One of the cutest movies

I recently had the opportunity to review the movie Sammy's Adventure, A Turtle's Tale.

This is absolutely the cutest movie. You meet Sammy who was born on a beach in Baja and you follow his journey through his life that brings him back to the very same beach.

So many fun loving characters to meet along the way, his best friend Ray, and his life long love Sally! You will follow him on a Sea Turtle's journey as he faces so many obstacles along the way.

Just in time for Earth Day 2012, it's a great way for kids to learn about pollution and other things that affect our oceans in a way that they can understand it. Any movie that has a message conveyed to my children in a fun and educational way, I am a huge fan of.

It's perfect for "kids" of all ages. I loved it, found myself not being able to wait to see what was around the next coral reef.

With character voices of Melanie Griffith, Kathy Griffin, Tim Curry and Stacy Keach, it's fun for the whole family!

You can find it on Amazon

I highly recommend it!

A movie was provided to me for my review, all opinions are my own.

SPRUNG!

Spring has Sprung in these parts despite the colder temps we've had!

Poppies!!!! My favorite flower!

All the leaves are just starting to fill in!

And the Flowers are abundant!

Unapproachable

So apparently it's the "thing" to have birthday parties and invite everyone in the preschool!

We usually do not go to these birthday parties because let's face it, I don't know these kids, I don't know their parents, I have no idea what to buy them for a present, nor do I want to spend a ton of money on it!

I have yet to invite a single kid from their school for my kids birthday parties. Just with our friends and their children makes up a party of at least 12 kids. Then try to add on another 10 to 12 kids from preschool? No thanks!

Well I decided I better go to one of these preschool birthday parties, meet some of these kids, meet some of their parents, find out who and what these people are about and why my children come home with certain things their friends tell them at school that their parents say.

I must be the most unapproachable person in the history of the world! It's either that or I really am a bitch! So as Christopher is attached to my hip even though these are kids he goes to school with every day, it's a new environment for him, so he's a little shy.

I try engaging him with kids that I do know, his little kissing friend Amaya, and after a while she gravitates towards him and he towards her. The only parents aside from the birthday girls mom who said a word to me was the father of his kissy friend, said apparently he needed to meet me.

I tried the "drift in and join a conversation" with all these 20 something mom's with preschoolers and little babies in their arms as well. And when I sort of laughed and said "Oh yeah I remember when that happened" and they looked at me as if I suddenly came down with a horrible case of the plague.

So my best friend at this preschool party? Christopher! We ate grapes together, we played on the things they had set up together, we had lemonaide together and we ate our pizza and cake together. And after all was said and done....

I really don't care how I came off looking to them....because to me, I came off as a very involved parent who would rather spend her time with her child on a Saturday afternoon than gossiping and being catty! And to me, and hopefully to Christopher, that's pretty special!

What to expect.....

This is my 1st time participating in Pour Your Heart Out.
I have read all the time and commented on posts before but really had nothing to pour my heart out about.
Now....I do.

I have posted before about my oldest son's "issues" with potty training. He suffered from chronic constipation as a baby and even as a toddler, and he's been fully potty trained on numerous occasions. And now, he's coming up on his 5th birthday and he's back in pull ups!

I am completely at a loss. We have tried everything with him. I've heard the "don't worry he won't go to kindergarten without being potty trained" Well I beg to differ!

I've also heard, "don't worry, he'll do it when he's ready". Really? He's done it before and he's almost 5. Now what?

I sit and cry, often. For one, I feel like a complete failure as a parent. I can't potty train my son. I've read every book, I've read every article. I've read blogs, I've read magazines, I've read the "experts" and I have a degree in psychology for Pete's sake. Can it really be that hard to help my child go poop in the potty?

I want to cry for him, the fact that his friends make fun of him for smelling or for being a baby. When I took him into the preschool he is in I walked in and said "Hi I am looking for a place for my almost 4 year old son" She said No problem we have room. And I literally cried and said "One thing though, he's not potty trained" and she said "No problem" and I cried harder.

He went, and within weeks he was back to being potty trained. We were thrilled, we had a party we got treats, we did dances. And now, for months, he's back to pooping in his pants again.

I read a blog post on some one's blog one time about how appalled they were, not that their child had an accident at school, but that they were actually put in school underwear and clothing and it became a joke to them, I sat and cried. I cried and cried because I thought, how would that mom feel if they had my child. A child that comes home daily in something other than what he went to school in.

I've spent a ton of money on underwear that the school proceeds to throw out if they are "soiled". So now he's back in pull ups, and he could care less.

I get that he has anxiety about going, he has a deep seeded fear that it's going to hurt his little butt by going poop because he is used to constipation and when he finally would go it was so big it would hurt his butt. But his diet has changed, he's older and he's regular.

And now I cry because I don't know how to help him. I don't know how to explain to him that it's not going to be painful, to tell him that if he goes just one time in a day he won't have the issues that he has. That the other kids won't make fun of him.

What to expect when you are expecting tells you all kinds of good stuff, and what to expect in your first year tells you even more....but I think I need the book "what to expect when your child won't potty train"

He's set to start kindergarten in the fall and I fear he won't be potty trained and then what? There aren't many thing that can break me....but this? This has!

Auditioning Laziness

I have been so lazy!

But as a friend said, I have a perscription to be lazy! I'm recovering nicely, thank you all for the concering emails.

But among my "travels" while I was recovering, which came down to me spending a week on my couch bored out of my mind trying to find something to watch on Netflix! But the 2nd week I was asked to come down to audition for the Blog This series with Jessica Bern.

What fun that was, not only seeing Jessica again but also just the whole aspect of going and auditioning and reading lines and remembering lines and all of that.....

Phew makes me think of all the excitement and disappointment that goes along with that. But you may or may not see me in a piece of that series, I'm excited to see the finished product! And I'm excited for Jessica!

Now if there was just a role for me that was all about being Lazy, I would totally nail it!

But now that I am getting towards the end of my "recovery", I can't be lazy forever now can I? I have reviews to do and give aways to post that I have been neglecting, so look for those coming up!

And? I'm working with someone on a whole new design!

What do you know.....

I've kinda been a little MIA this last week and a half haven't I? Well aside from Twitter and FaceBook.

I had surgery last Friday and have been laid up, and when I was first planning my week home I thought I would write several posts, have a bunch just begging to be posted. I had ideas swirling around my head on what I would write. Blog fodder that was just aching to be written. And when the time came, and the quiet hit....I was nothing but bored. All those posts? Gone, forgotten.

And then this morning.....

My sons playing on the floor with duplo blocks waiting for grandma to come pick them up for school.
And a deeper discussion came out of it, with my almost 5 year old.

Christopher: Look Mommy, I made a gun.
Mommy: That's good buddy, (looking at nothing more than an enormous stack of legos)

Thomas: Guns aren't good and you can't bring that to school, you can't bring guns to school can you mommy! (More and statement than a question)
Mommy: No, Thomas you can't.
Thomas: Cuz I saw on the TV where some kid brought a gun to school and hurt other kids. Guns are bad and they kill people
Mommy: No Thomas, Guns don't kill people. People kill people with guns. So promise me Buddy if you ever see a gun, don't touch it, tell me or daddy or a grown up. Guns needs to be handled with care and respect. Do you know what that means?
Thomas: semi rolling his eyes, yeah don't touch them or it's bad.
Mommy: Yeah something like that. When you are old enough Daddy will teach you about guns and the safety of guns. But until then, let's not touch them ok?
Thomas: Ok mommy

So a couple things occurred to me,
First, our children are growing up in a world of violence. They tell you not to allow your children to watch violent cartoons, or TV with violence. Yet my son saw a story on the news about a boy who brought a .22 gun to school and shot and killed classmates. And he stopped to listen, and took warning.

Another thing I learned, that my son, just shy of 5 years old, is learning about good and bad, right and wrong, and for now? He's choosing the good and the right.