Reason #'s 1,290 and 3,537.... Alternate title 'Happy New Year 2012'....

Reason #'s 1,290 and 3,537.... Alternate title  'Happy New Year 2012'....

Ahhhh....

As I posted on my page.... What a long, strange trip its been...

The kiddos are sleeping, and nothing really prophetic with them has happened today...

Bean made me promise to wake them up at Midnight for a celebration, but, quite frankly, we all know they will not wake up....

I will go in and cuddle them with love and kisses at midnight, but they will be none the wiser...

I don't know how to define this year... It has been so full of ups and downs... It's been full of reaching out to strangers... It's been full of being reached by strangers...  It's been full of finding some of the best friends in the world, who I will never meet... It's been full of re-connecting with friends that I may never see again...

Confidences made and confidences broken...

I am so grateful for the opportunities and outlets that this year has brought...

I am so thankful for our health and our happiness... I pray for a new year filled with love and strength and happiness and silliness and discovery....

2011  brought us many things... we can count them as good or bad...

2012 will bring us hope and love and confidence....

I am sure of it...

Happy New Year Peeps....

Word...

Reason # 3,526

Reason # 3,526... Alternate Title "The Literal Girl"...

Bean had a book report due this week.  The style of story for this report was "Fairy Tale".  Pretty easy,right... We have all grown up listening to Fairy Tales...

Once Upon A Time... The Princess, The Prince, The Witch.... These are all pretty common... We've all heard them and learned them and know them inside out...

But not my my girl...

She takes words for what they are.  She is very creative, but she is very literal.  She has a very tough time assigning figurative meanings to words and phrases...

Her Fairy Tale was 'The Frog Prince'... 

The Frog helps the Princess and makes her promise to be friends... She resists and is very mean to the Frog... Over and over again... At the end of the tale, she throws the Frog and it breaks the spell... The Frog turns into a Prince and they fall in love and get married...

Not the story that I would have picked for her, but she picked it out...

We talked about the story several times leading up to writing the book report...

We came to a question that asked 'What was the lesson/ What did you learn?'...

And, in her dead-pan literalism, she turned to me and said...

"If you throw a frog against a wall it turns into a prince..."

This brought flooding back to me memories of how difficult it was to explain what 'a piece of cake' and 'keep an eye out' were to explain to her...

It brought me to think about what other phrases might be difficult...

'Bend over backwards'

'Break a leg'

'Drive me up the wall'

'Everything but the kitchen sink'

'Keep your chin up'

'Kick the bucket'

'Lend me your ear'

'Let the cat out of the bag'

'On the fence'

'Over my dead body'

'Sick as a dog'

'You are what you eat'

I'm sure that there are a million more... Perhaps you can add a few that I should be aware of...

Reasons # 1,277 and 3,524

Reasons # 1,277 and 3,524... Alternate title... The oooohs and the cat wails...

For everyone who has followed our story, you will know that I love nothing more than the sounds of my children's voices....

I've struggled and fought and yearned to hear them...

Therefore, I hope that you respect my humor in this note...

It took almost 3 years to even hear a sound out of my dear girl, and almost as long to hear an intelligible word out of my boy...

Driving in the car today and they are singing "Santa Claus is Coming to Town"...

mamama yayaya lalala uhuhuh... SANTA CLAUS IS COMING TO TOWN!.... ahahahah blah blah blah.... heknowswhenyuaresleeping... HE KNOWS WHEN YOUR AWAKE!.....

Switching stations....

CeeLo Green...

Ahahahahahahahah.....OOOOO OOOOO OOOO OOOO.....

Switching stations....

Katy Perry...

achachac.... FIREWORK..... wahwahwah... FIREWORK...

The boys words are so hard to understand....

The girl is screeching, like nails on a chalkboard...

But, HOLY CRAP!!!!!

My kids are singing their hearts out and I LOVE IT!!!!!!!! 

Reason # 3,516

Had another one of those kind of 'AHA' moments tonight...  It took alot of circumstances to get to it, but, it did present itself...

Earlier tonight, at the Mall... Playing in the indoor playground or the 'fruit' (which actually is not fruit anymore  It's been replaced with ships and trucks and slides, but I will always know it as 'the fruit'...

Ellie came to me and told me that a little boy had called her a 'Monster'... Not the first time we've been to this rodeo, so Ellie know that I would handle the situation and she stayed composed...

Figured out who the little boys Mom was and approached her gently... You never know how Mommas are going to react... I explained to her what happened and that this would be a great opportunity to talk to her son about how some people are different and calling names just makes other kids sad... She was 100% receptive and we both had a chance to talk to her son and they were both awesome...

Win/ Win

A short time later...  I hear someone yelling to me, "What school does SHE go to???".  I wasn't sure of the intent of the question, so I surveyed the environment quickly... I noticed that she was pushing a stroller that held a small child, I thought maybe 3, who had a very severe cleft as well as other facial and cognitive anomolies... I switched modes and began to talk to her about how Ellie had attended a local school during Pre-K 3 and 4 that was awesome and the should look into it...

She started to posture and make random yells across the store... "You don't need to stare at her!... What's wrong with you?... Would you like it if I just stared at you!..."

I tried to talk to her about how kids are mostly just curious, and education is a much better reaction than confrontation, but she really did not want to listen... And, if nothing else, I know how to shut up...

Lose/Lose

We talked a little more about her daughter and I discovered that she was 5 years old and had a very rare genetic condition and she had survived much longer than anyone else with this syndrome... She went on to complain about how her daughter needed OT/PT/ST and she just couldn't get it...  I asked her where she was looking and she told me that her daughter was enrolled in a local daycare... No Early Steps, no Intervention... I tried to talk to her about local resources that were available to her and even tried to get her number or give her a number to a good friend who is so involved in the system and could get her in touch with the things that she needed, but she rebuffed the offer....

We wound up just parting ways... But, it made me sad.... and it made me think...

What if I had let MY circumstances just make me bitter and hardened... Unwilling to look for, or accept help and advice... Where would Ellie be know in her development?  Where would I be?  Would I just be filled with anger and solitude?

I know that I did not fully take advantage of all of the things that I could have for Ellie.  I know how hard it is to ask for help.  To admit that you need help...

I am so grateful that I chose to be a champion and advocate for my child, rather than be angry about our circumstance...

I shudder at the thought of having become angry or bitter... 

I am grateful everyday that my circumstance has resulted in me having a softer heart and an open mind...

Reason # 3,516

Reason # 3,508

Reason # 3,508

Thanksgiving was very different this year... We did not have a big family gathering, no amazing kitchen scenarios, no hearth song moments...

I promised my kids that we would do 'Thanksgiving'... but it had to be when it was ready...

On November 24th, we spent time together... We had fun and went to the beach... We ate turkey at a restaurant... We danced in snow...

I promised Bean that I would make a turkey and the sweet potatoes with marshmallows that she had been craving...

Nov 30th... Made a Turkey Breast and some awesome Sweet Potatoes.... Bean declared,"Thanksgiving!!!"

Dec 1st... Reheated the Turkey and awesome Sweet Potatoes (with some extra marshmallows) and some Green Beans...

Ellie declared... "We have had Thanksgiving Three Times!!!!"

I hope that she remembers that we have Thanksgiving 1..2...3... or a million times... Every day is our Thanksgiving...

Even if we are not eating the turkey and trimmings, we are Thankful everyday....

xoxo

Reason # 3,508