Settling Into Routine

This last week has gone by so quickly once again. Between wiping clean so many pudgy fingers and sweet little faces between 3 meals a day and several snacks (not to mention all their little bottoms!), I think the days start becoming a bit of a blur. It reminds me of when I have a newborn and dealing with the lack of sleep and trying to keep track of when to feed them and when to change them and when they should be asleep or awake.

Last week, by Friday, I was ready to pull my hair out. I am not used to having to perform so much discipline, but with four children under age 4 in my care, I have to do it. Nothing drains a person than having to discipline small, adorable children repeatedly throughout the day. It is very taxing, especially when I am trying so hard to always keep my cool and control all frustration (the key word there is trying). I do ALWAYS show an increase of love after their timeouts and we talk about what went wrong. Sometimes, when I am still angry inside at whatever they did, this is the hardest part to do. I need to forgive and forget as easily as they do. This part of their nature continues to astonish me. They can torment each other one minute and when I ask them to say sorry and hug, they are genuine and the whole thing is forgotten!

Discipline is especially difficult with Maya and Tristan because I have the additional worry of trying to ensure a firm attachment with them. For those of you who are not familiar with adoption, attachment is a very serious issue that can take 1 to 2 years for toddlers to accomplish with their new parents. That is why we try to keep their world so small and consistent and loving right now.

Anyways, this week has gone much better. I have started doing a little preschool with them each day. They truly have never been taught anything other than self-care. They have no concept of color, in English or Russian, or shapes or even how to hold up their little fingers to indicate a number. After 3 days of our preschool, they can hold up theirs hands to indicate 1 and 5. :) Two, three and four still require assistance. They are so cute trying, and sometimes Isabelle pretends she needs help so she is not left out. She also pretends she has to think about what color something is when I ask her, so that it is more dramatic. Maya can count to 6 and is starting to sing the ABC song with Isabelle, Tristan is a pretty good guesser at colors (not sure he's really getting it at all) and Maya can draw a circle, kind of. Alex has started talking a lot more now, trying to say more things, probably because we work with Maya and Tristan so much, but the funniest thing is that he is saying "Da" for "Yes!" Isabelle also likes to say "more, keys" instead of "more, please" so that she will sound like them. So, in summary, maybe we are really moving backward in development!

We have started getting out more too. Now that school is back in, the parks are more deserted, so we have been able to go to one of the many parks around us almost every day. They all really love this, although I always feel like I need 3 more sets of eyes to keep track of them all. Today we went to storytime at the local library. I was worried about how they would do sitting there, not really understanding, but they really did great! I think it was because it was such a new experience.

Isabelle has a hard time remembering that Maya is her "big" sister. Can you guess why?

Tristan showing me 5.