Corrections

My daughter has reached the age where she feels it is critically important to correct me all the time. Let's take some recent examples.

Me: Ava is three years old.
Ava: You mean three and a half, Mama.

Me: Let's put on your shorts.
Ava: You mean skirt, Mama.

Me: That's a lovely path you colored.
Ava: You mean arrow path, Mama.

My husband was taking a home video of Ava. They were discussing some coloring she had done in her coloring book. At one point, he corrected something she had said. She looked up from her coloring book and gave him a top class evil eye. "Turnaround is such fun," I thought when he showed me the video.

I'm so glad he caught that on tape. When's she's giving us the well-practiced version of that look at 16 I'll be able to refer to how she was practicing it at three. And I'll be able to pull out the video to prove it.

Early Morning Encounter

I walk the children to school every morning. The walk to school is a leisurely stroll with frequent stops to examine a bug on the sidewalk, a flowering vine on a fence, or to say hello to a friendly construction worker. The walk home from school is a nice kind of solitary. Often I walk home quickly, anxious to get in a bit of work before it is time to pick the children up again.

One morning last week I was in a particular hurry because I had a dentist appointment that morning and I wanted to give my teeth a post breakfast brushing before heading out. Coincidentally, it was the only morning of the entire school year I forgot to take my phone with me.

It is a fact of life that obstacles appear in your path in direct proportion to your need for hurry. A neighbor doing yard work stopped me for a quick hello as I turned the corner back into our neighborhood. Then, as I turned onto our street and rounded the corner leading to our house a dog bigger than my children came running across the street towards me.

Now I like dogs, and I'm generally quite good with animals. This huge, black barking monstrosity was not barking in that happy, excited, pay-attention-to-me kind of barking. Its body language was definitely not the leaping, bouncy come-play-with-me kind of body language. It was coming at me fast accompanied by back-off-my-territory barking and body language. To be honest, I was scared. I backed up, fast! I didn't move fast enough for the dog and it sped up herding me even more aggressively. It backed me up to the corner before moving back to guard the only route to my house.

I didn't know what to do. I didn't have a phone so I couldn't call anyone. I couldn't get home. I was going to be late to my appointment. I considered going though a neighbors backyard and climbing the fence into our backyard. However I'm too short to climb the fence. Even if I did get over it the back door was locked and the front door was guarded by the dog.

I considered knocking on the doors of neighbors on the next street over who might be able drive me past the dog. Thinking of neighbors reminded me of the friendly guy doing yard work. I walked back to the corner and asked him to walk me home. I felt like an eight year old asking for a chaperone. It was embarrassing. "Can you walk me home?" is just not a phrase I expect to be using at this stage in my life. On the other hand I really needed to get home.

As it turns out he knows the neighbors who own the loose dog. He had seen them interact with the dog and knew how to get it to back off. He walked me home and then went to let them know their dog was out.

All in all, it was way more excitement than I needed that morning. Encountering a dog that truly makes you fearful is a humbling experience. I was deeply grateful the children weren't with me.

The Weekly Review: Week 78

SLP Resource of the Week

Sometimes a fun game to use as a reinforcer makes all the difference with children. I found a tutorial for making an adorable bean bag toss game out of a cardboard box. The box sits on a slant and is decorated to look like a monster's mouth. A large box and a little floor space would be a great way to keep active preschoolers-early elementary kids engaged. A smaller tabletop sized version and smaller beanbags or even ping pong balls would keep older kids entertained.

Ava this Week

Ava has rediscovered a pair of Hello Kitty rain boots we had gotten in the spring. We put them away one day and promptly forgot about them until very recently. She loves them. She'll strip off her other shoes as soon as she gets home and put the rain boots on. She tromps around in the backyard in them for nearly an hour in the afternoon before deciding she's had enough and heading back inside.

Weekly Michael

My husband's parents kindly packed up all of his old Legos from when he was a kid and mailed them two us. Two big boxes arrived at our house. It was like Christmas morning. The children dumped them out all over the living room floor to dig around in them and find treasures.

Michael was beyond delighted when he discovered a working lego motor. Who knew there were such things? His dad hooked him up with the motor, the wires, and the batteries and then we left him completely on his own while we started dinner. 10 minutes later he had built this:

I forget what he called his creation, but it involved a spinning gear and functional light.

And then they started in on the lego train tracks.

It was wonderful. My husband told me that he had fond memories of playing with these same legos at his late grandmother's house. He felt like he could feel her presence in the room and it made him happy.

Weekly Weight Loss

This week I'm down 3.2 pounds. Low-carb appears to work very well for me. I'm sure walking 9 or so miles a week taking the children to and from school doesn't hurt either.