some good things

Basketball season wears me out. Kate plays on the JV team and Bill coaches a 5th grade girls' team. I encouraged him to take on the coaching job because I know he really loves doing it. But those two teams combined take Bill and Kate out of the house just about every evening. We both work outside of the home all day long. My point here is that it's cold and dreary and the holidays are over and the two people closest to my conversation level are gone most of the time. And by the time they get home at 9 pm, all hyper from their practice or game, I'm ready to go to bed because I've been "snuggling" in Henry's dark room for 1/2 an hour.

So it's easy to start feeling negative. I have plenty of negative stuff I want to share with anyone who might read my blog, but I thought I'd try to focus on some positive things today. So, with apologies to Martha Stewart, here are some "good things":

1. Henry's swimming lesson yesterday. He has been taking lessons at Easter Seals since the summer of 2004, and I love to see his progress. It's not measured in leaps and bounds- he's no Charlie Fisher. But he runs over to the steps, hustles into the pool, greets his teacher with enthusiasm, and flounders around in the water- unafraid of going under, getting water in his nose, wearing goggles... If you had told me any of this a year and a half ago, I would scarcely have believed it. And yesterday, something new: he started planning what he wanted to say to his swim instructor! "I had a nice Christmas." He said, as we walked in from the parking lot. I deciphered that this must be what they talked about last time. So I suggested that this time he could tell her that he got his picture taken last week. Sure enough, I hear him in the pool talking about the mall and the Disney Store. Then he saw another instructor and shouted "there's Mr. Chris!" several times until we all acknowledged it and Mr. Chris said hello to him. Once Henry's lesson was over, he ran over to me and said "I had a great swimming lesson. I jumped off the edge. I swam under the water. I slided like Superman." (This is a thing they talk about, I guess to get him to stretch his arms and legs out straight?)

He said all those sentences using "I" spontaneously. And he almost sounded like an NT 6-year-old, babbling excitedly to his mom.

As if that weren't enough, then he started cheering for the kid who's lesson was after his! "Great swimming (kid's name)!"

2. One icy morning last week, traffic was really slow. But a really good song came on the radio (Matthew Sweet- "Girlfriend") and I took a sip of my decaf latte (I've recently had to give up caffeine because I was having heart palpitations- that's the saddest news of all), and I thought how good it tasted, even though it was decaf, and how much I was enjoying this drive, even though most people probably weren't.

3. Remember I was pondering getting a reptile pet of some kind? Well I mentioned it to a friend, and she said that she had two turtles that we could have!! So the turtles moved in yesterday, and they are so fun to watch! They live in an aquarium with a little "dock" that they can climb up onto, and they eat pellets of food you can buy at the grocery store. Very low maintenance and everything was free except that I needed to buy the food. I will get a picture up soon.

4. One night last week when we arrived home after picking Kate up from practice, we noticed that the stars were out. So the four of us stood in the driveway for a minute, looking at the stars. I started singing "twinkle twinkle" and Kate joined in with me.

5. Saturday morning, Henry and I were having our "it's Saturday." "That's right, it's Saturday" conversation. "It's not a school day." "No, it's the weekend. We all get to stay home together. Except poor daddy had to work this morning."

Henry said "don't cry daddy, you'll be fine."

6. Last week Henry's teacher wrote "Another wonderful day! Henry shared his book at lunch w/ another student (who is not even in our class). The aggression towards peers has really diminished as well. I think we will be ready to talk about some inclusion at our next conference."

I'm sure there are more, but I've neglected my sons in front of a DVD for long enough.

Some of my fellow bloggers have kids who are not verbal, or who are aggressive, or who scream. A lot. Or who are not quite potty-trained yet. Our family has been there- at age 3, 4, 5, and some of those struggles are on-going. But I just want to say that you and your children will move past this point. You will have a conversation. (S)he will stop having accidents. (S)he will start using words instead of screaming or hurting someone. You know that already, but I am just re-affirming it.

It's all good.