applauds wildly

::Marries Fay, in VEGAS::

We're a right ranty bunch. But we're good at it.

I like #5, but it won't work with my cowlicks.

Too bad! I thought that one was just about the right length for you, a little longer on the top, but not covering half your face.

I just set in motion the process to get a free developmental assessment for Annabel. I know it's irrational, but I feel like a failure for even needing to do this. I feel like if I'd only been a more involved mother, less given to doing my own thing with one eye on her doing her own thing and more given to playing name the body parts and reading to her often and so on, surely she'd be talking by now, and now all those important neural connections aren't getting made and I've deprived her of her intellectual heritage. And even more irrationally, I'm getting frustrated with her. Why can't/won't she do this one little thing that would assure me she's developing normally?

(And yes, I'm talking out my panic here in hopes of keeping it from getting out of hand.)

I just set in motion the process to get a free developmental assessment for Annabel.

How's Dylan feel about this? Does he feel like it's necessary or is he just doing it to calm you down?

I hope the assessment puts your mind at ease, Susan.

All the rants have been awesome. That poor woman, trapped in her tiny little mind.

I am having a Coke zero. it's good. I'm not sure if it tastes any different from Diet Coke or not. It's got a little less sodium, that's something, I guess.

(edited because, ful /=esome, who knew?)

Dunno. I called when I found the state public health department's 12-18 month mailing, which had that same old checklist that makes me frantic every time I see it talking about how 15-month-olds should have at least three words in addition to Mama and Dada, AND a number to call if you have concerns about your child's development. So I called on the spot, and then emailed Dylan and posted here.

How's Dylan feel about this? Does he feel like it's necessary or is he just doing it to calm you down?

What. Hec. Said.

But I think Dylan is concerned, too, just less so than I am because he was a late talker himself. Also, he swears he hears her say things that I don't--like, that she walked up to him while he was on the couch with the laptop while she was playing and said, "Hi, Daddy." But she doesn't do anything like that to me, so I wonder if he's imagining things or searching too hard for meaning in random babble. She makes the sounds "mama," but doesn't seem to use them to talk to me or to get my attention. And it's not like she says "Daddy" to Dylan every time he comes home from work--it's kind of a once in a blue moon thing. For a day or two this week I thought she had "bye" down--at least, she'd say "ba" as she waved bye-bye--but now she's stopped even waving!

"intellectual heritage?" Isn't she...one? (Bearing in mind of course, that I'm as single as single gets, and probably the wrong woman to say anything as my mother was bang-on right to worry about me but I get concerned about both of y'all when you worry about The Next Fifty Years this way. Because, if, God forbid, anything is wrong with A. you'd have to throw your time-table out and try to look at life from a more day-to-day perspective, or it's just gonna break your heart for the rest of your life. And hers. That much I do know. Probably, she's fine. But even if she's not completely average she could still have a great life. Just not the one you planned. I hope you don't think I'm an asshole now, but it would devastate me if I thought my mother struggled with my being atypical as much as you and you don't even know anything yet. Seriously. I'd drink bleach.