Packy's Early Childhood Screening

Like Hudson did 2 years ago, Paxton had his Early Childhood Screening last week. And like Mommy did 2 years ago, I sat quietly behind him, listening to his answers, and got teary-eyed. I swear I must be the weepiest mom there ever was! To make his day a little more extra special, we dropped Hudson and Harlow off at daycare and just mommy and Pax went to McDonald's for breakfast (his choice). I learned a lot about my middle child during that breakfast. Such as; his favorite color is blue, his favorite thing to do at school is play cars, and it would be going to gym but sometimes gym is hard, he loves playing with Hudson and Harlow the same and couldn't pick who he'd rather play with, his favorite games on the iPad are Deer Hunter, Angry Birds, and Hillclimb Racing, his favorite thing to do at home is ride his bike in the garage (pretty sure he said this because he just did it the other day), his favorite movie is Frozen, and his favorite song is "I'm a Freak" by Enrique Iglesias. I realize this is a wildly inappropriate song to be his favorite, and it's even worse when you listen to him sing it, knowing most of the words, but thankfully he doesn't understand what most of it means. Seriously though, I should video tape him singing it, you'd giggle and allow it too!

As soon as we got to the screening, I was blown away. He was doodling as I was filling out forms, and when I looked over, he had written his name PERFECTLY!!! I had no idea he could write his name. This is a child who refuses to sit still to write, draw, color, or do any type of artsy activity for more than 2 seconds. Every time I have asked him to write his name, he gets as far as the P and quits. Even if you ask him if he can write his name, he'd always say no. So I was shocked! And my tears started immediately. And since this was the first time I had seen him do this, I had to take a picture.

The surprises kept coming, as did my pride! A little back story, Hudson did this screening when he was 3 years old. Hudson is the creative one, the intuitive one, the intelligent one, I knew going into the screening that Hudson would ace anything they threw at him. When Paxton turned 3 years old, I opted to wait another year for him to do the screening. Not because I didn't think he was smart enough, but because he's too busy for "learning". It may sound funny, but it explains him perfectly. He just doesn't have time or any interest in letters, numbers, colors, or words. He's wild and physical, and lives in a dream world most of the time. But I was shocked at my boy! So, of course, bring on more tears! In the picture below, the screener had explained the directions to him quickly and then handed over the head phones and assumed he'd know what to do. I sat back and watched thinking he doesn't pay attention to directions, I'm sure he was off daydreaming in his own little world the entire time she spoke. I was wrong! He knew exactly what to do, and he gave me that shy smile that dropped me to my knees. My boy was proud of himself. 

As a parent, it's difficult to sit back and watch your child answer tough questions, and maybe struggle to get it right, and when they asked him what color the "red" bouncy ball was and he answered with "green", this mama had to say something. I have always thought Paxton was color blind. He knows all of his colors, but gets red and green mixed up 9 times out of 10. I even think he has taught himself that he sees those colors wrong and knows to answer them the right way. I needed to let the screener know that, so I quietly raised my hand and asked to speak. We'll likely have him tested when he gets into school, as there's nothing we can do about it now anyway. 

And my most favorite of his answers that morning- the screener told him to complete the following sentence; "A brother is a boy, so a sister is a ______." And Paxton said confidently, "Well my sister is a toddler." Dang right she is Packy!! Ha. (She asked him again, and said "girl" right away.)