hangin in

things are going ok. trying to work out a way to get the kids back to school. Sophie is back to wanting me to do everything for her, including sit up. I wont of course. she is fully capable, even with casts as I have SEEN her do it. so she is mad at me a lot. and then whiny and sorry. Ben is bored I think at home. He needs to go to school with his friends. It is funny that he was SO introverted before school and rarely said a word to anyone and now he does so well at school and comes home with lots to say.

waiting to hear on flights to get back to philly. waiting to hear someone can go with me. I CAN do it alone, I got them back here didnt I? it would be a lot easier with another set of hands though.

today I have to drag sophie and ben out to take chrysta to the orthodontist.They of course think its a big adventure but I am dreading it. Im sure Sophie will sleep all the way. I have to pick up Chrysta at 11 so I wont have time to feed them lunch before we go. I guess they can eat in the car. the problem with that is that sophie CANT. and since Ben cant sit in the way back Chrysta cant sit next to her and feed her. Ben could try but his little hands are so weak he will likely drop someone's sandwhich. I hate to say it but there might be chicken nuggets in store for them today. I dont see any other way. except not feeding them until hours after lunch time. that doesnt seem right.

Ethan started his other new med last night. will see how that goes. hoping it makes a difference for him. while I was gone the boys pulled the alarm off their door. so Ethan has been wandering at night. I found the alarm outside this morning when I took Fabio out and it stil works! so I will be putting it right back up.

our kids are so funny. The other night Eric had to go in to the hospital to deliver a baby. NOT MY BABY. we keep stressing that to the kids. WE ARE NOT HAVING A BABY. but they only hear baby and get all excited. they arent understanding. So I said diasits! no mas! alles! as in ten kids! no more! thats ALL! diana said 11? natasha said 21!!! then they moved on to teasing chrysta who had a hissy fit earlier in the evening. they said when she grows up and no more school and gets married and has a baby she will be grumpy and the baby will be grumpy lol. it was histerical. Chrysta was not amused.

Andre had a birthday the other day. he is 7 now! he got a puzzle and ball and glove. he was very excited. now that I think about it his glove didnt come in last night after he and ethan went out to play catch. Poor Andre though is so little the other ones like to push him around. Diana ended up going to bed without fun or stories because she flat out REFUSED to apologise to Andre for ramming his head into the door. She is like that sometimes. She woke up all smiles this morning though so thats good. School is going well for them. they are all doing really well in their school work and Natasha seems to have settled into her classroom and made some friends. she is very happy most of the time. Jaeger has had a bit of trouble with a brat in his class. someone BIT him and left a bruise where each tooth was. so he must have bit pretty hard! then someone pushed him down into the mud. man the kids are brutal. Jaeger doesnt tell me though the other kids tell me what happens so I never know until well AFTER the fact.

Jaeger is not learning english as fast as the others so sometimes communicating with him is difficult. with him especially I need to forget to speak russian/ukrainian and speak only English so he will learn. Sophie was the same way. refused to learn english. until I stopped understanding her. then it was very quick she learned. I love that they can still speak to each other in Ukrainian but they need to learn English to function here.

a day at home

Ben brought home a little something extra from our trip. a virus. Throwing up. belly ache. burning up. miserable little guy. not eating. barely drinking. napped(he never naps not even in the car)

Sophie is improving but she is pretty warm too and yesterday she kept saying she was going to throw up and I thought it was because she was so worked up about the casts and carrying on so.

yesterday they immediately started drawing on their casts with a marker.

Natasha had a swollen gland in her neck bothering her this morning but it got better as the day progressed.

Eric took the older girls to hospital with him for rounding. meanwhile Chrysta and I hit the house hard and did up the dishes and cleaned the living and dining room. cleaned vacuumed orderly. rearranged the seating at the table putting one bench in the back. the girls werent thrilled. oh well.

well ben and sophie are crying again so I guess I better go. eric is out hunting with natasha diana andre and the dog.

rough day

rougher night.

sophie and ben are both in long casts. both kids both legs. that means 4 casts. and sophie is PISSED OFF about it. thats putting it lightly. they really REALLY pushed those feet to maximum stretch. I dont think she is in pain so much as she is mad and doesnt like it and wants them off. she was playing just fine but now refuses to sleep.

our appointment went well. except for this whole unexpected casting. they have a plan for both kids. Ben we thought would need a derotation but actually the problem is all in his FOOT not his leg. so thats why we are trying to hard to get his feet straightend. he will eventually have surgery on his one hand to move a couple tendons. Sophie is getting casting first fix up those feet them the hips will be done and then knees. she is going to need fixaters for her knees. I was so hoping to avoid that. gosh I was hoping to avoid that. but I guess its looming out there.

so anyways I will be heading back to philly in a couple weeks. and again after that. how long I dont know. until its done I guess. I sure wish I had someone to come with me on these flights and stay at RMH with me. The big kids are in school and cant really miss class. Eric has to work and the other kids have school. so who wants to come to philly with me? seriously I NEED someone to come with me to help me with TWO temporary invalids. its not easy to get two kids on a plane when neither of them walk and the stewardesses "cant hold children its against policy" so they stand and smile while you rely on strangers to help you. Not sure what purpose a stewardess serves if they cant help out in any capacity. basically they are drink delivery I guess? I dont know. anwyays I have to get up at 3am tomorrow and sophie is still wailing so I guess I should turn out the lights and try to sleep.

Philly Baby!

sophie ben and I had a long day getting to philadelphia. there was a friendly face (that turned out to be a friendly family)waiting for us. we are at Ronald McDonald house in Camden NJ. tomorrow we see the doctor.

Getting here was difficult. I have to say that I am so thankul for the kindness of strangers. Countless strangers who stepped outside of their little world and into mine. not the employees although there were a few of those who were kind and helpful. I am talking pure strangers who happen to be board the same plane. I am so so so thankful for their kindness. Perhaps it is the universe showing me that even though I get discouraged and feel my small kind deeds make no difference, they DO make a difference and when you least expect it they will come back to you.

We have been visiting with a family I knew online. love them! Sophie calls Valerie "ballerina" instead of Valerie. Valerie has a child with AMC and he and Sophie are fast friends and may even marry one day! Sophie was the bell of the ball, all of Valeries boys wanted to sit by her. well she IS gorgous.

the kids are sacked out. they insisted on sleeping ont he floor. so I am off to the shower and get some sleep before early morning and off to clinic.

wait! you're going to ....WHAT?

Eric was taking care of the chickens. every night he and Cody go out and feed and water and move the chicken tractor. Natasha was out with them. These kids LOOOOOOOVE chicken(kulicka!) they can devour an entire chicken in no time at all if we dont set limits. they love chicken soup. chicken leftovers. and no matter what I cook they are asking is it kulicka. We always laugh about people who dont know where their trash goes...it just goes ......away. they know nothing of what happens to it. we di and thats why we compost recycle and reuse. so here was this lovely child with no clue about where things come from apparently. Eric told her what was going to happen to the chickens. she was horrified. which is just so funny to me the way she devours chicken! she likes to eat chicken but didnt know that they were once living things that were killed for her dinner. wonder what she will think next time we have chicken.

The kids and I are off to philly this week. TOmorrow I have to take them to the cities to stay with uncle Bob and aunt Jeannie.we have a very early flight out on thursday. They so kindly offered us a place to stay and a ride to the airport. Our appointment is on Friday. Then we fly out again on Saturday to return home. I hold out great hope that this doctor will see the potential in our dolly and give her a chance at a future that includes walking. at least being able to transfer and things like that. she can not go through life with her legs this way. she cant even take herself to the toilet. she is getting too heavy to carry. she still works well in a sling. but that wont help her get to the bathroom by herself! she is so smart and motivated and just plain all around beautiful inside and out, I cant bear the thought of no one giving her a chance!

Natasha is very concerned about my leaving without her. this is hard but it must be done. it makes me feel good that she so wants me to be here with her, but bad that I must leave her behind. its only for a couple days. she doesnt have enough english for me to explain that I will ALWAYS come back. I did my best to reassure her that I am her Mama FOREVER. not just when she can see me. That reminds me I have to call school again about a boy named Blake being mean to her.

morning science lesson and cookouts

this weekend we had a cookout. the kids really enjoyed being out back by the fire but were cold so they had on winter parkas. we roasted hot dogs and made smores. Natasha especially seems to relish every experience, this time was no different. she loved it. Diana didnt want to go out there but when she found it we would EAT outside she was all for it. Jaeger kept wanting to go inside. he likes to lock himself in his room alone. Mean mom enforced family time. Andre ate and ate and ate. They put away 2 full bags of chips a box of crackers a package of chocolate bars nearly an entire bag of marshmallows. they loved putting stuff into the fire but did not like mom's very strict rule that anything going INTO the fire STAYS in the fire. Andre burned his hands trying to retrieve something. not badly but still this is why we have the rule. and also it keeps kids from burning each other or burning down the forest by putting a stick in the fire and then when the tip is hot pulling it out and waving it around etc. anyways they all survived. had a great time. cant wait to do it again.

This morning we had eggs for breakfast. one of the eggs was not an egg but an EMBRYO! we cut open the sac and looked at what was inside. was really a neat moment. except for Ethan telling us we killed it. these were store eggs so it isnt like we took an egg from a hen when she was trying to hatch it.

well about 40 cavities today. yikes

my most recent article

http://millelacsmessenger.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=35763:life-as-a-dozen&catid=60:columns&Itemid=79

todays upcoming events

get four kids from school and take them to the dentist where they will no doubt offer to do thousands of dollars of work for us. their teeth are a mess. missing teeth, black rotted teeth, jagged teeth. never have I even SEEN kids with teeth this bad. Natasha's arent bad, Diana's arent great. Jaeger's arent too bad but Andre's are the WORST. I wonder if it is from the medication he was taking. liquid meds. never thought of that. Ben and Sophie came from same place and had perfect teeth.

next week I head to Philly with Sophie and Ben. what an adventure THAT will be. Hope to see you Valerie and Chelsea! Hope to hear good news. while surgical intervention is likely what will be recommended we are prepared for that and in our case that IS good news. because it means someone is willing to take a chance on them.

for now I better hit the shower and get the dishes done so I can pick up the kids in two hours.

update

jaeger does indeed need glasses. ethan needs new glasses and a trip to the surgeon to discuss his eye problem and whether or not it needs fixing. We picked up a new stroller from a fellow freecycler as the one we had drove me nuts! I left the old one at moms to give to goodwill. the new one is very lightweight and perfectly rolls. no problems. and its cute. I like my double when I have Ben too but when I just have sophie I need a single.

I am sneezing like crazy. my nose still runs. my head still hurts. at least the razor blades in my throat have let up. Cody was home sick yesterday too.

I was looking at some photos from our time in Kiev and the kids have changed so much! in just one month! the girls no longer wear their hair in a pony 24 hours a day. they wear it down or in some other style of their own doing. Maia loves when Natasha does HER hair for her. Andre is no longer the wild child he oncce was. Although he is still very demanding but he only cries now when scolded doesnt fly off the handle and go ballistic. Jaeger seems to think when parents give an order that he doesnt care for he can just smile and say no and like magic he wont have to do it. he is learning though. mostly he is a good kid. he has a little trouble with retaliation too but he is very helpful and always ready for a kiss and hug. and they all go off to school with a smile. they still dont like my oatmeal but are getting better about eating what we offer. Last night we had chicken and potatoes and wow they LOOOOVE that. I think thats their favorite meal. kulicka and kartoshka. We had some pot stickers awhile back but they werent as good as I hoped. the kids gobbled them up thinking they were like pelmenis. Dima they didnt hold a candle to your pelmenis!

overall we are all adjusting fairly well. Even Ethan is adjusting. Jaeger is a rough and tumble kind of boy and Ethan now has a way to get out his own rough and tumble tendencies. He never could play that way with Ben because of his AMC. But Jaeg and Ethan are always laughing and rough housing with each other. the girls mostly get along and Maia sometimes feels left out or grieves the loss of her being the only little girl. mostly they are 3 muskateers though. where one is the other two will be found. Ben and Andre are good friends. so it seems everyone has a playmate except Sophie. Thankfully she is good about playing alone. Ben plays inside with her sometimes. she and he are still best best friends. I have no doubt that when they grow up THOSE TWO will be very close. I always wished I had that kind of relationship with a sibling.

this week will include another two trips to st cloud for dentist and orthodontist. but today thankfully I have nowhere to go. too bad I have to clean out the girls room. it looks like a dump truck came in and just dumped clothes everywhere.

first attempts

we took the kids to father hennepin today. we hiked awhile and then played in the sand and on the shore. We made our first attempts at a family photo. since it is the first time we have all been together on an outing. We snagged someone nearby to take the pics.

GRRRR! Various people have been very kind in giving us clothing for the children. one shirt was really cute for a boy. it had a plastic light up batman car on it and I try and try to make Ethan feel special. It fit him just right and I put it in his box of clothes(which I have no taken) and he cut it up! he cut it up with scissors. cut through the shirt through the plastic presumably to get out the light. he did this last night during movie time. Probably while I was at the store. who knows when. I dont even know where he got scissors. This kid is gonna be the death of me. He destroys EVERYTHING he comes in contact with. he doesnt CARE about anything. nothing. there is nothing I could take away that would make an impact. there is nothing I can do to make an impact. he just doesnt care about anything. nothing. this is my reward for letting them all stay up and watch a movie last night instead of putting them to bed as usual. and he and ben were up and started the day at FIVE AM after going to bed late. they dont even get up that early for school. I already buy very little for the kids because it just gets destroyed. I guess this is my clue to buy less. and never let Ethan out of my sight unless he is in his room which is where he is now. Jaeger is in there with him. he lashed out at Andre and hit him. I dont expect these bunk beds are going to last long. but then they can sleep or not sleep on the floor I guess.

Chrysta didnt get home until after 1 and in general the boys are up every night so I never get more than a few hours of uninterrupted sleep. I have not had solid sleep in.....I cant remember how long.

of course no one will play outside today and eric is on call and on urgent care all day. today is not a good day.

16 years ago

at this moment I had been up all night, given birth to my first born child, my teeny tiny cody, taken a bath and was back in bed holding my newborn son. Watching Cody grow has been very satisfying and rewarding. he is such a loving sweet boy. helpful and kind. shy as all get out with strangers but with family he is funny and animated and we love him to bits. Cody and I like to play practical jokes on each other. Just little things. You never know when you will find one. I love you Cody. You will always be my baby.

life and times of a public school going family

school seems to be going well. Chrysta is off to cheer at an away game tonight. her cheer team is not your average group of giggly popular conceited cheerleaders. no, hers is the small town anyone who signs up can cheer group. so it consists of one very chubby girl, one obese girl, one mentally challenged girl, one goth girl, chrysta, and one other girl I dont know anything about. interesting team huh? anyways she enjoys it so I hope she has fun tonight at the game but we will miss her at the dinner table.

I called Ethan's teacher the other day and told him I would like to have a planner used with Ethan. no reply. no planner. I am a little annoyed by this.
Natasha's teacher sent home practice for name writing and spelled our name wrong. Diana and Ben brought home notes from school(ALREADY!!!) that someone in their class has head lice. Jaeger and Ethan brought home the same note today. Everyone brought home this paper about the flouride rinse and signing for them to opt out of do nothing if they should participate, why do I keep getting all the papers I already filled out giving permission or nonpermission for things? LACK OF ORGANISATION?? Maia and Andre seem to be enjoying kindergarten. everyone is happy to go to school and happy when they come home. this makes ME happy.

Sophie and I had a quiet day at home. getting into routine without the kids. send the big kids off. send Ben off(seperate transport) take dog out, do dishes, do laundry and put away. bake or do something else(today we went to a rummage sale) Eric comes home for lunch, Sophie naps after her lunch. I dozed in the chair today because the dishtv kept cutting out. so Fabio and I snuggled up and snoozed. then the kids come home and backpacks and lunch boxes and papers and chaos begins. Natasha's stories about her day always crack me up. yesterday was about her and two other girls on the swings and when she couldnt understand the one girl she got mad and moved to the other side of the other girl. Today she was telling me about a BIG boy (and puffed out her cheeks) and he has freckles(she poked her face all over and says like Jaeger) and how the boy was looking elsewhere and didnt go when it was time and then when he did go he ran into her. most of this is gathered via her few English words and a lot of crazy sign language and mime act.

Maia is wanting family movie night tonight. Looks like its going to rain. It is almost time for Eric to come home so I better go cook something for dinner.

school

they went off to school yesterday all happy and smiling. They all came home happy and smiling. I guess thats a good sign. I only cried a little when they went. Maia and Ben were the hard ones. Maia is my adorable happy go lucky loves life and dances through everything as if it were music just for her. I didnt want her to go to school. I wanted her to stay my baby girl. I was teasing her after school about if she missed me. she insisted she didnt. I told her to lie and tell me she missed me just to make ME feel better. she laughed and said Mom I didnt miss you! little imp! I told her I was glad she had a good time and now she wouldnt have to go back and she could stay home and be my baby (this is a careful dance, with some kids they would see this as an opportunity to turn it on you and say they wont go to school) she smiled and laughed in her Maia way and said she is going back there every day.

Natasha told me she made 2 girlfriends. Ben told me someone pushed him down on the slide and his big brother stuck up for him.(this is a big deal because that same brother has had animosity for Ben forever) I made sure to praise big brother for sticking up for his brother. Diana came home with a smile but didnt tell me much. (but she was tired, and today she was a grump and didnt want to get out of bed or shower or eat or get ready or do anything) Jaeger and Ethan both brought me some work they did. Jaeger is absolutely thrilled to go to school. jumps right out of bed to shower and get ready. he had a very difficult beginning but is really getting better all the time and shows a lot of love and is very helpful. Ethan had a bit of a hard time in first grade. much work, little play. hard transition. and he was very distracted by the other kids so much so he had trouble working. Cody and Chrysta had a good day too. Andre came home happy and smiling and forgot his lunch box in his backpack and had hot lunch at lunch time. same thing happened to ethan last year.

I am a little annoyed with the school that they take ALL the K students down to breakfast so they know where it is. so guess what? they ate breakfast! after I fed them at home. and by the way breakfast isnt free. Maia had a doughnut and Andre refused home breakfast today thinking he was getting breakfast at school. how can you take them all down there and then say no YOU cant eat and YOu cant eat but YOU can. its really rather stupid. and mean. and they dont care that it is costing US money when the kids are eating two breakfasts and will now be in the habit of going to breakfast at school. the kids have no idea that it costs money for breakfast. if you qualify for free lunch and breakfast that is one thing but many families DONT. not to mention they have milk 3 or 4 times a day and have to pay seperately for classroom milk time and lunch milk time. it is expensive to send a kid to FREE PUBLIC SCHOOL!

I asked what the plan was for the Ukies and they were advised to see how it goes and let them get settled and go from there because there is no translator or esl teacher for russian in this district. not sure how long they are planning to wait but they are losing out on lessons going much past next week. I suppose they will do nothing and I will have to pull them out and teach them myself letters and numbers and catch them up. I wonder what will happen with Ben. will they give him services? he gets them for his physical disabilities but his mental achievement is on the lower side and he is not a quick learner. but he is a real love.

What a surprise

here I was happily rolling along thinking everything was fine. and what a lovely honeymoon it was. and WHAM! I got hit in the face with "what have I done? am I nuts? will they EVER understand me? what the heck is the deal with their sudden behavior problems?" after this always comes the "how long until I can find them a new home? how will I do that? what will the children think of me then??" I have these feelings every time we have a new child/children. I have a freakout before they arrive and then I calm down and then they DO arrive and everything is going swimmingly and then something completely normal and par for the course happens and I start to wonder if I have lost my head. In fact I wonder why it took so long. Happened with Chrysta, Maia, Sophie and Ben, of course it would happen when you add FOUR children to your family. It isnt easy making four strangers into family. Especially four strangers old enough to walk and talk and speak another language. While we do love them all they do have their own personalities and experiences which guide them and sometimes its hard to understand what makes them tick that way. Thankfully it is only a fleeting thought that happens when things are going badly. MOST of the time the things we deal with are extremely normal childhood things or sibling things. some of it is lack of education on their part that they just dont understand how to live in a family. It will come in time. I have to remind myself that it isnt a personal assault when I find other peoples things under a child's pillow. They just dont understand that not everything is community property as where they came from everything was community property. and sadly I just dont have enough language skills to communicate to them all the time. My second language skills are woefully inadequate. but I learn new nouns all the time, problem is that all nouns and only one or two verbs makes it hard to talk to them.

I guess I am on track with Traci in that I am mourning my loss of freedom a bit. the changes in my life. While I chose these changes they are still changes and sometimes you just LONG for those easy days when all of this was a happy pipe dream. or when you only had 2 daughters and 2 sons so it was easy to buy 2 of anything. but when you have ten its hard to buy enough of something. If I think awww this is cute, I could buy it for the girls, then I have to buy 5 of them. in seperate colors of course so they know which one is theirs. Meanwhile husband goes off to work, comes home reads the news waits for dinner, and his life is much the same. It isnt that he doesnt help me. he helps me a lot when he is home. it is just that his world isnt changing like mine. and he still has plenty of outside communications. I have little to none. I long to talk to a grown up for awhile! but there is little point in calling anyone as I will be constantly interrupted and impossible to actually have a conversation. My mom calls now and then. She tries to catch me at not busy times. but with ten kids, who can say when its gonna be busy? I used to call her daily. I rarely have time for that now. Maybe when the kids are off to school all day I will have more time to call her. just me going through adjustments I guess. up until now it was all about THEIR adjustment. well its finally about my adjustment. things are different. things have changed. they are still changing. and I have to adjust. that takes time and energy. and when the boys are up all night I have little energy to face changes.

the rainy cold weather is not helping my spirits much. I am a sunshine girl. although I do love a good thunderstorm. I completely missed out on one last night. by the time I got finished getting everyone ready and to bed it was over and I had no time to enjoy it. winter is coming and I almost completely missed out on all the summer things I love. we cant even have a cookout, a favorite fall activity, because it would be too dangerous for the boys as they dont listen so great yet.

well I better get off this thing and get clothes for everyone for school open house in 2 hours.

WAHHHHH!

tomorrow I take my baby to kindergarten. I take all my other babies to school as well. some of them are also in K. I dont want her to go! I dont want her to grow up! I wanted her to stay 5 forever but she got 6 and now she is off to school. WAHHHH!

everyone is excited for school. backpacks are packed and ready. tomorrow is only drop in day for us. pictures and meet the teacher and find your classroom.

in other news, everyone here is always happy....
unless.....

1. they dont get their way
2. they dont get what they wanted
3. they dont feel like doing what you asked
4. they didnt bother to do what you asked
5. the think the rules dont apply to them
6. they think everything belongs to them
7. they have natural consequences
8. They have chores
9. it's the middle of the night
10. you have the big D and I dont mean Dallas.

other than that yeah everyone is usually pretty happy.

time? time on my hands? what?

school starts next week! I will have 3 first graders and 4 kindergarteners! as well as a sophomore and an 8th grader! and a preschooler!! I am looking forward to a bit of quiet time while they are at school and its just Sophie and I here at home. although it wont be that quiet as we have doctor appointments all over the country for various children, dentist appts for various kids, etc. and about a week after school starts I will be here crying how I miss them and wish they were home with me and why do I have to send them to school anyways? but for a week it will be heavenly.

The other day I was waiting for chrysta to get out of surgery. there was no one in the waiting room. I read my book awhile. Had two doctored up cups of coffee(as in added hot choco to make it more mochachino like and a creamer to make it creamy...and yes it was good) but after a bit I started to pace. I was bored! I realised I dont know how to sit. just sit. I have not had time like that in so long. I always have little kids. while I love our little kids and when we had them I was totally NOT ready to not have little kids around. but now I think I am ready for the kids to start growing and not having more babies or little people. just big people live here. I will relearn how to entertain myself with scrapbooking and sewing. the neverending cleaning that needs to be done. half hour after its clean it looks like a disaster when ya have kids!

So today we head out to enjoy a picnic and play in the pool awhile and enjoy one last summer hurrah together before they go off to school. wow life will be so different next week!

as one can imagine...

life with 10 kids 3 dogs a cat and a husband doesnt leave much computer time. put dogs out, Cook, wash dishes,let dogs in, clean up messes, do laundry, and cook again. referee, let dogs out, answer the phone, make appointments, let dogs in, drive to appointments. get kids fed and to bed and fall into bed. This is life with 10 kids. I have also decided that we dont read enough. myself included. So I am on a mission to spend less of my spare time on the computer and more of my time reading. so when the kids go to bed I want to curl up with a good book. we all cleaned up the living room and the boys room today. folded a bunch of laundry. still need to find a working system for 4 boys clothes. They have plenty of clothes to WEAR but where to put it when they arent wearing it? The girls are putting their new dresser to good use. this also freed up another small dresser for Chrysta to have. The boys need a dresser. the small 3 drawar one they have was inadequate for 2 boys. it is woefully inadequate for 4! Even if I take out the shorts there still isnt enough space.

the kids are really settling in nicely. Although Jaeger has his moments of defiance he is improving steadily and is always first in line to give Mama a hand with any chore I might be working on. Andre is not biting. at least for now. I had the translater at the doctor tell him biting isnt ok. and the translater told andre and had this look of horror on his face so I hope that Andre got the message that biting is not cool. in general Andre remains a loving and active curious little boy. too curious for his own good sometimes. Natasha and Diana will be in different classes in school next week. I think this will be good for them. One cant seem to make a decision without the other. cant go somewhere without the other. cant do ANYTHING without the other. Today Natasha wanted to go outside and Diana didnt. I said that was ok diana could go downstairs while Natasha went outside. but instead diana got her sweater and went out with Natasha even though she really didnt want to. things like this happen all the time. Diana needs to learn to be just Diana and just Natasha needs to learn to be Natasha and not always part of "diana and natasha"

I love my new laundry soap. it was fun making it. I use a bit more of it than I used for a load when buying detergent but its super cheap, pennies, so its ok to use a bit more to get things clean. my borax isnt that high and that could be part of the problem, I just used the borax I had around instead of buying a higher mule team. Perhaps it would be worth it to buy more before making the next batch.

Well the dishes are waiting and i have to go to the drugstore before it closes so I better go!