Sasha's First Day of School

Sasha visited the class for a couple of hours on Monday and Tuesday and then started today. She was there from 9:30 to 3:00. I always make my exits short and sweet when I leave the kids, so I only heard her cry as I walked away. The first day she visited I took a long walk around in a neighborhood by the school and cried as I walked. I knew she was crying and I felt badly about it. I also know that she will love being there once she gets used to it. And that I need to get our house organized and start working. It didn't make it any easier though, and I was happy to pick her up a little while later. The teachers said she cried for a little while in the beginning and had just started to cry again before I got there. One of the teachers took a lot of pictures of her doing work and sitting at circle (and not crying) so that made me feel a lot better. The second day was hard too, but I met my mom and sister for breakfast while she was there, which was nice. I picked her up right after they ate lunch in her class. Today I picked her up after her nap while she was on the playground. Her playground is right next to Brookelyn's so they can see eachother sometimes. Brayden's class goes by her playground every so often so he gets to see her sometimes too. Anyway, Dakota and I saw her before she saw us. She was sitting on one of her teacher's laps smiling and clapping her hands. Of course, when she saw us she cried.
Several of the people at the school told me that she wasn't crying when they had seen her. It is so wonderful to have her at a place where I used to work and know everyone!
I left my camera with the teachers so they could take pictures of her throughout the day.

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Family Time

I had a nice day with my older kids yesterday. I asked them to go to the mall with me so they could watch Sasha while I did a little shopping. I thought I could check out a few stores and we could look at stores for them as well. Neither one likes to shop and I don't think has gotten new clothes since Christmas. Anyway, I looked around for a little while, but didn't really find anything I liked. It really is not much fun to shop when you are on a timer. Sasha hates being in a stoller, which makes it even worse. I carried her in a front pack or sling for several months and hardly ever used a stroller. I finally bought a new one a couple of months ago. I had a double stroller I use when I have two or more kids, but I wanted a smaller one so would be more convenient when I just had Sasha. I have been trying to use it lately and she hates it. I mean, she screams like she is being hurt when she is in it and calls out,"Mamma," with the most pitiful cry you've ever heard. EVERYONE turns and stares at us as we walk by. I usually pick her up and carry her and put my bags or things in the stroller, but the last few times I have used it I have actually strapped her in and let her cry a little. It sounds mean, but otherwise she is never going to get used to it. Yes, I have food for her to eat in the tray and water in a cup for her too. She is so mad she immediately throws the cup and knocks all of the food off. Nice.
Anyway, I had hoped she would fall asleep in the car on the way over and sleep inthe stroller while we looked around. She immediately woke up once we put her in the stroller and didn't fall back asleep the entire time we were there. In fact, the twenty minute nap she had in the car was the only nap she took all day. She wasn't cranky, but she couldn't sit down to eat at lunch and didn't want to sit in the stroller or be held. She wanted to walk around by herself at the mall. It made for a long afternoon. It was still fun though.
Today I picked up one of my nieces and brought her with me to Brayden's swim lesson. Jesi, Sasha and I watched him swim and then we all went out to lunch. After that we brought Sasha to get her hair cut. I had brought her a few weeks ago to get her bangs trimmed, but the woman had barely cut them any shorter. I really could hardly tell that they were shorter. But I had been holding Sasha while she cut them and by the time she was finished, Sasha was ready to go. A different lady gave her a hairbut today and it looks great! I am trying to grow out the sides, so I only wanted her bangs and the back cut. She did a great job. Sasha did really well, which was amazing since she had had a hard morning. She is usually very easy going, but she seems to be more opinionated the last couple of days. I had put her in her stroller again on the way to the swim lesson and she had screamed the entire time again. By the time we got from the car to the pool she had thrown all of the food off of the tray and lost a shoe. I had more food, but we couldn't find the shoe. Again, everyone looked at us like I was a horrible mother for making my child sit in her stroller.
After we got her hair cut, I brought Jesi, Dakota and Brayden swimming while Sasha took a nap at home. It was really fun. I could actually get in the pool and swim by myself for a few minutes and then relax in the sun for a little while. That is the fist time I have done that all summer. It was wonderful! We picked up Brookelyn, had dinner and then played in the yard until it was bedtime. Fun day! I was able to take a few pictures where my kids looked at me since my niece got their attention for me.

Fun Word Scramble

Heather's pictures

Sasha will NEVER look at me when I try to take pictures of her. I am not eggagerating, she refuses to look at the camera. I almost have to trick her to do it. Plus, my camera seems to take the picture a second after a good shot. My eleven year old niece too these pictures a couple of days ago. She is now our official photographer. She also happens to be one of the nicest, sweetest and most helpful people I have ever met. My kids love when she and her two sisters come over. It doesn't matter what we do, it's just more fun with them around.
A couple of the pictures are of Sasha in our new playhouse. We now have two in our backyard. Ray doesn't know why we needed another one, but look how much fun the girls are having!!!

School for Sasha and Brookelyn

Sasha is going to start going to school at the I worked at for years and now am the head of the PTO for. She will only be going three days a week for a few hours at a time. Just enough time for me to spend some time working at my husband's office as well as running errands. I love her teacher. She is very sweet and loving and so is the assistant teacher. I have known both of them for years, so I feel good about who she will be with. The classroom is right next to Brookelyn's so we see the teachers a lot. We visited one day last week and she loved it. She kept looking at me and pointing to things around the classroom as she moved from one thing to the next. I left her on her own today to get used to the classroom and to get used to being there without me. I would have liked to have her visit a couple of more times with me going with her, but I needed to look at preschool classrooms to chose one for Brookelyn. She is in a classroom for two year olds now. I was pretty stressed about making the decision. Since her birthday is at the end of November, she will be in the classroom for three years. I know all of the teachers, the problem was picking the best one. I like each one for different reasons. They were kind of putting pressure on me to chose since the classes are filling up. I was planning to sit in a few of the classrooms to get a feel of how Brookelyn would fit in. I had tried to do it last week with Sasha, but she was all over the classroom right away and I couldn't concentrate. So today was the day. Luckily, when I went in they told me that a teacher who used to work at the school when I was there was coming back in the fall. I love her classroom and it will be perfect for Brookelyn and Sasha too, when it is her turn to move to preschool. Yeah! Instead of sitting in the classrooms I sat in the office and filled out paperwork for Sasha. It turns out that she cried for over 45 minutes and then settled down. I left her there for about an hour. She was not crying when I walked in, but she hugged me and let out that sound hey make when they are finally calming down. Like a deep, ragged sigh. Poor thing. I was a little sick and teary eyed about leaving her because I knew it would be hard for her, but it will be a good thing once she gets used to it. I was so happy to go get her and was surprised how hard it was on me to leave her. I was so grateful to have her back with me!

Summer Stuff

We have been having a fun summer, but I cannot wait for the relaxing part of summer to kick in. Today is the last day that I have to drop off and pick up my son from school, which will really help since it is right during nap time. Sasha's nap time is the only real time I ever get anything of value done in my house paperwork wise. I signed Brayden up for swim lessons once a week that started on Tuesday. Brayden is one of those people who are good at every sport without really trying. He is a good swimmer for the amount of time he has done it. Next year I am going to sign him up to be on our local swim team. My older children did it for seven years and are great swimmers now. I wanted to sign him up for it this year but I was worried about chasing Sasha and Brookelyn around during the practices.
I went to the pool the other day with all five of my children and we had a great time. The older ones took turns with me holding the younger ones, which was great. Brayden likes to jump off the side and swim as far as he can, Brookelyn likes to jump off the side to someone who is standing close and she also likes going under the water with someone for a few seconds at a time, and Sasha likes to jump off of the side while holding someone's hands. All fun. We stayed for a couple of ours and then went out for frozen yogurt. I would do it more often, but it's hard to get the older ones to go to the pool with us.
I brought the three little ones to the park yesterday with my eleven year old niece. I cannot believe I didn't have my camera! Sasha is a little climber!!! She likes the climbing structure and slides for the toddlers, but would really rather be on the bigger, more challenging structure. She climbed right up to the top of the ladder of this really high slide and would have gone down herself if I would have let her. I sat her on my lap and we went down together and then she climbed back up again. I was kind of hoping to do a little sitting down and relaxing while I watched them play. I have a feeling I won't be able to do that for a couple more years. Sasha is just too daring.
I brought Sasha and Brookelyn to a gymnastics class the other day. Sasha is a lot like Bradyen. They are both very coordinated and like to climb and do things that are a little risky. I decided when he was younger to sign him up for gymnastics so he could learn how to be in control of his body. He really liked it and was really good at it. Brookelyn really like the gymnastics class when was in too. I was planning to have her continue with it, but she was in a younger group where I had to be in the class with her and I couldn't do that once we had Sasha. Well, Brookelyn did a great job listening to the teacher yesterday and did everything she was supposed to do. She really liked it. Sasha wanted to do her own thing and didn't really love the class. I think I will try to find classes for them in the fall.
My sister and her husband bought a RV a few weeks ago. I asked them to bring it over one night and we all slept in it. It was me, Brayden, and my three nieces. It was a lot of fun and I want to do it again a couple of times before the end of the summer. It is a good chance for me to sit down and spend time playing games and talking with my nieces. Otherwise, too much time goes by without me spending time with them.

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Cute summer pictures

New Teeth

Sasha has had only four teeth for months and months, but she finally got two more on the top two days ago! The only way we really knew was that she starting putting my fingers in her mouth and then biting down! Ouch! After the second or third time I looked in her mouth and saw a new tooth breaking through. She seems to have a high tolerance for pain so other than that she acted the same.
We have had a really rough week. My son is taking a class for two hours in the middle of the day, so right in the middle of her nap time. If someone else is home I can leave her in bed and drop him off or pick him up. Since I really can only get things done when she is asleep, I lose all of most of that time. If no one else is home I have to wake her up early and bring her with me. Her naps are much shorter than and she is harder the rest of the day. He only has one more week to go and then hopefully we can get back to normal naptimes. I really need her to nap since she is ALWAYS attached to me or within a few feet. I am not eggagerating-she freaks out if I walk across the room or out of the room. If I don't want her to scream I have to pick her up and bring her into the next room with me. It definitely wears on my by the end of the day, but I know she will get over it as she matures.
I have been trying to get more involved with the local mom's club I am part of so I have been going to a lot more functions. We went to the park twice this week with other mothers. It is pretty fun except a lot of other moms can talk, but I have to really be aware since I have three kids four and under. I am constantly counting them while we are out. Brayden is old enough and coordinated enough that I don't have to worry about him on the play equiptment. But Brookelyn and Sasha are always trying things they aren't ready for. Sasha loves climbing up and going down slides! She pretty much likes everything except swings. None of my little ones like the swings. Anyway, it's great being outside and watching them play.
Another thing all of the little ones love is swimming. At the beginning of the summer I was keeping them all with me in the little pool if I was by myself. Then one day we went with friends who had older kids and we went into the big pool. Now none of them want to spend much time in the little pool. Even Sasha will get out of it after a few minutes and point to the big pool. If I don't get out and bring her in it she will just stand there (on the hot cement) and keep pointing to it. Once we get in, she likes being held for a little while and then she starts trying to get to the edge of the pool. She loves holding onto my hands and jumping into the water from the edge. From then on until we leave she wants to jump from the side. Brookelyn is pretty much the same. She might last longer in the baby pool if the other two weren't there though. She is usually pretty laid back and will play wherever we are. Brayden wants to jump off the side and swim to me. He can swim about ten feet or so right now. I haven't put water wings on any of them yet, I just manage by holding them and having them take turns. I only take two at a time now that they want to be in the bigger pool. It's great that they like swimming so much! I am bringing Brayden to start swimming lessons next week. He will be great-he is really good at all phsyical things. He went on a scooter for the first time on the 4th of July and a couple of hours later he wanted to try doing jumps. We bought him his own scooter the next day and he rides it whenever anyone will bring him out. Ray took the training wheels off of his bike a couple of days after he rode on the scooter and he learned how to ride it within a couple of minutes. It sounds great, but it also means he does a lot of things he isn't ready to do. Like doing jumps on a scooter. He just turned four in Feb, so he has some time before he is ready to do jumps and tricks.

Fourth of July Pictures

One Year

A year ago we got THE CALL about Sasha. I remember hearing the phone ring and looking right at the clock so I would know what time I got the call. It was weird because we had just run into the house to grab a few things before heading out to a park for a little while with my sister and her girls. I layed down on the couch for a minute and then the phone rang. Even though I had been checking my email constantly, I knew it could be days or weeks before I heard anything. But I knew it was the call when the phone rang. After talking to my caseworker for a minute about nothing, she said, "Are you in front of your computer?" She told me she was sending the information about the baby and a few pictures and to call her later. I yelled up to Ray to have him come downstairs so I could tell him. I wanted it to be special when we first saw her pictures and learned about her. Since my sister was already on the way over I asked if she could just come here and watch my kids so Ray and I could go to his office and get on his computer. We did take a quick peek at a picture before we left ans saw she was adorable. We raced up to his office, which luckily is close by. We sat down and looked at her pictures (there were eight of them) and read the little that goes with the referral. I guess we could have had her medicals looked at by a international doctor, but I didn't want to. There was not a question about whether or not we wanted to adopt her. We sat there for a while in his office looking at her pictures and then printing them off since he has a good printer there. Then we went home and showed them to everyone. It was pretty surreal. I remember thinking that I couldn't believe how lucky I was to be able to adopt her. I kept looking at the pictures trying to figure out what she was like. It was an amazing night. Here it is a year later and I still cannot believe how lucky I am to be able to raise such a sweet and beautiful little girl.
I was putting her to be tonight and telling her about when we first learned about her. She kept trying to get me to play peekaboo with her. The only word she says is, " Mama," but she easily lets us know what she wants. She put one hand over her eyes and then made the sign for "more." When I said "peekaboo" she laughed and signed "more" again. She is just so cute! I usually hold her for a little while at night but put her to bed before she is totally asleep. We had a long day today and spent a lot of time outside so she was tired. She fell asleep pretty quickly and I was able to hold her as she slept. What did I ever do to be so lucky?