Peter played his first ever hockey game this morning.  It was also the first time we had to be at the rink for a 7 am ice time (they rotate the times so that Sunday mornings are either 7, 8, or 9 am, but we missed the previous 7 am ice time when Peter was sick).  They don’t keep score at this level and there’s no talk of winning or losing.  I’m sure some of the kids keep track, but Peter didn’t know where the puck was half the time, so he certainly wasn’t keeping track of the scoring.  When asked after the game, he said his favorite part was playing goalie.  For his very first shift, he played goalie, and he played another shift as goalie later in the game (all the kids take turns).  He had fun, and that’s what counts.

I  have worried about Peter’s adjustment to school, but things have been improving in that area.  Although he had a very rough start,  he hasn’t had a single accident at school for the past two weeks.  I don’t expect that he’s completely done having accidents, but it seems that the worst is over.

When we met with Peter’s teacher before school started, she said something to the effect of, “By the end of October, he’ll be speaking in full sentences in French.”  Well, she was right.  Peter was speaking/singing in French at home since the first day of school, but about 2/3 of the way through October, he really started making an effort to communicate in French (before, it was more like he was repeating aloud what he remembered from the day as a way of reinforcing his learning, just for himself).  He was speaking in full sentences before the end of the month, simple sentences, but full sentences.  He has said things like “Mon nez est violet” (he was being silly, saying his nose was purple) and “Moi est vite” (literally, “Me is fast”–not grammatical, but he is making the effort to put the elements together to communicate).  He speaks French spontaneously to communicate, like to ask for help or to say that he’s done with something, and he responds readily in French when I speak to him in French, like counting when I ask how many of something there are or identifying familiar items in French.  He enjoys sharing vocabulary words that he learns at school, and he’s had to ask me the English names for things he only knew in French (Halloween-themed vocab–we don’t talk about bats, witches, and haunted houses in English all that often).  He says that learning French is fun.  When we met with his teacher last week, she said that he has learned all the vocabulary she’s taught and that he is is one of only a few kids in the class who really make an effort to not speak English.  I’m impressed by how much he is learning and how readily he speaks French at home now.

I’m also starting to appreciate the extent to which he is acquiring another culture as well as a language.  He is developing an identity as a French-speaker.  He participated in activities at school celebrating the franco-Ontarian flag.  He is becoming part of a proud minority group.  I have a strong interest in homeschooling, but after seeing how Peter is responding after less than two full months in a French school, I am feeling that it wouldn’t be fair to him to remove him from French school and cause him to lose that identity and culture (I could probably support him so he wouldn’t lose the language, but he wouldn’t end up fluently bilingual as he will if he stays in French school).  Of course, there is no way to know how things will work out.  Perhaps at some point in the future, homeschooling will be the best thing for him, but for the next few years at least, he’ll be staying in French school.  We think it’s the best thing for him.

After missing hockey last week due to “flu-like illness” (the catch phrase these days), Peter is back in the swing of things.  He went to floor hockey yesterday and had fun (though we had a little talk in the car afterwards about why he shouldn’t fall down on purpose, something that he enjoys doing).  Tomorrow he hits the ice again.  He’s been placed on a team; I got a call from his coach yesterday.  He will have a black jersey (Pittsburgh Penguins colors) and he will wear jersey number 10.  The jersey number was not easy to come up with.  When the coach asked what number Peter would like, he said 91, but the numbers didn’t go that high.  I suggested 4 because he’s four years old, but 4 was already taken.  Peter again said that he wanted 91.  I suggested 19 because it’s the same digits, reversed, but 19 was already taken also.  Don suggested 10.  I’m not sure if there was a reason behind it, but Peter agreed and it wasn’t already taken, so 10 it is.  The coach commented that it’s the same number that Guy Lafleur wore, so Peter will be wearing the number of a French Canadian hockey hero.  Peter’s disappointed that he won’t have a blue jersey, even though we’re trying to convince him that black will look cool too.

Things are moving along on the adoption front.  Next week is session 9 of PRIDE training for me.  It’s the final session of the 9-week series and we’ve been hearing about it since the first day.  It’s a potluck and several adoptive and foster parents come to share their experiences with us.  It should be my last day, but it’s not.  Unfortunately, session 7 was cancelled because the social worker leading the session was sick, so I will have to make it up.  The way the schedules work out, the easiest time for me to do it is on a Saturday morning at the end of January.  It seems like a long time to wait, but I don’t expect our homestudy to be done by then anyway, so it doesn’t really matter.  All that matters is that we both attend all of the sessions before we are approved to adopt.  Don has three more sessions of PRIDE; he’ll be done on the 25^th.  On Monday, a social worker is coming to our house for our first homestudy meeting.

Even though Peter’s still not really healthy, we didn’t want to be the mean parents who ruined Halloween, so we took him out trick-or-treating.  He didn’t last long–40 minutes max–but at least he got to wear his costume and get some candy.  He was an astronaut.  Chalk it up to living in university student family housing, but one man who answered the door for trick-or-treating looked at Peter’s costume and said, “NASA, eh?  So you must be a rocket scientist?”  I don’t know how many rocket scientists wear helmets.  Anyhow, here’s my little astronaut:

Peter has been home from school yesterday and today; he probably has H1N1.  We’re in the middle of a wave of it here; there are over a dozen schools in my board with absences rates exceeding 10%.  People here are pretty freaked out because there was a 13-year-old boy from the Toronto area who played in a hockey tournament in London on Saturday and was dead due to H1N1 on Monday; he was the third young person in two weeks to die of H1N1 in Ontario.  Peter hasn’t been any worse than with any other cold/flu-type illness and his fever is gone now, so I think he’s over the worst of it.  Don stayed with him yesterday morning until I got home at 12:30 and then he left for class; today I had to stay home because Don had too much scheduled this morning.  I’m disappointed that I missed the staff photo and school Mass this morning, but that’s life.  It’s more important to keep my sick kid home to avoid spreading his germs.  The real question is whether or not Don and I will come down with it in the next few days.

Currently, our weekly schedule looks like this:

Saturday: Peter plays ice hockey
Sunday: Peter plays ice hockey, Don plays ball hockey
Monday: Don plays ball hockey
Tuesday: I go to adoption training class
Wednesday: Don goes to adoption training class
Thursday: Peter plays floor hockey
Friday: our one day with nothing special scheduled

Once we get to the middle of November, our schedules will settle down considerably. Don will be done with his ball hockey, I will be done with my adoption class, and Peter will be done with floor hockey. Don finishes his adoption class at the end of November, and then the only thing left on the schedule will be Peter’s ice hockey. I know Don plans to play ball hockey again next term, but I’m hoping to convince him to only play once a week (he’s playing on two different teams now). As part of my contract with a Catholic school board, I have to take a religious education course within two years of being hired, so I’m thinking I’ll probably take that in the spring to get it over with.  But even if we do those things, it still won’t be as busy as it is now, and we’ll be more used to what we’re doing and settled into our routines.  (Even though it’s been almost two months, we’re still getting the hang of our new positions.)

Things are moving along on the adoption front. We’ve been fingerprinted and requested our records from the FBI. Don has had his physical and his medical forms are done except for one section; the doctor needs to see his medical records still. We had our records sent to my parents’ house but haven’t had a chance to pick them up yet. I’m waiting until I get my records before getting my physical done. We have our first homestudy meeting scheduled for November 9th.

I’m feeling rather down today.  I got Peter’s and Don’s cold, so that’s a contributing factor, though I’m over the worst of it and just have nagging sinus pressure and occasional headaches.  On top of that, I had a lousy day at work.

I’m still not feeling confident that we’re doing the right thing in sending Peter to full-day French-language kindergarten.  The toileting thing is still a concern, especially since he’s come home with wet/poopy pants several times (it seems that he doesn’t want to tell his teacher when he’s had an accident).  It’s hard to judge how he feels about school; he usually doesn’t want to talk about his day.  Sometimes he’ll say that he liked recess and gym and didn’t like the rest of the day.  (He’s a little young for that, isn’t he?)  Other times, he makes comments that sound somewhat positive, and one day he spent the evening singing songs in French.  His school day is so long that he doesn’t get much time to play and unwind at home, and several times he’s had major melt-downs because he’s so tired.  And he’s only had one full five-day week so far (he didn’t go the first week, went three days the second week because of the staggered entry, went a full five-day week, then only went three days last week because he was sick).  I expected the transition to be difficult for him–the school days are long and it takes a lot of energy to function in a second language.  I suppose he’s still in transition and I keep hoping that it will get easier for him.  We want this to work out; it’s a good thing for him to learn French and it would be inconvenient to make other arrangements for him.  It’s not so bad that we need to pull him out of school NOW, but how long do we wait for things to get better?  My poor little guy is under a lot of stress and that’s hard for me to see.

After a several-week hiatus, I’m once again participating in 7 Quick Takes Friday.  Please note that I wrote this on Thursday evening, so “today” in the post means “yesterday” if you’re reading this on Friday.

1

I have a small, clean rock on my desk.  I found it in my dryer today.  Peter has been bringing home rocks from his school playground in his backpack; he must have stuck one in his pocket.  I’ve seen references to a blog called Rocks in My Dryer (though I must admit I haven’t read it) and I immediately thought of it when I made my find.

2

Peter stayed home sick again today.  He was up in the night coughing and still had the snotty nose, so we figured it was best to keep his germs at home.  He improved over the course of the day, so we decided he was okay for his half-hour floor hockey this evening.  Unless he takes a major turn for the worse, he’ll be back at school tomorrow for Pajama Day.  Don has a full-blown cold.  So far, I’m feeling pretty good, which is especially impressive since I gave blood on Monday.  I have had a mild headache today, but I’m hoping that’s just from not getting enough sleep last night.

3

Don stayed home with Peter yesterday.  However, today he had a class that he couldn’t miss, so it was my turn.  I had a fantastically productive day (in part because I didn’t spend any time on the computer until 8 pm).  I made granola, washed all the dishes, did all the laundry, sorted all of Peter’s shirts and pants to see what fits and what needs to go into storage, rotated Peter’s mattress, put flannel sheets and a warm blanket on his bed for the cooler weather, washed the quilt from my bed and put it into storage (we pulled out our down comforter last night), did SEVEN mending projects (it should have been six, but Peter managed to cut two holes in my comforter’s cover with my sewing scissors when I wasn’t paying attention), did a reading lesson with Peter, read stories to him, vacuumed up the mess from the new hot water heater installation, put the foam pads back on the basement floor the way they were, refilled a soap dispenser, made pizza for dinner, swept the kitchen floor (although you can’t tell, because Peter promptly strewed about new cornbread crumbs), and maybe more things that I don’t even remember anymore.  It makes me feel good to get some things done around here.  You don’t want to know how long some of those mending projects had been waiting.

4

Yesterday we got a new hot water heater and exhaust pipes.  The housing complex we live in is having all the water heaters replaced, presumably for more energy-efficient models.  We’d noticed the trucks slowly working their way through the complex and knew our turn would be coming.  We got a notice telling us which day it would happen and advising us to make sure there was a clear path from our door to the water heater in the basement, with no clutter on the basement stairs and at least 5 feet of clearance around the tank area.  Argh.  We have a lovely pantry in the kitchen that partially blocks the basement door.  It doesn’t bother us–we can get through with baskets of laundry and most other things we want to take up and down, but a hot water tank wouldn’t be able to fit through that space.  So Tuesday night, we had to unload all of the food from our pantry and move it away from wall.  We had a mound of food covering almost our entire kitchen table.  Our water was shut off for hours while they did the work, which normally wouldn’t have affected us much if we were gone to work and school.  However, since Peter was home sick, with Don watching him in the morning and me in the afternoon, we were all affected.  I was initally impressed that the workmen laid down strips of carpet so they wouldn’t get our living room floor muddy as they walked in and out, but that good feeling was spoiled by the mess they left in the basement (little shreds of black plastic all over the place and a couple shards of metal).  While it’s a good thing to have a new hot water tank, having it replaced was inconvenient.  I’m glad it’s done and we probably won’t have to go through it again while we live here.

5

I am thankful for generous family members and secondhand clothing stores.  Because of them, Peter has a good-sized and reasonably nice wardrobe, and we’ve paid very little to keep him clothed.  As the weather has gotten colder, we realized that Peter had outgrown most of his pants.  I hit a sale at a secondhand store this week and got him four pairs of pants and a shirt for $7.50.  You’d be lucky to buy just one pair of new pants for that.  If any family members are reading this, he could use size 4 long-sleeve shirts or anything larger that he will grow into.  He does not need any size 4 pajamas!  He has at least seven sets of cold-weather pajamas that currently fit.

6

Since we moved to Canada in June, we have been using my parents’ address (in Michigan) for mail and packages originating in the US.  It makes it easier for people to send us mail and saves us from paying international shipping fees.  We haven’t seen my parents in several weeks and we’ve had a lot of things sent to us since then, so we have a huge pile of mail and packages waiting for us.  We’ll get them a week from now, when we’re going over for my cousin’s wedding.  It’ll be almost like Christmas.  Among other things, we’ll get Peter’s new math book, three read-aloud books, and a set of phonics readers that I’m really hoping will be what I’m looking for (I’ve been disappointed with several phonics readers that have too many irregular/advanced words at the earliest levels).  I can’t wait to get my hands on them!

7

I’ve had this song playing in my head all week, driving me slightly crazy.  It’s a stirring instrumental piece.  It took several days before I figured out what it was–a national anthem.  Don’t ask me for which nation.  The explanation is this: before we moved here, we used to let Peter listen to a classical or jazz radio station when he was going to sleep.  After we moved, we couldn’t find a suitable station.  The CBC Radio 2 signal was too weak for comfortable listening, and every other station had too many ads.  So we bought a cheap CD player for him and went through our eclectic CD collection to find some that were appropriate for a 4-year-old.  One of the ones we gave him is a CD of national anthems.  I don’t know where it came from, but we’ve owned it for a long time (and it shows in the list–East and West Germany and the USSR are represented).  He’s been playing it frequently lately, and that’s how that song got stuck in my head.  I’m a bit curious as to which country it’s from, but if I listen to the CD to figure it out, it’ll probably just reinforce the song and make it stay in my head longer.

So there you have it, a fascinating glimpse into my life.  If you’re read all this and you still feel like reading, head over to Conversion Diary, the host of 7 Quick Takes Friday.

Life has been so busy lately that I haven’t posted much.  Here’s just a quick update.  Maybe I’ll find time for more soon.

Peter has a cough and a snotty nose, so he stayed home from school today.  Don was able to stay home with him in the morning, then I came straight home from work and took over so Don could go to work for the afternoon.  Don has a class tomorrow that he can’t miss, so if Peter’s not well enough to go to school, I’ll have to stay home with him.  We’ll see.

Peter had a great time at his floor hockey last week.  He said wanted to play again the next night and he was on a hockey kick all weekend.  He wore his hockey pajamas, read his hockey books, played a little road hockey outside, and got to stay up Saturday night to watch the first period of the first Hockey Night in Canada of the season.  I hope he’ll be feeling well enough to play tomorrow evening.

My work stress is starting to settle down.  I’m getting through some of the one-time things that need to get done (either because I’m a new employee or because it’s a new school year and various administrative things need to happen each year).  I’m finding it easier to keep up, though I am still not where I want to be.

PRIDE training is progressing.  I did my third session last night, on attachment.  It was a fairly emotional session.  I didn’t learn a lot that was new to me since I’ve researched adoption for so long, but it’s good that Ontario requires all foster and adoptive parents to learn about this stuff.  Don did his first session tonight.  He didn’t get much out of it, but I didn’t get much out of the first session either.  It also doesn’t help that he’s catching Peter’s cold and he’s stressed about not being prepared for his class tomorrow since he had to stay home with Peter this morning.  I convinced him to go to bed within 20 minutes of his arriving home and set the alarm early for him, on the theory that it would do him more good to get some sleep now and then try to do some reading in the morning before Peter gets up than to stay up late reading now and making himself more tired.

This will be another busy week, but hopefully we will start to settle into our new routines.  The good news is that Don called the bus company to complain and he got Peter’s bus stop changed.  Now it is much closer to our house.  The change is effective tomorrow, so hopefully that is the end of our bus-related stress.  Tuesday I’m not teaching–I have to attend a training session as part of the New Teacher Induction Program.  It gave me a kick in the pants to get my substitute teacher information together.  It should be an interesting day.  Then I have PRIDE training in the evening.  Wednesday afternoon I have to go do paperwork for my benefits.  I should have done it at the orientation I went to last Tuesday, but I left early because it was Peter’s first day of school and I wanted to be there to meet his bus.  Thursday evening is Peter’s first day of floor hockey.  There’s nothing special planned for Friday–by the time we get there, I’ll probably be ready to just relax and chill for the weekend.