By 9's

Most of you know that our little wonder, Katie, is a very special little girl.  She has a laundry list of special needs and one of them is learning.  In a previous blog I talked about the fact that we now know she has auditory processing problems and one of the symptoms is the fact that learning is harder for her.  So that said, we celebrate the little victories whenever they come and tonight we had a victory.

Wednesday's are gymnastics days for Katie.  She loves to be able to run and bounce (mostly bounce) and have fun with the other girls in her class.  Because of Leeann's class, I have been taking Katie to her gymnastics.  By the time the class is done and we are on the way home Katie is pretty hungry so I have been stopping at fast food places to get her dinner on the way home (I know, I know, "Bad daddy, bad, bad, bad).  Anyway, on the way home tonight we were talking about counting and how we count.  She likes to count to 1,000 by 100's.  She is so proud to be able to do that.  She beams from ear to ear when she does it.  I tried to challenge her a bit to see if she could count by 2's to 30.  She did, but it was a bit of a struggle as she got higher up.

Then she surprised me, she said "dad, I can count to 90 by 9's."  Now, I know some adults that have a problem doing that, but for Katie, this is like her Mount Everest.  So, I said go ahead thinking in my mind that I will have to correct her and help her a bit. She went (without stopping mind you) "9, 18, 27, 36, 45, 54, 63, 72, 81, 90."  I almost drove off the road!  I couldn't believe that she did it!!  I was floored, I told her that I was so proud of her and that I was so impressed that she was able to do that.  Katie climbed her Mount Everest!!!

I then suggested to her that we could surprise mom in the morning by counting by 9's to 90.  She looked at me and asked, "do you think mommy will jump to the roof when I do it?"  Well, she may not hit the roof, but I am sure she will jump for joy.  She said not to tell mommy and she was going to just surprise her.  

I will tell you how is goes.