Wednesday, August 27, 2008

School has started!

Today was the second day of school and they are all loving it!

Emi started in Junior High, so big adjustment for her. The first day she was pretty stressed, finding 7 classes and working a locker combination etc. But she got all of her classes organized and feeling in control and is going to love Junior High life.

Nate well, as smart as he is (My Talented and Gifted Child), was only concerned about being able to take his football so the boys could play at recess.

Jess was a bit nervous but so excited to go. She came home the first day kind of quiet and said she was very tired. But today she came home and was so excited. She has made some friends and loves the interpreter/ESL teacher. She is most concerned about what she is going to wear…a true girl.

Joaquin attended Kindergarten camp last week and feels like a pro as far as going to school is concerned. The bus was the biggest thing for him. He couldn’t wait to ride and this evening he was sure to tell me how good he was on the bus sitting still looking at all the houses on the way home. Last week at Kindergarten camp he gave his teacher a kiss and hug, twice. Oh my little Latino! So now I just have Joaquin in the afternoon, just the two of us. I am going to eat it up.

Nate has been a great big brother. He is at the same school as Jess and Joaquin and was able to help out a little with the Spanish with some of the teachers. At the end of the day Jessica’s teacher asked Nate if Jessica really liked octopus’, Nate told the teacher when Jess says AutoBus sounds like octopus, and that Jessica was talking about the school bus. He thought it was pretty funny. He checked on her at lunch and reported to me that she ate everything on her tray and told me who she played with at recess. He was very proud of himself for helping to take care of his little sis. He is used to being taken care of by Emi and now the table has turned.

The funny story from the first two days is about Emi. You know it’s a big deal what to wear on the first day of Jr High. Emi thought that being a cheerleader she would wear school colors, Green, Black and White. She looked cute in her spirit wear, but apparently not to the first teacher she saw as she entered the building. She was wearing two tank tops, not spaghetti straps (see pic below) and this teacher told her to call her mom and get a different shirt to wear. You can imagine my heart pounding when the school called me at 7:30 in the morning about Emi, who has NEVER gotten in trouble, not once ever. We’re talking about the child who is teacher’s pet every year! I took her a new shirt right away, thinking she was probably in tears. When I went in the school and saw Emi she thought it was pretty funny that she was sent to the principals office on the first day of school. Her homeroom teacher thought it was ridiculous that she was made to change, but “live and learn”. So anyway you can imagine what a hard time the family is giving Emi, our goodie two shoes.

So the new routine begins and so far so good.

Here they are watching down the road for the bus. We have a lot of big trucks that go down our road, so in the meantime Nate taught them how to get the trucks to honk. The trucks today were good sports, every single one of them honked at the kids. And of course a few fun pictures too!

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Just for fun

I had some pics taken of the kids at a local park, just some candid shots by Mandy Niehause www.mandypaige.com so I thought I would share.

Other than taking pics, we've been doing stool samples and taking medicine to try and get rid of 2 kinds of intestinal parasites the kiddos have and going for a skeletal survey. With the abuse that was noted in the paperwork, the International Adoption Clinic suggested we do this skeletal survey to note any trauma they have had to their skeletal system. That way if they ever get hurt while with us, we will have documentation of any trauma that happened before they were with us. Pretty smart acutally. Apparently a family here in Cincinnati had adopted, then went to the ER for a broken bone and it was found that there were other injuries that were never documented. The kids were taken from them immediately. You can imagine what a mess that was. The trauma had happened before the adoption, but the couple had no proof.

Everyone is ready for school to start and they all have their backpacks ready and by the door. I started back to work, just a few hours a week until Sept. Kind of trying to ease into things a bit.

Okay, well enough of that, here's the pics!