More Firsts

Yesterday was Tetyana's first day of school in America. She had the best day and loved her teacher and all of her classmates. She was excited to go but did get very nervous when we arrived at school. She had a quick eye exam and hearing exam by Nurse Sue, who is so sweet. She passed without problems. I guess she just likes to blare her music!

We went to her classroom where she was assigned her seat in between two little girls who were very excited for her to join the class. Her teacher emailed me and called me during the day to keep me updated. She is wonderful! Ms. Beavin had Russian twins two years ago so she is familiar with our situation.

When Luke and I picked her up she was smiling from ear to ear and called out "bye bye" to all of her friends out the car window.

She did learn her first complete sentence at school. We met Beckie and her daughter Taylor at the park after school and the kids were running and playing. I could hear Tetyana but I wasn't sure what she was saying. After about the 5th time of her saying the same phrase I figured it out. She was saying "OH MY HOD!"....there isn't a G sound in Ukrainian so her G's are H's. Translation....OH MY GOD! She says it constantly and it was pretty funny at first but now she she says it with attitude when she is mad. So we are trying to break a habit before it gets her in trouble. Gotta love school! LOL

I am learning about life with a girl. She can turn on the tears at the drop of a hat. Not just tear but all out wailing! Talk about a drama queen. It is surprising me because we did not see tears for a long time but now she cries about 20 times a day. I know part of it is being tired and going through so many new experiences. We have chosen to ignore it if we know she is doing it for our benefit.

We must seem like the meanest parents ever but we feel like if we let her get away with everything now, we will never gain control later. She has chosen not to eat dinner several times only to be hungry in 10 minutes. We warn her and even allow Luke to have dessert right after he finishes his dinner in front of her. The tears start when I show that her dinner is in the trash and tell her there isn't anything for her to eat until morning. Last night she kept fooling around, laying all over and we warned her several times her meal would be going away and she would be hungry. I guess she didn't believe us because she was fooling around under the table and her dinner was gone when she sat up.

Things with Luke have gotten worse. We have had sessions with a counselor twice and it seems that he is more upset and combative after the session. Our goal last week was to spend one on one time with him without Tetyana. From last Thursday to Monday it was basically all about Luke. When we asked him how he felt having so much attention he said he didn't even realize it!

Our goal this week was to have the kids spend more time doing fun things together and try to bond. She is a thorn in his side and he makes it known to everyone, mostly her. He won't let her use anything of his. She doesn't get this because at the orphanage, everything is everybody's. She looks around our home and everything is Luke's. We never expected this much challenge from Luke. We knew there would be some rough spots with his adjustment as well as hers but he is simply unhappy. Let's hope that magic 6 week marker all adoptive parents say things seem to get better applies to biological children as well.