Back to school time

After at week at sleep over camp in Charlottesville and a week at Grandma and Grandpa Mac's in NY, Margaret started a new school year at a new school. She will now be going to a small Christian school in our town and is in the fourth grade. She seemed to have a smooth start to the school year. Patrick is in charge of getting her ready and getting her to school, which has minimized the tension in the morning between Margaret and I. After school, she's been helpful watching Abby while I work out. Homework is starting to be assigned and it looks a bit difficult. I hope that she will do her best and that we don't end up having daily battles over homework... but so far, so good...

Since we couldn't afford to send both big kids to the private school, AP switched over the public middle school this year. After coming home from two weeks at sleep away camp, we went to the open house and he and I quickly got lost in the halls of the school. I was supposed to help ease his fears and I ended up making him more nervous! He was especially nervous about gym class and having to change into the required uniform... and also about opening his combination locks. But, after the first day, he was so excited and had such a great time meeting up w/ old friends... I think he'll do just fine. He did say that the high school kids on the bus use a lot of swear words... and that all the boys talk about are girls... He turns 13 in a few weeks! I'm trying to give him good advise and make sure that I appear as "cool" as possible so that he will be open w/ me... but it is hard for me not to counsel him at every opportunity... I'm just praying he sticks w/ a good crowd and that the bad seeds don't rub off on him too much...

I think I've told everyone at this point, but we got great news this week about Abby's sleep test. Prior to surgery she had 148 instances of Central Sleep Apnea during her sleep study... a rare condition caused by pressure on the brain. This time, she only had 12! The pulmonary/respiratory doctor noted that in her opinion, Abigail no longer has CSA (only mild obstructive sleep apnea which is much more common and treated by a tonsillectomy). We are so relieved! We meet w/ the neurosurgeon in a couple of weeks, but we're fairly certain that these results show that the surgery was more successful than he feared and we will only need to monitor the situation and not need to put her through another brain surgery... Amen! Obviously, I've started back to work. Summer was wonderful... first two weeks of school have gone smoothly, but I am definitely tired. Soccer already is in full swing... and Abby has gotten sick twice already in two weeks! But, she really loves going to her baby sitter's home and that makes going back to work so much easier. We are continuing to meet with our "parenting coach" who is teaching us some good techniques for parenting older-adopted children. And, we're looking forward to the Celtic games that are held locally every Labor Day weekend... Check out more pics of the last two weeks of summer... (mostly Abby pics b/c the big kids were away at camp) by clicking the slide show below:

Favorite Camp Cousins Pics

Drove the kids to NY for the annual Mc Eneany Family "Camp Cousins" on Lake Ontario. It was an action packed week. A bit exhausting for all involved, but the kids look forward to it so much every year. They earn badges and have a camp cheer. Even Abby knows it and shouts it out when the time comes! The big kids camp out at Letchworth(thank you Aunt Holly and everyone else!) while Abby and I stay in a cottage near the Falls. Abby's a bit shy with the aunts and uncles, but warmed up well to Uncle Scott and had no problem giving piggie kisses to Grandpa Mac.

Margaret gets pretty spun up by all the activities and non stop fun... so we have a bit of a hard time with each other (to say the least!) We do better if we can escape for a few minutes and have some one-on-one time together or with Abby. Here we are riding the Jack Rabbit while Uncle Scott took the others to the Swings.

My favorite pic from Sea Breeze! Abby can't do bumpy rides, but the Tilt-A-Whirl was smooth enough, so we all jumped in. I screamed the loudest of all... seems the older I get the queasier I get on these rides...

Pulling back into the driveway after the 8 hours road trip home. I told the kids to make it look like they couldn't take another minute in the car! They really did well... but I don't want to make that trip again for a long time!

Facebook | Camp Cousins 2010

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Last Week of July

Bubby came to visit on Friday night and watched the children for us while Patrick and I met w/ a counselor who specializes in families who have adopted older children. It's kind of like "Nanny 911" or adoptive families... Over the summer we spent a day at an adoption/family bonding clinic in Charlottesville. They interviewed Patrick and I, observed us with the children, and now a counselor will be coming a few times a month to show us the tapes and give us parenting tips. Parenting in itself is a demanding job, but parenting children with a history of neglect and institutionalization presents it's own challenges... so we figure we can use all the advise we can get! Thanks to our parents for helping us out with this program.

Margaret and Abby had a girl's week while A.P. was in Fredricksburg at Bubby and Grandfather's house. Since they work full time, he attended camp during the day... and one day they took the kids to a Nationals game!

I love this pic! We're still in the driveway... about to set off for our trip to MD and we had to bring "Bouncey ball" the beta fish with us for the long weekend! Noah and the outdoor cats got to stay home, but we were worried that Bouncey would get hungry and lonely while we were away.

Unfortunately, we got stuck in horrible traffic Sunday while we were coming home from MD. A storm knocked a huge limb across the beltway and were sat there for hours on end... Then the car started making funny sounds, and we realized our rusty muffler was dragging.

Margaret had a doctor's appt. on Monday that I couldn't cancel... so I had to have the Expedition towed and we had to take a shuttle to the doctor's! Then Enterprise picked us up and gave us this rental car for the day. The girls thought the adventure was pretty cool... I was less amused by it all! But hopefully, my car will be in better shape to make the trip to NY this week.

We bought too many bananas and they were starting to go bad, so I searched some cookbooks and found a recipe for banana cake, banana filling and banana frosting! We made two cakes... and I am no Fanny Farmer! It's been two weeks and we still have leftovers in the fridge... oh well...

Six Flags and weekend trip to MD

Annapolis Harbor... so HOT!

The Heelen cousins visit at Nana's. Water playground was relief from the horrible heat.

California Taco... we all love it!

Merry Go Round

Love the tea cups!

The kids earned free tickets for Six Flags by reading for six hours... so we made our annual trip to MD to Six Flags this past weekend. We went Friday and Sat. It was a million degrees! Abby loved the Carousal the best. Margaret loved the Antique cars and AP loved the pirate show and roller coasters the best. The water park playground area was just what we needed to cool down... did I mention it was absurdly hot out!?

Pops was out of town for a wedding so we got to stay at his house and it worked out great. On Sunday we hooked up with Anne and Sean and Carley and the kids played together. We got stuck in horrible traffic on Sunday after a major thunderstorm knocked a tree branch across the beltway... then my muffler fell off... made it home, but what a pain... glad Patrick was with us and driving!

Tea parties, dress up, playing house, doctor...

Girl fun this week while AP is at Summer Quest day camp at EHE. We also went bowling again, picked out new dress up clothes at the thrift shop, had a couple of doctor's appt.s and continued to organize shelves, files, drawers, closets, etc... It's amazing how disheveled things get during the school year... it takes all summer to sort, weed and organize all of our stuff!

Abby

AP attended Summer Quest day camp last week at EHE. Margaret spent the week at Bubby and Grandfathers, so Abby and I had the mornings to ourselves. On Monday, she had an MRI. The procedure went well... since she has Central Sleep Apnea, they had the pediatric anesthesia team do her IV and they put it in after she was asleep (they used a gas mask). She wasn't even aware that she had "an owwy shot." After the procedure she was boneless for a couple of hours... I was by myself and it was REALLY difficult carrying all of our stuff, and her, and getting the food in the cafeteria, etc. Next time, I'll definitely need help...

Unfortunately the MRI came back showing that the decompression surgery did not make enough space for her brain. She is still having some pre-surgery symptoms, so we are disappointed that we have not put this chapter behind us... please continue to pray... specifically, we need her spinal fluid to have enough room to flow around her brain... if that doesn't happen, she could need further surgery (more risky than the first)... She is going to have more tests done over the next six months to see if there are any improvements...

A princess party with Princess Genevieve at the Fauquier Library... Abby "just LOVED" Princess Genevieve. She was a bit shy, but very willing to pose for a picture and even showed the princess how to curtsy.

Playing soccer with her big brother. She takes it VERY seriously! She was goofing off and Coach Patrick made her run around the house twice! She carries a water bottle and everything!

The latest thing is to get mad whenever a stranger talks to her... if she thinks she's in trouble, she will hide under something... and if she is really nervous, she pretends she is a cat and licks me- great. These pics are from before her MRI and she was getting frustrated by all the people talking to her...

She's been attending "Making Marks," an art class for toddlers.

We also took the kids to a signing program at the library in Bealeton and a luau story time at the Culpeper Library. And, we've been hitting the pool at least once a week. Fun stuff. Wish summer would never end.