Mommin' It Up!

October 24, 2011October 23, 2011

Frantic about Five

In 23 days, this little girl will be five.

FIVE. Years old.

I can hardly believe it. And, it totally freaks me out. For a long time, I thought she would always be my baby. Not just because she’s my kid, but because I thought she’d be my last. So, Jonah changed all that, but I still feel very reluctant for Sophie to get so old. I’m having a hard time letting her get there.

Sophie’s developmental delays have necessitated that she and I spend a lot (and I mean A.LOT. ) of time one-on-one. (And I don’t want to brag but a certain almost-five-year-old scored “advanced” on the school readiness test they gave her in September at preschool. WHAT UP!?) And so over the past 13 months or so we’ve grown super-tight. No one can melt my heart quicker or make my blood boil faster than my Sophie can. And I think if an almost-five-year old could express such sentiments, she’d say the same about me. We bring out the best and the fiercest in each other.

She’s had a banner year and I am SO proud of her. But I still want her to stay four for at least another six months!

FIVE? My heart can’t take it!

September 22, 2011September 21, 2011

Mean Girls, Preschool Edition

As I have mentioned before, Sophie looooves school. She loves being there, loves her friends, her teachers, and all their activities. She was ALL excited to go back after summer break. She loves school so much that she was none too pleased when I kept her home Tuesday because she had a cold.

So imagine my surprise yesterday when I picked up my happy girl from school, before we had even made it halfway down the sidewalk, she said, “Mom, guess what? I got a time out.” I was shocked! First of all, I didn’t even know they gave time outs in her class, but I guess they have to do something when the kids misbehave. And secondly, I couldn’t believe my little angel had been the misbehaver!

“Why did you get a time out?” I asked her.

“Because I pushed Ashley off the computer.”

My jaw dropped. Now I was really aghast. ‘You PUSHED ASHLEY??”

She then proceeded to confess the whole story. They have a computer center in their class and Sophie got a little impatient when Ashley didn’t immediately vacate that center when her turn was up. So she resorted to violence. What can I say, the girl loves her some computer! All kidding aside though, I was pretty flummoxed. That’s just not like Soph and she looooooves Ashley. Ashley and Julio were the first two friends she mentioned when she started this school last fall, and her affection for Ashley had not waned.

Fortunately, my little brute expressed the appropriate remorse, and we talked ad nauseum about how she should handle such situations in the future. And then, I made her write an apology note:

I’m sure Ashley will cherish it for-ev-er. It’s like the preschool version of a yearbook signature. Today it’s “I’m sorry I pushed you”, tomorrow it’s “LYLAS, never change, have a great summer”.
Or, if I fail terribly at mothering, “Get your @$$ out of my chair before I CUT you!”

September 8, 2011September 8, 2011

Dealing with Delays

Eleven months ago, I was 7 months pregnant, my grandfather had just died, and I’d just been bowled over by the fact that Sophie’s developmental delays were more significant than I realized. The first week of October, 2010, was pretty much the worst week of my life.

I’ve never written about this in detail, and I have my reasons, which you’ll just have to trust. I am comfortable talking about it now is because we’ve come almost all the way through it – eleven months later, Sophie is pretty much caught up – she is still getting both speech and occupational therapy but I expect she’ll be all done with that within the year.

Back in October 2010, I knew that Sophie had a speech delay, but I thought it was more expressive – what she couldn’t say, rather than receptive, what she understood. Then some test results showed I was WAY wrong, and that her delay was more receptive. At the same time, Sophie’s preschool teacher shared some concerns with me about how she was doing in class , and based on those two things, I decided we needed to change some things and take action to get her on track.

I started working intensely with Sophie at home, got her signed up for occupational therapy as well as speech, and took steps to get her into a preschool class where there were other kids with delays, and where she could also receive speech and OT at school.

And as I said, it’s all gone wonderfully. Sophie is doing amazing and as you saw a couple weeks ago, she’s even reading already at age 4!

But through this whole process I’ve learned a TON, and now I want to share it with you. So, I am going to start a series here about overcoming developmental delays, playing with your child in an educational way, and just giving tips and ideas about how to target certain problem areas. You’ll find these posts in the categories “developmental delays”, “speech therapy”, and “occupational therapy”. I’ll be covering strategies, games, activities, and supplies that are helpful in working with your kids in an intentional way – whether for fun, or if you have a specific goal in mind.

So stay tuned, I hope I can help some readers and maybe we’ll all learn something together!