A New Coundown....but not a good one :(

That's right. Only two weeks left until I go back to work. Where does the time go? I attribute my lack of posting to this. For those of you who know me well, you'll understand when you hear me explain how things have to be "just right" before I go back to work. Earlier in the year, I talked about how 2009 was going to be the "Year of Clean House." Yes, I know, my house is always clean. But I wanted to get down to the nitty gritty and get those not-so-fun jobs out of the way and purge our closets, drawers and basement of any unnecessary clutter. Somehow I thought this task would be easy to accomplish in the four months of leave I had left, but I was a procrastinator, and now I'm paying for it. I've been doing not-so-fun jobs around the house for the last two weeks and I'm not close to being finished yet. By not-so- fun, I mean those things that don't get done very often....pulling out appliances to clean behind them (ew!), cleaning light fixtures, on top of cupboards, in cupboards, baseboards, etc, etc. The list seems never ending. Oh! One of my major accomplishments is being able to declare our back yard "poop free" after taking days to clean the mess that our little poop factories have been making all winter long. So that's where I've been and that's why I haven't been posting...Not-so-fun jobs during the day and family time at night. It's hard to make time for the not-so-fun jobs while working, so I need to get them out of the way now.

I will admit going back to work makes me a little nervous and sad. I've been away for so long, I feel like I'm starting a new job. I was able to change my hours to be a little bit more part time so I will be home to drop Emma off at school in the mornings. Terry gets off work early enought to pick Emma up from school. We are very thankful for this, because even though she is adjusting well to her new life, a change in her routine (especially a sitter) could cause regression in her behaviour and attachment. We're hoping the fact that I won't be home after school won't affect her too much (sounds weird, but it can) I don't think it will, but I know it will definitely affect me!!! I love picking Emma up after school and having our afterschool time together. I will miss this time so much and get sad even thinking about it. I think it will take awhile for me to get used to the adjustment.

Another sad person will be my hubby. He has not so much as lifted a finger in this house over the last nine months. I've made sure that the house is spotless, driveway is shovelled, supper is cooked, etc. I even clean his car and take it in for oil changes. This will all change after I go back to work. We'll be back to dividing household chores and supper will be his responsibility. He is not looking forward to it. I absolutely love taking care of Terry and Emma and wish it could be my full-time job. Terry agrees. Unfortunately, it just doesn't pay enough. :( In fact, the one thing I'm looking forward to is finally getting a decent paycheck. Employment insurance just isn't cutting it!

So, I know you all want to know how Emma's doing. One word: Fantastic. She is such a blessing in our lives and it's hard to imagine life without her. It's the little things that totally make my day....

Every day while I'm doing Emma's hair, she sings. Not any song in particular. She actually makes them up as she goes along and none of them really make sense. But the other day, this is what she sang:

"I love my mommy.
My mommy so love me.
I gonna stay forever n' ever!"

I love that kind of stuff. Or when I go to Emma's school to volunteer for hot lunches.... I alway make sure to get there early so I get to pick Emma's classroom to deliver hot lunch to. Emma is always so excited to see me. If she spots me in the hallway, no matter what's going on in the classroom, she bolts from her desk and races out to come give me a hug (don't think Teacher likes this disruption so much, but what can I do? ;) Then she races back to tell all this kids, "That's MY mommy!"

We recently found out that Emma needed glasses. One of her eyes is lazy, so we have to patch up her good eye for four to six hours during the day to try and correct her weak eye with the glasses. We found a patch that actually covers the frame of the glasses and blocks her peripheral vision. It's quite the contraption, and her reaction the first time we put it on was priceless. It reminded me of when our dog, Tifa, had some surgery and we had to put one of those cone things on her head. She kinda just sat there with her head hanging down not moving or knowing what to do. That was Emma the first time we put the patch on. I thought we might actually get a rise out of her, but once we explained what it was for, she was totally fine. Now she always brings it to me and asks me to put it on for her. Here's a shot of her new glasses...sorry I don't have a picture with her patch on.


Easter for us was quite interesting. We don't usually do a whole lot for Easter, just a nice supper with the family. A day before the long weekend approached, I remembered "Hey, we have a kid now!!! We need to do something fun for Easter!" I know that sounds terrible. We're still getting used to this parent thing. I raced out to the store to get some egg decorating kits, which of course were all gone because I had left it till the last minute. I ended up settling for an Easter basket and plastic candy filled eggs for an Easter egg hunt.

The night before, we told Emma the Easter bunny would be coming with eggs to hide all over the house which we would have to find in the morning. We weren't sure she understood until we caught her sneaking out of bed the next morning already gathering up her eggs! Little stinker! Luckily she had only found a few, so we got to watch her excitedly search for the rest. She was also much happier after I gave her the basket to put them in.

BEFORE


DURING


You'll notice I only have pictures of Emma's back. Try as I might, I could not get her to stop and give me a nice shot of her putting an egg in her basket. She was not interested in stopping....only in finding those eggs! :)

AFTER



We went out to two Easter dinners that both went very well. We used to find going out or having company over was a little overwhelming for Emma and would really affect her behaviour. She seems to be getting better, although we still try to space out these types of visits. I know eventually it won't be a problem.

So, as you can see, life is good. Our only real issue with Emma has been her delays. I know I haven't posted much about this, but as I mentioned before, it's easy to post about the good stuff, not so easy to post about the not-so-good stuff.

We knew when we adopted Emma, she knew virtually nothing for how old she was. She didn't know any colors, shapes, numbers, letters, etc. We knew she was quite behind for a seven year old, but were determined that some love and attention would put her back on track. Well, there has been progress in this area, but it has been far slower and a lot harder than we imagined. For awhile there I thought she may never learn anything! Her first few months of school were very discouraging. But I think at first all the changes for her were so overwhelming that she wasn't really able to process anything else. Now we see some things are starting to stick, yet they are very basic things. Basically things that a toddler is learning. I'm kicking myself for putting Emma in grade one, knowing full well that she was not prepared for it. If I had put her in kindergarten, at least it would only be halfdays and she could have spent the other half with me. We tried for kindergarten, but the school wouldn't have it. She has learned very little from school, as she only gets one-on-one help for two hours a week. Yes, you read that correctly. This has also been a big struggle...one which we hope will be resolved for next school year.

Any advice or stories out there from other APs who have been through this would be greatly appreciated.

I'd like to go into more detail regarding school issues, but this post is getting super long. I'm also sorry this post has been all over the place! It's just been so long and I had so much to say.