Pic's from today

Brynn has been learning about how the Pilgrims first left England to go to Holland, and today we read about their first impression of Holland. After hearing that Holland is lower than sea level in some parts, and that there are dikes in place to keep the water back, his history activity was to build a dike across a bowl, fill it with water and then fix it when I caused it to spring a leak. He LOVED this activity, and ran to get Batman and Robin to to stand in Holland!

While we were doing school this morning, Iann discovered the joy of walking around in my shoes:

Ahh, I so love my boys.

First Day's ...

Iann started preschool today. Gulp, my 3 year old is growing up so fast. I have been really worried about this transition - he doesn't do new things well at all - and had prepared myself for all eventualities ... I thought!

Iann is really uncooperative about having his picture taken, mainly because it involves him being asked to stay still for more that 5 seconds, so here is the best of the photo's I took of him this morning:

 

His backpack - which he won't actually keep on his back - goes down to his knees, however anything smaller doesn't hold all the things he has to have with him: change of clothes, (cloth) diapers, wipers and wet-bag to hold dirty diapers, and his compression vest for when he gets a little out of control.

I put him in the Elmo t-shirt today because he really likes Elmo and I was hoping it would help him if things got tough at school. Well, lets just say that it made NO difference at all. He separated from me fine: I gave him his sippy cup and he walked away. I was the one who was tearing up at that point. An hour and a half later his aide called and said that he had been crying for the last hour, did I have any ideas to help him calm down? Long story short he cried on and off for about two and a half hours!!! Aparently he had calmed down by the time school was over, but started again when parents began arriving, so I heard him crying from outside :(

While I didn't think he'd be completely happy today, I really didn't think he would cry for so long. However, I know that he doesn't like change - he used to cry when I took him to speech therapy, and now he waves goodbye to me as he's running down the hallway! It will take time for him to be comfortable at school, but it's hard to know what to do. Do we shorten the time that's he there, and increase the number of days so it's a shorter time, more often? Do we leave it as is and wait for him to settle down? Then there is the part of me that wants to yank him out and keep him home.

Brynn had a 'first day' today as well: Jon started their science curriculum. This is the fourth week of our school, but the science that we picked is 28 wks, the rest of it is 34 weeks, so Jon had a few more weeks to get ready. He is planning to teach science twice a week, Astronomy to be exact, something that Jon is excited to be learning about too! Here are a couple quick pics I took through the door:

So, it was a day of firsts. A rough o for Iann, a good one for Brynn. And an emotional one for me! 



Iann's Birthday

Our little boy turns three tomorrow. It's sort of hard to believe. As hard as life might be, and as tiring as the ongoing 'discussion's' with the school district might be - and this is the first of 14 years!!!! - we cannot imagine life without him. Around this time of year I think about his birth mum a lot. I am so thankful that she chose life for him, it was a very brave thing to do. However, I also feel some frustration with her for not telling the agency she had been diagnosed with some IQ related issues. Fragile X comes directly from a child's mother, and while the mother doesn't have to be affected by it, she certainly can. When we heard that she told a different agency (one she used with her second son, Iann's young half-brother) about these issues, that lead us to genetic testing and the final diagnosis. Regardless, I am happy she gave Iann life, and happy he is ours.

Here are some pictures of the 3 party's we had for Iann since we got him: his first, second and third birthday party's :)

At Iann's first birthday, it just so happened that my sister and her family were visiting from England, and Jon's parents were here from AZ, so we had a big, family party.  Both boys look so little!!!

In Korean culture, the kids wear traditional Hanbok's and Iann's foster mum sent one for both Brynn and Iann to wear on Iann's first birthday.

For Iann's second birthday we had friends come over for a water and cupcake party:

And for this years birthday, we had all the same people, with water and cupcakes again!!! 

 Next year, it is likely that we'll do the same thing again!!! What's the saying? Why fix something that isn't broken? :)

Brynn's Karate Test

Brynn took his first karate test a week ago Friday. He has now been taking karate for just over 3 months, and he had to know the various kicks, blocks and punches (called basics) and a 'kata' - a routine using the basics. At first he didn't want to practice at home, but when Sensei (his instructor) told him he'd never make it to black belt without practicing at home he really worked hard. I wasn't sure if he would ever remember the whole thing, but he knew all the moves a few weeks before the test and so was able to work on his stance, strength etc. Unfortunately the video I took of him doing his kata it too long to upload.

While we haven't had the official word if he passed or not, Sensei taught Brynn the kata he'll need to know for his next test today, so we are assuming that he passed!

Iann just loves watching Brynn do his karate and is trying to imitate him. Here they are doing karate kicks together:

Iann has two 'words' ...

WOOOOHOOOOO :)

Iann's OT, LL, has been bringing all sorts of animal toys for him to play with. since animal noises are some of the first sounds kids can make. On Tuesday she told me that he consistenly said "MMMM" when asked "What does a cow say?" And he's kept on doing it :) That's 'word' number one.

The other word is 'Elmo.' It's not totally clear and you may not understand what he's saying unless it's in context, but it's clear as day to us. The first time I heard it was on Monday afternoon, when I asked Brynn to go downstairs and put Elmo on for them to watch. Iann got very excited and headed towards the stairs, saying his version of 'Elmo.' On Tuesday evening at the dinner table, I got him to say what a cow says for Jon, and then pointed to his fork and asked "Who's that?" Sure enough he said "Elmo." Jon was amazed and we're so excited. I've been working to get him to identify Elmo as a character in books, DVD's and a toy we have and he's got it :)

After 'moo' and 'Elmo' the sky's the limit. Bring on the words:)

The school/guest room

As promised yesterday I have pictures of the school room to share. I just finished putting the calander together and clearing off the bed :)

The first picture is from the doorway:

Brynn sits in the bean bag while I read history or from the read aloud book, and while he is reading to me.

 To the right of the door, is our calander. I got these things from Target, and just added velcro to the calander and the numbers so I could move them for each month:

Here is Brynn sitting at his table, doing his handwriting:

I sit next to him on the other little chair, which really isn't too comfortable, so I usually get up and do something in another room while he's doing handwriting - I need to stretch!

On the wall above the table are 2 more Target finds: a schedule which shows what we need to cover each day, and the alphabet in cursive ...

Lastly, Brynn has just started to enjoy playing with lego, Batman figures etc but he doesn't want Iann with him when he's doing it, since Iann tends to step on everything and "ruin it." So Brynn goes into the school room to play with these things, and shuts the door. While Iann is learning not to go into that room, the important word in that sentance is 'learning.' :)

And that, dear friends, is our school/guest room.

Quick Update

Dear, sweet hubby just said "Are you going to update your blog?"

"At 9:47pm?"

Guess so :)

We completed our first week of school last week and I think Brynn and I both enjoyed it. I am using a Christian curriculum called Heart of Dakota, and not only is it teacher friendly and well laid out, but it uses quality books. Our focus is early American history, and we learned about the Spaniards going to Florida last week. This week it's the British in Jamestown. Most of this is new to me, so I'm learning too!

One of the great things about home schooling is that it doesn't have to be all in one sitting. That's been huge for us so far.  Like today, we dropped Iann at speech therapy, came home to do 40 mins of school before we had to go get him. Home for a snack and then 40 more mins of school when the next therapist arrived. Then I read from the biography read aloud while we were waiting in the car later in the day. I am actually finding that this is giving Brynn time to think about what he's learning, and see how it all connects together. When Iann starts preschool in 2 weeks (gulp) then we'll do school while he's gone, but for now, this works. Once I have finished decorating our school room/guest room I'll post pictures. 

When I picked Iann up from speech today his therapist said "Where are his hearing aids? I didn't get much vocalizing from him today." Opps, I'd forgotten to put them in! Then the second therapist to work with him today asks me the same thing as she was leaving. I had forgotten again!!! At least it shows that the hearing aids are really making a huge difference. Blush.

Iann has started taking a gray step stool, putting it under the swing and using it to climb onto the swing, sitting on it like a horse:

Just one more way that he is growing up and wanting to be just like Brynn.