Great Weekend!

I figure I'd better hustle up here and post something while the gettin' is good. After a REALLY hard Friday with Lydia which included her not going in to school and having to be found outside in the morning, hitting and kicking a friend at school, and running away from me down the street near our house in the evening, we have had a wonderful weekend. She'd actually had a really good day Thursday but right at bedtime wouldn't go to bed and instead played drums and keyboard in the bedroom the girls share. So, after a warning she lost a pretty big privilege - getting to be picked up from daycare by our neighbor and playing with their grandchildren on Friday after school. She was beside herself about that one because Lalie got to go and it was eating her up. She also lost a few other privileges (iPod Shuffle, TV) on the way to school on Friday in the morning when she wouldn't get in the car or keep her seat belt buckled. Later that night after the biggest event of defiance/tantruming had passed, we talked about the fact that it was her choice not to be next door playing. She had made that choice by not going to bed and playing the drums instead. Then, we talked about the other privileges lost and she had a hard time understanding why something she did in the morning still pertained to losing privileges in the evening. I'm sure in Ethiopia, punishment was immediate and done with right away so the whole concept was confusing her. She also has had a hard time understanding how I can take things away from her like her iPod that are "hers."

I'm never sure of Lydia's thought processes but I think she finally connected the ability to do fun things with following the rules in our family and we've had a relatively good weekend. Of course there have been minor infractions and the like but it's bordering on the normal range of issues. The last two nights in a row I've had to tell the girls to stop talking in their beds and go to sleep. I've NEVER had to say that in the two months Lydia has been here. For the last month or so I've had to sit in their room or finagle things somehow so they are willing to even be in the same room with each other. Some nights the animosity was palpable. But lately, as I've been putting them to bed, Lydia has been asking all sorts of questions and telling things she remembers from Ethiopia. I started writing them down last night (well, typing them into a Word document). She has been learning English very quickly from the time she's been here but I think she's gotten her English to the point here that we can now really hold conversations and talk with each other in a much bigger way than before. It's helping immensely (knock on wood)! I'm absolutely astounded by how much English she understands and can use herself at this point.

Another wonderful thing has emerged lately with Lalie. Reading has not come easily to her - it's come along a very bumpy, slow road. She's had tracking and focus problems and although she's always liked me reading books to her at night, she hadn't really taken to it herself like I had hoped she would. In the last few months her reading has really improved and all of a sudden she is regularly talking about how much she loves books and loves to read. She has never said those things before. She also has taken to carrying a book with her when we go places. She's read several Magic Tree House books and I think she finally sees herself as a reader. The picture above is from yesterday when we were swimming at my mom's apartment pool on the first opening day of the season. Lalie brought a book along and after a long swimming time, sat on a lounge chair and read her book for a little while. Amazing.