You are here: Home / Archives for Sophia

No need for fanfare

Posted by on 2:00 pm

Girl loves her some Fancy Nancy books!

A couple of weeks ago Quaker asked me to tell you about an “at-last” accomplishment, something I’d worked on that was worth the time and effort, and I did.  And also gave away some cash from Quaker as well, in celebration of the fact that they FINALLY started making Quaker oatmeal cookies!  That first accomplishment I wrote about, working on our “Fun Room” in our house, was easy for me to think of and write about.  But when it came time to write a second post on the topic, I faltered.  Nothing monumental came to mind.  And then…it hit me.  We did have a major accomplishment in this house last month.

Something happened in February that I’d been waiting on for about 18 months. Waiting, anticipating, dreading, fearing, hoping, worrying…and then it snuck up on me, when it was time.  All of a sudden it was upon us and  it was easy, it was over, it was done – no big deal.   And yet a very huge deal.  When it happened I just wanted to kind of keep it to myself and cherish it for awhile.  I needed to sort it out and contemplate how I was feeling about it. But now I’m ready to  tell you.

Last month, I registered Sophie for kindergarten.

“Regular” kindergarten.  ”Normal”  kindergarten.  ”Mainstream” kindergarten.  Whatever you want to call it, the thing is, when we set out to help Sophie bulldoze her developmental delays, our main goal was to catch her up to her age group so that she could attend regular kindergarten.  And I am proud to say, that goal was accomplished!  Sophie will not be in “special ed” next year.  She has met her goals on her IEP and she’s done with therapy at school as well as privately.  She is now “typically developing”.  Little Miss Typical, I like to call her.  Although academically she is actually testing “advanced”. (Hey, I have to brag a LITTLE!)

I always  knew she could do it, in my heart I knew.  But when we first started this journey, the “what-ifs” were terrifying at times.

So this accomplishment, this meeting of our goals is a relief, and a quiet triumph – after all, kindergarten in general is a bittersweet thing!  But in it’s quietness, it’s HUGE, monumental, amazing, and joyful.  And I am so, so grateful for it.  When  August rolls around and Sophie heads off to kindergarten with her peers in her cute little uniform, I’m sure I’ll have some tears to shed.  But right now I am just grinning from ear to ear, enjoying the fruits of our work together, and enjoying my time with her before she marches off to full-day school.   My little girl.  I can’t wait to see what we accomplish together next!

_____________________________

This post was sponsored by Quaker who asked me to tell you about something I accomplished that was worth all the time and hard work, like their “at-last” accomplishment – finally making delicious Oatmeal cookies after 14o years!  Stay tuned to the Quaker Cookies Facebook tab for yummy free sample offers coming soon!

Post to Twitter

Filed Under developmental delays, Preschoolers, Sophia Leave a Comment

Who’s the BOSS?

Posted by on 6:28 am

Sadly, I am not writing this post to reminisce about my favorite 80′s sitcom, although I guess it WAS kind of about a power struggle…so en pointe.  Because this post is about a power-hungry five-year-old and her frustrated mother.

crazy soph

She's cute. And she's planning a hostile takeover.

Sophie was stubborn and strong-willed from the moment she left the womb, and we’ve had our share of power struggles in the past, but since she’s come through her language delay, things have been much easier.  Until now.  Recently, girlfriend has decided to test me HARD in a couple of areas.  The power struggle is ON, and I am determined to let her know I am still the Alpha Female in this household.

The times Sophie most tries to assert herself as the one in “control” are when we are getting ready to get dressed or leave the house, and at dinner time.  Two or three times a week she will refuse to go potty/get dressed before school or gymnastics, or any random time when we need to get out the door.  Then, every night at dinner if there is something on her plate she doesn’t “like” (i.e. anything not fruit, yogurt, or peanut-butter related) she absolutely refuses  to eat it until she is threatened with punishment and/or I shovel the bites into her mouth for her.  She would rather go to her room for the rest of the evening thaan eat those bites.  She would rather lose iPad privileges than eat those bites.  She would give up TV, computer, Wii – anything before she’d eat those bites.  So I ALWAYS make her eat them, rather than “grounding” her from something.  But it takes lots of extra time and usually I am a little hot under the collar by the time all is said and done.

And, even though I have yet to let her “win” this one, she still does it every time she is offered food she doesn’t want to eat.  I know she is winning a partial victory just by causing so much inconvenience and irritation for me in the first place.  The other night I was pretty much convinced she is a sociopath. *Ahem*.

I pretty much just don’t know what to do with her, other than, as I have said many times, save my pennies for either a) her stay at boarding school or b) my stay in the looney bin in aabout 2021.

Which is why I had to laugh when TheMotherhood.com asked me to co-host a chat this Thursday, 3/15 at 1PM EST with a few other fab bloggers and Susan Stiffelman, the author of Parenting Without Power Struggles.   I saw the info about this talk in their newsletter and was totally going to attend anyway, so BONUS! Susan is a family therapist, and an officianado on parent-child power struggles, and she did, after all, write the book! She’s also the Parent Coach at the Huffington Post and I cant wait to hear what she has to say!  The talk is all-text, here at the Motherhood.com.  I hope you’ll join me and my co-hosts for some straight-forward talk about how to eliminate power struggles.  Perhaps after Thursday’s talk I’ll be able to start saving my pennies for something a little more exciting than a stay at the funny farm.  Like a stay at a spaaaaaaaaa.  Or a lifetime supply of Mountain Dew and Cadbury Creme eggs.  You know, something really valuable.

I hope you’ll join us on Thursday!  I’m not being compensated or sponsored for my participation, it’s just a topic I am really interested in and need to learn about right now, and I am glad to have a great interactive forum in which to do so.

I’d like to have some other viewpoints besides my own going into this, so tell me, what are some of the power struggles you have with your kids?

 

 

Post to Twitter

Filed Under Being a Mom, Sophia 12 Comments

D is for Drama

Posted by on 6:31 am

I named my daughter Sophia Diane, after my mother.  But the older she grows, the more I am thinking the “D” in Sophia D. Rapson stands for drama.  Because, now that we got the girl fully speech-therapized, drama is the language in which she speaks.

When we were having some downtime in our hotel during our President’s Day road trip, the kids were arguing over which movie to watch, so Bobby decided he would pick the movie for them.  His choice, Finding Nemo, caused Sophie to run from the room crying, and when Bobby went to try to talk to her about it, she responded with, “It’s RUINING MY LIFE!”

Poor girl.  Only five years old, and life’s already ruined.  By a movie that was made before she was born.  So, she really never had a chance.  C’est tragique, no?

Joshua and I were treated to another grand performance on Friday afternoon, when after I told Sophie that her turn playing Wii was over, she had a complete meltdown.  After she calmed down a bit, she still exiled herself to a corner where she spent ten minutes regaling us with a song that went something like this, “You can’t talk to me, because I’m sad. No one talk to me, because it’s not nice to talk to someone when they’re sad!  And it’s mean to make people feel sad!”

If she can just keep channeling that sadness, and take some voice lessons, girlfriend will be the next Adele in a few years.  I am confident the album Sophie: 9 will be a HUGE hit when she is in the third grade.

And when I watch her win her grammys for her follow-up albums over the years, on the tiny TV in my room at the freaking looney bin, I will be very, very proud.

 

Post to Twitter

Filed Under Sophia 6 Comments
« Older Posts