The Cerebral Mum

I thought that it was time I send another “I exist, but…” post.

I’m still in the in-between and looking for an apartment, which has been demoralising so far but I am remaining optimistic. However, as the post title says I do seem to have the attention span of a gnat, so those of you who see me on Facebook while my feed is silent, that is why. Facebook and gnats go well together.

Actually, I am being mentally bombarded with ideas of what to write about, but I just can’t seem to sit still. Or I can, but only while doing mindless things, like playing Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix on my new Wii.

Yup, with my newfound lack of poverty I have invested in an entirely luxurious useless piece of technology. And to be honest, I mostly got it so I could use Wii Fit. Mum bought one when she was here and, as limited as it is, it turned out to be exercise I actually do.

And I never exercise.

I have also invested in a fab new camera. This one…

…which absolutely rocks. Caspar picked the colour, but Lightening, if you’re reading, there is definitely one that makes me think of you.

I also bought that Eee PC that I wanted for my birthday. Well, not exactly the same one. I got the new 10″, Pearl White, instead of the 7″…

Because every inch makes a difference.

Unfortunately, I can’t make the most of it until I’ve relocated and set up a wireless account. The ISP I’m considering doesn’t service this hellhole locality. Even more unfortunately, I stupidly left it within reach of the boy. Who promptly broke 7 keys off the keyboard. (I wonder if that will be covered under the warranty?)

In other indulgent news, I have been out TWICE since selling the house.

AT NIGHT.

WITHOUT CHILD.

On those outings I discovered that I no longer have the alcohol tolerance I built up in my years of working in bars.

But more about that another day.

Love to all, from your absent friend.

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I know that Monday’s Child is usually a photo, but to catch everyone up on Caspar, words are required, not a picture.

He is talking. A lot.

And very well considering.

Now is the time that I am supposed to be taking him to see a speech pathologist (which is another thing on my current to-do list) for an assessment and, because of his cleft palate, speech therapy was something that I expected to be part of our lives for quite some time. Now, I’m not so sure. The way he is going I can’t imagine that he will require anything more than a little monitoring.

To my untrained ears there doesn’t seem to be any evidence of a lisp or a nasal quality - common difficulties with a cleft - or any indication that his language skills have been affected by those first nine months of hearing difficulties before he had his surgery. (Seeing the audiologist for a checkup is another job on my list but he knows there is an aeroplane nearby before I do, so I think his hearing is better than mine.)

The clarity and intelligibility of his speech is better than some older children I know. (Of course, that could be because he’s mine so the speech pathologist gets to give her educated opinion.) His vocabulary is good too, well and truly in the triple figures and increasing every day. That, however, is somewhat sobering because occasionally I talk like Magneto Bold Too writes (I blame working in hospitality - Gordon Ramsey is not an anomaly) and on Thursday, one of those new words was “Fuck”. My friend and I managed not to laugh and I, sarcastically innocently, said, “I have no idea where he picked that up”.

And last week he brought me his Schleich (I love Schleich!) velociraptor and when he handed it to me he said, “Raptosaurus”. I thought that was genius. For him to be unsure of the exact word, but to categorise the figurine correctly and to choose an appropriate word ending…

In all seriousness, the way humans acquire language is a beautiful and amazing thing.

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