Pulling Focus

Hi.

Guess what?  

I am still here.  And so is Haley.

My other daughter, Haley's Big Sis, has been monopolizing my attention lately.  Well, that is technically not true and if she heard me say that she would roll her eyes and say "Mom!"  I can't help it, I have been focusing on her.   Still parenting Haley, don't get me wrong, but very focused on Big Sis.

Big Sis just graduated from High School.  Just a few days ago.  So you might think that things will go back to normal.  Well, I have learned that there is no normal.  Not any more.  

Soon Big Sis will be heading off to college and nothing will ever be normal again.

Haley is doing great.

She has been getting up in the morning and getting herself dressed - even on school days - not every day, but quite a few days a week.  Today is the first day of "summer."  No more school until September.  So she will no doubt be up at the crack of dawn everyday from now until then.

Everything is an adjustment these days.  

Soon we will be a house of three.  We got a little practice at that a few months ago when Haley's Big Sis went to Haiti for ten days with a medical mission team.  Haley wasn't fazed.  I was a wreck.  Then when she got back we suddenly had a passel of kids in our house all the time.  I got used to expecting them and feeding them.  Next thing I knew they were gone. And so was Big Sis.  It was just the three of us most nights.  I had to cook for only three again.  I guess that is how it will be from not on, for the most part.

So far Haley doesn't seem to notice.  I wonder how long that will last.  

Haley doesn't mind not being the focus.  She just does her thing.  She got along fine with a houseful of kids and I think she would be fine all by herself.

Until she got hungry.

2012 Milestones

Last year at this time I did a recap of the prior year.  I enjoyed it so much I have decided to do it again this year.

The following are my favorite posts of 2012.

In January I wondered What She Can Do? and she answered me.  Haley seemed to be making strides, I don't know if she really was or if I was just noticing her accomplishments because I was focused on them.  I was so proud of her when she said "Dad. Dinner. Ready.", when she stepped off of the bus and told me a Beautiful story and also at the end of the month when the Evolution of a Hug was complete.

In February Haley was Amazing!  and she left me Bustin' with Pride!

In March we got so excited when Haley said "No."  I imagine that most parents don't like to hear the word No from their children, but in our case (there's that word again) it meant that she was Correct!

I was so proud of Haley at the end of March for Taking Care of Business, but by the end of April I learned that Independence Can Backfire!

There were some ups and downs in May, but one of my favorites was Haley's notebook.  Got Words?

In June I only posted twice, but they were very fun.  At the beginning of the month you could read about Our Experiment and at the end of the month she was getting used to the Summer Schedule, with a little surprise!

The surprise was a trip to Disneyland in July!  I chronicled our trip from beginning to end.  It was Incredible and we had a lot of fun.  Apparently it wore me out because I didn't blog at all in August, but we did finally go camping at the Tree Farm.  Haley loved every minute of it. 

In September our summer routine was over, but I don't know if we were Ready for School.

In October I decided to challenge myself and write a blog post a day.  I did the 31 for 21 Blog Challenge for Down Syndrome.  It truly was a challenge for me, sometimes I was blogging late at night when I should have been sleeping.  I did capture some good moments though.  I was really excited to get a note from Haley's Teacher, "B" and the Awesome Greeting I got one day after work.  I hope you liked the post about Haley's favorite steam engine and the fact that along with Haley you got to Feel It.

In November I tried to focus on Gratitude.  It was a very busy month and so was December.  I didn't keep up with this blog like I wanted to, but there were More Thanks.

Here's to 2012!  It was a great year.

~Haley's Mom

New Year

Notice that I didn't say "Happy."  

Not that I don't wish you a "Happy New Year!"  It is just that right now that is not the word I would use to describe my state.  

Or Haley's.

Haley has been up since 5:30 am.  I got to sleep until 8:00 am, which is cool, but that just meant that I had two and a half hours to catch up on as far as Haley was concerned.

She needed help finishing her dressing (she really didn't, but she expects it) she wanted pancakes for breakfast, she wanted me to write words on a piece of paper and then on the Magic White Board.  I had plans too, but she didn't consider that.  I actually would have preferred watching the Rose Bowl Parade and drinking a cup of coffee, but I didn't.  

I wanted to get our dinner in to the crock pot so I spent several hours standing in the kitchen chopping vegetables and washing my hands so that I could write some words for Haley and then back to the vegetables and then the process repeated.  Then I made Haley her pancakes.  Something that should have taken all of ten minutes took too long.  

I didn't eat breakfast until around 10:00 am.

Now when you read this you might think to yourself "Oh, how cute, Haley wanted words written on the Magic White Board."  Yeah.  Not so much.  

I was busy.  

Like I always tell Haley, my hands were busy, so I tried to tell her how to spell the words so she could write them herself.  That worked at first.  In fact I was quite surprised that it worked, but not for long.  The perfectionist in her was not happy with that approach.  Not only that, but it was too slow for her.  She wanted the words written quickly.  So after much yelling, and grunting and throwing herself on the floor and after I had to stop and wash my hands a dozen times we managed to write "Grandpa, Grandma, The Grinch, I love you, Grandpa, Midnight, May and Chocolate."  

Those last are the names of some of her new horses.

After all of that I erased the December calendar and began to write in the calendar for January.  That prompted Haley to want me to write some more words.  "Heather, house, hugs, Come in, and Here we are."  You can see where this is going, can't you?  She wants to go to Grandma and Grandpa's house now.  

We just got home from a trip to my Mom's in Montana - we spent a week there to celebrate Christmas.  I told her we don't have any plans to travel for a while.  We are going to stay home, since we just came home from a trip.  She started screaming "TRIP!" and other things.  In fact she just started screaming.  She literally stared at me and screamed at her highest pitch over and over and over.  I asked her to stop.  Then she stood up on the sofa.  I asked her to get down.  She did, but she screamed "DOWN!" over and over and over.  I tried to ignore her.  As if.  Pretty soon she got quiet, I think she was getting tired.  

She watched a DVD for a little while so I started writing this post.  Then she requested pasta.  So I have been up and down several times making pasta and serving her.  She has asked for more twice.  It is almost gone.  

I wonder what will be next.

So, I wish you peace in the New Year and for the rest of the day I wish a little peace and quiet for myself.