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Thursday, August 11, 2011

School Days are here again

School starts up again in 11 days, and Holly is very excited. She has met her teacher Mrs Grover, and was fitted for a new school shirt. Clothes shopping for Holly and Myleigh was very interesting, as Myleigh picked many fashionable and stylish girly outfits, and Holly chose lots of t-shirts with characters and sayings. She actually picked, to my total surprise, some shirts with sparkles on them. Her love of Pandas prevailed and she chose a panda t-shirt she is in love with. Orange being her favorite color now, she wanted shirts that were orange, but, I insisted she break it up a bit. She also chose a pink, of all colors, Hello Kitty backpack. I thought for sure it would end up being something with race cars, or some such thing on it, but, no she went bonkers as soon as she saw it. In the end, she was happy with her purchases and so was mama.

Shoe shopping was just this week, and Holly chose a rockin pair of pink, yes she is into pink now, light up tennis shoes. To go with her girly shoes and girly backpack, she chose a pack of race car socks, so, my girl hasn't changed too much, thank goodness. I was feeling like we were kindred spirits with all the race car, trucks, rescue heroes, rough and tumble stuff she was into just as I was when I at that age. You can imagine my chagrine when the girly, pinky, sparkly stuff started to be a theme on our shopping trip. I guess at some point she may make the full changeover to girly things, but, I'm kind of hoping she doesn't lose too much of that tomboyness.

Her first post placement visit was this week, too. It was over a year late, we were lost in the shuffle some how with both our homestudy agency and our placing agency, and I had put it off, procrastinated, and just plain forgot most of the time. Things have gone so well with her adjustment that I didn't think too much about reporting back, to be honest. We did send a package of pictures and updates to the SWI back in February, but, we really needed to get this post placement report done for the sake of the agencies.

Holly was her usualy self with the social worker, just jabbering away, and enjoying the attention. He asked lots of questions and she did amazingly well not only understanding but giving clear answers. He was satisfied that she is healthy, happy, and well cared for. Next report not for another year, so, hopefully we won't get lost again.

The next big thing after the new school year starting is Halloween, at least that is what is on Holly's radar, and she is already trying to decide what she's going to be. So far she is thinking about Ironman. We'll see.

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

School is out for the summer!

Holly has graduated kindergarten, and is moving onto 1st grade. Her school has a new program that suits her perfectly. She has been placed in a classroom with no more than 15 students, and several teachers focusing on helping these students catch up to the rest of the 1st grade students, while staying with the same cirricullum used in the standard 1st grade, and participating in all the events and activities with the rest of the school. They will be just like the other 1st grade classes except smaller and more focused. I think she's going to love it.

Now that big sister Myleigh has outgrown the small two wheel bike, it has been passed onto Holly, who was so excited to get a big girl bike with training wheels. She's still working on mastering the brakes, but, is getting better each day.

We have found a young man in our neighborhood that spent a two year mission in Hong Kong, we're having him come over and see how much Chinese Holly can still remember. Her dialect was so different, but, perhaps there is some basic language she will have retained. We'll see.

Wednesday, March 2, 2011

A new year.

2011 is upon us, and the New Year brought with it many challenges for our family. Most were personal, and very private and we will be navigating them through the rest of this year. Holly has grown so much, she is such a tall girl for 6 years old. She's struggling a bit in kindergarten, and we may be looking at having her repeat this grade, or perhaps moving her onto first grade and see if it would be better to just have her repeat that grade instead.

She digs her heels in when she is afraid of making a mistake, and simply does nothing. Her teacher has learned how to handle this, but, the progress with reading and writing is slow. I see little steps forward, and she gets very excited when she masters a new skill.

I've been neglecting this blog for the past few months, but, really will try to get some pictures posted soon.