Saturday, January 30, 2010
First Birthday Party Ever
I only have a few minutes for this post, actually I have no minutes, but I'm taking them anyways. Tomorrow is Anastasia's first ever Birthday Party!! She is so excited. I will post pics, hopefully early this week. 2 of the other girls who were adopted from the same Desky Com are coming, and most of the little girls from her class. She said it's like a Russia-America Party. Tuesday is her actual Birthday, she is so excited she can hardly stand it. It is birthday month in our house, ALL of my children were born in Feb, all with number 2's, the 2nd, the 20th, and the 22nd, and Anastasia was even born on 2-2-02. Don't worry, I promise to post pics of her Birthday party, I know I never did post pics of Christmas. And trust me you have got to see the face she makes when she opens presents!! It will make your day, well it makes my day, it will at least make you smile!
Saturday, January 23, 2010
OK I WAS Back
My desktop computer is broke again, it worked for a couple days, then the hard drive quite working. So, my awesome computer fixer (aka my bestest friend's hubby), helped me pick out a new hard drive, but he came to put it back in and it hadn't copied, soooo I'm having withdrawal. This computer wigs out and then I have to log off and back on. I can't print my online coupons. I can't webcam with my hubby, and neither can the kids. I am really praying that we don't have to buy a new computer, but if we must we must. We are very grateful to have someone who is able work on it for us, at least if we have to replace it we know it is absolutley necessary.
On the Anastasia front, she is doing great. She went to her first all girls birthday party last night, I didn't let her sleep there, I wasn't ready for that, and we very rarely ever let our kids sleep at other people's houses. She started crying when I went to pick her up, she wanted to stay so bad. The Mom said they did notice she wouldn't stay away from the punch and candy, surprise, surprise. So we had a short talk about only drinking and eating our share when there is unlimited food. Hehe, that is worst behaviour issue when left without me, I think she is doing great!!
I don't have self control around unlimited candy either, ha!
Her birthday party is next Sunday, she wanted to have it at a play place here that is a lot like Chuck E. Cheese.
It is so funny the things we assume she has an understanding of, but does not. She asked me today who chose what day her birthday was on, me or her other mom?
I didn't understand at first. I had to explain that it was the day she came out of her Mommies belly, and that no person picked, you have to be in your Mom's belly for a certain amount of time, then God chooses your day and out you come, and that day is your birthday!!
She also told someone the other day that we changed her name, we did not, but it seemed like it to her. We have always called her Anastasia instead of Nahstya, becaue this is what they referred to her as on the hosting listing that we found her on. She had no clue that Nahstya was a nickname for Anastasia. I explained to her what a nickname was, like Joey for Joseph, Nate for Nathaniel, Bob for Robert, etc... I think she gets it now. I asked her again if she would like us to call her Nahstya and she said no, she does not like that name.
She is so excited about her birthday, we are only going to invite girls, I think she's overwhelmed already so I want to keep the numbers reasonable. I haven't told her that on her birthday that she gets to choose what or where the family gets to eat dinner that night, she takes food serious, I know it's going to be stressful for her to decide!!
On the Anastasia front, she is doing great. She went to her first all girls birthday party last night, I didn't let her sleep there, I wasn't ready for that, and we very rarely ever let our kids sleep at other people's houses. She started crying when I went to pick her up, she wanted to stay so bad. The Mom said they did notice she wouldn't stay away from the punch and candy, surprise, surprise. So we had a short talk about only drinking and eating our share when there is unlimited food. Hehe, that is worst behaviour issue when left without me, I think she is doing great!!
I don't have self control around unlimited candy either, ha!
Her birthday party is next Sunday, she wanted to have it at a play place here that is a lot like Chuck E. Cheese.
It is so funny the things we assume she has an understanding of, but does not. She asked me today who chose what day her birthday was on, me or her other mom?
I didn't understand at first. I had to explain that it was the day she came out of her Mommies belly, and that no person picked, you have to be in your Mom's belly for a certain amount of time, then God chooses your day and out you come, and that day is your birthday!!
She also told someone the other day that we changed her name, we did not, but it seemed like it to her. We have always called her Anastasia instead of Nahstya, becaue this is what they referred to her as on the hosting listing that we found her on. She had no clue that Nahstya was a nickname for Anastasia. I explained to her what a nickname was, like Joey for Joseph, Nate for Nathaniel, Bob for Robert, etc... I think she gets it now. I asked her again if she would like us to call her Nahstya and she said no, she does not like that name.
She is so excited about her birthday, we are only going to invite girls, I think she's overwhelmed already so I want to keep the numbers reasonable. I haven't told her that on her birthday that she gets to choose what or where the family gets to eat dinner that night, she takes food serious, I know it's going to be stressful for her to decide!!
Saturday, January 16, 2010
I'm Back, A's detailed school update
The computer is fixed, thank God, and Kevin, my friends husband, whoohoo. This month is the first month we were going to be able to put extra payments on our adoption debt, and it almost looked like that money was going to have to go to buying a computer. I am truly thankful to have someone care enough to fix it for me, what a God send.
So, how is my Girl doing? Pretty well. I would say. I didn't really have any expectations when it came to school for her, not that I expected her not to excel, I knew she was smart, but I had never parented a child who had never had any schooling, spoke a different native language and was about to be stuck in 1st grade. So she has been in school 5.5 months.
She can read at a low first grade level, she is progressing nicely, this is one of the areas she is behind in compared to others in her class, but I did not expect her to be reading as well as she already is.
Math, I would say she is doing very well in, it takes her some work to get some concepts, others she gets easily. First grade is not what it used to be, they are doing things like adding 2 digit numbers, like 35+12, they count by 2,5,10, to 100, foward and backwards, they do word problems (which is her weakest point in math) they count money (took a lot of extra tutoring for her to get that one, etc...
She often gets 100 on spelling tests or only misses 1 or 2, how awesome is that.
Overall her behavior is great at school. For the most part she has stopped pretending she doesn't know something. She does like to read books to an adult, but she does not like taking the inituative to read instructions on a paper or a short story she has to answer questions on, etc... This is something we are working on, it's hard and she doesn't want to do it. She is a little bit bossy, what girl isn't!! And a very sore loser, very, very sore winner, like, in your face I won, haha. Not sure if this has anything to do with her past, I think it is just her personality, makes me laugh inside sometimes but we don't allow her be cruel to others, something that has taken some getting used to, being cruel to others was just fine in the children's home, certainly not a punishable offense.
I am so proud of how well she is doing school, she really works hard at it. I was reading someone else's blog, she was trying to decide wether or not to send her older adopted children to school or homeschool them. The schools explained to her that she would basically have a lot of work to do with them in the evening for them to catch up. So basically this mother said "I would be sending them to school during the day, and homeschooling them at home also" Yes, exactly the school told her. That is very much what it is like. I enjoy helping her learn and don't mind it one bit, but it does take time. We had debating homeschooling her for sometime before sending her to school. She wantd to go to school, and I think that it was the right decision, she needed to learn things from school that are not academic related, like how to interact with others. I am not at the school nearly as much as I was in the beginning, but I am still there every morning, if the teacher is teaching something new, I stick around for the lesson so that I can help her learn it at home if it is not something she grasps at first. Her teacher and I have a great understanding of what I expect from Anastasia behavior wise and it has worked out well. Her teacher knows that she can send home a paper that Anastasia has had a hard time with and that I WILL reteach it at home. I don't know the methods to teach a 1 st grader how to add 2 digit numbers, her teacher does, and she is great at teaching, but no school has time to tutor a child for hours. If you are going to adopt an older child, I think it only right to expect that you've got to step up and do the extra work to make sure the child does as well as they can.
I had asked the ESL teacher if she thought Rosetta Stone would be helpful for Anastasia language developement. From what I've read many older internationally adopted children do very well in school, go on to be head of their calls, valevictorian even, but are still behing in language. So I wanted to give her as much as I can in that area. They don't have the time to do it in school she told me, but Anastasia could have free subsricption to it and do it at home!! How great is that, she started on it last night and she loves it. So far I think it is great, and I think it will help her tremendously. And I don't have to pay for it.
Sorry this was long. This post isn't really for those who like to come here for a short update or for entertainment. But I like to encourage those who have just adopted or are thinking of adopting a school aged child.
So, how is my Girl doing? Pretty well. I would say. I didn't really have any expectations when it came to school for her, not that I expected her not to excel, I knew she was smart, but I had never parented a child who had never had any schooling, spoke a different native language and was about to be stuck in 1st grade. So she has been in school 5.5 months.
She can read at a low first grade level, she is progressing nicely, this is one of the areas she is behind in compared to others in her class, but I did not expect her to be reading as well as she already is.
Math, I would say she is doing very well in, it takes her some work to get some concepts, others she gets easily. First grade is not what it used to be, they are doing things like adding 2 digit numbers, like 35+12, they count by 2,5,10, to 100, foward and backwards, they do word problems (which is her weakest point in math) they count money (took a lot of extra tutoring for her to get that one, etc...
She often gets 100 on spelling tests or only misses 1 or 2, how awesome is that.
Overall her behavior is great at school. For the most part she has stopped pretending she doesn't know something. She does like to read books to an adult, but she does not like taking the inituative to read instructions on a paper or a short story she has to answer questions on, etc... This is something we are working on, it's hard and she doesn't want to do it. She is a little bit bossy, what girl isn't!! And a very sore loser, very, very sore winner, like, in your face I won, haha. Not sure if this has anything to do with her past, I think it is just her personality, makes me laugh inside sometimes but we don't allow her be cruel to others, something that has taken some getting used to, being cruel to others was just fine in the children's home, certainly not a punishable offense.
I am so proud of how well she is doing school, she really works hard at it. I was reading someone else's blog, she was trying to decide wether or not to send her older adopted children to school or homeschool them. The schools explained to her that she would basically have a lot of work to do with them in the evening for them to catch up. So basically this mother said "I would be sending them to school during the day, and homeschooling them at home also" Yes, exactly the school told her. That is very much what it is like. I enjoy helping her learn and don't mind it one bit, but it does take time. We had debating homeschooling her for sometime before sending her to school. She wantd to go to school, and I think that it was the right decision, she needed to learn things from school that are not academic related, like how to interact with others. I am not at the school nearly as much as I was in the beginning, but I am still there every morning, if the teacher is teaching something new, I stick around for the lesson so that I can help her learn it at home if it is not something she grasps at first. Her teacher and I have a great understanding of what I expect from Anastasia behavior wise and it has worked out well. Her teacher knows that she can send home a paper that Anastasia has had a hard time with and that I WILL reteach it at home. I don't know the methods to teach a 1 st grader how to add 2 digit numbers, her teacher does, and she is great at teaching, but no school has time to tutor a child for hours. If you are going to adopt an older child, I think it only right to expect that you've got to step up and do the extra work to make sure the child does as well as they can.
I had asked the ESL teacher if she thought Rosetta Stone would be helpful for Anastasia language developement. From what I've read many older internationally adopted children do very well in school, go on to be head of their calls, valevictorian even, but are still behing in language. So I wanted to give her as much as I can in that area. They don't have the time to do it in school she told me, but Anastasia could have free subsricption to it and do it at home!! How great is that, she started on it last night and she loves it. So far I think it is great, and I think it will help her tremendously. And I don't have to pay for it.
Sorry this was long. This post isn't really for those who like to come here for a short update or for entertainment. But I like to encourage those who have just adopted or are thinking of adopting a school aged child.
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Broken Computer/Blessings Abound
I swear the devil attacks families when a spouse is deployed. Ask deployed spouses how many things have broken while their husbands are away. So yesterday a virus pops up on our main computer, man. But I am very blessed to have a bestest friend with a hubby who happens to be my hubby's bestest friend who can fix computers. But he came over armed with virus fighting instructions for the virus that was on there, and the stinking virus was armed to dismantle every way to fix it, he couldn't even access the hard drive. Sooo, he had to take my hard drive with him to hopefully fix it. It was very sad!! So best case scenario is that it is easy to fix and will take a day or 2 or it could take a lot longer, or it could be unfixable. So right now I am on our ancient laptop, it also has something wrong with it, has for 3 years, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. So this post could end any second.
But I feel so blessed that I can email my hubby, ancient laptop or not. I feel so blessed that I get to talk to him almost every day. I feel so blessed that while some husbands only feel the need to call home once a week my hubby does everything possible to email/call me when it is next to impossible. I love that man so much.
I was so excited to finally get a video up, and yesterday I was in process of uploading a before video of her walking, when my computer went whacky.
People have asked if Anastasia understands what is going on, I think for the most part she does. The people at the Desky Dom had told her that Daddy's go to fight while Mommies stay home to take care of the kids. Thankfully my hubby is in a very safe job, and so we can tell the kids honestly that he is not fighting, that he just has to go far away to work for a very long time. If anything, I think this experience will build her trust and bonding,to see that he really does come back and is still the hubby and Daddy.
But I feel so blessed that I can email my hubby, ancient laptop or not. I feel so blessed that I get to talk to him almost every day. I feel so blessed that while some husbands only feel the need to call home once a week my hubby does everything possible to email/call me when it is next to impossible. I love that man so much.
I was so excited to finally get a video up, and yesterday I was in process of uploading a before video of her walking, when my computer went whacky.
People have asked if Anastasia understands what is going on, I think for the most part she does. The people at the Desky Dom had told her that Daddy's go to fight while Mommies stay home to take care of the kids. Thankfully my hubby is in a very safe job, and so we can tell the kids honestly that he is not fighting, that he just has to go far away to work for a very long time. If anything, I think this experience will build her trust and bonding,to see that he really does come back and is still the hubby and Daddy.
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Friday, January 1, 2010
Bad Blogger
I know, I'm not a good blogger. I didn't do a Christmas post or a New Years post. I sat down to do one yesterday, but my computer says it's full and I cannot download any pictures, really the same week my husband leaves my computer decides it is full??
2 of the Wii remotes won't work, the cat has decided she would rather poop on the floor rather than the litter box, etc... so is the life a military wife with a deployed spouse. All of our pictures have been moved to an external harddrive, I compressed, I emptied the recycl bin, yadda, yadda, still won't let me download.
Our Christmas was great, the kids had a blast and loved all of their presents. Papaw came for a surprise visit and to visit with Gary before he departed for his deployment Monday morning. We spent the evening with close friends. A very laid back, but joyful Christmas.
My youngest is 5 and he is having anxiety issues, not letting me leave him anywhere. church, babysitters, his friends house, etc...and if I do he cries for a long time. This all started after we told him about the upcoming deployment about a month ago. Yesterday we went to a play place, kind of like Chuck E. Cheese, he sat with me for 2 hours before he would finally get up and play. Tonight is the first night that he did not cry himself to sleep since Gary left. He says he wants to go have fun, but that he does not want to leave me where he can't see me. As soon as we are in a situation he fears this could happen, his stomach hurts. Poor little guy.
So New Years Eve we spent with friends, had a great time. When we headed home a little after midnight, it was very foggy out. We got a little more than half way home, and all of a sudden I couldn't see anything, total white in front of me. I braked hard, then slowwly pulled off to get off the road. The car that came up behind me did the same, and the car after that slammed on his brakes and almost rearended us all. My anxiety child was freaking out, thinking we are about to die, or never make it home, etc... So, I get out of the car to see where I am, there is one of those huge brick mailboxes about 2 feet in front of my car, it was so foggy I couldn't see if from my car. So I pulled into that driveway, so we would be out of harms way. I decided it would be best to turn around, like one of the cars behind me did. I figured maybe the main roads would be better. They were for a while, then all of a sudden, a big line of cars ahead of me were braking suddenly, some with their hazards on, all of a sudden couldn't see anything, but a solid white cloud. So I decided our safety, and Cooper's anxiety level or more important than getting home and we turned around and went back to our friends' house to sleep for the night.
The yard I pulled over into has my tire tracks in it today, oops sorry, but Thank God I didn't get stuck in their yard, and thank God we were safe.
Today I am working on undecorating our huge tree and taking down the Christmas decorations.
I don't feel like saying Happy New Year, when half of it will be spent without my Best Friend. But I know like all hardships, God has great things in store. I will be stronger and have more empathy for others who do this all the time. It feels wrong to feel like I just want the first half of this year to fly by so I can have our family back together, I pray for strength, patience, and wisdom every morning before I even get out of the bed.
So, keep me company, leave me a comment, not a pity party, I give myself enough of those, say Hi, tell me a little bit about yourself, ask me a question, people always have questions about the adoption or military life, talk to me people.
2 of the Wii remotes won't work, the cat has decided she would rather poop on the floor rather than the litter box, etc... so is the life a military wife with a deployed spouse. All of our pictures have been moved to an external harddrive, I compressed, I emptied the recycl bin, yadda, yadda, still won't let me download.
Our Christmas was great, the kids had a blast and loved all of their presents. Papaw came for a surprise visit and to visit with Gary before he departed for his deployment Monday morning. We spent the evening with close friends. A very laid back, but joyful Christmas.
My youngest is 5 and he is having anxiety issues, not letting me leave him anywhere. church, babysitters, his friends house, etc...and if I do he cries for a long time. This all started after we told him about the upcoming deployment about a month ago. Yesterday we went to a play place, kind of like Chuck E. Cheese, he sat with me for 2 hours before he would finally get up and play. Tonight is the first night that he did not cry himself to sleep since Gary left. He says he wants to go have fun, but that he does not want to leave me where he can't see me. As soon as we are in a situation he fears this could happen, his stomach hurts. Poor little guy.
So New Years Eve we spent with friends, had a great time. When we headed home a little after midnight, it was very foggy out. We got a little more than half way home, and all of a sudden I couldn't see anything, total white in front of me. I braked hard, then slowwly pulled off to get off the road. The car that came up behind me did the same, and the car after that slammed on his brakes and almost rearended us all. My anxiety child was freaking out, thinking we are about to die, or never make it home, etc... So, I get out of the car to see where I am, there is one of those huge brick mailboxes about 2 feet in front of my car, it was so foggy I couldn't see if from my car. So I pulled into that driveway, so we would be out of harms way. I decided it would be best to turn around, like one of the cars behind me did. I figured maybe the main roads would be better. They were for a while, then all of a sudden, a big line of cars ahead of me were braking suddenly, some with their hazards on, all of a sudden couldn't see anything, but a solid white cloud. So I decided our safety, and Cooper's anxiety level or more important than getting home and we turned around and went back to our friends' house to sleep for the night.
The yard I pulled over into has my tire tracks in it today, oops sorry, but Thank God I didn't get stuck in their yard, and thank God we were safe.
Today I am working on undecorating our huge tree and taking down the Christmas decorations.
I don't feel like saying Happy New Year, when half of it will be spent without my Best Friend. But I know like all hardships, God has great things in store. I will be stronger and have more empathy for others who do this all the time. It feels wrong to feel like I just want the first half of this year to fly by so I can have our family back together, I pray for strength, patience, and wisdom every morning before I even get out of the bed.
So, keep me company, leave me a comment, not a pity party, I give myself enough of those, say Hi, tell me a little bit about yourself, ask me a question, people always have questions about the adoption or military life, talk to me people.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)