Milestones

Anyone who knows me well has heard me talk about Jack and his writing/fine motor skills. While his sister is like a whip and just *crack* picks this stuff right up in the blink of an eye, Jack is my slow and steady plodder. It’s like raising the tortoise and the hare. I worry if my tortoise is plodding to slowly perhaps (I voiced this to his pediatrician and he is not concerned at this point) ??? I also worry that my little hare will overrun my tortoise and cause him more frustration. Then they do things that make you say, nope….they’re just fine. Kids do things in their own time at their own rate and as long as there is steady forward progress you don’t really have to worry too much. Though as a mom it’s part of the deal to worry about your kids.

I can’t remember the term right off the top of my head. But there was something in all those baby books I read back when about developmental leaps, or something like that. You know, like when they’re little and don’t talk, don’t talk, don’t talk, then BAM! It’s like the switch flipped and suddenly they won’t shut up. Well, I think we may have one of those scenarios on our hands.

While he’s been making progress with writing his letters since starting kindergarten. I’ve seen a huge leap in his interest level since the first of the year. Suddenly he WANTS to write, he WANTS to draw things, he WANTS to color, he WANTS to paint. Granted the latter two are mostly in shades of green, but when you live the John Deere life green is the color of choice. These were all things I was dragging him into doing through the fall. Now he’s self-correcting his letters and numbers when he thinks they don’t look right. I actually had to find an eraser the other day because he’d used up the one on his pencil. I’m constantly having to round up and put away coloring books and works of painted art before dinner time.

We got him some ‘fat’ pencils before Thanksgiving (per his pediatricians’ – who has a dysgraphic child and therefore lots of hands-on experience with slow writers – suggestion) , and he really took off with LEGOs (think fine motor work) about the same time. I don’t know if those factors contributed to this new phase or if it finally all clicked together, but it has both Kevin and I really excited to see this leap.

On the other hand, it does mean Jack and his sister are often in cahoots now when it comes to art activities and he is more than willing to use his superior height and reach to drag out art supplies for her skipping the ‘mom factor’ altogether. It’s not to bad having them be self-sufficient, but sometimes I’d like some warning before we get out the paint and go all Picasso on the dining room table 30 minutes before dinner. Oh well, it is what it is. Guess I better hide the glitter in another location though huh?