Thursday, September 30, 2010

Getting Older


Today is my birthday. I'm now the 'dirty thirty'. It's the begining of a new decade in my life. I've been dreading this day for years. I can't explain it and I have to legitimate reason for my 'fear' of being 30. I'm married, I have 3 beautiful children and I have a head of brunette hair sprinkled with grey. I SHOULD be at least 30.

I think maybe some of the issues I was having grasping this particular age is the fact that I'm the oldest of 4 children. I have a 27 year old brother who is also married and has two super adorable boys, I have a sister who's 16 juggling high school, marching band, a Jr. police academy course and college classes. My youngest sister is almost 7, being homeschooled in 1st grade.

Maybe having such young siblings has made it difficult to wrap my head around the idea of turning 30. Do you want to know something? Now that the day has arrived, it's really not as bad as I imagined it to be. I've come to terms with it and have accepted it.

I'm busy with my daily responsibilities as wife and mother to 3 kids. I have a nearly 9 yr old daughter in 3rd grade, a 3 yr old son now in preschool and a nearly 2 yr old daughter home with me all day on top of getting my daily housework done, running errands, cooking the meals, doing the laundry and so on. It only makes sense that I'd be 30.

Thinking of all the things I have in my life and the responsibilities I have has helped me realize how silly it's been to worry about turning 30. Now, I look forward to seeing what's in store for this new decade of my life.

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Getting A Head Start


My son, John, turned 3 early in the summer. For a year now he's been working with a Speech Therapist, Ms. June. John's a very smart boy. He was evaluated by the state and is right on track with his development, cognitive and comprehension skills. The only issue is his speech. His very first evaluation he was 27 months old and his speech was evaluated to be at the level of a 19 month old. He had very few actual words in his vocabulary and everything else was baby babble. In his mind he was really talking to us, but we couldn't understand him and it was a major source of frustration and aggravation with him and everyone else who tried to communicate with him.

John's made amazing progress since he started working with Ms. June. Another great advantage of him getting help with his speech development through the state is that been the fact that he's now been accepted into the states "Head Start" program. It's a structured program for children to get them acclimated to a school setting.

Today was John's first official day of school. The bus came to the house and picked him up around 11:15am. He was excited to ride his very own school bus, just like big sister, Tabytha. I walked him to the bus and the bus assistant helped him in and got him buckled in. When he realized I wasn't getting on the bus with him he got upset and started fussing with the bus assistant. I blew him a kiss, told him I loved him and would see him when he was done with school and waved goodbye as the bus driver closed the door and drove down the road.

His class started at 12:15pm and went until 3:45pm. The bus arrived with John around 4:45pm and I signed the clipboard stating I got my child off the bus. He was tired and a little grumpy but seemed to have had a good first day of school. It's hard to know for sure how his day went because he is only 3 and it's still kind of hard to understand some of the things he says. But, no note came home with him saying he misbehaved or cried to come home, so I can only assume things went well.

I'm looking forward to the first parent/teacher conference to find out how he's adjusting to his new surroundings and how he's getting along with his new friends at school.