This and That

This is probably going to be just a random post about not much! It's been busy around here since spring has sprung! Working in the yard which is fun with two kids to help. Caroline and Chase are dying to get in the pool, but the water temp is only in the 50's. I know they are from Eastern Siberia, so this is probably bath water to them, but way too cold for me to go in!

Here is what Chase and I have been watching for the last week:

It's been so much fun to watch these two birds going back and forth, building this nest in a miniature rose bush on our courtyard, we went out this morning and this is what we found in it.


Chase is going for his big 4 hour assessment at the Salesmanship Club on Tuesday. This is a funny name for an organization that works with children with various different issues, his being behavior and possible ADHD. I called them back in January when I was just losing it with his everyday drama. When things finally seemed to turn the corner, it was time for his in home assessment. I thought about cancelling, but I know that we are not out of the woods yet and felt it certainly couldn't hurt. A social worker came out to the house to observe him in his home environment and then he goes to their center for this 4 hour thing. They have SW, psychologists, psychiatrists, behavioral specialists and others on their team that will work with him to see what the best plan of action is for him. Even though he is not doing anything really awful these days, he still is in constant motion and has the attention span of about 30 seconds on anything. He is also having a really difficult time with listening and following directions, I don't know if this is just typical 4.5 yo behavior or is it something else? Another thing that he is doing that is driving me nuts is that he is so destructive. He doesn't seem to destroy things on purpose, but will push and pull and do just about anything to break something, it is getting really annoying and I have told him he gets absolutely nothing new until he learns how to respect things. Yesterday, he broke a small table outside, spilled an entire large bucket of blowing bubbles (this was a pretty indestructible and spill proof container) and tore the covers off several books. On a good note, his OT retested him this past week and he has gone from testing at about a 22 month old to a 45 month old in about 5 months, not too bad! We hopefully will be discharged from OT in the next month or so.

Caroline is doing okay, the latest issue we are having is that she has become a horrible "tattle tailer". I have just about had it with her. She tells on her brother with everything and seems to take this perverse pleasure in seeing him get in trouble. She loves to repeat over and over how Chase can't do this or that because he is in time out or whatever. She finally got sent to time out herself for tattle tailing. I told her she will have no friends in school if she keeps this up. Is this typical for a 6 year old?

I've decided to hold her back in Kindergarten for next year. She has really done amazingly well for just being here for 7 months, but the expectations they place on these kids in Kindergarten are unreal. They are doing story math problems which has been a real challenge for her; she is expected to read, comprehend and solve a problem. She is expected to read and comprehend early reader and level one books, and she simply is not there yet and I don't think she will be anytime soon. Language is still an issue. I don't want her to be in a constant catch up mode throughout school and since she is so petite and also kind of immature as opposed to the other kids, her teacher and I both think it would be the best thing to do. I haven't told her yet and hope they don't make a big production at school about going on to first grade.

Lots of things seem to be falling into place now that we are home for 7 months, it has taken awhile and we still have a ways to go, but these kids are just amazing to me! They are so beautiful and their little personalities are so much fun, I have to pinch myself most days just to believe they are actually mine. I lucked out in so many areas with them and know as difficult as some things have been, the good outweigh the bad by a huge amount. Here is a slide show of pictures over the past few months.