How DOES our life get so chaotic. Apart from the obvious answer, hello, your girls are ages 5.5 and 2.5, nuff said. I think it's that I'm ambitious, and never like to be without plans. So I always have too many plans. Today, for instance. Today was supposed to be a "regular" Thursday, which meant taking Chispa to school, hauling Changa off to the gym for an hour, racing off to playgroup (with pre-packed lunch for me and Changa), picking up Chispa from school at 1pm, letting the girls play for an hour at school, haul home for nap.
Except. I finally snagged a coveted therapist appointment for Chispa with the recommended therapist. Mr. H and I needed to go to it sans children, and the appointment was conveniently at 2pm. When no sitters are ever available. Nanny's are nannying at that hour, and anyone else is in school. Naturally I called Nana (my Mom) into action, who mercifully, was able to plan to come.
Then I realized today was also Chispa's first soccer day. We signed her and her friend A up for soccer. Part of me figured soccer might be a total bust, given Chispa's predilection to TOTALLY IGNORE anyone with rules. However, the other part of me wants our girls exposed to sports when they are still young, so that if they love something, they will have a chance to learn when everyone is on equal footing, and all suck and run in a herd. The other other part of me wanted to channel Chispa's frenetic energy bursts. The girl was spazzing so much we went through a period of time I'd have to take her out after dinner and run her up and down the block, or around the house in circles, with both gates open. No, I'm not joking. So, with trepidation I signed her up for soccer.
Why am I telling you all this? Back to chaos. Therapy is 2-3pm. Soccer is 3:20pm. Changa naps from 2-4pm. You see my point?
Oh, and remember how Chispa FEARS ALL CHANGE? And needs plenty of transition time? I wanted to get her to soccer early, get her all prepared, so that it wouldn't be a bust, or at least, have a better chance of success. Obviously, early ain't happening.
To add to the chaos, Changa got sick with a head cold. No gym, no playgroup, so that's simpler. But there's another problem. She hasn't napped in 5 days, and sort of napped yesterday, nap isn't looking good today with these logistics. I'd say screw the nap, but now Changa is sick, and clearly needs a nap.
So you ready for what happened?
Nana arrived at 11:30am, to Changa's delight. I left at some point and got Chispa, and brought her home at 1:30pm. I left Nana with directions to soccer printed out, my car keys, and left Chispa with her sneakers already on, in case I can't get back in time.
Mr. H and I barreled off to therapy for our 5 year old, without our 5 year old. The therapist ended up running 15 minutes late. 2:15pm. So now there's no chance I can rescue my Mom (Nana) and go to soccer. I call my Mom and warn her I'll indeed need her to awaken poor Changa, and haul them both off to soccer.
Once I stopped my type-A mental cyclone, and breathed in and out, therapy went great. K, the therapist read our carefully typed 2 page essay on what was going on with Chispa. She said some of it sounded like autistic spectrum (note my stomach doing sick flip-flops), some of it sounded like bipolar, but based on what we told her, she didn't think ANY of it fit a clinical diagnosis. Phew. We don't think so either, but you always prefer the expert types to agree with you. She said, you may simply have a child with a challenging temperament. No kidding. (see every other post on here!) Particularly since she so closely matches descriptions of Mr. H as a child.
We told her all we were already doing with her, the books we've read, the methods we use, and she told us that much of what we were doing were things she would have recommended, and that in her opinion we were doing an excellent job of parenting, helping Chispa with her world so far. That was certainly nice to hear. Mr. H and I make a continual effort on that front.
She gave us some ideas on how to help engage her in the process of coping with her world. She agreed with our assessment that our job is to help her manage her temperament and intelligence with the wide world. She said if we wanted to, she could meet with Chispa, and assess more in a play setting. We said we'd like to, as we'd like to help her get ready for Kindy as much as possible. Particularly given the school ASKED us to. Really, though, we want to help Chispa as much as we can. Lord knows we try. We came out feeling good.
Then I raced off to catch the last bit of soccer. And this is only part 1 of our day. No, I'm not kidding.
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