Baby Jade, 10 months

          no words needed

a few shots on a nice day downtown

this shot was taken in Kohl's...TJ was trying on a hat and looking in the mirror. I was a few aisles over

TJ had a Nintendo Wii audition downtown today. For some reason he will never let me take his pictures, so I had to be creative and take them secretly. I still only have a telephoto lens so they need to be shot from a distance

TJ really liked his shots, so maybe he will allow me to take some non-incognito

the sun reflecting off a medal building

Who Knew?

Today Karrick's teacher informed me that since he had his Tonsils and Adenoids out his test scores have sky rocketed. His MAP and Benchmark tests  in math were near perfect and perfect respectively. Next year he will be put in the differential Math program for the academically talented! 

I damn near hit the floor, people who know me and karrick know how he has struggled in school....Dyslexia, processing problem and just not getting it were all discussed and discarded.

Turns out Karrick's tonsils and Adenoids caused more then the obvious trouble. To sum him up pre-surgery, Karrick was unable to: hear, breath , smell, taste food, sleep and eat properly. He had a chronic throat infection that made it almost impossible to eat, not to mention in constant pain.....he never complained. He became pale, thin and weak...he couldn't learn

His confidence level is low as he never felt like a smart kid. The smile and look of pride on his face when the teacher told us was priceless!  

He is a new kid!

Photography

The best way to get through 2 plus hours of t-ball? Candid shots with the zoom. I broke my regular lens which I need to bring into the shop tomorrow. I think the moving part of the lens for the auto focus is off the track...hopefully!

 This little boy is Karrick's coaches son. His grandma and grandpa came to the game... all I can say is precious! I printed out a few 5x7 copies to give to the coaches wife at tomorrows game

 Just a super sweet picture of Karrick

 Lombard has the most amazing parks. Baseball fields are surrounded by ponds, wildlife, and greenery. Karrick and his teammate swing on a giant willow tree. I am sitting a good 25 yards away

Fabulous Photos

What a fantastic Mother's Day. I laid on the deck for hrs and just read. I now have a nice tan!

Later on I grabbed my camera and bike and headed to Lilacia Park...the bloom-o-meter is  1/2 way to full bloom. I took close to 300 pictures and 290 were incredible!

Somehow I was seeing different light patterns everywhere I looked

The one above is my favorite, the little girl walked into my shot as I was snapping away. It almost looks like a painting

I may have to enter it in the lilac photo contest

I got down on the ground and angled the camera up

I focused on the top flower and then moved the camera over w/o refocusing . 

The white lights are actually branches on a tree

pitches pitches too many pitches

tj, ba

I don't think I've mentioned lately  Damn is my kid cute! Can his legs be any longer?

For the last month my TJ has been complaining...more like mentioning how ridiculously tired he has been. When a 14 yo goes to school everyday on the 7:10 am bus and doesn't get home until early to late evening...one would expect that. Earlier this week he started saying things like "should my body feel so heavy?" ""My head weighs 100 lbs".

TJ would be sound asleep by 8-9pm every night...take naps on the weekend. He always went to school and gave 110% at practice and games.

Tuesday he text me around 11am to ask if I would come get him if he went to the nurse. He said he almost fell down the stairs at school....I was at my office in Skokie. Oh Course, I immediately left work. I did bring him to the doc and she thought maybe he was coming down with a virus, not the Mono I thought. The doc asked about his eating, I said he eats ALL the time. That night I was with friends and one suggested that he may be anemic...blah blah blah...I Googled it and Bingo! Text book.
I didn't give the doc reason to do a blood test, but in review of his diet he eats very little food with iron. I bought a womens multi vitamin with 100% iron(mens don't contain iron) and some new iron rich foods. 

TJ slept the rest of the day and most of the next day. In the 1 1/2 days he missed school he also missed 3 ballgames. He went back to school and said coach would make him sit on the bench because of missed games....fine by me. Around noon TJ text me that he was starting pitcher that day....WHAT?! are you kidding me? My sick, dizzy and anemic son was going to pitch...GEEZ...the visions that went through my head...kids getting beaned by the ball and/or TJ falling on the field
I'm just going to say it "My kid never sits, other kids do if they miss, but I guess coach knows if TJ misses it is real and plus he always give 110% and always is at practice and games early and ready to work....the kid tough!
I hadn't planned on going...it was at Naperville North, Cal was home sick and Karrick had a game.  Karrick stayed with Cal and off I went.
TJ was on freakin fire!!! The coach kept him in...by the 6th inning (play 7 in HS) I asked a father that keeps all stats (for himself), how many pitches TJ had....low 90's was his answer...GULP...too many for a freshman, especially a 14 yo Freshman. All in all TJ pitched all 7 innings, 114 pitches, 1 walk and 1 bean (hit the batter in the face) We lost 5-4. That is an amazing stat.
A huge verbal backlash from people about the amount of pitches TJ threw. That's how a kid ruins an arm for life! I felt horrible as a mother, but what do you do? Mommy really isn't welcome in the dugout in high school or even in t-ball. Everyone assures me it is the coaches responsibly to count pitches and pull the kid at 80 tops.
Thank God the next day TJ's arm was just a little stiff....strong kid. Again TJ said he would sit  for the days game due to the amt of pitches (heard that before)....he didn't, but was put in right field the entire game

my TJ yawning last week while warming up to pitch-before iron enriched diet

TJ has been feeling great, full of energy. We will stick with the vitamins for a few weeks then go to a teen vitamin and see how he does.

TJ is pitching at this coming Tuesday's game...OMG! I don't want him hurting his arm and I will have to say something to the coach if he keeps TJ in too long...Aarrgh! I don't know what though, ugg! I don't want to be in this position, but TJ is my #1 priority

TJ did say the coach asked how he was doing each inning while pitching. Of course TJ is going to say "Great!" he's a 14 yo boy that loves baseball and loves to pitch and would never appear weak to a coach....how can you leave it up to a kid?