Week 435

I just survived one week with Colt gone...and it seriously felt like a looooooooot longer than seven days!!!!

BUT the key word is SURVIVED!

I did it.

Yes, I nearly pulled all my hair out and Rodas got to sleep at the table with me on the floor beside her for one night....but we ALL survived. Period.

Okay, so it really wasn't that bad, but it was tough. I had the single parent routine with the boys down pat so that when Colt left on fires, it barely created a ripple in their day to day life other than the obvious void that a wonderful father leaves (morning hugs, night-time wrestling sessions, TV or cookies when Mom's not looking...). This was the first time Colt has been gone for more than a couple of days at a time and it was a juggling act at first and included a number of late nights trying to get to the laundry, dishes, garden and sometimes even the email. Since the girls came home, Colt has really stepped it up to help out around the house, and now when he is gone I really feel the weight of it.

The week also included Wyatt's first swimming meet (he swam the 25m freestyle and did great!) during which three bored siblings constantly wondered when the three-hour meet in the stinky, hot indoor swimming pool would be over. It also included the week Rodas needed to start a particularly yucky tasting medicine, which she would not take in any form it was handed to her. I tried fun, I tried subtle, I tried CHOCOLATE ICE CREAM (which actually did a really good job of hiding the ickiness), but no go. Thus the night at the kitchen table (I have a rule that I always follow through on a consequence I lay down...I thought it would work with her and we'd escape the consequence but it didn't. So, we both slept at the table and I will not make that a consequence again...BUT, she now truly knows Mommy doesn't back down...and Mommy knows that neither does she...argh!). Anyways, lest you think I am a mean Mommy--it is a very important medication that she must take and when she wouldn't take it in the chocolate ice cream--which I KNOW did not taste too bad--then I knew she was making it into a control thing and this is something we can't budge on. We are currently in the search for a liquid form of the medication, which I am pretty sure will still end up with Colt and I forcing down her throat with a tube...something I am horrified to do as I DO NOT want us to in any way be viewed by her as a physical threat.

Please, please drink your medicine little one!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It also included a number of days where Tsegereda constantly voiced her decision NOT to go to school, thus prompting her little sister to do the same. Being told that school is not a choice was not received well. I feel for her as I truly understand how the idea of school can be so daunting to a young girl from another land and language. As she put it once, "Mommy, at school everyone English, only Tsegereda Tigrinya!"

So, we started Mommy School in order to help Tse feel more comfortable with some of the terms and concepts that she will be expected to know in Second Grade. It has been a good refresher for Wyatt and Noah as well. Tse is very bright, but there are gaps in her learning that are going to be difficult to bridge. She is going to have a wonderful teacher this year, and Wyatt will hopefully be in her class to help. But I know we will also have to work extra hard at home to catch her up. The biggest hurdle will be to help build her confidence enough so that when she gets frustrated she learns to forge ahead instead of shutdown, which is her current way of dealing with it. I am a bit torn because I honestly feel the best thing for her would be to delay school for a few months, get her a tutor to help with her English and the gaps in her reading and math skills, and then put her in school. She would be more confident, as her communication skills seem to be her biggest worry, and she would not get so frustrated thus would be more open to learning. She loves doing the school work and is now saying "yes" to school...but I fear the first day at school might be overwhelming and turn her back the other way (is that pessimism or realism?).

I could homeschool, but Colt and I also feel that school and being with her peers will teach her the social skills she needs and provide her (hopefully) with friends and an even better grasp of English. I am also not sure that I could teach her what and how she needs to be taught, thus my dream for a tutor (oh, Sharina, why did you have to MOVE!!!!!) (0:

So, maybe the answer to what is right might come this month as the countdown to school is down to less than a month.


But for now, right this minute, I am grateful that my husband arrived home safe and sound from fires far away and I am grateful for my wonderful children that make every day an interesting voyage.