Believe it or not, it's tough

A little background here . . . he was born in December, 1997.  Being old (40) when I had him I tried to talk my OB into just giving me a C-Section because I just knew with all the pushing and grunting my head would explode.  But no, he said, we have to try it the regular way first for insurance purposes.  So, as it turned out we had to do an emergency C-Section because I started hemorraging from a placenta abruption.  On the way to the surgical room I looked up at him, white as a ghost, and told him he ought to start paying attention to what his patients say.  I always try to find humor . . . . Oh yeah, and the cord was wrapped around his neck, too, so we'd have had to C-section him out anyway.  

Knew he was left handed from the very moment he reached for me - with his left hand.  Can you believe teachers in grade school still don't like working with left handers?  Tried to get him to cut paper and write like a right handed person.  Yeah, didn't help.

Knew he was going to be too smart for his own good fairly quickly, too.  He walked late, he talked late.  But once he started both, he never stopped.  Even still today - he's chatty, chatty, chatty.  Most of the time he knows what he's talking about, but there are those times when he's talking out his butt.

I was lucky enough to be able to stay home with him from the ripe old age of 6 months to almost 2 years.  Why only 2?  Like I said, I was old when I had him and that much energy belonged in a daycare situation, so I went back to work and he went to daycare.

Around that same time, I got involved with Parents as Teachers and when he was 3 they gave him his first test.  I'll never forget this - the teacher asked him "What do you do with an apple?"  He went on to explain "Well, first you take the skin off, because I don't like it.  Then you cut it in small pieces, drop it into a container that has some sugar and cinnamon, put on a lid, shake it up, then eat it."  The teacher replied, while looking at me with that "OMG" look . . . "I was just wanting you to tell me you'd eat it."

He excelled in reading, math, large motor skills and so much more during the next couple of years.  Our family, however, did not.  When he was 6, he and I left his father and began a life on our own.