school to get more "Hope" ... what they are getting is a hope-less education.

Remembering Brayden

This is a post all about my friend Brayden. Yesterday, October 15, was Pregnancy and Infant Loss Remberance Day. While I have not experience either of these losses on my own, I have felt some of the pain of infant loss.

Brayden was born to my friends Beth and BJ on November 26, 2006. He was born under some pretty dramatic circumstances. Beth was at home and had some sort of a seizure. Her family found her unconscious in the bathroom. They rushed her to the hospital where Brayden was delivered by emergency C-section. It took them approximately 10 minutes to revive him. It turned out that Beth had suffered a stroke. It affected her hands and her speech. She under went dialysis for several weeks as well. During this time, we all prayed for Beth's recovery. We were unsure of how we needed to pray for Brayden because he was so sick. In addition to the problems which presented at birth, Brayden was also born with a cleft lip and palate.

I wanted so badly to pray for Brayden's full recovery, yet I was torn as to how to pray. Was his recovery to be God's will? Would Beth and BJ be able to cope and care for Brayden's multiple needs? I began to pray for God's will to be done, whatever the circumstance and to equip Beth and BJ to be able to handle whatever the outcome would ultimately be. I prayed that pray for some time, until I met Brayden and got to hold him. I then had a hard time praying for God's will -- I wanted Brayden to live -- and live a long life!!!

Beth was/ is an excellent mom. She enrolled him in early intervention the day he came home from the hospital! I remember her bringing him by the office and telling us to do the paperwork and get him started with services! I remember many mornings with Beth and I sitting in our office and her feeding Brayden through his G-tube before he went to his class. One of my favorite memories of that is she fed him and then he projectile vomited all over me. Why is that a favorite memory? Because I was sitting almost 4 feet away, yet I was covered!! Somehow it never seemed to matter to me when he spit up on me because it was Brayden. I almost think in some way, in dealing with Brayden, I started to realize how ready I was for a child. I loved Brayden with all my heart and he wasn't even mine!! Beth and BJ did so many things with him. They gave him every possible opportunity. They never took for granted their little boy. He went to the McWane Center, Bham Zoo, trips all over town. He went to the playground and went on the swings and slide.

One of the saddest nights in my memory came around 11:00 pm on November 6th, 2007. I received a phone call from our friend Donna telling me that Brayden had passed away. My heart physically hurt for my friend and for Brayden. I knew in my heart that this was God's will. But, how could that be? He was so small, so innocent, so perfect. He had no sin -- why was he taken away from us. However, his time had come. His purpose on this earth had been fulfilled. I went to the hospital that night to be with my friend. She didn't really know that we were there, but it just felt right that I was. It was very hard for me to tell the rest of my staff the next day. The funeral was very emotional for us all. Looking back, almost 2 years later ... I can see purpose in Brayden's death. I feel that Brayden has brought his mom and dad even closer together and made their marriage even stronger. I believe that he has made them both question God and begin to search for real truth and relationship with Him. I know that Brayden's life impacted a countless number of people, and if even one of those comes to know the Father as a result -- then wasn't it worth it? It will never be a pleasant memory, but I have so many happy memories, I cannot dwell on the sadness of his death. I choose to remember him in life, with his squeaky breathing and cuddly hugs.

Brayden -- on Alabama/Auburn Day at the daycare

Brayden and Beth meeting Bessie the Cow from Barber's milk.

Quatar and Brayden at the pool enjoying pool therapy.

Beth and Brayden on Halloween trick or treating at the daycare.

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The Very Hungry Caterpillar

Well, in honor of Jumpstart's Read for the Record day, we participated at home! Sarah has her own copy of the book and she also has her own caterpillar, Hungry.

Daddy read the book to Sarah and Hungry. Sarah is learning to turn the pages when she reads a book, so she was a big help to Daddy. She also liked putting her fingers in the foods that Hungry was eating in the book.

When Daddy was finished reading to Sarah, Mommy helped Sarah to paint her very own caterpillar. She did a great job! She actually did much better than I thought she would do. She enjoyed playing in the paint. Daddy looked a little nervous, but he thought it was fun too!

So how do you like our finished product? I think it's a great caterpillar! Mommy and Sarah had a fun time painting together and Daddy had a great time reading to his little girl! A successful "Read for the Record" night!!

Jumpstart for the Record

Will you read with me?

This simple question is an invitation to share the joy of reading with a child in your life. We all know that reading aloud with preschool children lays the groundwork for strong literacy skills and future success in school and in life. In 2006, an initiative began caleld Jumpstart’s Read for the Record This is an international campaign to bring preschool children together with valued grownups in their lives to read the same book, on the same day, in communities all over the world. In 2008, I participated and read a book to our daycare and EI kids. The world record was broken as nearly 700,000 readers shared the classic children’s tale, Corduroy.

On October 8, 2009, Eric Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar was read aloud in classrooms, libraries and homes from Japan, Germany and Brazil to cities and rural communities across America. Hushed with wonder and tickled with giggles, children around the world simultaneously experienced the joy of reading.

In addition, this year was the 40th anniversary of The Very Hungry Caterpillar.

The Fruit of Our Labor

This past summer, we attempted a garden. We planted sweet potato, basil, cilantro, oregano, lettuce, corn, cucumbers, cantelope, watermelon and tomatoes. Out of all of that, we really didn't harvest much of anything. We used some of the herbs and produced a few cucumbers. We did grow corn, but it only grew ears that were about 3 inches long. But ... that all changed the other night. I was at a child's house this week and the mom was talking about digging up her sweet potatoes. I wasn't sure when it was time to dig ours up, but she encouraged me to dig into the dirt and see if there was anything there. I was pretty sure nothing had grown, seeing as how nothing else had really produced anything. Well ... look at what we found ...

I started to dig and I hit a potato. Well, I kept digging and found more. I told Michael to go and get a bucket. This is a standard size mop bucket and it was almost full!!! The two green things are supposed to be watermelons -- very small! We'll see how those are when I cut into them this weekend. I was so excited! I ended up just sitting down in the muddy dirt and continuing to dig and dig. Of course, they were covered in mud (me too!) so I had to rinse them off in the yard.

By the time I had finished washing them off, I was shocked to find that I had grown 12 sweet potatoes!! Some of them are really big. I can't wait to use them this weekend!! What are your favorite ways to use sweet potatoes?

Which of these things is not like the other?

Look closely at the above picture ... hmmm, strangely enough it looks very familiar to me. Oh wait, i know why ... they are all MY toys! My parents had Sarah stay with them last weekend and they went and got all my favorite toys out for Sarah to play with.

I would like to introduce some of my favorite friends ...

From left to right -- Mr. Bear (actually is Sarah's panda bear), the ears sticking up behind Mr. Bear is Bun Bun (my childhood bunny), the dog is a random new addition, Pooh (my first Winnie the Pooh), Hunny (my first baby doll) and GroundNut (my first bear).

An interesting story about Groundnut ... wonder where he got that name? Well, you may have a stuffed animal in your past with the same ancestry ... just look at the tag. Mine says groundnuts. Hence the name! Granted, I now understand that Groundnut is actually MADE of ground nuts -- but as a child I didn't get that. I just thought it was nice that the people told me his name so that he would be happy living with a new family.

Who/What are some of your favorite childhood friends? Where are they now?

My little musical prodigy ...

Little Miss Sarah -- She's gotten sucked in! All through my childhood I took piano lessons. My mom tried to teach me -- not a good idea! I took from several different teachers, some good/some bad. Well, it appears that through some combination of Sarah and my mother - Sarah is now playing piano! The scary thing is, it really isn't terrible. Can you sing a song to it? Not really. It would fall under more of an abstract composition, but she's only 10 months! How old was Beethoven and Bach when they started to play? :)

She does seem to enjoy music. She loves her kindermusik class and enjoys playing and singing at home with mommy's crazy funny made-up songs. Who knows? Maybe music is definitely in her future. For now, I'm content with her banging around on whatever she can find!!