Tuesday, July 29, 2014

School Day Anticipation

The day is fast approaching for the girls to strike out in the world without me. I'm not sure how I feel about this but they are ready so it will happen. While driving home from the school screening, I was thinking where we were three years ago. Kayla had been diagnosed as developmentally delayed with major fine motor skill problems. We had discussed the possibility with her therapist that she would be behind Lyss in school and we needed to prepare for that. How?? I just decided we were going to work as hard as we could not to let it happen.....but if it did, we would still handle it. Lyss was looking at eye surgery and Kayla was being tested for possible seizures. It was a very "acute" time in their lives and I wasn't getting a lot of good news. Now fast forward to the present.

Kayla is my cerebral child. She will be our reader and heavy thinker. She is very structured in her thinking but that doesn't mean that she doesn't want to be the baby of the family. She is the one that has deep conversations with the animals and is often found quietly telling one of the dogs a story while she is stroking their head. She loves to make up very complicated stories but is quick to tell us...."It's okay...it's just a story." I notice this because it shows me, even though she has this complex imagination, that she can tell the difference between real and make believe. Some teens can't. She has her routine and I have explained that she can't have everything by her rules but still we have a teary time when Chuck doesn't hug and kiss her like he "always" does before he leaves.....even for five minutes. The fine motor skills are up to her age and she has no problem with seizures. She is a small framed child but she is completely healthy.

Then we have Alyssa Grace. Lyss is our fairy child. She's much too busy twirling and dancing to worry about mundane things like what she has been told three times to do. She may have very selective hearing but thankfully, her eye muscles have improved to the point that we don't have to worry about surgery. She is a little bigger than Kayla and, so far, has been our athlete. She doesn't walk if she can run, or jump, or skip. Discipline in school may be a little more of a problem with her because sitting still is a foreign language to her. She is a happy, imaginative child and loves to play make believe with her sister. She is a social butterfly and I'm interested how she will do with a group of kids in school.

Both are counting the days and ask every morning when will they put their school clothes on. This is the new frontier.

Friday, July 18, 2014

One more big leap for the Duo

The twins are doing great. They are very verbal, with a good vocabulary. Kayla still has a slight lazy tongue so she slurs some of her words, which will be solved when she is in school. That is my subject....the dreaded school.....It is dreaded by me because that will be the end of the toddler realm and on to the "big school girls" part of their life. They are so excited about starting school in a few weeks and I'm so glad that they want to go. It's going to be a bigger adjustment for me probably than them. If someone had asked me what I would be doing right before my 63rd birthday, it definitely wouldn't have been getting two preschoolers ready for their big leap into education. Kayla is still my studious one and is really the leader of the pack. She is also the town crier so Lyssa can't get away with much. I told her she was a tattle tale and she agreed she was but she had to. They still play remarkably well together and work out most of their fusses without our involvement. I had wondered if I was doing the right thing by not putting them in a daycare so they had more interaction with other kids but I've decided they needed to have this time to grow closer as sisters. Lyssa is my free spirit and has a huge imagination still. She is usually a princess and needs a dance partner. Poor Chuck has to dance many times with her when he is not playing soft ball with her. She is also the athlete right now. She spent the early Spring playing TBall and found...when the season was nearly done....that she loved it. I see myself on the road with this kid a lot to sporting events. Kayla had no interest in playing but does like basketball so we will see on that. They both love books and like to "read" to us...as well as being read to. Kayla likes to play the piano and we may look into lessons later. Right now PreK is the biggest thing on the horizon. I'm anxious to see how their personalities will expand. We went on our first vacation this year to Branson and it was so easy. I'm still a little in shock because I was actually dreading the thought of hanging on to both of them. I don't think they could have been any better. We may live dangerously and do it again next year.
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