Preschool

I have enjoyed the month off of work with my two beautiful children. I teach on a year round schedule, so every three months I have a month off. No big summer break, but I really do like my schedule like this. I will be going back to work tomorrow for meetings and prep., starting with students returning on Monday. My next chunk of time off will begin the week of Thanksgiving and I will return to work after the New Year, 6 weeks because of the holidays…NICE =)

Dylan went to Oklahoma for 12 days this past month to visit family. He really had such a great time and came home exhausted. I know this for sure because when he is over-tired he walks, talks, and does very strange things in his sleep! This month took the award of weirdness so far in his life. He had a really bad dream and decided to take on his furniture while sleeping. Furniture won, he ended up with a black eye! We spent some time the next day researching bad dreams, mostly because he needed some reassurance that he is not psychotic. Sometimes these dreams happen and we really are unsure why. He does feel there might be a relation to some of the things recently in the news that occurred her in CA. Happy to report we have all been sleeping fairly well since.

Tori is done with Dr. appointments for a while, I hope! She does have a follow up eye appointment in a two weeks. I guess I should say at least a huge bulk of Dr. appointments are done with. I attended an IEP for Tori yesterday through the school district. It went really well. I had gone to the school district shortly after arriving home, requesting a speech and language assessment for her. Her medical information from Russia indicated she was speech delayed. I felt I wanted to tackle this right away and not wait for her to begin school. I gave the district some information on Tori’s background and the decision was made to do a full assessment on her; which includes speech, language, cognitive, health, etc…..They came to my home to do the assessment and hired someone that speaks Russian to assist. In a nutshell, she has no qualifying conditions for Special Education services. The conclusion, she is doing really well and has learned so much for just being her a short time. I agree wholeheartedly. After reviewing the paperwork I had given them from Russian doctors, they were not sure what to expect when they arrived at my home. Upon leaving my home and at the IEP, they were very complementary about what an amazing little girl she is and as to how well she is doing! She really is pretty amazing!!!! =)

Along those same lines, Tori has started preschool. This is her second week of attending. I was fortunate to find a lady about a mile from my home that runs a preschool out of her home in the mornings and offers daycare as well. For now, Tori has just been attending a few hours in the morning to get her used to it. Starting Monday, while I am at work, she will be going all day. She is really enjoying it and continues to learn so much!!!! =)

Ready for her first day of preschool!

All the fun stuff Tori made the first week of preschool, learning about the farm!

Dylan and Tori, Oklahoma style!

Tori, unsure about this stuff on the chip.

BUSY BUSY!!!!

All is well! We have just been BUSY! Tori has been home for 2 and a half months now and continues to learn and grow in every way....well almost. I weighed her yesterday and much to my dismay she weighs the same as see did with her first Dr. visit....a whopping 22 pounds! I do wish she would have gained some weight by now. I am feeding her, I promise =)

I have to admit, she is very active, so I am trying not to be very concerned about the weight. She goes all day long. No naps, but does sleep about 12 hours each night.

My mom is a member of a Red Hat group. Those wonderful women had an amazing "Princess Party" for Tori! It was absolute fun! I have never met some of these women, they just wanted to celebrate Tori's homecoming. Tori enjoyed tearing through all her gifts and showed her appreciation through her verbal gestures!!! The ladies absolutely enjoyed her!!! We all had a great time!

We have been to a BBQ and the beach. She is a fish! She loved the pool at the BBQ. She would go under water and just laugh while under with her eyes wide open. There really was no chance of keeping her out of the water. She really loved the waves at the beach too and it was awesome to watch her having so much fun.

Before I left for my second trip, I was participating in a cardio boot camp in the mornings, sometimes 5-6am and sometimes 6-7am depending on the month. Shortly after I came home, I thought it was going to be difficult to get back into a work-out at that time of the morning. Dylan had been begging me for a while now to get him a gym membership....so yes, much to his pleasure that is what we did and it has worked out really well. Dylan and I will work out for about an hour or so and Tori will go to the Kids Klub for an hour. It did take a few visits for her to get comfortable and understand that we won't be away from her for long. Now she enjoys going most of the time. When we start getting ready to go she recognizes our change of cloths and says, "Go play!" When I drop her off she says, "See you in a little bit!" and, "I love you!" at least 4 or 5 times before we depart from each other.

Lots of Dr. appts. going on here, lots! So far I have a very healthy little girl, tiny, but healthy. We have another cardio appt. this week for an ultra-sound. On my first trip to Russia I was told Tori had a murmur. The second trip I was told she had another abnormality besides the murmur. The Dr. visit for the embassy stuff, I was even told she would need surgery in a couple of years. Not the same findings here at all, interesting....possibly a slight murmur and that is it. We will know more this week, after the ultra-sound. Tori does have a chest deformity due to rickets. Her Dr. feels that because her chest cavity has a different shape, the heart beat would have a different sound. Suggesting that possibly Dr.'s in Russia thought there were some issues because the beat sounded abnormal due to the shape of her chest cavity. All blood work came back just fine. She did get two shots, no big deal. I suppose I thought the list would be long medically. I am happy to report all is well. She has an ophthalmology appt. the end of the month. She also has a home assessment from the school district at the end of the month. I do hope to get her qualified for a preschool program offered through the district.

She is not comfortable getting in a car besides mine, I am fine with that and it is just something we will work on so she can feel safe. She honestly just continues to really enjoy life. Still singing and talking all the time. Babbles still at times, but also lots of English going on. She loves to say, "I love you" and "kisses" to both me and her brother. We love her so much too!!! Her birthday is the end of the month. We are looking forward to that and also, I will have all of August off to play with my kids all day long. =)

At Princess Party.

Swimming to our friend Michelle.

Sliding into pool.

At the beach.

Tori and her friend Bryan in a towel fort.

By the bonfire with Michelle.

Lil' Miss America!!!!

The weather has been really nice here. Tori continues to enjoy the yard, wading pool and playing with her dogs. We all seem to be settling in well. It is hard to believe she has legally been mine for only a month. It does seem much longer, as she is really a true part of our family.

I did have to go back to work this past Tues. I felt like I was just really ready, but knew she may not be ready for that just yet. I found that as the week progressed I, of course, really missed her and was not as ready as I thought. I really could not wait for the day to be over with so I could get home to my kids! Also, I was exhausted by the time Friday came around. I kept thinking to myself that I was grateful to go back to work during a short week. Next week will be a full one, but all will go well!

My first day of returning, a staff meeting was being held in the library. I have been out of the loop and clueless about a meeting. I did figure it out when I did not see any other teachers in classrooms. I quickly headed to the library, late. As I walked in, my boss announced to the staff that a new mommy had just entered the room. The staff erupted in applause, it was really awesome! It was great to hear how many had been checking my updates and asking those I work closely with how things were going and when I was returning. I work with an amazing group of people. For that I am so grateful!

Babushka has been here during the week staying with Tori. I think it has really helped with the transition of me going back to work. Tori wakes up after Dylan and I leave in the morning and she is in her own home, with her familiar things. Also, Babushka was with us in Russia, so they are both very comfortable with each other. Tori asks about Dylan and me throughout the day, but so far has been ok with it. She is sooooo excited when I walk in the door upon returning home. I get an amazing amount of hugs and kisses, and she just wants me to hold her and cuddle her. Of course, I gladly oblige. My mom will be watching Tori for another two weeks here and then we will work on another transition. To be honest, I don’t have that totally figured out yet, but have some things in the works.

Last Sunday when we went to church, Dylan was with his dad, so it was just Tori and me. I stayed with her in Sunday School. Today her brother decided he wanted to stay with her and I could attend the service. That did not work so well…….almost though, almost. They both showed up next to me in church about 10 minutes before the service was over. Apparently, it did not go as well has her brother planned. She told him she had to use the bathroom several times during the 45 minutes they were away from me. And of course, once they joined me, she forgot all about going to the bathroom!