Wow - Another Month Gone By! (Growing Boy & Bedroom Update)

I can't believe yet another month has gone by! Time sure is flying, which is good and bad at the same time. I need to remember to slow down and savor each moment a little more!

Daniel is still doing fabulous in Kindergarten! He's reading more and more and sounding out words on his own now. They are already doing addition and subtraction! Daniel's catching on quickly and while we have parent/teacher conferences next week, the teacher sent me a note home saying Daniel was doing just fine and she really didn't need to me at all, unless I wanted to come in. Since she's great with email, we are skipping the conference!

Daniel is also growing like crazy. Just this past month, he shot up another 1/2 inch! We told him last month, he needed to grow 3 inches by the time we went to Disney (he really doesn't - I think there is only one ride he can't ride). Apparently he took the request to heart and has been eating and growing to beat the band!! We are also dealing with growing pains in his legs, but not so severe, that often times he just needs the break of bed time and feels better in the morning.

In foster-to-adopt news, we attended our first PRIDE meeting, which stands for PARENT RESOURCES FOR INFORMATION, DEVELOPMENT, AND EDUCATION.

We learned a lot of things at the first meeting, including the conditions of some children when they are taken into care. It is truly heartbreaking to know how many children are neglected and mistreated and how severely. This path is not easy and I have to admit that we are a bit scared. Please pray for us as we continue through the classes. There are 7 in all and each week we have homework. Since all our paperwork is done, this week we had to create genograms of our families. Genograms are a little more complicated than family trees, but I think we did a good job.

Here is a recent picture of our growing boy - he LOVES tortellini with broccoli, chicken and cheese sauce. So much that he picked out the gigantic serving fork to eat with! Did we let him eat with it? You betcha - because I figure a silly dinner every now and then won't hurt!!
Lastly, here is the mostly completed bedroom for our special child/children. I really don't like saying "foster" child all the time because I don't want to label a child as such in our home. I need to come up with some other way! I still have a few things a corner of the room to go through and to wash the baby bedding (in case) and then we're finished.

First Report Card and Parent/Teacher Conference!

We're having a great week! Today Troy and I are celebrating 15 years of marriage and we've sort of come full circle - he's at his new job which is actually what he used to be doing early in our marriage and he's home each day now!! After so much time apart, we're so thrilled!!

We received Daniel's first report card last week! He had all "M"'s in his regular classes (reading, writing, math, science). M stands for "Meets Expections" and he had all + signs in his specials (art, music, library). Since you get either a + or -, I was thrilled!!

Troy escorted me to Daniel's first parent/teacher conference last night. I went in a little nervous because, even though Daniel has done extremely well in Kindergarten, it's no secret that I had to move him from one daycare to another and then from that daycare to another. Turns out I was making the right decisions!

His teacher RAVED about him! She said his vocabulary was almost better than hers! She also said that even though he received all "M"'s in his report card, he deserved all "E"'s for "Exceeds Expectations", but that they are not allowed to give "E"'s to any Kindergartners until the end of the year!

Futhermore, she said she had to move him to the HIGHEST reading level (with only two other children)! She said she could tell the difference already in his reading class and that she realizes that Daniel is going to have to be challenged constantly all year!!

We also had another teacher stop by who said she just had to meet the parents of Daniel because "he was so bright, smart and obviously happy"!! She went on to tell us that she sat down beside him one day when he was coloring and he looked over at her and said "Who are you?" So she gave her name and said "Who are you?" Of course he gave her his FULL name - he LOVES to use his middle name! She said "well then I'm going to work with you for a few minutes on…" (whatever the assignment was) and Daniel held up his thumb and first finger (measuring time) and said "You have this much time (about 2 inches) and then we're done here!" Apparently it's now the classroom joke between the teachers!

The funny thing is I never use that - he started that with negotiating bedtime. When I would tell him 10 minutes, he would hold about 3 inches and ask "Is it this much time?" so we would negotiate a span of inches for bedtime!!

I did warn her that I taught Daniel the time out sign the day before when we needed a break from playing or wrestling (with Troy!). I won't be surprised if she gets the time out sign from him next!!

She said he can do every task that is required and more!! She said she would never had known he had no English language or anything until almost two years old.

We left out of the conference just beaming!! Troy even gave me a high five!!

We're so proud of our son!!

Kindergarten Update

We have survived two weeks of Kindergarten!! Daniel is doing extremely well. I'm ashamed to admit that I didn't think he'd adjust all that well, but he has really surprised me and proved me wrong!!

He did get into a spot of trouble on day 3 last week, but nothing major and the teacher wrote me a nice note, to which I sent a nice reply and everything has been great since. This week Daniel did extremely well, even getting a note on his paper stating that he chose the most difficult items to draw and that his teacher was impressed with his work!! I was sooo proud.

We created a "Me Bag" beginning last Monday night and turned it in to class today. Daniel shared his bag today in school and came home animated and it sounds like he really enjoyed telling his class about the items in his bag. He chose a photo of our house, a hunting hat, a diving stick, a train, and Uno cards. They represented his favorite place, doing something with daddy, favorite sport, favorite toy and game time after dinner each night, in that order. He colored his bag and drew a picture of me, Troy and himself.

I also gots lots of papers home this week and they were all perfect. They are working on simple math concepts like over/under, above/below. more/less. We've been working on these skills for so long that it's old hat to Daniel, but he still followed the directions on all the papers and they looked great!!

Here are some photos from week 2 of Kindergarten!!

First Day of Kindergarten (and an Earthquake!)

Boy, we'll never forget Daniel's first day of school!

EVER!!

We had a 5.9 magnitude earthquake, the epicenter of which was about 50 miles from our home and only 20 from my work office. Around 1:50 pm our office started shaking terribly and I was so scared. We're on the 3rd floor of a building and the floor felt unglued. Thankfully it stopped and I was able to get ahold of Troy and he was able to call Daniel's school. The kids were all fine, but this momma wasn't!!

To backtrack, this morning started out like any other. Daniel knew it was the big day and he still begged for 2 more minutes of sleep complete with covering himself back up over his head!! Once out of bed we served him scrambled eggs, bacon and toast with jelly. Then we got dressed, brushed teeth, washed face and headed out to the big K!!

We arrived at school and he headed right in leaving us in the dust, until we got to where the Kindergartner's meet in the morning. Then he ever so gently attached himself to my side. His teacher, who I really like, greeted him by name, but he wasn't having any of it. Once I got him unglued from me and we showed him which 2 tables were his classes, he went and sat down about 10 seats away from everyone else and put his head down. Broke my heart!! Never fear though, I walked over and re-sat him with some new friends. When we left he was taking his jacket off and loking around.

When we picked him up, he was all smiles and talked up a storm. He made new friends, liked his teacher and he didn't have an accident. Since we're still dealing with his medical condition, this is and continues to be my biggest worry for him. I went in ahead of time and had a conference with his teacher and the school nurse to explain his condition, set his potty schedule up and give them the letter from the urologist using big terms and was very impressive! The teacher followed the instructions to a "T" and Daniel did great!!

If you are wondering, Daniel has to void on a timed schedule which we are slowly trying to draw out. Normal bladders can hold urine for about 4 hours, but Daniel can only hold about an hour and a half. This is because his bladder was so stretched from the obstruction he had for so long and his reflux issue (both have been corrected, but the damage was already done). We still don't know the depth of feeling he has as far as the urge to go goes, and it's something we are still trying to ascertain through medical testing and simply Daniel getting older and being able to tell us. Because his bladder is so large, he doesn't get the "bladder-brain" signal until it's too late and he leaks urine. However, the hour and half schedule works for him and we are "training" his bladder to hold it that long without leaks. Fortunately #2's in the potty are no problem. So, as long as you keep him on schedule, he does great. We'll work up to 4 hours eventually but it could take a few years. Since we were told he would need a permanent cathedar at one point, we think his progress is great!!!

Anywho, he wrote his name for his teacher today and drew a picture of her. Troy picked Daniel up and he said Daniel's teacher said he was "excellent" and that she "really enjoyed him"!! Daniel talked non-stop about his day and his new friends. He said he earned 6 punches on his card for good behavior and earned extra recess time!! When I asked what he got the punches for he rolled his eyes and said "For good listening mom", in a "duh" kind of tone. Seriously! Apparently I need a punch card because he seems to have selective hearing around here!!

Whew!! I feel so much better now about our decision to send him on to Kindergarten! I know we may face some difficulties, but today went really well - minus the earthquake of course!!! Without further ado - Daniel his first day of Kindergarten!!!