Taking Her Time

This morning Olivia slept late. She didn’t wake up until 6:45, which is very late for her. She’s usually awake by 5:30 with the first quiet murmurs out of my radio alarm clock. I have it set low in hopes of not waking her. Alas, her mother is a snoozer, so if the first doesn’t get her, the next five probably will.

But this morning, she slept through all my snoozes, my actually getting up, and even Alyssa turning on the bathroom light right outside the room.

When she and I finally made our way to the kitchen where Tom was making her Rice Krispies and I was gathering the things I’d pack into Alyssa’s and my lunch, Olivia was still a little groggy.

I asked her cheerfully what the letter of the week was. She looked at me. She thought about it. She considered whether or not she even remembered from the day before.

Alyssa cheated and looked at the paper on the counter O’s teacher sent home with their schedule for the week. This schedule tells us what letter they’re practicing.

I shushed Alyssa and told her to let Olivia tell us.

Olivia sashayed over to the table and started to eat her cereal. She glanced up at us, noticed we were waiting for her to tell us the letter of the week and she put up a finger, indicating she wanted to take a bite of breakfast first.

Then she held up both hands, as if to shush the already silent room.

She said, “When I tell you the letter of the week…”

We waited. Alyssa sighed. I glared at her. Tom grumbled and I shot him a glare too.

Finally, Olivia continued, “When I tell you, we’re going to have…a party!”

Then she took several more bites of her cereal.

Alyssa started to say the letter and Tom and I both stopped her.

Tom tried to leave the room and Olivia called him back, “Daddy! I’m going to tell you the letter of the week!”

He turned back.

She declared, “The letter of the week is…J!”

And we all clapped and had a little dance party. She giggled and went back to her food.

See, sometimes it takes her a little time but she usually gets around to the things that are asked of her. She often needs a little more time to process what she’s been asked and that’s okay. As long as everyone around her is willing to give her the time needed to do what we know she can do.

One think I've learned about Olivia is that she's on her own schedule. She doesn't care even a little about what her peers are doing and whether or not she can do those things too. She often decides to do something (oh, like say, WALK) after seeing someone else do it (hello, Jaxon) but she has to want to do it for it to happen.

She wanted us to wait for that little announcement this morning and she got her way.

She usually does.