July 1

This past week we got 16 hours of official time, 11 of which I did.

Both Gregory and Carl had some of their best sessions yet. Gregory incorporated the idea of getting a green light from Sarah, meaning that she is ready for input. He was focusing more on connecting than on language, which resulted in some lovely language.

Carl’s description of his time reminded me that we can trust in Sarah’s playful nature. Sarah likes to put toy candles in between her toes and when team members join her in this she takes the candles out of our toes to put in her own. As she went to take Carl’s candle he moved his foot away from her and tried to keep the candle away by moving his foot. When she took the candle he made a big “aagh!” noise and she cracked up. They played back and forth with this, both cracking up and both making big noises when candles were taken out of toes. This is so delightful!

One of Sarah’s favorite books of late is The Little Mouse and The Big Cupcake. She especially loves the words “wide” and “large.” We use these words often and I do exaggerated facial movements and voices for saying “open wide and take a large bite.” When she tries to say the words herself she is often laughing so much she can barely get the words out. It has helped to use these words in other areas to shift her resistance energy (eg. it is time for the potty to open wide so you can take a large pee). This has even helped with Amy taking her vitamin, which she has been less than thrilled with since we switched to the polyvisol that contains iron. When I tell Amy to open wide she does and lets me put the dropper in her mouth.

On Monday, with the priceless assistance of Grammy and Granddad, I took Sarah for her annual hearing test and to get bloodwork for both girls (lead test). Sarah did the best she has ever done in terms of cooperating with the hearing test. The part she hates is having things stuck in her ears but she let it happen (with some resistance). Her hearing is normal. Yay! She also did a great job getting the bloodwork, as did Amy. Both cried a lot, but that is to be expected.

There are still many mini tantrums throughout the day but I feel like Sarah’s potty cooperation and general cooperation/listening have increased. We had two miraculous times of her coming inside the house willingly and without fuss after I said it was time to come in.

Sarah also came out to “help” with the laundry twice, once when I was hanging it up and once when I was taking it down. She mostly played with the door or the bag of clothes pins but she also attempted to put clothes pins on the racks.

She has been drinking her yogurt/fruit shake almost every day. She’s still constipated. Maybe there is a bit of a lag for her system catching up. Also it is super hot and I can’t always get her to drink as much water as I think she should. I have been starting to decrease her dairy intake, substituting soy yogurt, soy milk, and coconut milk products. She is still eating dairy just not quite as much. So far no complaints. I think her obsession with ice cream is lessening as she gets used to not having it after lunch and most days none after breakfast.

Sarah is coming up with more creative ways of moving her body and gaining confidence in what she can do. One day I saw her pulling herself across the floor on her belly, using her arms to move. She also regularly goes upstairs by holding the railing with both hands and taking her left leg (which is lower as she faces the railing) and crossing it past her right leg to reach the step two steps up. Sometimes she doesn’t quite manage to pull herself up but then she adjusts and does just one step up. I remember being little and coming up with challenges for myself to make routine journeys more interesting. This seems like what she is doing. Today she started climbing up our big yellow slide and then sliding down. It is the climbing up that is amazing since she isn’t using the stairs but is going straight up the slide itself, like a little monkey.

Her interest in drawing seems to have increased a bit. She has worked on drawing circles during her time with Marilyn and with Carl and a little with me. Most of my drawing with her involved her drawing a line and my copying it right next to the mark she had made (she later called these drawings wires). I was hoping this would translate into her copying my strokes of more complicated shapes but she’s not there yet. Still, I can tell she is getting more control over the marker.

We had a brief but lovely time playing around the big blue yoga ball. She has been enjoying bouncing on it or lying back and having me roll the ball so she can touch her hands to the floor. I also roll her side to side while singing about a big clock going tick tock and then a little clock going ticki ticki ticki tock. After watching a short video sent out by the Son-Rise center about more creative things to do with the ball I had the idea to pretend it was the big rock in one of Sarah’s favorite stories (Mo Willems’ I Will Surprise My Friend). I said some of the lines leading up to when Piggie and Gerald scare the pants off each other and then I would pop around so I could see her and pretend to be surprised. This only lasted a couple of minutes but it felt like the kind of fun creative play that I often aim for but don’t always hit.

Sarah’s language continues to expand. Today I think she said her equivalent of “lie down mine leg take nap on couch together.” She was talking to Carl and she wanted to lie down with her head on his leg. It wasn’t nap time but it was super cute, and the amount of communication, even if not fully clear or grammatical, was amazing.

Lastly, Sarah continues to like making spaghetti out of playdough (I then, of course, open wide and take a large bite).