Quick Update

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Our everyday life has been quite busy lately. I’m so tired! I think a massage would do wonders for me right about now! I’m not sure I can convince Jon of my need for it though 🙂 
1. My kids are crazy, adorable, loud, squishy, difficult, funny, insane, weirdos! And I mean that in the most sleep deprived, in love way I can 🙂
2. Sofie is starting to talk! It is rather sporadic and a little muffled but she is saying Mama and Dada, Up, Ney (Bulgarian No), Hi, Bye-Bye, Baby, and she even said Hello once! She is also learning Sign faster than we can teach her. She says more, all done, mommy, sorry, thank you, dance, food, drink, and understands even more of them!
3. Livi is talking our ears off. She literally only stops when we make tell her too and it usually doesn’t last long! I love hearing all her stories and how she processes things. Her memory is outstanding. She remembers places and things that happened last year! She finds things that I’ve misplaced all the time. 
4. I think we have decided what we would like to do for preschool. We are going to try and put Livi in the community, play to learn school that is just around the corner from us in January. It is the easier choice. We are hoping to qualify for subsidy in September to put both girls in the Montessori preschool in September. If not, I hope we really like the school around the corner because both girls in at the same time is going to be a big chunk out of our monthly budget! Even at the cheaper preschool! Both girls will then go to kindergarten together, but in separate classes. I am still waiting to connect with the school board lady to get confirmation that I can have Sofie repeat Kindergarten. I will fight for that decision. 
5. We celebrated my grandfathers life on Wednesday. It was a really nice service. My sisters sang “Thank-you” (for giving to the Lord. I was a life that was changed). I forget who it was by. Beautiful song and so true for me, personally. I will miss my grandpa so much.

6. Friday was my sisters’ 25th birthdays. We went for dinner and back to Vanessa’s place for some cupcakes that I made and drinks. It was a lot of fun! It was the first time we’d left the girls since bringing Sofie home. Jon skipped the dinner to put Sofie to bed so she wouldn’t realize that we weren’t there. We failed to realize that this was also the first time we were leaving Livi since being gone to Bulgaria for two weeks. She had a total meltdown before Jon left. I felt so bad. She was completely settled down before he left though. Marmee, who was babysitting, let her watch the Wiggles way past her bed time 🙂
 

 
7. Livi has awesome morning hair….

8. Sofie had been sleeping late one afternoon so we went in to check on her. We found her laying on her quilt, naked, with her shirt, sleep sack and poopy diaper thrown out of her crib in to the middle of the floor. Awesome. 
9. We’ve had to do more than baby proof our house. We have Sofie proofed it. Because of things like this…
Thanks Sofie. I needed something to clean. 

10. Livi is quite the artist. She loves drawing us pictures and writing her name. These are some examples of her most recent smiley faces, with her name underneath… although she mixed up two of the letters. Jon was in the washroom and wouldn’t let her in so she was waiting for him and trying to keep herself busy 🙂

11. Christmas is coming! I have no idea how we are going to manage a tree with Sofie around to tear it apart 🙂 We’ll figure it out though! I’ve already ordered the main present for Livi… we got her the kids digital camera from Fisher Price (we got a good price on Amazon). I’m pretty sure she is going to love it. My phone is filled with pictures that she takes of everyone. She also said that she wants Santa to bring her  a new flashlight. Her Princess flashlight she got last year no longer works. So basically, she is done! Now I have to figure out what to get for Sofie…

Halloween 2011

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Halloween was a lot of fun this year. It seemed extra busy with the two little ones though. We did get to do all the regular Halloween stuff!

Livi and Jon scooped out the guts!
Mommy and Livi did the carving.
Livi and her Princess Pumpkin!
Sunday evening Jon was involved in our Sunday church service so we went. He did a very moving history piece about how the church used to celebrate Halloween, All Saints Day, and The Day of the Dead. A memorial part was also include that was quite emotional for many people. The kids were allowed to wear their costumes to church so I got some really adorable pictures! 
Sofie was a lovely little ladybug! 
(The curse of being the second child is always getting the hand-me-downs!)

My two little bugs! I love them.
Flying little Bumble Bee!
Love bugs 🙂
Monday we took the girls trick-or-treating. They had SO much fun!!!! Sofie lasted about 20 minutes but LOVED every minute of it. It was a little too cold for her. She didn’t make it up to any doors but loved running free all over the road. There were no cars out. Livi was a trick-or-treating monster! She stayed out for nearly an hour and a half. I kept asking if she wanted to go home but she refused. She just wanted to trick-or-treat. Only one house scared so we skipped it. She got way to much candy. I threw out some and ate too much. We had a lot of fun. She loved seeing all the costumes and is still sad she didn’t get to say hello to the “Lego guy”.

Preschool Update

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I was never a huge fan of 3 year old preschool. I know there is good reason that many parents choose this and many three year old’s are very ready for preschool. I just think 3 is still so young! Livi is still so much my baby. She is so dependent on us still. We have been lucky enough to have never needed child care other than family. Now I’m considering sending her to school where she will be away from people who would literally die for her 6-12 hours a week! I didn’t think I was that over attached mom, but I TOTALLY am.

I know our family’s circumstances were a little different than some when Livi had just turned 3. We didn’t have a newborn, but another 3 year old, who we had just brought home a few weeks before Livi would have started preschool. Besides the fact that we felt she was too young, we didn’t want her feeling like we were sending her away because we got a new baby.

Now we are obviously considering putting Livi in preschool at 3 years old. I think, with the new understanding of how the funding all works for Sofie, we would prefer Livi to go to preschool before Sofie joins her. If that doesn’t work out, we’ll figure it out, but we would like Livi to feel like the big girl and go to school before Sofie joins her. So, the best option, as of this moment, seems to be to put Livi in preschool for the spring semester, starting in January or February, then having Sofie join her in September. Both of them would progress to Kindergarten together, in separate classes and Sofie would repeat Kindergarten. I talked with the Resource teacher of our catch-man area who referred me to the Principal of Student Services of the School Board of our district. I got through the first try and had a nice conversation. I explained my case and reasoning for wanting to have Sofie repeat Kindergarten and she seemed very receptive. She gave me the talk about why they don’t like to keep kids back but admitted that I have a rather unique case and she would “probably” side in my favor. She wanted a week to talk with some of her co-workers and think about it. I will need to get her decision in writing but it sounded very promising and positive! I was totally geared up for a fight!

Now comes the question of which preschool. I am, again, so lost. I’m sure I am over thinking this all but I feel like this is such an important decision! We have looked at three schools in our area, each with their pro’s and con’s. I think we might need your advice again.

1. The first school is the easiest choice. It is literally around the corner from our house and we would be able to walk there within 4 minutes each day. The preschool is community funded and utilizes the Play to Learn philosophy. The con’s against this school is it is very dimly decorated. They have chosen muted colors to not overstimulate the children. I don’t agree with this, especially for Sofie. No one has anything bad to say about this preschool but I haven’t heard anything great either. I also think Livi is academically above the ‘curriculum’ of this school. They don’t practice writing letters or numbers since they are totally play based.

2. The second school is kind of perfect. I have heard GREAT reviews about it from numerous people. It is a wonderful mix of play and academics. The biggest problem with it is that it is too far away. We would need a second car or have a way to guarantee transportation. This is, potentially, a huge problem for us and a big head ache. It is also a very sought after school that may be difficult to get in to. It would be easier to get both girls in next year if we put Livi in for January but there are currently, no guarantees.

3. The third school is also wonderful. It is just a little further than the first school but still within walking distance. When I went to visit the class room I saw the teacher signing to her students. I nearly started crying from happiness right there. It is a strict Montessori school, which means they concentrate on Practical Life, Sensory Academic Learning and Culture. They focus on values and teaching the kids to be good people while it is all COMPLETELY child-led learning. The con’s to this school is that they don’t have as much imaginative play as we would like, it is four days a week, and it is WAY more expensive than the other two schools. We can’t afford it.

Now, in my most ideal little scenario, we would be able to send Livi to the Montessori school two days a week this year (I don’t think I’m ready for four days yet) and then send both girls three days a week next year. I don’t think that is going to happen though. Choice number two would be too be able to afford a second car and go to school number two, but that isn’t in the near future either. So, ideal number three would be Livi going to the first, easy choice school for January, just to get used to being away from Mommy and expand her social development. She would still get the big girl experience. Then be get enough subsidy funding to be able to afford the Montessori school for September for both girls and be allowed to only send them three days a week. Four days still seems excessive to me. Both girls would then go to Kindergarten together and Sofie would be allowed to repeat.

So, how good is my line to God these days? I hope He’s got my back on this one. If you feel like sending up an extra prayer for this to all fall in to place, I’d sure appreciate it! Something will work out and I think there is a good chance we will end up loving school choice number 1, which would make next September really easy for me! If we have to keep Sofie back from Kindergarten a year too, we can make it work. There are a lot of scenario’s here that could be really great, so maybe just pray that the right doors open up too us!