We had a great time with the boys tonight! We went to a carnival at the college across the street and then to a church event called "trunk or treating". They all dressed up as football players and did a good job of playing the part:) Sydney was SO good while we were out and about and kept her costume on without a problem the whole night!! She looked SO adorable!! Here's a couple slide shows...
Sydney's official 10 month pictures, a few days late...
FINALLY, a picture of the the boys we work with! We had a fun time carving pumpkins tonight, getting ready for Halloween. I'll post more tomorrow of our halloween fun. The boys are going to be football players and Sydney is going to be a lion. It should be fun :)
It's been awhile. SO...let me catch you all up on the happenings of the Boozell's. We just finished our second shift and it was a long one. It was literally longer than most (by a day) and also just felt long. Lots going on in the cottage :) And once again, I'm horrible at taking pictures. So pics of our boys, the cottage, and our homes are still to come. And of Sydney too...but there's videos below to hold you over :) We're doing well. We're keeping busy and still learning the ropes. It's been a challenging week but even in the midst of that we still are sure that this is where God wants us and on top of that, where we want to be. We have great boys that make us laugh and keep us on our toes. And this is a job that makes a difference, we're seeing that already. I'm still learning what I can share and what I can't...so over time there will be more details I'm sure. More news... 1) Our house is officially SOLD!!! We closed on our house yesterday via fax and FedEx overnighted paperwork. It is SUCH a releif to have that finished, pay off some debt, and move forward. What a stress relief!! 2) I've (Linde) had a cold all week. Not fun to be learning a new job, taking care of a baby, and balance that with being sick. I'm getting better but pray for full recovery before we go back to work on Monday :( 3)Sydney is learning to communicate! She's learning baby sign, well at least the sign for "all done" so far. She says mama, dada, night night and waves bye bye. She doesn't do ANY of this consistently...just whenever she wants. BUT it's coming along and it's been exciting to watch her understand language. 4) Sydney has a favorite show. I know, I think it's too early for that too but it's true. One day Josh just put on Nick Jr. to keep her busy for a second and the show Yo Gabba Gabba! was on. She became a fan instantly! Below are a couple videos to her dancing to the "Party in my tummy" video on YouTube. She got a Yo Gabba Gabba shirt from Wal-mart today :) So grandparents looking for Christmas/Birthday ideas, there you go, ha!
So on to the videos... First, here's Sydney playing. Listen to her after I ask her "what did you find?" She's looking at her donkey and I swear she said donkey. She's a genius.
And here's the dancing to Yo Gabba Gabba part one:
and part two:
and the actual video from Yo Gabba Gabba that she was watching...
We're exhausted. We just finished our first shift here at Thornwell. For those unfamiliar with what on earth we're doing...let me break it down. There are 13 cottages here that can have up to 8 kids per cottage. At the moment we only have four. Our days are spent doing what most parents do...with a little twist. As I understand it, the difference between being a Family Teacher (that's our title) and a House Parent is that the HP is just kind of living with them and guiding them through a day and an FT is doing that AND teaching. Constantly. The boys each have "target skills" that they are working on and throughout the day they are taught with either praise or correction according to their skills. We've been trained on how to do a teaching interaction (that has specific steps we have to go through) and they are rewarded + points or reminded - points. It's kind of hard to explain but even after just a couple of days seeing it play out it is obvious that this system not only works but is effective in keeping them motivated and taking advantage of teachable moments to help them learn basic (and VERY helpful) life skills to set them up to succeed in life after Thornwell. Definitely a system that is easy to support and stand behind. (that was like a Thornwell PR moment, not my intention...haha)
I have to say when the shift began both of our heads were spinning and our brains were overflowing with lots of information...it felt like the chaos would never let up. BUT, after a couple days in the cottage it's amazing how well things have got and how the sharp pang of being completely overwhelmed, it has let up. We've had a great weekend with the boys. We've gotten more and more used to catching the teachable moments and implementing all of our teaching interaction training. We've also had the opportunity to just have fun and hang out and get to know each of them better. We have four great kids and as Josh and I debriefed this weekend we both agree that we've already become attached. This job will by no means be easy but I can already see how rewarding it could be. It's already brought some heartache and headache, but has definitely been balanced with lots of laughter and good times.
And for the grandparents, Sydney's doing just fine :) She's adjusted SO well. She's finally back to normal sleeping patterns (which could change now that we're off duty). She's slowly connecting that when we say "bye bye" she should wave her hand (something we've been trying to teach her for a while). She's been crawling and pulling up like a champ...but now standing alone yet so walking is still a ways away (thank goodness!). And she LOVES the boys here and they have each really taken to her as well. Every time one of them walks in the room she lights up, it's pretty cute :) And the boys are always asking where she is, playing with her, or wanting to help with her. She's inherited pretty great older "brothers".
Well, to my disappointment I have forgotten day after day to get our camera so yet again I have no photos of our new home to share. Maybe next time ;)! Until then, please check out the new addition to our blog! We copied the Collinsfam and put a calendar up so you could see where we're at, what we're doing, and make big plans to come visit us :) So check it out ----------->
Josh and I are in our first week of our new job....so, if we're slow in returning emails or phone calls, that is why. Things are going good so far and we're learning so much. So, stay tuned for more contact from us and for a more detailed update and hopefully pictures...if I can get around to it ;)
