It's almost time. . .

It's 11:42 PM and the first day of school is technically only about 20 minutes away. Evan went to bed right away, which surprised me, because he so very excited about school. He's a little worried too, and that makes me worried! So many things I want to tell him, but it seems like so much, and how will he ever remember it all??? It's so weird for me to think that he's starting 4th grade yet doesn't know about any school procedures that most kids have known since Kindergarten or 1st grade.

I worry that he will be scared to ask if he doesn't understand something, that he'll get his feelings hurt because someone doesn't understand his accent, that he'll mess around at lunch and won't have time to finish his food, that he won't find a friend, that he won't attempt to try something because he's never done it before, and on and on. . . But, I'm trying to have faith that he's going to be just fine and that I'm just a big ol' worrywart, just like my mom. I discovered that a teacher friend of ours has a son who will be in Evan's class. She quickly assured me that her son would be more than happy to lend Evan a helping hand these next few weeks until he figures out the routine of an American school. That takes some of the worry away.

I guess I'm also thinking I wouldn't be worrying so much if I didn't have my own worries about starting at a new school and grade. Kindergarten is going to be a big challenge for me this year, and I just really need to get some sleep. Many, many hours trying to get my room ready, get 21 kids screened before school starts, an Open House for parents this past Monday, and of course, trying to figure out what to do with the kids the first week of school. Most people have absolutely no idea what teachers do to start a school year, and if you saw my to-do list, you'd understand why phone calls and emails from friends/family haven't yet been returned these last two weeks. Lots of craziness in our home and at school.

Well, hopefully by the weekend, I'll have an update for you on how the first 3 days of school went for Evan (and me!) Pictures too, if you're lucky!!!! :-)

Ready or not, here comes school!

This past Wednesday we took Evan to his new school for registration. His comment when we got out of the car was, "Wow! Big!" This made me smile because his new school WILL have more students than his school in Ukraine (500+ here, 200+ there), but the building itself is smaller, probably about 90 years newer, and smells so much better!

At the moment, he's not assigned to a 4th grade teacher because the principal is waiting for the ok to hire a new teacher for his grade. There are 32 kids in one class and 33 in the other, not including Evan! That's too many kids!!!! We are hoping to know by Monday if the situation improves. I was glad we had the chance to speak to the principal for several minutes so we could introduce Evan and explain that he is new to America. She was very reassuring about her goals for students in the English as a New Language program, and expressed her support that we're putting him in a grade level below his biological age friends. We were also told about an extra tutoring program on Tues-Thurs. that we may enroll Evan in to help him further.

I showed Evan around some of the school (I used to sub there while I was going back to school for my education degree), and then a teacher friend of ours came by and gave Evan the more personal tour. His eyes just kept getting bigger and bigger! We left the school feeling very excited about his education and decided to celebrate by taking him out to lunch. After arriving at the restaurant, Evan mentions, "Um, Mom-- my tummy!" Off I sent him and Tim to the bathroom!!! I guess it was better that he got sick inside instead of in the car! I'm beginning to think some of the car sickness is anxiety related. He's been fine on numerous trips lately, both long (3-4 hours) and short, and hasn't gotten sick. We'll see what happens in 2 weeks when school officially begins.

Speaking of which, we made the decision that I'll be driving Evan to school in the morning and enrolling him in the before-school care program. This way I won't have to worry about him waiting at home for a bus, and it's not really too far out of the way to take him on the way to my new school. Tim will then pick him up after school each day since the high school gets out almost an hour earlier than the elementary schools. The other advantage to this system is that Evan won't have to worry about the "stop/start" motion of a school bus and potentially getting sick in front of his friends. Who wants to send a kid off to school and remind him to put a gallon-size ziplock bag in his backpack????

We've been working on Evan's reading and math, computer skills, and he also knows his address, phone number, and the name of his new school. He's slowly getting the Pledge of Allegiance, and we've talked about procedures in Ukrainian schools vs. American schools. Turns out you have to raise your hand, wait to talk, be respectful of others, and be a good listener in Ukraine, too! He's definitely talking SO much now, and some days it's all I can do not to shout, "STOP talking!" :-) Our little shy guy is coming out of his shell and is becoming more comfortable with all things American every day.

Evanism #2

In an earlier post, I wrote about how affectionate Evan is and how he will ask for kisses and hugs all the time. We hear, "Where are my kisses??" quite a bit these days. Tonight Evan was watering the flowers out front while I was deadheading (is that a word?) them, and he said, "Mom. The Doctor said Evan needs lots of kisses!!!!!" I couldn't help it, I burst out laughing and smothered him with lots of kisses. You could tell he was proud of himself, and I can't help but be proud of him for coming up with this and being able to translate it into English. He's quite a character!!! Never a dull moment at the "Triple Decker" House!

A Tall Tooth Tale (or story to be shared with Evan at a later date!)

Evan was happily munching on a raw carrot tonight when all of a sudden he said, "Mom, look!" And, in his hand he was proudly holding a tooth! His mouth was full of blood, and he was grinning from ear to ear. I am so used to seeing my little first graders happily showing me their toothy grins, but I really wasn't prepared to see Evan lose a tooth. We went to the sink, rinsed out his mouth, and spent some time looking at both the tooth and the new hole in his mouth. Then he strutted outside to tell Tim all about it.

I then asked him if they have the Tooth Fairy in Ukraine. He looked at me with a puzzled look, and I explained as well as I could about how we have to leave his tooth under his pillow and then the Tooth Fairy would leave him some money. Evan was already pretty excited about the whole Tooth Fairy thing, and then when I told him he'd get money, boy, I think I saw his eyes double in size!!!

So, then tonight we went through our nightly bedtime routine, and I had almost shut Evan's door, when I remembered that we needed to put his tooth under his pillow. I told Evan to hold on while I went into the kitchen to fish it out of the small paper cup of water I had placed it in. I can't find it, and I learned that Tim had thrown out the water (and the tooth!) into the sink!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Apparently he didn't realize that I put it there! He tried reaching into the sink/disposal without luck, so we quickly ran outside to the backyard to find a small pebble or something to put in the envelope as a decoy. Of course, we cannot find a pebble small enough, so I frantically tell him to get one of the peas out of a pea pod. I throw one into the envelope, lick it, and run back to Evan's room where he'd been waiting. I then had to come up with something fast, so I said, "Ok, your tooth is in this envelope, and we need to put it under your pillow. The Tooth Fairy will NOT come and leave you money if you look at it, touch it, or even think about it!!!! Promise????" Evan promptly promised, and under the pillow the tooth went. WHEW!

So, who's coming over to try taking the envelope out and replacing it with money????? Yeah, I didn't think so! Someday Evan will look back on this and laugh; RIGHT?!?!?!?!

Evanisms

As we help Evan learn how the fine English language works, we've had a few laughs along the way. We were reading a book together this week, and he came across the word, "sack." He wanted to know if it was like vomiting (this through pantomime)-- sick. He laughed as I really stressed the short a vowel sound. He's discovered rhyming words and likes to make up fun little chants. His latest one is "Knock, knock, 9 o'clock!" He also came up with "Vanya Lasagna" the other night at dinner. Not sure I'll be able to say just plain lasagna after that!

Geography is always a challenge with younger kids, and my favorite "Evanism" (to date) is the following: He was riding his bike with Tim this week, and they were perhaps 6 blocks away from our house. Tim said that Evan kept saying, "Wow! Indiana's big!!!"

Lots for you!

Below you will find 2 posts-- that's right, 2 for you! The one right below contains 5 videos for your viewing pleasure. The one below that tells what we've been doing, and I've posted about 40 pictures. This should tame the savage beasts who've been pressuring me!

Oh, and feel free to leave comments under the postings. We love reading them!!!

Videos

I am going to attempt to add some videos I've taken recently. We'll see what happens!



Evan's belated 10th birthday party in May




First time swimming-- sorry it's sideways!!





Reading to us in Russian




Our little dancing ballerina!!!!




Happy Birthday, America!!!!!

Hello! Remember us???

Let's see if I can catch you up on all the fun we've been having this summer:

The Monday after school was out, we took Evan to Putt Putt for an afternoon of miniature golf and arcade games. The back 9 showed him no mercy, and he had to settle for third place in the family rankings. We bought a few extra games, so I guess we'll have to take him back soon so he can improve his rank.

We've had lots of visitors-- even some from out of state and country. My friend, Michelle, and her daughter, Sarah, drove up from Cincinnati to visit us over Memorial Day weekend, we had the chance to see our friends who live in Slovakia, and my sister and nephew have been down from Michigan a few times. Car sickness still plagues Evan ever so often, but we've been to Michigan three times in the last month, and he only was sick once!

Other summer activities so far have included attending (in no particular order) a TinCaps baseball game, swimming in pools and lakes, visiting (3 trips) the Fort Wayne Childrens Zoo, the first time sleeping overnight- at Tim's sister's, planting a tree, driving Grandpa's tractor, piloting a pontoon boat on Lake James, attending a wedding, watching TinCaps and 4th of July fireworks, splashing around at Buckner Farm Park, sleeping on an air mattress at my sister's, sliding on a Slip N Slide, watering our flowers and the garden, meeting a lot of Mom's high school friends, building a sand castle, learning the alphabet/sounds/counting to 100/handwriting/reading, visiting the library, eating lots of ice cream, going to birthday parties, playing with Teagan, going to the movies-- one in 3D!, meeting a ton of my relatives at a family reunion on my dad's side, discovering sparklers, letterboxing with my sister and nephew in Grand Rapids, and in his spare time: coloring, building with Legos, Magnetix, and Knex, and playing with his Leapster2. Just a kid being a kid!

The best part is seeing ordinary things through the eyes of a child who hasn't seen some of these things, EVER! One of my favorites was the TinCaps baseball game when he saw fireworks for the first time in his life. I just sat and watched him most of the time instead of the fireworks! Swimming has to be one of his all time favorite activities. He's even happy playing in Teagan's little pool in the backyard. I can't wait to take him to the Big Lake- Michigan! The first time he was daring enough to go down the slide into the pool at a friend's house was priceless. He loves to observe something first and then he'll try it. One of my favorite expressions of his is "Ok, I'll try!"

He won't be happy later in life when he reads this, but he just eats up the hugs and kisses. I was a little worried that he wouldn't be affectionate after being in orphanages his whole life. I worried for no reason! We can even be in public, and he'll say, "MOM! Where are my kisses?!?!?!" Well, I am more than happy to oblige that request. We have a whole bedtime routine that includes dancing, reading, and tons of hugs and kisses. He tries to think of new ways each night to get even more hugs and kisses. He is such a happy-go-lucky kid, and we are so blessed to have him in our lives.

He's been getting taller all summer long! AND eating everything in sight. I've told this story a few times, but for those who haven't heard it: There were coupons from the Sunday paper on our kitchen table. Evan saw one particular page and said, "Hey, Chuck E. Cheese!" I said, "Now how do YOU know about that?" TV, of course! Well, Evan doesn't like pizza-- we've been at Pizza Hut, Oley's, and some others in Ukraine too, and every time he thumbs his nose at those choices. I told him that Chuck E. Cheese only serves pizza. His reply? "Ok, I'll try it again!" So, we got Papa Johns one night-- just cheese on one half for him. The verdict? "This is good!" Ha!!! After Tim and I laughed, Evan said, "Ok, Chuck E. Cheese???" and we said, "NO!" Some things just take extra time to work up to as a parent!!! :-)

Evan is a great help around the house. He can fold clothes better than Tim, makes his bed (and usually ours) every day, feeds both the dog and fish, unloads the dishwasher, vacuums, waters the flowers and garden, keeps his room and bathroom spotless, sweeps up branches and grass, and his personal favorite-- picking up Teagan's "waste" in the backyard. Remember that comment about child slavery??!?!?!?!?!? hee hee!

His English is really coming along. Tim has been in DC for Coast Guard stuff this week, and the other night, while on the phone, Evan told him about our day. When he was done and passed the phone to me, Tim commented that he understood pretty much all of it! He picks up the funniest things, and almost everytime, I just have to ask if he's learned something from me, someone else, or TV. :-) Yesterday we were in the car, and he said he doesn't like "slow down" songs; he likes the "quickly" songs!! He rarely says anything in Russian anymore. We borrowed a book from the library that was written in Russian. In May he could read the whole thing but was not able to tell us what anything was in English. Now, for the most part, he can read a Russian line and then tell us what it means in English. He's very excited to start school next month and was especially delighted to learn that he would not be sleeping at school like he did in Ukraine. I'll be taking him to school in the morning, and then Tim will be picking him up each day. This way, we can avoid the whole potential bus sickness with the stops and starts!

Some things we have planned for the remainder of the summer are visits to: Tim's brother in Illinois with a side trip to St. Louis, Indianapolis to see friends who just moved there as well as a child from Evan's orphanage who now lives there, an Ohio zoo-- either Columbus or Cincinnati, and hopefully Lake Michigan. I am really hoping Evan and I can even attend the Coast Guard Festival in Grand Haven, Michigan-- Coast Guard City, U.S.A!!!! Tim will be out of town that weekend, so we'll see if we actually make it there on our own. I'll be packing up my classroom this week in anticipation of moving to a new school and grade. Evan should be a great help with this.

As you can see, it's been a busy summer this year! Here are some random summer pictures. . . Enjoy!

A Word from the Parents

Ok, so some of you have politely asked, "What kind of parents are you?!?!?!?" because Evan is seen in pictures below riding his bike without a helmet. Yes, you did see that correctly; however, he DID receive a helmet on the day he received his bike. BUT, it was too big! (This one was for kids ages 8+ and should have fit just right) He was so desperate to learn how to ride his bike the very day he got it, so we watched him like a hawk that day and the next until we bought a new helmet. (This new one is for kids 5+ and fits him perfectly!) We kept the other helmet because I am sure he will grow into it soon. You may be pleased to know that the new helmet hangs from his handle bars when he's not riding his bike, and he is VERY good about strapping it on every time. He doesn't even seem to mind that hardly any of the neighbor kids where their helmets! Of course, his has cool flames on it, so that may be part of the attraction.

One of my "to-do's" is to add pictures soon. . . very soon. . . REALLY! :-)

Proud to be an American!

Just as the last person was leaving Evan's birthday party a few weeks ago, I realized I did not have a picture of the 3 of us from this special day. Luckily, the last person to leave was my sister, so she quickly took this picture to commemorate Evan's new American life. I'll post more birthday pictures before the end of the summer! :-)

This Thing Called Love!

Today I am enjoying being a "stay at home" mom (which started today!) I was puttering around the house just now, trying to get caught up with laundry-- how does one scrawny 10-year old create SO much more laundry?!?!?!?!?-- while Evan was playing down the street with 4 neighborhood boys. The door flies open with "Mama, Mama!!", and I discover he's been invited to go swimming at this same neighbor's house. He rushed around throwing clothes here and there as he gathered his swimsuit, flip flops, and the ever-present sunglasses. He runs out the door and then stops, pokes his head back in, grins, and says, "Love you!!!" :-)

An All-American Kid!

This morning as we are all in bed snuggling and tickling Evan, he starts telling us what he loves to eat. Here is his list, in no particular order: Evan loves McDonald's, apples macaroni, chicken nuggets, carrots, french fries, hot dogs, cabbage salad, peanut butter and jelly, cheese, chips, hamburgers, bananas, and then the favorite-- ice cream!!! We asked him if he loves borscht (Ukrainian soup), and he said, "oh yeah!" but then told us, "it's ok!" that we don't have it here in America. His favorite expression is, "whatcha doin?" and uses "it's ok" as both reassurance to us (see post below!) or as a question when he's not sure if he's done something wrong.

He's such an easy-going kid! When he doesn't think he'll like something to eat, he'll say, "ma-maaaa!" (drawn out as long as possible) but then usually tends to like whatever we put in front of him anyway. We get comments all the time about what a fun kid he is and how well he follows directions and/or doesn't complain. (I'm thinking that's going to change when he starts school in August!!!) When we go to places like Target, Meijer, Wal-Mart, etc. he is so good about just looking at things and not whining for us to buy them for him. He's content with just browsing and then is so excited the times when he's allowed to buy them. You may have read earlier that he wrote in church that I love shoes. Well, this boy LOVES sunglasses! He now owns 5 pairs and is delighted that he has more than Tim or me.

Evan just loves having family and extended family. He talks about his grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins frequently and wants to know when they are coming to our house. His face just lights up when we tell him we're going to grandma and grandpa's for lunch or cousin Tessa is coming to hang out with him. He doesn't seem to mind that Mama and Papa go off to school and he stays home with his Grandma or Tessa. I have big shoes to fill next week when I'll be home with him for the summer-- the two of them spoiled him good while they took care of him!

It's so fun seeing things through his eyes! He delights in Papa rubbing his summer goatee on his cheeks at night (Wow, cool, papa!), tickling him is an almost everyday activity, and just watching how Teagan finds his lap anytime he's watching TV brings a lump to my throat. Evan enjoys helping with planting flowers and trees and is always up for peeling a carrot or an egg. Our neighbors down the street have a pool, and I think he's wondering why he can't go there every day!!! We need to enroll him in swimming lessons this summer at the YMCA by us.

Watching him open presents for the first time was an amazing thing! We had to show him how to tear the paper to find out what was inside. He's had a lot of practice since then with a "welcome home" party from Tim's Social Studies department and my school. Because he came home a day after his birthday, we decided to celebrate it a little later. The party on Memorial Day weekend was a resounding success!!! Everyone has been more then generous about making him feel welcome in America.

Yesterday afternoon we went to the "members-only" (thank you Homestead Social Studies Dept!) preview of the new exhibit, "African Journey" here at our Fort Wayne Children's Zoo. Along with another neighbor and three of her kids, we spent over an hour in this one area. It was very cool to see hyena's and lions so close (only seperated by 2 inches of glass!) and watch giraffes being fed. The weather was perfect and it was a great time that ended with dinner at Chick-Fil-A.

Now that school has ended for the year, I will have more time (supposedly!) to post more often. Here are some pictures (one showing 4 generations on Tim's side) and a video (showing how he learned how to ride a bike in a little over 30 minutes!) to tide you over for now.