Welcome to my refrigerator door

I’m going to try and post a little something every day this week. Because I’ve been totally bailing on the blog thing lately. It’s not because I don’t love you. Because I do. And I’m going to prove it this week with four whole days (because I skipped Monday really) of posts in a row.

Starting with this:

Now, if you’re thinking, “Preschool mug shot?” You’d be wrong. It’s a preschool “I won an award” shot, and it came home in his backpack yesterday. I took a close-up of the certificate for your viewing pleasure at the bottom of the post. There’s a list of good things he did to earn the reward, including “using nice words.”

The part I like the most is that he USED WORDS. Can we talk about parent guilt for a second? I have worked from home with all three of my children, proud of all the Me I was giving them through their most formative years. I got restless around the time I got pregnant with Jake, but No, I said. I stayed home with the other two, and he deserves the same. I’ve made it this far. I’ll start a high-powered career when he starts kindergarten. Oh sacrificial me.

Then in my work from home job I was on the computer. All the time. Nonstop. And Jake watched movies and played by himself (really beautifully, I must say). And – don’t try to stop me – this is what I blame for the fact that his language isn’t caught up with his peers. I can’t help it. I don’t blame myself with tears and the pulling out of my hair. But I do blame myself. He’s recently started language therapy at his school, and I’m so excited for him. And I wish I could be there and just watch him soak in all those words. I know he is soaking them in, because our house has a lot less what’s and huh’s these days and way more, “Oh good sentence, Jakey!”

Do I have a point? Only a couple. First, the whole, it’s my blog so I get to show off my kids’ awards thing. And also, I’ve said it before, but other people are good, huh? They add to us. I’m glad I sent Jake this year to people who could help him learn to say, “I’m sad”, “It must be somewhere!”, and “Mama, I like your hair.”