Random Picture Post!

The "Pete the Cat" series of books is worth more than gold in this house!!! I have to read all the Pete books every day, multiple times a day. I don't mind though, because I get lots of snuggles :) 

Mila knows the books by heart and fills in words when I pause! 

Taking a smooch break :) 

I love that Mila kisses with her tongue out...I hope she never kisses the "right" way, these ones are priceless...but poor Sofia here HAHA! Sofia DID take her binky out to receive the kiss though :) 

Oh Mila and those legs! 

Sofia snuggles! 

Uncle Mike and Aunt Carol went away and brought back this shirt for Mila! The story goes like this....

The first time Uncle Mike babysat Mila I told him if she gets upset just to sing to her. I told him that "Jesus Loves Me" was her favorite. He said he didn't know the words to that one so well, so instead he started singing her "Margaritaville" by Jimmy Buffet. It quickly became her new favorite song so every time Uncle Mike sees Mila, he sings her the song and she absolutely loves it! It's their little "thing." :) Thus, the shirt! Clearly she loves it, right??? 

Zoya loves listening to music on the iPod! 

We moved this chair from Mila's room into the living room. I used it to rock all three of the girls when they were younger....Sofia loves it and it sure has a lot of memories for me :)

This child is W.I.L.D. and exhausts me beyond belief nearly every single day! Good thing I love her  so much!!!!!!! ;)

Oh Zoya girl! I can't believe she will be SIX YEARS OLD in just over a month!! :( 

The 2 little ladies love "pillow diving." Now that Mila is more confident with her gross motor skills, she absolutely can't get enough of this game! 

Pure joy!!!! 

She throws her head back, closes her eyes and squeals right before she dives! 

And this picture cracks me up....an optical illusion that makes her look like she has no legs and is floating! 

Sofia INSISTS on pulling her pant legs up, usually above her knee....This started a few weeks ago and I can't figure it out for the life of me! She can't stand having her pants the "right" way anymore! Probably a sensory issue! I look at this picture and I can HEAR her through the picture :)

Zoya really loves playing with her babies and changing them, dressing them, undressing them, and repeat! She is so gentle and sweet with her baby dolls, I just love watching her! Lately I've been finding baby dolls and animals all around the house covered with blankets "asleep." After she's in bed for the night I almost always find at least one doll "sleeping" somewhere and it always makes me smile! 

These two were REALLY quiet so I went to check on them and found this! Sofia is "sleeping" on the trampoline, Zoya covered her up and is reading her a story!!!! <3 p="">

Zoya is in a Montessori class and one of the ideas behind this method is to follow the child's learning...don't push teaching of things they're not yet interested in and just follow them and take cues from them. I think this is the best thing I've learned from the Montessori method. We hadn't pushed Zoya writing much, but worked on fine motor strengthening in so many other ways. We did teach her to write her name for functional reasons, but beyond that she wasn't too interested in writing until recently. A couple weeks ago she got out her beloved Magna Doodle and wrote her teacher's name, brought it to me and said LOOK MOM! (and she said her teacher's name). I couldn't believe it! When I asked her teacher she said they'd been working on writing Zoya's full name and the teacher's name and clearly she was ready to roll with the whole writing thing! Since then every day she has wanted to write letters and words and asks me to help her! She can do all the letters with straight lines and some with curved lines. She asks me how to write lots of things and if I spell them for her she can write so many words!!! I had a "teacher idea" and set up this little "writing workshop" for her. She loved it! It's hard to see, but I wrote each name on an index card and put it next to each family member's picture. Then on the cards to the right she wrote the names. 

She did all the names/letters except for "S" for Sofia. I was amazed by her motivation and desire to WRITE! 

Oh these two girls....I'm thinking preschool can wait another year ;) 

Gearing Up for School!

Zoya will start her second year of preschool next week. She will be in a whole new program and classroom. We are very excited and hopeful about what Zoya will accomplish this year! She will be in a Montessori Classroom with 18 children from preschool through kindergarten age. Zoya will be eligible for one more year of preschool after this school year, or we could decide to send her to Kindergarten after this year (but I'm leaning toward keeping her in preschool longer just because it feels safer LOL).

We had Open House today and got to visit her classroom and meet her classmates. She did really great and had fun! I especially enjoyed the teacher's "no cupcake" speech :) I think she will be a fabulous fit for Zoya because she runs a tight ship and LOVES her job! She sees Zoya's potential already and values her for HER. It makes my heart so happy to know Zoya will be spending each morning with such a nurturing, caring teacher with high expectations who sees the value in each of her students! That combination is difficult to come by!

Here is our "little big girl" before leaving for Open House. She got almost 5 inches cut off her hair yesterday and I must say she looks so stinkin' adorable with her new do! She looks like such a big girl!!! Today as I watched Zoya in her classroom I was so thankful for this educational opportunity for her. I flashed back to our days visiting her at the orphanage and thought to myself how far she has come and how blessed we are to have access to such a great education for our sweet girl! I'll be praying for a super week for Zoya and her classmates as she embarks on this new journey on Monday!

Zoya's IEP

Last week we had Zoya's annual IEP. For anyone reading who doesn't know what that is, it means Individualized Education Plan, which all students with special needs are entitled to. Zoya is completing her first year of preschool in a typical preschool classroom. Although she's in a typical preschool classroom, her team has done a fabulous job making any needed accommodations for Zoya. She has learned so much this year, has really taken off in her speech, and is doing a better job controlling her impulses and learning all about what personal space means :) She has learned to listen to people other than her parents, and follows directions fairly well most of the time. She knows all her letters (upper and lowercase), numbers 1-10, shapes, and colors.  She can spell her name and knows her first and last name.  She absolutely LOVES school. She has a favorite friend (who happens to be a boy) and talks about her teachers all the time. She will often ask "school today?" and if we respond with "No, not today, tomorrow" she is a little disappointed! She goes MWF 9-12, and recently we've started having her go 9-1. She started the year going 9-:11:20 (and left right before the class ate lunch with the big kids in the cafeteria....we didn't think she was ready for this until after Christmas...but seeing how well she did with the transition, maybe she was ready and it was US who weren't ready!)

When I look back to Zoya starting preschool almost a year ago, I seriously cannot believe how far she has come! Last summer, we started with Zoya going to the program just 1 day a week to slowly ease her in. If there's anything we know about Zoya, it's that she needs changes to happen slowly :) You can read about her first day HERE. We were off to a good start but by the 2nd week we ran into some separation anxiety. You can read about those troubles HERE. Looking back on those posts, it is clear to me that Zoya is a much more confident child today than she was when she started preschool. Her anxiety has greatly decreased and her independence is blooming! I look back to that scared child who held my legs and cried when I left her at school, almost in disbelief! Now she gets so excited for school, practically jumps in the car and out when we get to school and hits the ground running. Some days I have to remind her to give me a hug/kiss goodbye because she gets so excited when she gets to her classroom! Zoya still has her needy moments, don't get me wrong, but she is a completely different child today than she was a year ago!

So if it all went so great this year, why would we want to change her placement? We've had our eyes on the Montessori program since we started discussing options for Zoya. There are some things about a Montessori approach that will be absolutely fabulous for Zoya, and others that make us wonder if she will do well with this approach or not. You can read more about the pros and cons for Montessori for kiddos with special needs HERE. Most everything at that link sums up why we think Montessori would be good for Zoya. If it worked out for Zoya, she could potentially spend the next 3 years in the same classroom, and we love that thought! We also love the idea of Montessori because our ultimate goal for Zoya (besides being happy) is to be as independent as possible and Montessori really fosters independence. Shawn and I both had the opportunity to visit the classroom and take Zoya for visits to see how she did in that program. We were blown away by what we saw. I'm a teacher, and I can say that the way this room ran simply blew me away! We were pleasantly surprised with how well Zoya did too. Now, obviously, we know that if this program doesn't seem to mesh with Zoya after several months, then we can always go back to what we know has worked, in a typical preschool classroom. But we both just feel that this is a fabulous opportunity for Zoya and if we don't try then we'll never know :)

So most of Zoya's IEP was spent discussing this transition, along with all of her amazing accomplishments this year, and of course writing goals for next school year!

As Zoya's fourth birthday approaches, my heart feels pulled in two directions....celebrating all our little girl has accomplished in the two short years she's been home with us, but then also recongnizing the fact that for sure, had she not come home with us, she'd be facing transfer within the month, to an adult mental institution. How do I know this? Because her baby home is closing, so even if she was one of the lucky kids who could stay at her orphanage until 5 years old, that would not be the case for Zoya with the closing of her orphanage. As I sat at her IEP meeting I thanked God for all the opportunities he has provided Zoya with, knowing all along, how different it could have turned out for her (and us). We are so grateful God led us to our sweet girl. Big things are ahead for Zoya!