This week we got 10hrs and 20min, which includes some time with her Grammy and Granddad!
Highlights of the week include my dancing around to the Killers while making dinner only to look over and see Sarah dancing while sitting in her high chair.
I realize that it is getting hard to remember when Sarah didn’t talk. She now makes attempts to repeat almost every word she hears. When I told her a few mornings ago that it was time for her cyproheptadine she said “c-p-d-n.” In the past when she would try to say a word it was usually with one sound. Now her attempts usually include 2-3 sounds. When I read a book that she knows well and pause before completing a sentence she often fills in the word for me. This week I started pausing two words before the end of the sentences and she often fills in the two words. She is also self-correcting some of her words to make them sound more accurate. Up until today when she would say “new” it sounded like “ee-oo.” Tonight she started saying “n-ew.” She is able to make herself understood more and more often, sometimes being creative in her methods. This morning she was saying “w-at m-k” and we thought she was saying “want milk” until she started saying other colors and then we understood that she was saying “white milk,” which she proceeded to drink with gusto. When we sing the alphabet, if we pause at any point she often fills in the correct next sound. Her “no” has gotten extremely normal sounding! Sometimes it is still sing-songy but sometimes it is just a very clear word that you would hear from any typical kid.
On Saturday morning I got out the big puzzle again (this is a wooden puzzle with three large pieces that fit in the cut-out holes). I energetically took a piece and tried to put it in incorrectly, banging it on the wooden puzzle frame, and saying “doesn’t fit!” with loud wonder. I repeated this a few times and then put it in correctly and said “yay! it fits!” Sarah grabbed a piece and did the same incorrect attempts with my narrating and her giggling delightedly. Then she got the piece in. It is clear that this is play and that she is playing at the non-fitting times. What was beautiful was that then when she went to fit the piece in it seemed like she was paying better attention to what she was doing, as if her attention towards the puzzle had loosened up because it was fun and ok if it didn’t fit. She stayed with this activity for 10 min (and another 10 min later in the day). This is also wonderful since we work on increasing her attention span.
After our morning puzzle session we went to music class and as with last week there was a surprising absence of resistance about leaving her beloved door to go into class (she loves the red door leading to the building in which Music Together meets). She willingly went into class and then during class only asked to leave once and wasn’t upset about staying. She sat on the teacher’s lap for a few songs and was really enjoying the songs. She played with balls and scarves and a drum when it was time to do so and then waited her turn to put the item back in the bag held by the teacher. She helped blow the lights off and on (the teacher has all the kids that want to help turn the lights off and on at the end line up and hold hands and blow). She gave the teacher a hug at the end (as she did last week).
At hippotherapy her therapist was again impressed with how much she was saying.
In other exciting news Sarah regained the weight she lost when she was sick a few weeks ago. Such a thing would always be good but it is especially great since we have been able to keep her off of two meds that she used to take to help her eating.
This week I also had the radical thought that maybe I am doing enough. So often I beat myself up emotionally, telling myself I’m not doing enough and need to do more more more. This usually drags my energy down and I want to eat junk and have trouble motivating to do whatever needs to be done. Experimenting with deciding I am doing enough resulted in my having more energy and joy and thus more and better attention for Sarah and Amy and more internal room to think about what other things might help Sarah.
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