Reason #3,457

One of the challenges of raising a Hearing Impaired/Speech Delayed child is that their language is not always yours...

The primary language in our household is English, with Signing as support...

Beans primary language at school is English, with Signing as support...

Because she has so much support, she learns signs much faster and efficiently than I do.  I tend to rely on very basic Sign and fingerspelling and a kind of charades that we do if the language escapes us...

Is it a place?  Is it a person?  Is it big or small?  Can you show me where it is?  Can you act it out?

Can you be totally frustrated?

Tonight, it was about her "run" at school tomorrow....

B: Mom!  We're the (sign) Cats!
K: Your team name is The Cats?
B: No! It's the (sign) Cats (sign) Roar!
K: You're The Roaring Cats?
B: No! We're the (sign) Cats (sign) Roar (sign) Fast!!!!!
K: OK... You're the Fast Cats?
B: Mom!  No! We're the (sign) CAT (sign) FAST!!!!!

OK...

K: Beanie, please show me...

She went to her room and retrieved a stuffed animal Cheetah...

B: Mom! We are the fastest cat! The CHEETAH!!! That's our TEAM NAME!!! The Cheetahs!!!!

And it all falls into place... Once I saw the stuffed Cheetah, I understood every word after that...

Language is a funny thing... You either get it or you don't...

Bean made me get it...
GO CHEETAHS!!!!!!!!!!

Reason # 1,191

One of our bedtime rituals includes a book called "Tickle Monster"...

We have a version of the book that includes 'Tickle Hands'...

It is basically, two half hand gloves that are supposed to be the 'Tickle Monster' hands that tickle you... It adds a lot of fun and interaction to the story...

Our nights alternate between me being the 'Tickle Monster' and actually reading the book and providing tickles at the appropriate times and places throughout the story....

i.e. It's time to tickle your neck.... (and neck tickles ensue...)

And JJ 'reading' the story...

"I'm a monster... and I tickle!!!!!"

Followed by huge, random amounts of tickling...

"I love monster..."

Followed by huge, random amounts of tickling....

"Make silly faces..."

Followed by huge, random amounts of tickling...

How can you not go to bed happy after being tickled silly by one of your favorite people???

I recommend the book...

Reason # 1,191

Reason # 3,441

Bean: "Mom, How doesGod hear you?"
Me: "He hears you when he talks to him."
Bean: "I don't get it."
Me: "When you say words, they are also on your heart, and he can hear what is on your heart."
Bean: "What about Spanish?  Does God understand Spanish?"
Me: "Yes Bean... God understands every language."
*pause*
Bean: "But what about ASL?  If I'm signing, he can't hear my voice... No one can."
Me: "Beanie, God can always hear whatever you want him to hear... And he knows ASL"
Bean: "Oh..."
Man I love this girl...
Reason # 3,441

Reason # 3,438

Curriculum Night at Beans school....

Had the opportunity to meet her teachers... And I love them... They both seem so positive and outside of the box thinkers... I think that Bean will flourish in these classrooms...

But, that is not what this post is about...


It's about a game...
Each student was given a questionaire to fill out and the parents were asked to fill out the same questionare to see if your answers matched....

These are my correct answers:
Name:   Ellie Burns (This is important because most kids would answer with just their first names)
Favorite Food:   Spaghetti (This is a no brainer)
Favorite Color:  Purple ( The color that reminds her most of Justin Bieber)

These are my incorrect answers:
Favorite Book:  Diary of a Wimpy Kid
Favorite Place to Visit: Chuck E Cheese
Favorite Restaurant:  Applebees

I should have realised that she would have changed her favorite book, because she just started reading Judy Blume....
I should have realised her favorite restaurant.... We dont eat there often, but there is a local diner named "Ellies"...

Her favorite place to visit took me by surprise...

At least twice a week she asks to go to Chuck E Cheese... or Boomers (another local arcade/ride/money suck)... My alterenate responses were Disney or Los Angeles or New York... Because she always asks to go to those places, too...

Her answer was...

Camp Boggy Creek

I almost cried when I read that....

When I got home, I made sure to compare notes with her and I told her how proud I was that she picked Camp Boggy Creek as her favorite place to visit...

She made me promise to apply for the next Family Retreat...

An amazing place, shrouded in love and caring and joy...

I think that it is my favoritie place to visit, too...

Reason # 3,438

-210

The crazy things that bring you to where you are today...
I was in NY on Labor Day of 2001.  I had planned on staying for a week.  Personal Business called me home, abruptly...
I was, newly, pregnant with Bean and had just come off the sadness of a previous, recent miscarriage...
I was still on vacation from work on 9/11/01... Normally, I would have slept in, but on this day I chose to go to the living room and watch tv there... Half slumbering, just lounging and thinking...
I remember abruptly waking from my half slumber when the news of the first plane hit... It seemed odd... How can an experienced pilot do something like that...
My Mom called me and wanted to stay on the phone....
The second plane hit and the media was all over the place...
Minutes passed that felt like hours...
I screamed into the phone, "Oh my God!!! They're falling!!!!"
My mom responded, "It's ok... they're just on fire..."
I knew that she was not witnessing what I was witnessing....
In the hours and days that followed, we tried to contact friends and family.  We were informed that some were in the Search and Rescue Team... My heart goes out to them...
We, helplessly, watched hours and days of footage and prayed and hoped for any glimmer of rescue...
We mourned and felt tortured at the outcome.... Rescue dogs were not rescuing... Teams were not finding survivors...
Days and weeks later, we watched 'Documentaries'... Real life video...
I remember watching and hearing these random 'thud' noises... The reality is that the 'thud' was bodies hitting the ground... That noise will stay with me forever...
In those days, I struggled with what it meant to bring a child into this world...
Fast Forward 2010: A nearby park is host to a WTC beam.  We drove by it the other day and I began crying... Bean asked me why and I tried to explain, but I couldn't...
How do you try to explain to a child that 'sometimes bad people do bad things' without ruining their innocence?   I'm not ready to try to explain about Monsters yet...  She has her own Monsters...
Bean was born 210 days after 9/11
-210 is the Reason Why I Love...

Reasons # 3,433 and 1,174...

Reasons # 3,433 and 1,174...

I saw a post today that asked the question "What do you do to make your kids laugh?"...

It struck me as odd and contrived... Is there supposed to be a formula to make your kids laugh?  Is there supposed to be a specific guideline?  Did I miss that lesson, because G-d knows I never read the handbook. I never thought it applied to me... And I don't follow directions well, so if there is some flowchart out there,  would probably just miss a step anyway...

What do I do to make my kids laugh?

I don't know that I can put a finger on it... It just comes...

Bean has a very literal way about her... Sometimes I will say or do something that is so ordinary, but to her it is the funniest thing in the universe!  She will finish her hearty-machine-gun-laugh and ask me to repeat myself or recreate the moment... Again... And again... And again... Every time is met with the same innocent-laugh out loud-reckless abandon that only she possesses...

JJ has a very 'slap-stick' way about him... He loves physical humor... And prat falls and tickles... We play a game that we have called 'Happy Face/Very Sad'... One of us makes a sad face and the only goal is to make it into a happy face... It can go on for hours.... 

It's all random and funny and spontaneous.... Sometimes just a funny face will have us cracking up for minutes on end and all of a sudden it will be repeated days or weeks later to be followed by the same hysteria...

I don't ever want to follow a formula or guideline to make my kids laugh, or have them make me laugh...

"The most wasted of all days is one without laughter."  ~e.e. cummings

"What soap is to the body, laughter is to the soul."  ~Yiddish Proverb

"You can't deny laughter; when it comes, it plops down in your favorite chair and stays as long as it wants."  ~Stephen King

"Laughter on one's lips is a sign that the person down deep has a pretty good grasp of life."  ~Hugh Sidey

"A day without laughter is a day wasted."  Charlie Chaplin

"A person who can bring the spirit of laughter into a room is indeed blessed."  Bennett Cerf 

Reason # 1,172

Reason # 1,172

While at the store today, the kiddos came across the school supply aisle and both got their minds set on getting a notebook.

Ellie, of course, picked out Justin Bieber.  John John picked out 'Speed'... He has a Lightning McQueen car that rattles and shakes and says, "Speed.... I am Speed..".  Therefore, Lightning McQueens name is now 'Speed'.

Walking out to the car, they each carried their own notebooks.  Filled with pride and dreams of what they would be filled with...

As we approached our car, there was an older woman parked next to us packing up her car with her purchases.  JJ ran up to her and immediately began his high-pitched, excited, almost un-intelligible babble... Her face lit up with delight...

"Um, um, I got, um, my speed, um, um, I go color, um, um, a-pakapaka, um, like that!!!"

The sweet woman giggled at JJ's charm and excitement...

As I began packing them into the car, the woman called out, "What is your name?"

JJ responded, with incredible clarity, "John John Burns."

I turned to him, wide-eyed, and yelled excitedly, "JJ!!!!!! You've never said you last name before!!!"  I had never heard him say it, and never expected it with such clarity!

Ellie joined in my excitement, clapping and yelling, "What's your name?" over and over.  Each time the same clear response...

For about three minutes, we were a trio of fools in the middle of the Target parking lot... Laughing, clapping and yelling back and forth to each other...

I hadn't noticed that the woman was still there, I had assumed she had driven away by now... When I turned around she was sitting in her car, watching us and laughing along with us...

She called out to me and tried to give me a 10 dollar bill... She said that it would give her great pleasure to buy a book for each of my children.  She said that it brought her joy to see us together and wished us God Blessings... I promised her that I would buy books for the kids, and she drove away smiling...

It was such a random interaction, but it makes me smile...

Any one want to join me at Barnes and Noble this weekend?