Zachary hasn't been working a ton since the mids have left the Naval Academy- we've loved having him home more! In this picture, we were not moving- promise.
We had a meeting with Liam's Child Find specialists today. We got a report on his "performance age level/age range" for a variety of areas. While the numbers were kind of scary, the specialists reassured us that he knows a lot more than he shows us so the numbers aren't really accurate. So for instance, his cognitive age equivalent is 2.7 even though he's 3 years and 8 months old. His communication age equivalent is 2.1, his social/emotional is 1.8, his adaptive (having to do with self-help like dressing, eating, etc.) is 2.5, his fine motor is 2.2 and his gross motor is 2.2. So this explains a lot! It explains why he gets so frustrated because he is super smart but isn't able to express everything he knows. It also means that since he is more than 25% behind, he gets to continue services. He will have different specialists during the summer and depending on how he's doing at the beginning of the school year, they may place him in a preschool environment with other kids for 2-5 days a week to improve these scores- we'll see!
This is what Malia was doing while we were going through all the information:
When we got home, we took naps and then Malia and I headed out to meet Amy, Evie, Annie and Ashley for a playdate at Kinder Farm Park. Zachary sent me this picture of Liam- this is closest we're going to get to him using the potty for a while I'm afraid.
I had so much fun getting to spend one-on-one time with Miss Malia. She loved the animals- she talked to this chicken:
She actually put her hand through the fence and touched these pigs:
Saw this on facebook and loved it:
So we took Liam's door knob off and put it back on with the lock on the outside because nothing else is working. I forgot to lock it after bringing him a snack so this is what we found when we came upstairs to go to bed:
Usually when people ask me what the little baby's name is and I tell them, "Malia," I get the response: "Oooh that's so pretty!" A couple of times I've been asked where that name comes from, that they've never heard it before. That clues me in that they don't know much about our president but I let that go and tell them about the time I met my good friend, Malia. It was my junior year at Carolina and I had done something I would have never guessed I would do, auditioned for an a cappella group. I've always loved singing but to actually sing by myself in front of several (and at the time intimidating) girls I've never met is a bit uncharacteristic of me but I did it. And I made it! The night they decided who was in, they came to each of our dorm rooms to give us the good news and took us to a common area of another dorm for us to meet the existing and fellow new members. One of my fellow new members came up and introduced herself, "Hi! I'm Malia." I responded, "Malia?! That is beautiful. I'm going to name my child that one day." Over the next few years I got to know Malia- we were in Cadence for a year and a half together and then we really got to know each other better through studying for, and eventually kicking butt on, the GRE. She is beautiful, so very kind, one of the smartest people I know and has an awesome sense of adventure. We already know our little Malia is beautiful but as a mother, I hope to raise her to have these same wonderful qualities my friend Malia has. So it was such a good day when Malia was able to Annapolis from DC where she's been living for the summer while completing an internship. We went to lunch at potato valley... is there a more perfect restaurant for me to go to? No. We also grabbed some ice cream and then came back to the apartment and caught up. It was a wonderful visit and I'm so happy that she was able to meet her namesake and also see Liam again!
