Learn To Laugh

Damon Ora Bailee Trey

Sunday, February 22, 2009

The One Where We're Proud Parents!

I know I haven't added a new post in a while. Honestly, nothing too out the ordinary has happened lately. February is always a little slow moving. We did have an amazing Valentine's Day. Having it on a Saturday was a blast. Too bad it's not on a Saturday every year. We made it more of a Valentines weekend. I helped out with Bailee's class party which is always fun. Here she is with her bag of Valentine's from her class. Since Bailee has a June birthday, they celebrated her unbirthday at school a couple weeks ago. Trey and I got to come to her class for a while. Trey was so excited to sit on her lap during class. I put Bailee's hair up on the side with a big flower. She was so worried that her crown wouldn't fit, but thanks to some assistance from her teacher, it worked fine. It was some serious drama though.
So, Bailee has really struggled with reading. She loves to read but hates that it hasn't come automatically. At the first PTC her teacher told me Bailee still hadn't passed a level one, which is 3 levels lower than she should've been at the start of the school year. That's even with us doing summer school. We've worked diligently on her reading and I really didn't want it affecting her confidence. She started hating reading, homework, and even began dreading coming home because of having to read more at home. It was breaking my heart. The struggle began affecting our relationship because it was such a huge battle for us. Well, anyways, I recently started seeing a change and it was getting a little easier. When I came to the school for her unbirthday her teacher told me Bailee had jumped up to a level 10-12. Oh my gosh!!! This was the best news I had heard since the start of the year. It has been 6 months of Bailee crying to me or yelling at me every day. Now she picks up a book just for fun! Anyone that knows me knows that I can be a little (or alot) emotional at times. When her teacher gave me the news I started crying. Her teacher was so excited as well and told me how grateful she was for my being the kind of parent that would continue to work with their child regardless of the struggle. That feels good. As a result of prayer and fasting I discovered that there was a step in the schools reading system that was throwing her off. Can you imagine how much worse it would've gotten if I would've just accepted the fact that my daughter couldn't read? It could've been so damaging to her. Bailee's personality had gone from her happy and confident little self to angry and sad and then back again. I'm so proud of Bailee for not giving up. Most of all I'm so happy how much she loves being with me again! What on earth am I going to do when she's a teenager?!