Last Sunday as part of the finale to the Big Family Celebration, we all participated in a skateboarding lesson. I was so impressed with Sarah for suiting up in her helmet and pads, not doubting of herself or her abilities, with a desire to learn something new. Amy also tried the lesson, though she later switched to her roller skates to zoom all over, enjoying the speed she could achieve on the smooth floor as compared to our bumpy sidewalk. The next day Carl took Sarah for a practice ride on her bike. You may remember that she had achieved pedaling and balancing by herself, but that was always with Carl getting her started and letting go. Now she is able to get going from a stand-still all by herself! Both of these physical achievements of biking and skateboarding seem so amazing when I look back at Sarah’s beginnings and our doubts. I also felt proud of Carl and me as parents to keep assuming that of course she can learn things if given enough time, practice, and support. I tried skateboarding too and was quickly impressed with how much work it was to do the basics – perhaps because I was working too hard, as I often do with new things. I’m still glad I tried it.
(I’ve been on a new regimen of steroids for my headaches and today is the last day so I’m whispering in parenthesis to hope that all stays quiet on the trigeminal and occipital nerve front, or back, depending on which nerve you are).
After Sarah’s conference in August, I signed up for a half-hour call with a one of the speakers, who is a mental health specialist. The call has already been incredibly helpful as well as humbling. I have studied and taught so much about breathing, and yet, I have just discovered that I frequently don’t allow my own self to fully breathe! I am not a chest-breather, but I don’t always allow my diaphragm it’s full trajectory, usually stopping mid-way. So this week I have spent many minutes enjoying breathing fully, catching up on years of air. I have another call with the specialist this Friday and am excited to learn more about myself.
Sarah started a new acting class on Friday afternoon. To get her there in time, through two tunnels at rush hour, means leaving an hour before the class. It’s a good thing she loves tunnels and slowdowns, because we moved more slowly through the Liberty Tunnel than I have ever moved through a tunnel in my entire complete life. I noticed the halls and doorways that lead to the other side of the tunnel! Normally I am moving quickly enough that I don’t turn my head to see such things. Anyway, despite my map program telling me ridiculous things, my getting super stressed and cursing in the parking lot, Sarah repeating my cursing and my stressing that she would do so in the class, and my chagrin that my newly breathing self could lose my shit so hugely, the class itself seemed to go well. I don’t really know, because parents aren’t in the room. But, the staff said all went well. It is a class for teens with special needs and will meet weekly through December. If she participates in the spring session she will also be in a performance. This way she can enjoy what she loves about musicals and we won’t have to survive rehearsals for her school musical.
Sarah continued to have some belly distress this week, which was not unexpected as it has been going on in some way for a couple of months. We met with her GI doctor and received directions for doing a super-duper clean out starting yesterday. She is handling it like a champ and is overall quite sparkly and happy. As her diet had to be clear liquids, her dinner was chicken broth, two popsicles, two apple juice boxes, and some water ice! She was one hungry kiddo. One of our favorite Frog and Toad stories involves Toad trying to bring ice cream to Frog on a hot day and having it drip all over him so he is an unrecognizable mess. While that wasn’t quite me, I did feel rather Toad-esque as I carried three dripping containers of water ice to my car, holding them as far away from my body as I could so that the drips would’t get on my shoes.
When it comes to how schools choose to do things, I often have judgements and sometimes say something. It is unclear that what I put forth ever garners any change. I know schools are dealing with massive crowd management, and yet I also feel that Amy’s school asks things of kids that you would not ask of adults. Lunch at 1pm with a variable and sometimes non-existent snack time earlier? Two minutes to transition between classes? Amy often comes home having consumed basically no water all day. And why would she want to drink water when it is difficult to use the bathroom? Sure, when I say this to anyone, all of the teachers say she can go, she can come a little late, etc, but that is not how it works! That is not how the system is designed to work. And if you ask to use the bathroom when you first get to class you are often told no or to wait. Also, the students are not allowed to carry their regular backpacks around the school. So Amy uses a tiny backpack to carry her pencil pouch, water, and any papers – which of course then have to be folded. We would not expect adults to not use bags! That is what backpacks are for! This all feels ridiculous and she and I are just hoping high school makes more sense. I am also clearly gearing up to send an email to the school, but I expect no changes to come from it. In my day… I used a backpack! In my day we had a mid-morning break to use the bathroom and get a snack. If any of you have ideas for healthy breakfasts that can really stick with a person for hours, please let me know.
You may have noticed that this update came to you in a different form! Carl worked his tech magic for many hours yesterday to move my blog to my author website and get my mailing list established. I then spent over 6 hours fixing all of my past blog posts because they transferred oddly. Let me tell you, that was some repetitive busy work! But I think it is all set. It also allows people to opt in and out of receiving my updates as emails. Please forgive any wrinkles if we have any these first few times, and let me know if you experience wrinkles.
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