3 is Coming

That sounds like atrocious grammar: 3 is coming. But it is. That 3rd birthday is just around the corner.

Sometime in early March, I took Kiki into the preschool for testing, to see if she qualified for further therapies. They kind of (bluntly) hinted (told me) I should wait out in the hall and do some paperwork, but I cheerfully insisted I was curious and wanted to watch. I stayed out of their way and didn't interfere. I was a good mom.

They did the same tests her other therapists do during test time, but they didn't give her any verbal clues. It really proved to me that even though Kiki is not terribly verbal (she's got a building vocabulary though, so I think it's a matter of time before she's true to her Greene/Erlitz roots and starts talking nonstop), she understands a whole lot of speech. For instance, if you give her a block and tell her to put in a cup, she'll do it. If instead you pick up a block, put it in a cup, take it out and give it to her, she will just put the block back down on the floor where it started.

Which is fascinating to me, but to her testers, it just meant she can't copy what other people do, which is bullshit (she can so!!), but hey. I didn't interfere. I did tell them though that she's used to following verbal directions, not non-verbal ones. She did finally get the hang of it though.

Anyway that was weeks and weeks ago, and just last week they finally called to schedule The Meeting. They have to have The Meeting before her birthday, which is April 11, so they're kind of anxious to have it happen NOW. I'm trying to find a time that can accomodate Kipp, but they won't meet in the morning (that's when they see their students) and not on Fridays, so it seemed pretty hopeless.

But I'd forgotten that Kipp gets one Wednesday off a month (he works a grave shift one Sunday a month), so I'm hoping to reschedule for the Wednesday just before her birthday. I'd have called to reschedule this week but... spring break.

Tomorrow she gets her eval from First Steps. Normally she'd be graduating from the First Steps program in a couple of weeks and starting preschool, but I've gotten advanced notice from the preschool that she'll qualify for continued therapies, sooo.... I can opt to wait til August to enroll her in school and continue with First Steps throughout the summer. Yay!

She's walking everywhere, though she still looks unsteady. She doesn't fall nearly as much as you'd think. She does love to walk from the car to the store, in the store, anywhere I'll let her walk. She's figured out how to twist her hand out of mine, which scares me to death. I mean she can't run fast now, but I can't run at all, so it's only a matter of time before I won't be able to pursue her anymore.

So it's time for a leash. I don't actually have a moral dilemma about this at all, but I'm just dreading the social encounters that are bound to result from it. I'm already tired of the "Has she had brain surgery/cancer?" encounters and the more ambiguously-worded but you know what they're getting at encounters. I don't want to broadcast any more invitations to people when I'm out and about.

But in this instance, I don't see any alternative. She needs to walk; she needs the exercise and practice. She needs to learn what it means to behave in a store. And she needs to learn all of this without me having the constant fear she's going to get injured or lost or run into traffic.

I just hope I don't end up slapping some stranger. That would be bad.