Well the day has finally arrived. The last tether has been severed. She has been released into the wild, free to roam in her natural habitat. All public service warnings have been issued.

Anne Marie is done with therapy in every shape and every form. She was officially released from her last in home therapy a few months ago. I would have posted this earlier but I was busy with getting pink eye, Frank’s pre-school graduation, Frank’s birthday, upcoming vacation to Jersey, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

As with all things Anne Marie, nothing is ever smooth. There were questions from several quarters about her readiness to enter mainstream kid-dom. Although our evidence is anecdotal, we think it’s valid enough to warrant her release.

Well, let’s see now, there was:

-building a ladder to jump the baby gate on the stairs at 18 months

-using scissors to pry open the fridge

-climbing out of her crib at the age of 22 months

-opening doors at the age of 22 months

-climbing the outside of the stairs using the balusters as hand holds at 20 months

-turning on my iPhone and sending garbled tweets through the twitter app

-setting Frank’s alarm clock to go off in the middle of the morning/night

-asking me to “microwave my pizza daddy”  That was a few weeks ago.

-taking off all her clothes, including her diaper, and then putting just her PJs back on and sleeping the rest of the night that way. We didn’t catch that one until we went in to wake her for breakfast one morning. Oh yeah, she tossed her under shirt and diaper into the clothes hamper 4 feet from her crib. Not sure if she did that before or after putting her PJs back on.

-and of course the latest incident of clogging the upstairs sink and flooding the house. Yes, after further investigation we believe it was intentional.

For you fine motor skill enthusiasts, she took the pegs from a peg board test at the doctor’s office and stacked them like a tower. She finished the test first and while I was talking to the doc she decided to stack them straight up, 4 pegs high. These things are the width of a pencil.

We were feeling pretty confident the Doc would agree we no longer needed therapy for the kid. The rest of us need it now, and I’ll surely need it in the future, but the kid is fine. After we presented our evidence the Doc did agree and AM’s release was official.

So with a bitter sweet feeling we say good bye to therapy and our last in home visitor, Maria. As with Kelly Ann and Liz before, Maria was an integral part of Anne Marie achieving so much so soon.

The one positive of Maria and Liz not coming to the house anymore, besides Anne Marie having made so much progress, I don’t have to clean it as much. Less work is always a bonus. Thank God they never knew we lived like animals most of the week and got it together for their visits.

Thanks Maria, you have been and will be missed.