Busy week

I've been busy and getting behind in posting lately.  Both Leeza and Sasha changed rooms at day care.  Sasha went into the group that Leeza was in (older 2 and young 3s).  Leeza moved up into the older 3 group.  She now eats in the cafeteria for breakfast, but still eats in her room for lunch.  It just makes a noisey morning since the 4 year olds are also now there.  She is handling it well.  We also had open house at school Thrusday after work.  Leeza had fun showing off her class room and Sasha threw a fit when it was time to leave.  She really wants to go to school like Leeza does.  She won't qualify for Pershing school and is too young for the regular preschool at daycare so no school for Sasha for at least a year.  She is doing really well and learning quickly.  Leeza is doing good and making progress in all areas except colors.  SHe can tell white and yellow, but has a really hard time with blue, green, red , and purple.  I still wonder if she is color blind.  I guess she is too young to confirm anything yet. 

We have been doing a lot of swimming although it is more like lots of time spent filling the pool and running around with the hose and not much actual swim time.

Sasha was telling me a very dramatic story last weekend

It involved a lot of dramatic movements and a lot of explanations(that I couldn't understand)

And ended with her counting something.  Not sure what she was counting, but she was very emphatic about it.

The girls have had a lot of fun on their swings this summer.  I think we will use them some in the winter time also when the weather is not too bad.

No this is not a prison photo.  They use their play house as a kitchen.  I get a lot of imaginary food brought to me to eat while we are outside.

I went to WalMart to get a cake for our 1 year since court celebration.  They had this one with pink and purple swirls with day glow orange trim.  I figured the girls would love the colors.

Sasha loves cake.  The ice cream wasn't bad either.

Leeza liked the ice cream.  She really doesn't like sweets so the cake wasn't her favorite.

Saturday, the girls got their haircut.  Leeza loves getting her hair cut.  I think it looks good on her.

Sunday, we went to the zoo.  This is their favorite exhibit(along with the monkeys).  Yes, those are guniea pigs.  They also liked the llama at the petting zoo, but Sasha is still afraid of the goats in there- they tend to mob you if they think you have food.

Here we are violating zoo rules- sticking our fingers through the fence to pet the turtle.

One year ago today

One year ago today, I wsa standing nervously in a small court room on the second floor of the courthouse in Shymkent while I was questioned by the judge, the prosecuter, and the Ministry officials.  After about 30 minutes of translated questions and answers, the judge smiled and said something in Kazakh.  My translator turned to me and said-the judge has said congratulations you are a mama!  I still had to wait another 7 1/2 weeks before I coould have my girls home, but that was the day I officially became a mommy.

This is the doctor from the baby house and me in front of the Courthouse after it was over.  The doctor had to come and testify that she felt I would be a good mother to my girls.  The girls loved her and would always light up whenever they saw her.  I was so relieved in this picture that the whole court process was over. 

Nap Time

Here was nap time today
1:00  rock and sing to girls to get them ready for nap
1:10  put girls in bed with kisses and tuck them in-twice
1:15  the supposedly relaxed girls are now talking back and forth
1:20  we are now jumping up and down in our beds giggling and laughing
1:30  real crying from Leeza- I ran in to find her standing in the bed crying with real tears.    It took a few seconds, but I finally realized that she had taken the jacket off her bear and put in on herself.  The bear is about 1/4 Leeza size so she was stuck in the jacket and could not get it off
1:35  The bear's jacket is now peeled off Leeza and before I can leave the room, Sasha says she needs a new pullup- she had just went a tiny bit
1:40 Sasha is changed and Leeza is out of the straight jacket and after hugs and kisses, the girls are tucked back into bed for their nap
1:45  The girls are really going strong now and Leeza is playing patty cake by banging on the wall- Sasha is cheering her on
1:55  The girls are finally getting tired or bored, but at least they are laying down
2:05  Silence- Are they finally asleep????
3:10  Leeza wakes up ALREADY after only one hour nap.
3:20  Leeza has now awakened Sasha so I reluctantly go get everyone up.  Mama got nothing done during their nap time.

I'd like to say this was unusual, but it is typical for the last few months.  They no longer want naps, but if I skip the nap, Leeza is exhausted the next day and has a bad day so we go through the routine.

Potty Training- Another update

Sasha has been dry all day long all week.  I am so excited if she can get through tomorrow without an accident that will be all week at daycare with no accidents.  Could we finally be on the down hill side of potty training?  Leeza is totally trained.  I can't even remember the last time she had an accident.  She is also no longer going to the potty 5 times during a meal- just once.  Unlike Sasha, she was always worried about having an accident and would get upset if she did.  Sasha just thought it was funny, but now she is proud when she stays dry all day.  My girls are growing up!
Update Friday night
Sasha stayed dry all day so we went out to eat to celebrate.  Leeza, of course to make mommy insane, had 2 accidents today.  She has never had 2 accidents in one day before! I suspect someone forgot to put her in pullups for her nap as her regular daycare lady was not there today so I bet she got missed when she came back from preschool.

Update

We survived the trama of the first week of school.  Other than the bus ride, Leeza seems to like it. 

Aunt Debbie and Niki sent the girls some books.  They have spent a lot of time reading them and having me read them.

They also sent a china tea set.  Lots of china noises as they stack them up and pile them together.  SO far, none of them have broken-yet.  They love the little forks and spoons that came with the set.  However,  Leeza has hid them somewhere that only she knows.  I will come across them someday.

I put up some hooks for hanging necklaces.  I thought Leeza would love them, but she refuses to leave any necklaces on the hooks.  Sasha and I put them on the hooks and Leeza comes along and dumps them all on the ground.

The weather has gotten a little cooler so we have been able to spend more time outside.  the girls love to be outside and just run around or swing.

We hate the Big Bus

Well, you know Leeza had to have a bus adventure.  Last year they parked her in the bus parking lot and almost forgot her on the bus.  If she hadn't sneezed, who knows how long she would be there.  This year has topped that.  Last week, I called the bus company to confirm everything.  THey had all the info except they didn't have their schedule yet.  Monday, the school gave the the bus schedule- pick up at day care at 8:37and return at 11:51.  Monday night I got home to a message from the bus company saying they would pick her up at 8am.  I called and told the answering machine that my daughter would not be riding that bus for an hour and that that was not the right schedule.  They called back at 6am Tuesday and said, yes that was the schedule.  I told them that I did not want her on a bus for that long and that I would not be putting her on the bus.  I went to day care that morning to take Leeza to school and at 8:37 (meaning her ride would be about 13 minutes) a bus pulled up as we were leaving for school asking for Leeza Harmon.  Since the time was correct, I talked to the driver to make sure she had everything correct and put her on the bus.  I skipped lunch to make sure they got her back ok and called at noon and she had gotten back ok.  There was no school Wednesday.  Thursday, I thought it was all ok since Tuesday had worked out well, but when I got out of a meeting, I got a message from the school principal that they had put her on a Mt ZIon bus and sent her home.  Since no one was there, they were returning her to daycare.  It turns out, it was an 1 1/2 hour ride for her on a regular school bus- not the special smaller ones they usually use.  Plus they parked outside our house while they argued where leeza should go and who should take her there so Leeza saw her house, but couldn't go in. 
The principal had left a cell phone number where I could call her back.  When I called her back, I got voice mail and 15 minutes later I still got voice mail so Mama left a rather not nice message.  At the end of the message, I accused them of not caring about kids and trying to kill my daughter.  OK, so mama lost it a little, but they put the kid on a bus with no AC and no water in 90+ temperatures for 1 1/2 hours.  They had to change her clothes when she got to day care since she was soaked with sweat.  So now I know somewhere in her permanent school file is now the statement- Nice kid- Psycho mom!  But I bet they won't screw up the bus again.

Preschool

Well, summer must be over because we had to go to preschool orientation today.  Leeza has been "moved up" a class.  The school has 3 levels in it,.  SPecial needs where she was last year and they have 2 teachers for 10 kids.  Mixed SN and Regular PreK which has 15 kids and 2 teachers and moves at a faster pace.  And regular PreK which has 20 kids but you have to live in the Decatur to attend the regular PreK so Leeza is not eligible for this class.  She is now in the Mixed class.  ALthough the teacher/student ratio is not quite as good, I think she is ready for the faster pace.  Essentially, it is a regular PreK class, but she leaves the class once a week for special speech classes and once a week for her physical therapy.  I will miss her old teacher although she only had her for a month.  I'm sure the new one will be just as nice. 
Now I just have to get the bus set up and that was so much fun to do last year.  I wonder how they will mess it up this year?