Three Thought Thursday: Episode 10

1. Kolbe has been in a program called ECI (Early Childhood Intervention) since shortly after he was born. ECI is a program that works with children from birth to age three who are faced with some type of developmental delay. Since Kolb was born with a cleft lip and palate and failed hearing in one ear, he was at risk for difficulties with both eating as well as proper speech development. In the slightly over two years that we've been working with ECI, we've had several people help with Kolbe's care. In the past year, Miss Lindsay, Kolbe's speech therapist, has definitely become his sweetheart.

Unfortunately, as of last week, Kolbe's time with ECI is now up. He had his yearly evaluation and tested out of the program. He had a whole battery of developmental tests completed and came out well above his age level in many areas and even surpassed his age in speech, the area he has struggled with the most. The lady who came to test him had never met or seen him before (so she wasn't biased) and told me that we had quite an intelligent little boy!

Now, being Kolbe's mother, I've always thought he was pretty smart, but since we're not normally around other little boys his age, I really had no frame of reference when it came to how he compared. In some areas he was between a three and four-year-old instead of two and three! She was quite impressed with his ability to identify all his colors and cracked up when she asked him, "Kolbe, what flies?" and he replied "Pa's airplane." And then added: "Geese." That's what you get when your grandpa's a pilot and you live near a park filled with Canadian geese all winter! I knew he'd excel at all the physical tests; he's always been so hands on. But even I was impressed as his abilities with some of the conceptual tests. For example, she showed him a mama doll and a baby doll and explained which was which. Then she'd ask questions like "Kolbe, which one is the mama's baby?" Or she'd say, "Kolbe, move the baby toward the mama." Or "Kolbe, when did Dada go to work?" ..."Dis mo-nin." He fully understood everything she asked of him, and responded well! So I guess we're doing okay with Kolbe after all. Mark and I are quite proud!

2. Mark and I have actually made our bed nine days in a row now. Responses:
a.) "And?"
b.) "Why?"
I know, I know. To some people, making the bed is a waste of time. Why dress it up just to mess it up a few hours later? But to others, making the bed is as routine as brushing teeth... making it nine days in a row would certainly not be something to write about.

For me, I've dwelled somewhere in the midst of  these two philosophies for various reasons over the span of my life. As a child, we were required to make our beds daily. To avoid the wrath of Mommy Dearest, my brothers and I reluctantly tidied up our beds on our way out the door every. single. morning. Then college came and I was living by my rules; no bed making required. There were classes to get to after all! But after Mark and I got married, I was suddenly hit by the Suzie-Homemaker-I'm-Married-So-I-Must-Act-Like-I'm-Married-And-Make-My-House-Look-Like-A-Married-Person's-House bug and started making the bed again. Daily. The arrival of children certainly threw that idea right out the window. After all, the goal was to get back in to bed as quickly as possible once the baby was asleep, right!?! Why would I make the bed and jeopardize any amount of sleep possible!?!

But now that both Reagan and Kolbe are sleeping really well at night, I'm not nearly as tired as I used to be. Naps no longer necessary. And although our room is off limits throughout the majority of the day (door knob cover), it makes me really happy when I do pass through to see a neatly made bed. Kind of like a little bit of calm in a day full of chaos. Plus, I think it's important for the boys to see Mama picking up her room and making her bed. I want them to respect our home and property, after all. And while I'm not to the point of requiring a made little boy bed and a made baby crib just yet, I do fully intend on making it a daily chore once they aren't napping and sleeping like little wild men!

3. Have you ever tried the Press-n-Seal Plastic Wrap? It's awesome. Yes, it's a little bit more pricey than the standard plastic wrap, but when you take into account its abilities, you're using much less so it's well worth it. You can literally tear off a piece that's the exact size of the item you're covering and it just seals right on to the edge. With regular plastic wrap, you have to tear off way more than necessary just because you practically have to wrap it around the whole item just to get it to stick. And then it still doesn't stay in place. Or it leaks if you spill it over. Not the press-n-seal stuff. And another cool thing is that once you've sealed the edge, you can actually stack other things on top of it. It's that good of a seal. Love it.