From the Archives: Progress and Snow Days.
In these snippets from the archives, I delight in my daughter's progress, and we have a snow day together.
February 19th, 2004:
A. has started going to her Special School five days out of the week for half a day (as opposed to the original three.) Her teachers want to see her better prepared for Kindergarten, which she will be starting in August. I took her grocery shopping the night before last, sticking her in the buggy as I always do, but after about five minutes, she said, "Mommy, I wanna walk and hold my hand, please?" So I did, expecting her to race around the aisles as fast as she can and try to escape from me. But she didn't. She stuck by the buggy, grabbing things to put into the cart, helping me push the cart, and just generally being helpful. It's so weird, all these things she does now that's all like a "normal kid." Y'know, like trying to get my attention when I'm on the computer. She'll hand me invisible objects, "Here, Mom, here's your money!" "Can you hold this quarter for me?" "Here are the balloons!" And every once in a while she simply has to check in. She finally needs me to pay attention to her, and it's just the most incredible thing. Even though I do secretly fear the day I'm cramming for finals again and she simply won't be entertained by cartoons for a five or six hour stretch like she used to be.
February 27, 2004:
I had scheduled myself the day off from work so I could go to the dentist and have my teeth cleaned and take my little one to the doctor's office (again) to have them check her ears (she complained about them hurting her on Tuesday night.) When I woke up this morning, there were a couple of inches of snow on the ground, which is a rarity for Murfreesboro. So I cancelled my appointment with the dentist and spent the morning playing outside in the snow with my daughter.
Sometimes, some things are just more important, y'know?
It was the perfect kind of weather and snow to play in, too. The snow was wet enough that we were able to make a snowman easy, albeit a rather ghetto-looking snowman wearing a red plastic fireman hat. A. named the snowman "Cassie" and started having conversations with it. We threw snow at each other, and A. picked up a stick and started trying to be a ninja everywhere. Then I showed her the art of making snow-angels, which she loved. And she was excited and could explain things and it was such a different experience from the last time we really got bundled up and went out to play in a substantial amount of snow. It was a great morning for a snow day.
I did a lot of housework today, and worked on my website, and had A. assist me with a couple of chores, which she loves, including helping me make dinner, which she got a huge kick out of (even though she still refused to eat the food even after helping prepare it.) The doctor *did* look in her ears, with that kind of exasperated expression that most doctors give me (the paranoid mother) after dealing with me for a while. Yes, her ear is a little red and there's still some fluid, he told me, but it takes time for ears to heal after an infection, and since she had an infection in the middle of January, her ears are still just clearing up from that episode. So, absolutely nothing to worry about, and again I feel paranoid and overprotective.
We went shopping, afterwards, for Necessary Food Stuffs and other items. A. loves shopping, and I'm always a little bundle of stress once we're finished, because she just tries to get into *everything* and I just try to keep her out of *everything*. But all and all, a good day, with much accomplished, and there's nothing better than playing in the snow in the morning.