About This Blog
Welcome to my blog. I'm Anne-Marie Nichols, a 40-something WAHM to Nathan, 6, and Lucie, 3. I've been married 12 years to their dad Paul, a scientist. When I'm not doing the mommy thing, I'm a freelance writer, and vice president of the board of directors for a Colorado public charter school. In my spare time I like to sleep, eat, read, and decorate cakes.
I created this online journal to share some entertaining and insightful stories from my own experiences as a writer, domestic engineer, and mom. I encourage you to share this blog with your friends, and hopefully it will spark some lively discussions on issues we can all relate to. Enjoy!
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Oct 9 2008
The finish line
With Lucie starting preschool I'm amazed at how more grown up she seems than Nathan did at that age. She insists on dressing herself, even picking her outfit some mornings. (Or lack of them when she decides to have a pajama day and never gets dressed.) I always had to help Nathan get dressed when he was three. Even today, I have to help him pick out an outfit if I want it to match.
Lucie loves going to school. When I pick her up she tells me, "I had even more fun today!" Nathan would cling to me when I dropped him off at preschool. And there are some days when all I hear from him is, "I hate school."
As soon as Nathan grew out of his training wheels, Lucie got them put on her "new" bike (a used Schwinn that Paul's fixing up). The way she speeds around the neighborhood after her big brother, I know she'll lose the training wheels much sooner than her brother did.
Maybe it's a girl thing or younger child matter. But Lucie's growing up much quicker than her brother was at this age. My thinking is that when you have an older sibling, life is one big race where you're always trying to catch up.
No wonder Lucie and Nathan are constantly racing down the stairs while yelling, "I'm the winner!" Competition starts early around here.
Oct 7 2008
Late to bed, early to rise
Nathan must be at school by 8 a.m. which means we leave here no later than 7:45 a.m. With our early start, I often have to wake Lucie, get her dressed, and find some sort of breakfast item for her to munch in the car. Many mornings that's more than she'll put up with, so I end up taking her to school in her pajamas and slippers.
If I have an early morning meeting at school, I'll pack her clothes along some breakfast. We'll drop Nathan off and Miss Pajama Girl and I will head for school bathroom for a wardrobe change. Then during my meeting she'll have her bananas and juice. Only a three-year-old can get away with arriving for a meeting in her PJs. How I envy her.
But now that summer vacation has arrived -- and we don't have to be out of the house before 9 a.m. most mornings -- Lucie's waking up around 6:30 or 7 a.m. even though she's going to bed much later. Maybe it's the birds singing in the morning, or the bright sunshine. But I think she's just doing this to drive me crazy.
Oct 1 2008
Hanging with Miss Mary
Twice a week, Nathan, Lucie and I drive to his speech therapist's office, about 20 minutes away. I usually read in the waiting room while Nathan and Miss Mary practice "easy talk." In a nutshell, he stretches out his words and exaggerates his speech to eliminate his stuttering. To make it fun, they read books or play board games while they practice.
Miss Mary is taking things slowly. After many years of working with children who stutter, she knows that this is the most effective. First, they just practiced. Now they're playing the "catch me" game. Nathan has two "escape" words he relies on when he stutters -- "now" and "um." Miss Mary occasionally uses "now" and Nathan has to catch her, and vice versa. This way he's learning to avoid his escape words.
Occasionally, Lucie will join them in using easy talk and playing games. (She's as good at it as Nathan, and has formed a close bond with Miss Mary, too.) Or she'll stay in the waiting room with me. However, I rarely participate in therapy sessions, unless it's a demonstration of a board game that Nathan is allowed to borrow and take home. Mary believes that parents should be supportive, but should not act as therapists.
I see her logic behind this. I'm allowed to gently remind Nathan to use his easy talk only a couple of times a day. I can say, "Nathan, you're having a tough time talking today. Don't you think it would be better to use your easy talk?" I rarely do even that, because of how defensive he gets. He'll stick out his tongue and get mad. Instead, I try to catch him using easy talk, compliment him when he does that, and fill in circles on his "Ice Cream with Miss Mary" chart. I can also say, "Hey Nathan, I'll play LIFE with you if we can practice our easy talk together." But I can't correct him at all.
Miss Mary says that Nathan is doing extremely well. He catches on quickly with the concepts she's trying to teach him. My frustration is that he's reluctant to use easy talk when he's not at Mary's. Any excitement or stress still triggers his stuttering. It's especially bad this week, because Paul is out of town on a business trip. Still, he enjoys spending time with Miss Mary, and is slowly progressing.
My hope was to magically cure his stuttering over the summer and have him go for the occasional follow up appointments once school starts. Now I'm realizing this is unrealistic and we'll be hanging out at Miss Mary's for many months to come.
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