getting a break

Well, it seems odd in a way to say we are looking forward to a break when we have been "on break" from LCC for the winter holidays. But it has been an intense time here with the boys, their adjustments and ours. They have been demanding quite a bit of attention and it seems that they need it most of the time. It is certainly better this way than if they were having trouble bonding to us.

But we also see some ways the bonding still needs to develop. The bond of love and trust from which behavior should develop is still not what we hope to see. but to keep a balanced perspective, they are young and they are doing all of the testing things that little ones naturally do.

And they are little dare devils sometimes who rough it up and fall and get up and do it again. Our friends who visit watch in amazement. They don't get stopped by things kids usually would cry about and change their ways.

Tomorrow we look forward to the afternoon free and a student will stay here with them through nap time and a bit of play time.

Today I had a first half day back to LCC. It took a while to get my head on straight, but after a while it felt good to be removed from the constant mama this, mama that and acting as guard and mediator.

I picked up the new birth certificates yesterday and proceeded to check out possibilities of registering at a preschool where some of our Lithuanian friends have their kids. The director said, no, can't register there as they already have full groups for the fall and 100 on the waiting list. I've heard stories that people register their kids at birth in order to get them in when they are 3 years old.

We had hoped that Erik could get speech therapy integrated into preschool. He really needs the interaction with kids older than him. For now he uses the level of language for a 2 year old (his brother). And there are a few habits he would outgrow behaviorly better in the right context.

But there are private speech therapists and I got a recommendation for one today. And we got contact information to find out about music and dance classes for little ones. And that might be what we can do for this spring.