Thursday, September 09, 2004

My life Lately

Some days I seem to be too busy to breath. Other days seem to drag on forever. Maybe it's the plight of a Stay at Home Mom, maybe it's just the life of any Mom, or parent who is the primary care giver for a toddler. All I know is that it's very tiring either way.

Already today I've picked up Aidan's toys 3 times, because he just learned how fun it is to dump the toy box out. He does help me pick things up, sometimes, usually when he's tripped over something or slid on a book. Besides the sooner the toys are back in the box the sooner he can dump them out again. I still need to keep him out of the kitchen, but now it's because he learned how to open the cabinet under the sink, and turn on the stove. I probably should put the cleaning supplies somewhere he can't get to, which means in the higher cupboards, or hidden somewhere. But that makes them harder for me to get to them as well. As for the stove, it's a gas stove, one side has a problem with it's pilot light staying lit. So if he turns on the burners on that side we run a 50/50 risk of them being unlit and the gas filling the house. (Right now not too much of a problem, since I have windows open all over the house. )


I'm still concerned about his language development, Howards says I'm too worried about this stuff. That I need to relax and let him develop as he will naturally. That's all well and good, but I don't want him to have problems in school later. Whatever school he ends up going to.

Speaking of school, I've found some really interesting homeschooling links, some educational websites, thanks to
Catawampus. Even if I don't homeschool these links could be very helpful to school age kids, and their parents.

I've been on a message group with several "Child-free" people on it. It's interesting to talk about the other side of things. These are people who don't have children by their own choice. Most of them are not "child-haters", some of them even really like kids. They just choose not to have any of their own. I can remember what it was like before Aidan came into our lives, and while it wasn't truly child-free because I already had kids who were already grown, I can sort of understand their position. I love kids in general, of course there are kids I don't like, but it was nice to have just adult things to think about. I could go where I wanted to, when I wanted to, as long as I had the money for gas. I could spend all day reading, or knitting, or visiting with friends. And all those other things that are very hard if not impossible with a child in tow. I do not regret having Aidan in my life. Though I do miss those child free times. The conversation on that site is interesting, people try to keep things friendly and open minded. Parenting issues, relationship issues, questions to help each other understand more about our choices. Until I found that group I had never thought of the differences. The name of the group is Tanglewood.

5 comments:

Ohjeeze said...

My daughter is 2 1/2. I was concerned about her language development also, she didn't say Mama until about 18 months. I asked my cousin who is a speech pathologist and she said some kids are just late bloomers with speech, especially if they are very physical(which my daughter definitly IS). Between the age of 2 and 2 1/2 she has just exploded with language. In fact, she now speaks English very well, and knows some Chinese(she was born in China and we try to expose her to the language)Finnish(from hearing her Daddy and Grandparents talking) and lots of Spanish(her babysitters are from Honduras).

Ohjeeze said...

My daughter is 2 1/2. I was concerned about her language development also, she didn't say Mama until about 18 months. I asked my cousin who is a speech pathologist and she said some kids are just late bloomers with speech, especially if they are very physical(which my daughter definitly IS). Between the age of 2 and 2 1/2 she has just exploded with language. In fact, she now speaks English very well, and knows some Chinese(she was born in China and we try to expose her to the language)Finnish(from hearing her Daddy and Grandparents talking) and lots of Spanish(her babysitters are from Honduras).

Messed up Mama said...

Thank you for stopping in, and for the incourageing words. Aidan is almost 19 months old. He says Dada, and makes alot of other sounds. When he points at things he says something that sounds like see, but I'm not sure. He doesn't say Mama at all, but I think he might be calling me something that sounds like May. He chatters all the time, it's just not anything I can understand. I'm trying to relax about it, at least until his next Dr. Appointment in February, he will be two then so hopefully he will be talking more by then. Again, thank you for the encouragement. I bookmarked your blog and will be checking in as often as possible.

Anonymous said...

Akra Jr was a late talker. His first word was at 15 months (funnily enough, same week as his first steps) and he quite slowly accumulated words but I did worry a bit.

Then just after his second birthday he got very verbal - he spoke a seven word sentence ("Lofty dropped water tank down the hill" - a Bob Builder fan ;) ) at an age they're only supposed to be able to say 2 word sentences. Then there was a while he didn't seem to gain any new words/verbal abilities. Now, just after a huge verbal growth spurt at three years old, we've been told by a Health Visitor that he has the verbal skills of an "average" four year old.

What I'm trying to say is, they develop at their own pace - and more importantly what they're like now is completely unrepresentative of what they might be like in a month, six months or even a year's time. The fact you say Aidan is pointing, making noises and saying some words strikes me that there's nothing fundamentally wrong there - he knows about communication and language. He'll catch up when he's ready.

Pewari.

Messed up Mama said...

Thank you for stopping by, and for giving me some very encourageing words. I know that you are right, and they do develope in their own time, I just worry alot about him. I didn't worry too much with his older brothers, they were pretty close to the norm on everything, sometimes a little ahead. And it doesn't help that my Hubbies family (cousins mostly) have kids close to his age who are doing things quicker, there is alot of comparison going on among the families. Thank you again, I'll try to relax and let him do things his own way.