JUNE RECAP

Once again I have gotten a little behind, but this time I have a good excuse: international move. We will be moving back to the States in three days but I wanted to do a quick recap of June before we leave.

June was a very busy month for Leo at work and school. There were a few weeks that we didn´t see much of daddy. Thank goodness for Grandma Yolanda. It was a great month for Charlie. He graduated from "Colegio Infantil" and he received a excellent report card. On Charlie´s last day of school Clark wouldn´t leave the school grounds. He wanted to go to school. If we weren´t moving to the States he would actually start school in September although he doesn´t turn 3 until December. Avery turned 6 months old and is cute as ever although she loves sitting on peoples laps which makes getting things done more difficult. Overall it was a good month.

Avery at 6 months.

The funny face Clark makes when he smiles sometimes.
Superhero Charlie

We have had some good times in this hallway playing with cars, scooters, soccer, piggy-back rides, basketball and bowling. Who needs a backyard when you have a long hallway.

Charlie at his graduation.

Charlie and his cousin Javi on their last day school.

We have 2 motorcycles, 2 cars, and 2 scooters plus a walker for the kids. I think we need to invest in a parking garage.

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL

All summer long it seemed that Charlie was looking forward to starting his second year of school, but for some reason during the few weeks leading up to the first day of school Charlie started to say that he didn´t want to go because he was "worried". (The worries start at a young age these days). As a result, the first day of school was not the happiest for Charlie. (See the pictures below. ) Now, however I can happily report that he likes to go to school and he is no longer worried.

Since my shift starts later, I am able to take Charlie to school before I go to work. It is one of my favorite parts of the day because it gives us a chance to be together just the two of us. We live fairly close to the school so it is quicker just to walk and Charlie and I have some very "deep" conversations sometimes. For example, the other day out of the blue Charlie asked me, "Mom, why doesn´t Jesus have shoes?" I replied, "well, where Jesus lived it was very hot so he didn´t wear shoes or he wore sandals". To which Charlie responded, "But, mom, how do flip-flops fly?". Good question. Oh the things that make you go hmmm!

School Days

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

3 and 7/12

Charlie has always done very well in school. In fact at the beggining of the school year the teacher, Silvia, commented how well he participatesd in class which suprised us a bit considering how timid and shy he is usually with the people. However right after Christmas when he went back to school, something changed. One day the teacher asked me if Charlie was different at home because he had changed drastically at school. Before, he would tell everybody what he had done (including the time he fell done the stairs with Leo) now he just shrugged his shoulders and wouldn´t speak. Before he was very independent and now he would just sit in the corner and cry because he couldn´t zip up his jacket or find his gloves. We knew that the birth of Clark had affected Charlie but we didn´t realize just how much. We knew time was the best cure but we also decided to make an even greater effort to make Charlie feel special, including special play dates with mommy and daddy and prizes for being a good boy. We also decided it would be fun to celebrate Charlie´s birthday at school. Charlie´s real birthday is at the beggining of September but school here doesn´t start until the end of September so we didn´t have the opportunity to celebrate it before. Every time Charlie brought home a paper that said that he didn´t have to bring a snack because it was some child´s birthday he asked me when we would celebrate his. So in the end we organized it to celebrate Charlie´s at the end of March. At first I wanted to try to celebrate right at his half birthday mark but that didn´t work out so it was more like 3 and 7/12. We brought little sandwiches, juice boxes and homemade cupcakes to share with everyone. (There are no rules for only store bought items here) What made the day interesting is that normally there are 24 kids in the class but the night before and that morning it had rained a lot which I guess means a day off for a lot of people here becuase of the 24 kids only 14 showed up. I told the teacher that if kids didn´t show up if it were raining where I come from, then they would never go to school. In the end, we had fun and Charlie really enjoyed wearing the special crown, passing out the food and blowing out the candles even though he did have some difficulties.

As a special gift for the kids we made little necklaces and goody bags that Charlie got to pass out at the end of the day.
Charlie has made a lot of friends at school. He had talked to me about them so much that of the 14 kids there I knew everyones´name but two.

School update: Although Charlie speaks mostly Spanglish he is improving in both languages. He recognizes when he is speaking in English and when he is speaking in Spanish. He can also write his name with out any help and he recognizes many letters and numbers. As we walk around town he will tell us what the letters are on the signs and if it is in his name or not. In fact, at school they have taught him to spell his real name Charles so when he sees his name Charlie he says it missing the S and that he doesn´t have a I.

LITTLE BOY GROWING UP

Charlie started school this year. No that doesn´t mean that time has really flown by and he is already 5 years old. In Spain. kids start public school during the calander year that they turn 3. This has been a big adjustment for both mom and Charlie. All summer long we were trying to prepare Charlie as much as possible for this big step including potty-training. Charlie has always either been with mommy and daddy or grandma. In fact prior to going to school we had never been able to leave him by himself in nursery at church, so we were a bit worried about how he would adjust to going to school. In the end I think it was me who had a harder time adjusting than Charlie. The first couple of weeks was the adjusting period where he only went for an hour and with only 6 or 7 other students. Now he goes from 9am-2pm and there are 24 other 3 year olds in his class. The first day, because of work, I wasn´t able to drop Charlie off, but Leo said he did very well. The second day I got to drop him off and Charlie almost ripped my shirt off because he didn´t want to go. He was screaming and crying so much it made me cry and unfortunately I couldn´t stop. I blame it on the pregnancy hormones. I was crying so much people on the street were asking if I was okay. Although I never cried that much again, everytime I dropped Charlie off and he started to cry I did too, but I made sure I was too far away for him to see. This only lasted the first couple of weeks and now both mommy and son are doing fine and no more tears. Charlie now comes home and tells us all the things he has learned at school. It is fun to see how he is learning new words, sayings, and songs. He likes talking about his friends too. One of the names he mentions most is Pedro, however when he says the name it sounds like "Pedo" and for those of you who speak a little Spanish you can imagine that it makes us giggle a little everytime he says it.

Charlie right before he entered school on the first day.

Charlie going to his classroom with his teacher Silvia.

Charlie after his first day of school waiting for Grandma to pick him up.

On Mondays Charlie has PE and must wear the school uniform. Before the kids enter the classroom they all line up outside and when they go to the class they hang on to each other like a train