The kids starts back to school tomorrow and then the real work begins. This week has been pretty good-- I feel I have done well balancing school and mom time. I am anticipating that things will be more stressful/harder to balance once I have kids and grading and lesson plans to make. The good news is that Quin is having a great time at daycare. They spend a lot of time outside, which she loves. I know being around kids will be good for her socially and wit language acquisition, I just hope she doesn't pick up too many bad behaviors.

Quin's language continues to grow; everyday I am surprised with something new she says. I know she understands a lot of what I say, but there is still some learning to do. When I ask her who she played with at daycare, she doesn't know. I'll mention the names of the girls I know who are there and she'll say yes. I'll ask if she played with anyone else and she'll say, "boys." I ask what the boys names are, what they are called, and she says, "boys." When I ask what she has to eat, she usually just says that she did eat, but not what.

I would like to know a little more concretely what she is being fed and how often. I asked the provider what time they eat breakfast and she said anywhere form 7-9, but since she doesn't know who has eaten or not before they arrive, kids just get food if they ask for it. I don't think Quin has been asking, so I am trying to remind her everyday to tell them if she is hungry (she has no problem telling me). Friday they said she just wanted to go outside and didn't eat until snack time around 10:30. I want to make sure Quin is getting good nutrition while she is there, but I don't want to be an overbearing mom We'll see how it goes in the next week or two.

School is pretty good this year. There was a lot of angst a few weeks ago when I was told I was going to be split between two schools, but I managed to get them to reconsider this and in the end I have my same schedule as the last few years, one that has worked well for me. We have a new principal, so it will be interesting to see how the school year goes. He has already told the one particularly dominant, unstable, and overbearing teacher that she was flat out wrong in a staff meeting, which was a great first for us as a staff and hopefully a sign that she will not be running/ruining the school as she has tried in the past. For the past two years there haven't been any changes in staff at the school. Now we have the new principal, a new teacher (with lots of energy replacing a teacher who had already checked out long before he retired) and two new aides. I think change can be good and I am hoping I'll think this same way in a few months.

Quin gets up from her nap soon and we'll have a few hours before dinner for playtime. I can't " wait for my "good morning hug. We now have an, "I love you," hug that is the best!

Oh, and this morning after she put her ABCs puzzle together I started to sing the song while I pointed to the letters and she sung most of it with me! It was such a sweet joy to hear here singing.

p.s. We ended up creating with play-doh, as you can see in the pictures.

Last Day of Vacation

Today is the last day of my summer vacation. Quin and I took a long walk (just under a mile) and picked (and ate) salmon berries along the way. The summer went way too fast. I just can't believe it has been three months since we have been home, and still everything feels so natural and so right.

I have to leave very early tomorrow, as our first day back is an in-service in Kenai which is 2+ hours away on a good day. What a pain to have to drive over and back and we are not compensated for our time. I think it is going to be hard, being away from her for so long, especially as this is the first day we'll not spend together since we met.

Phil was called into work tonight, but a coworker kindly agreed to split the shift with him (so he'll be done around 1:30 a.m.) as he'll have to be the one to take her to day care (it isn't open when I leave at 5:45 a.m. for the long drive). Yesterday I had Phil practice doing Quin's hair, as she'll be asleep when I leave. It was not a success :) Phil can do many things, but hair is not one of them.

Included are a few pictures of his valiant attempt and her patience letting baba learn.

Cute Quin Things

• Yesterday morning Quin was spinning her cheerios around in her bowl and she told me that they (the cheerios) were dizzy.
• Last night the soap got away from her in the bath and she said the soap was swimming.
• About 45 minutes after she was supposed to be a sleep I heard her saying something over and over--I go and listen and she is saying, "Mama Naomi, Mama Naomi." She says Naomi so sweetly. I just had to laugh and go in and give her a hug. She just this week learned that my name is Naomi.
• This morning she told me she was a cat, meowed all day and played fetch with a ball over and over.

Quin did a lot of cooking today

Visitors at Nana and Yeye's house

Quin and I saw Uncle Chris (my brother) at the playground this morning for about 45 minutes. He was over here picking up someone and driving them to Homer--he and my parents own a cab company there. We had fun, even though it was such a brief visit.

Today Pixel caught three shrews! They get into the house from the utility room which is so poorly sealed that when I first moved in all three of my cats got out of the house that way. Rodents may get in, but they don't stand a chance with my little mouser around! Actually we've only ever had one mouse--the shrews are about 1/4 th size, and I have just discovered that shrews aren't actually rodents as they have five toes and rodents have but four toes. I tried to save the one live shrew, but I just didn't get him away from Pixel in time.

Nana & Yeye

Nana & Yeye have a green house. When we were last over Quin and Yeye went out and pulled carrots and harvested lettuce & zucchini. It was great for Quin to see where the food came from--thanks to mom for cooking/preparing it for us!

so pretty

I got my hair cut today and later Quin said, "mama, you're so pretty--hair is little now."

I thought, that is so sweet that she said I was pretty...then Quin said, "seat is pretty." She was talking about the new toilet seat I had just installed and she was sitting on at that moment. Now, the "mama you're so pretty" comment doesn't seem quite as special.

Picture from Mt. Marathon, above Seward

Photographer Ron Niebrugge takes lots of great pictures from around Seward (and beyond). Check out his blog at photo-blog.

Life for Quin in China

Quin's foster care and pre-school were sponsored by two different international organizations. This summer I received a cd with information from one of those programs. Included were some pictures of Quin from this past year before we met her.

I think these two pictures were from the spring/summer of 2008

According to her records, Quin was in pre-school in China from Jan-Apr this year.
I think these pictures are from that time.

Pictures of Guilin

Pictures of the countryside around Guilin, where Quin was from

This is the Social Welfare Institute in Guilin where quin spent her first two years.

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Things Quin knows:

• she can count to 20
• identify the letters of the alphabet (uppercase)
• identify all the basic colors
• identify basic shapes
• says please and thank you and you're welcome
• knows all the external body parts
• knows opposites like up/down, back/front, little/big, happy/sad
• knows 20+ animals and their sounds
• puts together 6-7 word sentences in English
• uses the words I, me, you etc properly

There's more, but one things she doesn't know is wait or no when she wants it to be yes...so I have to go!

One week left

I have only one week now until school starts. I didn't expect to feel as bad as I do about Quin going to day care/preschool. I do get a little bored with the day-to-day routine of a three year old and not having much in the way of adult conversations with anyone, but I find I really don't want someone else parenting my child. Phil works all the time and as he is on night shift, we hardly ever see him. School, for me, is a good way to feeling part of a community and having grown up conversations with my coworkers at lunch. I know that it will be good for Quin to be around other kids, although I have been taking her to play & chat and open gym every week day so that she can socialize.

I imagine that many parents go through these feelings of angst. Quin is a such a sweet, loving and curious child. She has a great sense of humor and a playful imagination. I worry that she might not be appreciated or inspired at day care/preschool. I don't want her to be stifled and I don't want her to feel like she is being put in another institution. I hope that they can understand Quin and her needs. She and I communicate very well and there are only a few times now that I don't know what she is asking. But Quin can be stubborn, and I worry that the ladies at preschool might not get it that you can distract her out of her pouts and that she is easily redirected.

I am really going to miss her while I am at school.

What we've been up to

Yeye's boots are a bit big for Quin.

One day at nana and yeye's house this balloon just came floating up over the hill and landed. Quin and I ran out and got it and she loved it.

Quin's tricycle is foldable and so is easy to take with us wherever we go. She is great on flat ground, but doesn't quite have the leg strength yet to tackle even a little slope. The floor at nana & yeye's house was great for practice.

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Quin and I have been busy this week.

Wednesday before lunch we went to Tot time at the gym. It was drippy out, so there were a lot of families there, including my friend and coworker Myla and her 1.5 year old boy. After nap time that day we went on a long walk around our neighborhood. Our house is essentially on the side of a forested hill, so the walk involved a large loop on a narrow graveled road through the woods. It was lovely. We picked salmon berries to eat along the way and investigated a lot of plants.

On Thursday we headed again to Tot time at the gym. There were only a few kids there that day because the weather was nice. But there were two sisters around Quin's age and Quin interacted with them for most of the hour, which is great. After nap we went to the library for new books and then went on a walk by the ocean. There were two sea otters near shore and we got to watch them frolicking in the water.

Today we went again to Tot Time and since the weather was so great there was no one there but us. Quin and I had fun in the "big gym" all by ourselves. Quin rode the big wheel around ( I say rode, but her feet don't actually reach the pedals, so she pushes herself along on the ground) and I alternated between chasing her and being chased. Sometimes she'd just hop off her bike and run after me. It was great fun. After the nap today we went to Exit Glacier and hiked the one mile nature trail, which is flat and so not too hard/long for Quin. We talked about how the glacier is really big ice and is cold. We talked about the ice melting and the water becoming the river. We felt the birch and aspen trees and talked about the difference between rough and soft bark (which I told her is like tree skin). A pair of women passed us by and then came back again past us later and they smiles at us and one woman said that I was really good with her. That was nice.

Best Friends

Nana and Yeye's cat Zeus used to be very skittish of kids, always running away and hiding. The first time Quin was over he hid a lot, but by the end of the visit he started to hang around her. Now they are best friends!