Parish Party of 5: Metamorphosis

If you were to ask me what word(s) described my Parker it would be free spirit. From the beginning of his life he has been a free spirit.

It took us 13 months to finally get the good news that he was coming to earth. He is my only child that came on his own without an induction. He weaned himself from nursing overnight at 8.5 months old. Cold turkey! It was a killer I tell ya! Although it was a relief because I was working it was kind of sad too. 2 weeks later at 9 months he was walking and 2 weeks after that he was running. A running 9.5 month old is pretty scary!

He was a terror as a toddler and into everything. He destroyed more things than I can even count, like blinds, curtains, chairs. . . He climbed everything and jumped off it. He is our only child to have multiple black eyes, stitches and staples in the back of his head. I'm sure a few broken bones will be next.

Parker is also the child I have the fewest memories of. (Obviously I remember the bad stuff see the previous paragraph.) I was teaching, I was Primary President, and the most of all Brandon was sick. Every day was spent focusing on doing jobs and taking care of Daddy. I did manage to keep my children alive and I know we did lots of things but I have no memories of holding Parker, nursing Parker, reading to Parker, playing with Parker from about 4 months old - 3.5 years old.

Soooo. . . 2 summers ago when Parker had just turned 4 and the opportunity presented itself I decided to teach preschool to Parker and 6 other children his age in the ward. We transformed our family room into a preschool and I just knew he and I could make up for lost time. Although overall it was a positive experience Parker was the worst behaved child in the class. He spent multiple days in his room in time-out. It was really discouraging. Plus during this time he was also the worst behaved child in the church primary and I wasn't even a primary worker. Seriously ask around the Roy 31st Ward they will back me up.

Parker also has a later birthday, May 19th. As a teacher I know most of the time it's the older kids that have the easiest time in school. Parker could barely write his name by the end of preschool, only knew a few letters and a few sounds. Developmentally he just was not there yet. I told several friends I wished his birthday was a little later even June because I could have justified waiting a year.

Brandon and I were bracing ourselves for a long hard year. I knew the reading and fine motor stuff would come along but the behavior issues seriously concerned us. One day my mom said, "Steph, he'll be fine. He just needs a really good kindergarten teach to break him a little from his free spiritedness." Now I've worked with a lot of kindergarten teachers and there are good ones and not so good ones. Christian got a not so good one. She was on her 5th year of teaching but had no classroom management besides shoooshing the kids 3 million times a day. I used to sit in the back of the room weekly correcting papers just cringing. It was so bad. She also had the children at their desks ALL the time doing a dozen worksheets a day and then they brought another dozen home for homework each night. I honestly considered going back to work just so I could take Christian with me. Christian did fine but I knew in this environment Parker wouldn't.

Brandon and I started praying hard. The new year started and we were in a new place and at a new school. Back to school night came and we went to visit Parker's new kindergarten teacher, Mrs. LaMont. From our visit I was impressed. She is an amazing teacher with an awesome philosophy! Parker thrived and had awesome behavior.