i walked up to the classroom today, all ready to work with alex and jose (we've been splitting the kids up lately), and chuy was nowhere to be seen. lerma, the woman who works with the boys, goes, 'chuy left.'
'what?!' (i thought he left, like took off and was gone forever...)
'yeah, he forgot he had his 3 day training this week.'
'ohhh. well.'
after some quick scrambling and planning on the fly, we had a great day! to this day i am still amazed at how simple things are so fun for these kids. i always use the sticker example - for awhile, a daily prize for good behavior was a sticker. every day the kids were SO excited to get their sticker, and if they didn't earn one, oh man. it was bad.
anyways, i quick made up some crossword puzzles with animal names and we had so much fun talking about different animals, spelling their names, and then doing the crossword puzzle. we also talked about the book report we'll be doing tomorrow at the library.

marisol and omar stopped by this afternoon! their parents are still doing some final paperwork and doctor's visits, so they came by one last time to say goodbye. they were SO HAPPY. not to see us...well, i mean, they were happy to see us, but it was so easy to see how happy they were with their parents. they're such a cute little family! their parents were telling me that marisol understands sooo much english and has been translating for omar. they have a book from their teacher in the states with pictures of all their classmates and have loved looking at that. such an exciting time for them! obviously its not going to be easy and perfect every minute, but they seem to be doing great.