Parenting is a Humbling Sport…

Many of you know that Gia receives services through Lanterman Regional Center because of an oralmotor delay she was diagnosed with at 8 months. The oralmotor issue seems to have resolved itself (no problem getting that girl to eat anymore!), but she’s now being watched for speech problems, as 80% of children with oralmotor delay experience speech delays as well. She’s in speech 2 times a week – working on combining two-word phrases, but mostly playing games and having a ball.

When Holding Hands (Gia’s speech therapists) saw JJ’s interactions with them and her sister, they suggested that Lanterman evaluate her too. “We’d expect more two-word combinations from a child her age” they said. Plus, they said, we could schedule her at the same time as Gia and you could split your time monitoring their lessons. Okay…can’t hurt. I doubted JJ would get refered.

Well, what do you know…three evaluations later, Lanterman has decided that JJ not only needs speech therapy, but also “more structure” in her day so that she can increase her attention span when attending to teacher-initiated tasks, not just self-initiated tasks. Marta, the last evaluator JJ saw, was kind to me, saying “you’ve done a great job keeping her from drowning, scalding and starving. Don’t beat yourself up about not providing structure.” And yet…how can I not? I take off 2 1/2 years from my job, bypassing both salary and promotions, to care for my kids the way I think is best. Now here are the child assessment experts saying that “your girls would benefit from MORE time in a structured preschool environment (they’re already in school 2 days a week).” Wow…isn’t that another way of saying “you’re not giving them what they need?” Turn their care over to someone MORE often? I told Marta about arranging for family and friends to stay with us for several months during the year to try to meet their needs more quickly than I could on my own. “Ah” says Marta. “You’ve made it so easy for your girls to get their needs met that they haven’t needed to use their words to get what they want.” Sheesh…and here I thought I was doing the right thing by them.

Have you ever questioned whether your parenting is good enough? Feel free to comment!

Here’s Everybody – October 2008

Everyday is a Zoo!

Ethan, September 2008

E hanging out and reading Harry Potter

Our Little Jenna – ‘Small, but Mighty!’

Isn't She Lovely? Jenna at 23 Months

Gianna at 23 Months

Gianna and one of her favorite toys, a cell phone.

It’s Me – December 2008

A Recent Picture of Me

Here I Am

Hi Everyone – I’m taking a shot at blogging to try to keep folks better informed of what’s going on with me and my family.  Wow…signing up with Twitter and starting a blog in the same day…I may actually become technologically savvy someday!

Now, on to the family details:

Me.  Still playing the stay-at-home mom, at least until April 2009.  80% of the time I love it, 15% of the time I wonder if I know what I’m doing, and 5% of the time I’m looking forward to actually making money for what I do (i.e. going back to my PAID job).

Tom.  Tom is still working as an AGM at LACERS.  He mostly enjoys his work, when he’s not running back and forth to meetings.  He just finished playing softball with a local league and showed those younga playas he’s for real!

Ethan.  E just finished up another season of chess and won first place in his division (intermediate) at the chess tournament.  He tried joining a parochial T-ball league, but let’s just say the competition wasn’t there.  He’s looking forward to T-ball starting up next March or April.  Til then, I’m thinking about piano lessons…we’ll see.

Gianna.  G started speech therapy last week.  She’s enjoying her lessons – everything is like a game to her.  She’s enjoying school too – attending two days a week.  She still got her wild hair, of course!  The latest additions to her phrase book are ‘thank you’ and Elmo.’

Jenna.  JJ is getting evaluated for speech therapy this week.  Both G and JJ have great receptive language and good enunciation of their words, but the speech therapist is concerned about both of them failing to combine words into phrases.  JJ mastered ‘thank you’ a few months ago.  Her new favorite stuffed animal is Ethan’s old sea otter.  I’ve been hearing her in the morning lately just saying the phrase ‘sea otter!’ over and over.

You?  Feel free to leave an update in the comments!

Will try to post as often as possible.  We’ll see how often that turns out to be!