Another One Gone!

Telling Tutu all about losing her 4th tooth

Joe & Emma

Emma lost her fourth tooth yesterday. She had been wiggling it for a couple of days and finally she yanked it out with some encouragement from Chris. I sat in the other room with my eyes closed and my hands over my ears. As Emma says, "loose teeth give Mom the freaks!"

A Girl and Her Doll

Emma had her 7-year-old photo taken this morning. It was tough to choose the best one!

Holland Beach, Holland, MI

Flat Stanley's California Adventure!

Flat Stanley arrived home safely after visiting great Aunt Donnalei and great Uncle George Sumner is San Rafael and Ed & Sara Blum in San Diego. While in California he spent a lot of time outside. He marched in a neighborhood parade, visited Coronado Island, swam in the Pacific Ocean, rode a cable car, saw dolphins and whales, and played in George's art studio. Emma and Chris are off to San Rafael next Thursday and upon Flat Stanley's recommendation she will pack shorts, tee-shirts, sun glasses, flip flops, and plenty of sunscreen.

What My Kids are Reading

My friends keep asking me what my kids are reading these days and so I have decided that I will post a reading update every so often. What are Emma & Joe reading? Joe is reading "Whose Shoe?" by Margaret Miller. This is a wonderful book that Aunt Katheryn gave to him a couple of years ago. He now points to the words and reads aloud. This is clearly a combination of memorization and picture cues, but hey, it works for us! Emma is reading through the Frog and Toad series. This is a great option for her because they are chapter books that have basic words and the humor is pitched to her level. Finally, this week we began reading out loud "Harry Potter and the Socerer's Stone." We are only on chapter 2 but the whole family is excited to learn more about young Harry and his awful relatives.

Joe's choice this summer

Emma choice this summer
Family reading this summer

C.H.U.M.

Joe's hippotherapy program was featured in the State News today. The 16-month-old mentioned in the article is Joe, he was her youngest rider. The first year was tough, he cried a lot, but we saw so much progress with building strength, balance and verbal skills that we continued. We were also encouraged by older accomplished riders who were very glad to have started early. Now Joe loves to ride the horses and we think that it is probably the most helpful therapy for him. Click HERE to read the article. Click HERE to visit the C.H.U.M. webpage.

In the garden and out the door

Flat Stanley at the Atlanta Zoo

Flat Stanley has made it to the Atlanta Zoo! Like all of the Frilingos clan, he is strangely drawn to Flamingos. Flat Stanley has been very busy these days visiting friends and family in Rome, NY, Wakefield, MA, Brockton, MA, Newton, MA, Orlando, FL, Florence, Italy, and now Atlanta, GA. This guy gets around! When not singing in the choir with Great Aunt Faith, watching giraffes with cousin Paul, fixing wires with Uncle Pete on the roof of a house, eating gelatto with Anna & Chris Celenza, watching Uncle Paul and Aunt Lucille fold laundry, or going to Disney with Tutu & Papou, Flat Stanley plans for his next adventure. Aunt Beth & Uncle Tim are taking him to Scotland and then reuniting him with Emma in San Rafael, California at Grand TuTus 90th birthday party! Is it wrong to be jealous of a paper doll?

Walgreens Rocks

My family in Boston is not a big fan of Walgreens because of too many incidents to name at the infamous 4-corners Walgreen's. Even though I too have had a major meltdown in the pharmacy line (think Dad in hospice and Amy without meds), but from this point forward I will support the company. Click here to see why Walgreens rocks. Hats off to the Dad who made a difference.

Everything Possible

For the past four years I have sung Joe the same lullaby that I sang to Emma that my Dad sang to me. I don't know the official title, but I always called it "baby's boat" because that begins the first line. Occasionally, I will sing a second tune, but this song has been Joe's favorite. Over the past week as I have begun to sing him to sleep he will put his hand up and say "No, mama, no baby's boats." When I reply, "what shall I sing?" He says something that sounds like "shoes" but is in fact "choose." This is similar to what Emma used to call the lullaby "Everything Possible" by folksinger Fred Small. She would ask me to sing "you can choose." I love that they have both landed on this song and that they both found this one word to claim it for themselves. And what is it that my son would like to hear sung to him at the end of every day?

"You can be anybody you want to be, you can love whomever you will. You can travel to any country where your heart leads, and know I will love you still. You can live by yourself, you can gather friends around, you can choose one special one. And the only measure of your words and your deeds, will be the love you leave behind when your done."

Vicki Forman, who writes under the name, Special Needs Mama, has posted another thoughtful essay on Literarymama.com. To read here excellent column click here.

The Toothless Wonder!

Emma lost her fourth tooth today!

Philip brought Ning and Cece to visit for the day. It was the first time that the kids met. What a great day.

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Suggestions for Book Club

It is my turn to choose the next book for the "No Time to Read" Bookclub. My month is the August meeting, but since all of East Lansing and MSU will be reading "Lay That Trumpet in our Hands" for One Book One Community I will pick for September. I am looking for suggestions. Has anyone read anything really great to discuss this summer? The list of what we have read in the the post below.

No Time to Read Book List--so far

• October 06 "Evidence of Things Unseen"
• November 06 "Digging to America" by Ann Tyler
• December 06 "Lying Awake" by Mark Salzman
  
• January 07 "The Sea" by John Banville
• February 07 "A Girl Named Zippy" by Haven Kimmel
• March 07 "A Sudden Country" Karen Fisher
• April 07 "The Bastard of Istanbul" by Elif Shafak
• May 07 "Water for Elephants" by Sarah Gruen
• June 07 "The Whispering Season" by Ivan Doig
• July 07 "Restless," by William Boyd
• August 07 "Lay that Trumpet in Our Hands" by Susan Carol McCarthy

Beach Day Trip

Today we drove to Saugatuck on the westcoast of Michigan for a day at the beach. The Lake Michigan water was freezing but that didn't stop Emma and Joe from swimming!

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Rock On!

I am honored to be chosen by Braska Bear as worthy of a "Rocking Girl" blog award. I don't know the exact rules of the award but judging from Braska's blog it looks like I need to tag 5 more people. There are so many blogs out there that I love to read and that deserve this award. I am giving this award to the five rocking gals for the following rocking blogs:

Chanelle and Tristan

My Life with Gabriel

Day upon Day of This Wandering

Where There's a Will

Dylan Update

Detroit Zoo

Today we visited the Detroit Zoo. It was a beautiful day and the kids loved walking around the zoo. The highlight was watching the giraffes. Emma worked on a giraffe research project this year and she was very excited to finally see them up close. We also had a good time in the arctic circle of life glass tunnel where we watched a polar bear swimming around us and above our heads.