Hello, Remember Me?

Hi.  Yep, Henry and I are still alive.  Life has been hectic.

We had a very active summer, and fall has been pretty busy, too.

I thought that since Henry has his SECOND bible reading tonight, I should go ahead and post the video of his first one.  The sound quality of this is BAD.  If you want to follow along, he was reading 2 Samuel  22:1-20.  He practiced for weeks and weeks and did an awesome job.

Tonight, he'll be in the front school...on the stage...with a microphone.  I'm hoping he doesn't look up and chicken out.  (Note to self:  Talk to school coordinator and make sure he has a plan in case Henry chickens out.)

Braggin Dragon and Tooth News

I think I've mentioned before about some of the challenges Henry has been having in first grade in the public school system.  His teacher has been awesome in working with both Henry and I.  One of the goals that the entire class has is to earn the title of Braggin Dragon for a week.  Ms. M clearly communicated to the children what they needed to do to earn the title.

Henry has wanted it for a while.  Ms. M explained to him very clearly what he needed to do in order to earn this goal.  He was very discouraged because some of the kids were on their second time around and he had yet to earn the title.

Then, we had a very bad week.  Actually, a couple of very bad weeks.  Okay...maybe they weren't so bad.  When we started this whole color coding thing, the infractions were many and they were major.  So now, the infractions aren't as many, and they aren't anything close to major.  But still, when you are looking at a color coded chart for the week that should be a sea of green, and you're seeing splashes of red and yellow all over it, it seems like a bad week.  I guess the reality was that we had made major improvements, and then we got stuck.  And I was tired of being stuck.

So Ms. M and I had a nice little email exchange, she had some conversations with Henry, and then I had some conversations with Henry.  Serious conversations.  Clear expectations.  Threats that he knew I would follow through on.  As a result, I missed going to my super bowl party and ended up watching most of the game by myself after he went to bed.  He was disappointed, but he got the point.  I was irritated that I lost my privilege of going to the party because of his behavior, and he got that point, too.

So before the next week started, he asked me:  "Mom, what would happen if I stayed green the whole week?"  Since that had never happened, I wasn't really thinking it was something that could be a reality.  So I responded:  "We'll have a party like you wouldn't believe!"  He knew that if he could pull it off, he'd also be a shoo-in for Braggin Dragon.

Monday:  All green...happy child, happy mama!
Tuesday:  All green...happy child, happy mama!
Wednesday:  All green...thrilled child, thrilled mama!
Thursday:  All green...proud child, worried mama (how was I going to plan the "Party That You Wouldn't Believe!")
Friday:  All green...Braggin Dragon child, ecstatic mama.  And special thanks to Leslie who found out that the Aeros hockey team was playing at home and offering special pricing for mid-field seating 9 rows behind the penalty box...instant "Party That You Wouldn't Believe!"

We rocked it and pumped it about how special it was to have that kind of week; how proud he should be of the effort he put into his behavior for the week; how much we knew that he had worked hard to achieve this goal.  If it provided positive reinforcement, then it happened.

One of the things about being the Braggin Dragon is that you get to bring in a poster all about you.  Since this wasn't necessarily meant to be an educational experience, I didn't feel guilty doing most of the work on this one myself.  I did let him select which pictures, help with the layout, and dictate the text that went with each photo.  It will hang outside his classroom all week.  Also, classroom time was dedicated to him explaining to his classmates what was on the poster.

Another part of the honors is to actually get to bring Braggin Dragon home for the weekend.  The kids are encouraged to interact with it during this time, and then are requested to provide an entry in the Braggin Dragon's journal about the time that they spent together.

Finally, there are some class room privileges that come with it as well.  Mainly, Braggin Dragon gets to sit on Henry's desk all week, and Henry gets to be the line leader and a few other things.

I was worried that his behavior last week was a flash in the pan.  However, this week is shaping up to go down as another great week.  We had one issue yesterday, but really, it was typical boy stuff and not really the behavior we have been so focused on.  However, one of my threats did include the condition that any further reds and yellows on his behavior chart would incur 5 "extra" chores each.  Since we had a yellow, I felt like it was my duty to consistent parenting and following through on my "threats" to actually assign them.

First, he actually reminded me that he needed to be assigned the 5 extra chores.  Then, as I announced the chores, he actually cheered.  And finally, went about happily singing while he dutifully accomplished all that was assigned.  Makes me wonder how effective that was as a form of discipline, but I'll stick with it for now.

And, our final news from last night, he officially lost one of his top teeth.  It has been loose...really loose, for several weeks now.  But it just wasn't ready.  Then he looked at me last night and moved it totally sideways with his tongue.  I decided it was time.  I reached in, gave it a tug and it was gone.  Henry wasn't too sure about it, but it was over before he had time to think about it and the look of surprise and relief on his face was priceless...wish I could have captured it with my camera.  Instead, here is a picture of his new smile:

I did it myself...

So this morning was a big milestone for us.

As I've posted before, we have a pretty standard routine that we follow every morning before school. We end up heading downstairs for breakfast at about the same time every day. But today, for the first time, our schedule was a bit off.

First, I didn't want to get up myself, so was a few minutes late rousing the boy (somehow his alarm clock accidentally got turned off this week and I keep forgetting to turn it back on). Then, when I went to get him, he also didn't want to get up. After a little cajoling, he got up and climbed in the shower.

This just seemed to set our whole upstairs routine off by a few minutes. When it was time to head downstairs, I remembered that there was something on the computer that I needed to email to myself for access on my work computer. Of course, the computer was acting up and needed to be rebooted. So I sent Henry off in search of his shoes downstairs.

After a few minutes of messing with the computer, I realized how far behind schedule we were, so I called down to Henry to make sue he was picking his breakfast so he could eat as soon as I got down. He called back, "I already did it myself." Hmmm, curious.

When I arrived downstairs a minute later, I found that he had

• Gotten a bowl from the upper cabinets and a spoon from the silverware drawer
  
• Picked a pack of oatmeal and emptied it into the bowl
• Got the measuring cup (from another upper cabinet or dish drainer -- not sure which)
• Measured out 2/3 cup of milk and added it to his oatmeal
• Put the oatmeal in the microwave and set it to cook for 2 minutes
• Put the milk away
• Threw away the wrappers from the oatmeal packet

So there was the perfectly cooked oatmeal in the microwave, just waiting for me to lift the hot bowl out and add the frozen blueberries. I had no idea he could do all of that on his own. And he didn't make a mess and he cleaned up after himself. Wow, I must be doing something right!

CA Recap from Last Weekend

Below is a photo recap of our CA program last weekend. It was a wonderful weekend and we had fun visiting with our friends. The program was very upbuilding with excellent reminders. The speakers all did a fabulous job. Our DO announced that they had been called away from their assignment and would be receiving a new assignment in the Education arena. He will be missed.

Here is Henry and Nana posing before the program on Saturday.


And here is Henry posing with Papa.


I snapped this because they both seemed to be enjoying themselves so much. Turns out Henry had talked Nana into telling him the story "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie"


I take this picture every year as a point of comparison.


Here is the same picture taken during his first CA. It was March 2005.


Me and my baby!


Henry and Papa looking up scriptures. (The DO is in the background.)


Henry had a friend sit with him for the first time. Then he sat with another friend for the afternoon session.


Henry and his friends feeding the fish in the pond on the assembly hall grounds.

Henry enjoyed volunteering to help with our cleaning assignment during this assembly as well. Both days, we were assigned to help clean the dining room after lunch. Henry loved being in charge of the squirt bottle and several of the friends had him spraying the tables. He was also most excellent at putting the right number of chairs back at each of the tables after the vacuuming was complete. At the end of the program on Sunday, we were assigned to clean the water fountains. Henry really enjoyed this assignment, as well, as it also involved being in charge of the squirt bottle.

We also remembered to bring his wallet on Sunday and he extracted a sum of his choosing to place in the contribution box. I was quite proud of his willingness and generosity.

And each night after the program, we enjoyed a wonderful dinner with our friends. It was a perfect weekend, all the way around.

Friday Flashback

Today is November 20, a day that is etched in my memory. It was a day of comfort of finally being at home and being a mommy. I felt like my new life could finally begin.

We had along journey from Vladivostok back to Russia and I don't have a lot of pictures to document it. Here are a few, though.

Here we are with the wonderful Irina at the airport in Vlad, before checking in for the first of 3 flights that would take us home.


Here is Henry and Nana peeking out the window before we took off on our first flight.


And here is Henry sleeping on the seat between me and Nana on the longest leg of our journey, the segment between Seoul and San Francisco.

Overall, Henry was a trooper on the flights. For the first segment (about 2 hours long), he fell asleep and they had a little bassinet that hooked to the wall in the bulkhead seat. However, being untrained as I was, I accidentally bumped his head while putting him in there (already asleep). This woke him up and that was the end of him being in the bassinet or sleeping for the rest of that segment.

For some reason, we had very little time between our connection in Seoul. We had to go through Security again, and we were concerned that we would miss our next flight. So we were pretty much running from the time we got off the first airplane until we finally sat down on the next. Henry was starving and I remember him gnawing on his Robeez shoes while he rode along in his stroller.

As soon as we got settled on the flight between Seoul and San Francisco, I asked the flight attendant to fill his bottle with warm water so he could eat. He gobbled that bottle down as if he hadn't eaten for days. I think he ate it so quickly, that a few minutes later, he vomited it all up...all over him and all over me! Fortunately, I was prepared with a few changes of outfits for him...not so much for me. However, I was wearing layers, so I removed my top layer and was in pretty good shape.

He slept off an on during that long flight. I don't remember exactly how long that flight lasted, but it was an overnight flight. However, we passed over the international date line coming home, so we arrived on the same evening that we left...even though the trip exceeded 24 hours.

As we landed in San Francisco and went through customs, Henry officially became a US Citizen. Unfortunately, the US Government doesn't allow cameras/picture-taking in that part of the airport, so I have nothing to share with you. San Francisco is where we parted paths with Nana. After customs, she went one direction for her flight to Chicago, and we went another for our flight to Houston. Henry and I freshened up a bit, ate a bagel and waited for that final leg that would take us HOME.

I don't remember much about that last flight. I don't think Henry slept, but he was quiet and content on my lap playing with the few toys and books that I had packed for him. When we arrived at the airport in Houston, Leslie was there waiting for us. Again, the details are a bit fuzzy, but it seems like it was late on a Saturday night. By this time, Henry was DONE. I buckled him into the car seat, which was a whole new experience for him and he was cranky the whole way home. The only thing that seemed to sooth him was for me to hum the theme to Batman. If I stopped, he started crying. So all of the way home, I hummed "na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na BATMAN" over and over and over. Whatever it took.

Based on the recommendation of my pediatrician, and with the help of my wonderful best friend, Leslie, we had an open house the following day. Now, you may ask why it was recommended by my pediatrician. In fact, I had decided that we would "nest" when we arrived home to allow us both to bond to each other and to allow ourselves to begin settling into a routine of becoming a family. I wanted to limit external stimulation and allow Henry and I to merely focus on each other. However, I had a bunch of close friends that were just so excited to meet my new son that I couldn't put them off. So we decided to go with the "big bang approach" and let them all meet immediately. Then, we could settle down and focus on bonding and attaching.

Again, I don't have a lot of pictures from that evening as we were all just enjoying each others' company. And I can't say enough how nice and comforting it was just to be home. Here are a few:

And Henry seemed to instantly bond with Hailey!

That rest of November continued to be a steady stream of firsts, documented below with some of the pictures I have:

Wearing a "hand-me-down" outfit from his cousin, playing with some of his new toys.

Taking his first bath at home...he wasn't a fan of baths when he first arrived home, now I can't get him out of the shower!


His first piano recital!


Hanging out in his high chair while I prepared the next meal.


Attending his first book-study, back when we met in people's homes.


Being sized for his first pair of "good shoes".


Attending his first meeting at the Kingdom Hall.


Playing in his first box...favorite toy. Having a kid around 24/7 was new for Dolly, too. She's not quite sure what to think.


Having his first doctor's appointment with the wonderful Dr. Singhal (adoptive mother herself and featured on Discovery's Adoption Stories)


And all tuckered out after that doctor's visit, that involved drawing several vials of blood for all kinds of testing.

Reviewing these pictures to put together this blog post brought back all kinds of memories and reminded me of things I had totally forgotten about.

What I haven't forgotten is how grateful I feel to get to be Henry's parent! Prospective Adoptive Parents go into the journey called adoption, not knowing what they are going to come out with on the other side. For me, I can honestly say I have no regrets. My journey to Henry is THE best thing I've done in my life. He has become my heart and soul. And as we celebrate 5 years of being HOME, I wouldn't change a thing. That boy is my life!

Wordless Wednesday

The Perfect Weekend

Fall has finally arrived here in Southeast Texas. That means the weather has finally cooled off to the point that long sleeves can be worn. And we enjoyed that to the full for our fun, autumn weekend.

On Saturday, we had matinee tickets to see Mary Poppins. We had been looking forward to this for quite some time and decided to make a day of it. So, after a bit of a lazy morning, we headed off for a late breakfast/lunch that we enjoyed at Mama's Cafe. Before heading out, we had a mini photo shoot in the yard:

After breakfast, we decided to spend a few minutes at what Houstonians call the Water Wall. It may have a more formal name, I'm not sure. But I'd never taken Henry before I thought he would get a kick out of it. And he did:

As it's name indicates, it is a wall with water cascading down the side. We got a bit wet standing there watching it. But it is a bit mesmerizing. It also gave Henry a chance to run around a bit and burn off some energy before being required to sit still at the play.

Here is Henry looking adorable before the show:

He loved the play and reported his favorite part was when everything fell apart in the kitchen. His second favorite part was where Mary Poppins flew across the stage (which she did a total of 3 times). My favorite scene was the tap dancing, especially when Bert tap danced across the ceiling.

After the play ended, we ran a few errands and ended up in the part of town where the sole Macaroni Grill in the Houston area is still open. We decided to dine there and experienced another great meal.

On Sunday, we found ourselves a bit discombobulated from the time change. This seemed to give us a nice stretch of time in the middle of the afternoon without anything else to do. Henry decided he wanted to ride his bike since he has the goal of removing the training wheels. After riding for a bit, I realized that there was very little time where one of the trainings wheels was actually touching the ground. So I decided there was no time like the present and off they went.

We had a few falls and many, many tears. But in the end, he mastered balancing the bike quite well. Now, steering it is another matter all together and the topic of our next bike-riding lesson.


Here we are having a bit of pep talk...

And here is proof of him riding on his own!

First Grade - First Day of School

Monday was Henry's first day of first grade. He is going to public school this year, which to me is a very big difference from his days at the small Montessori he had attended from 18 months - kindergarten.

I tried talking to him about this all summer long to keep an open dialog and make sure that he felt comfortable expressing any nervousness or anxiety he might feel. I knew I had nervousness and anxiety about the change, so I totally anticipated that he would, too. Usually, when I brought it up, he would respond and quickly change the subject. Not in a way that indicated he didn't want to talk about it, but in a way that indicated he didn't think it was a very interesting topic: Yeah, I'm going to a new school at the end of summer. Big deal! Let's talk about something that applies to me NOW!

I had taken him with me when I registered in June. I was hoping we'd have some freedom to roam the halls and start acclimating ourselves to this new environment. But there were activities going on in some of the classrooms so we weren't allowed to. We were told that we could attend the Kindergarten open house in August, but were also told that it really was geared towards the kindergartners and that we probably wouldn't get much useful information by attending. I called a few days before that open house, and was again told that it wouldn't be appropriate for him to attend, but that another open house was being held for the rest of the students.

Sure enough, we got a post card a few days later inviting us to attend the open house to meet the teachers. The classroom assignments were posted by the school entrance on Friday, August 21. I swung by there and noted Henry's teacher's name. Not that it meant anything to me as I knew absolutely nothing about any of the teachers at this school and really didn't know anyone who had attended that I could pump for info. But at least we had a name and I could work with Henry on learning that new name.

The meet and greet was on Thursday, August 20th. After Henry got home from his field trip to the Kemah Boardwalk, we raced up to the school...both of us anxious to meet this new person that would have such an influence on Henry for the next 9 months. She seemed nice. With it being an open house, there wasn't much of an opportunity for one-on-one conversation. However, I did get the opportunity to share with her a letter I had written and a brochure explaining the impact of Henry being one of Jehovah's Witnesses would have on his life in the classroom. She is entering her 5th year as a teacher and has not had a JW in her classroom yet. She seemed to appreciate the information that I shared and said that she would reach out to me with any additional questions she had after reading the materials I left her and as we approached the holiday season. I felt pretty good about how that went.

After checking out the classroom a bit, we decided to explore the rest of the school. We met the Librarian in the hallway and Henry inquired as to how many books were in her library. I think he was appropriately impressed when she announced that there were about 14,000 books.

Then, it was off to the cafeteria to take care of a few other essentials, like ordering him his school spirit shirt. I must say I was extremely disappointed in the school's choice of theme this year. The spirit shirts are camouflage. To me, camouflage represents military and war. I really don't want to see my 6 year old wearing something that represents war. When the time is right, I will express my feelings to the principal. Against my better judgment, I did purchase a shirt for Henry. We'll see if I can actually let him wear it when spirit day rolls around.

We were also able to set up his cafeteria account. I intend to continue packing Henry's lunches, but thought he might want to add a milk or occasionally eat the cafeteria fare. Interesting to find out that the way it all works is that the student has to key in their student ID into a keypad to pay for his cafeteria lunches. Wow, I wonder how long it will take for Henry to memorize his 6 digit ID number for occasional uses in the cafeteria?

Next, we signed up for the placard we needed to hang from the rearview mirror for pick-ups. I must say, that have this down to a science, but this is another 3 digit number Henry needs to remember for their after-school pick-up process.

Okay...whew, I think we are all set for the first day. We've met the teacher. We're signed up for the cafeteria and pick-up line. We've gone clothes shopping and school supply shopping and got all of the noted prerequisites. We've labeled everything with Henry's name or initials. We even special-ordered the pencils with Henry's name printed on them. We've got the new backpack and lunchbox, complete with embroidered initials straight from the Land's End website.

On Sunday evening, we spent a fun afternoon at Chuck E. Cheese (see yesterday's post) celebrating the end of summer and start of school. But the rest of the day was very low-key. I also wanted to make sure that he got into bed at his normal bedtime since he would be waking much earlier the next day. Nana stopped by and read him "The Night Before First Grade".

I must say, when Henry's alarm went off at 6:30, he wasn't too happy. He felt like he had been awakened in the middle of the night (like when we go on vacation to Chicago). But it didn't take long for the excitement of the day to take over.

We had picked the outfit the night before, so he quickly got himself dressed and headed off to the bathroom to brush his teeth and hair. I had a surprise waiting for him in there.

It was a special note written on the mirror with the new Crayola window markers. He really enjoyed it. I tried to line the heart up to where I thought his head would be looking in the mirror. As a matter of fact, he wanted to leave this on the mirror and have me update it each day with whatever day of school it is. So, there I was last night, erasing the "1st" and replacing it with "2nd".

After we got downstairs, Leslie's mom called to wish him a good first day. Here he is chatting with her:

After breakfast and lunch packing, we headed outside for the photo shoot. Here are a couple of poses before we left for school. Notice the shirt change. Yep, he spilled his breakfast on the first orange shirt we had put on him. I couldn't send him to school (or take first day pictures) looking like that. Fortunately, he had another orange shirt in his wardrobe.

Then we went and picked up Papa. I anticipated that traffic around the school was going to be hectic. So the plan was for Papa to drop Henry and I off and then go somewhere nearby and hang out until I was ready. It worked pretty well and allowed me to walk in with Henry without getting all hot and sweaty.

All the first graders (all 9 classes of them) lined up in the hallway in the First Grade Pod. About 15 minutes before school was scheduled to start, one of the teachers told the parents to kiss their kids good-bye because they were heading off to the classrooms now. I asked his teacher if I had to leave or could I go to the classroom. She said it would be fine if I went to the classroom with them. Henry's classroom is actually in the 2nd grade pod. I hung out for about 15 more minutes and watched as the teacher patiently helped the kids unpack all of their school supplies and get their lunchboxes and backpacks organized. It truly reinforced for me how special teachers really are.

When I picked Henry up yesterday, he announced that he'd been chosen for a special assignment to move the lunchboxes to the cafeteria. Interestingly, he also forgot to bring home his own lunchbox. He later shared that the teacher had warned him that if he continued to talk in the hallway, he was going to lose his job. Yep, that's my boy!

He was quite upset to find that many of the school supplies that we had meticulously picked out ended up as community property in the classroom. "But mom, they're going to write in my notebook. What if they just scribble scrabble?" The funniest part of this was "They're even going to share my sanitizer!"...oh the inhumanity of it. We finally had to leave the subject alone because he really was upset about it, even to the point of tears.

Henry was truly exhausted last night and took himself upstairs for his bedtime routine a full 30 minutes before I would have required it. He decided to take a bubble bath last night (he usually opts for showers) and I think it was a good choice to help calm him for good nights rest.

One of his "homework" assignments is for him and I to read together for 15 minutes each day. This is not a problem for us as it has always been part of our routine. But he is much more aware now and wants to make sure that he gets his full 15 minutes. And the reading we do must be logged on his homework sheet each night and returned to school the next day. So we each picked a book and climbed into bed. In the end, Henry got to bed 30 minutes earlier than his normal bedtime and woke in a great frame of mind this morning.

Since he left his lunchbox at school, we decided he should eat the cafeteria food today. Nana read him the menu and he selected the option that included the broccoli spears and fresh fruit salad (of course). Maybe I cheated, but I wrote his 6-digit number on a piece of paper and tucked it in his pocket to help him when it came time to "pay" for his lunch.

Before we left, he indicated that he didn't want me to walk him in today. He wanted to go in by himself. He assured me that he knew exactly where he needed to go. I was disappointed, but game to let him exert his independence. However, when we got close to the school, he started wavering about being so sure that he knew where to go. I also spied an open parking space right in front of the school. So I decided to park and walk in with him afterall. He wasn't too happy about this, but announced happily "I know. I'll just walk ahead of you and pretend you're not there." Ouch! In the end, he didn't mind that I walked in with him and even graced me with a good-bye kiss without me having to ask.

Oy, why do they have to grow up so fast?