OK, so I'm delayed getting the other blog started up. Thanks for those who emailed me or left me a comment, I appreciate it. A blog with no commenters is kind of like just talking to yourself! You don't have to have a blog to leave a comment either.
Wendy, thanks for all your comments, I always appreciate them, you are not to bold, you remind me of myself.
To the person who comments in Japanese or Chinese, I have no idea what you are saying, or if you are spam? Sorry! If they are true comments, thank you!
Betsy, thank lady, I love you, and your family!
Josie, thanks for leaving a comment, it's very sweet of you, I'm thankful for facebook and the ability to keep in touch with friends like you.
In Anastasia News,
She got glasses. Again, if you have followed you remember when we hosted her she got glasses, well she was not happy, and the orphanage told her she didn't need them and took them. She is far sighted, has astigmatism, mostly in her right eye. Already I see a difference, and her handwriting has improved, it never sat on the line, it does now!She looks super cute in them, and she has accepted the fact that she needs them, I'll post a picture soon.
I forgot to post about her CRCT practice test scores. The CRCT is the state mandated test here in GA. Not a big fan of it, but it did give us an idea of where she is at, and her testing skills. I am happy to report that she averaged a 50% on all 3 tests! And with the fact that her reading skills are way behind and her other difficulties she has with focusing, I think that is great! Her teacher agrees. I attend a meeting today to determine if she'll have to take the real CRCT, she has to do the Math part, but she may qualify due to her language to not have to take the language and reading. I don't see any reason to have her do it, it will only discourage her. The week she took the practice tests her brain was moosh, I couldn't get anything out of her the entire week.
Monday, March 1, 2010
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Hmmm..
I think this blog is coming to an end, as far as frequent posts, Anastasia officially became ours 9 months ago today.
I said last year I was going to start a family blog, to make up for not scrapbooking, then have it made into a book, well, that lasted all of 2 months. But I am going to try again, and try a little harder this time.
So, what to name it, any suggestions?
Not really sure how many people still follow this blog since I don't get very many comments, thanks a lot people!!
But if you want an invite to the new blog, I should have it up and running this weekend, just leave me a comment with your email, or email me privately, and I'll send you an invite, it will be private. My email is not private! Here it is
cmsuttles4@hotmail.com
So most of anything about Anastasia will be on the family blog, anything that happens occasionally with her, milestones, etc... I will still post to the adoption blog, if I think it will help people reading it for that purpose.
I said last year I was going to start a family blog, to make up for not scrapbooking, then have it made into a book, well, that lasted all of 2 months. But I am going to try again, and try a little harder this time.
So, what to name it, any suggestions?
Not really sure how many people still follow this blog since I don't get very many comments, thanks a lot people!!
But if you want an invite to the new blog, I should have it up and running this weekend, just leave me a comment with your email, or email me privately, and I'll send you an invite, it will be private. My email is not private! Here it is
cmsuttles4@hotmail.com
So most of anything about Anastasia will be on the family blog, anything that happens occasionally with her, milestones, etc... I will still post to the adoption blog, if I think it will help people reading it for that purpose.
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
More Bday Pics
Ahh, I forgot blogger posts pictures backward of the way you uploaded them as far as the order goes. All well. Here are a couple more
Birthday Party Pictures!!
Her first birthday party went great! I made her a castle cake, and made everyone promise not to tell her it was "a little wonky" She thought it was great.
As one of her birthday presents she wanted to get her ears pierced. She has been asking for this since we met her when we were hosting her. She is a glam girl. Once she got in the chair though she covered her ears up and started pitching a fit. I told her mommy didn't care if she got her ears pierced or not, but if she was going to do it she could not do that or she'd end up with some messed up piercing! She decided the glam was worth the pain, and she did great. They have a case of piercing earrings to choose from, of course she wanted the biggest CZ ones they had, they were HUGE! I told her she was 8 not 80 and she went with the smallest cz ones to please us both. For birthdays in our family you get to pick where the family eats dinner. A new chickfila just opened down the street, so she choose that. I think she loved her first birthday!
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.
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