Tuesday, September 4, 2007

Is this normal?


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After this afternoon's post nap activities and after we laughed our heads off and Evyn and Reed nearly snapped their heads off with all of their flipping and wild maneuvers, I was wondering - is this normal for my son to be wearing a dress and loving it? Of course, I knew it was. Reed is in a serious copycat phase and if Evyn was going to wear a dress, so was he. Who knows, he might have opted for the dress without her influence, but as soon as the dress went on (over the plaid shirt, lol) he started twirling and flipping and Evyn soon followed. Even the dog thought they were nuts.
So, fast forward a few hours and there I was at E and R's pre-school for a meeting about school starting, plans and schedules. The meeting started with a speaker, and after three years of sitting through this same boring meeting, they finally found a really interesting speaker this year. She has several impressive degrees (and five children) and works as a neuropsychologist for a local parenting center. Guess what the topic of her talk was - Is This Normal?

She reminded the audience that the range of normal for a toddler/preschooler is huge. She said to always assume that your child is normal, that their brains are not fully developed. According to her, if you spend time worried about your kid's behavior being normal, not only will they eventually pick up on it and become anxious about it, but you will miss out on enjoying the ups and downs, the ADHD ways of your two year old, and bipolar tendencies of your four year old. She was funny and thought provoking and exactly what I needed today. I love my kids *because* they are crazy, not that the noise does not get to me sometimes and force me to wonder what the hell they think they are doing.

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I finally got a shot of Skylar today with her cool purple glasses on hanging out under the bili lights - I'd like to think she was waving at me. She is close to being finished with the light treatment, and that means Ashley and Gary get to hold her soon. She is getting a new catheter tomorrow - it's an upgrade and another sign of progress. She is continuing to thrive in her cozy spot in the NICU.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Keeping all of you in my prayers, but especially little Skylar.
Love,
Nita