Noemi in Cirque Dreams Holidaze

Noemi in SportsEngine Olympic Commercial 30

headshot

Our likatu is 5 years old now and looking more and more like an actual kid instead of a preschooler. She sure keeps us on our toes!

Little Ms. Smartypants :)

Our little Noemi is growing up! She just "graduated" from preschool and will be a kindergartener in the Fall. She was enrolled in a full day, everyday program at the school I work at, so we had plenty of time together. That wasn't always a good thing! 

Since her birthday is September 7th and the State of Minnesota requires kindergarteners to be 5 by Sept. 1st, we opted to test Noe for Early Admittance. She passed the assessments and we found out a lot about our munchkin. 

She was assessed in 3 areas: Academic, Social and IQ.

Academically: She's reading at a beginning 1st grade level and can do basic adding and subtracting. She can count to 100 and by tens and knows to count by 5's but never wants too. She wants to learn to tell time but doesn't believe me when I tell her she needs to count by 5's then. She can write out her whole name and nickname. She's also starting to write out sentences phonetically.

Socially: Noemi got to spend some time in a kindergarten room to be observed by the kindergarten teacher. We were told she participated in the dance activity and sat still to hear the story, then did the comprehension activity after the story. I believe she had to draw a picture relating to the story. She did all those things well and without much apprehension. 

IQ: We found out that Noemi has a nonverbal IQ of 139 (puzzles and such). Her verbal IQ is 111. So her average IQ is 128. We're considering a gifted and talented school for 1st grade but being that she's already the youngest, I don't want her to be the youngest in a group of gifted children. That might be very difficult for her socially or self-esteem wise. We have a year to decide so we'll see how kindergarten goes. 

Physically, she's growing! Noemi is now 41" and 40lbs. She's getting tall and lean and looks more and more like a little kid. I love the days when she actually eats a full meal and has a round little belly :). However, those days are few and far between. She still loves her fruit and veggies but is becoming more picky with meats and cheeses. She's a big fan, however, of "spring" cheese ;)

So that's our yearly update I guess ;). We're planning another trip to Springdale in a couple weeks so I hope to post after that to update on any new Marshallese stores or cultural activities we come across.

Until then my friends ~ Yokwe 😃

Diva

Noemi feels the need to change everyday after school...at least 3 times....   Weekends are the worse! This is a weekend outfit.

Waiting for breakfast.....

1990 dateline video about the RMI :)

http://youtu.be/pN3IP8bLJRI

A 15 minute video about the relations between RMI and the US in 1990.

Very interesting!

Likatu

She's getting so big =,)

Funny Mimi =D

Things I want to remember that Mimi has said:

First word: Hola (7 months)

First full thought she was able to express: I'm hot. I want agua.(1.5 yrs old)

Recite The Lord's Prayer (sort of) 2.5 years old 

This year she has started talking so much, everyday she says something funny or silly! Here are a few of my favorite "Mimi phrases":

" it's ok, it was an accident." - anytime she breaks/spills something.

" Papi is sickyface, that's why no hair" - although we've tried to tell her otherwise, she think shawn has Cancer and that explains his lack of hair :-/

" it's 'cause,  it's 'cause...." -whenever she tries to explain why she did something she wasn't supposed to.

" I told you, I no like those pants!" - explaining why she had an accident and had to change into a skirt at daycare.

" where's my sista Molly go?" -Molly is our dog

" it's ok, you still my girl" - When I accidentally forgot her backpack at daycare.

" ohhh, mommy wearing fancy pants!" -when I wear anything other then jeans.

" Papi a prince!" - if Shawn is looking extra daper ;-)

" I want the face! I want to eat the eyes!" - on what piece of birthday cake she wanted.

" Dye" -instead of Bye, which made it extra creepy when she just said it but didn't wave (about 1yr old)

" oh no, I can't, my knee hurts" - whenever we ask her to do something she doesn't want to do, like pick up her toys.

" what you said? I no understand you." - when you say something in English that she doesn't understand but once it's repeated in Spanish she gets it.

" Shake your booty! Shake your booty!" - while shaking and pointing to her booty in the middle of a Costco aisle. 

Noemi cracks me up at least once a day :)  

Thankful

In a previous post, I had mentioned how sad I was for my little girl but in fact, I'm very grateful for all that we do have and can share with her regarding her adoption.

In this month of Thanksgiving, I'd like to list just a few things I'm grateful for:

1) Noemi! For soooo many reasons. For her giggle. For her heart. For her endless energy that means she's healthy. For her anger which means she's strong-willed and hopefully will apply that in a positive manner when she grows up. For her love of learning. For her acceptance of others. Soooo many reasons.

2) I'm grateful for meeting Rosita.  Very few intercountry adoptive parents have that privilege. We may have had our issues but I had the opportunity to see Rosita and Noemi together in the good and in the bad. I was able to truly understand how and why Noemi became our daughter. I was able to hold the hand of the women who gave us the greatest privilege ever, that of parenting beautiful Noemi. 

3) I'm grateful for knowing Noemi's medical history.  If something were ever to arise, I'm grateful we have the referral report and we were able to chat with Grandpa Peter. He has already given us insight into how and why he adopted Rosita and that's invaluable information. 

4) I'm grateful for our wonderfully supportive family. Every single person, on both sides of our families, have accepted and welcomed Noemi with open arms and with no judgement. And if they haven't, they've kept it to themselves and have never made any negative comments towards her or us. 

5) I'm grateful for our wonderfully supportive friends. Our friends, new and old, have stood by our side and helped us grow as a family. Their genuine interest in her adoption story and development has helped us understand how unique and special our little family truly is.

6) I'm grateful for those who did make inappropriate/hurtful comments. They helped me realize who is really important in our lives right now and helped me learn to stand up for my family. I also believe they didn't understand how it could hurt our feelings at a time. I honestly didn't know, myself, how sensitive we'd be to other people's comments but I'm glad we found out and now know how to react. 

7) I'm grateful for our Minnesota Marshallese group. Although, we spend most of our time chasing Noemi, I'm thankful when I can sit back, listen and learn from others going through the same things we are.  Their support and understanding is incomparable since they know exactly what you're going through in regards to birthfamily, adoption identity issues, and the general development of squirrelly toddlers and preschoolers.

8) I'm grateful for YouTube! We watch YouTube all the time to see "majuro" videos. We've learned so much about the Marshallese culture just from those videos. Noemi now knows and sings Marshallese children songs. I've been able to translate 2 of them so far and I love singing them in both languages with her. We watch beat dancing. We watch people singing. We watch people dancing and laughing. And most importantly, I think, we watch people who are happy even with the little that they have. 

I could go on and on but obviously, I have to cut the list somewhere.

We're truly blessed to have been able to adopt from such a unique program. We're blessed to be a tri-cultural family. We're blessed to add a new culture to our lives, that we honestly try to incorporate as much as we incorporate our Mexican and Swedish traditions. 

We are Thankful every. single. day.