Friday, May 28, 2010

Savannah is growing up so fast!

Disclaimer: I am a very proud mama and it will seem like I am going over the top about how smart I think Savannah does, but please don't judge me for it. I am fully aware I sound like a crazy parent, but it's ok with me :)

Savannah is having a language explosion right now. She already had about 30-40 words down but now she is able to repeat all kinds of words we say. Also, the other day when we were in the car, I handed her a book of colors that I found under the seat. As I was driving she flipped through the pages. Then I heard, "Blooo, red, yell-ooo, geen." I was shocked. I wasn't giving her any prompting she was sight reading. Brian told me she must have memorized the words from her video or just from us reading the book to her (however, that book as been stuck under a seat in the car for months so I don't think it was from over reading the book). We wanted to test her to see what she could and couldn't read. So, Brian and I pulled out a 100 pack of flash cards from her My Baby Can Read program. Based on her age she is not supposed to use them yet, but I wanted to see what she could do. She has seen some of the words but most of them were words that haven't been shown in her videos yet. I started to show them to her and she would read them and say them out loud. When it came to the new words she tried to say them to. She sounded them out. For example if the word was look she would say llll - ook. She knows the word book and other words that start with l and I really think she is able to make these connections.

Another VERY cute thing she has learned is to fold her arms, give kisses and hugs. Here is a video clip.







Thursday, May 13, 2010

Aron with one A Blog

Please follow the Aron with one A Blog!!


http://aron-with-one-a.blogspot.com

Pictures of Savannah at the book Signing!











Thursday, April 29, 2010

Savannah's 1 year B-day Photos

So, it has taken a while to get Savannah's one year photos back from the photographer, but they were worth the wait! Wow, she is TOO cute. If anyone wants one please comment on the post with the picture you want and the size. I am placing a big order so just let me know.




Top 5 Strengths

As part of the Bank of America Grant from last year I am attending a lot of conferences in 2010 for leadership training. As part of our 'homework' before the Atlanta trip we had to take a very long self reflection exam. The point of the assignment was to find out my top 5 strengths based on the way I answered the questions. I guess there are 30 different strengths and these were my top 5. These things always seems a little strange to me- almost like a horoscope. It seems like you an justify everything it says. I think it is a good match for me, but I never know how much is real compared to what I perceive is real. I am interested to see how this information will be incorporated in our leadership training next month.


My Top 5 Strengths
Competition
Achiever
Maximizer
Significance
Learner


Competition
Chances are good that you often unravel perplexing ideas, problems, processes, opportunities, or puzzles. You usually continue working until you discover how something operates. You think much faster when you know someone else is trying to understand how the same thing functions. This likely motivates you to finish first. Instinctively, you refuse to be content with your performance until you have been declared the most capable, successful, or accomplished person in the group. Just knowing you are being compared to others gives you the extra energy and determination you need to surpass everyone else’s performance. Because of your strengths, you have identified your talents and strengths. You know the things you do quite well. You waste very little time mulling over your limitations, shortcomings, or failures. Your strengths allow you to capture first-place honors again and again. You refuse to concentrate much energy on areas where you must struggle just to be average. “What’s the point?” you ask yourself. By nature, you usually know the right time to assist someone who is vying for top honors or the first-place prize. It’s very likely that you consistently aim to turn in the prize-winning performance. A second- or third-place finish can send you into an emotional
tailspin. Your ability to pull out of it depends on your other talents.

Achiever
Chances are good that you work for hours, days, weeks, or even months to produce
outstanding results. You impose demanding standards for excellence and productivity on
yourself. You probably cannot rest until each requirement is met. By nature, you think
intensely to conceive vivid mental images of the future. Many individuals lack your ability to envision what will be possible in the coming months, years, or decades. As a result, they regularly rely on you to do this visioning for them. It’s very likely that you spend hours unraveling the mysteries of complicated procedures, routines, or systems. Your step-by-step descriptions help numerous individuals understand how things operate. Because of your strengths, you typically immerse yourself in intense activities. Preferring a fast pace, you thrive on excitement. You appreciate being surrounded by like-minded individuals. They motivate you to expend even more energy accomplishing whatever needs to be done. You stay busy and work hard whenever it is necessary. Driven by your talents, you naturally concentrate your physical and mental energies on doing whatever needs to be done right now. You have a natural gift for living in the moment. This explains why you need to produce meaningful results each day.

Maximizer
Because of your strengths, you periodically inspire people by finding out what motivates
them. You may give individuals lots of recognition. Once in a while, you celebrate each
person’s uniqueness. Perhaps your acknowledgments or compliments energize particular
people. It’s very likely that you sense that you do a good job of streamlining processes and action plans. You study ways to efficiently perform mundane, tedious, or repetitious tasks. As insignificant as an activity seems, you help others appreciate its importance. Your orderly and easy-to-follow steps save people time and allow them to deliver consistent results on schedule and without hassles. Instinctively, you are quite determined to enhance your talents rather than waste time worrying about your limitations. You often experience bursts of rapid growth each time you can use your talents, knowledge, and/or skills. By nature, you recognize you help individuals feel part of gatherings, conversations, organizations, or events. Sensitive to subtle forms of discrimination, you strive to overcome it. Consciously excluding people is unacceptable, in your opinion. You probably distance yourself from people who despise people or things they regard as inferior. Driven by your talents, you may accept that no two people are exactly the same. This partially explains why you ask so many questions. Sometimes you are trying to figure out what makes an individual different from everyone else. Perhaps this knowledge allows you to inspire, coax, demand, challenge, or pressure various people to do their finest work.

Significance
It’s very likely that you attract people by noticing their accomplishments. You gain much
satisfaction from being liked. Your sense of importance is enhanced when many people say you are their friend. Driven by your talents, you may be a solo performer who wants to do important work. Perhaps you engage in activities that set you apart from the vast majority of people. You sometimes dedicate your time, effort, and energy to these pursuits. Chances are good that you provide the impetus — that is, the driving force or motivation — people need to reach their goals and excel. Because of your strengths, you urge and prod people to settle for nothing less than great accomplishments. You have a reputation for drawing out individuals’ finest work. When timid or risk-adverse people rise to your standards of excellence, you know they would not have performed as brilliantly if you had not been there to influence them. By nature, you gravitate to people whose work ethic is rock solid. You like to associate with individuals who are driven to excel and highly productive.

Learner
By nature, you acquire knowledge more easily when you can talk with others about ideas,
concepts, or theories. Thoughts come alive for you when questions are posed and answers are proposed. You have a delightful time thinking out loud and listening to intelligent people express themselves. You naturally document or store in your mind bits and pieces of discussions. You want to refer back to these insights or facts whenever the opportunity
presents itself. It’s very likely that you are attracted to difficult and challenging endeavors. You are not inclined to look for the easy way out. You are bold. You take risks. You dare to stretch your mind. You test the limits of your abilities in ways that timid individuals would not attempt. Because of your strengths, you normally dedicate yourself to acquiring knowledge and gaining skills. You probably devote many hours to mental labor. Instinctively, you typically enroll in demanding classes. You thrive in situations where you can test your talents as well as your endurance to discover how much you can accomplish. You need to prove yourself to yourself each day. Driven by your talents, you yearn to be inspired by your work. You want experience to be your teacher. You need to feel enthused by your work or studies. You constantly acquire knowledge and skills. Whenever you study facts, ponder concepts, test theories, or sharpen your skills, you feel most alive. You are inclined to avoid people and situations that prevent you from expanding your mind.

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

We're OPEN for business!

The store on our website is up and running!

http://www.aron-with-one-a.com/

Saturday, April 10, 2010

The Secret Project... Aron with one A

For the past couple months I have been working 18-20 hour days on a secret project. Not many people knew about it because I wanted to make sure it was really going to happen before I spread the word. As many people know my background is in personal finance. My BA was in consumer affairs, my Masters was in Business Administration and my Ph.D. is in curriculum development. All of this education is finally being put altogether for a Children's Financial Literacy Picture Book Series. My sister-in-law is co-authoring the books, but she really is the creative force behind all the characters and story lines. I add my personal finance influence to them.

The books are written to fit National Standards and Guidelines for Math, English Language Arts, Economics and Personal Finance. The purpose behind the book series is to have a book focus on personal finance that teachers could use in the classroom, but that parents can also purchase and take a proactive step to teach their children money management. Personal finance is only required to be taught in 3 states! Teachers do not have time to add in additional curriculum when they are being pressured to teach to the standardized tests. That's why the book series meets other standards, like reading and math, so teachers can use it for when they are teaching those subject but also squeeze in personal finance lessons at the same time. The books are not meant to look like curriculum/text books. They will be sold at numerous locations. At the end of each book there is a family/classroom activity. This was designed to be a family home evening activity, but is perfect for any group setting. On our website there is free worksheets for parents and teachers to print and use.

The book series is called "Aron with one A" and is about Aron and his HUGE family. Stephanie came up with the name after her brother Aron. Since Aaron is typically spelt with two a's he always has to correct people and say, "with one A".

The K-3 book series consists of 20 books with each book focusing on a different money management lesson. There are 7 kids in the family and each story focuses on one child and their experience learning the lessons. We will expand to curriculum at some point to include a grades 4-8 book series and a grades 9-12 series. The reasons it is separated into these grade groupings is based on the way the standards for personal financial literacy standards are set up.

A question that will most likely be asked is, "How do kindergartners learn about money? They are too young." Research shows that as soon as a child can count they can begin understanding the concepts of money. The hope is that if personal finance is taught earlier than maybe the scary statics such as, consumers have over 1 trillion dollars in credit card debt, bankruptcies are on the rise and mortgage defaults are at the highest levels ever, wouldn't exist anymore.

Here are just a couple images. This only shows 4 of the 12 characters.


Our website will be up and running in the next couple days http://www.aron-with-one-a.com/. Our Twitter, Facebook and Financial Tips blog will be up and running within the week. We are having a HUGE book series unveiling and signing at the Bowers Museum in Santa Ana on April 23rd. We will have a booth at the LA Festival of Books at UCLA on the 24th and 25th. I would love the support of seeing my family and friends at these events if possible! Our website lists all the details.
If there are ANY suggestions, comments or tips PLEASE let me know. This company would not have been created if it wasn't for the help I have received already, and I know that I don't know it all. It has been a huge learning curve to set up an publishing company, publish/print our first book and figure out distribution.
My cousin Lisa is setting up a blogging advertising campaign and I would love the support of my blog friend if you put a button on your pages. We will have the buttons ready soon!
THANKS!

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Easter Day

The day before Easter we did Easter Egg decorating at the club house at my parent's place. Savannah like playing with the beach balls more than decorate the eggs.












Savannah wasn't a big fan of Easter egg decorating, but she also wasn't a fan of not Easter egg decorating.






We Spent Easter in Palm Springs. It was beautiful weather. Here is the video of Savannah seeing her Easter Basket. It was an Elmo basket. We thought she would love it, but it scared her a little. She loved this really soft pillow Grandma gave her. It's funny because her other Grandma gave her a bumble bee pillow just like it and she loves it too. It is something about the soft material it is made out of. She has a monkey that she can't let go of and he is made of the same material.



We walked down to the club house for a huge Easter Egg hunt. There were at least 150 kids. It was so much fun to see so many children dressed up in their cute little Easter outfits. My mom got Savannah this little car and she loves it. Every time my parents go to the clubhouse for lunch with Savannah they push her in this little car.





Savannah Update

Savannah just had a wellness check doctors appointment. No surprise... she is totally healthy. He is a crazy 33 inches long and 26 pounds. She grew 2 1/2 inches since her last appointment and didn't gain any weight. Her hemangioma is still on her arm. We thought it was getting smaller, but it was probably because her arm was getting bigger. They doctor does not want to remove to for as long as they can. Savannah just discovered it the other day and started to scratch it. I am trying to keep her in sleeves as much as possible to avoid the possibility of her scratching it since it will bleed really badly.

Milk time right before her nap. She gets to watch a little Sesame Street during this time. It winds her down for a nice long nap.





New shoes... I just love them.





Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Old Pictures

Things have been so busy. I found some of these pictures on my computer that I never posted.





Sunday, March 21, 2010

Something historic

Right now I am working on the laptop and watching FOX news. Something historic just happened. Am I mistaken or are the people that we elect supposed to be OUR voice. How are they so out of touch with the American People. It doesn't take a genius to look at other countries with national health care and see how they are financially in ruins and have to have a national sales tax to even cover some of the costs.

And... WHAT... why is a total Student Loan overhaul allowing Washington DC to take full control of student loans doing in a health care bill. Again, WHAT?

Yes, this is Historic... Historic Mistake.

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Meet Mitt Romney... CHECK!

Mitt Romney wrote a new book called, "No Apology" and was having a book signing at Barnes and Nobel in Costa Mesa last Friday. I am a TOTAL a Mitt supporter and fan. Brian and I made lists of the top 5 people we would like to meet and Mitt Romney was at the top of my list.

It was soooo cool... I am not that star struck for movie stars, but I really admire Mitt Romney for so many reasons.

I look forward to read his book.




Friday, March 19, 2010

iPhone HELP!

I need some help with my iPhone. Does anyone know how to get the videos off of the phone? I tried tonight but the file is .mov and it not compatible with anything. I need to stick a video I took for work into a PowerPoint presentation but the .mov file will not let me. Can I convert it.

Any help would be great.

Thanks,
Kelly

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Work Stuff

A lot of great things have been happening at work.

1. I was asked to serve on Experian's Consumer Council. It consists of 12 national personal finance experts. It was an amazing experience sitting around a round table with experts I have looked up to for so long. While I was sitting there I thought, 'I have quoted at least 6 of you in my last literature review." It was a surreal feeling acting as their peer.

2. I got a cool letter from Senator Lou Correa last week. I am being honored as the recipient of the 2010 Women Making a Difference award. Tomorrow night is the awards ceremony and reception.

3. Every year there is a National Financial Literacy Poster Contest for local high schools, middle schools and elementary schools. This year a student for our region won the National Competition. I was ecstatic when the National office called and informed me of our winner. I called the student and his mom. The mom screamed on the phone and began to cry. They both get a free trip to Washington D.C. and will be honored at the National Financial Literacy Gala. It was a very touching moment, and I couldn't be more happy for him.

4. Lastly, I was interviewed for an AOL money article. Here is the link. I was very happy with the article.

http://www.walletpop.com/blog/2010/03/13/money-college-credit-cards-debit-cards-the-key-differences/

Sunday, March 14, 2010

She's WALKING all by herself!

Savannah just started taking steps without holding onto anything! It was exactly 14 months.

Friday, March 12, 2010

Hanging out with Grandpa and Grandma

The other day my parents came into town to take care of some doctors appointments. Although they have to drive all the way into Orange County to see their doctors it's a bonus that they get to spend the day with Savvy! My Dad has an iPhone and is constantly taking pictures of Savannah and emails me all of them. It's nice to see a picture pop into my inbox while I am working. This one was particularly cute. Bekka picked out this outfit at the Gymboree outlet and I love it!



Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Savannah... NOOOOOOOOOOOO

Savannah in a new dress from Grandma. SO cute. During sacrament last Sunday Savannah chocked on a fishy. She chocks a lot, but this time it was really bad. I rushed her out of sacracment and as soon as the fishy cam up so did the rest of them... all over my shirt!

So, Savannah added another word to her vocabulary- "No". She repeats it every time I say it to her or anyone else. I started to realized I say it quite often- especially since Savannah tends to repeat no two or three times after I say it. I have been trying to focus on other ways of saying "no". "Savannah, you cannot touch that", "Savannah, you need to share, she was playing with it first", etc instead of just jumping in with "NO". Once I started doing this I felt like Savannah was understanding me so much more.

This leads to my story of the day. Every morning Savannah takes a bath with all her toys. She loves brushing her teeth and making lots of noise. Since our bathroom is so small I am able to brush my teeth or put on lotion while sitting next to the tub on a stool. After about 10 minutes and her body and hair were washed and smelling good Savannah stopped making loud noises. Her face started turning red and I immediately knew what was happening. To my horror Savannah started pooping in the tub!!! In that split second I didn't know what to do. She had never done this before. I jumped off my stool and shouted, "Noooooo!" and picked her up out of the tub. She was dripping wet, but I couldn't set her down and I could only hold her under her arm pits. I ran her over to the changing table to get her cleaned up and the entire time I was carrying my dripping, messy baby to the changing table she was saying, "No, No, No, No, No, No, No". I spent the next 30 minutes bleaching our tub, washing her toys all off and her toothbrush went in the trash. What a morning!
Here is a short video clip of Savannah and Lily. Sorry the TV is so loud, we were watching the CPAC confrence.
A couple weekends ago Savannah and I went to my parents house. We had a fun time playing on their thick carpet- our house has wood so it is a nice change.

When I showed up to my parents house they had a great gift for me!

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Leadership Training

As part of that big $200,000 grant my NPO got I am getting a bunch of leadership training. I was worried this would be like a MBA review class, but it is really great since it is solely focused on NPOs. I never had a non-profit management course which now I realized should really be included as a core course for business majors- just because it is not-for-profit doesn't mean it isn't business (I think I am going to look more into this issue). It's really neat that we will see the same people over and over for all the trainings. The first training is in LA. So not too far from the house, but too far to actually commute. I miss Savannah and Brian. I am so glad I can look as her cute little videos. My next couple work trips will be further away (North Carolina, Atlanta, Minnesota)- hopefully the family will come too!

Although I am in a cool hotel room it sucks coming back up to my room with a load of school work to do (I am procrastinating with blogging). I have been working on a special project with my sister-in-law Stephanie and I much rather work on that instead of read about Marx and Weber! I am taking three classes right now- Critical Pedagogy, Theories Framing and The Art and Science of Teaching Higher Education.

Lastly, just finished Outliers by Malcom Gladwell and all I can say is AMAZING. Next is Game Change by John Heilemann and Mark Halperin.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

My Baby can Read

My parents bought Savannah the My Baby Can Read program before she was born. We have followed the program on schedule with the videos, books and flash cards. She really loves the entire program.

Here is a video of her progress at 13 months.


Something else that is fun... I finally got prescription sun glasses. My black frame regular glasses have been in the shop for two weeks getting repaired. Savannah snapped them in half so I have been struggling for a couple weeks (bad timing since the semester started three weeks ago... I tried getting through it with by taping my glasses and then I realized I looked like a total dork so I made an eye appointment). When I went in to get them fixed they retested my eyes. The Kaiser doctor told me that I was starting to develop specific type of lines or wrinkles around my eyes that are indicating I am not protecting my eyes in the sun (since turning 25 I feel that I am getting nervous of looking older so this was very disturbing news). I thought this was going to be a sales pitch for me to buy an expensive new pair with lenses that fade in the sun. I told him since I wear my regular glasses all the time I don't switch to sunglasses since it hurts my eyes without prescription. As I thought he then suggested those lenses in my regular glasses that tint in the sun. I explained that I didn't feel that it would be a good look on me (since he was wearing a pair and seemed jazzed to tell me about how 'cool' they were it was the nicest way I could think of saying I don't like them ). The doctor said that then prescription sunglasses were medically necessary and so my insurance covered it. I was SO happy. They even covered my favorite brand COACH! I have been wearing them for a couple days and LOVE them. I can feel such a difference- I get a lot less eye pain/head aches when driving during they day.

Monday, February 15, 2010

A bunch of Randoms!

Savannah is using straw cups (not sippy cups- ask Brian he will explain the medical reason behind that). I love the way her little lips pinch together around the straw. She had a little difficulty in the beginning with keeping the milk in her mouth after sucking it up the straw. It would just fall out on her shirt. She went shirtless for a couple days.



Grandma and Grandpa (he prefers Savannah to call him Grandfather... still can't tell if he is joking or not) just got back this last week. They brought lots of gifts. Black leather boots and a black leather briefcase for me and Brian's going to his gifts this weekend when we go to Palm Spring but he already got a whole bag of CHUNKY Kit Kat Bars (not sold in US). Savannah got tons of stuff including a Brazilian Bikini which is simply a hat and bottoms... no top. A good purchase for someone learning how to use a sippy cup not such a good purchase for the WHITEST baby in the world who needs as much skin covered as possible. The hat is perfect though. Mom flew to Dallas just a day after getting back because Peter is VERY sick. He had to take more than a week off of work. My Mom has been taking care of him by making homemade chili and chicken noodle soup. She make the most delicious soups.


This was one of the new dresses from Luann's Dress Shop. The three of us girls went shopping last month at the half off sale and of course Grandma bought 15 dresses for Savannah. They are beautiful hand made outfits. Savannah also got 6 pairs of shoes to match. I will be posting pictures of the dresses as she grows into them. We call this one the Jacquie O dress. It comes with a jacket that is SO adorable.



Just a cute picture of the little girl.

The picture of the shoes were included for Grandma Jane... who LOVES shoes more than any human being can love shoes. Even though Savannah is very tall she still has small feet for her height.

Her hair is growing so much. We are still not sure if it is going to be curly or go straight. She has straight on top and curls at the ends.


Pictures of the Dallas trip that never got up on the blog. We spent SO much time with Uncle Will. It was really nice for Will and I to get to know each other. There was a lot of laughter and tears (Savannah was sick and I was a mess). Will is really sweet, caring and tons of fun.


We tried a new hair style on her with the clip on top. She wasn't a big fan.

Taking a Break from all the Dallas traveling.


Peter recently purchase a gorgeous condo. Of course it is spotless. While we were there Peter made me eat just like him... totally organic with salmon and chicken. I am not kidding when I say I actually lost 5 pounds while I was there. Peter keeps his house totally in order, eats perfectly healthy, works out daily and dresses like a GQ model. Is it obvious I idol my big brother.


At one point while we were in Dallas Savannah got so sick the nurse hotline said to call 911. I was a mess but Will kept it all together. While the paramedics were evaluating Savannah I looked up and saw Peter reporting live on TV. It was a weird moment and if I wasn't a basket case I would have taken a picture.


Peter and Will gave Savannah those pink leopard shoes. So cute.

If I ever moved to Dallas I would want to live on this street. Can you imagine every time you had to confirm your address you would say, "1521 Lover Lane..." It seems so neat.

We feed the fish while in Dallas. Savannah loved it. (That animal in the bottom left-hand corner is a statue. They had them all over the park and would scare the heck out of me.)

Savannah loves to smile for pictures!


New Shoes! (Thought Grandma would appreciate this photo)

Savannah loves touching the keys of our laptops just like Mommy and Daddy. I set up SesameStreet.com for her to watch videos. She loves it. She talks to the screen and gets so excited that at times she actually touches the screen. She also gets a chance to show off her dancing skills.