Wow I can't believe my oldest is 11.  Yesterday was her birthday.  While she was at school I thought about everything that we have went through in the past 11 years.  Mostly I was remembering the day she was born and how I felt.  I remember asking my mom as I held this fragile hour old baby "can I do this?"  I was so scared while holding her.  Sure I had held babies before but they were always nieces and my nephew.  I never held a baby that I would be responsible for and every thing I did fromthat moment on would be for that child.  All my mom told me is "you will be fine you are goingto be a great mother".  I knew she was right and she taught me well.  I couldn't have a better person to look to for advice.  She raised 3 children on her own.  To this day I admire everythign she did and every sacrifice she made for her children.  I hope she knew how important and how much she meant to me.

I want to share the wonderful news about Kirsten.  She is the Student of the Year for her school.  Next week she will got the school board and compete against all of the other Students of the year for the elementary schools to be Student of the Year for the whole district.  I am so proud her accomplishments and how much she has grown since this time last year.

In just a few short weeks my baby boy, Anthony, will be 9.  So I will be going through all of these emotions again.  He has been my challenging child.  The girls have been so easy.  Kirsten and Vivian were both great as infants.  They never cried and they wer very happy babies.  Anthony on the other hand gave me problems from pregnancy until now.  He is a handful.  He had colic as a baby and we are still dealing with the terrible twos just in a different way.  Who ever said boys are different than girls was absolutely correct.  He has challenged me at every thing from sleeping habits, potty training and school.  I will say in the past 6 months he has been a better child and things are getting better everyday.  We went from fighting every night at bedtime to him getting in bed and staying in bed as well as going to sleep.  He is my night owl and loves to sleep in so school mornings are SOOOO much fun.