Big Brains in that Beautiful Head

Since Olivia’s diagnosis with seizures we have always been hyper-sensitive to her cognitive development. The reason being that children on Depakote have a tendency to have slowing because of the medicine. We were terrified.  Our parents (mothers in particular) have always said that she was bright. Both the girls developed at the top of their age groups (chubby monkeys) both mentally and physically so really I didn’t see anything all the spectacular. But with the gentle (and not so gentle) persuasion of our families, we had Via tested for early entrance into 4K. Her birthday is September 18^th which is only a few weeks past the September 1^st cutoff but we had to jump through the hoops if we wanted her to start school this year. So we did. Much of January was spent scheduling appointments and various screenings with very little feedback during their process. At the time that really bothered me because I wanted to know what the heck was going on (me being a control freak and all). But my worrying was all for naught. We were incredibly pleased when they called and let us know officially that Miss Olivia would be starting 4K in the fall. The school was actually excited to have her and assured us that they would have as many academically challenging activities as possible. I didn’t get it through. It’s a play based classroom. Why would they have anything involving traditional academia for her. And then I read her score. Not to boast or toot my own horn (although I am going to because it never happened for me in my lifetime) little Via scored a 130 on her IQ scale… that’s 98^th percentile people! We are so proud of her.  So here’s a funny story: When we got called into the office to meet with the principal we had to wait for a few moments. It was funny to watch Tim squirm (and me too honestly) because the only time he or I were in the principal’s office was when we were in trouble. IT was totally freaking us out. When the woman walked in Via stood up, extended her hand and said “HI, my name is Olivia, I am 3. Pleased to meet you.” Tim and I just looked at each other in amazement and nodded, smiled and followed her lead… Needless to say this little girl is headed places. Although she still has crazy fits over spilt cereal. Like lay on the ground hysteria from the loss of a few fruit loops. SO it will definitely be interesting to see how this bright shining star turns out.