If You Say So...

As previously mentioned, one of Addie's goals this year is for her to be able to answer the question, "How old are you?".

Also, we are all working on helping her to be able to answer the question, "What is your name?".

It has been a while since I walked into a Kindergarten classroom, but apparently those are two very important questions that a five year old should be able to answer.  Since I am now firmly embedded in my "Wait and See World" of "taking it one minute at a time" and "being happy with any slight bit of progress", I don't think about what Addie needs to know when she gets to Kindergarten. 

Holy freakin' cow, I'm just thinking about how to teach her how to tell me when she is in pain or if she is hungry or if she needs to use the restroom.  I am overly thrilled that Addie knows her name, so if she doesn't get around to telling me her name in the next 18 months, then I think I'm pretty darn okay with that.

When I actually allow myself to think about Julien at the age of four, it is crushing to remember the vast amount of knowledge that he had obtained.  Julien was one of those kids that walked early, talked early and could remember anything anyone told him - ever.  It was awesome...  I could have real conversations with him and I tell him now that I swear he remembers every minute of his life, including his time spent in utero.

Well, let me just tell you for the gazillionth time - we are beyond blessed to be surrounded by amazing teachers and therapists who love Addie and who want to teach her and love her.  They make me feel as if Addie is worth their time and efforts.  It's amazing.

In collaborated efforts, one of the goals each day during center time at school is for Addie to be able to follow along with her classmates during center time.  This requires her to get up, walk over to a board with pictures of all of her classmates on it, find her picture, tell her name and put her picture on the board that represents the center that she would like to play in.  Obviously, it's a multiple step process. 

According to Addie's teachers - my rotten little Chunk of a Monkey has been doing a fabulous job of following those directions and according to them, even said her name right when she was supposed to.

Sure she did....I don't doubt it for one second. 

It's just that the rotten little Monkey won't put on the circus Monkey show for us at home, so we have no proof that this is actually happening.  They seem awfully proud of her, so maybe she is getting it.....we have got to see it for ourselves!

When we got Addie home, we asked her, "What is your name?", she said, "Me", so we asked, "How old are you?", she responded, "nine".

Groovy.