Here and Now

I'm a big fan of summer, always have been. As a result, I haven't posted in a long time because #1 we've been so busy with summertime and #2 I just really have not felt like it.  I'd sit down to write a bit and be all like "eh, not too much going on" and it kind of made me sad that we stalled out for a while on gross motor skill progress.  I'd also start to think about the coming years and feel kind of overwhelmed.

Bad Veronica for doing that! Focusing on the negative again and  more on the future (school) than the here and now.  I still get caught up thinking about school stuff for Annabelle since I'm seeing all the kids for school physicals at work but I've been making a conscious decision to stop myself in my tracks as soon as my thoughts drift anywhere past kindergarten. It can still be stressful trying to decide if she should be in daycare now versus this Montessori preschool a few friends love versus head start once she's 3 versus regular preschool..... but at least I can handle that.  Sometimes I even need to say it out loud to myself, "Stop! not past kindergarten". I probably look/ sound funny but it works.



Hiking on her own at Craters
of the Moon

I would like to brag a bit, about the here and now :-D I knew Annabelle was picking up a lot of things, especially from her "Elmo TV" (NOT that we use TV to teach her and she's really only allowed to watch Elmo on weekends or special days. We just use a lot of the characters and songs to teacher her things) what I didn't realize was HOW MUCH she's picked up this summer: even though she needs a fair amount of translating she communicates incredibly well. She knows half her letters and can kind of sing the ABC's, she can count to 5 and she knows her colors! She also knows the words to a ton of different songs- Sesame Street and NKOTB ;-) hahaha.

With the gross motor we did kind of stall, although I have seen her trying to put a piece of thread and then a thing of yarn into lefty hand. I thought that was weird, maybe it's a texture thing for lefty and I will be trying to exploit that. I think part of it though is we have gone since April since our last round of Botox and girlfriend is TIGHT... we don't go for another round until we are at 5mos out and we've decided that is waaaaay too long, you could tell it was too long before we even hit 4mos. Kind of a bummer that she metabolises it so fast but at least it works for that bit of time. Her rehab doc mentioned some different botox formulations that were coming down the pipeline that may last longer for her, I'll be interested to read about those though I bet the cost would be astronomical.

So now we're toward the end of summer. We've had a very fun time, Jim and I have been racing, we went beach camping, went on a few hiking trips, took Annabelle to a few splash pads and community pools, lots of family bike rides.... We're excited for fall now too though, apple picking, pumpkin, hiking in the leaves and FOOTBALL!

Playin in the sand while beach camping