Lora Drew a Face....

So, I cried in Co-op this morning...and not just because one of the little girls told me I was fat. About three times throughout the year, teacher Kris asks the kids to draw a self portrait. This morning was the first of those times. During our small group, we handed the kids paper and asked them to draw themselves. We asked questions like.."What shape is your head?" "What do you have on your face?", etc...

So, Lora proceeded to draw a perfect circle, the two circles for eyes, a smile and a nose. This picture is actually the second portrait she drew...I grabbed the other one before anything happened to it so she drew this one and added lots of curly hair and possibly a beard of some sort. She has a good imagination. I just looked at her go, concentrating and putting all the pieces in their perfect place..and I looked at the three boys at our table one scribbling and the other two barely able to make a circle. I realize she is a girl, she enjoys drawing, etc...but she's also supposedly blind. And all I could do is look with wonder and cry.

This may not look like much to anyone other than her mother or maybe her dad...but to this mother, it is a masterpiece and should be hung in a gallery somewhere with the title "Look What God Can Do...."

Made in China

So, my parents were here last week for a couple of days. It was fun to see them, have them see us and have them check out Mosaic which they hadn't seen completed yet. It was fun on Friday because Mosaic was really busy in the morning, packed with mom and their kids all playing in Demitasse and actually spilling out into the Den and the main room....my dad looked at me at one point and said, "The most amazing thing about this is that none of these people are directly connected to your church..." It was fun.



We went shopping on Thursday and we decided to stop by Old Navy. I was commenting to my mom, in Lora's presence, about the clothes I recently ordered for her on-line. I was amazed by how many different countries the clothes were made in. From Egypt to Taiwan to Indonesia...and I commented that the sweater Lora had on was made in China.



So, three days later....Heidi, Lora and I are sitting outside my in-laws house helping with a garage sale. Lora has on the same sweater and Heidi asks her if her mommy made her sweater, to which Lora responds, "No, China made it"



It amazes me how much she picks up and listens and overhears and remembers...she is so funny and smart. Tomorrow she starts pre-school...the first one that I will leave her at for at least 2 days a week. I'm excited for her and think that she will have a great time...I just hope the other "typical" kids can keep up with her!

Time and Perspective

Last week, we took Lora to her annual eye exam...which is always an ordeal. It usually lasts about 2 hours because by the time we get in the office, have her tested by the assistant, checked by the Doctor, eyes dialated, wait 20 minutes, and go back in...its been about two hours. Plus, getting a 3 1/2 year old to open her eyes volunterily and look in a bright light or keep them open long enough for the doctor to see the back of her eye is a huge thing. We bribed her first with chocolate, then with a treat in the caffeteria and finally with a trip to Toys-R-Us before we were done and by the end it was me holding her on my lap, Mark holding her legs down and the assistant holding her head while Dr. Grace physically pried her eyes open...(BYW, I really don't like our opthomologist's assistant...don't know why she just rubs me the wrong way and I almost asked her to stop talking this time, but I held it together.)

So, needless to say, I felt that Lora deserved a $10 Little People toy for her trauma. While we were there, Will went to Paya's house for a playdate and when we got home, this is the conversation I overheard from the TV room...

Will: Lora, when you went to the eye doctor did they give you medicine so you can see better now?
Lora: Nope, still can't see....
Will: Oh...

I have to admit, it cracked me up. Its funny how the things that would have sent me into a fit of crying a year ago make me laugh now...Its true how time and perspective help everything - and I'm sure God has something to do with it too...

One Day Down...10,000,000 to go...

So, Will made it through his first day at school. He did fine, there were no tears or grabbing to hold on...Will didn't cry either. When I went to pick him up, Miss Lucy said that he had some transition issues after the morning recess. He didn't want to go back to his Spanish class, he wanted to go to the English class. So, she very nicely just said if we could go over with him his schedule so he understood. I asked her if these type of "transition issues" are typical, and she said "they can be"...which I took to mean, not usually...so I stressed about it all the way home...

So, after talking with Will about his day, I got to the bottom of the "transition issues"...His good friend Paya is in the other class, they all play together at recess and so after recess, Will simply wanted to stay with Paya. It had nothing to do with not wanting to be in Spanish class, he just wanted to stay with his buddy, which I understand...he they proceeded to tell Mark and I, "When I talked to the principal, I told him I wanted to learn Japanese and he told me that I can come to his house and he'll teach me Japanese"...to which I screeched "You got sent to the principal's office!?!?" Come to find out they took a "field trip" to meet the principal, so I picked myself off the floor and realized that Miss Lucy would have told me if his "transition issues" had escalated to the point to merit a trip to the principal's office. So, thankfully, he hasn't been sent to the office YET.

Mark talked with him extensively tonight about how he and Paya can play together at recess and he can play with Paya after school, but he is in Spanish class and Paya is in Japanese so they can't be in class together and he needs to make things easier on his teachers and just go where they tell him...to which he answered, "I know dad..." Here's to an easier "transition" day tomorrow....

Kindergarten...

So, Will starts Kindergarten tomorrow morning. Its so weird, I really can't believe it. I've been really not nervous or weepy about it at all, which is also weird. Maybe because I don't feel like its really happening, the emotion hasn't hit me yet. I really felt like Will was doing great too. In fact, he's seemed almost oblivious to it all.

But, tonight he asked Mark if kids get scared at kindergarten, if their parents can stay with them...or if they get scared during the day, if the teacher will call their parents to come and get them. Then he asked Mark what he does if he falls and cuts his leg...does he go to the school nurse or just to his teacher. And he also told Mark that he wished he was taking Japanese so he could be with his friend Paya. So, it makes me think that he has been thinking about things more than he's let on.

I just keep telling myself that all the other kids there are new to school too and that his teachers have all been teaching for 15 years and they seemed really nice. One weird thing is that he starts with Spanish tomorrow morning and for the first half of his day, he hears no English from his teachers...so that could be interesting...I really feel like he'll be fine, its just a weird thing to drop him off at 9:10 and not pick him up until 3:20...he's going to have his first school lunch tomorrow, his first recess with "big" kids...he's such a great kid and I hope he has a great first day...I'm really hoping and praying that all goes well...I'll keep you posted!