A Photo a Month for 2014

(It was H.A.R.D. to chose just one photo for each month!!!)

January

February

March

April

May

June

July

August

September

October

November

December

Bragging!!

I'm going to brag on my daughter tonight. I know I probably shouldn't. But I'm just so crazy proud of her!!!!

She has loved books ever since she came home. She can sit for a long time just looking at books. The library is probably her favorite place to go and she sprawls out in the aisles looking at books.

I started teaching her how to read in Kindergarten this year and she did a very good job. But she doesn't like to stick with working hard at it for very long. She gets impatient to know what is happening in the story and just wants me to read it to her. Or she is content to just look at the pictures.

But the past few weeks, she has been starting to look for words that she can read in the library books we bring home, or as she looks at books that we own. I have started bringing some easy reader books home from the library and just putting them in her library book box for her to "find" during quiet time. I know that she is reading some of these books during her quiet time, because every once in a while she will bring one to me to show me that she can read it :-).

Tonight, at storytime, she brought me one of the library books and told me that it was her turn to read the bedtime story to me!!! :-).

The book she brought to me was a "My Turn, Your Turn" book of the Gingerbread Man. It's designed for a parent to read the left page and then the child reads the right page. We went through the book this way and the pages Maya K read were along these lines......

"Run, run as fast as you can.

You can't eat me.

I'm the Gingerbread Man."

"Moo! Moo!

Stop, little Gingerbread Man!

I want to eat you up!"

She did a great job reading these pages and I was happy that SHE was excited to be reading them to me!!!!

But wait. It gets better!!!

The last page for the parent to read is about the fox, and as I started to read it, Maya K quickly (and rather forcefully) stopped me and told me that SHE wanted to read that page. I told her that I was happy to let her try if she wanted to.

Here is what she read........

But the sly fox said, "Bark, bark! I don't want to eat you. I want to be your friend."

Soon, the little Gingerbread Man came to a river. The fox said, "I'll help you cross the river. Jump onto my tail." So he did. But before long the fox said, "You are too heavy on my tail. Jump on my back." So he did. After a while the fox said, "You are too heavy on my back. Jump on my nose." So he did.

Then, that sly fox quickly tilted back her head and opened her mouth. SNAP! And that was the end of the little Gingerbread Man.

I was AMAZED at how accurately and smoothly she read it!!!!!! She needed some help on the words "friend", "river", "heavy", "after", and "opened", but other than those words, it was all her!!!!!

She had practiced reading that page during her quiet time, so it wasn't a "first" read, but I'm still so super proud of her for all she has learned. It is starting to all come together in her brain and she is reading more smoothly and ENJOYING the process of reading!!!!!

So, that's my bragging moment of the day.

(Just remembering how 21 months ago she didn't speak any English and now she is READING causes me to sit back and thank the Lord for everything He has done!!!!!)

Questions

Maya K asks questions. A lot of questions.

Even as I type those words, it seems to be a huge understatement.

We had a moment in the car the other day that really gave me a glimpse into what goes on in her mind and how frustrating it can be for her.

As we were driving down a country road, we saw a fire burning in someone's yard. I didn't see exactly what they were burning, but it was probably some brush or something along those lines. It was a pretty large fire with some big flames shooting up.

(These questions were all rapid fire with basically no pause between them.)
Maya K: "Mommy, why do some people.......? Is is okay for them to........? Why would they want........? Why is it so big? Will the people.......? What makes it look like......? I want to know.....? "Does it make smoke because......? (insert a longer pause) ........Mommy, I saw a fire."

This is what goes on in her little mind all the time!!!!! She literally has so many questions about every little things she sees or hears that she can't get all the questions out and they never stop coming.

This time, she ended with a simple statement. "Mommy, I saw a fire."

She couldn't get the questions to slow down to be able to sort out what she really even wanted to ask me.

I don't know if I could handle that much going on in my brain all the time. It's exhausting to me to try to keep up with her questions and know which ones to answer. But she has to process all those questions. I don't envy her!!!!!!

Maya K's 7th Birthday

The day started with a trip to Dunkin' Donuts for breakfast. To make it even MORE special, we ate our donuts outside on a table under an umbrella!!!

Once we were home, Maya K got to open one of her presents.

Nathan and Maya K went rollerblading for a while and Maya K worked to get used to her new blades. She was a little shaky at first, but she adjusted pretty quickly!!!

We took a "break" for the rest of the morning and Maya K went up to her bedroom to play with some new fairies that she got from her cousins yesterday :-). Then she got to open a few more presents before lunch.

Maya K chose what foods she wanted for her Bday meal and she chose porcupine meatballs, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn on the cob, and fruit!!!! I didn't know how the corn on the cob was going to work with her missing and loose teeth, but she devoured that corn!!!!!

After lunch, we took Maya K on her first mini-golf adventure!!!! She had a ton of fun!!!!!

We were VERY hot and tired after mini-golfing, so we stopped at McDonalds on our way home for some ice cream!!!!

By the time we got home (around 3:20ish) we were all very worn out. Maya K was looking forward to her quiet time :-). She got to open her last two presents and then she went down for quiet time and I fell asleep on the couch while Nathan did the dishes (I love him!!!).

Dinner was leftovers and then Nathan left for his softball games and Maya K and I snuggled up on the sofa to watch Little House on the Prairie.

Maya K said multiple times today that it was one of her best days ever!!!!!

Happy Birthday, my 7-year-old little girl!!!!

Hair Day

Saturday is our "normal" day to do Maya K's hair, but if we have things going on Saturday, I will try to do it on Friday. This is one of those weeks :-).

I only shampoo Maya K's hair every 4 or 5 weeks. This happens to be a week that it needs to be shampoo washed, so that adds an extra step to the process.

I decided to write down times to give you an average for the length of time each step takes. I don't normally keep track :-).

Here is what her hair looks like before we get started.

I start by getting her hair completely soaked and then work the shampoo through the curls down to her scalp. I try to not rub the hair too much to prevent breakage. Then I rinse it all out. (This took 7 minutes.)

The next step is the most time consuming and results in the most complaints and whining from Maya K (keeping it real!!!). I work huge HANDFULS of conditioner into her hair. I do it a section at a time and probably use 8-10 handfuls. Then I use my fingers to detangle the curls (again, a section at a time). I usually end up with quite a bit of hair on my fingers that I throw in the trash. Then I add a little more conditioner and use a pick to comb through her hair more thoroughly. She despises this part of hair day!!!!! (This step took 15 minutes.) Here is her hair fully conditioned and detangled.

I leave the conditioner soaking in her hair while I wash her body. This is the easiest part of hair day :-). (2 minutes.) No photo.

After she plays in the tub for a while (today was 30 minutes), I drain the water and begin rinsing the conditioner out of her hair. Here is her hair after the conditioner has been rinsed out. (5 minutes)

Then I work a leave-in conditioner into her hair and use my fingers to pull it through the curls. (4 minutes) I pulled a piece down so you could see how LONG it actually is!!!!

It's finally time to get out of the tub, lotion her body, and get her dressed :-). (Btw - Absolutely NO towel drying of this hair is ever allowed!!!!) (9 minutes)

Today I'm going to put her hair into two-strand twists. They are simple and easy and don't take very long for me to do. She is sitting on her chair in front of the TV and I've got my tray table of supplies next to her.

It's hard for me to take pictures during the hair styling process because my hands are covered in hair product. But I tried to take a couple today :-).

I ended up doing something different than planned with her hair. I've been experimenting with things to do with the front and top of her hair when I do two-strand twists in the back. I like how the top turned out, but then it didn't look like I planned in the back. So I pulled all the twists up into a ponytail and then put barrettes on the ends :-). It's growing on me!!!

Styling her hair took  51 minutes today.

She got in the bathtub at 10:18 this morning and I finished her hair at 12:24 :-). It was a pretty quick hair day!!!! I like those :-).

"Vacuum??? In the BEDROOMS?!?!?"

I am not good at keeping a clean house. I'm just not. I'm being honest here.

I do decently well at keeping things picked up. Nathan is awesome about helping with that and so is Maya K. We have one end of our table that collects things, as well as a couple small piles on a couple stairs, and paper piles that slowly grow over time in our bedroom. But over all, we keep the "clutter" away.

I'm also pretty good with the laundry and dishes. I have my regular laundry days and get the clothes cleaned and put away. (At least they are put away within a day........or sometimes two.) The dishwasher gets run on a regular basis and the dishes are put away promptly. I try to hand wash the other dishes once a day (with the exception of Sunday; I often don't wash dishes on Sunday. I need a day of rest. Don't I???).

But when it comes to actual CLEANING, I struggle. I don't like doing it. So I put it off until we have people coming over and then I make sure I do the areas that people will see. Honestly, even the bathrooms don't get cleaned well on a regular schedule. (Sooooooo GROSS!!!! I know it!!!)

Over the years there have been times that I have worked out a schedule and cleaned on a regular basis. My best stretch was probably 2 or 3 years that I had a weekend cleaning rotation and it was great!!!!

But since Maya K came home, things have gone downhill.

About two weeks ago, I made myself a new cleaning schedule/rotation. Things HAVE to get better!!!! I set up a two week rotation of the regular cleaning tasks and have one or two tasks to do each day. My hope is that this way I won't get overwhelmed at looking at the need to get the entire house cleaned in just one day. It honestly doesn't take that long to just do one or two cleaning tasks.

I think the first few weeks are the hardest. Things are just so DUSTY!!!! I am doing a pretty solid deep cleaning these first few weeks and trying to get it all done right. It feels really GOOD to have a cleaner house!!!!!

I worked on dusting the bedrooms tonight. Our bedroom is still a work in progress because of all the stacks of books I have around the room. (I like books!!!) I also spent a few minutes straightening things up in Maya K's bedroom. (She does a good job of keeping her bedroom picked up, but small things accumulate in certain areas.)

When I came downstairs, Maya K told me that since I was working so hard to clean up the house, she was going to help me in the morning and work on cleaning up her room. I told her that was a great idea because I was planning to vacuum the bedrooms tomorrow.

Maya K: (shocked/quizzical look on her face) "Vacuum???? In the BEDROOMS?!?!?!"

Yes. I have failed. My daughter is surprised that the bedrooms need to be vacuumed. I am determined to remedy this mommy failure!!!!

Valentine Party

Maya K has been super excited to get to go to her very first Valentine Party!!!! The local homeschool group we are a part of had their party today and Maya K has been looking forward to it all week!!!!

She looked so cute this morning that I had to take a few pictures. Well, I had to try!!!!! It's sometimes hard to get a nice smiling picture of her!!!! :-)

2 + 2 = 4

Isn't it great when you child starts using math in real world situations??!!

Here's some background. I have started letting Maya K watch two episodes of The Berenstain Bears (on DVD) after lunch. Each episode is about 15 minutes so it equates to a half hour of TV after lunch and before her quiet time. She has to "earn" the privilege to watch it by working hard and getting her schoolwork done before lunch.

On Thursdays (yesterday), we go to the library right after lunch for a story time and then to choose new books for the week. We get home around 2:30 and go right upstairs for quiet time. So there is no TV time during the day.

Last night, as we were putting Maya K in bed, she says......

"Mommy, two (holds up two fingers) plus two more (holds up two fingers on her other hand) equal four. So can I watch FOUR Berenstain Bears tomorrow because I didn't watch any today?"

Haha!!!! Nice try, Little Girl!!!! But TV time does not accumulate from day to day!!!!!

Books, Books, and MORE Books!!!

Books are important in our house. VERY important!!!! I have always been a bookworm and Nathan has become more so in the years that we have been married. And we were THRILLED when we discovered how much Maya K loves books!!!!

Our second day in Ethiopia with Maya K.

Home for One Week

Maya K and I go to the library every week and bring home between 20-30 books every week. She looks at books in the morning when she wakes up, I read to her before breakfast, I read to her as she finishes eating her lunch, she looks at books on her bed every afternoon during her quiet time, I normally read to her at least once or twice during the afternoon or evening, and Nathan reads her a story at bedtime every night.

Books are EVERYWHERE in our house!!!! I thought it would be fun to go around our house and take pictures of everyplace I found a book :-). I didn't take pictures of all the containers of books in the garage. Some days I find them in even more places, but this is today. (These pictures are un-edited; I didn't clean house before I took them, so excuse the mess!!!!)