Can I wear out some more clothes?

Socks

I am like a broken record getting after kids for running around outside in socks. Today was no different, I look outside and there is my girl, running around in her Sunday-best tights. So, I shouted for her to come in and put some shoes on (which, she did -- she came and put flip flops on with her tights, go figure!).

Then, my youngest daughter from inside the house insistently said to me, "Mom, I need some socks on to ruin."

Conglomerate #2

My youngest is going to be the family comedian. Seriously, she impersonates movies and understands humor far better than her older siblings did at her age. When she was really young (18 month), I would read, "Animals Should Definitely Not Wear Clothing" by Judi Barrett and she would just laugh and laugh (it really is a very funny book - I highly recommend it).

The other day the 3 yr old accidentally "doored" the 5 yr old, who immediately breaks down in tears that are just streaming down her face (tears are VERY common for her). Then, the youngest starts walking around the house, with hands in fists, pounding her thighs saying, "It's all my fault" over and over.

This broke the tears and had 5 yr old giggling like crazy.

Conglomerate of Funny

We are just in stitches all the time around here .. .

OK, maybe not all the time, but last week was particularly funny. I am going to have to just list out all the funny, but first let me just say that laughter really does a body good. My husband works very long hours each day and on the nights that I can share something funny with him, both of our mood's are lifted. It is an amazing phenomenon:  laughing so much about something that you can't even talk. Keep it up!

Egg Rolls

This was the day I am referring to above. I don't think I've introduced the kids to much in the way of Asian authentic food and when I happily presented each of them one vegetable egg roll, I got all kinds of looks and little comments about how they just didn't think they were going to like it.

After I sat down, 5 yr old started asking me questions about the time she threw up on Halloween night. She wanted to know what I had said to her about holding food down. I said, "_______, I told you that you were having a hard time keeping food down." 

She then sweetly replied, "Mom, I just don't think I am going to be able to keep this egg roll down."

I didn't laugh about it at the time, but when I related to "Big D" later, it came across as so funny. Love that.

"Get-away" trick

It really isn't a trick, I'm sure you all do it. This morning, I locked myself away from my children so I could make an important phonecall. Sometimes, a person just needs a respite so she can properly communicate with another adult :-).

I told the girls I needed to make a phonecall and that they couldn't bother me. They had been playing together, happily, and I wasn't worried for their safety - their hunger maybe, but not their safety.

They started knocking on the door for about 30 seconds and then were sidetracked. This is what I saw when I walked out towards my bedroom door. Can you tell? Those are little matchbox cars, my first thought was that they were 'patrol' cars out to get someone.

Well, then I opened the door and I think those patrol cars had barricaded me in my room! Funny little girls and their funny little imaginations. All day long, I found cars in my bedroom, under my bed, by the bookcase. They had so much fun shooting those cars under the door.


She had also changed into her swimming suit (bottom part).



Intense Satisfaction

One of the areas of my life that brings me such satisfaction, I can even describe as intense, is doing speech therapy with kids. My professional "duties" are very minimal, which is part of the reason I enjoy it so much. I love putting a different hat on for a few hours each week. I love keeping up with the latest research and I really enjoy making connections, whether it is for a child learning to say a sound a different way or for a child beginning to understand the many abstract and subtle parts of language.

Right now I work in what is considered the "private practice" setting, which means I am not working in a hospital or a school. I work on my own, I bill insurance myself, and I (nervously) am accountable for failure or success.

I began working in the public school setting and had great mentors (can I say their names on here?  Cheryl, Bonnie among many, many others). I cherish my memories of working with the school team. What a valuable resource for a child - a whole team of professionals trying to connect the dots. I must have looked like a little girl playing school, but they all let me in and gave me the reins.

Let me back up here though, how did I ever choose this career? I wasn't aware of the "speech teacher" in my elementary, or even if we had one. So, when in college, my good friend Mary (daughter of our alma mater's superintendent) suggested I go into "Speech Pathology", I asked her, "What is that?"



One of four diplomas: one ever two years is a lot of commencing . . .



When I looked into it a bit more, the fit was absolutely perfect and I have never looked back or even had a second thought. I did general studies at my 2-yr school, with classes geared towards a communication disorders degree (biology, anatomy and physiology), then headed south to a school well-known for its high-quality program.







My undergraduate program was intense and very competetive. I loved the classes, even aural rehabilitation (audiology-geared class) :-). OK, so I didn't really love that one or speech science or the other audiology class, and I could've skipped clinical processes. Anyway, I mostly just loved that I was studying something I really wanted to do. I always felt like I was going to prove all of the "front-row-Joes" wrong by sitting in the mid-to-back part of the class and still get good grades. I guess my grades were good, but they weren't good enough to get into the master's program on campus (the front-row-Joes mostly did -- I am not bitter).

I am not in this picture, but had I been included, I would have been the one with the sweet "just-outta-the shower" hair, nibbling on a bagel



 





Anyway, I did get into a school further away (and got a rejection letter from a  far-away school the same day my fiance'-at-the-time got his acceptance letter to the same place). I also got into a program considered off-campus from my same university. I stayed put and haven't regretted it.



Long story short -- thank you Mary for giving me the idea, thank you to the audiology professor who had faith in me when I had run out, and thank you to those first guinea pig kids ("You get what you get, and you don't throw a fit").