Our New Ballerina

Before school started we began asking around for a good dance studio for Tetyana to take some dance classes. I wanted her to take ballet for her posture and jazz for fun, but thought with school and all of Luke's activities, 2 classes a week may be too much for her. We got her signed up for a jazz class and she began counting down the days until it started. The day before it was supposed to start, I called to see if her leotard had come in yet. They informed me that we had been the only family to sign up for this particular dance class and they were cancelling this class. We decided to go for our second choice and put her in ballet. The first class was beginning in 5 minutes! So she missed the first week and was totally bummed out.

Finally, her day had come and she was thrilled to be going to dance. This would be the first activity that was just for her. She proudly put on her leotard and headed into class. Turns out she knew two of the girls in her class! One of the girls is in her class at school and the other she met at a birthday party. This made the class even better!

She looked like a natural. She has a little dancer body....long legs and neck. My goal was to post some video of her and I allowed Luke to take the video...let's just say the video didn't turn out very good! We saw more of the floor and ceiling than we did of Tetyana! Next class I will take control of the camera!

In the middle of the class the teacher lets the girls have some fun and do a "jazz break". Tetyana really loves this part (I knew she would have loved the jazz class). They get to cut loose and listen to some fun music.

This week the teacher is on vacation! Poor Tetyana, she is so sad that there isn't any class this week. I can't wait to watch her learn more and really become a dancer not to mention the recital next spring!

Wow!!

Wow! Have we been busy!!! So much has been going on here that I haven't had a chance to post. I will do some individual posts dedicated to each activity that has been keeping us so busy.

Webelos and Brownies

Our kids are new members of the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts of America. On Monday night we attended the local den of Cub Scouts and Luke whole heartily decided he wanted to join.

The meeting was a lot of fun and everyone there was so nice! Tetyana's teacher is a den mom and asked if Luke would like to be part of their den. He was thrilled! He really likes her son Cole, who is in his class also. Cole seems like a great boy and I am trying to foster this growing relationship. The two boys seem to have a lot in common...baseball being the biggest! Someone had entered Luke's name into the cake drawing and we were all surprised when they called out Luke's name! He went up and picked up the best tasting chocolate fudge cake!!! That sealed the deal! The boys (and Tetyana) got to make a campfire out of candy, chips and pretzels and then eat it. I think Tetyana wanted to join!

Tuesday night Tetyana and I went to the Girl Scout meeting. Ok, not as fun as the Boy Scout meeting. Turns out it was more of an informational meeting for parents. I really could have left T at home and I think she would have been happier if I had. She kept asking me when we were going to eat and where were the cookies!

The exciting news of the evening was I decided to become a troop leader! I don't know a thing about Girl Scouts! When I was little we couldn't afford to join and my mom was at work all day so I couldn't attend the meetings. So my task for the weekend is to do the volunteer orientation on line and get Luke to read his book and work on his Bobcat badge. It is pretty involved. I am excited to do this and it will be a good way for T and I to spend time together.

Have I mentioned I am co-room mom for Luke's class and heard from another mom that Tetyana's teacher wanted me to co-room mom for her class? Wow, it is going to be a busy school year! I can't wait!!!

A+ Spelling Test

Tetyana got her first A+ today on her very first spelling test! She worked all week on the words. Okay, so there were only 3 words: on, go and the, but still she worked hard and achieved her goal!

The kids had their first full week of school and it went well. Luke is quickly making new friends as I thought he would and really likes his teacher. He sounds like a pretty funny guy. Tetyana is working on making new friends. It is a little different for her this time. Last year when she started school she was a bit of a novelty and the teacher paired her up with 2 girls who thought she was so interesting and different. This year she is just another kid like all of the others in her class. She and I are working on her English and pronunciation. She has come a long way but I am afraid kids may make fun of her for being different.

Anyway, it was a great week!

Olympics

This past week we have been watching a lot of the Olympics coverage and we really thought Tetyana would be into the gymnastics especially since there was a gymnast that is from her hometown. It did interest her but not enough to sit down and watch. She put on her one piece bathing suit and has been flitzing all over the house insisting she is doing gymnastics. Here is some video of her doing "rhythmic gymnastics"....

We enrolled her in a jazz dance class that was supposed to begin tomorrow but got a call that said the class was cancelled. She is now going to take ballet (which I hope helps her with her posture). Today was the first day but we missed the class since they called us when the first class was just about to start! So we will wait until next Wednesday. I really hope she likes it and can meet some other girls.

Pottery Painting

This past weekend I took Tetyana to do some pottery painting with a local international adoption group we belong to. There were many pieces to choose from and it was a bit hard to explain exactly what we were going to do. She decided on a piggie bank and to paint it the colors of her bedroom. She can't wait to go back and pick up her bank.

Since it was just Tetyana and I, I thought it may be a good time to open up dialog about how Tetyana feels about her birth parents, her new life here and let her know she could always come to us to talk about whatever she was feeling about it all. I won't go into all of her thoughts and feelings but she did tell me that she would tell her birth mom that she always wanted to live with us because we have "lots of money and buy her lots of things". She is very bold in asking us to buy her everything under the sun. Since she didn't even own her own pair of underwear we didn't have much choice but to buy her a wardrobe and things to play with. I don't think we have gone over board in any way. As a matter of fact, she and Luke both do chores and earn a weekly allowance. We are working on teaching her to save and the value of the money.

She has a new loose tooth and we have been talking to her about the Tooth Fairy. She was going on and on about all of the money and toys she wanted the Tooth Fairy to bring her. I was really bothered by these two recent conversations. I tried to explain to her that we adopted her because we wanted to love her and to be her family not to buy her things.

I realize she comes from another culture and that she hasn't been socialized the same way we do here in America. She can be very unedited. She had a friend from school come over a couple of months ago and we took the little girl home. She said to the little girl when we arrived at her house "This your house? This house not nice. This house too small!". I wanted to crawl under the seat and quickly tried to change the subject. She has also made comments about other peoples cars, houses and appearances. I have been trying to explain to her that everyone is different and that it will hurt peoples feelings and make them sad if you are mean to them. I know she isn't trying to be hurtful. I have also tried to explain to her that we are very fortunate to live where we do and that her daddy works very hard to give us a nice life. Not sure how much of it she gets but she constantly wants to know how much money we have, how much I have to pay her teacher for tutoring or camp cost, etc. Maybe it comes from living in poverty if that is how she lived with her birth family. Maybe that is also why she wants to eat constantly even though she tells us she had food with her family and in the orphanage. Maybe like many other things, it will just take time to adjust....

First Week Of School

Well, the first week of school was great even though we only had 3 days. The kids both were happy with their teachers and classmates. I was mostly worried about Luke but he did great and came home each day stating one fact or another he learned at school. I predict this will be a great school year for him!

Since his head injury, he has hard time with school sometimes. Things don't quite come as easily as they did. I met with the school administration before the end of last year and brought in all of his testing and prior academic and IQ scoring. He is a hard nut to crack because he tests gifted but has to work for the grade. He is perfectly happy to skate by. Part of this I think is being a boy. The school was right on top of his needs this year and he told me someone came to visit him in class and said she would be working with him! Last year in the private school it wasn't until November before they got their butts in gear! By then, he was so frustrated with school he was ready to give up!

His exectutive functioning was affected and that is the part that really helps with writing and planning. His new teacher is big on language arts and writing. How perfect is that!

I have always pushed Luke at school and demanded he do well. I know he is very bright and can do excellent. He has always brought home A's and B's. This year I have totally backed off. No tutoring over the summer. I told him he knows he has homework due. School has no surprises for him and he knows what is expected of him. Homework was such a battle every night and I dreaded it every day. I have told him I am available to help him any time but he was responsible for his homework and studing. Maybe I have to just let him fail as hard as that is for me. Boy, how hard is it going to be when he wants to move out? Yikes!!

We only had one little mix up...they didn't get off the bus at our stop one day. I sat their waiting for them to get off and they didn't. Luke called me and said "mommy, where are you?!!" and I said "Where are you guys? Why didn't you get off?" Luckily, the next stop is less than 1/8 of a mile. Somehow he got confused. I asked him what would have happened if I wasn't at the stop. Would he have just stayed on the bus forever? He said no, that he knew he had to get off at the next stop.

I have to tell you, I love the bus! It is like a carpool I never have to drive!!! With all the driving I did last school year, I feel like I am totally cheating!

Let's hope there are not anymore storm days and we can get on with the school year!

School Is Closed!

Title says it all. They have closed schools tomorrow. Guess we better check out our movie selection and charge up the DVD's players and weather radio.

Tropical Storm Faye

Ok, I swear this has happened to me for the last 4 years at the beginning of the school year...a hurricane closes the schools! We have been hearing about Tropical Storm Faye for the last week and it looks like she is headed for our area. The forecasters suspect she will strengthen to a category 1 hurricane before it reaches us. The neighboring school district just announced they are closing tomorrow. I bet we are next!

Last year when this happened, nothing happened! The kids played outside in the rain all day. It was a total waste of a perfectly good school day!

We moved to Florida 4 years ago and we arrived just in time for all 5 hurricanes. Since Drew was still in Oregon finishing up everything so Luke and I went through 4 of them by ourselves. It was a lot of fun! NOT!! All of our friends thought we were crazy to stay here but coming from California, we would rather have notice a hurricane is coming rather than being woken in the dead of night by an earthquake.

Guess we better hit Costco tonight for the necessities!

First Day Of School!

Off they went this morning on the bus. Everything went great and they were smiling as they got on the bus. Drew and I drove them to the bus stop and got out to meet the rest of the families. There was a girl who is in Luke's class there. Stay tuned for the afternoon update....