1 1/2 Years Home!

Yesterday was our 1 1/2 anniversary! We celebrated by John and I going out. Ok, well, that isn't why we celebrated; we went to a Valentine Banquet. Last year when we went to this, Adam cried realllllllly hard at the thought of us leaving, and it took him a long time to stop. This year, he didn't even blink. I had almost forgotten about Adam crying, but when I told the kids that we were going out and that Uncle Jared was coming to watch them, Adam told me he wasn't scared about it this time.

Lets see.... not a whole lot to update about since last month's update. The kids are doing great! Every month they get a little better though! :O) When they get excited, you might want to stand back! They get to be little monkeys when they're wound up!

Hmmm... Adam first. His speech is still difficult for him, but he really is getting better all the time. Unfortunately, when he is remotely excited or stressed, or "put-on-the-spot" he can't speak well at all. I've noticed the last few times I've video-taped him, he got all nervous and couldn't speak well at all. Gonna have to find a way of taping him more incognito. But, really, his grammar has gotten much better, (adding those "do's" "is's", etc.) but prepositional phrases are killers for him. He'll say something like, "The toy is where the floor." Instead of "on" the floor, or "Liana is where the street" instead of "by" the street, etc.

This month, however, Adam has made enormous strides in his attachment to me. He and I have been "hanging out" more together. For instance, yesterday while the girls took a bath, Adam and I sat in the kitchen munching popcorn together and just chatted away. He's just let himself be more of my buddy lately. He hasn't challenged me like he used to, and he seems to have quit enjoying "pushing my buttons" like he did soooooo often in previous months.

He still enjoys being a good helper. He's always asking what he can to do help. Never complains about doing dishes, vacuuming, taking out garbage, etc. Never.

On the school front, math is a killer for him. Absolute killer. John is writing a program to help track his math a little better, to ensure that he is mastering things, and not just getting it one day, and then forgetting the next day (without me realizing it.)

His oral reading has improved quite a bit this month, though it is really hard to judge what is his "speech/language" problem, and what is a reading problem. His comprehension is perfect, but articulation is still difficult, and he does stutter when he reads, as he does when he speaks (though that stutter has diminished quite a bit lately).

Liana next. She's made the biggest improvements with her reading this month. I think Adam's comprehension is slightly better than hers as far as knowing what she's reading, but she's much improved over last month, and has gained a lot of confidence this month. In fact, yesterday she asked if she could read ahead a little bit in her reader. That wouldn't have happened last month, I don't think.

She's also come a long way in her behavior. She's really a sweetie. Sometimes it's hard to see how far she's come until I meet a child who is a Brat and think, "wow, that used to be Liana!" Recently, I met a child who was outspoken, selfish, rude, proud, waaaay overindulged. Her parents let her have/do/say whatever she wanted pretty much. I just thought, "wow, this could have been Liana sooo easily. Good thing we adopted her instead of this other family!" What was extra-impressive was Liana's reaction to the girl. She was quiet, well-behaved and mostly just "watched" this girl. Later she told me she didn't want to be "like that." I almost laughed since she really WAS like that not so long ago! (Minus the over-indulging parents, mind you!) She still has some residuals that need to be wiped up a bit yet, but really, Liana is a great kid already!

Then Aleksa. I can't believe this is the same girl we came home with. She's very quickly progressing with her reading, and I just plain can't believe it. I thought when we brought her home that she was going to be really challenged in her learning. She's the opposite, I think. She's catching on a million times faster than her siblings did with reading. Maybe it is because she had a whole year of English under belt that the other two didn't have though. Not sure. All I know is that she's flying through her phonics/reading lessons and begging for more. She is loving the reading I'm doing with the other two during school time. We're still reading some Little House books, and she loves to "pretend" she did the things we just read about "Laura" doing in the books, right down to pretending "Jack" is following her around.

I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but the kids each have a thinking skills book that they work on during school time. That involves seeing patterns, sorting, classifying things according to shape, color or size, etc. I think it has helped all three of them - it has become more of a "fun" time than something they "have" to do. There again, Aleksa has been cruising. She has pattern blocks, or snapping cube blocks for her book, and she really loves it and is beaming-proud of completing her pages for the day.

All three have grown a foot, and I'm sick about it. I haven't even measured them lately. They aren't allowed to get any bigger! My son is going to be as tall as I am in about six months. Liana and Aleksa can just quit their growing too. They are supposed to stay tiny forever, right?

Well, I really need to get going. The troops are up and running, and that that means Mama better get herself in gear ASAP!