School days, weddings and daily life

September is quickly slipping past us. Leah is doing very well with the school routine. She says she likes school, and her favorite time is recess. Sounds normal to me. I have been to meet the teacher night and really do like her teacher Mrs. Collins. She seems very down to earth, realistic and her main goal is to help her students like school. She describes Leah as an"independent" little girl as well as "well behaved". This is a picture of Leah's first day of school.



She will not get the perfect attendance award as she has missed 2 days of school already. Last weekend we traveled up to Michigan for the wedding of my cousin Brad. We were able to see my sister Katie, her husband Chad and their new baby Mya. It was our first time seeing Mya, and Emme actually let me hold her. Leah was also able to hold Mya, and still wants Mya to come home with us. My brother Matt was in the wedding, so we also spent some time with him. It was good to see everyone, and hopefully the whole family can be together at Thanksgiving.

Unfortunately, I spent a lot of time chasing after Emme, so picture taking was kept to a minimum. I only have so many hands. I probably should have given the camera over to Leah as she does take fairly good pictures (she took the picture of Matt). Both Emme and I left Michigan with fat lips. Emme's from a fall in the lobby and mine from a dancing adventure with Leah. Emme did make a new friend while in Michigan, the bell hop, who even gave her M&M's prior to leaving.







Next week, Emme does to the doctor for her 18 month check-up, 2 months late. We will see what the doctor has to say about her speech (or lack of). We may be starting speech therapy to improve her communication, although receptively, she does well.

Leah has school pictures tomorrow provided that she is well. She stayed home today after having some stomach issues while I was attempting to get my teeth cleaned at the dentist. She is feeling better now and I hope it was just a one time episode. Although now I need to reschedule my dental appointment for the 3rd time.

Momentous week

Well, it is official, Leah is a Kindergartner. She had her first day of school on Tuesday. Tuesday morning she was a little teary and did not want to leave home to go to daycare. However the daycare workers told me that she left them at 12:30 to go to school with a big smile on her face. According to all, no tears were shed. I was able to leave work early and meet the daycare van upon her arrival home from school. She did not say much other than her first day was boring. She also told me that she had to go to the Principal's office, but she was not bad. Daycare drops her off early so they can make it to all the schools in time. So Leah will hang out in the Principal's office for about 10 minutes before classes start. She was able to color and stated that the principal was very nice.



Since Tuesday, Leah has been almost excited about going to school. She even got to ride to bus to and from our house today, just like the big kids. She is growing up so fast. I was given homework today to write out my hopes and dreams for Leah during this school year. I just hope she finds school enjoyable and learns that life is full of all sorts of possibilities.



This is also a big week in Emme's life, although she is too young to know it. A year ago today, Leah and I were at the library reading books when my cell phone rang. It was the call I had been waiting for for months. There was a baby waiting for me in Kazakhstan by the name of Indira. By 10:00 that night I was staring at my daughter. The first pictures just made me laugh. Here was this chubby-cheeked, fuzz haired girl with a smile that just lit up her face. So different from Leah's referral picture. Although the road to bring Emme home was long and nerve racking, that first sight of her made my heart melt.

We have been having a lot of fun as the summer is winding down. Leah has been busy going places with friends, starting soccer practice and enjoying the last few "free days" before the start of school. She was able to get her face painted, as seen to the left, at a festival she attended with her friend Maria. Leah usually does not like her face painted, but peer pressure did her in.

We also ave gone to the zoo a few times in the last week. The weather has been so nice, we just had to be outside. Leah and Emme always love to play on some of the animal statues outside the children's zoo. It is only fitting that they like to "ride" the camel. It is a big part of their heritage.

I can't believe that summer is almost over and I will have one is school. The years have gone much too quickly. Leah and I will have a "big girls" outing Monday. We are going out to dinner and then will meet her teacher for the first time. Leah has been at the playground of the school, but never inside. Hopefully, some of her soccer friends will be in the same class. She still is not happy that I signed her up for school. Her main aspiration in life is to grow up to be a babysitter so she can boss kids around. She is also willing to trade her sister in her cousin Mya, because at 2 months, Mya does not move!

Sisters

Leah has been wanting to take a pictures. So I have been letting her take pictures of Emme. I think Santa may have to bring Leah a camera of her own for Christmas, as she really does a good job (as you will see in some photos). We are getting Leah ready for school. She will start Kindergarten at the end of the month. I don't think either of us are ready for this. Leah is always leary about change, so I expect the first month to be rough. I just can't believe she is old enough to be going to school. She is starting to grow up so fast! Luckily, Emme still needs me, although she loves chasing after her older sister so I expect she will grow up fast as well. Over the past month, Emme has taken an interest in Leah and all of Leah's possessions. She follows her around, steals her toys and is doing all the annoying things a younger sister can do. For the most part, Leah enjoys playing the big sis role, which includes teasing her younger sister, but every now and then carries her to me and states: "It's your turn now, you are the one who wanted another baby". Leah has even offered to trade Emme for her cousin Mya, as Mya is too little to get into her toys. True sisters!

Better late than never: Vacation pictures

Life has been a little busy as of late. So vacation pictures are coming one month after the vacation. We had a great time spending the week with our family and friends at Emerald Isle, North Carolina. Leah had a great time playing with all her cousins as well as swimming in the pool. Emme did well with all the confusion, although did not like the long driving time needed to get to and from the beach.
The days were spent oceanside, in the pool, visitng with family, sleeping and of course eating. I enjoyed the help of my niece and her cousin Ali and Amber who were wonderful with both the girls.I could not ahve asked for a better week. Hopefully next year my sister Katie and her family will join us as well

Swim lessons, swim lessons, and more swim lessons

Sorry, no new pictures to post. As the title of this post states, all we do now is swim lessons. Our days have been all about time management, packing suppers, packing swim gear, and swimming. Leah continues to have swim lessons Monday through Thursday. Three weeks down and one more to go. She is developing more skills and can actually swim from point A to point B, as long as she does not know she is swimming where she can't stand. The big achievement of this week was jumping off the diving board to me and then swimming back to the edge of the pool. At first, this was not something she wanted to do. Her swim lesson class started going off the board on Tuesday. Leah was the only one to decide she was NOT going off the board. She came crying over to me as her class went to the deep end. I walked over with her and persuaded her to go off the board and jump to me. So here Leah was, crying on the diving board with her teacher telling her she did not have to jump and me telling her to JUMP. She finally did to a round of applause, and she has been jumping ever since. I created a monster because now that is all she wants to do. Unfortunately, I don't always have someone to watch Emme. Leah is not at the point where I or she is comfortable with her going without me in the water, although she has jumped off and swam to the side without assistance the last few days.

Emme is also gaining new water skills. She is sitting on the edge of the pool at the 4 foot end and "jumping" into the water. Amazingly she is not upset in the least about going under the water. She comes up for air giggling and wants to do it again. We are working on swimming with water wings to help keep her afloat.

Both Leah and I have made some new friends at the pool, even some children that she will be attending Kindergarten with in the fall. We have also are starting to become good friends with a single mom and her daughter that she adopted from China. We met last year at the pool and then seemed to see each other everywhere. They now belong to Coney and her daughter takes swim lessons at the same time as Leah. It has been nice to have someone to talk to, and keep an eye on Emme as needed (whenever Leah wants to jump off the board). The girls have gotten together on several occasions for outings.

This week I will be preparing for our annual trip to the beach. (In between work, swim lessons and more swim lessons) I can't wait to see the family and introduce Emme to all her cousins she had not yet met. Packing will prove interesting with the increased gear that is needed when traveling with a baby. But I know Leah will have a great time and Emme should enjoy the beach based on her love of the water so far. I promise to have many pictures once home from the beach for everyone to enjoy.

Jeanne

Tired girls

I have 2 tired little girls on my hands. We had a busy week at our house. Emme's regular sitter is on vacation, so I had a friend's daughter, Amelia, watch Emme 3 days this week. She is not driving yet, so her parents brought her to me in the mornings and I took her home after work. However, Leah also started swimming lessons this week. So I came home from work, at 5:00, picked Leah up at daycamp, picked Emme and Amelia up at home, packed everyone in the car, took Amelia home, drove to Coney, changed into swimsuits, ate dinner, swam a little before lessons, went to lessons at 7:00 and finally back into the car to go home and straight to bed. I think I was the most exhausted of all. Emme did better than anticipated with both the new sitter and with staying up past her 7:00 bed time. Leah proved that she has grown up in the last few years by going to lessons without my help and participating fully with what was being instructed. This was not only evident to me, but also to the instructor who just happened to be the same teacher she had when she first started lessons. At the tender age of 3, Leah refused to be separated from me, and cried through most of the lessons. Her teacher was very impressed with how far she had come not only with swimming techniques, but also in maturity.

The pool has become our home away from home, and we will continue to have lessons 4 times a week for 3 more weeks. I am increasing becoming various shades of pink and red from the sun. Leah and Emme are becoming various shades of brown. It does not matter how much sun screen I apply, they tan and I burn. I envy their skin tone.

This weekend we had fun with relatives we don't get a chance to see too often. On Saturday, we went to the Eveslage house to visit with my Aunt Barbara and Uncle John from Alabama and their daughter Julie, who is visiting from Australia with her 3 children. Zack is Leah's age and her twin girls, Abby and Zoe, just turned 3. It was fun watching them play together and watching Emme toddle after them. On Sunday, I met up with my Uncle Tom and Aunt Susan who came up from Florida to visit with my Grandma Radcliffe. It was the first time for them to meet Emme. One day I hope to get down to Florida so that Emme and Leah can meet their cousins Emily and Luke.

So lots of running around was done this week and weekend. Which led to some very tired girls (myself included). I took these pictures after coming home from the pool one evening. It all starts again on Monday.