Whazzup?

Not much going on here today. I just got back from meeting with my daughter's speech therapist at school. They're hoping she won't need any more therapy past Christmas because she's coming along so well. And I would hope so. She's only been going through speech therapy for the last four years. So basically, for as long as she's been able to speak in sentences, she's been in therapy. She suffered chronic ear infections her first year, and it affected her ability to properly hear sounds during that crucial "hearing sounds" developmental stage. That, in turn, affected her ability to pronounce sounds correctly because she didn't know what the correct sounds were. She still has to work on "th" sounds, which she wants to pronounce as "f."

Also, her therapist seems to think I'm super-parent because my daugher's vocabulary is so extensive and sophisticated.

"It's obvious you work with her at home," the therapist will say.

"Well, maybe just a little," I say, not explaining the "work" really entails me strapping her down and forcing her eyelids open a la Clockwork Orange while flashing word cards in front of her.

Really, if my husband and I can take credit for anything it's that we try to encourage her reading skills and we spend a lot of time reading to her and playing audio books for her to listen to and that sort of thing. If she does have a large vocabulary for her age, that's where she's picked it up from. But I have no problem letting her therapist think I'm a parenting goddess. People should worship me and be in awe of my powers, so it's only fitting.

I watched "I'll Sleep When I'm Dead" the other week and I have to say I've really been confused about why Malcolm McDowell's character rapes Clive Owen's brother in the movie. I understand Malcolm didn't like what John Rhys-Meyers's character represented, but I don't get why he felt so connected to the behavior to be compelled to humiliate him through rape. Unless I missed something really important, it all seemed out of place and happened just to give Clive's character a reason to really want to kill his brother's attacker. What I'm saying is that it all seemed a little too contrived for me. I welcome any comments to the contrary, though.