Ezie will be 8 months old tomorrow, but I technically never did a 7 month update. So let’s just pretend that I posted this about a month ago.

Besides having his first meal at 7 months old

he also began rolling over

As of today we have all of the money for SJ’s summer school tuition. This school year wraps up on Friday with an ice cream party and she starts “preschool” on Tuesday. So far all of her time at Ohio Valley Voices has been spent in the toddler program. This should make for a smooth transition because she will begin with half days in 3-5 year old preschool program and in the fall she’ll start full days.

SJ is now 6 months old as far as hearing and she continues to make great strides every day. There are times I am still in disbelief that she can hear. If we are looking at a book I can say “choo choo” and she will point to the train and do her own version of a train sound. One day she was pointing up at the drinks and I said “juice?” Her eyes got really big and she pointed to her feet. I laughed and said “not shoes. Juice.” I was ecstatic. Just the fact that she can mishear me is a miracle. We weren’t doing anything with shoes, but she was listening  and thought she heard a word that she knew. YAY!

This month she has started saying down, shoes, I want, outside, and where all on her own. They still sound pretty rough, but she has vocabulary and that’s huge. We’ll work on articulation later. I get notes from her teachers all the time and they are so encouraging. Here is just one example from May 14

“I think today was the best day I’ve ever had with SJ! She was so engaged, happy, and willing to attempt new words. She gave me a great approximation for “I want pink” and “help me.” I am so excited for her and the entire family”

I do not take for granted how blessed we are to have such a great school, and loved ones that care so much that they are committed to pray for SJ and sponsor her this summer. If you donated I will be sending out formal thank you notes and updates. Even though I know we have so much work ahead of us I really believe that this is going to be the fun part.

When Z was getting ready for his trip to NYC I looked at it as a learning opportunity. We went to the library and checked out everything we could find pertaining to New York City. One of the books we looked through reminded me of my old encyclopedia days. There I was sitting with my little 5 year old, eyes full of wonder imaging all the adventures to be had in his dream city. Then I read this sentence accompanied by photographs.

“Three of Manhattans most famous skyscrapers are the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building, and the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center.” 

I sat there speechless. He looked at me anticipating my next words and I looked down at him in his innocence, in his ignorance. I felt my heart sink and my stomach turn. I told him that the Twin Towers weren’t there any more. He looked confused and asked why. I explained how some bad people attacked America and the destroyed the towers. His eyes were sincerely concerned and I talked him through some of the pain felt over the tragedy that happened 6 years before he was even born.

9/11 impacted all of us, but I felt a new layer of sorrow the day I had to explain the evil of those events to my child. But just like Mr. Roger’s says

It’s no secret that we’ve been through a lot the past year (and then some). All the while the Lord has been faithful and we’ve been carried through it all thanks to our faith, family, friendships, and community. When I signed SJ up for summer school, (which would be imperative for her at this stage) I inquired about grants and scholarship. I even asked if we would just continue our monthly payments. Then on Friday I found out that there is no outside funding available for Kentucky residents and the flat rate of $775 is all due at once.

I am not freaking out nor am I in a state of emergency. I just thought it would be helpful per the request of loved ones, if we started up a sponsorship page for SJ (Sedona or Sedona Jean is her name outside of blogland in case that is confusing). We’ve been extremely blessed to have all of her medical care covered at this time and we haven’t always been able to say that, so I am grateful for God’s provision. I know that HE will meet all of our needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus (Phillipians 4:19). 

May looks like it will be a season of closure in some ways. SJ will be graduating from the toddler program at her school, J will have his last day where he is currently holding a temp job, and Ezie will no longer be exclusively breastfed. However when I look back at the past month I see that along with some of the bittersweet springtime goodbyes this season also gives us plenty to look forward to.

Whether it’s Tiger Woods or Toddler’s in Tiaras some children are trained at the youngest of ages to be the best of the best and do whatever it takes to achieve their dreams. But whose dreams are they really?

I saw an ESPN documentary on Netflix called The Maronovich Project where a father raised his child from birth to be a professional football player. He did stretches with him as a baby and he never allowed any processed food to touch his lips. He had rigorous training throughout his entire childhood and eventually did go on to be a quarter back in the NFL. Unfortunately he also became a drug addict which would end his football career shortly after it began.

On a more positive note I read an article recently where a family with 10 kids had 6 of their children in college by age 12 and the younger four that remain will probably follow suit. My first reaction was what is the hurry? It’s not about how soon you start, but how you finish. So far it turns out they finish well. One is a space craft engineer, another an architect, and another is on her way to becoming  one of the youngest Doctors in history. The parents claim that they are just “average folks” and attribute their success to homeschooling. In a CNN interview 16 year old Serennah Harding speaks highly of her parents saying “They found our interests and they cultivated those and helped us pursue those and learn at our own pace” and she gives credit to God for what he’s done in their family and how he has blessed them. It’s easy to think these parents from Alabama were pushing the kids too hard and stealing their right to childhood, but after watching the interview I am convinced that they are a sweet loving family that just happen to have really smart kids.

I personally know of a couple different families who claim their kids knew what they wanted to be at a young age and they held them to it and I know them as successful adults now. For example one of my elementary school classmates did pageantry when we were younger and she eventually became Miss Missouri in the Miss USA pageant. Now she is a news anchor woman in Cleveland. She is expecting her first child, which they just found out is a girl. The city lit up one of it’s historic buildings in honor of the announcement.

Her brothers have been equally as successful. Their parents truly are the sweetest most loving couple, but they are also “average folks”. Their dad was and still is a coach at the school I went to as a child. At a resent graduation banquet he was quoted saying “Good stops at good, but great never quits.” Call me miss lack of motivation, but that sounds exhausting to me. 

Speaking of quotes one of my favorite lines is from a Rhett and Link video about a college student telling his parents he is switching majors.

“I only did engineering because of that time when you said You’re so good at Legos. maybe you’ll be an engineer. Mom, engineering is harder than Legos.”

This scenario is probably more common than the child prodigies we’ve seen on Oprah. More than likely the sweet little girl you bought so many kittens for, the one that wanted to be a veterinarian, will end up in real estate loathing the chore of selling homes with pets and you will be left raising all of her cats. Isn’t that more typical? Seriously though, when is a reasonable age for a child to know their passion or their calling, and to strive for it? All I know is that right now Z wants to be Batman when he grows up  and when he turns 20 he wants to own a “batmovehicle” and I support him 100%.