Welcome back! sorry for the lengthy absence. I wish I could blame it on something wonderful such as being away backpacking through Europe...but the real truth is that I had been preoccupied with Vampires and Warewolves (aka Shape shifters) - YES; the TWILIGHT series sucked me in. I have spent the last 2 weeks filling every free moment with reading those 4 books! and as silly as it may be OMG that was the best story I have read in a very long time. I loved Anne Rice as a teenager and read many of her books but I haven't picked up a Vampire book, or even any fictional book for that matter, since college. It was nice to use the good ole' imagination again and feel like a kid excited about what was going to happen next. I finished last night and now I am sitting here alone wondering what the heck I should be doing?? Jason is gone for the evening, Olena is in bed and I have piece and quite! AAAHHHH.
Olena is doing really well. She starting swim class with the Red Cross 2 weeks ago, and she loves it. She is such a fish anyway, and would live at the pool if I let her. This is the first of 4 levels and teachs them to the basics such as putting thier face in the water, lifting themselves in and out via the side of the pool, "walking" the wall with thier hands while in the pool, floating, jumping in, getting use to splashing etc. I probably could have started her in step 2 but figured it was better to be safe than sorry.
We stopped going to speech therapy at the end of March. It was extremly time consuming, her speech was getting worse, she has started to stutter again and it is pretty moderate this time. The therapist was beyond frustrated. She said Olena is a very inconsistant and a "strange" case; she was not really sure how to treat her. That starts to get frustrating from our end too because here we are, dedicating so much time and energy into it and she wasn't improving and was actually getting worse and the one person who is suppose to be helping was tearing her hair out. So at this point we are going to let things settle down, see where she ends up in a few weeks, and if there is no improvement I am considering seeking out an ESL therapist.
Behavior wise she is awesome. Jason is still out of work so he is home with her all week which is a big help. "Raising Godly Tomatoes" (can be found on Tonya's sidebar) is our "parenting bible"! Jason loves the concept and has found it to be extremely effective! I started with it last summer, but since she was in daycare for 6 hours a day, we were not getting the best results we should have. Once Jason started staying home and started to follow the same thing I was doing at night, it was a complete 360. Don't get me wrong we still have our moments, especially when it comes to meal time but daily life is far more enjoyable now. I don't miss the yelling and the crying and all the commotion! and there is nothing better than only having to tell your child something once, it is so pleasing! She is also extremly polite which makes us so proud...not to brag or anything...but we get so many compliments from strangers about how good her manners are :)
She is getting ready to have another growth spurt. Over the winter she didn't really grow much, maybe just under an inch since last fall. But I have noticed that the winter pants have started to get too short this last month or so. I also had about 4 pair of pants that she got for xmas that were to big, she can wear them now. Her hair is also getting pretty long. I have finally gave in and have decided to let it grow out. This has been very though I have to admit. All that hair hanging everywhere, in her eyes all the time, always knotted, and it never fails we always find something dried in it while brushing it before bed...eeww what a mess. She is just to crazy and wild all day to have long pretty hair. But everyone is complaining that it is time. Hopefully I can last. I will have to take a picture tomorrow and post it. I will have to look back at some old pictures but I think it is the longest it has ever been. I am attempting the bangs too, but I am not confident with that idea. We will see how it goes.
Olena is doing really well. She starting swim class with the Red Cross 2 weeks ago, and she loves it. She is such a fish anyway, and would live at the pool if I let her. This is the first of 4 levels and teachs them to the basics such as putting thier face in the water, lifting themselves in and out via the side of the pool, "walking" the wall with thier hands while in the pool, floating, jumping in, getting use to splashing etc. I probably could have started her in step 2 but figured it was better to be safe than sorry.
We stopped going to speech therapy at the end of March. It was extremly time consuming, her speech was getting worse, she has started to stutter again and it is pretty moderate this time. The therapist was beyond frustrated. She said Olena is a very inconsistant and a "strange" case; she was not really sure how to treat her. That starts to get frustrating from our end too because here we are, dedicating so much time and energy into it and she wasn't improving and was actually getting worse and the one person who is suppose to be helping was tearing her hair out. So at this point we are going to let things settle down, see where she ends up in a few weeks, and if there is no improvement I am considering seeking out an ESL therapist.
Behavior wise she is awesome. Jason is still out of work so he is home with her all week which is a big help. "Raising Godly Tomatoes" (can be found on Tonya's sidebar) is our "parenting bible"! Jason loves the concept and has found it to be extremely effective! I started with it last summer, but since she was in daycare for 6 hours a day, we were not getting the best results we should have. Once Jason started staying home and started to follow the same thing I was doing at night, it was a complete 360. Don't get me wrong we still have our moments, especially when it comes to meal time but daily life is far more enjoyable now. I don't miss the yelling and the crying and all the commotion! and there is nothing better than only having to tell your child something once, it is so pleasing! She is also extremly polite which makes us so proud...not to brag or anything...but we get so many compliments from strangers about how good her manners are :)
She is getting ready to have another growth spurt. Over the winter she didn't really grow much, maybe just under an inch since last fall. But I have noticed that the winter pants have started to get too short this last month or so. I also had about 4 pair of pants that she got for xmas that were to big, she can wear them now. Her hair is also getting pretty long. I have finally gave in and have decided to let it grow out. This has been very though I have to admit. All that hair hanging everywhere, in her eyes all the time, always knotted, and it never fails we always find something dried in it while brushing it before bed...eeww what a mess. She is just to crazy and wild all day to have long pretty hair. But everyone is complaining that it is time. Hopefully I can last. I will have to take a picture tomorrow and post it. I will have to look back at some old pictures but I think it is the longest it has ever been. I am attempting the bangs too, but I am not confident with that idea. We will see how it goes.
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As for the hair, I can sympathize. Lyra would be bobbed if Landon didn't love her hair long so much. It is a tangly mess all the time. The other morning, I was brushing it and she gave a big sigh and said "I wish I was boy". The boys never have to stand still to get their hair fixed. Poor thing.