School started yesterday for the public school in our neighborhood. Jude has put it all together and notes that she too has an LL Bean backpack like the other kids.
Many kids in Maine have LL Bean backpacks. Mine from elementary school is still going strong!
Jude decided that she wants to wear her’s now vs. me carrying it. It’s a good thing it isn’t heavy!
I have never given proper credit on this blog for the extraordinary job that my male housecat does in helping me raise Jude.
I am totally serious.
Many of you must have seen or read some version of Peter Pan growing up. Remember Nana? The Darling children’s nanny who also happened to be the family dog? Nana lives on in our house in the form of Pippen, our 16 pound male housecat.
It is a rare thing indeed if Pippen is not watching Jude. He will hang out in whichever room she chooses to play in. Leaving only to come and find me if perchance she should be getting into some forbidden mischief. Or to report if Jude has a newly ripe diaper.
Pippen is always at his post on the diaper table when Jude is in the tub. He likes to talk me through the steps of getting her washed up. He peers over Jude’s shoulder for the bedtime story. He never ever misses it.
Pippen spends the entire night on the top floor watching over her. If she wakes up, Pippen comes into my room and cries until I wake up too. He is far more effective than the baby monitor was…we have had it unplugged for months.
He grunts at her if she doesn’t finish all her cereal.
He lets her pick him up and carry him like a rag doll.
He watches out the window for her and is disappointed if I should stop home for lunch without her in tow.
When she is gone during the day he naps with her stuffed animals.
He tries to clean her like a kitten.
Jude whispers her secrets to him before she falls asleep at night.
He has adored her since the day I brought her home. And Pippen is smart. As new stuffed animals arrive, decorations go up, and toddler bedrails are installed in what used to be the spare bedroom, Pippen is excited. He knows a new arrival is impending.
I never would have thought it about the stray gray dumpster cat that just randomly appeared at my parents house 7 years ago but he is the best cat I have ever had.
Back to School mode is in full swing at this house.
On August 5th I went back to school. Yes, you read that correctly. Insane person that I am took the plunge and decided that I wasn’t going to put off graduate school any longer. I will be attending year-round with a reduced classload until I graduate in the Spring of 2018. Master’s of Science in Nursing. I am most grateful for the online format. My doing the classwork on my lunch breaks and after the girls are in bed at night it hopefully minimizes the impact on everyone. The last 2 months will be tricky as that term is not online, but I will address that once it comes up. I have a few ideas already…
Jude is going to start school too! My April 16 post outlined that I had chosen a curriculum for her for this school year. I have spent time combing through it in detail and editing it to suit her/our needs. It is an awesome curriculum and it will integrate well with Jude’s outside Speech, Occupational, and Physical therapy sessions that she receives several times per week.
Last year, immediately after picking up Jude I starting using many of the ideas found in the Preschool curriculum offered by Oak Meadow. This worked perfectly in the attachment and family integration focus that we had for Jude’s first year home. This is definitely going to be re-used in the coming months for Gabriel as well. The approach melds so well with our natural family style and compliments the curriculum from Wee Folk Art that Jude will be working with. We have a working binder now that has the main lesson plans (for both) in there for easy reference. (Follow the link mentioned in the April 16th post to access the FREE Wee Folk Art Curriculum). 
The Curriculum itself is literature-based. Perfect, as Jude has a new-found love of books. It addition to the ones we purchased below (for SUPER-discount prices on Amazon, used books were often $0.01) we will be learning a lot about our local library as we will need to check out one related non-fiction book per week for each 36 weeks of our homeschool year.
Tonight, we went “Back to school” shopping. Admittedly, we don’t need much for supplies right now as most of our craft purchasing we either have the supplies on-hand or would want to involve Jude that particular week in getting the supplies. It was more of a rite of passage. The scissors were purchased after speaking with OT last week (I’m still nervous about it, but OK…we do have leftover glue and butterfly strips from the head laceration earlier this year, hopefully we won’t need it). They should help fill in the last gaps that Jude has with her fine motor skills. The tin crayon box was $2 and just too adorable to pass up. We filled it with washable crayons. I might go back and snag another tin for Gabriel for next year.
Jude is very excited about starting school. Her only disappointment is that I won’t agree to trade in our Prius for a yellow school bus. She wants to go on a yellow school bus to Grandma’s house and her Speech Therapist but only if I drive it. Perhaps I should have gone to Commercial Driving School instead.
Jude and I have been enjoying summer. Beach visits, hanging with family, and generally whatever catches our fancy for the day. You know…life. Childhood. The way life should be (notice how I snuck that in there).
We are still waiting for a signature from the ministry of justice. Hopefully not too much longer now.
Two weeks ago I made the jump and started college again. Graduate School this time for me. Thank goodness for the online school revolution or this simply wouldn’t be possible. Most of my class work is done on my lunch breaks with a couple late nights a week spent on papers. So far not a huge dent in life and the grades are looking OK right now too. Sincerely hoping that I can keep this pace up for the next nearly 3 years.
In early September Jude will start preschool/pre K. She is psyched. Jude is getting speech, physical, and occupational therapy this fall from different providers in our area. Even if we weren’t previously planning on homeschooling; there would be almost no way around it given Jude’s therapy schedule with these particular providers. Luckily, Jude works in small groups so she has good socialization with a small group of kids for a couple of hours almost every day. Her skills in cooperation with peers is improving vastly upon the post-institutionalalization behavior we were witness to a year ago.
Bulgaria to Maine Adoption 