Fatherhood

The throat, ear, and nose specialist had to put tubes in my daughter’s ears close to two years ago. We think her development of language skills had been compromised because she exhibited signs of delayed talking and speech impediment. The conclusion drawn was that, because her difficulty in hearing, she did not learn the basic skills to commence speech right away.
Thanks to a wonderful speech therapist, Caris is now talking a great deal better and mostly everyone can understand her. When she turns three (next month) Caris has come to the point where she was tested and concluded she will no longer need any speech therapy!
My daughter has bonded with her speech therapist and she will be missed. Caris had an affinity with her and we, as parents, had watched her speech development with an initial sense of urgency, to a sense of accomplishment. We work with our child too. It takes everyone involved in the process.
However, one funny incident did occur. A while ago, the speech therapist had asked us to help her with pronunciation. I told the speech therapist that I would be unable to do that. The speech therapist and my wife looked at me suspiciously and my wife’s blue eyes bugged out and asked me why I could not help my daughter with pronunciation. I looked at both of them and asked them if they wanted me to teach Caris how to pronounce ‘walk’ like ‘waulk’, ‘wall’ like ‘waul’ ‘mother’ like ‘motha’.
Hailing from New York, I do not speak like the people in Indiana. My accent would only confuse my daughter. It’s not like I did not want to help her, I did not want her going to school speaking some Hoosier and some New York talking.
The speech therapist looked at me and smiled. She suggested that my wife take on that responsibility.

There has been a great deal of things going on. Caris experienced her second Christmas, enjoyed helping put up the Christmas tree, and loved getting presents. However, she was scared to death of Santa Claus. She had met him two times and refused to look at him or acknowledge him.
It is interesting to note that we tell kids not to talk to strangers and then tell them to sit in a stranger’s lap and tell them to tell the stranger what they want.
While Caris does believe in Santa Clause, she did not want him coming to our home despite leaving him milk and cookies.
She made out like a bandit with gifts. One of the most important gifts she received she did not even know about. We had started a college fund and some money was put into it for Christmas. We request monies for her college education on holidays and her Birthday.
Starting a college fund whilst they are young ensures that they will have money for college. They may not have enough to pay for college in its entirety, but she will be better off than someone who did not do it. By the time she reaches college age, the cost of tuition may be doubled or tripled what it is today, so why not start one as soon as you can?
In addition, if she does not want to go to college? I do not know at this point. However, we will instill the concept of going to college in her sponge like brain and hope for the best.
I found that the holiday’s are for the kids and the adults get to watch the twinkle in their eyes and marvel at the happiness that exudes from them.