"I am not dumb now"

Helen Keller's first full sentence of spoken language: "I am not dumb now!" That's powerful stuff.

Helen Keller, 1880-1968, was an American author, a political activist, and a lecturer who spoke out regularly in support of women gaining the right to vote, the rights of workers and other progressive ideas. As the first deaf-blind person to earn a college degree, it's not surprising that she also fought for the rights of people with disabilities. Keller lost her sight and hearing through illness at 19 months old and spent much of her early childhood unable to communicate with any clarity at all to those around her, including her parents. As a young child, I read her auto-biography and watched the play/film, "The Miracle Worker," more than half a dozen times. Then, when my eldest daughter was small, I remember introducing her to the amazing story of Helen Keller and her brilliantly dedicated teacher, Anne Sullivan. I have always admired the courage, intelligence and spirit of both women.

As a mother with 3 toddlers who are all speech delayed, one might imagine this story would be inspiring me almost daily during our struggles with delayed milestones. That thought would be wrong, unfortunately. I have spent the last year in battle of these delays and facing discouragement often - that and always some large doses of guilt, worry and frustration. Sure, we've had plenty of success in the past year too, but our girls are still behind their age group, so the focus of helping them catch up remains at the forefront. Never once did the story of Helen Keller ever cross my mind.

That is, until today when a friend posted this YouTube video of a 1930's news story with Helen Keller and her teacher, Anne Sullivan, on her Facebook page. Suddenly, it was as if I was reading the autobiography all over again. My friend, whose daughter faces an autism diagnosis, said she was so very grateful for all special education teachers and particularly Anne Sullivan, probably the most brilliant special ed teacher of all time. With our daughters heading back into their school year regimen of early intervention to help with the delays, the timing was perfect for me to see this video. I really needed this new perspective. It's so easy to get caught up in the "my kids are behind or my kids aren't like other kids" angst. Well, hey, wait a minute! Helen Keller was more than significantly delayed in milestones - she couldn't communicate with anyone, even her closest family for YEARS. Even Anne Sullivan suffered from her own disabilities.

Neither Helen Keller nor Anne Sullivan allowed their disabilities, their "delayed milestones," if you want to put it that way, to stop them from being strong, compassionate, and hard-working women who made a difference in their world. I have three speech-delayed toddlers - and two who also struggle with other delays. Yes, that's the fact today. Today I also realize another fact, Helen Keller and Anne Sullivan refused to quit and they did great things. Helen Keller died before I was born, so I can only imagine how amazing it would have been to know such a brave and determined woman. Today, I choose to be inspired by Helen and Anne and to use that inspiration to help me teach my daughters. Tomorrow, I expect them to be strong and compassionate women.

Why I don't brag about my nanny

When someone provides excellent service, you tip well, right? Or at least spread lots of compliments around, right? If it's a nanny who's doing the work, many people brag to family and friends about it. I don't. Here's why:

1. I'm secretly afraid the nanny will quit. Okay, yes I know this is crazy. If you've hired a great nanny and everything is going well, why would you worry about that employee quitting if you just start bragging a little? Here's the thing, after hiring a live-in nanny a month before Tripped Up Daddy's internship started, then bragging to anyone who would listen how fabulous she was the first 2 days of work, the 4th day brought a sharp change. Our 3 cats made it difficult for her to breathe and breathing tends to be important. So it was a quick search for a new nanny. The day after I bragged about the new nanny, she quit without notice. Call me superstitious if you want, but bragging doesn't come easy to me anymore.
2. I don't want to admit she's better with my kids than I am. Yep, this is the Mother Guilt piece - the one that creeps up whenever I've paid someone to watch my own kids. It's that inner voice that says, "what if your kids will end up liking her better than you?" Or even worse, what if she's just better at raising your kids than you are altogether? When you see your nanny completely unflappable no matter what the craziness is that's occurring in the house, it's easy to feel a bit inadequate as a Mom, at least it is for me. That's when I smile and tell myself, "hey, that's why I hired that nanny, and you know what, I'm pretty smart for doing that for my kids." But, that doesn't mean I have to broadcast the fact that she can get my temper-tantrum throwing child back on track faster than I can.
3. I don't want you to steal my nanny. This may be the most obvious reason for anyone. When you have a line on something that's a rare commodity, you try to keep it to yourself, right? Oh, maybe that's just when you have triplets and you really know how hard it is to find a steady babysitter. When I was little I remember seeing re-runs of The Dick Van Dyke Show (I said re-runs, no I'm not that old) and I'll never forget one episode that had to do with Laura's (Mary Tyler Moore) amazing culinary skills. She brought a yummy dish to a party and everyone raved about it. When asked by the neighbor and even her best friend for her recipe, she conveniently left out just 1 ingredient. No one was ever able to make "her" dish. After all, that was her crowning achievement apparently. I guess I fall into that camp a little. At least in regards to the person (or people) I've hired to watch my darlings. So if you do happen to notice how wonderful my nanny is and you ask for her phone number, I don't guarantee that number will really work.

Those are just a few reasons for my "no-brag nanny or sitter" policy. So what about you? Do you brag about your child's caretaker? Why or why not? Do you have any horror stories about finding a sitter/nanny? Or maybe you're lucky and it's always been easy for you. Share your thoughts!

Build language with reading and help speech delays too!



A summertime walk up the hill, with little feet, and little trips



Don't you love it when one activity can help your kids in multiple ways? Sometimes I think we forget how little things can impact their world in such a huge way. Like reading for instance. Isn't it amazing that reading to your kids can help them excel at language at an early age and also help those who are struggling with language at the same time? I wrote a little about this in a short guest post for the Reading Kingdom today.



Sometimes when you're bogged down in the monotony of parenting, working full-time, and trying to keep a house at least clean enough, it's easy to downplay the importance of the little things. I'm trying to remind myself today, and every day, that those little things like a nighttime story, a morning cuddle, and a few moments of language focused playtime really do add up to an awful lot.

What are some of your favorite "little" things to do for or with your child?

Just one more thing

Ever felt like that server at your favorite restaurant who manages to always add one more thing to the tray, no matter how much is on the tray already? Or, maybe it's more like "The Cat in the Hat" when he says, "But that is not all I can do, oh no that is not all..." If you've ever felt either way, than you know exactly where Tripped Up is these days.

Because working full-time out of the house and managing a "triplet & teen" household in the midst of a commuting marriage is simply not quite enough, I've also added a new writing gig into the mix. Tripped Up is now a local examiner for Examiner.com, and I'll be writing posts about child care and the surrounding issues. I think it fits nicely with my overall niche of writing about parenting anyway and, you know, what mother can't handle "just one more thing," after all, right?

It may be that I need therapy, it may be that I'm attempting to sabatoge my whole life, or it may simply be I really like to write, who knows. In any case, I'm open for you to suggest post ideas for the Tripped Up Life blog as well as my Examiner.com page.

Oh and the request for quick, easy meals and other miraculous time-saving ideas? Yeah, still open for that too. Although, I will say finding a meal planning/recipe building-sharing/shopping list site has really helped with the dinnertime organization. But there's always laundry, house upkeep, and so many other places that organizational tips could be utilized... So, send any helpful tips my way, I promise to try them out and applaud loudly when they work!

Surgery - it just sounds scary

For the past month I've been worried about the upcoming surgery for our Angel triplet. It's a minor procedure to allow her to fully use her right thumb, a trigger thumb release. It's so minor that in undeveloped countries it probably wouldn't be done at all. To do the procedure she has to go under general anesthesia - which has its own risks.

I'm as glad as any parent would be that Angel's issue can be resolved with such a simple procedure and that it's not a major medical problem. I do find, however, that minor medical issues like this leave me and Tripped Up Daddy having to answer questions like: "Should we do it? Should we wait and see if it resolves on its own? Is it worth the risks? It's surgery, shouldn't we try to avoid that at all costs? Consequently, I've been worrying about logistics, suffering from bouts of huge Mommy Guilt and second-guessing the decision to pursue surgery.

I spent yesterday, "The Day Before Surgery," stressed and trying desperately to tell everyone, "No, I'm not stressed, just trying to make sure we're prepared." I tweeted and asked others for tips and received some great answers from Dr. Jen, and from Dr. Heather with her reflection on her own experience regarding surgery for a small child. Still, I found myself having trouble letting go and sleeping last night. Once there today, it was a struggle not to cry as the nurse took my 2-1/2 year old girl into her arms and carried her to the operating room, where I knew she would be safe, but where she would also fight the mask that brought her the needed anesthetia.

Once out in the waiting room, I posted progress to some friends and briefly checked email. I had time to eat some oatmeal and drink some coffee. Before I was even done with that latte, the doctor came out to let us know the surgery was complete, went well and our daughter was now in recovery. Seriously, I was surprised by how fast it all went. Her thumb immediately improved and will continue to improve in the future.

We had a wonderful experience today. The hardest part was the removal of the IV, and frankly, I think our Angel triplet was a trooper. She was hungry and thirsty right away. At home, we expected crankiness, instead, we got cuddles. The other girls had a good time going to play group with their grandma and our sitter.

I'm not saying surgery is always the best solution in every case, but I learned today that surgery sometimes sounds a whole lot scarier than it really is.