Waiting for Hari

A new favorite picture

This is so much my girl -- climbing, looking to the next thing, giving such blinding bright smiles to the world, determined to be herself.

Today, this morning was tough. Julia is home 6 weeks and I’ve heard from other parents that the 6-8 week time period is very frustrating. What I see is that Julia is fitting into our lives and has become pretty comfortable in our home. She is coming to us for help and working hard at communication, although so many times, she does not succeed in tell us what she wants to. She looks to us for guidance – as we go over flashcard words, she now looks at me when she doesn’t remember a word. And she cuddles with us, she wants us to pick her up for hugs, she runs to us when we’ve been gone for any amount of time, and during meals she takes both our hands or wants to hug both of us at the same time. Julia is trusting us more – when I mentioned that her hair needed washing the other night, she willingly took out her pigtail elastics sure that I will put them back in the next day. For all this, she tests us to the limit – grabbing things off tables that she has been told not to touch, pushing buttons she has repeatedly been told not to, threatening to turn on the stove., being mean to her dolls or the dog This morning after talking about school and acting excited about going back to school, she repeatedly sat on the ground refusing to move as we made our way from the car to the school door. We did our regular drill of her pulling, my allowing her to go to the ground and waiting for her to be ready to move, until Mrs. Levin came up to her and put her on her feet and said it was time to go in. Julia resisted, but Mrs. Levin was insistent. She told me to say good-by and they went in. I often feel like the dotting mother who others feel is coddling my little girl but of course, it is more complicated than that. The school has my cell phone number and can call if they can’t deal with her. Only once have they used it. I feel so badly that Julia has the need to test and re-test. I wish there was a way for her to know that we are forever and no matter what. She needs more language and more experience with us and in the short run nothing but time will bring that. 

posted by Suz @ 9:12 AM