Chores

For the summer, we have implemented a few new things at our house that we wanted to work on with Daniel but have been too wrapped up with school to think about! One of those things is weekly chores and an allowance. Not that he doesn't help out around the house but I made a list of all his chores for the week and put a chart on the refrigerator. Every time he completes a task, he gets a sticker. (It's really surprising to me how motivating a simple sticker can be!) At the end of the week, if he has completed most of his chores, he will get an allowance. We are going to use this opportunity to teach him about tithing and saving too.

Can I just tell you, it's a lot of work! It's so much quicker for me to just fold his laundry or run the dust buster in the bathroom myself, instead of supervising him doing it (which involves whining, correcting, complaining, dawdling, disctractions and all around silliness). But, I know it's important for him to contribute to the household and have some responsibilities. He is also very excited about earning some money!!

We have been totally lax about bed making (I know - my mom would be apalled!) but part of our chore chart is for him to make his bed every day. The first few times it was new and fun, but that has worn off and now it's just a chore. Not his favorite chore! But he is very meticulous and does a great job placing all of his 'pets' (as he calls them) in a nice lineup!

And, I have to show you this - I came in to his room the other day and he had written up some signs and taped them to the wall over his bed. It was so sweet, I just left it up. That tape will probably take off the paint, but it's just paint.

(I don't know if you can read that last one, but it says, 'God you are the best and you are a great God!') WOW!

Things I love this week

- Hearing Daniel pray 'Thank you God for making this earth, so I can play in it.'

- We are a complete family again - Pop is back from Michigan!

- Good dinner with good friends - we love you Bible Study group! Have a great summer. See you in the fall!

- Chick-fil-A YAY! (Daniel and I have been rhyming this week - this one was my favorite!)

- In this week of thunderstorms I am noticing that my umbrella stand contains: 3 pirate swords, 2 baseball bats, 1 kite and zero umbrellas. Ha! Not very organized, but what a sweet sight!

Passport

We finally got Daniel a US passport. When adopting internationally, every country is different but in Ukraine the child is allowed to retain their citizenship. So, Daniel is a dual citizen of Ukraine and America.

Check it out - he is ready to travel now:

Summer Days

The cord for my camera is still missing, but Jason is my hero and found me another cord so my pictures have been downloaded and now I can update you on what's been going on with us! It's been a busy few weeks....

Daniel tested for his GREEN belt in Karate:

He's really excelled at karate and you can tell he is more comfortable with the moves and the routine. We're taking a break from karate for the summer, but we will probably pick it back up again in the fall.

We've been trying to get outside and enjoy this nice weather. We've been geocaching, bike riding, going to the park, splashing in the fountains, rolling down grassy hills, playing soccer and enjoying some family time. A friend got Daniel a super cool rocket launcher for his birthday so we've been having fun with that too:

Last year was such a success with Daniel's tomato plans, this year we decided to plant two! We have one plant for BIG tomatos and one for little guys. Now we are wanting the rain to come back! We'll let you know about our progress by the end of the summer...

I am really trying to be deliberate this summer about not filling our schedule up with too many things. It's a short summer and there is lots of fun to be had. I just want it to be family fun with us spending time together and not just bouncing from activity to activity but really having quality time together. Our sweet boy is growing up so fast and I know it won't be long before he is too cool and/or too busy for us. We are enjoying this time, making memories and cherishing these days.

Goodbye First Grade

Thank you Mrs. Peterson for all of your hard work with Daniel this year!

Summer is here!!!!

I can't believe the school year is over and summer is finally here! I am the mom of a second grader - WOW! Sorry I haven't been posting lately. I can't find the cord to download the photos from my camera and what's the fun of posting if there are no photos? Hopefully it will turn up soon. Daniel had a great end to the school year. He got his green belt at karate. We went to Holiday World for the day. We've been busy!

One of the really fun things about the end of the school year is that all of his writing notebooks have been sent home. These are books that he worked in all year. It's been fun to see his progress and see what he writes about, what is special to him. He writes a lot about U of L basketball, treasure hunting with pop, playing and having fun, and check out this gem:

What a sweet boy!

Almost done with First Grade!!

I have been totally delinquent in posting lately! With mom's surgery (she is doing great!), Daniel's birthday, Derby, Mother's Day - who has time for a blog!! Daniel only has 3 weeks of school left and then he will be out for the summer. I was trying to explain to him last night about having the summer off school. He doesn't remember last summer and totally didn't realize he will get 2 1/2 months of NO SCHOOL!!! Maybe I shouldn't have explained it so well - now he is totally excited!





We are so proud of all he has done and accomplished in just 2 short years! We put him in Kindergarten just to learn English thinking he would repeat, but they said he was too smart so we sent him on to First grade. So we let him to to first grade this year, thinking he would just repeat if needed. Now here we are at the end of the year and the school says he is too smart to repeat first grade, so he is going on to 2nd grade next year. WOW! We are so amazed at how great he is doing. He is behind his peers on his reading level so we are going to get some tutoring this summer, but overall it is really hard to believe. Part of his reading problems still stem from having a limited vocabulary. Case in point - a couple weeks ago, we were driving to church and I was going to give Daniel a quarter for the offering. I said to him, 'Do those pants have a pocket in them?'



What mom?



Do your pants have a pocket in them?



What mom??



I have your offering here, do you have a pocket in those pants?



I don't know what you mean mom?



I have a quarter, do you have a pocket you can put it in so you don't lose it?



I don't understand?



Finally, I said, 'Look at mama' and I put my hand in my own pocket. 'See, I can put money in my pocket.' Then he said, 'Oh! I get it. Yes, I have a pocket.'



He totally didn't understand what I was asking him. I think because he is so smart and because he has picked things up so quickly, I often assume he knows things that he might not. This was a really eye opening exchange for me because it highlighted how much he doesn't know still and made me think about how much goes on during the day that probably flies right over his head. It's not like we have never used the word 'pocket' before, but in a given day there is just so much he has to figure out and remember. Poor kid! How stressful and exhausting that must be!

Update

Praise the Lord! Mom came home from the hospital today. Thank you so much for your prayers. Her surgery went really well!

Daniel also turned 7 this weekend. I can't believe he is seven years old already! So big!! What happened to that little four year old? We finally let him have his very first party this year where he was allowed to invite the kids. He was so excited!! We had it at the karate studio and it was a good opportunity for him to show off all he has learned. It was really a good time. What a big boy!

Asking for your prayers

My mom is having open heart surgery today. Right now, actually, as I type this post. Please stop and say a prayer for her, the surgeons, the nurses.

I would really appreciate it!

Happy Easter!!

I think this is the only 5 minutes of the entire weekend when it wasn't down pouring! Daniel needs a few more chocolate eggs, Peeps and Reese Cups don't you think....

Things I love this week

- Talking with a new friend about our adoption process and being reminded what a miracle it all truly is!



- Having Pop home with us ALL WEEK



- SUSHI!!!! (Daniel loves it too. He'll say, 'Mom, let's go get sushi!')



- Having a pillow fight with Daniel. He falls back on the bed and says with such enthusiasm, 'Oh Mom, I love you!' What a treasure!



- Seeing how the Lord will truly carry our burdens if we'll just give them up.



- Tulips popping out everywhere!

Holding an Alligator!!!

One of the fun things we did on our Florida trip was to take an airboat ride on Boggy Creek:

These boats go a lot faster than you would think. Our guide was actually doing donuts in the water. Chase thought we were going to flip right out of the boat. We saw alligators, birds, bald eagles, turtles and all sorts of wildlife.

Whoa! Check it out!!! Daniel immediately volunteered when they asked if anyone wanted to hold the alligator. He was so brave.

Vacation cereal

I remember when I was a girl, we would go on summer vacation to Racoon Lake in Indiana. We would have a place at the lake for a week for swimming, fishing, boating and all sorts of fun. One of the special things my mom would do for that week is that I was allowed to pick out ANY CEREAL that I wanted for my vacation breakfast. I cannot tell you how exciting this was!!! All year long we weren't allowed to have cereal with sugar in it. So after eating Cheerios and Kix all year, this was definitely a big deal. My favorite cereal was Lucky Charms and I can still remember looking forward to vacation with such anticipation because I could finally have my much loved Lucky Charms!



I decided to repeat this tradition for Daniel. The place we stayed in Florida had a kitchen so we tried to eat meals there to save money. I told Daniel when we went to the grocery that he could pick out ANY CEREAL he wanted. Daniel has a really hard time making decisions, so I thought this might throw him for a loop (ha, ha!) but Jason said he knew what he wanted and went right to it. Oh, the power of those commercials!

I was happy to repeat this special tradition from my childhood for Daniel. Of course, it's not quite as exciting for him. Daniel isn't a big fan of cereal. I totally spoil him and make scrambled eggs or a smoothie most mornings for breakfast so cereal is a step down from that. But, he was pretty excited about having Fruit Loops, 'with SPRINKLES mom!'

Back from Spring Break!!

I didn't blog while we were gone, but we decided to spend our Spring Break in Florida again this year. Pop was able to get off work this year and join us. I am one hour out from that 2 day car ride home, so I don't have too many fun things to tell you right now. Just that we're home safe, had fun, no mishaps, and next year we're flying somewhere! UGH!!! We're all exhausted...



We did some new things this year, that we didn't do last year. I will tell you more in upcoming posts. One fun event was that we had breakfast with the Disney characters. It was over-priced but still fun to see Daniel's reaction to Goofy, Minnie and Donald....

The food was yummy. We were at Cape May Cafe at the Beach Resort. Those Mickey-shaped waffles are so good, mom had to have 2! Daniel enjoyed it but was sad that Mickey wasn't there. And thus begins our week-long search for Mickey...

Circus, Circus

We had a really great time at the Circus. We loved the jugglers, the elephants (my favorite), the tight rope walkers, the tigers, the tumblers, the clowns - it was really over the top. If you ask Daniel what his favorite thing was, he'll say, 'All of it!'

The next morning on the way to school Daniel was asking me if we could go to see it again - it was so much fun!!

Things I love this week

- Spring Break!!

- hearing Daniel pray, 'Thank you for mom and pop to love me.'

- Pop finally home from Michigan

- Daniel actually made my bed all my himself - he said, 'Mom, I wanted to do kindness for you!' (any guess as to what we've been working on?)

- Rocky Road ice cream, isn't it just the best?

Excitement

Daniel is so excited about Spring Break next week, I just don't know how he is going to survive this week at school. Also, Ringling Brothers Barnum and Bailey circus is in town and we are going to that tonight. How much excitement can one kid take? (Of course, I don't know who is more excited about the circus - him or me!) Here is the verse from last week:

Notice the sweater! We did this on Sunday afternoon (the day we had snow). He was not a happy camper about having to wear a sweater to church. He said, 'Mom, it's too light. I'll be cold!' (he meant the exact opposite - I will be hot!) Sometimes I feel like I am in backwards-land. I always know what he means, and he knows what he means, it just doesn't pop out of his mouth right. Is this a learning English thing or a 6 year old thing?

Easter Eggs

We went from 85 on Tuesday to snow on the ground this morning. How messed up is that! So, I know we're a little early for dyeing eggs but we were looking for a fun indoor activity.

AND - Daniel LOVES eating eggs - scrambled, over medium, hard boiled, it doesn't really matter. He loves them all...

Hilarious quote of the week

Daniel and I were looking at a book of super heroes and trying to guess the names of them. I wasn't sure on one of the guys:

I was telling him we should look through the book and see if we could find the name. He looks at me and says,

'Mom, you could Google it'

It was such an unexpected thing to hear him say. Is this kid a long way from a Ukraine orphanage or what? How does he even know what that is? He is learning a lot in his computer class at school!

So, I Googled it. Apparently this guy is 'The Thing'. How hilarious!

Spring Fever!!

WOW - the high here was 85 today! Woo hoo!! I am so ready for Spring to come. We had a nice weekend too, so Daniel got out a bit and enjoyed his scooter...

Recently, Daniel asked me to do his hair in a mohawk. I did my best and he loved it:

Things are plugging along as usual. Daniel has some good days and then some days he makes a bad choice, general silliness at school, talking out during class - nothing too horrible, but just kid stuff. He is still learning about personal space, and how to be a friend to the kids without running them off. Social cues are subtle and tricky to interpret but we're working on it. I was so pleased when one of the moms of a boy in his class called and setup a play date. Awww - he has an actual friend. I was so happy for him.

I have to tell you about a great thing that happened - our church does a big Easter pageant. This is the last year they are doing it, so we decided to take Daniel. I was a little worried that it would be too graphic, but we talked a lot about how it's not real. The story is true, but what we see on stage is not real. We thought it would be good opportunity to open the discussion about Jesus' life. Daniel was really engaged, leaning forward in his seat and taking it all in, asking questions (not necessarily in a whisper - sorry to the audience!). There is a scene where John the Baptist baptizes Jesus. When he brought him back up, Daniel looks at me right away and says, 'Mom, where's the dove?' I was so surprised. While we have shared many Bible stories with him, the story of Jesus' baptism is not one of them. Wow - that means he heard it at church or at school and it stuck with him. Can I just say - that Christian school education is worth every penny. You really don't realize how much is sticking in there - mulling around in that little head of his. What a blessing!

Things I love this week:

- Daniel's fresh hair cut

- out at a restaurant, Daniel reminding the table that we forgot to P - A - R - Y (OK, well he meant Pray and he spelled it wrong, but still pretty great)

- hearing Daniel read me a book

- being able to have the windows open

- finally starting to feel better

- the green buds out in the yard - it's almost here!!

Adoption Anniversary - 2 years

March 10th was our adoption day and we were so happy to celebrate 2 years of having Daniel in our family. Unfortunately, I had strep throat again so I had to miss the party but he had a great time....

Frustration

Well, I totally jinxed us with that last post. The very next day, I got a call from the school that Daniel was having a melt down and I needed to come over. I haven't had that kind of phone call in months!! It turns out that Daniel was taking a test, didn't know the right answer to a fill in the blank question and the frustration over that just built and built and built until he just let it take over. He started hitting himself in the head with his fists, when the teacher went to call the office he freaked out ran off to towards the bathroom and when she ran after and caught him he had a screaming melt down and had to be carried out. Whoa! Of course, by the time I got to school he had calmed down. We talked (again!) about what we can do when we get frustrated - take a deep breath, ask for help, skip this one and go to the next problem, pray. He knows all of the right answers but in the heat of the moment, he just lets the anger and emotion carry him away.

I have noticed his frustration really cranking up lately. When he can't do something (tie his shoe, button the top button, cut something out, whatever) he really gets frustrated and has an overreaction. He will start crying and kicking his feet, just falls apart. If I am right there, I can usually say something in a teasing way to make him laugh and that will break the tension and then he can ask for help before it goes too far. But I am realizing that in doing that, I am not really helping him. Because I am not always going to be there and he needs to learn how to work through that emotion and make a good choice when I am not around to make him laugh. WOW - this is tough one to learn. Especially when there is so much emotion tied to it! I am thinking I need to back off a little, let him get frustrated and try to work it out and then coach him through it a little. Just so he can experience that feeling and learn how to react appropriately. We all get angry and frustrated but it's a matter of making a good choice when that happens.

I told him, he isn't going to know everything - that's why we send him to school. He is there to learn. So when he doesn't know, he doesn't have to get upset - that's when you ask the teacher. Of course, on a test - she can't tell him the answer. (so then the mom guilt kicks in - I should have helped him be better prepared) She is worried when they get into the standardized testing towards the end of the year - it's going to be an issue. She can't deviate from the script when giving the test and if he falls apart he won't be able to take the test. She is going to send me some practice test so we can start practicing what to do when we come to a question that we don't know the answer to. It's OK to skip it and go to the next one, but that's totally not his personality. He simply cannot leave a blank and move on. He gets totally paralyzed by not knowing the answer. I guess it's a learned skill so we are going to practice it. (it's just so hard because we have also been working on not being a quitter - you finish what you started - quitters never win. Now this message is totally opposite - skip the question and move on - isn't that quitting?)

So yes, we still are having challenges but he is still an unbelievable sweetie. Check this out....

Tonight he was telling me, 'Mom, I wish God made you smaller so you could be in First grade. You could be in my class and I could have you at school.' How sweet is that?

Still here!!

Sorry for the long pause between posting! I have been reeeeaally busy at work so my evenings when I usually post have been busy with work. That and Jason has been traveling a bit for work so I have been a single parent. Whew!! I don't know how you single parents out there do it. It is tough to be the only one. No one to tag team with when things get hectic. I am doing the drop off and the pick up, homework, baths, play time, stories, loving, prayers, instruction, taxi service, laundry, dinner, bike rides, cleaning house, games, ya, ya, ya.

Daniel is doing great though. 2011 has been such a turning point for him behavior-wise. Not that he's perfect (me neither!) but he is a new kid. Now, instead of getting in trouble for hitting, running away, or melt downs we are dealing with talking during class, disrespecting the teacher, and disrupting class. A BIG improvement in my book! I am the parent of the class clown! Most of the time when he gets in trouble, it's because he is trying to make the kids laugh. I definitely don't want to squash that awesome, out-going part of his personality but we're trying to learn when it's appropriate to be silly and when it's time to zip it and learn. Some days we do better than others, but for the most part - things have been great.

I just got a reminder today to slow down and enjoy those little moments because they're gone too quickly. Things I love this week:

- Daniel snuggling into my side while I read a story

- 'I love you mom!'

- those big brown eyes, hung on my every word while I explain March Madness

- Daniel's sweet prayers before bed (please keep Pop safe!)

- a perfect score on the spelling test

- Singing, 'This is the day, this is the day, that the Lord has made'

- That little hand tucked neatly into mine when we cross the parking lot. I love that I don't have to look down and grab his hand - it's just automatic. We get out of the car, I drop my hand down there and he inserts his into mine. It thrills me every time!

Memory Verses

Go Wildcats!

I never thought I would hear myself cheering, 'Go Wildcats!' but, that's the name of Daniel's team. (his coach is a UK fan) He wasn't paying attention, the team was having a discussion, all of a sudden he turned around and they had picked a name and it was the wildcats. It was so funny - he goes, 'Awww, mom - we're the wildcats!' That's what happens when you don't pay attention! So, here's hoping the wildcats do well tomorrow...

Bike Ride

We decided to enjoy the rare nice weather this weekend and go out for a family bike ride, with a bit of geocaching thrown in....

So, I have a question for you....at what age should the training wheels come off? I am totally OK with the fact that he still has them. He has been through a ton of changes in the past year and a half so I don't care if he keeps them on. I am just curious - what's the right age? How will it go down - does he ask to take them off or do we bring it up?