A wonderfully perfect day

“Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take but by the moments that take our breath away"

The entire day of March 13th, Hannah’s bday was one of these particular moments & we will always remember it!

Our Hannah Banana turned 9, can you believe it? Each year we usually have a little party here at the house or park for her but this year instead of a party we took off on an adventure, we were SeaWorld bound! We had great weather, not too hot or cold with sunshine and pleasant breeze. Both kids were on their best behavior and our Samuelito even took an hour long nap in his stroller while we walked around. We just fully enjoyed ourselves and Hannah most definitely enjoyed her special day. She was stuck to me like glue all day and was so lovey, she said thank you a million times over and I love you prob two million times. She hugged us so many times, it was just very sweet. Sam and I have mentioned several times since just how impressed we were with her behavior & manners while there, not one problem. You should have seen Sam’s face when 40 min into the drive down I realized I forgot to give her the medication…eeks. We were slightly worried but she was fine and we loved spending every min with her. The day was so great that even as we walked to the car I noticed how I didn’t feel the usual tiredness I feel after a theme park and I wasn’t on edge a bit. It truly was just a wonderful day and I was sad for it to end. I had prayed before we left that God would make this a special trip and multiply my energy and patience so that I would have more than enough and He sure did! Thank you Jesus!

We had decided we did not want to rush around in an attempt to see everything and rather wanted to make the day about Hannah. We wanted to enjoy it and not be stressed or frustrated with any part of the day. So, we told Hannah since it was her special day that she could pick where we went and what we did and somehow we managed to see almost everything. When I asked Hannah what her favorite part of the day was she said “spending this much time with you and Sam at the same time and riding Atlantis with Sam”… so yea, that made me realize just how much she loves her time with him. Sammy on the other hand has 2 things he has not stopped talking about. The first would be when we let Hannah sit in the “splash zone” per her request and the whale splashed her with his tail. Sammy was seriously offended by that and each time he retells it he is very serious and uses hand motions and all, he did not like that the whale did that to his Hannah. The second is the fact that the sea lions did not roar, they barked. He was very concerned that they were making wrong choices b/c everyone knows lions roar! He loved riding the rides and he giggled uncontrollably each time, I just can’t put in words how great it is to hear him belly laugh on a ride. I remember on one ride I closed my eyes and while being jerked to and fro I tuned all the commotion out and listened to their laughs.. Hannah’s one of a kind giggle and Sammy’s belly laugh. Just pure joy. Psalms 23:5, my cup runneth over came to mind. Even with all the stress I am under with my program right now I just felt so happy.. no more like giddy and I sure had been needing some giddy.

We did have an awkward moment when in the underwater viewing area we saw 2 dolphins in heat and well, Hannah had many questions. It is fun to do this part of parenting with Sam, to have things come up where neither one of us know quite how to handle it or what to say so we just go with it and jump in together. I am so thankful that he and I are typically on the same page with most everything and I am really thankful for for the man he is. I love that he is willing and desires to be such a huge part of Hannah’s life and went so far out of his way to make it a special day for her, one she will never forget. I fell in love with him all over again when he asked Hannah if she would ride Atlantis (the one she wanted to go on the most all day) with him, just the two of them. They had a great time and he said he had good “bonding” time with her. She was beaming when she got off and teased him the rest of the day b/c apparently right before they went down the big dip he said “Banana, what have you gotten us into??” and then they plummeted to the bottom. She has told EVERYONE, even her teachers at school that. Love it.

I don’t know what the future holds for our little Banana and her siblings. I wish I knew where our lives would take us and what God’s plan for her life is and even if we will be able to remain a large portion of her life, their lives. I certainly pray that we always can be but the fact is things could change at any moment. It is so hard to put our hearts out there like that, knowing that it could all change and she could be taken from us but I have to trust that God has us in her life right now for a reason and will bless all that we have poured into her little life. When they gave us our tickets at SeaWorld they had misprinted hers and it read “Hannah DeLucca” rather than her own last name and she looked up and grinned and said.. now I can call you mommy for the whole day, right! Ugh. It is difficult to navigate those type of situations, but my Jesus seriously puts the perfect words in my mouth in each of those moments. It is such a fine line, we want to show her unconditional love and welcome her into our family but at the same time avoid confusion. That is where God totally steps in and fills in all the gaps. He is working a miracle in her, slowly but surely each day I can see her changing some times it is two steps forward and four giant steps backwards but she is growing, healing, and just blossoming into this great friend of mine. I am so honored to be in her life!

Here’s some video and pics of our special day

Here we had just entered the park.. each got to bring one item inside, Hannah chose her tiara (so everyone would know it was her bday) and as we predicted it stayed on all of 3 min (I should’ve known better). Sammy chose his dolphin (Splashy) from home who he has never cared much for but he sure didn’t pus Splashy down the whole day! We love the names he comes up with for his an-min-mals as he calls them!

 

Our birthday girl! Here she is all of 9 years old and happy as can be! We sure do love you little Miss Priss!

Waiting for the whale show to begin.. VERY exciting stuff!

Sammy basically had this face the entire show, he was in awe

Sammy was so sweet to care for Hannah after she was soaked. He wouldn’t leave her side, he was so worried about her and tried to help in every way

This is how he spent much of his day.. running with a car in each hand pointing out everything he saw saying “Woa! Mira (look) that!!!” Gotta love his spanglish!

On our “fast” ride together, it is hard to believe my baby is big enough for these things now but so fun to enjoy with him

They loved the “playground in the trees” as Hannah called it, us grown ups hated it and not just me & Sam but all the other poor mommies & daddies who had to climb up in all those nets and were also fearing for their lives and those of their kids (no I kid.. well kind of)

I am so happy b/c we were finally on our way down/out to safety, notice my death grip on my child

Hannah and I rode this Shamu roller coaster while Sammy & Sam rode a ride together. She thought it was “killer”!!

He wanted Splashy to meet the other dolphins

Sammy pet the sing rays! Brave Boy! Hannah bless her heart tried to pet at least 8 or 9 different ones but always jerked her hand up in the end, and never did which we assured her was fine. She is so much like me! ha ha!

We absolutely loved feeding the sea lions and spent quite a while there with them they are just really amazing creatures!

 

If this isn’t love at first sight! He found this rack of penguins as we exited the penguin encounter (nicely played SeaWorld geniuses, nicely played in deed) and he hugged this poor penguin for several min and showered it in kisses. He told it “ i weally wuv you penguino, come sammy’s house really fun” and we so ALMOST cracked and bought it but we stayed strong!

Sammy was a little worried about Hannah and Sam riding on the Atlantis ride, he waited for each boat that fell down the long ramp and when they finally came he said “wets go get em mommy c’mon” and he was off!

Here is their reunion, it was rather dramatic… Sammy caused quite a scene, he ran at them screaming “Daddy, Hannah Bana, you ok? you ok!!!” and threw himself in Sam’s arms. Poor thing! I think he was really scared for them

This last pic is for you mom! Thank you for their souvenirs

Technorati Tags: Sammy,Hannah,Birthday,Sea World,BBBS,love

/Hannah’s bday. She picked a dolphin trainer Barbie and he picked Shamu (not the penguin?)

I added the rest of our pics in a photo album b/c there were just too many to include. Click on the red “view full album” link below

View Full Album

So I don’t get it, what are you doing??

This my friends is a question I get a lot and something most of you reading this most likely have so I figured I would go ahead and answer you! I think for most the whole “dual doctorate thing” is a confusing process, it sure was to me and I admit I didn’t fully understand all that was involved when I started my program! Sad but true!

I have had this question a lot now that I am on the job market so thought if there are still any of you out there who are wondering what the heck is going on in my world or thinking.. didn’t you already graduate, why are you still in grad school?? Hopefully this will help.

What am I doing? The program I am in is a dual PhD program in both developmental psychology and educational psychology. This program provides me with a solid foundation and understanding of development throughout the lifespan (primary focus is on child development) as applied to education. Many have asked if it is a 4 year program, oh how I wish that was true. Often times PhD programs are a go at your own pace kind of thing where there are general guidelines to follow and keep you on track but for the most part you reach each milestone based on your own work. Some research like survey research doesn’t take long at all and other research, like when you are testing participants takes a while. I would venture to guess the average time in my program is around 6 years although some have finished in 5 and many have taken much longer (I refuse to!). The masters degree is incorporated into our program so that we get our masters degrees along the way (usually after first 2 or 3 years) but there really isn’t any fuss or big to do over it at all, we don’t walk for graduation (we prob could I guess) and most of us still have our diplomas still rolled up in their tube, sadly. In fact, mine is safely in its tube waiting to be framed as I type this. It is not out of disrespect for our masters degrees, it is just that they aren’t really what we are working for.

What do I study? My research is focused on the cognitive development of children from low-income families. I study their problem solving skills as related to their school performance. I use behavioral techniques (they play some games on laptops that allow me to get a good measure of each skill) and physiological techniques (I measure their heart rate while they solve problems so I can get idea of how much sustained attention they have while playing). My study is a three year grant funded study, so I started testing them when they were in preschool and kindergarten and I have followed these same kids through second grade. I have their academic records from the school board so that I can relate their performance in my study & over time to their school performance.

Why? Most kids in poverty/ low-income families have delayed cognitive and language development and poorer school performance. Early intervention programs like Head Start help to close this gap in achievement BUT effects are not as far reaching as expected. I suspect that kids need a well developed set of problem solving skills (attention, working memory, planning, strategy usage, cognitive flexibility, inhibition, etc) to be able to sit in a classroom and learn the basics of early literacy and math. These skills seem almost foundational and are obviously critical to academic success and I expect that training Head Start kids in these problem solving skills in addition to early literacy and math will better prepare them for kindergarten so that they can start closer to the same level as their more affluent peers. So far, the results from my research confirm this.

But didn’t you graduate? What was the hoopla a few months ago? Oh how I do wish the answer to that was yes but no, I have not yet graduated. The program is set up so that after you get your masters you must pass a set of qualifying exams (quals), to move on towards doctoral candidacy. This is what I passed (thank you JESUS!) in November and I am now working on my dissertation. After we pass our quals we are labeled ABD which means “all but dissertation”.  It is all downhill after the dissertation proposal, where we present our dissertation plans to our committee members (6 professors who are experts in our area). So basically we just need to analyze our data and write the equivalent of one giant paper. Easier said than done since we go through many drafts before it is “cleared”. Then we have the dissertation defense where we submit the written version of it to our committee members and give an oral presentation of our dissertation. After this is when I will hopefully hear the only words I have longed to hear more than “Well done good and faithful servant” when I die & see my Savior face to face, and those other highly desired words will come from Keith’s mouth and will hopefully be “Congratulations Dr. DeLucca”… oh that will be one glorious day for sure. 

So you’re a child psychologist right? Do you counsel kids? Actually I am a developmental psychologist and in the field of psychology there are basically 2 areas or ways to go with the degree. One can either go clinical and counsel/treat patients or can go the more nerdy route of research which is what I do. So yes I am a psychologist but I am on the research side of things and haven’t ever seen patients. Although at parties I often get asked if I know what people are thinking at that very moment and THAT my friends is a slippery slope and so easy to play with. haha! Hey, gotta have some fun right?

When will you finish? Oh that is the age old question, if only I knew for sure! I can’t say with certainty but what I have discussed with my dissertation committee is that I should have my defense in August, so the end of this summer. Unfortunately though, due to timelines with the grad school I am not allowed to walk for graduation or get my diploma until December b/c I have to wait one year after my qualifying exams. If however I find a job before that they agreed it would be ok to go ahead and accept a position and continue working on my dissertation from wherever we will be living and fly/drive in for my defense.

 

I hope this helps everyone and can clear up some confusion, although I like the thought of being a woman of mystery. Seriously though, don’t feel bad if you have asked me about it. I’m sure you quickly found out I love to talk about my research and can go on and on. Asking a researcher about their work is like asking a parent about heir child, we just can’t help but talk about it because it is so kewl!

For Grammy & Papi

Technorati Tags: Sammy,Grammy,eggs,train ride,videos

We made a couple videos for Sam’s parents, these were made after Sammy had helped me peel some hard boiled eggs for breakfast. We finished and he clapped his hands together and said “so yummy mommy! I show Gwammy!”, he still doesn’t quite get that he can’t show her over the phone so I attempted to make the following videos. The first one, as you will see turned out rather silly but his little sense of humor is evident even at this young age as he did one of his “jokes” (I use this term loosely) at the end. He used to call Sam’s mom “Mimi” but he very recently declared that she is no longer Mimi and that now she is “Grammy” pronounced “Gwammy” and he is quick to correct us if we forget and slip up. At the end of the video I asked him to say bye to Mimi and Papi and his response is his attempt at a little joke. Too funny. 

Thankfully the second video was a little more serious and you can kind of get the gist of how the egg peeling went, well for the most part as told by a two year old.

Hope you enjoy them Grammy and Papi! He sure loves you!

Here are a few shots from his big train ride with them, yes they both rode right along with him and he had time of his life. Even got to wear the conductor’s hat! 

Sorry if these pics end up being ginormous on the blog, I am learning how to use the new writer program.

Operation Strawberry Festival

**attention bloggy friends*** I wanted to try out Katie’s tip re Writer and let me tell you, much easier! I did this whole post in 4 min! I wanted to try lots of pics and video to see how it would measure up and yep.. 4 min is all it took! I HIGHLY recommend it! Give it a try!

A group of my mommy friends got together and headed down for a road trip to Plant City (yes that would be a 141 mile trip.. brave or crazy? You decide!) for the Strawberry Festival! This was no small undertaking as we had 9 kids under the age of 6 crammed into 3 cars and we were gone the entire day. I had so much fun taking a break and getting some fun time in with friends and watching all the kiddos together. The weather was just perfect. I am not kidding when I say those strawberries were some of the best I have ever had and the giant strawberry shortcake was beyond delicious! I half considered driving back down just for that, oink oink. We received a lot of looks and attention as we paraded through the festival with all of our strollers and little ones and had 4 different people ask if we were a daycare on a field trip, which I thought was funny. We were the mommy parade and we were on a mission! Everyone said we were crazy when I told them we were going with that many little kids but I think all in all it was a great day, even with the meltdowns. We saw pig races, ate yummy food, the kids rode rides and we all did a whole lot of laughing. I would say operation Strawberry Festival was a huge success. Will I be going back anytime soon? Probably not as I am still recovering, but it was such a fun time with a great group of ladies! I cherish the great talks, support, and encouragement I always find with these amazing friends. Thanks for the memories!

Luke, Sammy, Nicolae, & Gina

 

The parade of strollers

Choo Choo train ride was hilarious, some loved it, some hated it and the others were just flat out confused

and they were off!

I LOVED this shot of all the proud mommies, it was like the paparazzi. Letting our little ones go all by themselves!

checking out a strawberry patch.. little Giovanni was too small to be in this pic but he was there and taking it all in too!

 

They loved this old truck and were fascinated by the wheels their conversation had me laughing

So glad Gloria came along, she loves children and had such a great time with all of them and they sure love her!

Katie and Lukers (as Sammy calls him)

Check out little Mr. Gabriel!! Sneaky little thing, I promise I was already sharing with him but man.. I looked away for one second and he swooped in and gobbled up my strawberry shortcake! Now who needs to say oink oink????? ha! I love Amy and her boys!

Our little gang

Somehow I ended up pushing Sammy & Gracie in Suzanne's stroller and look who we found along the way

Pig Races!

This was where I had a little drama letting my boy be big on his own. I was so terribly scared for him to go on this ride! It just seemed so big and him so little but apparently I couldn’t go on and break it and I was peer pressured (don’t deny it you know I was ladies) into “letting go” and thankfully his angels kept him safe.. goodness he was high enough up in the sky I told him to wave to my Gram while he was up there!

This is about where I got a little teary, but they were giggling and I could hear Sammy above all the laughter saying “So fast! So tall! Helicopter Fun!”

Yep.. full tears here. At this point I think 4 people were reassuring me that he wasn’t going to leap out of there/ their little purple one wasn’t going to fly off

Look at our babies, they were so proud of themselves! All we heard were shrieks and giggles

Who knew they custom made a ride just for my boy, he drove his very own dumptruck that he named “Dumpy” ha ha

All smiles

Here’s Gina! She sure loves cars and trucks and she meant business on this ride, never stopped steering once

Fun day together!

Look what we found! Representing in good ol’ Plant City!

He picked out the strawberries for Gloria’s family

Technorati Tags: Strawberry Festival,Sammy,mommy

Mr. & Mrs.

One reason we were so busy in Feb had to do with Sarah's wedding~ it could not have gone any better and it was truly just a perfect day! It had been super cold here but for that one day, we had gorgeous weather and we all had a wonderful time. They were married in St. Augustine at the Casa Monica hotel and it was just absolutely gorgeous! I was some what anxious about Sammy doing his job as ring bearer since he is two now and we do have "two year old moments" as I call them. Thankfully they are not often but when they come.. you better watch out. I wanted to do everything I could to keep him on his best behavior so every moment of the days leading up to the wedding were planned out to the minute all to ensure he was on good sleep schedule and well rested. Thankfully his day of nap worked out perfectly and all was well! I felt like such a bad mommy as I stood in the check out lane at Target before the wedding, I stocked up on sugary gummy snacks, juice boxes, goldfish, basically all the junky stuff he never gets so that he we could keep him pumped up. It worked! He danced the night way until about 10:30 and was just as pleasant as could be! Anytime he seemed to be winding down or a tad grouchy I would open up some snacks and some fruitable juice and bam! He was back in action, ha ha. In fact it worked so well I have used the trick now at the Strawberry festival and at SeaWorld to make a long day pleasant..sshhhh don't tell.

The ceremony was so sweet, we were all happy that Pops and Esther (Sam and Sarah's great grandparents) made it up and were able to watch. Sam's dad cracked me up with his cheat sheet.. his only line was "her mother and I" but he had to write it on a bandaid on his hand b/c he was scared he would forget. I got a little teary as I watched Sarah stand there and exchange vows with the love of her life. I can't believe how far we have all come! I think back to that first time I stepped into their old house on Aba drive, I was some teen girl with a mega crush on a cute boy and was so scared to eat dinner with his family that I could hardly eat a bite! I was so nervous! I just remember how cute and sweet his little sister was, in fact talking to Sarah was what made me feel comfortable and loosen up. I remember I left there all the more "into" this boy all because of that family. They were all so close and the relationship between Sam and his little sister was so sweet and just really rare, something you don't usually see these days. He was such a good big brother to her.

The wedding was just amazing. All of their family came down so it was nice to see and spend time with everyone again. Sammy loved the dance floor! He sure tore it up out there. I loved watching him, he had us all entertained with the "love triangle" as we called it. Aiden, the other ring bearer is 5 and Layla the flower girl is 3. The three little ones all got along great and loved playing together but the dance floor had us all laughing. A love triangle emerged and Aiden would dance with Layla and Sammy would get his feelings hurt, then get brave and walk over to ask her to dance. He would grin ear to ear when she said yes and took his hand and they danced, but then Aiden would swoop Lalya away off into the night after a few min and Sammy would run to me with his head on my lap and say "I want dance wiff her". Awww!!! Just a foretaste of years to come my love. ha ha

The bride and groom seemed to have a fabulous evening and we did too! Congratulations Sarah and Brennan, we love you!

Few videos of Sammy dancing

Here is a link to a few pics their photographer put on her blog, just so beautiful and artsy..

http://www.oeilphotography.com/index2.php?v=v1 (click on featured and then Brennan & Sarah)

Here are some of our favorites I put into smilebox..

ceremony

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reception

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