April 6

Sarah has been out riding her new bike and she loves it! At first she had some trouble with the pedals but that is coming along beautifully. I am grateful for training wheels so it is easy for her to go at her own pace with pedaling and pausing. Accompanying her, I often feel teary, remembering the days when I despaired of her ever learning to crawl.

We had one moment when Amy and Sarah and I were all singing a song. Together! At the exact same time! Three voices singing verses from Pete the Cat: The Wheels on the Bus. This was a first and we sounded fabulous!

Sarah was a sneaky sneak yesterday when it came to food. I made almond flour crackers for the first time and put them in a container on the counter after giving the girls a few to sample. Carl and I were then talking about the plan for the day and we realized it was awfully quiet. We found Sarah upstairs in the Sarah-Rise room with the container of crackers, happily munching away. Later in the day when I was out, Carl was getting Amy ready and then wondered where Sarah was. She was sitting at the dining room table, having helped herself to a gigantic piece of chocolate bread (the last 1/3 of a mini-loaf). I realize that now I need to put non-refrigerated food up much higher or in cabinets. I do love her sneaky self-sufficiency.

I had some wonderful times in the SR room, but I want to share some beautiful experiences from a few team members.

From G…
“Such a cool day. I tossed Sarah’s water bottle/cup to her and it spun around and spilled a bit. She found this hilarious. She then took the silliness to the next level…pretending to drink from her eyes, her ears, her nose, etc. She would make the motion, look at me for a reaction, then share in the laughter when I reacted. She was, in essence, taking the role of a stand-up comic…and succeeding in both being funny and really connecting with me to make sure her “set” was hooked-in to my mood.”

From Michelle…
“We were doing numbers, and I saw she was doing them a lot better than I had previously seen so I praised her a lot. She did a 9, looked at me, and goes, “how is this 9?” and I told her it was good, and she looked at me with the most genuine face and goes “it’s beautiful!” It made me melt….She was buttoning/unbuttoning her shirt. I took out the practice buttons and was doing them. She was getting frustrated, but then took the practice buttons, and after a few went back to her shirt and was able to do it. Each time she got stuck she went back to the other bigger buttons to practice.”

From Carl…
“Today we did a “project” with the SnapCircuit electronics kit. Sarah seemed much more engaged with it than last time and two things stood out. 1. When building, we would count together the number of bumps to see what size wire was needed and then Sarah would find the wire piece of that size and put it in place by herself.
2. When we had a working circuit, I would talk about how the electricity moved through the loop and then I would remove a wire. Sarah would then try pressing her button and it wouldn’t work. It was broken! Oh no! Then I would help Sarah fix it and she got very excited that it worked again. I felt like she was starting to “get” electricity and circuits a little bit.”

Raun Kaufman, the son for whom the Son-Rise Program was developed, has written a book, Autism Breakthrough. I have just started reading it and I love it already. What I especially appreciate is his comment about false hope, “I continue to be befuddled as to what they think hope will do that is so harmful to our children. Who decided that a life sentence was better than an open heart and an outstretched hand? The bottom line is this: hope leads to action. Without action, none of our children can be helped. I hear people complaining about false hope, but I never hear anyone worrying about false pessimism. There is broad agreement that we don’t want anyone promising a particular outcome for a particular child ahead of time. Why, then, do we abide people making promises about what a child will never do?” I think this point can apply about hope v. pessimism in any situation. I feel quite blessed that no one aside from my own fear has ever been pessimistic about Sarah’s possibilities.