We’ve officially been a family of four for a month. And we’ve been back home for three weeks already! Trust me, not a day goes by that there aren’t numerous privileges of my charmed life that I recognize as unique to America! Brewed coffee in the morning on my front porch to the sound of song birds at my feeder and birdbath is the first that comes to mind! I LOVE America! And I LOVE summer!
We’ve spent the last month building bonds that are tighter than I had ever realized could even exist. It’s funny; we spend almost every minute we can together as a family. Neither kid has made a friend that has either come to our house or that they have gone to the friend’s house. It’s not that they haven’t met other kids they really like. It’s just that we love our time together. In a way I think we all know on some level that we’re living in a little fantasy world of four where other important people come & go but the four of us are so solid we are just content for now. We all know that the kids will start school in the fall and Mommy will go back to work and that both kids will eventually prefer to hang out with friends. But for now, none of us is ready to move in that direction. Don’t get me wrong; many, many times Richard & I have prayed for the kids to make friends. We do get tired of being their primary playmates! BUT we have them so cocooned & sheltered right now, it’s actually quite nice. We know it’s not very reality based… I do get that… but for now, it works for us. We like our la-la-land! All four of us like it! The rest will come in due time… And when the road gets rocky, they will know in their core what “family” (something these kids have never known) means.
We continue to limit the Russian we allow the kids to speak. I have mixed feelings about this because I understand the value of being bilingual, but I guess because of my kid’s ages, they couldn’t rationally chose to work hard to learn English while they still had 100% access to Russian. And work hard they must! But their hard work is paying off & their English is exploding!
The stress level is subsiding too. The kids (and we) are less overwhelmed. And the kids are more able to understand that placing multiple demands/requests on me all at once makes me “coo-coo”. It doesn’t mean they don’t still do it! But they’re starting to get the message.
I am starting to teach them to do chores & we’re really trying to stick to a schedule that we lay out at the beginning of each day. In case you’re wondering, here’s today’s schedule:
Thursday, June 9, 2011
8:30 – Eat Breakfast
9:30 – 11:00 English/math
11:00 – 12:00 Games/TV
12:00 – 12:30 Lunch
12:30 – 1:00 Chores
Landyn – 1:30 – 2:30 English (Rosetta Stone)
2:30 – 4:00 Quiet Time
Henry - 1:30 – 3:00 Quiet Time
3:00 – 4:00 English
4:00 – 5:00 Games/TV
And in case you’re wondering, we’re off track! Quiet time typically does not have the intended impact on Henry. He watches the clock & comes out of his room every 10 minutes or so to confirm what time Quiet Time ends. Well, today 3:00 rolled around and there is silence in his room. He either crawled out the window (which I doubt because his soccer ball got lost – so there’s really not much to do out there right now…) or he’s asleep. Either way, I’m not investigating any further!
Oh, and spattered throughout the day, at least every 30 minutes I get asked, “Daddy home at 5 o’clock?”. It’s not because they like him better. Really…….
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