I’m up early this morning and don’t have my writing materials, so I’ll just take this opportunity to record a few little random tidbits of life, which are more for the benefit of family records/history than what I usually post.
Random tidbit #1: Julianna
We receive our services through Missouri First Steps, which is a tremendous program, covering everything she needs until age 3. The therapists tell me that once she graduates from First Steps, there will be many more battles to fight. (Yay.)
Anyway, at present the therapists come to our house: Physical, Occupational, and Speech. Gerti, our PT, still gets 2 visits a week, but as soon as Julianna really gets walking we’ll be cutting back to one and passing the other to the other therapists, who get 6 visits per month. I detail this to explain that we have 5-6 visits per week…except this week, because Gerti is out of the country, and other scheduling factors combined so that we had only TWO therapies this week. We did not know what to do with ourselves. Particularly Julianna, who simply has gone on strike this week. She won’t walk–whenever you try to set her on her feet, she picks her legs up and howls. She won’t drink from a glass–preferring to go without liquid altogether. I’m shaking my head and saying, Kiddo, regression’s supposed to happen AFTER the baby comes!
However, on the up side, she had a great week for signing. She learned 5 new signs: Daddy, Mommy, hat, fish, play. And she pointed to “cat” when Chris, the speech therapist, asked her to choose between two pictures. So both of those are good things.
Random Tidbit #2: Alex
Alex is definitely transitioning out of nap time. The trouble is that he still really needs it, even if he can’t or won’t go to sleep. So by evening, there are purple marks under his eyes and he’s acting…well, not good. The other thing this affects is bedwetting. He’s always been a sound sleeper–once he fell out of bed without waking up! This is why, we think, he is still wetting at night instead of getting up to go to the bathroom. I’ve let it go for months now without trying to work on it, but it’s very frustrating. It seems like all his friends are dry at night, and he’s not only wet, he’s as drenched as any baby.
Random Tidbit #3: Alex
On a more positive note, a couple of language funnies. He’s always said “pwanio” instead of “piano.” Christian & I think it’s adorable, but about a week ago, I thought, oh, my goodness, this child is nearly 4 years old. If I let this go much longer he’s going to get into the habit, and imagine the musicians’ kid at age 7 having to learn to say “piano” properly! So I brought him over and taught him to say it properly. Christian was really mad at me. 🙂
However, he still says “amn’t.” He’s got the gist of language so well that he created for himself the one contraction that we DON’T use. You’re really tired, Alex–it’s time for bed. “No, I amn’t!” Adorable.
OK, so honesty compels me to admit that even though he made up an appropriate contraction, he doesn’t have his past tense straight yet.
Random Tidbit #4: Baby
Baby is manifesting his or her personality by waking up every time I sit down or lie down, and using me as a boxing target…and a tickle target. Its favorite time is when I first lie down at night. I get a good 15 minutes of crazy movements. The kind where an entire leg from the knee down pushes out of my flank, and I can run my fingers along both sides. The kind where both sides of my body bulge at the same time. The kind where my stomach jumps and rolls like something out of an Alien movie. And s/he LOVES to take those little toes and tickle the underside of my ribcage. I must say, it’s most unfair, because I have very little defense against internal tickling! But maybe it’s a payback-in-advance for all the tickling this little one will have to endure from Mommy in the years to come. 🙂
Random Tidbit #5: Writing
I set a goal to have my novel complete & submission-ready before Baby. I think that ship has sailed, much as I hate to capitulate. I’m very close, but my focus has gone in other directions lately…an assignment for Family Foundations (thank you, Christina!), and some composing, which I always miss when I go into a musical dry spell. And let’s be honest…a lot of blogging. Balance, Kate, balance.
So we’ll see what happens when I finish my assignment, which I should be able to turn in well ahead of deadline. Who knows? Maybe the last fixes and polishes on the novel won’t take too long. Maybe I’ll still make it! Think positive!
Kathleen M. Basi 