I am reminded of Matthew 6:26 (NLT) Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are?
I am going to keep that in mind as I am going through this post, as do I want you.
Blythe had his 9 month well baby checkup on Tuesday. I really don't like those, simply because he doesn't handle the shots well. His leg always bruises, it gets very knotty, he gets extremely sore there no matter what we do, it disturbs his diapering patterns, and to make it all the better it affects his sleeping pattern. I kid you not, he's been up for several hours in the middle of the night for the past two nights. Can make for a tired Mommy! But God is good to me and I have a child that will come get the baby in the morning to give me an extra hour or two of sleep. That is one thing I am very very grateful for. Without Marissa's help, I would have been a zombie by now.
So at any rate, the visit is going well. He's a big boy, a very big boy. I tell people he is going to be our very intelligent football player. Hey, that big head of his is going to be useful! He is at the 20lb mark already, and his head is 46cm. Oh yeah, that is the size of about a 2T in a hat for him. On the charts, his head is in the 95 percentile range. Yep, you got it, his head is bigger than 95% of the babies out there. And you wonder why we call him Frankenstein?
So we are going through the motions...."How is he sleeping?" Not all night. He has to eat. "How is he eating" About every 2 hours still. I am not kidding. "Is he crawling" Oh yes, he does the GI crawl and is crawling more normally more often now. "Is he pulling up on things" Oh yes, he is standing, cruising across the couch, and trying to climb on things. "Is he babbling" Nope.
You could hear a pin drop.
"No baby babbles?!?"
Nope. He does the "ooohs" and "ahhhs" and "hiiiis" but no constant consonant sounds. (Remember the cute video of him saying bye-bye? Well bye-bye is gone. Not a site of it for about two weeks now) There is no mamamama or dadadadada or anything like that. He "talks" to us through coos like a smaller baby, and he squeals and cries like no tomorrow but no consonants.
Oh yes, I have heard it all. He is just a little slower, he will do it on his own time, maybe he just doesn't want to talk right now, he is still little yet....
Look, children do develop at different rates. HOWEVER there are certain milestones that occur at certain ages no matter what. The babbling is one of them.
Instructions from the pediatrician?
Watch him close. Talk to him like we've been doing. (We have him watch us, we say the sounds -i.e. mamama, we put his hand to our mouth so he can feel the sounds) If he is not speaking at 12 months we go back for ANOTHER audiology.
Did I mentioned that he failed his newborn one? Yeah, it was repeated and then he passed, but that is why we are having to watch all of this.
If the audiology is clean we go to speech therapy.
Ok, compare my two boys and wonder why I am not ponding my feet on the ground ready to charge all of the doctors like the mother bull I can be???
Remember Matthew 6:26?
My God is bigger than this.
Friday, June 26, 2009
Thursday, June 4, 2009
Daily Mercies
Go check out Ginger and The Daily Mercies!
http://heresmycuplord.com/2009/06/03/the-daily-mercies-our-first-thursday-edition/
http://heresmycuplord.com/2009/06/03/the-daily-mercies-our-first-thursday-edition/
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
"Field Day"
Being where I am right now, I am begining to see things in a completely different light than I ever have before. And let me warn you, my perception of things is very different than what you would expect.
First, Alex.
He made his first "successful" day at DEAP yesterday. I am soo suspect of that it is unreal. My heart screams "foul!" and my brain cannot compute it. Not that I shouldn't be "proud" of him. But let's look at it through my eyes for a moment. The teacher just had to go through a disciplinary process over her treatment of my son. The day before (Monday) he scored a wonderful 12. The things that she had itemized on the paper are the same behaviors he's been having, none of which have brought him one good day yet (in out of 46). The difference on yesterday? The aide sat with him the ENTIRE time and she noted that he still lost points (ok, so what???? At least he finally had ONE good day!). Today was business as usual, with a beautiful 22 - complete with a descriptive narrative on how he kicked himself in the head several times today and proceeded to bite his own arm (don't know, don't ask, can't explain it, is NOT normal for him).
Now, on "field day".
This was the day scheduled for Dayna's school to have field day. As a child, I remember the fun of field day, organized activities, Mom and Dad being there, sharing lunch together....how it signified the begining of the summer break. Loads of good memories for me. But today I really saw it in a completely different light.
This school is unable to provide the children with "recess" on a continuous basis. It's either wet, or too hot, or too cold....the children are lucky if they get 15 minutes on a day that they are able to have recess. So you have a school chock full of children under the age of 11 with NO way to burn off excess energy or even build endurance for physical exercise! It should be no surprise to see students ending up in DEAP!
And so, one day a year, they dedicate and ENTIRE day of strenous physical activity. Yes, the kids are on teams and they play these "organized" games. Yes, there is a section that is full of water games (let's face it, it's Texas and it is SUPER hot here, even at June 2nd). But these kids are running out of energy within the first 3 games and it ends up being a mess of whiny, hot, tired children, who continue to be drawn through a massive amounts of "games" to where they are finally taken to the water section....so at the end of the day, they are mush and soppy on top of it.
(insert sigh here)
And we wonder why our children are overweight? And we wonder why they are not as healthy as they once were? Why are they getting into so much trouble? Why are so many now ADD/ADHD?
The schools are at the point where they are having to teach based on being able to get the students to pass at standardized scoring. The teachers are the ones left "raising" our children whether we want to admit that or not. Seriously? Our kids are there at least 7 hours of their day. Where do you think they are learning about life from?
One teacher today walks by me with her voice raised - at this point she is just as frustrated and tired as her students. I hear, "What part of PUT THAT DOWN did you NOT understand?" I giggled. I've used that one.
As I sit here, however, I am more sad now than before. What a legacy to pass from us! I, now more than ever, are compelled to be the one in charge of my child's education!
First, Alex.
He made his first "successful" day at DEAP yesterday. I am soo suspect of that it is unreal. My heart screams "foul!" and my brain cannot compute it. Not that I shouldn't be "proud" of him. But let's look at it through my eyes for a moment. The teacher just had to go through a disciplinary process over her treatment of my son. The day before (Monday) he scored a wonderful 12. The things that she had itemized on the paper are the same behaviors he's been having, none of which have brought him one good day yet (in out of 46). The difference on yesterday? The aide sat with him the ENTIRE time and she noted that he still lost points (ok, so what???? At least he finally had ONE good day!). Today was business as usual, with a beautiful 22 - complete with a descriptive narrative on how he kicked himself in the head several times today and proceeded to bite his own arm (don't know, don't ask, can't explain it, is NOT normal for him).
Now, on "field day".
This was the day scheduled for Dayna's school to have field day. As a child, I remember the fun of field day, organized activities, Mom and Dad being there, sharing lunch together....how it signified the begining of the summer break. Loads of good memories for me. But today I really saw it in a completely different light.
This school is unable to provide the children with "recess" on a continuous basis. It's either wet, or too hot, or too cold....the children are lucky if they get 15 minutes on a day that they are able to have recess. So you have a school chock full of children under the age of 11 with NO way to burn off excess energy or even build endurance for physical exercise! It should be no surprise to see students ending up in DEAP!
And so, one day a year, they dedicate and ENTIRE day of strenous physical activity. Yes, the kids are on teams and they play these "organized" games. Yes, there is a section that is full of water games (let's face it, it's Texas and it is SUPER hot here, even at June 2nd). But these kids are running out of energy within the first 3 games and it ends up being a mess of whiny, hot, tired children, who continue to be drawn through a massive amounts of "games" to where they are finally taken to the water section....so at the end of the day, they are mush and soppy on top of it.
(insert sigh here)
And we wonder why our children are overweight? And we wonder why they are not as healthy as they once were? Why are they getting into so much trouble? Why are so many now ADD/ADHD?
The schools are at the point where they are having to teach based on being able to get the students to pass at standardized scoring. The teachers are the ones left "raising" our children whether we want to admit that or not. Seriously? Our kids are there at least 7 hours of their day. Where do you think they are learning about life from?
One teacher today walks by me with her voice raised - at this point she is just as frustrated and tired as her students. I hear, "What part of PUT THAT DOWN did you NOT understand?" I giggled. I've used that one.
As I sit here, however, I am more sad now than before. What a legacy to pass from us! I, now more than ever, are compelled to be the one in charge of my child's education!
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