Ants, school, mayhem

Well, from the title of my post, you have to know it involves Finley - right??? Who else in my family would cause some kind of alarm besides that girl? Today - red ants. Yes my friends, Finley managed to find a red ant hill at daycare today and proceeded to sit on it. Now, to the girl's credit, she had no idea what it was - only probably that it looked cool. Only my girl could do such a thing, and of course, she got stung. A lot. She has about 20 bites on her back, legs, butt. The ants were on her in seconds. The staff at the daycare reacted quickly, got her up, got her clothes off, and got all the ants off of her within seconds. But she was bit a lot. The staff found her new clothes to wear and proceeded to get every ant off of the clothes she would be bringing home. Finley didn't cry much, they said. But she is now covered in red welts. No, the girl couldn't find a black ant hill - she had to find a red ant hill....in the north...in September. She is fine. There biggest concern was if she would have an allergic reaction. With the history of Finley's allergies (and her history in general) that wouldn't have been surprising. But she seems fine. Tonight I will put some cream on the bites to sooth them, but she doesn't seem to even notice them. I told the daycare that I feel bad for whomever Finley marries - she is a handful and a danger to herself!

So, that is our news. Everything else is going fine. Sunday we did get to church and what a welcoming church we found! We were met at the door by about 10 people who were eager to invite us in. Another wonderful thing about Connecticut people - always ready to welcome you wherever we go. Cainan is kind of a "rock star" when we travel - especially around here where to population is mostly, well, caucasian. :) They find our blended family fasinating. But we love it. Always the pro-adoption person I am, I find it an opportunity to speak about how wonderful adoption is.

Anyway, church was great. The babies had a chance to play in the daycare, and Arlington went to Sunday School. The church is small. There couldn't have been more than 80 people there. And that is probably a stretch. There are only 10 rows of pews, two sides. Coming from a large, 1000 person church in Florida, we couldn't sink into the background here. But that is good for us. We tend to be quiet when meeting new people, but Connecticut isn't about that. They jump right in, shake your hand, and want to know your life story. The pastor is a woman. She gave a terrific sermon which spoke to one of my passions - helping the poor people of the country/world. This ranks right up there for my passion of thinking all children in the country need to have health insurance. But that is a conversation for another day. She talked about grace - and how life isn't always fair - that some people get hand outs when we don't think they deserve them, but that is grace. I agree with her 100%. Sometimes people need a hand out before they can get a hand up. I don't think that isn't fair. Pay it forward - that is what it is about. We give things to people sometimes just because it is the right thing to do. And what we can do is hope that they take it, and do something with it.

We met a nice couple at church. They have a little boy that Arlington latched right on to. He is a year younger than Arlington, but their birthdays are both in February. His parents were very nice and we were glad to have met someone so quickly! We will be going back again this Sunday. I think we might have found our church.

Sunday we did the usual - clean up, pack lunches for the week, lay out clothes for the week, laundry, yada, yada. We watched the Steelers (sniff) lose. Even though McNabb was hurt for part of the game for Philly, my Steelers still couldn't pull off a win. UGH! But we are not fair weather fans in this house! We still love them (okay, but I don't always love Roethlisberger). I took some pictures of the kids in their Steelers gear. Not that it helped!

I also had a chance to visit with our neighbor/friend Michelle on Sunday. We had lost our car keys (don't ask me how) - and she came to return them. We had a nice chance to chat and catch up. She is just as involved in education of her kids as I am, so it is nice to talk with someone about that. We talked for over 1 hour and it was nice! I miss getting together with her and hope we can do it more often. She even asked if one morning instead of Arlington going to daycare she could come to their house and catch the bus from here. Arlington would LOVE that!

Yesterday is was back to school and work for all of us. I have been busy at work the last two days - a lot of children sick enough I needed to send them home. It seems early in the year for that for me. But, being in the warm climate, our "cold and flu" season didn't really start until December, AND we really didn't have much fall, so no weather change for allergy/asthma kids. Anyway, Arlington and the kids have had a great start back to school.

Arlington is doing well in Kindergarten. I got a note from Arlington's kindergarten teacher saying how well she is doing and that made me feel good. I told her I appreciate being kept abreast of what is happening. Arlington gets a little confused about what she has done in Kindergarten enrichment and then in actual Kindergarten. But we get newsletters from the teacher every Monday talking about what they are doing and what we can do at home, and homework for the week. Arlington has started "kid writing" - writing words (she doesn't know already) how she thinks they are spelled by what she hears. For example - the word "soccer" Arlington spelled it SCR. Because that is basically what she heard. The teacher thought that was great. We taught her how to spell the word correctly last night and added it to her vocabulary. We have also started the "I can Read" books (which I think I mentioned before) and so we are working through a couple of those. Arlington is also fantastic at memorizing songs. Today she heard a song on the bus the older kids were singing - and she knew it all by the time she got home. Proud mama! More than that- it is I think ALL kids are amazing. The way they learn - truly like a sponge - is the coolest thing.

Monday was "Pinwheels for Peace" at Arlington's school. (they also talked about it at church). International Peace day - what could be cooler? The actual date was Sunday, but school celebrated Monday. Here is a little bit about the day of peace: PEACE
I took a picture of Arlington with her pinwheel below.

Tooday was Arlington's first Daisy Scouts meeting. The parents were invited to this meeting so we could get information and see what it was about. I think Arlington is going to love it. For one - just about every Afternoon Kindergarten girl was there! The other - art, crafts, playing with friends, songs - all up her alley! Today they did a puzzle, colored, had a snack, and learned a song. There is a leader and 4 12th grade girls who will be helping the Daisy scouts. There will be 2 meetings a month for an hour each time. So we will see how it goes. We will get more info as it goes along. They will get cute little uniforms and will earn "petals" this year and next and then in 2nd grade she will move onto Brownies if she likes it.

Cainan - is doing great. Making great strides at daycare. He has another speech therapy appointment on Thursday this week. He has been so happy lately. Very little crying. That is a nice change. His speech will amaze you (for those of you who know us) the next time you see him.

So that is about it. The rest of this week is busy, so I will have lots to report on Saturday!
Enjoy the pictures