Easter and Mothers Day!

Hard to believe it has been two years since we met Alissa.  The week after Easter two years ago we met for the first time and said yes to our referral. 

She has grown so much in the past two years (today on the left and two years ago on the right.)   All kids do between 3.5 and 5.5 I guess, but she has had so much further to grow.  We just went to our kindergarten orientation day last week.  So hard to believe we are here.  No one thought she would be ready and tried to ensure we were comfortable with her waiting another year before starting.  Now, everyone is talking about the negative impact of holding her back a year to start.  Her size 4 pants still fall off of her if I don't take them in first, but they fit in length.  She is starting to read and spell.  Really - she learns to spell at the same time she learns to read a word so she is ready some very basic books.  She is starting to color/draw pictures that mean something, she is creating her own pretend play, she is clearly remembering information and applying it to new situations, she is starting to use her words more and describe situations, and she is happier!  Using the toilet ------well, you just can't have everything:)

For Easter, Alissa wore one of my dresses from when I was little.  She was so proud that she had on mommy's dress.  I made kolaches for Easter.  Although they come from my Czech background I felt that they were as close to the Polish traditions I could get with everything else going on.  We all enjoyed eating them up.  You can see them on our Easter table.  Yum!

Alissa is in two activities right now, soccer and gymnastics.  The soccer is coached by her dad which she loves (along with the fact that she is on the purple team).  This is her second season and she is doing so much better.  She gets the concept of the games better now and is a really good dribbler.  Because of her eyesight issues she uses a red soccer ball and the other kids use white colored balls.  That way she can follow her ball better through the mayhem of 20ish odd kids kicking their balls around.   Gymnastics is also very fun for her.  She is still super strong (from being tense the first two years of her life:(...so she is great at the bars and she loves jumping.  Balancing on the balance beam is the hardest for her - and probably the least fun.  It is a strange combination - ie she can easily do handstands now for minutes, she just can't balance herself.  With a little help from mom she stays upside down just fine. 

The kids are also getting along very well.  I would say they have the normal sibling issues, but they also play very well together. 

Summer will bring about change so we will see how well Alissa handles that change.  She is signed up for a couple of camps with her brother (different groups though) and will continue to go to her child care for a few weeks just to keep that consistency and relationships with friends moving forward.  We also have her enrolled in a combo speech/PT/social thinking session for a week.  The session is based on Michelle Winner-Garcia curriculum which has been very helpful with our daughter.  We're doing it right before kindergarten starts so we hope it will carry over.