A Warped Sense of Reality

I found an old post that I never published. I guess it never felt complete, but here it is...

This is a difficult post to write. I have to find that delicate place between honesty and conceit. The fact is, our kids have always done well at things - excelled in certain areas. Don't get me wrong - we've had our fair share of "constructive criticism" at parent-teacher conferences, too. They are human. Partly, at least. We think the other part may be North American Hairless Monkey.

So, unfortunately for each subsequent Hickey child, the bar has been set pretty high. For example, after three years in a Waldorf preschool, having no exposure to letters before his first day of first grade, Liam learned to read in about four weeks. Not to be outdone, Maddie learned in the first three weeks of first grade.

Often, Maddie and Bella will be working on a drawing at the kitchen table. Bella will be blissfully drawing and after a while, look over at Maddie's work. Maddie has a level of intensity when drawing that cannot be matched. We just have to protect her space and let her work. Bella looks at Maddie's drawing, then at hers, then back at Maddie's. "I'm not a good artist," Bella inevitably replies. What do I say? No, Bella, you are an extraordinary artist. Your drawings, for age four, are quite advanced. Bella's teachers are impressed by how fully formed and fleshed out her drawings are. However, Maddie is almost three years older. Oh, and she's a freak of nature. How do you explain that to a four year-old who just wants her drawings to look as good as her sister's?

And then there's that baby. We have very athletic children. The kids have all spent most of their lives outside, so they learned to climb trees and build snowmen and generally are pretty coordinated. As babies, they all were ahead of the "typical" curve of baby development. Everyone sat up, crawled and walked before a year. Jackson will be 8 months in a few days and he's not walking yet. Ever since that Maddie walked at 7 months, the bar is high. It's sad to be a tiny bit disappointed in a baby that's just not walking yet.