I will note that my Dad passed away on may 1st. whew. what a ride. Lewy Body Dementia took us all for a ride. I miss him a lot. so do my kids. the twins talk about him at least once a day. really. They are so smart that their questions are sometimes hard to answer. They're just processing it all. There's a cemetary. Are there dead people there? Do they have legs. Is their heart still beating? Are they in heaven with Pappy? just - you can't imagine. endless.
It's the middle of the night. The only time I am ever alone and it is ever quiet in my life. I like it. Cool.
The other day we took the twins in for prescreening for Preschool. We were all nervous. I had the previous experience of having taken Matthew to Kindergarten registration. He is 15 now and I am still scarred. I considered him intelligent. still do. I went in kind of cocky. Yeah, here's my kid. cute. smart. Here he is. Love him? I do. and I blink and they say he got his lower case b and d mixed up. I'm like "WHAAT?!" and they are like "calm down. that's normal. and fine".... Oh and he mixed up two body parts. What two body parts? Well, his elbow and shoulder. and we asked him twice. "WHAT?!!!!!"
He knew the difference before we made it home. test anxiety for the parents....
So I start filling out he paperwork a few hours before the appointment. Mike is doing summer school. By the time he walks in, I'm not showered and ready to cry.... PACKETS of forms. and tests that I need to give the twins..... repeat after me. 3, 5, 8....... what is your first name...... stand on one foot for five seconds..... ridiculous developmental things..... Sammy does GREAT. Noah did very well also.... with a few bumps along the road. "are you a boy or a girl" a girl. Knock it off Noah. this is serious. Now, are you a boy or a girl. a girl
So we get there and my kids are excelling. the pschologist doing the test is blown away. at first she tries to test both boys at the same time, but they are so quick at the tasks that she bails and sends one out for vision and hearing testing. But before this happens, I see the following things that I'd like to note for when the little buggers grow up and read this. Not that I will ever forget, but if I'm hit by a bus or something, they need to know....
Noah, can you name the color of this bear? red. this one? blue. This one? green. Very good, Noah. He looks at her like there is something wrong with her. The wheels are actually cranking in his brain. I can see the computer saying "working,.... working...." She increases the wheel velocity by saying "which bear would you like to use on the next activity?"
I swear. time stopped. He looked into her eyes and cocked his head and starred. She repeated the question. He cocked his head to the other side. staring. I knew what he was thinking. "ok, Lady, where are you going with this? What do you want? What is the right answer?"
She says "How about the green one?" He's like yeah, yeah that's it- green. She places two cups upside down and says watch me. Covers the bear with one and slowly mixes them up. Then she says which one? again- the look. Like - are you kidding me? He picks the wrong one. She picks up the cup and shows him he was wrong and does it again- slower...... He picks the wrong one again. She looks at me. I said, "Noah" admonishingly. He giggles. She shakes her head. She gets it. It TOO EASY for him. He spiced it up. He was playing with her. Thank God she got it.
Meanwhile she has told Sammy to draw a picture of himself for his teacher. Noah had already done his. Extremely detailed. buttons on the shirt. Name written neatly on the top- spectacular. She turns to Sammers.done, buddy? yep. She takes the pic and barely glances at it. However, I notice it is little more than a circle with a face and a line or two for body and legs etc.... She goes to put it in his folder and stops. Takes it back out for a second glance.....
"Sammy, are you sad?"
"Sad? NO!" He says smiling. "Why?"
"Well your picture has a frown."
"OHHH, that's not sad. that's mad."
"You're mad??"
He actually holds his hand up like stop. and he says "No, not mad" and the hand is there in mid air while he is thinking for the right word.....
"....evil"
"Evil?!!"
Yep he says grinning.
I wonder what kind of referrals we got. You gotta love my kids.
