English

Alana was officially registered for kindergarten today. They tested her and recommended extra English services for her. So, she will attend full day kindergarten, but she will be with a different class in the morning and afternoon as only the English learning kids are full-day and everyone else is half-day. There are 10 other English learning kids in kindergarten at her school though. So, those 10 kids will eat lunch together in between kindergarten sessions. Alana is SO excited! We've been picking up school supplies here and there. I am going to have her use the same backpack I brought to China last year, but I bought her a really cute lunch bag that looks more like a girly purse.

They said they work mostly on vocabulary and grammar with the English learning kids. So, she will be tested this fall for speech services to help with some of the sounds she struggles with. Who knows, she may not need the extra services after a few months in school anyway. They were impressed that she was sounding out words already and knew her letter sounds better than the letter names. We are more than halfway through the 100 lessons in her "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons" book and she is doing great. She loves doing her reading every night before bed and is writing her name now too. It won't be long before she will be reading real books! Collin's favorite after finishing the same reading program was "The Cat in the Hat."

I'm so curious to see who the other English learners are in her class and what their background and languages are. It would be wonderful for her to have other Chinese children in her class, but that may be asking too much! Only 2 1/2 more weeks until school starts, so I won't have to wait long.

I'm so excited to watch Alana's language blossom. Even though her English is functional (I understand most of what she says "Daddy brushed teeth me" for "Daddy brushed my teeth" or "You no go outside?" for "You are not going outside?"), it is basic at best. She really can't express complex thoughts or ideas. She tries to string sentences together, but they tend to get jumbled with lots of filler words and she becomes very difficult to understand. She even still struggles with simple requests "Can I drink?" for "Can I have a drink?". We've worked on that soooo much in the past year, and when she does say it correctly, she says is slowly in almost a robotic voice. I knew language would be one of the more difficult aspects of her adoption, but to be honest, I didn't realize how big it would be. Everyone says that they pick up the language so quickly and it is a non-issue, but after talking to my neighbor who adopted her daughter at 5 years old -- it can take years and years. Even now, her daughter is 12 and home for 7 years, she struggles with language. That doesn't mean that Alana will struggle forever, but it is certainly possible. Time will tell.

Collin is feeling a little frustrated that Alana is starting kindergarten and is getting nervous about the move. I know this will be a big adjustment for everyone, but things will be more difficult for him I think. He has friends here and will be playing on different soccer and baseball teams and attending different religious education classes. Alana really hadn't gotten involved in too much yet, so she'll be starting pretty fresh. I'm planning to try a new homeschool curriculum with Collin this fall that I'm really excited about. I'll plan to post an update next month on how that is going. It is a literature-based curriculum where they use real books instead of textbooks to teach history and language. I think it will be a lot of fun for he and I and Dylan will be able to participate some too if he chooses. More to come!

Remeber this sweetheart?

Does anyone recognize this little girl?

Believe it or not, that is Isabelle! She is the baby that we fostered a few years ago. She just turned three in May! I hadn't seen new pictures of her in almost two years and I could hardly believe this is the same little girl!

Here are some pictures of Isabelle as a newborn and a picture of her the day she left. Oh what memories!! I can still hardly believe they let me take her home at 4 lb 10 oz. She turned into the biggest chub and was such a funny (and fussy) baby! I still miss that pumpkin!

St. Louis

We went to St. Louis last weekend for a short vacation. We attended Alana's adoption agency's annual picnic Saturday morning. Unfortunately, no one from our travel group made the trip nor anyone that we know from Kansas City, so we really didn't know anyone there. It was still fun to see so many families formed through adoption and our kids had a great time with balloon animals, crafts, music, and beach balls! Afterwards we went to the St. Louis Science Center where they had to kick us out at closing. Victor is a museum junkie, so that was to be expected.

On Sunday and Monday we went to Six Flags. Collin and Victor got their roller coaster fix while I hung around with Dylan and Alana in Bugs Bunny Land. There were a few rides we could ride together as a family, but mostly we had to split up. Alana was tall enough to ride three roller coasters, but she really only liked one of them. She is not as adventurous as Collin was at the same age. Dylan is the least adventurous of all of our kids. Poor guy rode a seemingly innocent kiddie teacups ride at Six Flags, but was put in a teacup with a boy of about 4 or 5. When the ride started he loved the spinning, but the little boy starting spinning the teacup really fast and Dylan's neck was flopping all over and he hit his head a couple of times. I had to yell at the lady who was operating the ride (interrupting her conversation with another employee -- she wasn't watching at all) to get her to stop the ride. Dylan clapped when it was over -- he was just so happy to get off. The next day he rode other rides, but refused to step foot on the teacups -- even with Collin and Alana riding with him. I don't blame the poor little guy! That is why we are such Disney fanatics. We can ride almost all of the rides as a family and stuff like this doesn't happen.

We also went to the water park at Six Flags on Monday afternoon. Collin and Victor hit the water slides while I stayed in the kiddie area with Alana and Dylan (sound familiar?). Alana and Dylan were up to their typical park behavior. Alana finds a girl about twice her age and holds her hand and drags her around the park. I think she finds older girls because they humor her. I don't think girls her own age want to be bossed around so much. (Kindergarten is going to be interesting!) Dylan doesn't play with any kids, but walks around the perimeter to see what he can get into. He talks to the adults and older kids and plays with their sunglasses, goggles, strings on their swimsuits, etc. They had a lot of fun though. The drive to and from wasn't bad at all either. The kids are old enough to handle road trips so much more smoothly these days. Between the gameboys, DVD player and constant snacks, we make it to our destination without any crying or screaming. How wonderful!

Moving

Time is ticking away until our move. We are currently set to close on August 8th, but there is a possibility that day could move up a little. We are already lining up movers and starting to pack boxes. I'm also filling bags of trash and taking car loads of items to Goodwill. I'm trying not to move anything we haven't used in the last 5 years. Seems reasonable, right? It is amazing the things you accumulate though. Especially when you have 3 kids!! So, we'll be in our new home in about a month. Yippee!! We still haven't sold our home yet though. We are scheduled to have open houses the next two weekends. I'm praying that we get an offer soon!

Pool Party!!

We had family over for a pool party on Sunday afternoon. It was such a nice day for it and we had a great time! Every time we have one of these I wonder why we don't do it more often. It really is so much fun to have a large group out to the pool. Collin enjoyed pestering my cousins and their children (he loves having "big boys" to play with). Alana loves having people to order around (stand here, sit down, move over there, etc.). Dylan just gets into his usual mischief. I should have taken a picture for black mail later, but he stripped naked in the living room in front of everyone. No modesty at 3 years old!

We certainly missed the family that couldn't make it over. Especially my Uncle Frank. We hope you are feeling better and enjoy your trip to Minnesota next weekend. We are thinking of you!!

Babies

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July. We stayed very busy this past weekend. On Friday, we took the kids to Pump It Up for some bouncing! Then we came back for lunch and went swimming. We visited Victor's dad for dinner that evening and then watched fireworks at my dad's house later that evening. The fireworks were especially impressive this year as we found a great viewing area in a subdivision that is still being developed. Sadly the view we enjoyed may not be available next year as they continue to build homes, but we certainly enjoyed it while we could. We could see two large fireworks displays and the entire horizon was filled with smaller fireworks. It was really beautiful!

On Saturday, the kid's had a birthday party in the morning and we had friends over that evening. Here is a picture of our kids with our friend's new baby! I had taken a toy away from Dylan that I didn't want him swinging around and accidentally hitting the baby with. I thought it was appropriate that the two "babies" are crying in the photo. Dylan is still very much our baby right now. He isn't excited about wearing big boy pants and gets very upset if I give him his milk in a regular glass. He will yell at me "I WANT MY SIPPY CUP!!!" He is such a cute little tyrant!