Mid-Summer Happenings

Summer Beauties

Last week Camila was evaluated by an occupational therapist. She will begin working with her tomorrow afternoon. She will also get evaluated tomorrow for physical therapy and speech therapy. But we are pretty sure she will end up needing both of those. Her muscles are very rigid due to not enough exercise. Also something I had never noticed, but that the OT pointed out, was that children who spend a lot of time in a crib or bed usually walk with their hands bent at the elbows and sort of hold them up. (A sleeping position) That is how Camila walks, although she is doing it less and less.

In fact, lately she has started doing this hilarious dance walk. I wish I could describe it, but it is sort of like she swings her hips from side to side and twists her shoulders back and forth with each step. She puts a huge grin on her face and starts this "priss walk". She is such a character! I really think she's going to be a little comedian! She has a lot of silly in her! Lol! She fits in well, because so does her entire family!



She is doing very well. We have occasional days where she will begin to hide her face a lot like she used to do, or want to close her eyes, or revert back to some other self soothing behaviors. I wish I knew the trigger, or the reason she begins to feel insecure again, but I've yet to put my finger on it. It is rarely in a group setting anymore, although it will happen then sometimes. That used to be the main time she would do these certain things. Now she seems to adore church, nursery friends, and running around greeting the faces she has gotten familiar with. It mainly happens at random occasions, like when we sit down to eat a meal. I continue to pray that the Lord will calm all of her fears and she will have complete peace in all things.
Camila is a big-time Daddy's girl these days. She is thrilled to no end when she sees Danny drive up and she begins jumping and laughing hysterically. She prefers him to me, plain and simple, as long as he is around. She wants him to comfort her, and she will get upset if I try to when she wants her daddy to.

It's very typical for adopted kids from institutions to prefer the dad figure for a while. They usually have been cared for only by women and so when they finally have a male figure around, they really prefer it. Also, sometimes there can be some hostility towards an assumed mom figure when a child subconsciously remembers a feeling of abandonment or loss surrounding their biological mother. This is just the hard truth. It is something that God can certainly heal and work through...but it is not uncommon for adopted children to prefer Daddy. I do not think Camila seems hostile towards me at all. She is just definitely in an all out daddy phase right now.
Danny has turned into an ol' softy. I hate to say it, but this little girl has him wrapped around his finger. ;)




Camila is such a precious little sweetheart. She loves to be tickled, sang to, rocked and chased. She has been sleeping in her big girl bed in her bedroom without a bit of trouble. She loves it when we tell her what a big girl she is. She laughs and squeals! She also tells us every time she needs to potty now. She can pretty much wear her big girl panties most places we go.




Josiah and Isaac are trucking on in school. It looks like we will be through with our curriculum by about a week before Christmas. Our curriculum is for four days a week for 36 weeks, but by simply working through five days, we end up knocking nine weeks off of our "structured" school year. Pretty nuts.
Josiah is in fourth grade this year, and is doing super. He is finding the math has surely stepped it up a notch. He could almost teach himself his math last year. He found it fairly easy. This year, not so much. Each day he is really having to wrack his brain, but he's doing well nonetheless.

Isaac is doing better on his reading. At first, I was a bit concerned. After a couple of weeks of getting our feet wet though, things are looking up. Math seems to be his forte, and so far he understands concepts quickly without a hitch.

I am mainly working on making sure Amaus knows all of his letters and sounds, and numbers up to 20. He learned to recognize the letters in the alphabet right when he was just turning two. It was amazing. He picked it up merely from me pointing them out to Isaac while he sat on in my lap. So I'm hoping by the end of the year he will be sounding out some simple words. I'm not pushing him though. He's only three, and three year olds learn best by being imaginative and having plenty of time to run and play and explore.


Camila sits on for our alphabet and number games, but my primary goal for her this year is just to know and recognize more English, and have fun doing it. That entails learning objects, etc. Besides that, she gets plenty of time to play with certain developmental toys that cause her to have to problem solve and manipulate. She is doing great with these activities, and loves figuring out how things are put together and work.




We are counting the weeks down until we take a family weekend trip to the beach. We will be going labor day weekend, and are very excited about sharing the joy of the beach with Camila. It's only about eight weeks, and a few days away, but who's counting?




Everything is swell. The cow's giving, the garden's making, the kids are happy and healthy, and the flowers are blooming. The Lord is working in our lives and leading us forward. What more could we want? Life is good.