Julia is playing with a Styrofoam butterfly made with a Lisa Frank kit. It took about 20 minutes to punch out all of the pieces – only one rip during cut out. Another ten minutes to put it together. Now, it is a new prop, a new means of transportation for little people and a new creature to inhabit various houses and pieces of furniture. Julia comes to Cheshire or I to put together the pieces that have slipped out of the slots but also tries to put the pieces together herself. She is handling the model rather carefully, gently, and I wonder if our constant reminders of months and months ago to be gentle made some impression. She can still be rough with her toys – as her doll house bears witness to -- but she is coming to some understanding that some things are breakable and might break easily.
It is snowing! We got a dusting yesterday, but it was warm enough that it melted off. Then, this morning it started snowing after dawn and we have a good inch or so out there now. Presently, it seems to have stopped but it is cloudy enough that we may get more. Why so excited? I want to use my new toy of course. Is it too silly to take out a snow blower for an inch of snow?
The snow is such the metaphor here – I have thought when I was shoveling ever other day that it was like Buddhist prostrations -- a practice of the everyday --, then that inches thick ice sheet on our driveway that I chopped at for weeks was penance for the sin of not shoveling after the very first snow. Yesterday, when I dropped Julia off at school, the guy who previously owned this house compared the great melting of the past week to forgiving all past sins. Yes, I agreed – my driveway is flat and as wide as it was made, and I start again with a clean slate. We all need a clean slate now and then.
Julia is singing Christmas songs. Her favorite – Rudolph is often changed to Julia, the red nosed reindeer. And when she sings, or makes me sing of the reindeer Julia, she uses “She” instead of “he.” Julia is beginning to recognize pronouns. Her use of prepositions is getting better, and some of her sentences are getting longer, but her word order can be pretty mixed up and kinda' funny. She continues to enjoy listening to the Hop on Pop recording – I have to find more stories for her to listen to. The other day in the car, I had music on the radio, and Julia asked very nicely if I would “put on kid's music, please.” Like any other 6 year old, she does have to be reminded about please and thank you, and for Julia, we have to remind her at time to use all her words by which we mean, and she knows, that she should ask for things with full sentences and not just with key words. Sometimes she stumbles over the full sentences, but she understands what we want from her and gives it a try. The kid works hard at her words.
Julia will be 7 in a few days. We are still going to have a quiet celebration. No big party or big pile of gifts. I hope that we can do the kids party thing in another year or so, but right now, I think it would be too much. We will decorate with balloons and streamers, and give her clothes – a new dress, a bathing suit and goggles, and ballet clothes – and Cheshire will bake a cake. I think we should do some take out Chinese as a treat. And it will be just us.
We are seeing both the OT and speech therapists three times each this month and next. Julia loves visiting Annie and Carol. The games and tasks are fun for her, and give me so many ideas of what to do at home. I don't get to them all but we do some, and I feel like we are making progress. Julia's teacher sent home a note that she will start Julia on letter making in the next week.
Julia and I will be going to the much anticipated Waismen Clinic appointment this coming week. We have waited since August for this appointment, and I am not sure that we will get any answers from these folks. The first appointment at this developmental clinic consists of informal observation of the child and parent interviews. I am not at all sure of the criteria for further testing, diagnosis, or treatment. When I spoke to one woman from the clinic she mentioned that most families who use the clinic have much younger children, and I said that Julia had only been home a year when we applied for the interview, and that she was still learning the language, and that we had been advised that any testing done before she had some English would not give us any realistic picture of what she could do. I also said that I would not have been able to fill out their information forms a year ago because I just didn't know Julia all the well. The woman seemed surprised by my answer/comment and I was disappointed that she had not looked more closely at our initial intake form which had the date of Julia's adoption on it, and also that one, that is I, the parent, could have perceived her comment as a judgment on my parenting. Was I being too sensitive? Maybe. Or maybe not.
Last thing then I am getting the day in gear!
I sent in the sealed envelope from the Indiana State Police that I received two week ago. I thought it was the requested police record and it went in with my affidavit, amendment to Bar application, and letter to the Board of Law Examiners. The police letter was returned to me. I had sent in $7 for what I thought was the correct police record, and the cops wanted me to do the $10 version which includes finger prints. Of course, I couldn't open the letter before sending it to the Bar because they want ONLY sealed envelops. I was a bit angry, frustrated really, but I just swallowed it, got fingerprints taken, and resent the request. Right now, I still feel so far from my license and a job. I keep hearing the jobs are few and far between – and I know those saying this want to make be feel better. It doesn't. IF this is a time to reinvent myself, I seem to lack all imagination and the question, what would you be doing now if you have total freedom to choose leaves me blank. Okay, that is just the blues talking.
Now to blow some snow, pick up our ceramics of last week, and go to the pool-o with my little fish.
Pictures later.
No comments:
Post a Comment