It’s a Glove Thing – Mon 2nd Feb 2015

I can’t remember who sang “it’s a love thing” but that’s been roaming around my head as I thought of a title for today’s blog. Anyway…

I didn’t “do” the mother and toddler groups with D, I found them all a bit competitive. I’d started childminding too and there I was, starting to have concerns about her development, surrounded by extremely fluent children of her age/a bit younger. It all made for a busy time, but the niggles were there, if I stopped to think about them.

And then a (relatively) speedy diagnosis and you then learn not to compete, to accept that your child will develop and mature at her own pace and – not having been given any expectations in terms of reading/writing/emotional understanding – anything that comes by is a bonus.

It happened with her enhanced confidence to be able to walk to school, hand in hand with me, as opposed to using her buggy, such was (and still is) her stranger anxiety.

We manage it by leaving at a time when the pavements around the primary school we pass are less busy and, although her body language stiffens, she’s learnt to hold my hand just that bit tighter. Sometimes we have to stop completely and she’ll need a cuddle until the children running up behind us have passed. It’s okay, we get there our way.

D has managed another first this Winter….Gloves!

Previously it’s always been mittens, soft fleecy mittens as she couldn’t co-ordinate putting gloves on. We’d try various methods of trying to get them on and fail. D wanting to rip them off because she couldn’t take all the adjusting and the feel as we tried to get (what seemed like far more than) four fingers and a thumb where they should be. She didn’t like the “itchy” feel either.

All change for this year. She watched how the rest of us put gloves on and has mastered it! By herself, when she felt she could, at her own pace.

It might seem a relatively small achievement but it’s another tick on the “can do” hypothetical chalkboard for D.

Naturally they’re pink and go very nicely with her Pom-Pom hat.

It’s reassuring to know that if I say to her “it’s cold, don’t forget to put your hat and gloves on at playtime”, she will be able to by herself too.

I hope everyone’s day has gone well Jx

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