Perfect

3 weeks since my last post. I think that's a record and I am sorry. I do have some good excuses though. To be honest, it has been a stressful month and we had to sort through some things and now that I'm feeling better about it all, I can share, or at least summarize. Basically Mallory is going to be starting speech therapy and some other therapies to hopefully get her up to speed. We have been worried about her for a few months now and now that she is over 2 years old, we decided to take action. Of course we are still very worried but we're trying to take things day by day and I think once we see some progress we'll feel better. I guess the hardest thing (besides BEING a speech therapist and having a child with speech/language needs but lets not go there) is thinking about the future and what this all means for her as a kid and a teenager and an adult. It might mean nothing, it might mean something significant. The benefit to knowing what I know is that I know many children who were like Mallory at 2 or 3 or 4 years old and now they are completely fine and you would have no idea they were behind as a toddler. The down side is that I know some children who did not make the necessary progress. Of course we hope for her to be the best that she can be and whatever that is...she will still be our girl.


We do feel lucky that she does have a good connection with us and that she is happy and sweet and loving. We see her personality coming out more and more every day and we're hoping that the rest of the stuff just falls into place.




I remember a few years ago telling a friend about some kids I work with-their various disabilities and what I do with them. They responded with "that is so sad" and I remember saying "it's not sad, it's just who they are, they are happy and they make progress, etc etc" I never really thought about it from a parents perspective and that each of those children was someone's baby at one point and those parents had to one day accept the fact that their child and their life might not be exactly what they had planned. I talk to Carrie all the time (who will be very happy I'm finally updating) about our "perfect" childhoods that we remember. We're not sure if they really were perfect or if that is just how we remember them but really, I just always thought my kids would grow up just like I did and that things would be easy and come naturally. The truth is that whatever my kid's lives are, that will be normal to them. They are happy and I'm hoping that whatever seems like a struggle right now will just be their perfect childhood that they remember. I'm also hopeful that in a few years we'll be saying "remember when we were worried about Mallory talking...ha, we can't shut her up now!!" Everyone reading this can say told you so if that does happen :)

So life goes on even with all this added stress and we've been busy.....I finished up the school year and have a few weeks off before summer school starts. The kids started camp. Mallory cried the entire time she was there for the first few days and I was SURE we were going to have to pull her out. She was standing at the window crying for the entire time she was there. So the next week, I guess she realized she was there to stay and she stopped crying. She still spent the majority of her time there at the window but hey, we'll take baby steps. The teacher said she is doing more and participating more and she even did an art project the last day. Hopefully she will continue to improve. Max had a very easy transition from school to camp and that alone shows how much kids change in only a year or 2.

It definitely feels weird to drive away from their camp with noone in the car and just have the morning to myself. It will be short lived but I'm enjoying for now and I haven't been this on top of laundry in a LONG time!

It definitely feels like summer around here. We've been at the pool every weekend and outside all afternoon/evening. Although Max tortures Mallory, it is really neat to see their relationship turn into a real brother/sister bond. They run around together outside






she gets tackled


and I'm still waiting for the day when I can get a picture of them hugging rather than him just grabbing her head and squeezing

Maybe one day.

But by that time they probably won't let me dress them the same


And by that time, they probably won't be cracking up when they hide in our closet and we say "where did Max and Mallory go...they must have gone out for pizza without us...hmmm, I wonder where they are...I guess they went back to the pool. Oh well....

OH MY GOD THERE THEY ARE!!

That game never gets old.

Was this an entire post dedicated to issues and worries about MALLORY, not Max? Who would have thought? How things change :)

Goodnight!