Tuesday, March 2, 2010
CHI Reunion ... Anyone?
We got an email about the CHI reunion this summer. Anyone out there planning on going? We'd love to meet some of our blog-buddies in person!
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Claudia's 7th Birthday
Toy veggies and fruit from Grandma & Grandpa Verhulst
A "laptop" from Grandma Schoemig
More educational electronic games
The kids (and Hanai)
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What a difference a year makes, hardly looks like the same kid...
February 17, 2010
February 17, 2009It's hard to believe we are starting our second round of birthdays. There will be no more surprise celebrations now. They all now know when their birthdays are (everyone got their own calendar for the New Year and they all counted the days until "Claudia's Happy Birthday" this year) and what to expect (cake and presents).
Monday, February 8, 2010
Anniversary, Therapy and Education
I finally bought a laptop! Yippee! Now I don't have to wait for a sunny or warm weekend to blog or check my email or do my household budget or ...
Just thinking outloud...
I often struggle with how much to "share" on the blog about certain aspects of our family's life. I feel a responsibility to keep much of our kids' information somewhat private, but then I also feel somehow compelled to be open and honest about the challenges and problems we have had over the past year. However, I also don't intend for it to sound as though everything is always rosey at the Verhulst house (we have our ups and downs). I usually err on the side of caution and hold back quite a bit, since once you post something on the net it's pretty much out there for anyone to see - forever. Just so you know. I have answered some specific questions occasionally by email.
Anniversary
As I said in our last post, we celebrated our one-year-at-home anniversary on February 4th. It wasn't anything really big, just pizza for dinner (which the kids cannot get enough of) and a "family" gift of a Vtech V Flash game system (it's an 'edutainment' system that I found on Amazon.com for $75 - including 4 games). It was a big hit because the kids love all things electronic and Mom and Dad are happy because it entertains and educates them at the same time.
Therapy
Things have been going very slowly with Oscar's home-schooling (mainly reading, he is almost caught up to where he should be in math) - to the point that we had him tested to see if he has some real learning problems. It turns out that he does. We are going to be sending him to an audiologist and optometrist for further testing. We started him on a therapy called Interactive Metronome this week. We are also looking into special education schools to possibly enroll Oscar in next school year. The schools we are looking at have small class sizes, incorporate occupational therapy, and other therapies as needed and have the goal of getting the kids ready to return to traditional school. We visit the first one this Thursday morning.
Diana started her vision therapy at the beginning of January. She enjoys going because she views it as "play time". She talks it up so much with her sisters that Mayerly asks me all the time, "When do I get to go to the doctor?". I told her that she goes to the doctor in April (time for shots again), probably not what she had in mind...
Education
We went to the girls' school tonight for parent/teacher conferences. Everyone seems to be making good progress. Mayerly's teacher even reported that she almost never has trouble with her not listening to instructions now (ah, finally a pay-off for all that discipline). Claudia's teacher just loves all the girls (they were all in her class April-May of last year). Diana's teacher is having a baby before the end of the year (she's due in April). Diana really likes her teacher, so I hope she does okay with the substitute that she will have for the last month and a half of this school year. She doesn't usually take too well to change.
Just thinking outloud...
I often struggle with how much to "share" on the blog about certain aspects of our family's life. I feel a responsibility to keep much of our kids' information somewhat private, but then I also feel somehow compelled to be open and honest about the challenges and problems we have had over the past year. However, I also don't intend for it to sound as though everything is always rosey at the Verhulst house (we have our ups and downs). I usually err on the side of caution and hold back quite a bit, since once you post something on the net it's pretty much out there for anyone to see - forever. Just so you know. I have answered some specific questions occasionally by email.
Anniversary
As I said in our last post, we celebrated our one-year-at-home anniversary on February 4th. It wasn't anything really big, just pizza for dinner (which the kids cannot get enough of) and a "family" gift of a Vtech V Flash game system (it's an 'edutainment' system that I found on Amazon.com for $75 - including 4 games). It was a big hit because the kids love all things electronic and Mom and Dad are happy because it entertains and educates them at the same time.
Therapy
Things have been going very slowly with Oscar's home-schooling (mainly reading, he is almost caught up to where he should be in math) - to the point that we had him tested to see if he has some real learning problems. It turns out that he does. We are going to be sending him to an audiologist and optometrist for further testing. We started him on a therapy called Interactive Metronome this week. We are also looking into special education schools to possibly enroll Oscar in next school year. The schools we are looking at have small class sizes, incorporate occupational therapy, and other therapies as needed and have the goal of getting the kids ready to return to traditional school. We visit the first one this Thursday morning.
Diana started her vision therapy at the beginning of January. She enjoys going because she views it as "play time". She talks it up so much with her sisters that Mayerly asks me all the time, "When do I get to go to the doctor?". I told her that she goes to the doctor in April (time for shots again), probably not what she had in mind...
Education
We went to the girls' school tonight for parent/teacher conferences. Everyone seems to be making good progress. Mayerly's teacher even reported that she almost never has trouble with her not listening to instructions now (ah, finally a pay-off for all that discipline). Claudia's teacher just loves all the girls (they were all in her class April-May of last year). Diana's teacher is having a baby before the end of the year (she's due in April). Diana really likes her teacher, so I hope she does okay with the substitute that she will have for the last month and a half of this school year. She doesn't usually take too well to change.
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Gotcha Day Anniversary
Yesterday marked one year with the ninos (physically, not legally/officially). Looking back, we have made a lot of progress, but looking forward we still have quite a way to go.
We decided not to do a celebration for this (Gotcha Day) milestone. I did give each of the kids a new Leapster game, though they didn't ask why. Free presents for no reason, why not?
I'm not sure we will celebrate the Sentencia (Janurary 27th) either... I'm thinking we may celebrate February 4th (the day we returned home) as our 'Famiversary'. I didn't really feel like a parent until we got back home... on our (Mami & Papi's) turf - so to speak. Before that day I just felt like a highly underpaid, overly abused babysitter... just being honest.
On a separate note...
Our thoughts and prayers are with the Reppe's as they travel to Bogota to meet their 3 little boys! We appreciate their prayers for our family, even before we were thinking of becoming a family.
We decided not to do a celebration for this (Gotcha Day) milestone. I did give each of the kids a new Leapster game, though they didn't ask why. Free presents for no reason, why not?
I'm not sure we will celebrate the Sentencia (Janurary 27th) either... I'm thinking we may celebrate February 4th (the day we returned home) as our 'Famiversary'. I didn't really feel like a parent until we got back home... on our (Mami & Papi's) turf - so to speak. Before that day I just felt like a highly underpaid, overly abused babysitter... just being honest.
On a separate note...
Our thoughts and prayers are with the Reppe's as they travel to Bogota to meet their 3 little boys! We appreciate their prayers for our family, even before we were thinking of becoming a family.
Sunday, December 27, 2009
The True Meaning of Christmas
We bought this at Maku (a store that sells nothing but handcrafted Colombian items) in Bogota. I'll just let the simplicity of this Nativity speak for itself.
Christmas Day - December 25, 2009
We got all the kids "Leapsters" for Christmas. We also got them each a charger (will save us a fortune in batteries), 3 extra games each, and a bag (the girls got little purses) to carry and store them in. We hit a grand slam home run with these... which has not always been the case with gifts (if you've been there, you know what I mean).
For fun, count the number of times you see a dog's tail in these photos.
Kids with a stack o' presents each...
Let the ripping begin!
...and more ripping of paper...
Joke of the day... Claudia has joined the Canadian army... probably because the uniform was sooooo cute! (Thanks again for the clothes Wendy R. from Canada!)
Nothing left to do now except play...
Christmas Play - December 20, 2009
I'll start this post with a sidebar...
We've had a lot of snow and very cold weather the past several days (since Christmas Eve). My PC (we don't have a laptop) is in a "three seasons" porch off of our bedroom, aka "my office". For this reason, when it's cold, I don't get on the computer too much. It's still freezing outside today, but the sun is out today, so I have the shades open and it is bearable to be in my office long enough to post some Christmas pictures ;-). A laptop is still on my wish list...
Below are pictures of the kids in the church Christmas Play last Sunday. I was joking with Tim that our two "angels" held their halos up with their horns - no matter how angelic they look ;-).
The Bonds, another KC CHI family - and good friends of the Sinclairs - were at the Christmas service too.
We've had a lot of snow and very cold weather the past several days (since Christmas Eve). My PC (we don't have a laptop) is in a "three seasons" porch off of our bedroom, aka "my office". For this reason, when it's cold, I don't get on the computer too much. It's still freezing outside today, but the sun is out today, so I have the shades open and it is bearable to be in my office long enough to post some Christmas pictures ;-). A laptop is still on my wish list...
Below are pictures of the kids in the church Christmas Play last Sunday. I was joking with Tim that our two "angels" held their halos up with their horns - no matter how angelic they look ;-).
The Bonds, another KC CHI family - and good friends of the Sinclairs - were at the Christmas service too.
Mayerly is the angel on the left, Manuela Sinclair is the angel in the middle, Diana is the angel on the right, and Vanesa Sinclair is Mary
Claudia is the lamb on the left, Oscar is the shepherd on the left and Angee Sinclair is the lamb just to the right of Mary (Vanesa)
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