Why we LOVE Mondays!

We LOVE Mondays around here!

No, it's not because we all slept in and woke up crabby and very unready for the week to start. Or because when Nolan tried to put on his jacket instead of gently reaching in and turning the arm right side out he just shoved it through and ripped the whole side out. It's not because we couldn't get it together this morning and left for Nolan's school about 15 minutes later than we should have. Or because that caused us to not have time to feed Ella breakfast before bringing Charlie to preschool. Nope, it's not because I had to grab Ella whatever was handy (a Special K bar, fruit snacks, and mini Nutter Butters) to eat in the car. Or because coffee was lovingly made for me this morning, only to realize I was out of creamer. We don't love Mondays because the car was almost out of gas, backpacks were forgotten at home, and we're out of dog food. Nor because the cat knocked a half eaten bowl of cereal off the counter leaving the floor covered in stick, Ella is refusing to nap this afternoon so I haven't had a chance to mop it, and my cell phone is still missing from last week.

Despite all those wonderful reasons to enjoy today, the real reason we love Mondays is because..
It's THERAPY DAY!!

And I'm surprisingly not even being sarcastic.. What???? You say? Let me explain..

Ella has been receiving in-home therapy for about a year and a half now. Every week we've had a procession of Physical Therapists, Speech Therapists, Occupational Therapists, Vision Consultants, Services Coordinators, and Special Education Teachers cycle through our house. (What would you them.. a flock? gaggle? a pack? swarm?) They have spent the last year teaching, strengthening, and listening to our concerns. They have done a wonderful job working around our schedule, reassuring me that it's okay to have baskets of (clean.. usually) laundry laying everywhere, and dirty dishes in the sink. They have provided beneficial therapies for my daughter, while allowing us the luxury of staying in our own home (sometimes in my pajamas and not far from the coffee pot I admit). It's especially wonderful in the winter months to not have to load 3 children up and herd them out the door, or expose any of them to unnecessary extra germs of the world.

For the past year and a half it's worked out really well. (Although I suppose I really didn't have much to compare it to.) The boys look forward to Ella's therapies because they usually always get to play the iPad and I usually always get about the only social adult daytime conversation of the week! Win-win!!

But things change.

When Charlie started pre-school about a month ago, we realized we would be in town 3 days of the week, with 2 1/2 hours to spend each day. (We live out of town, so unfortunately for us it wouldn't be worth the trip to go back home in between every day) I didn't want to clog up our only 2 week days home with therapy sessions, so in an effort to save a little gas money we decided to schedule them during pre-school hours at the Family Center. I was a little worried about how Ella would handle the change. She would be in an unfamiliar environment, with some unfamiliar faces around. She is typically very clingy at home, and I expected her to be worse in a new place. I was prepared for a struggle to get her off my lap. I was ready to push her a little to "get out there." I assumed there would be pacifier-producing caliber crying, intense whimpering, extreme anxiety, and a very timid little girl.

I wasn't ready for this.

She LOVES it there!!

I can't get over what a different child she is at therapy. She hasn't hardly whined once, ventures off on her own, climbs, explores, plays... It's amazing. She does more work "playing" there than she would if we were to try to make her do any kind of exercises (in which case she would exercise mainly her lungs).

And it's obviously paying off. Last week at therapy she climbed a single padded stair all by herself for the very first time without me having to push her leg up and "show" her how. We were ecstatic!

Last night?

She climbed over half way up our staircase all by herself!!

Yes, I am totally eating my words that I wrote last week saying "Don't expect her to be scaling mountaintops anytime soon, or stairs cases for that matter."

Mmmmm... and they taste delicious. ( - :