Author: Anxious Mom

There are certain months of the year that I call Hell Months. Those are the months where there are hardly any blank spots on my calendar. It can be overwhelming, and some of us with our sanity intact more so than others. As it turns out, with both kids getting older, we have more of those types of months than not. (So it’ll become normal instead of overwhelming soon enough.) June is one of those months.

Before summer started, I added on extra appointments each week for BG’s speech and occupational therapies. I wanted to do twice per week for each one to try to get her as close to being ready for kindergarten as possible. And then the teacher she’ll have for 5K contacted me about a program that helps with kindergarten readiness. That is once per week for several weeks. The appointments are supposed to be an hour long, but BG blows through them in under 15 minutes. Her issue with readiness has nothing to do with the academic side of things, which is what these sessions are focused on. I’d rather not drive all the way into town for this, but at least she’s getting better acquainted with her teacher.

At the last appointment, Miss “I don’t know how to spell anything” used letter tiles to create words on her own and wrote words on a sheet of paper without being prompted. For whatever reason, she likes to pretend like she doesn’t know jack at home much of the time. I can ask her to read or spell a simple word like “did,” and she’ll usually act clueless. But then I’ll catch her spelling and printing out words on my label maker. I guess she likes telling us “no” so much that it’s just second nature for her to refuse to do something that she can easily do.

Back to June busyness.

So, after the therapy and school appointments were put in place, we then added on a few psychologist visits. A visit to the ENT. (She recently tested for a higher frequency hearing loss, so they’re gonna double check that. If she does indeed have that, it would explain why she struggles with certain sounds, which are also in the higher frequency range.) Another visit to the ENT to discuss possibly removing her tonsils. (Sleep apnea.) LM’s basketball camp. Plus some other random stuff. Since most of those appointments take place in the city an hour+ away, we have/will put some miles on the car this month. Therapies aside, though, July is looking much slower. (KNOCK ON WOOD.)

This week is one of those weeks were we have at least one appointment per day and sometimes two. Plus the girl’s birthday parties. It’s gonna be long, but will end on a great and fun note! BG has a very peculiar cake request, which I’ll be sure to share pictures of later. And we’re going to take her to see Toy Story 4 on her birthday. I hope it’s a little more lighthearted than Toy Story 3, because that one about broke me when we took LM to see it at the theater (he was 2, I believe).

How is your month looking?

It feels nice coming back to this blog. Kinda like coming home from a long vacation, except without all the suitcases to unpack and dirty laundry to wash. (Well, maybe not, since I’ll be airing out some stuff…expect lots of posts soon…but ya know.)

I’ve been lingering around the blogverse since late 2014, back when I had an infant and a first grader. And here we are, heading off to middle school and kindergarten. It’s funny how the first six years with LM didn’t fly by that quickly, but the last five have. You know, I expected to be a train wreck for the last part of May, when their graduations were taking place. Milestones — especially major ones like that — always get me. Jeez, when LM graduated from preschool, I was probably more of a train wreck than at any time in the past few years of blogging, so some of y’all know that’s saying something. (Being 29 and feeling all old for being so close to 30 didn’t help.)

I teared up at the preschool graduation, but only at the end when they showed photos from the year, including a baby photo of each graduate with a sound clip of those sweet little voices saying what they wanted to be when they grew up. One kid said Spider-Man (not mine, shockingly), a bunch of kids said teachers or firefighters or police officers, and mine (and her best friend) said doctor. That got to me. So much hope in those voices, so much innocence, and so much confidence because the world hasn’t knocked them down yet.

The boy’s graduation got to me a bit, too. Y’all know that song 7 Years by Lukas Graham? (I’ll link it at the end.) LM started listening to it when he was 7 years old, and now he’s 11 (another age that is referenced in the song), so it already makes my eyes wet. Well, some monster who really wanted to fuck with everyone’s emotions changed it to 5 Years and was about going from kindergarten to fifth grade. I don’t think there was a dry eye there, and a couple of the girls singing started bawling during the song. The rest of the kids faces looked like stone — you could tell they were really struggling to keep it together.

Once I was 5 years old
My mama told me
Go make yourself some friends in kindergarten
Once I was 5 years old

Soon, I’ll be all grown up
Right before your eyes, remember that we’re making lots of memories
I make my teachers happy when I use vocabulary
I hope my classes are just as fun as elementary
Soon, I’ll be all grown up
I will find success with lots of friends to support me
Soon, I’ll be all grown up
Soon, I’ll be all grown up
Will my parents be proud of me? Will I become what they hope for me?
Soon, I’ll be all grown up

That’s not all of it, just some from the beginning and the end, but you get the gist of it. I was glad the ceremony was outside so I had on sunglasses. I told LM that if he ever has to sing anything like that again to warn us. Or at least pass out xanax with the programs. Really, though, that part aside, it wasn’t that tough emotionally. Lots of happiness, lots of pride.

I didn’t really intend to write a post just about the kids growing up, but *shrugs*. I’m feeling all sentimental now, but next week I’ll probably write about some of Baby Girl’s more stressful antics and the hellishness of tweendom. (For real, though, why didn’t some of y’all warn me?!)