All in Parenting

Welcome to Love

Welcome to Love

Kim Rankin
Our Family, Parenting, Lessons I've Learned

We share a middle name. I did not expect that. Nor I did expect how quick and unannounced grandmother tears come. They showed up first in the shower the morning I knew my daughter was in labor and again standing by the sink in her kitchen a dozen hours later as my husband washed birth off his granddaughter's head.

"Can Dad wash her hair before you leave?" our daughter asked. She has watched her daddy bathe babies for two and a half decades. While she closed her eyes and rested deep on her pillow, her father showed her husband how to wash a little girl's hair. And I wiped tears.

Potty Talk and Augmented Communication

Potty Talk and Augmented Communication

Kim Rankin
AAC, Parenting

POOP
PEE
POTTY
UH OH!
I NEED TO GO POTTY!

We started potty training a few weeks ago. Day one my focus was just on the task. Running to the potty, resetting the timer, running to the potty again fifteen minutes later. I signed TOILET to represent this process and I suspect this will be Nathaniel's first way to communicate the need. But I quickly realized we need potty language on the talker. Speak for Yourself (SFY), the speech generating app that Nathaniel uses, had TOILET pre-programmed. That will be helpful in years to come, so I made the word available. We may use it from time to time in modeling. But TOILET is not age appropriate language for all the stuff little ones learn about through potty training.

An Open Letter to Our Ambulance District Board of Directors

An Open Letter to Our Ambulance District Board of Directors

Kim Rankin
Parenting

I attended your ambulance district board meeting last night. I have visited other local government meetings, but always to help a son with a Boy Scout achievement. Last night was the first time that I participated in something of this nature due to personal interest. On a Tuesday in April, I loaded Nathaniel and his equipment into the van and took him with me to vote. It was a lot of work. But many of the paramedics that work for our district urged local registered voters to show up at the polls. They made recommendations on the election options. I went to your meeting last night to see the outcome of my vote in practice.