It is a beginning of September and my traditional time to return to what fuels my creativity and thus, my soul.  Cool weather, the first sight of the un-greening of leaves, and children back to school.  And a morning ritual that I have abandoned during a summer because who in their right mind can be disciplined during the hot, sun drenched days with a demanding offspring. But right now, the house is quiet, I am sitting at my desk and the only thing to do is to look for and return to how work happens. It is a return and it is always new.

I seem to have many loose threads that go together fine in my living them but don’t make for a cohesive blog post.  And I haven’t spent enough time writing this summer to keep them all going.

Baby Alfie is two weeks old. He has presented himself as a child who needs to be held to sleep which is tough on his parents during the night, but as the visiting grandma of the day to sit and hold a little baby who is happily sleeping in my arms is such delight.  He who I did not expect continues to surprise me. There is no doubt that I have loved my children and Wilbur, but I have never been drawn to infants.  This one has opened a new place for me.

And it is worth noting.

Julia met Alfie last week. As he is less wiggly than Wilbur, Julia felt more competent holding him.  She still says that she does not like babies before and after spending time with Alfie, but for a few moments, she seemed very much enamored of him.

Wilbur reminds me more and more of Cheshire at almost 2. He greets me when I visit, grabs my fingers and pulls me into the play room to read books or to show me something incredible—mostly his trains.  His vocabulary grows all the time and he wields new words like swords. He repeats words to get pronunciation correct and then surprises his listeners by using those new words in context. He can talk without stopping.  He loves the backyard playhouse with its kitchen and “wall phone.” He has called me on that phone and crazy that he knows what to do with it considering that there is no landline at home.  

I was impressed but not surprised that his father “landscaped” the play house and that Wilbur is learning the names of flowers. I would love it if he took to gardening. 

With all his talking, Wilbur has a watchful and careful air in new places.  This seems to be an important part of his personality. He watches before he plunges in and sometimes his watching can go on for a long time.  A stranger might judge him as shy and people may try to coax him into interaction but I do value his careful evaluation of people and places.  And I love his trust when he knows people and places.

Julia returned to her day program last week after a month of arts related programming.  Most of the months will go away next year as PYD’s programming focused has changed to young people with disabilities who are headed for college or have leadership potential. PYD’s arts related programming—theater, music and graphic arts—has been important to Julia and I have never ever been disappointed by their staff.  During Covid shut down, the twice a week theater program was incredible.  I could not do what they did!  Encouraging and nudging people to be creative over zoom.

I worry, possibly without reason but probably with good reason, that disability services will more and more focus on those who are more able to live in the NT world.  

Julia and I spent some time during the past month brainstorming what kind of volunteer work she would like to do because the Bay Cove supervisors say that it is up to her to figure that out.  The say they will help her but so far whatever they have done for or with her is not inspiring her.  We came up with more work at a library, working at a cat shelter and maybe working at a cafe.  She says she has mentioned the cat shelter to staff at Bay Cove and she was told to do that on her own time.  I have emailed the staff coordinator a few times over the past three or four months trying to figure out and/or suggest how we might work together to move Julia to fully participating in their programming.  He usually writes back to me justifying their program and stating or suggesting that Julia is capable of doing much more than she does, she is at fault for not complying with programming.  To some extent, I am sure she is.  Julia does not willingly do what she does not want to do without very good reason.  She cannot see how to learn necessary skills in an area that she is not interested in. 

Excuse me, I know I am repeating myself here.  I have been spinning my wheels, somewhat afraid that rocking the boat, asking for a meeting with Bay Cove staff could result in some adverse consequences for Julia. And yet, so far I am striking out trying to figure out how Julia could be happy there communicating via emails.

I don’t think I’ve written enough or at all about Julia’s programming during August.  If I did and this is all repetition, excuse me.  

Julia truly enjoyed her month of day camps—a week at a PYD movement camp, then a week at Berklee Music Camp, and then two weeks of PYD Access to Theater camp. The Berklee camp and the Access to Theater camp ended in performance and Julia participated in both.  She did not push herself forward or volunteer to do solos but she did not hang back or do nothing.  I was proud of her for her effort and for her products.

Our Channel 5, WCVB-TV, did a news story about the ABLE Summer Music Program in which Julia was featured. I can’t seem to attach the file but here is the link:

https://www.wcvb.com/article/5-for-good-berklee-program-makes-music-accessible-to-all/61899513

And it is official, although not formally announced.  Flying lessons will be shown at the West Newton Cinema on September 19.  No time yet and no flyer to send and/or post but it will be exciting.

And just one more picture of the proud parents bringing Alfie Ray home last week.