Hug Twice

We had our annual case conference for CJ today.  Basically, he’s doing very well with speech, and catching up appropriately.  He’s still behind, and we still have specific speech goals to address, but he’s moving along and I am happy to hear of his progress.

The issues we mostly talked about were of focus and attention.  CJ finds it very hard to focus on people in a group situation.  I see it at home too all the time.  He does okay one on one, but focusing on instructions when he is in a group - he’s very distractable.  The teachers want him to do more group activities this summer - I’ll be signing him up for soccer and t-ball - and hopefully that will help.  they also want me to try bringing him back to storytime at the library.

Soccer last summer was a disaster.  Storytime every time I have taken him was an utter failure.  I’ve had to start giving myself pep talks so that I don’t doom these things before we even begin.  Because I’m more than nervous - I’m depressed about the whole thing.

I want CJ to do well in kindergarten.  I want him to succeed.  I want him to have a fair chance to succeed.  But I’m scared that won’t happen.  He still has another year of preschool, so we’ll see what happens.  I wish I knew how to help him pay attention and focus on instructions, but I don’.  I guess we just wade into the fray and hope for the best.

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This will sound odd, but I had three companies come to do estimates for a new furnace for our house yesterday, and now I feel like a real grownup.  I don’t know why, but something about actually trying to make an informed decision about a big purchase for our house has made me feel like an adult in a way nothing else really has before, even buying the house itself.

It is odd.  And I am so not looking forward to telling the two we don’t choose that we didn’t choose them.  (We haven’t decided yet, but we’re not getting three furnaces, so we’ll have to turn down two of them eventually.)  But still, for now, I feel like a grownup. 

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My in-laws are visiting for a week, and my father-in-law commented that Alexa has the most expressive face he’s ever seen.  And she really does make a lot of faces.  She knows what she likes, and what she doesn’t, and she’s not afraid to let you know.

Today at the zoo, I took about 40 pictures of her sitting on a metal turtle, all one after another, and even though there is only a second or so delay between shots with my camera (nope, not a fancy SLR, just a point and shoot) it seems in each picture she’s got a different expression.  Laughing one second and wrinkling her nose the next, then puckering up, then looking shy and demure, then back to happy with a goofy grin.  It amazes me that she can express so much in a single look.

And then there are the times she uses her whole body to express something, like on the carousel, where she was not pleased with the panda moving up and down, so she threw herself into my arms with all her might.

So we sat down on a bench for the rest of the ride.  Cautious, that one.  At least, the first time. 

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Well, CJ took a walk with Matt today past M’s house to see if he could play. Except M was visiting his grandmother so he wasn’t home.

Apparently CJ freaked out and then sat in the middle of the sidewalk.

Matt said it is really fun to carry two children home. Too bad I was at taekwondo. (Although it would have been fun to see ).

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CJ, Alexa and I went for our first walk of the season yesterday afternoon.  And on our walk, we ran into our cul-de-sac neighbors, who have a little boy about the same age as CJ.  M and CJ have met before, but CJ was younger and much less talkative, and didn’t really know how to make friends.

Well, now, CJ is chatty, even if he’s not to the level of the average three year old.  And M was happy to have someone to tell what to do (M is the younger brother at home).  So CJ and M played in their backyard, on the swings, with the slide, with their bowling pins… they played and played and played.  But eventually, we had to go home.  Alexa needed a nap and I didn’t want to overstay our welcome.

Well, CJ was okay about leaving, but ever since we came home, he keeps asking when we can go for a walk and see M again.  In fact, when I told him that M was sleeping and we couldn’t see him until tomorrow, CJ cried like I have never seen him cry before.

It is cute in a way, but also exhausting.  We can’t live at M’s house, I doubt the rest of the family would like that.  And I have no idea if M is as fond of CJ as CJ is of him.   But I do love seeing him making friends on his own, even if I can tell that he is struggling to express himself with M and explain what he wants.  But he is doing okay.  And he is truly making a friend on his own.

My only complaint is there is dog poop in their backyard.  Bah.

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