I Love My Emergent Reader

I have mentioned in past posts that my daughter has some serious development delays leading to a very difficult time. Education is very important to me. My daughter's success in school is something I consider a high priority. These cognitive issues make it hard for her to succeed.

Nevertheless, I bust my rear end to teach this child everything I can. Since birth, I have attempted to make books and reading a major part of her life. From the looks of it, I have succeeded. To this day, she plays with books as much as any other toy she has in her room or in the basement.

But while many children her age are speaking more fluently and reading with a much deeper vocabulary and higher cognitive ability, my beloved little one struggles to put sentences together that people outside her immediate family can understand. She can barely maintain a conversation because she is unable to process what is being told to her. It breaks my heart. It scares me to death.

Nonetheless, we push forward. With the support of my loving wife, her stepmother who loves her dearly, I look for ways to close the gap as much as I can. I continue to do the best I can to accept her for who she is but at the same time I want what is best for her and I want her to be the best she can be. I don't believe I can just let that happen. I believe I need to be proactive, especially in her case.

One strength she has is her memory. It still may not be the same as her peers. Or much of her shortcomings may be more a result of her processing problems or inability to communicate than a delay itself. In other words, her issues may be an output problem more than an input problem.

So we have tried to use her memory to help her. She memorizes many things. We hope this memorization can help carry her until she develops the ability to conceptualize things better. She is getting good. She is able to recite 75% of her sight words. She knows her letter sounds and we continue to work on using these sounds to sound out words.

The assessments at school are not turning out well. She is not passing them. Part of the reason is the context. She is not handling the testing situation well. She knows more than the tests are showing. Regardless, we push forward.

Tonight we read Dr. Seuss' "Green Eggs and Ham" again. We read that book so often that we own two copies. I read one copy while she reads the other. I mention this anecdote because tonight she read more of the book independently than ever before.

It was truly remarkable.

Watching my little one read a whole page of a book was one of the most precious things I have ever witnessed. I understand it was only "Green Eggs and Ham." I watched her read the words she knew. I witnessed her looking at the pictures for cues. She used the rhyming to help her guess the words she didn't know. She also used her memory from the countless reads of the text we had done throughout her life to figure out unknown words. She demonstrated that she is acquiring and using the skills that will help her grow as a reader. It wasn't perfect. We still stumbled through some parts. But today is not the end of the journey, today is just the beginning.

She may only be emerging as a reader, but I still adore my little emergent reader.

Bloody Pillowcases

Twice in the past month or so I have come to find blood stains on my pillow case. How they originated is a mystery. My wife is disgusted and livid that I am ruining bed sheets with these stains. We both want to know where they are coming from.

Never before have I experienced this. Could it be bleeding gums? I was just in to see the dentist and she gave me a clean bill of health. My gums look fine according to a professional. I am not spitting blood when I brush my teeth either.

I have no facial cuts to leak blood on my pillow and sheet. So that is out. What on this side of the pillow is going on?

Are those reptilians I spoke of in my 2012 apocalypse post for real and messing with me at night?

Let me add this anecdote. During this same period I have had some very scary dreams. I would think they could qualify as bona fide nightmares. They are too graphic for this blog. I know for a fact they are results of my anxiety. If I didn't, it would be a clue that they are a result of too much anxiety by the fact that I am not writing about them out of the fear that if I make them public, they will come true. I think this despite the fact that they are so over the top ridiculous that it would be humanly impossible to do so. In my dreams the setting, characters and events usually don't match. For example, I may have a dream about teaching but it would be in a hospital and my aunts and uncles would be my students. That would never happen.

Despite this, I refuse to publicly display my dreams out of fear that they would play out in my life. But I have confided in my wife. I have told her about two of the dreams. There have been plenty more but they haven't stuck in my memory like the two I revealed to her.

So armed with this knowledge and her observations, we both sought out to discuss why I am waking up with blood stained pillow cases and sheets.

We have determined that I am biting my lips so hard at night during these horrifying nightmares that they are starting to bleed. She did notice they were bleeding slightly during the day at one point during this period of bloody sheets.

It all makes sense but it is still a hypothesis....until I catch those darned Reptilians from the fourth dimension sitting on my chest at night.

How I Met Your Mommy

Baby we are still over three months from my first opportunity to meet you. But I have been thinking a lot about you. Last night I thought I would write about how your mother and I met. Really, this meeting was the beginning of a long series of events that have led to your existence.

Even though we both grew up in northeast Ohio and watched the same local celebrities, followed the same local sports teams, rode on the same local highways and roads and dealt with the same weather when we were kids, your mom and I didn't meet until we were both students at Ohio State in Columbus. Ohio State runs in your blood, baby. Your uncle Doug, Grandpa Hoyt, Great Grandpa Matthews are all Buckeyes.

My roommate and a coworker needed players for an intra-mural softball team and as you will find out growing up, your daddy doesn't say no to playing softball. Your mommy lived on the same floor as my roommate's coworker and also chose to play. On a cloudy late March day with snow falling, your mom and I played catch to warm up before the game started.

In an effort to break the ice with your beautiful mother, I opened the conversation with the natural question of "Where are you from?" Once she responded, "Brecksville" I had my in. From there we discussed the disparity in radio quality between Cleveland and Columbus. Some may debate that quality radio is an oxymoron but that will have to wait for another post.

Baby, the chemistry that existed in that very new conversation was for real. Over the next months your mom and I played softball together on a weekly basis. The coming summer meant she would head home while I stayed in Columbus. Instead of losing touch with one another, a funny thing happened that summer. We continued to talk on the phone weekly. We shared what was going on in our lives and we even met up to hang out in Cleveland.

In the coming years baby, your mom and I took two very different paths. Even though lifestyles and locations seemed to differ greatly, sometimes a whole country apart, we never lost touch. There was a reason for this.

Baby, Mommy and I both hit moments in our lives where we needed some support. Not coincidentally your mother and I found each other. Our friendship quickly turned into a commitment that will span the rest of our lives. It has created a bond that has become stronger every passing day and every passing event both good and bad. It also created an opportunity for us to share you.

I look forward to meeting you face to face, baby. This day has been a long time coming.