A True Story

Who's that running over there,

With bits of cheese mashed in her hair?

Fingers sticky still from lunch,

And underfoot I hear a crunch!

Now she's emptying out the drawers,

Tossing books out on the floor,

CRASH, BANG, BOOM!! There go the blocks!

It's like a race against the clock,

To make the biggest mess she can,

Appears to be her master plan.

Puzzles, teacups, tamourine,

Princess wand from Halloween,

Sticker books and toys galore,

Things I'd never seen before!

"STOP!" I shout, "Hands up right now!

Don't touch another ball or cow!

March yourself right over here,

There's something Mommy must make clear."

And just as she's within my grip,

She turns and with a sneer of lip,

Catches what my eye had spied,

Although I'd done my best to hide,

But twas too late, she'd seen it too,

And all that there was left to do,

Was grab that bowl of cheezie snacks,

And with a flurry of ka-whacks,

She launched that dish up in the air,

And sent those cheese crumbs everywhere!

"ArGhhHhhh!!"

She sees the game is done,

And so she breaks into a run,

Off she goes, in a mad dash-a,

A little imp whose name is Kasia.

Say Cheese!

In preparation for Kasia's very first school picture day (drumroll please), we did a practice run in hopes of getting a really nice photo.





Wait, I said "really nice photo", not really bizarre and disturbing photo.


Anyhoo, as I combed her trial run hair-do, I did my best to explain to Kasia that a photographer was going to take her picture the next day, and that she'd have to sit nicely, smile at the camera and look pretty.


This, most definitely, was NOT what I had in mind:

So, when they say "There's a princess in every little girl", sometimes the only princess present is the one on her pajamas.

Growing Up Without Growth Hormone

This seems like yesterday. It felt like it took FOREVER for her to grow into that 0-3 month onesie that said Mommy's Little Cupcake. Don't let those chubby little arms fool you- at 4 months, she was lost in it.








For such a long time Kasia was so baby-like. It was like having a newborn for a really long time. At one, we still couldn't use the tray on her highchair because it came up to her shoulders!








Her baby stage was more like 2 years, not one. In some ways, I secretly cherish it. After all, how many people wish their sweet little babies would never grow up?











Three years old went by in a blur! All I recall is that we really seemed to be getting somewhere! At 3, she finally hit the elusive 20 pound mark and we said goodbye to the crib!






At four years old she's still sweet and lovable. Still tiny enough to carry around and cuddle on my lap. And eventhough she started school this month, she still often seems so small and so fragile.




But then something strange happened. Bangs happened! With a snip of the scissors, she turned into a big girl! The pictures aren't great (pictures with toilets in them usually aren't), but it's the best I could do.










Which brings me to the Growth Hormone.....


At the request of our geneticst, Kasia recently had bloodtest to check the level of growth hormone her body is producing. What I thought would be a fairly standard test was actually 3.5 hours of a needle being stuck into Kasia's arm every 30 minutes. It was awful. It was another one of those moments that will not get me into the running for Mother of the Year. With every needle, I kept asking myself, "Why are you letting them do this to her? Why???"


Growth hormone is certainly controversial and comes with a great deal of scary side effects. The problem is, if you're truly deficient in growth hormone, there are a number of consequences aside from small stature. So what's a mother to do?


We're still waiting for the results, which I'm desperately hoping are normal - that way I won't need to make that difficult decision.


If it's normal, then Kasia is small and that's all.

"Even the smallest person can change the course of the future."
~J.R.R. Tolkien

My JK Girl!!

Here she is.... Little Miss Junior Kindergarten, sitting outside her classroom on her very first day of school. Granted, it's not the best "First Day of School" picture ever taken, but considering the morning we'd had, I was lucky to capture even this shot!

Instead of being bussed to school, a taxi picks Kasia up each school day. On the first day, the day that most parents (I hope it wasn't just me) are rushing about and running behind schedule, the taxi showed up 15 minutes early! ACK! I grabbed our bags, threw on Kasia's shoes and sweater and ran out the door! Apparently I had a moment of clarity the night before and had slipped the camera into my purse without telling myself I was doing so.

All in all, the first day was pretty good. When it was time to leave I managed to take this shot of the hideous Dora backpack the Good-mommy side of me bought while suppressing the Stylish- woman-with-good-taste side of me with what felt like punches and kicks to the stomach. There's also a matching lunchbox lurking inside the backpack with Dora's enormous head splayed out across the front of it. (And speaking of enormous..... imagine yourself carrying a backpack that went clear on down to your knees!! This kid is tough!!)

Summertime, and the Living is Easy

Oh the poor neglected blog...... it makes me laugh to think that at many points during my life I seriously considered writing a book! Heck, these days I'm unable to find time to even READ a book. Or, apparantly, write a few measly posts and keep a consistent blog. Ughhh......

Fortunately, things have been going rather well lately. Best of all, I'm happy to report that Kasia will be starting Junior Kindergarten in September with a full-time one-on-one assistant. WOW! I can't tell you how many times I heard "it won't happen; no one gets one-on-one" during the process. I guess I'm not the only one who is amazed that she actually was granted the elusive one-on-one support!


Other than that, we've been enjoying our "summer" which has been for the most part, cool and rainy. But we did have a few sunny days and thank goodness Tuesday was one of them because that was our day at Santa's Village!


Here's a few pictures:



Feeding Santa's reindeer (I think that was Cupid & Blitzen)





"Oh Santa Claus, I would just love to have a Barbie dreamhouse with working elevator......."

And once we got home, it was all about the elf hat......

"An elf walks into a bar and says......"

"Hi-ho, hi-ho......"

Fifi Meets Jackie O.

So there they are....the aforementioned British sunglasses aka Retro Baby Banz. Worth every penny since she loves them, looks cute in them AND keeps them on!

School Meeting

One of my most dreaded meetings happened today - the meeting with the public school board and staff of the school that Kasia will hopefully attend in September. A full two hours before the meeting was scheduled to begin, I started to feel sick. A stress headache that radiated down into my neck, a queasy stomach and the kind of sickly nervousness that comes with job interviews and blind dates. As Dino drove us into the parking lot of the school, I felt certain that I would throw up, pee my pants, faint or all of the above. Dino just looked scared. Scared of how scared I looked.



I pulled it together though. Well....sort of. I believe that I was firmly in control of myself and my emotions right up until about the 3rd minute of the meeting, when I was asked to tell everyone a little bit about Kasia. That's when I fell apart. sigh......



It's so hard to talk about a part of your life that is so emotionally charged, so pain inducing, and so fresh. Amazingly, my feelings still sit right under the surface - ready to burst out and cause awkard moments for all involved. Luckily our social worker stepped in and spoke about Kasia for me at that point.



And then, something amazing happened. The special needs resource consultant for the entire public school board - the person who will be a huge part in deciding whether or not Kasia will get the extra services she needs at school - walked into the room. I smiled.



"I apologize for being late", he said. "I'll just quickly introduce myself since we've never met."



"But we have met." I said.



Confused, he cocked his head and said, "Really? Where?"



"When we were kids. We went to school together." I said, starting to feel some anxiety slip away.



"Kara? You're Kara Price??"



"Used to be."



Shaking his head, "Wow. It's so nice to see you again!"



"You too..."



The room fell silent.



And then Dino, the comic relief says this:



"Hi, and I'm her husband!"



The entire room broke into peals of laughter.



After that, everything just seemed better. The next hour flew by and the meeting wrapped up. As we walked out into the hall, our social worker had a look of shock and surprise written all over her face and told us that the meeting had gone really well. Since she's been to countless of those meetings in the last eight years, I'll take her word for it.

So, we should hear in about a week if Kasia will get a one-on-one assisstant - something that was determined she would need in order to keep her safe at school. If one-on-one can't be provided, I'm not sure what our options will be, but I'm not going to think about that yet. Instead I'm going to think positive thoughts and hope that growing up in a small town may just have some benefits.