Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Nothing new and exciting, but it's past time to update so here goes.

Last week we went for a 2-night, 3-day trip to a state park. Of course they have an indoor pool which was one of the main reasons for going. There was also a hot tub which they loved. I just wish the pool water were about that warm! It wasn't bad, but not as warm as I'd like. We also played some ping pong, watched movies and cartoons, played games and ate alot. We stopped to see Grandma and Grandpa Baker also. So, lots of things in one trip.

We haven't had anymore snow, but there is hope of some this weekend. We did have quite a bit of wind while we were gone last week. It blew our trampoline from our yard, over our neighbors fence, through their yard, over the fence on the other side of their yard and into the next neighbors yard and against some trees. It will need some work, but Dan thinks we can salvage it. If we can't the trampoline will be sorely missed. We have spent alot of time playing on it and have burned alot of calories since our neighbors were so kind to give it to us.

School - Juan Pablo is doing well with reading, but the math thing still leaves him a little puzzled it seems. He is able to sound out words and mark the vowels, but can't figure out how to write the number before or after another number or add without counting objects every single time. Maicol still hates to have to write any kind of sentence, but his ability to do it is improving. Math doesn't seem to be difficult for him. Andrew knows all but maybe 2 or 3 letters of the alphabet. I had no idea he knew so much - watching Word World and Super Why has helped him (and listening to us work with Juan Pablo). Now we're starting to work on the letter sounds.

Behavior - Maicol seems to be improving. No all day stints of him being angry and if he is it's only for a short period of time. His big problem now is learning "if you can't say something nice, then don't say anything". He loves to point out any slight error you may have made (or thinks you may have made). Because he is still learning English he sometimes doesn't completely understand what is being said. We have so many ways to say the same thing and I now realize how difficult it is to learn English. They understand most of what we say, but certainly not everything yet. Juan Pablo still dislikes schoolwork and that seems to be where alot of his getting into trouble comes from. He asks every night if there will be school tomorrow - and then sighs when I say "yes". They all still listen better to Dan than me. If we're both here and I tell them to do something, they will look around to see if Dan is watching and let that determine if they will do it or not. That makes me crazy!! We're still working on that, but it is certainly better than it was.

I think that's it for now. We'll try to do some new and exciting things before the next post.
Karen



Reading one of Andrew's favorite books - Chicka Chicka Boom Boom. Dan has read it enough that they can now quote some of it.
Juan Pablo

Andrew, Juan Pablo and Maicol


Sunday, February 1, 2009

It Finally Happened


It finally came. After weeks of watching and waiting, hoping and praying, faithfully checking the news at least once a day, the long awaited, much anticipated event of the season finally arrived at our house - snow! We got about 8 inches between Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning. It was beautiful! The boys went out to play at home Wednesday after it stopped falling, but we had to wait until Thursday to go sledding due to some behavioral issues that resulted in a moratorium on sledding until school could be completed with the proper attitude and speed. We had a wonderful time. Maicol got to try out his new snowboard and the rest of us enjoyed sledding. I don't know how many times we went down and then back up the hill, but it was enough that everyone went to bed very well Thursday night. :) We stayed almost two hours and by that time although they would never admit it, they were tired. Andrew is big enough this year to take himself back up the hill, so that means more trips down the hill for Mom or Dad since we don't have to carry/drag him back up each time. We have had a problem with him taking his gloves off and then crying because his hands get cold. No amount of talking to him has resulted in him not doing this. So I saw an idea (in a magazine I think) that seemed the perfect solution to this problem. Buy waterproof mittens and then sew them to the end of the sleeves of a long-sleeved shirt, put the shirt on him and then his coat on and no matter how hard he tries, he cannot take his gloves off! He wasn't too sure what we were doing, but he went along with it, and we had no cold wet hands that resulted in crying fits. Wish I could say I thought of it, but it is a fantastic idea as far as I am concerned. Now I just need to figure out how to keep his feet dry. Hopefully we'll get at least one more good snow before spring.

Dan and I have been out twice by ourselves in the last four days. Bethany came over to do haircuts on Thursday night and stayed for a couple of hours so we could go out and eat. Jonathan and Kristin came over today and took the boys to eat lunch and go sledding so we had the afternoon free.

Enjoy your week and the pictures.

Karen




"Come on Papi, hurry back up the hill with my sled so I can go again!

Andrew - dressed to do battle with the hill.


Andrew, Maicol, Mami and Juan Pablo.



Juan Pablo




Maicol - looking very cool on his snowboard.