One of Anna's favorite places to play is our local mall's Playland. She likes the waterfall themed slide, the hollow log topped with a lounging bear, and the big red canoe. I like that there is only one way in or out, so it's easy to keep an eye on her.

We were there a few days ago. I sat by the entrance, notebook at the ready to catch any cute or funny things Anna might say, while Anna ran around, slid down the slide, and made friends with all the kids - thanks to spring break there were lots of kids to play with. She approached an older girl who was seated on the aforementioned bear and asked - as she always does:

"Do you want to play with me?"

The girl didn't quite understand, so I repeated what Anna said, then the girl turned to me.

"She got a bit of an accent," she said.

"Yeah," I replied. "She's in speech therapy."

The girl kind of shrugged her shoulders, slid down off the bear, and ran over to the slide. Anna followed, of course.

A few minutes later, I saw Anna talking to the older girl, who sat by the slide with two other girls closer to Anna's age. The other girls struggled to understand Anna, so I walked over and offered to help.

"She said 'My name is Anna, what's your name?'" I explained.

"I'm Whitney," the older girl said.

"Do you want to play with me?" Anna asked again. I repeated what Anna said so the girls would understand.

"This game's for three," Whitney said. "I'm the mommy cat, and they're the kittens."

I wasn't sure if the girls were excluding Anna specifically, or if they had just made up a three person game already. Almost immediately, though, I thought of a way they could include Anna.

"But can't there be three kittens?" I asked. "Like the song?"

I sang a verse of The Three Little Kittens. Anna and the two younger girls smiled, but Whitney shook her head.

"This is a different game," she replied and got up and walked away. The two younger girls followed her. Anna started off too, but I called her over.

"Anna," I said. "They've already started their game."

"But I want to play with them," she said sadly.

"There's lots of kids here," I said. "Why don't you find another one to play with."

I gave her a hug and sent her on her way. Within five minutes, she and another girl were running around the play area, sliding down the slide, and laughing out loud. She got over the snub so quickly.

And I on the other hand? Not so much. It's something I've worried about since she was first diagnosed with Apraxia. She makes friends so easily now, but she's only four. As she grows older, enters kindergarten, and then first grade, will she be seen as different and shunned by some of the kids? Her speech is improving so quickly, but she may need years of therapy to be completely understandable and even then she may never completely lose her "accent."

How will she handle the rejection? How will I? How much do I shield her? How much do I let her experience so she can learn to take it and ultimately ignore it?

Those questions were on my mind the rest of the day.

Here I guess. This isn't my first blog. I started my first one in 2003, just as the blogging craze was taking off. For the first year, I posted pretty much every day. Then my pace slowed as the novelty wore off. My daughter was born in 2006 and after that I didn't have the time to blog, so I shut it down. That blog is long gone, so there's no point in trying to pick up where it left off. Instead I'm starting fresh.

A lot has changed over the last six years: then I was a composer finishing up my doctorate and looking for a teaching job. That didn't work out. Then, I became a stay-at home-dad by default. I briefly looked at ministry in the Church, but the thought of extra schooling didn't appeal to me.

Three unexpected changes in my life set me on my present path. First, my daughter was diagnosed in-utero with a cleft lip. Then last year, well after her surgery and recovery, she was diagnosed with a seemingly unreleated speech delay. Finally, our financial situation took a major hit earlier this year forcing us to move to a less expensive apartment and live on a much tighter budget.

Out of all this came an idea for a book and a new career path: writing. My main focus is the book, but I'm also looking into freelance writing. So this blog will serve as an outlet and a sketch pad.