Monthly Archives: October 2013

The Little Things

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TheLittleThings

When Emmy was first diagnosed with Williams syndrome, I talked to other moms who told me that I would appreciate the little things more. But I didn’t really know what that meant. First of all, at the time I was really upset about the diagnosis and didn’t want to appreciate the little things more. I just wanted Emmy to be miraculously cured. Second, I thought I had already been appreciating the little things with my first daughter, Charlotte, so I couldn’t imagine how I could appreciate them any more. And, finally, I didn’t know which little things they were talking about.

Until I experienced them for myself…

The first time my older daughter, Charlotte, put a toy phone to her ear, and said “Hello,” I thought, “Awww that’s cute.” I didn’t gasp in shock or run to get my camera. It’s expected that a typical child would put a phone to her ear. When a typical child plays pretend, the parent doesn’t go bonkers with excitement. It’s just expected.

Likewise, playing with a toy phone is not considered a milestone. Most parents of typical children could tell you exactly when their child took her first step or said her first word. But they probably couldn’t tell you the first time their child played pretend.

And there isn’t a spot for “first time playing pretend” in the baby book. First word, first day of kindergarten, first tooth, first haircut are all in the book with a blank line for date accomplished…nothing about “first time playing pretend.”

With typical kids, milestones like walking and talking are a big deal. But other smaller things seem to just happen. There’s not a ton of effort put forth by parents and therapists and doctors and other cheerleaders. Things just happen.

Many things with Emmy have been slow to arrive. It wasn’t like I blinked, and suddenly she was using crayons to draw on paper. We practiced a lot. Every time I see her take a crayon on her own and start drawing, I feel an overwhelming sense of joy. That one was a long time coming, and now it feels so good to see her scribbling away.

So in order to get Emmy to play pretend, we practiced. We put clothes on baby dolls. We cooked toy food in little pots and pans. We wheeled toy trains around a track and demonstrated how to say “Choo choo!”

We put toy phones to our ears and said, “Hello, Mommy. Hello, Daddy.”

And when Emmy spontaneously put a toy phone to her ear and said, “Hello,” I let it all sink in and appreciated every single second of that small gesture.

Right now, she imitates us a lot. But when she was younger, she would just watch intently. I used to push trains around the track, while her eyes were fixed on my every action. I would think, “Is she getting this?” And then, a few days or weeks or months later, she would totally impress me by imitating my exact motion and vocal expression. She was paying attention! She was drinking it all in and then showing off her skills in her own time.

I believe that she gets it long before she actually shows it.

And, as I’ve learned to follow Emmy’s pace, there have been many benefits:

1. I don’t make myself crazy with baby/toddler milestone books. I can’t tell you the last time I looked at one of those books, but I think Emmy was probably a few months old. Why fixate on a timeline that probably won’t apply to her and will just make me frustrated?

2. I burst with pride when she hits a big or small milestone. I don’t grumble, “Jeez that took forever.” Instead, I say, “AHHHHH!!! Look what she’s doing!!! Go Emmy!”

3. I really do appreciate the little things more. Here are a few things she did that knocked my socks off and caused me to savor every second:

-She “drove” a car at an amusement park without any prompting. The way she turned the wheel was just glorious. There’s a picture at the bottom of this blog entry: https://williamssyndromesmile.com/2013/09/04/when-you-really-really-really-need-a-vacation/

-She started finishing songs and doing the hand motions. I probably sang “Wheels on the Bus” 7,895 times without her joining in. And then, one day, I started to hear this little voice finish the lines with me. Music to my ears.

-This is a big one. In the past, when she’s been ready to take a nap, I asked “Nap?” and she responded, “Nap!” But lately, when I ask “Nap?” she responds, “Book!” because she knows that I always read her a book before putting her down for a nap. It seems like no big deal, right? If a typical child said, “Book,” it probably wouldn’t be cause for excitement. But it shows that she’s remembering what comes before and after. She gets it.

For me, appreciating the little things hasn’t revolved around the usual milestones. When she started walking, of course I was ecstatic. It was awesome to witness, and I loved cheering her on. But I’ve felt just as much excitement, if not more, over something much smaller — like the day she spontaneously picked up a toy phone and said, “Hello.”

Pint-Sized Professor

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PintSizedProfessor

We’ve been knee-deep in questions lately. At four years old, Charlotte wants to know everything about everything.

I LOVE her curiosity and sharp memory. She really tries to delve down into the essence of any topic. However, the ongoing questions often cause me to realize that I am pretty clueless about the world in which I live. Or I know the answer but can’t explain it very well (especially when it’s, like, 6:30 am).

“What time exactly do skunks come out at night?”

“What does the word ‘theme’ mean?”

“Who are all of the characters in Batman?”

At the zoo, we saw a sign in front of the empty wolf cage that said the wolf was out for surgery. So she asked, “Can you tell me all the possible reasons that a wolf would have surgery?”

WOAH!

And this one was my absolute favorite:

She asked me if I played video games when I was a kid, so I said that I used to play a game called Super Mario Brothers.

Then she asked, “Can you tell me everything about Super Mario Brothers?”

So I replied, “Well, there were 8 levels…I think. And you had to rescue a princess…”

And then she said, “Can you tell me about all of the bad guys?”

I’m pretty sure there were about 500 bad guys in Super Mario Brothers. And most of them are hard to describe, like that brown mushroom thing that you jumped on…but I tried to tell her about every one I could remember.

Here’s the thing: Even though she’s the one asking the questions, she ends up teaching me more than I could ever learn on my own.

We were at my friend’s house this summer, and Charlotte wanted to try swimming in her pool. She is still very much learning how to swim. We practice every once in a while, but she’s just in the beginning stages of learning.

When she got in the water and wasn’t able to swim PERFECTLY, she freaked out. She bawled hysterically and said, “I want to do it! I want to swim!” She had only practiced a couple times and already wanted to be an expert.

I said, “Charlotte, you just started swimming, honey. It’s going to take some time to get really good.”

And she cried, “I don’t want to wait. I want to be perfect now.”

This is SO me. I want to be an expert at everything I do right off the bat. I get frustrated when I can’t master something after 2 seconds of trying. I don’t have a lot of fortitude in the face of adversity. After years and years and years of living like this, I am trying like heck to change. I don’t WANT to be a perfectionist. It holds me back. To me, being a perfectionist doesn’t mean being perfect at everything. It means fear of failure to the point where I won’t try new things unless I know I can succeed.

The strange part is that I was sure I hadn’t passed this down to Charlotte.

I’m conscious of this trait, so I don’t even utter the word “perfect.” I encourage her to just have fun. I am incredibly aware of this thing that I have — this drive for perfection — and how much it holds me back, so I am careful about everything I say to my kids in this regard.

Now that I’m learning more about genetics, I’m convinced that I’ve passed my traits down to Charlotte without even intending to. I think she got the perfection gene.

On the long drive back to our house, I tried to reiterate to Charlotte that she should just have fun and put in hard work and not worry about being perfect because, frankly, there is no such thing! I told her that it’s also ok not to be the best at everything. I was very proud of my speech! Life lesson #375 in the books!

Then she said, “Mom, have you ever not been the best at something?”

ARG ARG ARG. And, now, we turn it around on me.

I have such a hard time admitting the times when I’ve failed. These are certainly not my proudest moments.

But my pint-sized professor wanted an answer.

So I responded, “Sure, it’s happened a lot.”

“Can you give me an example?” came the voice from the back.

ARG. ARG. ARG.

Swallowing my pride, I cheerily said, “Of course! Let’s see…there was the time that I didn’t make the All State Band. That really hurt. But I also realized it was because I didn’t practice my scales.”

Phew. It was good to get that off my chest. And now we could move on to —

“Mom,” came the voice from the back. “Can you give me another example of a time you weren’t the best?”

I took a deep breath and put on a smile. “Sure! There was the time that I got a bad grade on an essay, and I was disappointed because I worked really hard on it.”

Ok, now for another topic —

“Mom…can you give me another example of a time you weren’t the best?”

My ego was officially crushed. For the hour long ride, I had to come up with every example I could think of. Charlotte wanted it all. A perfectionist doesn’t like to admit defeat, and I had to spell out all of the failings I could remember — in excruciating detail.

When we arrived back home, I thought about paying her for the therapy session. A teacher and a therapist in the same package!

Charlotte doesn’t just want to hear the talk. She wants me to walk the walk. If I tell her to just have fun and not worry about being the best, it’s meaningless. I have to show her how I’ve done it in my own life. And, gosh, I’m still working on that one.

What I love is that she’s the teacher as much as she’s the student. Her beautifully probing, curious questions get right to the core of who I am. And, for my pint-sized professor, I’ll do anything.

Finding a Home

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FindingaHome

I forget that Emmy has a Congenital Heart Defect. I don’t know if other Williams syndrome parents feel this way, but I am very much focused on all of the various aspects of Williams syndrome…the heart defect seems almost secondary.

It SOUNDS ridiculous. Her heart is what’s keeping her going. Her heart is essential for life.

But when we found out she has Williams syndrome, those were the only 2 words I Googled. Not “Congenital Heart Defect.”

It could be that people with Williams syndrome can have a host of medical issues, so I was trying to absorb the laundry list of possible problems instead of focusing on just one.

It could be that I’m not a medical expert, so it’s much easier for me to research and comprehend other aspects of Williams syndrome.

It could be that I STILL have a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that Emmy was born with a serious Congenital Heart Defect, had open-heart surgery this past May, suffered 2 cardiac arrests, and spent a week on life support.

Whatever the reason, I’ve always seen Emmy falling directly into the Williams syndrome camp. And, therefore, the Williams syndrome support groups were initially my home.

But over the past year, I’ve found a home in another support group too — one for parents of children with Congenital Heart Defects.

I’m the only one in the group who has a child with Williams syndrome. But the people I’ve met as part of the group totally GET IT. They have been so loving and supportive and helpful and encouraging. When someone says to you, “I hear you. I understand,” it’s the best thing in the world.

So when we went to a Congenital Heart Defect walk over the weekend, I was so happy to see all of my support group buddies and a team of people from the hospital who came out to walk with us.

And there is one special mom, who I won’t write about in too much detail here — to respect her privacy. But I walked on a team for her sweet son. He was only 1 week older than Emmy.

And, when Emmy went into cardiac arrest earlier this year, this very special mom dropped everything to come to the hospital — even though she had lost her son in that very same hospital, on that very same floor, only 3 weeks prior. You don’t find people like that every day.

So now I’ve found two homes — one in the Williams syndrome community, and the other in the Congenital Heart Defect community.

And it’s become so clear that I NEED support. In the past, I would’ve been way too ashamed to join a support group. I would’ve been too afraid to show weakness. I would’ve shouted from the rooftops that “I can do this all by myself!”

Now I’ve grown wiser. When I’m in a support group, I learn from others who have walked this path before. I lean on others when I can’t stand on my own. And I hope that I give something in return — even if it’s just sharing our story.

I also love to laugh. And support groups can be a Cry Fest. Sometimes.

But, usually? Usually, we’re laughing.