Monday, October 1, 2007

My Franny

Just an update on Franny. She has become our little opera singer. She gets very carried away with her Disney princess soundtrack (yes, Jill- the same one you gave us so long ago!) When she's singing "Part of Your World" from The Little Mermaid, she even gets down and the floor and acts out the scene just like she's Ariel. Bobby and I beam with pride everytime she belts out the lyrics. Bobby says she gets her singing voice from me, which I choose to take as a compliment (knowing full well it is SO NOT.)

We see her verbal skills and her vocabulary increasing all the time. The other day she came in and said, "Sophie, I like your jammies!" Or she'll be talking about her dress and say, "It's SO PRETTY!"

I enjoyed seeing Jenny McCarthy on Oprah a while back. (BTW, Jenny McCarthy was so annoying when I was in high school. I couldn't stand her, now I think she's a rockstar for taking such a huge interest in her son's recovery and staying so upbeat about it.) I think it's great that Oprah is taking such a big interest- she's had several shows focusing on autism lately- and I love that someone with so much notoriety like Jenny McCarthy has a son. All this attention has to be good and I think it will eventually lead to more time, more research, and more mysteries unraveled.

Jenny McCarthy mentioned that when her son was very young and before he received his diagnosis, she would notice that he would never play with the toys in his playroom. We had always noticed that when Franny played with toys, she'd become fixated on one or two of them and wasn't very interested in the others. When we moved into our new house, we decided to put the girls in one room and use the third bedroom as a playroom. When we first had Sophie, I thought about having more kids and how we would probably always need to make sure that Franny had her own space and her own bedroom. I've talked to other mothers who have said that was really important for their child, so they could go have a quiet place where they could stim and just have some quiet time. I started to realize however that Franny was never using her bedroom for alone time, so we started to think a playroom might be a good idea. It's made a huge difference with her toy play at home. Who knew? But often she'll come up to Bobby or me and say, "I want to go room." We both know that means that she is ready to play!

8 comments:

Pattie said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Pattie said...

Franny is such a sweet girl and she has a great mom

Anne said...

She is so pretty Katherine.

Julia Holmes said...

Franny is way to cute. I miss her so much. Sounds like she is improving so much. She is lucky to have you as a mom. Hey and I know who she get's her beautiful opera voice from. ME!!!! Don't you remember how much you loved listening to me sing opera style growing up Katherine? Haha. Looks like Franny is taking after her favorite aunt. She is so lucky.

Jill said...

I am glad the CD is getting such good use :) She is so cute with her adorable new hair cut, I miss my Franny :(

Jillyboo said...

I loved that Oprah too and could relate with so much that they were talking about. My favorite part is when Jenny was saying how her Son would turn cars over and spin the wheels and she would just think, "He's going to be a mechanic" Dave and I just looked at each other and laughed. I cant tell you how often we did that.
I am so happy that Franny is doing so well. I still need to call you so we can chat about our kids... and ourselves.

The Posse said...

She's so sweet. I love that she sings the Disney princess songs. Avril's got one or two up her sleeve. I'm posting a video sometime. Once I figure out how.

Carole said...

What a little sweetheart. I just wish I could reach out and give her a big hug. I miss her! How great it must be for you to hear her try and succeed in putting new words and talents together. I know how you must hang on every little change. She is SO beautiful. Just like her Mommy.
We loved having Maggie and her friends here with us over the weekend. She is so sweet and it was good having some time with her again. They had a great time. They left this morning. Wish we could see all of you more often. Love you tons.

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