PaTtErNs

So Savanah has homework. She has a workbook full of things to learn such as counting, letters and the sounds they make, sight words, memorizing her address and phone number, birthdate, etc.

She also has a math workbook that comes home once a month, you are suppose to complete fifteen activites with your child and for the month of November, the math homework is on patterns.

Now, she is gone all day at school, I rarely see her anymore, or so it feels. The other night as I sat down to start this pattern math homework with her, I expected her to not know what a pattern was. I expected her to listen to my explanation. But instead, I was listening to hers.

She explained to me she knew what a pattern was, it's like "A, B, A, B, A. . ." or "red, yellow, red, yellow. . ."

WOW! I was blown away, I don't know why I was so surprised by her knowledge of this, but I was and I shouldn't have been, because Savanah is so smart. She has always been smart. I mean she was 100% potty-trained before the age of 2, she learned to scale out of her crib at 18 months old, she just figures things out quickly.

Her speech and language is expanding so much, I am so excited everyday. She is becoming the perfect model of what a implanted child should be doing! Woohoo Savanah!

My best teacher.

I have never felt so blessed. I am constantly amazed by Savanah's strength. She is such a beautiful little girl with such a caring, sensitive heart. Sometimes I wonder if this gentle soul is so sensitive to others because of her own disability?

We were reading a book tonight in bed. It is a book that is a poem about a box of crayons, and none of the crayons get along. A little girl is in the toy store and she hears the box of crayons arguing. She buys the crayons and takes them home and starts coloring with them. She colors this beautiful picture and shows the crayons that the blue became the sky, the green became the grass, the white became the clouds and the yellow became the sun etc. She explains to the crayons at the end of the book that each one of them is unique but when they all get together, the picture becomes complete.

Savanah loves this book. We have had it for awhile, we read it maybe six to seven times a month. It is such a simple, kind story. Savanah understands the meaning of the book, but she especially understands the part about each of the crayons being different. She knows she is not the same as hearing kids. In fact, she is proud to point that out to people. She will gladly show you her implant anytime. But she also knows her deafness does not define who she is. She knows that she is a smart, patient, strong, kind, resiliant little girl who is loved by many.

Tonight after we had finished this book. Savanah turned to me and said, "We are all different Mommy. I am five. Gracie is one. You are tall. Daddy is strong. Grandma is nice. Grandpa is funny. Ellie is silly. Tyson is cute. Koby is happy." And so on. . . - what I noticed from her description of how people are different, was each of the things she named, was not something about the way the person looked, but a good trait of theirs. I was proud of her for noticing these things and allowing specific traits to define a person.

I am so amazed by her everyday. If we all paid a little more attention to five year olds, maybe we could all learn a little something about kindness.