Each One

Today, each kid got a "check up".  Mason had his 18 month well baby visit and Makayla had a preschool screening.

Mason -

Mason has major separation anxiety...and that's okay!  One of the first steps in a child's growing faith is called "basic trust".  Mason trusts me and daddy to meet his every need.  So, naturally, he is going to get anxious when separated from us. It's normal, healthy behavior!

So, you can imagine the crying fit that went on at the doctor's office today!  Sitting in a strange room, with the door closed, with a nurse he doesn't know...once Mason started crying, he didn't stop until his clothes were back on his body.  The doctor is convinced that Mason was so upset because he remembers getting his shots there three months ago.  Maybe...but, I'm blaming the separation/stranger anxiety!

Other than the anxiety, Mason is doing great!  He's growing (32 inches tall and weighs somewhere in the low 20's.  He wouldn't be still long enough for the scale to stop bouncing around.), super active (LOVES to climb, run, and explore), and enjoys his food (loves everything except his veggies.  We have to trick him to eat those!...and he would be perfectly content to live off of cottage cheese, jello, and yogurt.).  We are slowly but surely saying more and more words everyday.  Here is a list of Mason's top 10 words (not including mama and dada) - Bubbles, Bye, Baby, Ball, Diego, Taco, Juice, No!, Poop, and Apple.

He's a quiet little boy that sits back, listens to everyone around him, and soaks in everything going on.  He is so very smart and amazes me every single day. 

Not only is he smart, but he has the heart stopping good looks!  It's the blond hair, big blue eyes, contagious smile, and that cute little pucker for all the kisses that he passes out.

Ahhh, I love my little boy!

Makayla -

Makayla is wrapping up her first year of preschool and can look forward to two more years of preschool before she starts kindergarten.  Tonight, I took her for a screening for the first time to assess her development in the areas of vision, hearing, motor, speech, language, cognition and social functioning.  Makayla did great! 

She did things I had no idea she would be able to do!

I wasn't able to be in the room with her when she was doing her screening, but as the teacher went over her scores with me and explained all of the tests that Makayla had to do, I was becoming more and more impressed with my baby girl by the second.

Without pointing and counting out loud, Makayla could tell the teacher how many blocks were in the palm of the teacher's hand; The teacher would build a design out of blocks and Makayla could replicate it; Makayla had great "spontaneous language" - the teacher would place an object on the table and Makayla would give as much information about the object as she could without being prompted; The teacher would say a sequence of numbers and Makayla would repeat the sequence back without any mistakes; They played a memory game (which Makayla is a master at); and they did other tests that included drawing and numbers.

The one test that got me giggling to the point of no return (for some odd reason) was the balance test.  They want kids to be able balance on each foot for 5 seconds.  Makayla balanced on her right foot for 21 seconds and her left foot for 15 seconds.  Then, next to those scores, was a note in big letters "And She Really Likes To Hop On One Foot!!!!"

A Viennese woman once asked Sigmund Freud, "How early should I begin the education of my child?"  Freud replied with a question of his own, "When will your child be born?"  "Born?" the woman asked.  "Why, he is already five years old!"  My goodness, woman," Freud cried, "don't stand there talking to me - hurry home!  You have already wasted the five best years!"