1. I think this hutch is going to take one trillion coats of paint. And that's AFTER the 1 trillion coats of primer. Hurrumph.
2. I just got a pair of Keen Waimea Sandals. I was a litte skeptical. They are not cheap--Keens don't tend to be--but I have loved every pair of Keens I have owned and because I have really messed up feet (think: plantar fascitiis, heel spurs, bunions, ingrown toenails, and former toe injuries that resulted in the removal of a toenail that is SLoooooooOWLY growing back), I no longer skimp on shoes. Ever. (Too many years of $1 flip flops for this gal. So I guess I am making up for all that savings way back when. ANYWAY. They are a smidge goofy looking. They have a toe cover after all. But they have a good sole. And my feet feel good in them, and...well..I don't have to show off my half-grown in toenail to the whole dang world. No one wants to see that. (Heck, you probably didn't want to read about it.)
Moral of the story. Keens are good. I want these sandals in every color.
3. I did not get nor will I be (as far as I know) reimbursed for anything I said in line item #2.
4. I am using the Calorie Tracker app (free) on my phone. I am a fan.
5. Rainer is "trying on" emotions lately. Crying--deeply--at the drop of a hat. Or so it seems. Today he sobbed for over 45 minutes because, as he said, Lauren (a friend from school), surprised him when she fell down and bumped her nose. I did confirm with the teacher that Lauren fell down and bumped her nose, but she was and is fine. Then he went on to say that nobody except Lauren talks to him at snacktime, which I know is not the case (again, after checking in with the teacher I heard that he had a great day laughing and talking up a storm with Lauren AND Victor). After I got those things out of him, he sobbed that he wanted his Daddy, that he loved his Daddy "SO much!" and he wanted him home.
It's tough being a kid.
6. Right now he is trying to get out of going to sleep.
7. I am trying to ignore, but he is being persistent. It is already 50 minutes past his bedtime.
8. "Hey, Mommy, I'm sick."
9. I guess there's a reason why this blog has been so sorely neglected. .....
1. Georgia asked for her glasses tonight. She asked for them. With no coaxing or coaching. She asked! She wanted to sit on the couch and snuggle with Dad before bed while watching Pink Panther--both kids really like this cartoon. Rainer liked it first, but Georgia has been way into it lately, I think in no small part because it's almost entirely action-based with few, if any, words. When she doesn't have her glasses on she needs to sit (or stand, as the case may be) very close to the TV in order to see it. So she asked for them when we suggested maybe watching an episode of the show. That feels like MAJOR progress! Mind, she still fights them and gives her teachers a hard time about them at school, but...I still think we're getting there! She GETS what they are for, she GETS that she needs them. She is better about wearing them for things like TV-watching, and playing outside.
2. Rainer, before I leave for any one of my various meetings during the week won't ever let me leave without hugging and kissing everyone goodbye. I don't ever intend to leave without saying goodbye, but he jumps in as soon as I put my jacket on or grab my pocketbook and says things like "Don't forget kisses!" And if he didn't actually SEE me kiss Georgia or Alex he'll say "Don't forget Georgia! Don't forget Daddy!" Usually I go back and kiss everyone again because...why the heck not, right? I love that he does this. I also love that when he says "What about kisses and hugs?" he pronounces it "KIsses & Hug-es" with two syllables on each word.
3. Georgia and Alex are both still coughing from their pneumonia and bronchitis respectively, but thankfully they are both at at least 90% health for the first time in AGES! I say this not, I hope, to jinx it, but to rejoice.
4. Speaking of rejoicing, I recently told some friends that things are typically rather difficult for Georgia. I am not talking about DS exactly, because really, I am comparing her to everyone, including other kids with DS. It just SOMETIMES seems, in my admittedly woe-is-me moments, that things just don't come easily for Georgia. MUCH of this (all of it??? Sometimes it feels that way.) stems from the fact that she has an anxiety disorder and issues with sensory processing. I have to admit I have occasionally wished I had a child who fit the "always happy" DS stereotype. I mean, don't get me wrong, before anyone goes and lambasts me on that one, I KNOW we are lucky. I know it could be MUCH MUCH MUCH more difficult than it is for us, and I GET that a. it's not really about me, and b. we have it pretty good, and c. I really wouldn't want her to be anyone other than who she is, and d. well, lots of people tell me her strong-will and sass will serve her well one day, so let's hope that's right because I am banking on it. But the anxiety? Not a WHOLE lot of good can/has come of it.
It's been THE most difficult thing we've had to deal with. Harder than DS (10-fold) and in it's way, scarier than the heart stuff, too. ANYWAY, I am bouncing around.
What I am trying to get at is that recently I was bemoaning how difficult things tend to be for G--she's not a potty-learning superstar, she didn't walk super early, her speech is coming along, but it's still a struggle, etc etc...(God, typing this out, I kind of just want to throw a pie in my own face or something, because it makes me sound like a world-class a-hole.)
The thing is. I think G is AWESOME! I think she has accomplished TONS of stuff and she is well on her way to accomplishing SO MUCH MORE. More than I can even imagine. I KNOW this. I BELIEVE this. It's just sometimes, I wish she didn't have to work SO HARD all the time. I wish she could just be handed something. I wish I could be sitting around with my other DS mamas and tell the story like this "Yeah, we were expecting glasses to be a real struggle, but she just...got it. Immediately. No struggle." ha! Does that happen for ANYONE??? (Don't tell me if it happened to you. I am too busy being a sore sport.)
So I told my friends that one day if she ever IS handed something I will either a. rejoice and sing and do backflips, or b. I won't even notice. Because, come on...we, as humans, can...sometimes...tend to see the worst in things, and not notice the good stuff. Or the...regular stuff that is actually GREAT if you put the right spin on it.
My friend and I joked about that. Yeah, I probably wouldn't even notice.
Well, I am here to say, I did! I noticed! G went to the dentist this weekend and...other than the kicking and screaming and the next time you have to come when other patients aren't around sort of message we were given. (Oh Lord, I love me some anxiety tantrums at 9 o'clock on a Saturday morning. You know, one of those tantrums that has the hygienists running for the dentist??) ANYHOOOOOOOOOoooo....
Besides all that crap. Georgia's teeth got a delightfully boring clean bill of health. Nothing unusual to report. Looking good. Alls well. See ya' in six months.
Granted, this is her baby teeth, and I have certainly just jinxed her adult teeth. But. I'll take this momentary blessing! I am proud to say I noticed.
Thank you. Thank you teeth gnomes, or whomever heard my prayers that something be easy and boring for my gal.
1. I need some new dinner ideas. I find it's kind of hard to cook for picky kids and parents who are...not picky, but watching caloric intake. R is NOT a veggie lover. G loves a lot of different veggies, but with her it's a texture issue. I am watching what I eat. And while Alex will eat just about anything so long as it's in front of him, you know, if he had it his way his dinners would be of a different--more experimental and exciting--genre than the kids (and sometimes me). I've gotten some great recipes from Skinny Taste, but I need more. (FYI, ST's pasta fagioli is da' bomba.)
2. We eat a lot of soup. I love soup. Alex loves soup. Georgia LURVES soup. Rainer is, well...he's sort of lukewarm on soup.
3. Any ideas?
4. Rainer would eat carbs and cheese from here to Kingdom Come if we let him.
5. And apples.
6. Speaking of food, I am working on my first batch of cake pops. I plan to send them in to school with Rainer for his birthday.
7. I am also planning a joint birthday party for the kids in November.
8. I can feel the holidays breathing down my neck. I feel SORT of prepared because we got a jump start on the kids' gifts, but you know how it is.
9. We are not going hog-wild this year anyway, so I am honestly just going to try to take it all as it comes. Relax your slacks and all that.
10. This weekend went by WAY too quickly.
11. Oh, Rainer. Rainer, Rainer, Rainer. That boy!
12. I am going to try to write better posts just in general throughout the year.
2. I haven't worked out as consistently or intensely as I do now since I was much younger. It feels good.
3. Tomorrow we are going to do Georgia's neck x-ray. We have a sedative to give her beforehand. I am very interested to see how she reacts to this sedative and I may take advantage of it--if she is chill--to go to super cuts and give her hair a trim. (I mean, why not use the time wisely, right?)
4. The x-ray is the one we've been "supposed" to do now forever. We have not. But hockey requires it.
5. We have an IEP meeting in a couple weeks.
6. I keep forgetting I need to get some Halloween costumes together.
7. I need a haircut, too, actually.
8. Let's talk about pointless things, too, apparently.
9. Am I phoning this one in too much?
10. Probably.
11. What's something I have never told you before?
12. Um....
13. Hmm....
14. Pathetic.
15. We're going to get a real Christmas tree for the first time since we lived in CT.
16. Yes, I am already thinking about Christmas.
17. In fact, most my shopping--for the kids--is done.
18. It shocks me just as much as it may shock you.
19. What is something that is on your grocery list almost every day? For us, it's yogurt and kefir.
20. Note to self: start making your own yogurt again.
21. Note to Alex: will you make some more yogurt?
22. Can this be my ask AND reminder? Can you just do it? Can I just be delightfully surprised some day soon by a crock pot full of yogurt.
23. Dear Alex, I love you.
24. And I love you, too, dear reader. For putting up with me.
1. Rainer has a new thing where, if he is talking to one of us and another person answers or responds he will say, for instance, "I am talking to Daddy, Mommy." It's polite, but boy does it put you in your place!
2. Yesterday I was feeling kind of down. No huge thing, just frustrated because G's issue with sensory processing has a way of rearing its head when you least expect it and it can be limiting for all of us. Yesterday, I was shocked when she had an issue with a music class we were going to check out. Lots of other little kids and music. Her faves! But the room was really echo-y. We couldn't even get her in the room for a minute. I could handle not going to a music class (although I like having things to do outside of the house and INSIDE the a/c during the summer), but Rainer was really bummed. And that made ME bummed. Too bummed, probably. After all, he ended up comforting ME later in the day when he could tell I was still feeling kind of sad. (Funnily, I was still feeling sad because he kept bringing up how we couldn't go to music class because G doesn't like the loud noise and how he wanted to go. It was really bothering me how much he was really comprehending how he was limited because of his sister's issue.) ANYWAY. He ended up trying to comfort ME. He brought me Big Guy (his teddy bear) and said, "Want it? It makes you happy," and kissed my hand. I order some child-size noise-cancelling headphones last night, but I don't have great hope that she will keep them on.
3. Today is Georgia's last day of camp. We are ALL bummed! She has really come so far in the past 6 weeks! Plus, she plain old LOVES it. She yells "Camp!" and "Camp is awesome!" on camp mornings and is always bringing up her aide's name and the other kids' names. Thankfully she'll get to see some of them (because I am friends with their moms) again, and she was also invited to one other boy's birthday party next week, so she'll see at least some of them there, but I wish she could do the whole thing for the rest of the summer and through the school year! There is an opportunity for her to continue on some level with the program through the school year, but it's $$$ and they don't take insurance (because it's a university and students and not a medical establishment). Not sure we can swing it, unfortunately. I am just happy she had this opportunity and I am hoping she can do it again next year. It goes up thru age 7. So she could potentially go three more years! They have a year-round preschool two days a week as well. But she will be in her public school five mornings a week and it doesn't work out.
4. One affect of G's speech is that she often only says the last parts of words if she is not REALLY thinking about it. (e.g. -za instead of Pizza). If you don't know her, and often if you are not in context it can be REALLY hard to figure out what she is saying. EVERYONE gets frustrated, but no one more than she. She also tends to string words together, speaks quietly at times and QUICKLY. She often asks for the DVD "Princess Potty Power." It sounds like "cesspower, cesspower!" Now, I mean, WHO WOULD KNOW WHAT SHE IS TALKING ABOUT BESIDES US????? It scares me for her future with communication. We really need to work on these things. Language seems to be coming along, she is stringing along more phrases, (one new one I love currently is after she asks me to do something such as "Play bedroom?" and I say, "Sure!" she says, "Let's do it!"), but it all goes hand in hand, doesn't it? The WAY she says it and how it sounds are just as important as THAT she says it and that she understands things. It's incredibly interesting to me, this speech and language acquisition. I just wish it weren't my own daughter who needs such help.
5. G still sings a lot though. I think songs are where she is most comprehensible, actually.
6. Both the kids have a case of the sniffles. Rainer fell asleep for the first time that I can recall not in his bed or the car yesterday. In the midde of a puzzle, bum in the air, on the living room floor.
I won't go boring you with all the reasons I've been everywhere but here, lately, but suffice it to say, I've missed you! Thankfully, I have had a moment or two most weeks to jot down in the journals I keep for the kids some of the funnier (and on occasion, odder) things they've been up to or done. Those books are rife with future blackmail material!
I've been photographing some and we got a new digital recorder which I am just testing out. It is going to be immensely useful and handy and fun (as soon as I free up some room on my computer to store the digital files). Have I mentioned how digital storage of images, video, music, etc, gives me angina?
Here was one of the first videos I shot. Georgia was "noping" me to death because in reality we had already done the bedtime routine and she just wanted to go to sleep. (Normally, she readily and happily REQUESTS these songs (and at least several more), but by this point she was zonked because we'd already read our book (I am reading her "Charlotte's Web"), and sung an arm's length of songs.) It's still kind of cute, though (if you ignore my big mouth.))
Besides that, let's see. I have a lot of Rainer observations and a bunch of Georgia pictures (most of them are ones of her with her MP3 player, it's sort of a montage of images to show just how much she la-la-loves that thing!), so maybe I will just intersperse the two. Sounds fair, right? (Parents of more than one, do you find yourself doing that? Trying to equal out the attention paid to one kid or the other? I do. Rainer takes a lot of my attention, while Georgia is willing to hang on her own a lot. I have to make a concerted efforted to peel Rainer off me and seek Georgia out.) But I digress.
Let's do one of my famous lists. (Famous to whom? You ask? Why...the crickets!)
1. Rainer is noticing (and commenting on) everything these days. And he has a good memory. Which is flabbergasting. And a little scary. I went on a yellow light a week or so ago and he told me, "No go, Mommy! Yellow means be careful, not GO!" I tried to explain to him that I was indeed continuing with caution, but he wasn't having it. Also, since we explained the Don't Walk and Walk lights to the kids at a parade recently, we can't walk or drive anywhere without one or both of the children pointing them out. Georgia says it like one word, "dontwak" and because Rainer is a monkey and likes to copy everything, so does he. "That means dontwak, Mommy."
2. Lately, Rainer gets offended if Georgia doesn't answer him or acknowledge that he is talking. I, of course, think this is WONDERFUL! Built in inititve! Most people don't wait Georgia out. They just assume she can't understand or respond or whatever and they let her slide. I think she is used to being let off the hook. Not by Alex and I, and not by her therapists, but other kids, other parents. But now, not Rainer, either. He is very excited to tell Georgia about his time away from her when we pick G up from camp, for instance, and he wants her to acknowledge him and his adventures and treasures. "Mommy, Georgia not say hi to me!" "Mommy, Georgia doesn't want to see my new ball?" "Mommy, Georgia won't give me hi-five!"
When I walk him through how to get her attention, how to engage her, his is THRILLED when she responds to him. So am I!
(Surely going to be her album cover. Rolling Stones shirt, trashed room, a ukulele, a rainbow tutu, and a potty.)
And some more MP3 player love (nee, obsession).
3. A few months back, before Rainer was able to articulate with quite as much aplumb what he was thinking about, what irked him, what furrowed his brow, prior to his apparent new night-time waking stage (similar to the one G went through at this age, though not nearly as terrifying--nightmares??--whatever it is, it kind of sucks), we used to occasionally put on this one episode of Sesame Street and he would LOSE. HIS. EXCREMENT! Like, in the first scene. As soon as he realized it was that episode. All other episodes, he was fine. But this one? NO CAN DO!
It took us a little while, but one day I put it together that he was scared--I mean PETRIFIED--of this one skit of the itsy bitsy spider. Admittedly, it's terrifying. A quick google search garnered no video online, but let me tell you, it's a grown woman, dressed in a spider costume, a HAIRY spider costume, acting out The Itsy Bitsy Spider.
Rainer HATES it.
Today. Months later. I happened to pop on a Sesame Street. Both the kids are sort of "off" tv at the moment, preferring to do stuff (thankfully), but since it's been so dreadfully hot I thought we'd take advantage of a little SS. Well, Rainer wasn't having it. It was mid-episode, and I certainly didn't recognize it, but he did. He started freaking out. Telling me to turn it off. I asked him "What's wrong, bud? You don't want to watch it?"
Through his tears, his body shaking, he told me, "Rainer no like the spider!!!!! No like the spider. I want to turn it OFF, Mommy!"
Well. There you go. It WAS the spider.
I find this interesting in so many ways. First, holy good memory, batman! Second, where does a two-year-old learn about fear, and how? Three, good verbalization. And four, huh. Wow, even. Man. Shit. Dang. I feel bad. Think of ALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL the times Georgia has had a meltdown or freaked out or cried or moaned or kicked or screamed or whatever other behavior. And I didn't know why. And I thought, "Maybe this is indicitive of something more." Because you freak out a little as a parent. You know>
But maybe it was just a hairy spider. Whatever that hairy spider was.
(Georgia is sitting in her chair with the tray on because I was THIS close to giving her a haircut. And then I decided I wasn't ready.)
Lists seem to be the order of the day lately. It's how my brain works. To do lists, to get lists, bits and pieces of memories in list form. So that is how we'll work on the blog a lot this summer.
1. Georgia continues to love camp. On camp days she tells me the names of her two favorite pals and the name of her aide and is generally happy and excited. I continue to be impressed with the program and Alex and I are already talking about saving our nickles so she can go back again next year. I am not sure of the age limit, but I know she can go at least until she is 7 (because that was the age of the little girl we met the first day) and at this rate we'll want to send her every year!! On Friday they brought in a petting zoo to school and according to G's aide, Georgia was smitten with the rabbits. Other than the rabbits, there was a goat, a chicken, a duck, and...I think something else, but I can't recall at the moment.
2. A few friends and I have started a weekly playdate for the days when we don't have camp and last week was the first one. I really feel like this is a whole new summer of opportunities for us this year. Because we know so many more people, for one, but also because it is MUCH MUCH easier to go places with both the kids. They will both walk places holding my hands, or staying relatively close by, and it's SUCH a relief I can't even describe. Thursday before our playdate we went over to our town's farmer's market to walk around and people watch. It was hot, but the kids enjoyed it. I think we'll make a habit of it on Thursdays.
3. Friday Rainer and I discovered Tiny Town (FINALLY) at the local mall when we were there for their weekly family fun day while G was at camp. He was sweating up a storm after running all around and climbing all the structures and when we got back to the van (after a wee meltdown over leaving--I swear, this kid is TOTALLY testing his/my boudaries lately Willful Willy!) he kept asking "What happened to my head?! What happened to my head?! I put it in the pool?" He was basically asking me why it was so wet. I said, "No, you didn't put it in the pool, it's wet because you are sweaty." He then told me about three times, "I need a new head!" followed by "I can't take it!!!"
4. Some new phrases G is using regularly now, "Help me, please, mom." (Usually inreference to her MP3 player) "Up high!" (referring to things kept out of reach on the bookshelves in the living room), "Rainer, come on!" She has also been saying something that sounds just like "Gadzooks!" for the last couple days, but we don't REALLY think that's what she's saying. We're hoping to have an a-ha moment on that one real soon!
5. G's new MP3 player came loaded with a lot of music including a lot of They Might Be Giants. It is SO funny to hear her sing, "Minimum waaaaaage, Hi-yah!" :)
6. Randomly, while driving in the car the other day, Rainer said to me, "Mommy, you can't eat poop." He had been completely quiet before that. I said, "No. Eating poop would be yucky. One, it would taste gross, and two, it might make you sick." Then I started to wonder how he knew that, "Rainer, YOU didn't eat poop, did you?" Thankfully he answered, "Nooooo, Mommy. You can't eat poop. Just food."
7. I think I am in for all sorts of surprises with this kid. He also likes to talk often about his boy parts and ask me if I have a penis. Then, because he already knows the answer to that question he said, "Just Daddy and Rainer have a penis, not Mommy and Georgia."
8. Ay yi yi!
9. My shrink was asking about G the other day and I got to talking about her speech, and previously her signing. He was very interested in all that stuff and so I told him all about it. "Wow," he said referencing the fact that we learned sign language alongside Georgia, "so it seems you have had to learn a lot since your daughter was born." I didn't say as much, but later in the car I was thinking about it and it's true. I guess you could say I have my B.A. in DS. And since she is in her fifth year, I am working on my Masters! :)
10. The "teacher" in Georgia's camp group came out to chat with me in the carpool line on Friday and told me Georgia is doing very well and they are working to get her to participate more with the group. I know this is an area where G needs some assistance, it's and IEP goal that she participate more with group activities and with peer to peer type stuff. She's a loner, Dotty, a rebel...
Thing is, I started to stress about the fact that she came out and said they were working on it. Working on it means it isn't just...happening. You know? I mentioned it to one of the other moms at our playdate (her son is in G's group at camp). She made me realize, that a.) it's not the end of the world, but 2.) durfy doo.....if it IS an issue (and obvs it's somewhat of one), what better place to have her than a camp where they WORK on these issues??? I am DOING what I should be doing! Playdates, camps, pool side fun with other kids?
Guilt be danged!
And 3.) I see nothing wrong with an introspective kid, really. I just worry. Maybe you know how it is.
1. Georgia is more willing to do things for people who are...not me.
2. Rainer is surprising me everyday with all these new ideas. He is getting the idea of metaphor/similes and is always comparing things. We got him a new toy storage bin thing that sort of steps up and he said, "It's like stairs." Not crazy or complex...except, it is.
3. Georgia is busting out phrases left and right, but it's entirely UNPREDICATBLE. This morning it was, "Rainer! Come on!"
4. She is so bored on the days she doesn't have camp. She LOVES camp. This morning she was saying all the names of the kids in her group when I told her it was a camp day.
5. I canNOT believe this weekend is the 4th of July. We don't have any plans really (we never seem to have plans for most holidays being as how we're down here all by our lonesomes). That sounds pathetic, I know. I mean, we've made friends, but you know how holidays are--people do things with their families. We might go to the parade, might try the fireworks up the street for the first time with the kids, will probably spend a lot of time at the pool. I REALLY need to finish sorting the clothes in Georgia's room!
6. I like traveling to visit family, but it is SO stressful and expensive all this driving. The wear and tear on the car and our bodies and our psyches and purses!! Why does NYC have to be in the way of everyone we love??? I swear, it adds a bijillion hours to every trip and while the kids are much better at traveling these days, it is SO EXHAUSTING. Rainer did great in the car really, but, of course, once we get where we're going he gets stressed out and his sleeping and pooping and eating gets all crazy. Speaking of...he has become a holder. Meaning. He won't poop. He suddenly doesn't want to bathe, either.
7. These kids give me angina. The buggers.
8. Anyone going to the San Antonio conference in August? I am! And I am not driving. WOO!
9. Why are all the single family homes affordable now? You know, now that we already own a house we are upside down on?
Our yard is rife with Morning Glory seeds and sprouts. I am hoping they will all come up and we will just be crawling in color. I am pretty sure the ones along the front stoop will, less so about the ones in the backyard where our towering tree (with whom I have a love/hate relationship) shades most the yard for most the day.
My time is being eaten up week by week and while I like being busy, I am also finding myself falling behind in some of the things that really ought to be done. Sometimes though, people ask me what is taking up my time and I feel like I don't have an answer. Today I decided to make a list for my own sake. I will share it with you, beause I am sure you are dying to know: 1. the kids (of course), 2. working out/taking a lot of classes at the Y (this week I tried out three new ones, plus the one I have been doing: Body Pump (have been doing for about 6 weeks now), Core Conditioning, Cardio Dance, and Body Sculpt). I find the classes MUCH more fun and motivating. Plus, who doesn't like to burn calories while doing the Dougie?, 3. Chalice Circle (although tonight was the last one until fall), 4. The DS Parent Group (we only meet once a month, but there's always this or that to do for that), 5. Poety Group (we've dropped to every other week, but it stills takes up time. I am thinking about dropping this though b/c it turns out I stopped writing poetry for a reason--it just doesn't speak to me in the same way anymore. Writing it, I mean. I HAVE found that I miss reading it.), 6. I have been seeing a PT for my bum hip and a few other docs which have been taking up time, too.
Wait. Why did I list this out?
Oh, I am also doing book reviews for BlogHer (as referenced in my last post), and while I love it, reading the books takes up some down time, too.
Why is it so hard to find a decent, not entirely ridiculously expensive, rug?
Had G's IEP meeting last week. No surprises, which is EXACTLY WHAT WE WANTED!!! G will be going up the street to her home school next year. This will be her fourth school in two years!! Turns out she went to her first private church preschool with her new teacher's son and two of the other kids from that school will be joining her as well. THAT is what going to school in your community means!! THAT is a big reason why we want her to go to school with the other kids from her neighborhood--so she has the opportunity to meet and grow up with the kids from around the way.
G has made SO MUCH progress this year and we are EXTREMELY proud of her. She is now coloring and painting (she really hated that stuff before) often, she is talking SO much more (though it is still one of her biggest challenges), and she is really pushing past a lot of other obstacles.
That said, the anxiety is still a big bummer. It really--REALLY--sucks to not be able to bring your kid to parties...or even regular old places like the grocery storee...without there being an issue. Not that there's ALWAYS an issue, but it is so painful for her that we generally don't push it. If we go to the store, it's and in and out kind of thing. When we are walking to the park together if we come upon adults (kids she is fine with) she doesn't know her hands go up to her face or she runs the other way.
That said, did you catch that? She's WALKING TO THE PARK WITH US! I am still over the moon about this. Almost four and a half years it took, but I can now say "Hey, Alex, Georgia and I are going to the park, see you later!" And walk out the door with my daughter and take her to the park and back.
Turns out G's SLP lives two streets over from us and she LOVES (LOVES LOVES LOVES) her SLP from school. I honestly think if she could she would go and live with Miss Dana. I don't know how we didn't realize it, but it came up at the IEP meeting. The next day who she would stumble upon walking her dogs (while Georgia and I were WALKING to the park)?? Miss D! You should have seen the look on Georgia's face! Thankfully, Miss D seems to love G as well and she has alreay emailed me promises of playdates after school gets out.
Let's talk about Rainer. He is getting so BIG! I mean, big and grown up and WHERE'S MY BABY?? He is really pretty awesome. I mean, he has his days, but the kid is just a sweetheart. (It helps that when I come home he acts like a doting puppy and shouts something like, "Look, Daddy! It's Mommy! Mommy's home! Hooray!!!" (I kid you not, he says "hooray!" up my arrival. Who wouldn't be in love with that?)
Runnnnnning ooooout of steam here.
Will try to be a better blogger. Since all.....what? Are the crickets not even reading anymore??
We are keeping life very full. Seems spring and fall are this way for us here. The summer to hot and humid, the winter, too cold and dreary. But ahhhh, spring! Ahhhh, fall! I do love those seasons in Maryland. (I am trying to keep a running tally in my head of all the things I love about our life here.)
Some of those things include: our DS family, our church community, The Y, my poetry group, various and sundry bookstores, various restaurants and cafes (which though we don't get to go often, after three years we are slowly getting the chance to try), the outlying areas with their farms and parks and paths (which we discover more of all the time), other people we have met...and...
We had a busy weekend. Last weekend Rainer suggested out of the blue that we go to the zoo--so we did. Today, he suggested the farm--so we found one. I have pictures I will post when I am near my other computer. It is SO nice to walk around in areas that are not populated by cars. G is getting SO much better at walking with us, more adventurous and more sure. She reaches up to grab my hand and walk with me now--seems like a small thing, but I assure you, it is huge. So huge, in fact, that walking through the park this afternoon, Alex and Rainer on up ahead, nothing but a periwinkle butterfly and some tulips in the breeze below the trees, I teared up when she grabbed my hand--her own hand so very delicate--and walked with me.
We went for a hike.
I have been pain-free, thanks to some help from a new doctor, for the first time in two years and it feels so unbelievably good!
The fitness challenge is going well. Took a step class for the first time in 20 years this morning!
20 years. How is that even possible? The lady next to me refused to believe it is true. But it is.
I have about a bazillion things I want to do/HAVE to do, but I keep finding time instead for the kids. Our house is a disgrace, but the kids are active.
Yesterday we went out to a state park and the kids had a blast on a recycled tire park and walking along the water.
Rainer has taken to saying "Good job, Georgia! You said 'swinging'," (and various takes on this phrase). It's funny, and endearing, and it also kind of eats me up a little.
Georgia though, has turned some sort of MAJOR corner. Something has just CLICKED. She is talking up a storm! It is absolutely wild and wonderful. Little phrases and funny things that show me just how much she understands. She likes to tell me what she is doing (i.e. "I jumping!")
OKAy. Off to do some stuff on my should-oughta' list. We have guests coming next weekend and I am not even CLOSE to touching the house list yet. Eep! And I just realized I have meetings every night this week. Holy moly, but we are a busy bunch!
