lilypie

Lilypie

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Celebrating the Little Things

We've all met THOSE moms. The ones that can't stop going on about their little ones' achievements. The ones that insist their son/daughter was walking in the womb. Since I'm a little type A myself, I've been determined not to get caught in that trap. I want to enjoy my time home with Makeda and let her learn at her own pace, rather than pushing her too fast. And sometimes, with adopted kids, they can be a little behind in their development. So I've been (I think) really patient with Makeda, not pushing her beyond her abilities, even though she's not always been on my type A schedule.

Sure, we've had our setbacks and disappointments. It can be frustrating when she doesn't pick up on things as fast as I'd like her to. But even though her accomplishments might not match those of other kids her age, there's no doubt she's been making progress since we arrived back home. I try to reocognize her successes, however small. So I thought it appropriate to take a blog entry to celebrate the small achievements that my sweet, type B daughter has made, over the past few months, without judgment, or comparisons against other 10 month olds. Here we go.

As of today, Makeda can do the following:

1. Advanced calculus. I know this has a been a disappointment, particularly to Grampa, since there's no doubt he expected her to have mastered at least simple regression analysis by now. We haven't given up though. Tutoring starts soon.

2. Break and throttle the Ducati. You'll notice I don't claim that she can shift gears, and that's where real co-ordination comes in. I'm worried this is a further sign of delayed development, but the fact that her legs are only 10 inches long could also be factor. I'm trying to be open to that possibility.

3. Track and field. I'm really proud of her hurdling efforts but high jump has been a complete failure so far. Coming from a die-hard track and field family, this has been particularly hard on all of us. We're trying to cope. Pray for us.

4. She's recently started reading the bedtime story to me. I'll be honest, I've been devasted that I'm still reading to her. Early literacy is critical, and we've really been practicing. Thankfully, on this, she hasn't disappointed.

Well, that summarizes most of her tricks. I know it's not much, but like I said, we're just trying to relax over here.

7 comments:

hazel said...

Okay, I was SO going to call your bluff on the Ducati until you admitted she couldn't reach the gears. I'm not that gullible, you know.

I am mostly impressed with Makeda's math skills. Is she using an electronic calculator or are you going old school with an abacus?

Keep up the good work. You're an inspiration to us all.

Tami said...

I'm very impressed! Do you think I can send my taxes to Canada for her to do? I just hate to do them...what do you think?

los cazadores said...

Did she already master Trigonometry as a prerequisite to Advanced Cal? Please do post when she's on the cusp of delving into Thermodynamics because I'd be totally stoked to follow her progress through out!

BTW, can I borrow her to do my federal taxes for '08?

:)

Cindy

The Journey said...

Better make sure she has a top of the line helmet to protect that genius head of hers while scooting around on the Ducati!

Dianne said...

How wonderful that she's reading you the bedtime stories.

It is good that you're not comparing her to other 10 month olds, because honestly I would have thought she'd be writing them by now too.

Anonymous said...

Maybe soon she can tutor you in spelling. Then you will know it is stewpid, not stoopid...

Anonymous said...

Sorry to hear she is so delayed, but I'm really glad you are handling it so well.

It IS hard - I can relate. Elsa took FOREVER to master vector integral calculus - she kept getting stuck on Divergence Theory, of all things. I tried not to stress about it, but it had me pretty worried.

Hang in there.