"Mama So Mean" and Gabrie's a Princess

Tonight Gabrie is acting as my writing partner. The little Sweetie is supposed to be in bed, but her father, who is now sleeping (and snoring) quite peacefully on the couch, in a moment of weakness (which happens far more often than it should...he's wrapped around her tiny finger), decided it would be ok if she came downstairs and slept on the couch while he watched tv.

Of course, not even five minutes into it, Justin was sound asleep and Gabrie joined me on the floor with the laptop.

 

I know, a child her age should be in her own bed right now, but every once in a while, I don't mind the company. I'm not an early to bed kind of person (something I regret every morning). Whether I'm getting a head start on tomorrow's chores, watching episode after episode on netflix, or playing candy crush saga, I just can't usually bring myself to go to sleep at a decent time. Anyway, I enjoy this occassional one-on-one time with my kids. (It seems that time alone with each child individually is becoming harder and harder! I can't imagine how people with 5+ kids do it).

 

So tonight it's me and my Gabriella. (Who is also snoring peacefully on the couch now.) Today, this girl tested every single piece of patience in me. Ok, she does this everyday, but today was grocery day so it seemed a little more stressful. And I only forgot to use two coupons, so I'd say it was pretty much a success...but that's another story.

 

 I think most parents could agree, each child holds a special place in their heart. You don't have more or less love for any of them, but each one is just special to you in a different way. I can't begin to describe how special each of one of mine is to me! However, I can think of one word, especially after our shopping trip today, to say about Gabrie, and that word is CHALLENGING.

 

From day one, Gabrie has been a challenge. She was a challenge to give birth to (taking a short 21 hours of excruciating pain and misery... may not sound long to some, but my first took only 2 hours, so a long labor like that was a shock, to say the least.) As a newborn, she wouldn't sleep in her own bed, she was allergic to the cheap diapers, she even had to have a more expensive brand of diaper rash medicine! Almost nothing has been simple with Princess Gabriella. (she actually calls herself this). Oh, and if it can be climbed on, she WILL climb on it.

 

As a toddler, we noticed her speech wasn't progressing as it should. She is plenty smart, but just couldn't put it into words. At 21 months she began working with a speech therapist. At the time, she was ranked to be at a 15 month old level. Not horribly behind, but definitely in need of therapy. For me, it was a really disappointing discovery. Of course I was relieved that nothing more serious was wrong, but I can't express how discouraging and sad it was for me to not know what my baby wanted to say. She clearly HAD things to say, she just didn't know how to say them.

 

When we started therapy, her talk sounded more like the nonsense jibber-jabber most babies start out with. Justin and I understood maybe 10% of what she said, and other people understood even less than that. After six months, Gabrie jumped to the level of a 24 month old, and I could understand about 85% of what she said, while strangers could understand about 50%. Now almost three months later, Gabriella is exploding with conversation. We won't have another evaluation for another three months, but if I had to guess, I'd say we're close to understanding 95% of her words, and strangers are probably at 75%. It has been amazing to see the transformation, and especially amazing to understand what she has to say. I'm excited to see how the next evaluation goes and extremely grateful for the deeper bond we've developed with her, no matter what challenge each new word brings.

 

Her favorite things to say lately: "Mama so mean" and "Gabrie sad" any time she gets in trouble. And whatever you may try to distract her sadness with, she "doesn't like". Occassionally she calls me "Mommy" and I don't know why, and she's started calling Nathaniel "Bubby" instead of "Bubba". (He hates it! I think it's kinda cute.) And Justin went from being "Dada" to "Daday", then back to "Dada", and now "Daddy". Lillianna is "Nana".

 

She keeps us on our toes. She might possibly be the most misbehaved child ever, in the entire history of the world. But despite all her rotten-ness, she is also incredibly sweet. Her face just says "love" when she looks at her brother and sister....right before she pinches them for no reason. But seriously, she really is a sweet girl. I think we'll keep her, mess and all.