bountifulplate

Several years ago, on a trip back to Maryland, Dominic got carsick. We learned a very important lesson that day.  We have to ALWAYS tell him where we are going in the car. If we don't, he gets tons and tons of anxiety! We have also learned that if we tell Dominic too far in advance about an important upcoming event, car trip, etc., he will incessantly talk about it!!! Lauren came up with the perfect solution earlier in the week - a "countdown" calendar!!! Dominic is a "visual" learner. If we told him there were nine days until he gets to go to summer school or there is one day until music therapy camp, it wouldn't have made sense to him. He has been getting such a feeling of accomplishment from tearing off each sticky note. I would have never thought of this idea in a million years! She is very creative and has always liked to do arts and crafts projects. The other day, Lauren went down to our basement and found some Play-Doh . I think I put it down ...

I am incredibly blessed to have two siblings, my brother who is  2 1/2 years younger than me and my sister who is about 7 years younger than me. I'm the big, bossy, older sister!! My brother's nickname for me FOREVER has been Lucy Van Pelt (yes, like the Peanuts character).   That's okay, I call him Linus!!  I have a great relationship with both of my siblings. My "baby" brother came to visit us back in December.  Since we live ten hours away from each other we don't get to see his family as much as I would like.  My brother got married before I did and had children before I did.  He married his high school "sweetheart."  He has two amazing daughters and I have become really close to them in the past year.  My brother already has a daughter in college.  When he came to visit us,  I picked his brain about all of the preparations for college that he went through with his older daughter.  He gave me a boatload of advice and I have tuck...