Another First - Culture Clash

Chelsea is doing great in school and really enjoys going every day. She would probably be doing better if it did not start so early. To say Chelsea is not a morning person would be an understatement. She is barely a lunch person. Getting her moving in the morning is a family event. Lucky for Michael he is long gone before the kids get moving in the AM. As a morning person he has little sympathy for those who cannot get up and go. However, he did get to experience the "gift of Chelsea" last Wednesday getting them off to late start while Myriam tended to some time-sensitive work for the agency. Even a late start day does not work for Chelsea. Dropping Chelsea off with Chase and Sophie at 9:45 earned no kiss or wave goodbye only a grunt and slammed truck door. She did wave but it was more of a get lost than goodbye wave.

She loves to watch YouTube and likes to watch videos of babies. She really likes babies and it stems from her time in the orphanage. She was tasked with taking care of toddlers in China and we think she sort of misses it. She takes great care of her dolls and gets her fix of babies on YouTube.

However, there are a few issues. This morning (11:00 AM for Chelsea) we were wondering how she came across a cartoon about a brown bear and a little girl. She was enjoying the heck out of it even though it was in Russian. Later she was watching Barney in Spanish. This evening she was singing little finger little finger where are you. It was followed by daddy finger, mommy finger and brother and sister finger. This video was a combination of Chinese and English.

Now don't get me wrong, her English is getting better every day. She is beginning to string two or three words together and even a few short sentences. Occasionally she will have trouble finding the words and it gets hard to understand what she wants. But after today my new challenge is when I do not understand her I have to concentrate not only on the word and context of the moment but also what language she may be speaking...

You have to trick chelsea to look at you
 as she does not like her picture taken


 



Talk to the I-Pad (Disney in Spanish)

Chaos is Calming

You know it has been chaotic when you have to think about the blog post and say to yourself there is so much going on I do not know what to blog about.

Our lives are chaotic and as we dive headlong into another outdoor season with an increase of players by 25% it’s only going to be worse. Our kids know the term "Tuck and Roll", we joke that we are constantly on the move and the car never quite comes to a stop so just Tuck and Roll... But that is how we live; chaos most times organized occasionally and usually less so. The kids roll with the flow though, and we are thankful that Chelsea is about as easy going as they come. She continues her firsts but they come with such ease now that we really don't realize they are firsts for her. For example last weekend we decided we needed to get her some training wheels for her bike. Tonight she trained herself. "Training wheels...I don't need no stink’en training wheels.
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I know she can ride, but dad cannot operate a smart phone...What are you going to do??













Here are a few other picks of our quickly becoming "American Girl"

Hey Batter, Batter, Swing Batter

 

 

I got her to stop just for a minute to take a picture of the American Sluger

 

 

 

Playing Pickle Ball

 

 

Serve it right in here sis.  Marin and I got this

 

 

 

Back at ya Sophie - She actually has pretty good hand eye coordination