Growing Up

Lately Hannah seems older. It started after she turned four. We no longer have wet pants issues during the day, she buckles her car seat straps herself, she figured out how to count without skipping numbers, she can carry on short conversations, she tells jokes and laughs at others' jokes as well. She now carries on a continual make believe game with her dolls or little toys. Making up story lines as she goes that actually make sense.
I keep telling everyone that since Hannah turned four she has gotten sillier and seems happier. I just thought that she was growing up. Then one day it hit me. She has been with me almost as long as she was with her family in Ethiopia. Maybe it just took her this long to completely adjust. I am glad that she is happy but am saddened that maybe she wasn't happy for a long time. I know I shouldn't beat myself up about it because I can't go back and change things now. It just makes me feel like somehow I let her down.
I've learned from this. I'll think about how quickly I change her environment in the future. We'll take our time transitioning to pre-school in the fall. I am hoping though that smaller transitions will be easier now that she is happy at home.

Service Project Idea

As you may know I am one of Maya's Girl Scout Leaders. My co-leaders and I decided to have the girls start doing some service projects to give back to the community. Last year we donated toy to Toys-for-Tots, made breakfast bags for the Ronald McDonald House and donated boxes of Girl Scout cookies to them as well, then we went to Feed My Starving Children, a non-profit that schedules volunteers to pack meals to send worldwide.

This year we were a little slow getting time scheduled to work on a new service project but I would like to report that we successfully pulled it off these past Monday. The girls decided they wanted to do something to benefit animals. We had a hard time finding a time that all of us could go and tour the Humane Society so I scheduled to have a pet rescue group representative come and talk to us instead. About two weeks ago the girls made cat and dog toys and dog biscuits to donate to the rescue group. This week a rep from Second Chance Animal Rescue came to tell us about why animals are in rescue, how they get there, who cares for them and how they find homes. We even had a visit from Tracker, the four legged rep. from the group. Unfortunately I cannot post the picture of the girls with Tracker but I do have pictures of the toys and biscuits we donated. The girls had great questions and, I hope, learned a lot about animal rescue. Tracker ended the evening freely giving out his "autograph". All the girls left with a paw print magnet.

dog biscuits - recipe here

Felt leaf cat toy with jingle bell, hang it on a door. I got the idea here. I just modified it a little to make it easier to cut out.

Cat nip stuffed cat toy - Instructions

Braided fleece dog rope toy. To make these cheaply I found a lot of fleece remnants. You can find the instructions here. Again, I modified it a little. We cut out 3inch wide strips (from selvage to selvage) but when we braided them they were way too long so I cut each braid in half and knotted the new ends. I made one of these for Minnie last week from scraps left over from Elias' blanket. She loves it, pulls it out every day to play with it and even brings it into her kennel.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ELIAS!!

Happpy Birthday Elias!

Today Elias turns 7 years old. We celebrated his birthday with family on Sunday. He had a great time eating pizza, cake and opening presents. Tonight we are going out to eat at his choice of restaurant, Old Country Buffet. He decided this after Maya reminded him that last time they were there (with Grandpa) the each had 2 or 3 desserts. I do have one more gift for him, the book Henry's Freedom Box .

Surrounded by presents. That is his I don't really want to smile right now face.

Fleece tie blanket from me. He also got a card game, race cars, paint-your-own night light, High School Musical Chad doll, and the lovely orange baseball cap he has on in the picture. My parents gave him jeans and a MN Wild Jersey which her wore to school yesterday.

Today I went to Target after the kids went to school and day care and picked up 54 cupcakes to bring to the school. I happened to get to his class while Maya was in the common area outside their classes, she helped me with the door. When I brought the cupcakes into the class all the kids lookedtoward Elias and thanked him for the treats. He gave me a sheepish grin and a wave then turned back to the teacher. Obviously I did my job well and embarrassed him thoroughly.

Preschool

I've been looking for a preschool for Hannah to attend next school year. Currently she attends a home daycare. I really, really like my current daycare provider. She has been Hannah's only daycare provider since she came home in 2007. A lot of the potty training was done at daycare, Hannah learned how to color, draw, do puzzles and have fun being a little kid. In the winter they go sledding in the backyard, or bounce on the Bounce Master for large muscle time. She goes on a field trip every couple of months to places like the zoo, apple orchard, to see Santa at Christmas time, petting farm, big playgrounds, etc. When the weather is nice she brings all the kids across the street to the high school's track to let the kids run around or she'll bring them to a park for a picnic lunch. They sing songs all day long, play dress up, have story time, take naps and eat healthy food.

So why am I looking to send her somewhere else? I feel that she needs a little extra help to get ready for kindergarten. Kindergarten has changed sine I went to school. Schools these days expect kids to already recognize and write letters and numbers. They really would like kids to already be sounding out letters so they can jump into reading. While I can do some work with her at home, I am limited to short amounts of time I can work with her. She had grown in leaps and bounds from the shy, frail toddler I brought home but I feel she needs more. More challenging tasks, new teachers to work with, new children to learn from.

I visited church preschool today. I wasn't super impressed with it. The learning area was small, the play area was small, the building was old and every child in the school was white. When I walked out of that school I sat in my car and called the Montessori school that Maya had attended from the time she was 3 years old through Kindergarten. Yes, they said, they have openings for the fall, they have openings right now too. I drove there right then. I had resisted sending her there initially because, they are much more expensive that what I am paying now for day care. Once I got to the school I realized it felt right. Some of the teachers have changed but the school is the same, the philosophy is the same, the methods of teaching are the same the school is like a big family, it felt like coming home. Why did I resist this for so long? This is where Hannah belongs. The school is multi-racial, Hannah will have other children in her class who are adopted, children who are not adopted, children who look like her sister, her cousin, her uncles, her mom, and like her.

Hannah deserves this. So without a second thought I have decided to send her there. Maybe she'll even start before the spring is over. I'll cut costs in other places if I need to. I promised to take care of Hannah and give her the best that I can. I can give her this.