i am thankful for my snake bites :) my dad my bf(he saved my life)

Oddly enough, I do do crafting. You should check out my photos, I put up a photo of my christmas tree. I enjoy taking photos and then scrapbooking with them.

Brandnewangel, I am glad you are ok. I had a snake once called fluffy, it was an american corn snake, but luckily it wasn't dangerous. Unfortunately my cat was, fluffy got out and became a meal for Bunny (my cat). I also had a iguana called Gogga (which is Afrikaans for bug) and 2 leapord geckos called Spot and Stripes.

I'm always proud of my scars, because they are "warwounds". Even my strech marks from my pregnancy I love.

Cspot, I am quite sure you'll be a wonderful mother someday. Honestly my son is the one good thing I ever did. He makes me laugh and enjoy my life doing things that he likes. Like chasing him up and down the house and then he would chase me too.

I never thought I could love anyone as much as I love him. He loves music, even from the womb, if I put on rock music he would kick like crazy. I was so happy when the gynea said he doesn't have a cleft. I didn't want him to go through what I did. When I found out I was pregnant, that was just the greatest news ever.

And he is so smart, he's 23 months old, he already speaks almost 400 words, can count to five, knows all the basic colours and most of the sounds animals make. When he was born, we found out that his small intestine didn't form properly so he had his first and hopefully his last when he was 3 days old. I must say I miss him a lot today. Cant wait for him to get home on Firday. We'll have choclate pudding for dinner with cookies.

5 Things I'm grateful for today:
1) My son
2) Listening to him talk in his sleep
3) Going through old photos of him
4) Watching his fav movie (which is Tangled)
5) Pets

I have to say that I would have loved my boys, no matter how they may have come to us. I was always relieved to find out that they had no clefts, although by the third son, I wasn't really worried, anymore. The joy of my life has been to find a husband who loves, just as I am, and always has... and to be a mother. I never thought that I would be a mother because I never wanted a child to suffer as I did. After some bad experiences with foster parenting, we decided to try to have our own. Here I am at almost 61 with 3 grown sons and 5 grand children.

Five things that make happy:
My family
My family
My family
My family
My family
:-)

I've enjoyed reading all your responses and had trouble adding my own.
But here goes:

1) My sister's wonderful doctors-they saved her life. (She had surgery 2 weeks ago for cancer of the eye.

2) My sister- she is a most incredible person-she saved my life

3) The rest of my family-they have been so kind to me

4) My brother-in-law and his family-they have also been so kind

5) Being reunited with a dear old friend -it's been over 20 years since we've had contact and she's 87. I am truly grateful

Wow Topaz, you have so much to live for too! Nothing like a wonderful family to love and support us! That can take on many different forms but the main thing is love and support for us and them!

Family is a great thing to have. My grandmother who adopted me when I was four was my very best friend in the whole world. She helped me with my speech, I still remember sitting on her lap and she would sound the words from a book in my ear. Now luckily I have almost no nasal sound when I speak. She helped me learn to read and write and I was the only 5 year old that could read and write in my preschool class. By then I also knew my multiple tables up till times 9. Sadly she passed away last year the 24th of July. It was odd, but she was fine the day before fathersday and on fathers day she collapsed. It took a month and then she was gone. She was this amazing woman, with the biggest heart and she was so warm and loving. She saved my life, because if I stayed with my mom, I would probably not have gotten my surgeries, or went to school. My mom hardly let me out of the house, so by the time my gran got me I was so affraid of people that if we had visitors I would go hide away in the closet.

But on a lighter note, my son is coming back tomorrow, I can't wait. My flu is almost gone and to make the day even better, I'm drinking hot choclate with little marshmallows in it. My son is turning 2 next month and I can't help but think that he's growing up to fast. It feels like just yesterday that I held his tiny little 2.62kg (5.776 pounds) body in my arms.

Today is my day that I am just going to do nothing. I'm going to take a hot bubble bath and then climb into my bed and read a book.

Five things I'm grateful for today:
1) My son
2) My grandmother
3) Hot bath
4) Hot choclate (again, I know, I'm addicted)
5) Books

Kimi!

You gave me goose bumps. What a wonderful story you told of your sweet grandmother. Bless her for being such an influence for good in your life! You are carrying on her good lessons with your own son. As you grow older you will understand even more, that in some ways, we live on through our posterity. Your grandmother gave you so much and now you are passing it on to your son and those around you!

I am very curious about your grandmother's method of speech therapy. I'd like to talk about it sometime. I studied speech therapy for a few years and teaching people to not have nasality in their voices takes training and skill.

BarbieO, thank you. My grandmother was a great woman who always helped where she could. We never had a lot of money but she would give her last dime if that meant she could feed someone or clothe them. She never had training when it came to helping me with my speech. But I know that I would sit on her lap and she would sound the words phonetically from a book in my ear. She did that atleast 2 hours a day every day until I could sound them almost the same as she does. She would then sit with me while I wrote letters in my notepad and while I wrote it, she would also sound them. After a year my speech was great, almost no nasal sound. I still do have a nasal sound, but the parents who sat with me in the waiting room of my doctor always said that I spoke very well and that they could understand me perfectly. I think my grandmother knew that patience is the key and a warm loving touch is the key. When I just got to my gran, she sent me to a speech therapist, but that was just more traumatic than anything else. Because I was so affraid of people, even just a slight angry or harsh tone would affect me, and I would bolt shut. It took a lot of time and effort, but we pulled it off. I do think that going for lessons isn't always enough (that's if it does help). Parents have to get involved as well. I hope that helps explain how I learned how to talk

You are right that patience and love go a long way! How inspiring that she took you from hiding in a closet to speaking and being so literate. I think that speaking directly in your ear, helped you hear the correct pronunciations and you were able to eliminate the nasal sounds. I think all of us who have repairs, have at least a little nasality, no matter what, but most people can't he hear it.

I did not have any speech help until I emancipated myself at age 18. I didn't talk because no one could understand me, but my sisters. A difficult way to come up, but I did! I had my first surgery right after birth and the next at 18 to about age 22. It was really a remarkable experience to go from not wanting to look at anyone or talk to them, to being a confident and competent young adult.

I did not read until grade 5. One good thing my mother did for me was to put me in a class where the teacher taught phonics. I went from being illiterate to reading at a grade 12 level during that year. You and I were both blessed to get the help we needed. I shudder to think what my life would be like if I hadn't gotten the help I needed. Thankful that you had your lovely grandmother who loved you just as you were and nurtured and taught you!

What I enjoy.
Support from my family, being in touch with my friends either in person, phone or Facebook. Going to open poetry readings. Promoting my blog. See my sig. Writing for my blog. Writing romance short stories.. Mostly these days going to poetry readings.

I don't have much to write today. It's cold and wet here and I just feel like staying in bed. But my son has other plans. Got up extra early this morning, which means he is going to be a busy body today. We, will take a walk later on and I can't wait for him to explore. I love it when he explores. He's very curious, but I guess all kids his age are.

I feel like cooking today, a nice lamb tamato stew or maybe some oxtail with potatoes and mixed veggies. I was never the cooking type, I couldn't even boil water. But since my gran died, I got into it. Baking on the other hand is not my strong point.

So five things I am grateful for today:
1) Being able to cook
2) Stove and oven
3) Exploring with my son
4) Having a heater
5) Blankets

Yesterday my son and I chased a moth, it was so much fun, we giggled most of the time. I love to hear my son giggle. Makes me giggle even harder. We never caught the moth, but it was def worth the chase. My son is just so cute when he's all happy. He came back on Friday very spoiled from his time with mim, (which I don't mind, because that is a grandmothers right to do so) so he has been a handful. Today we are going to start learning how to colour in a shape and hopefully learn some shapes as well. I love teaching him, he's like a sponge and he loves learning, well at least for the time being. It got me thinking that one of these days he will not need me anymore. But I do hope that we will keep this close bond.

My sons dad had a accident with his motorcycle yesterday, all bruised and battered up, but luckily he's ok. It could have been a lot worse. My son couldn't understand why his daddy was so sore, and he would put his hand on one of the wounds asking his daddy is this sore and then move on to the next one. the worst he's had was a scraped knee. he looked very worried. And that made me realise that even though he is so young, he understands it when someone gets hurt or isn't there. He has this compassion about him that make me so proud, because after poking his dads every wound he went to find a sweetie to give his dad. He gave it to him saying: Eat sparkle (thats the name of the sweet), all better. That was just so sweet and thoughtful. I do that when he gets hurt.

So today I am looking after two babies, because we woman all know men, a papercut is as terrible as a open wound.

5 things I am grateful for today:
1) My son
2) That his dad is ok
3) First aid kits
4) Moths
5) Giggles

I have three sons. Your son will always need you in one way or another. We raise them to be independent but they still need our support and advice, as we have lived longer. Our jobs as moms never end, even after we are gone, for they think of us and remember us and what we taught about life and love.

Yesterday I was washing all my sons soft toys, which is a lot. Because he got all of mine that I've been collecting since I've been 5 years old. I even have a knitted poodle that was my dad's as a baby. It got me thinking about when I was still very small. My gran used to make me soft toys. I remember she would fold a very old dingy mattress in half and put it in front of the dishwasher for me, so that I could play while she would cut out the pattern of a toy. Eventually i would fall asleep and when I woke up the soft toy would be in my arms. It made me smile, because I remember the feeling of excitement of having a brand new toy. I remember the soft humming that my gran did while she would stitch the cloth or knit the ears or what ever she did while she was making my toys. I remember feeling so safe when I was on that mattress. And now my son gets to play with those same soft toys that was made with all the love in the world. That is one of my fondest memories from my childhood.

Five things I am grateful for today:
1) Being able to share my toys that I had as a kid with my son
2) Making sure my son learns the value of looking after his toys
3) Having had a gran that made sure I was stocked up in all sorts of soft toys
4) Having sentimental value
5) Having the most wonderful gran in the whole world

Wow! You are wealthy indeed! Good memories, good grandmother, good son, and a future to look toward to, and be thankful for.