Julia's doings

We have a teacher's conference followed by a "team" conference during which we will talk with the principal, ESL teacher, school psychologist, and teacher about planning for Julia's next semester. I trust these people so much because I see what they have been willing to do for Julia this semester. We will talk about whether to set up special ed testing for her. I think they are worried that Julia will not qualify for special ed services because of her language -- not speaking English is not a special need. Oh, I've written this before. Sorry.

Anyway, I am looking forward to the meeting.

Julia continues to amaze us. I am not writing often enough (and chide myself for that) to tell stories, so I'll do it bullet style.

*Julia is bringing home papers from school. Just like other kids!! The papers are not perfectly completed, but she is attempting (I am sure with help) to do what the other kids are doing. She signs her first name at the top of many of the pages and has followed some directions. Last weekend, I decided to hang some of her art-y pictures on the kitchen wall. Julia has finally begun to notice and appreciate some of our other pictures on the walls. She was so proud that I hung hers and showed them to David when he came home.

* Julia is a drawing machine! She uses markers to draw on the big white board that I have set up in the kitchen. She draws while I cook dinner. She even followed my direction yesterday to stop playing with clay in the living room and to come into the kitchen to draw.

Julia fills the white board more drawing – some of it recognizable. She doesn't just draw, she tells stories and her drawn people have adventures, feeling, and mishaps. The board gets very messy and very full as she draws over and over the people and things she draws. This is not the way that I've seen most kids draw but as Julia has discovered drawing so late, she is finding her own way. I know we are just beginning this phase. I can't wait to see how it evolves in the next few months.

*Julia continues to relax more. Hard to know when this will be finished because each time she does it, I think she looks so much better than she has before. Last week, we were at the tiny bathroom sink in our tiny bathroom, Julia on her stool and I next to her, both of us brushing our teeth. She threw one arm over my neck and we stood bent over and brushing. It was such a small, casual gesture, one that might have passed by unnoticed if it wasn't Julia's.

*Recently, I've been feeling like our bedroom has become a bears' den. Up until last week, the three of us slept in our bed bed with three different covers. Some nights I thought of it as the family yurt. Here, we have moved from our NYC days with 450 sq ft with 2-year-old Cheshire, to a nice sized house that has rooms we never enter! First Avenue would be fine with this Julia. I was putting away clothes the other day in Julia's real room and realized that besides darting in and out for clothes, we were spending no time at all in there. I don't want to force Julia to move back into her room. She is very happy right now and I think she is moving along pretty quickly these days. I hate to change that. BUT she also has a really nice room. I will figure something out and maybe we will play in there every day.

Julia loves the bed time ritual and sometimes announces that it is time for bed. We go up, change into pjs, brush and floss and rinse with Listerine (Julia does it because I do it. No matter the taste.), and then to bed to read. David and I take turns each night but I think she would prefer the Daddy do it every night.

We have both been working with Julia on her little books, some that she brings from school, others that I have taken from the library. We started by pointing to the single words in these book. When the books have a line or so on each page, I pointed to each word as Julia said it after me. Now, Julia is learning the books pretty quickly and yesterday for the first time she started point to the words by herself. To clarify, she is not reading or eve npointing to the right word, but it is making an impression.

In the morning, Julia wakes up in a good mood most of the time. This is pretty much pleasure for me. Sometimes when we wake up while David is showering, Julia plays with my hair. Making believe that she has a bottle of shampoo and scrubbing my head. Then she squeezes our some pretend "lotion" to make my hair beautiful. She love scrubbing and messing up my hair and also loves laughing and laughing at the results.

That's all for now. I have to get some pictures up next time.