Mommin' It Up!

July 17, 2014July 16, 2014

And just like that…

Remember like, 2.2 seconds ago when I was posting that I was so nervous about Jonah going to summer school?

Well. Turns out that time really does fly. That was six weeks ago, and today is Jonah’s last day of “Summer Science Lab”.

Neither of us are particularly happy about it! He LOVES going and I think would be content to keep on keepin’ on, and having him happily occupied 4 hours a day 4 days a week has helped me have a much better summer with my big kids than I usually do. HOWEVER, I am not going to miss setting my alarm for 6:45 am 4 days a week during the summer. Whew, that was rough.

Honestly, I am SO thrilled with how Jonah did in this program. He had fun, he learned a lot, and his speech has just exploded the past 2-3 weeks. They don’t work on his speech at this program, but just being with so many “typical” peers has been so good for him! I can’t believe all the millions of things he’s been saying the past few weeks. If you are my Facebook friend you’ve had the privilege of reading some of them. (Lucky you!) My recent favorite took place while we were in the car. He said, “I gotta hurry! I wanna hurry!” (I have never heard him use that word before.) I said, “Why, Jonah?” and he said “I gotta go home and play toys.”

Needless to say, I stepped on the gas! 🙂

So anyway. I am rambling a bit here. But the gist of it is, I am sad that summer school is over, but I’m looking forward to maybe sleeping in a little (dare I dream of 7:30??) and having some lazy fun these last 4 weeks of summer with my babies.

Although it would be helpful if it would warm the heck up. It’s July 16th, my AC is off, and I’m WEARING A SWEATER as I type this. Huh? Needless to say the solid gold I plunked down for the pool membership is getting wasted this month!

I <3 Summer School and I’m so glad I took the plunge and signed Jonah up. How about you? How are you keeping the kiddos busy this summer?

July 2, 2014July 1, 2014

You must be feeling good

Jonah has recently had a language explosion of sorts (better late than never? YES!) and he’s finally starting to, not exactly converse, but at least be more conversational. He will also tell you what he wants. All. Day. Long. We’ve been going to the pool a lot lately (must get our money’s worth!) but today after speech I just needed to stay home, because I’ve been a rather “fun mom” for several days in a row, including taking the big kids to do fun stuff in the morning while Jonah is in summer school. And I just needed to be home to get some crap done, ya know?

So of course, Jonah said, “I wanna go to the pool and go swimming.” and “I gotta go swimming!” and “I gotta go to the pool.” about 679 times this afternoon. He also put his shoes and socks on and said “I wanna go bye bye!” and I said “Where do you want to go?” and he said “I wanna go to the pool!” I promised him we will go tomorrow (unless it rains).

But anyway. Before all this communication about the POOL, we were at speech therapy, and he did a pretty good job cooperating. When we were done, he said to his SLP, “Bye, see you next week!” Then he went to the top of the stairs and said, “I’m going downstairs now, Mom.”

Kristen, his SLP, looked at me and said, “Wow, Jenny. You must be feeling…you must really be feeling good about him!”

And I almost didn’t know what to say back. Because the truth is I have a hard time letting myself feel good and encouraged. I am not sure why, but maybe it’s because I know there is so much work left to do still and I don’t want to allow myself to slack off or let him get off pace. So when she looked at me and said that and I saw on her face such an expression of happiness, I let go a little bit. I let myself feel it. I smiled back and said, “Yes, I am. I am feeling really good.” And I realized it was true.

I am so proud of my boy, proud of what we’ve done together. I can honestly say I wish there was no more work to do, but just seeing him make progress like this lately helps me know that we will get there.

Just now I was letting him watch a Laurie Berkner video on my phone (look, I get desperate around bedtime, ok?) and without prompting or anything, he looked up at me about halfway through and said “I’m watching a video!” Earlier during our “Mommy-Jonah” time that we do at home to work on speech, he volunteered the information, “I’m having fun!” Those are both new things I’ve not heard him say until this week – and it’s awesome!

So yes. I am feeling good about my boy. And I am trying to just really let myself feel it and enjoy it. Progress, we are a-makin’ it! And it. feels. good.

June 16, 2014June 15, 2014

Athletic Tendencies

I like to tease Emily for all the time she spends running her kids to swim meets and tee ball games, because really? I don’t want to do that. EVER. Joshua is a good swimmer but does not wish to compete (darn) and let’s just say I think Sophie’s talents are going to lie in the theater arts. So far I’ve been “blessed” with children who are as I like to say, “blissfully unathletic”.

One of these things is not like the others

Except. Um. There’s that unplanned third child, and I think? He’s gonna wanna play sports! Since his birthday and Christmas are 8 days apart, he hasn’t gotten anything new in awhile and he’s acted kind of bored with his toys. So I got him a basketball hoop and a tee ball set and they are his FAVORITE THINGS EVER. And he’s GOOD at them!

I am proud of him and frankly I am enjoying his new athletic ventures. But I think they will be much less enjoyable when there are practices and games to sit through! I mean, I LOVE going to my nephew’s basketball games, but I am basically a nervous wreck the whole time and he’s not even MY kid. I’m fairly sure the nervous wreck factor multiplies by 10 when it’s your own offspring.

But then there’s this:

And dangit won’t he be CUTE in a tee ball uniform one day? Oh man. I’m just hosed!