Charlotte has made another small jump outwardly in showing her view of all things remote and abstract. As Emily blogged yesterday her representational play is taking off, which is always nice for a parent to see because it rules out the last round of cognitive and learning delays or disorders someone like me has to worry about for awhile. She is talking about things from the past all the time. Suze still lives in Texas and tonight we were looking at a Richard Scarry book, as per usual, and she pointed to the fox or pig or dog or whoever was piloting a plane and said, "Suze!" That's right, my mom is some perpetually smiling zoo or farm animal that flies airplanes. I wanted to scold Charlotte so being so off-base but I decided to let it go.
So seeing what nuggets Charlotte pulls from the past continues to be fun but here are some bigger, although not all that huge, leaps she's made.
1. Out of nowhere on Friday she started talking about the zoo and then finally said, "Go zoo? Daddy go zoo? Charlotte go zoo? Mommy go zoo?" Maybe they talked about the zoo in her new school/daycare (Edgecumbe Montessori). I asked her what she wanted to see at the zoo and she said, "otters." Sure enough last month with Suze we went to the zoo and Charlotte saw the otters. I asked what she remembered about the otters and she said, "Otters funny. Otters swimming in a water."
Damnit, she nailed it. I had not choice but to oblige and yesterday we were at the zoo. We had just arrived, were one minute into thawing out near the indoor exhibits, when she insisted we go see the otters first.
A few of you reading this know that one of the many rants I have about Facebook right now is all the people bragging about how they went running in the cold. There is nothing easier to do outside in the winter than run. You have high tech gear on, you're doing this for leisure, and you are moving the entire time. It really is no big deal. And A LOT of people do it.
You know what is a big deal? You know what A LOT of people don't do? Stand out in the single digits, not moving at all for fifteen minutes, in what is essentially a wind tunnel, watching someone else watch otters. That activity is three times colder than going for a stupid run. Fifteen minutes we stood there. Love is funny that way. No one else could have made me agree to those fifteen minutes besides Charlotte and every minute was awesome (and she was plenty warm by the way... she got sick of my checking in on her).
2. She has also been talking about the museum (she only know the Children's Museum). After Physical Therapy on Friday we got into the car and she said, "Museum?" I don't know if that was a specific request so much as a comment that she really didn't want to go to her new daycare, because it's new, and man wouldn't it be nice if the two of us chilled at the Children's Museum. Anyway, per Emily. she spent a good chunk of the morning today lining her toy animals up to go the zoo (bus man's holiday) and then to the Children's Museum. So clearly that stayed with her or was always with her.
3. Tonight she randomly did something kind of cool. As we were going upstairs to bed, with no context whatsoever, she said, "Balloon, balloon!" and then acted like she was blowing up a balloon. The two of proceeded to mime blowing up balloons for five minutes or so and she thought it was hilarious. I have no idea where this came from. I assume she is picking up a few things from Montessori. Either way, it is fun to see the little brain of hers in action.
Other news:
1. She did indeed start a new daycare. She is now in a Montessori with a nice range of kids from infants on up to pre-schoolers. As expected, Emily had to deal with a lot of Charlotte's tears at drop-off time (well day one was more screaming per Emily and then when I picked her up the teacher said it took Charlotte half an hour to calm down after Emily left). She'll be fine. She is adjusting as quickly as we figured she would. She still talks about Paula (her previous day care provider) and the kids she played with there, so I think she misses that. But I predict by the end of the week she'll be all in with her new place. Like I told Emily, Charlotte is going to forget all of this in a year. We are the ones who remember it all. And once she is loving her new school we can always go back and see Paula and the kids Charlotte will remember from there.
2. Charlotte's Physical Therapist arranged for a therapy dog to come and help out with our sessions. So now Charlotte has a dog doing PT with her. I forgot it's name... Sandy? I keep asking Charlotte but she says something that could be Sandy but it could be ten other names. Regardless, that dog has really made a difference but not how you'd expect. Charlotte likes the dog, but is really so hung up with working through all the demands we are asking of her. So it is hard for her to let go and interact with the dog the same way she does our pets. The intent was for the dog was to relax the dynamic of "do this hard activity" and "do that activity you're uncertain about doing." But that hasn't played out. Instead what the PT and I have ended up doing is using the dog as a decoy to play off of Charlotte's work avoidance. So if Charlotte bulks at doing something, we just ignore Charlotte and have the dog do the thing we want Charlotte to do, heap attention and praise on the dog and all of a sudden Charlotte is doing it too. It's the oldest trick in the book, but I never would have thought of using the dog for such manipulation. I guess it's better than using a sibling. Speaking of which... Charlotte could use a sister, no?
