Open House

I had to go to Mary Alice's open house last night and meet her teachers. Eric was out of town, so Matthew and Mary Alice watched Megan for me (for the first time without me in the house) and put her to bed. Successfully!! She was sound asleep when I came home at 8:30pm. What a pleasant feeling to know that they could handle this and (it appeared to me) enjoy their time with her (without bickering)! Here are some some pictures they took of their fun.

It was just about now when Megan said "Pee Pee!!"

Mary Alice's teachers are all enthusiastic, creative and dedicated. She has a wonderful team and is going to really enjoy her year in 5th grade. She is off to a really great start with locker management, using her agenda, practicing her trumpet and getting all her work done independently. I am so proud of her.

This is a picture of Megan holding one of the babies at out church. Eric and I volunteer in the nursery a few times a month. She absolutely loved holding Hayden (he was very accommodating).

Some of the children cried when their mom's left them and later Megan imitated them and it was very funny. Here is a video of her doing that.





and here are some more silly things that we are doing. I especially like the way that Eric is in the background of the second video, telling Megan to stop throwing the food she doesn't want on her plate. If she finds something that she doesn't like, she will NOT keep it and tries repeatedly to hand it to someone. We usually have to give her a "discard plate" to use.....

So here is "Singing Hot Sauce":




And "Singing Sour Cream".

More Busy Times in September

Here are some new photos of Megan's teachers. This is Miss Therese, her Special Education Teacher, who comes into her preschool classroom to work with her 2x a week to help her with academic readiness and language.



This is Miss Lori Ann, her Physical Therapist, who comes to the house once a week and to her school once a week. They work on things like climbing stairs, jumping backwards, throwing, kicking and catching.

This is Miss Mona, her Occupational Therapist. She works with Megan at her school on pre-writing skills, matching, and visual skills.

Megan loves all of these wonderful women and gets so excited when I tell her which day it is. They are all working with her on expressing her needs and wants through language and signing. They are telling me that they see progress with her each day. We do too, as she is always "explaining" things to use, accenting with her signs. She consistently uses so many signs now, it's much easier to understand her speech, which makes communication so much less frustrating.

We took a big step backwards with toileting though, as she started having numerous accidents (not making it to the potty in time), which freaked out Mary Alice, and set in motion a big power struggle such that Megan would refuse to go when she obviously had to. I finally (with the advice of her pediatrician) put her back into Pull-ups and stopped paying any attention to it other than a quick question here and there throughout the day. I forbid Mary Alice to get involved and told her to ignore the whole issue. That has helped a bit, and the accidents have decreased significantly, although I think it will be several weeks or more before we can reliably go back to her wearing underwear.

For the past 3 weeks I have given temporary foster care to this adorable kitten as a favor to my nephew who asked for my help. She was pretty sick with fleas, ear mites and tapeworms, and she required quite a bit of maintenance and an expensive trip to the vet. She was very sweet and appreciative though. I wish I could have kept her, but we already have two cats and our alpha let us know very clearly that there was no more room in our house for her!! I really can't afford three cats anyway, (time or money) so it was not a possibility. We were able to take her to the SPCA this weekend and were told that she would very likely be adopted quickly. I hope so. She is a very deserving soul.

Megan took this silly picture of Matthew.

Megan and Mary Alice had a great time with shaving cream. There is a really cute video below the picture to really see the fun.

This weekend we went to a block party, and it rained the whole time. It did not stop Megan from having fun though, she played around for hours, riding her bike (and all the other tricycles she could find), up and down the street.

Back to School and a Lost Tooth

Hooray, it's the first day! We celebrated with our annual cupcakes with the neighbors after dinner.

Best Friends

At the Bus Stop

Today was Megan's first day of Speech. Here she is doing "colors" with Miss Dana!

And while shopping at Michael's Crafts today, Megan lost her tooth! (when we picked her up in China she was missing one of her front teeth and the other was a little wiggly. She must have fallen at some point and been unable to protect her face.) It will take years for the new ones to come in, but I think she looks very cute. The tooth fairy will bring her a present tonight and she is very excited about it.

Busy Few Weeks

We went camping last month and it took me several weeks to regroup (put things away and prepare for school starting)! Finally, I have time to post a few photos. We had a great time. Here are Matthew and Mary Alice preparing brownies for our trip. Amazing that we actually had any to eat! They were very delicious.

The van was stuffed to the maximum, but we all fit in.

Fun in our site. The weather was wonderful the whole time.

Mary Alice is racing to get out of the picture before I can take it!!!

Megan fits right in.

Grandma & Grandpa (and Whisper) went too. We go camping with them each year and we love it. They had their own site "next door". Thanks so much to Grandma, who planned all the dinners with Mary Alice. I felt quite overwhelmed this year, packing and watching Megan, so without her help I don't see how it would have been possible.

We have a "3 room" tent. It works out great. Especially with no rain and close to the "flushers".

Lunch on the trail.

Fun at the Beach (still camping).

Mr. Sandman

Daddy and Megan kayaking.

And Matthew catching crayfish. He and Grandpa got in quite a bit of fishing time this trip, too.

Today we went to the Zoo. Megan enjoyed it, but it was very hot... Here are a few highlights.







and finally, a new picture of Fia, Megan's "sister" from Chaoyang, who was in our travel group and adopted at the same time as she was. She's sporting her first Pigtails, a very notable occasion. As does Megan, Sofia looks so vibrant and healthy. She is doing great.


School starts Wednesday for us all. Matthew and Mary Alice are off to 8th and 5th grades and are both in the same Middle school now.

Megan's services start on Wednesday at home and she begins her preschool with all the services before and after, on Thursday. It's going to be a very busy first few weeks. I will be back to work with some organizing clients as well. Hopefully, we will have a smooth start!