Tuesday, April 1, 2014

5 years ago...

Five years ago today I found out that I was going to be a mother. Today I am sitting at home with my 4 (almost 4 1/2) year old who's got a stomach bug and had to miss school. Camille had the bug a few days ago, and seeing as how they share everything now, that of course means germs.

 It seems almost a lifetime ago that I took that pregnancy test on April Fool's Day 2009. It was no joke, though. The eight following months of pregnancy went by relatively quickly, and here we are 5 years later with not just one, but two amazing healthy children. Though they are 18 months apart in age, it seemed at times, when they were very young, that we had twins. Two in diapers, two needing mashed up/cut up food, two who couldn't talk, two who couldn't quite play together at such young ages, so had to be entertained independently.

Those first two years with both of them were very challenging at times, and I really don't know how we did it on some days. When Paul was two years and three months old, we found a wonderful school, Kinder Haus Montessori, and he began attending two days a week. That gave me a break with "only one" baby to entertain for those days, or rather, only one baby to have to tote around as I did grocery shopping or other errands. Camille, however, did not love to be in a car seat in the grocery cart, so I never did get a lot done. She has been very mobile, ever since she was growing in the womb (some of those kicks were PAINFUL!), so I guess I can't really blame her.

But, the older Paul and Camille got, the more they were able to socialize and really start to play "together." I think, or at least hope, that they are best friends, and will remain that way as they grow older together. As most siblings do, they have their challenging days of working and playing together, but as they are growing and maturing, they are going for longer and longer periods of time without altercations. Camille loves to follow in Paul's footsteps, whether that means playing with blocks, or playing Superheroes - though, she is always the "princess" for those charades. Paul enjoys being a leader and showing and teaching Camille all about the world around them. Camille is no pushover though, she's not one to hold back her opinion.

The one area where Camille is stronger is verbal language. She started talking the same time Paul did, but she was 12 months and he was 2 1/2, so she's had much more of her life to be practicing correct pronunciations of words, and Paul still struggles with it a bit. But, each day, he gets better and better, and each day he uses more words to tell us stories about his day, or about his make-believe scenarios with his superhero action figures.

The speech delay has not in any way hindered his capability to learn and to grow intellectually. In fact, this past November, Paul tested and was accepted in to Airline Park Academy for Advanced Studies with a score of 96 on a nationally ranked entrance exam. He'll start at his new "big-boy" school in Pre-K 4 in the fall, and Camille will move up to the Kinder Haus Pre-K/K 3-6 class in June.

Both of my children amaze me each day with all they have learned and all the growing that they have done in such a short time since that pregnancy test 5 years ago today. I can only imagine what the next 5 years will bring.