Sarah Rise Weekly Updates

Last week we got a whopping 17 hours!!! That is the most we have ever gotten. This past weekend my dad and stepmom were here and they noticed a big difference from when they saw Sarah in February. Both they and Carl’s mother noticed a marked increase in eye contact. It is as if sometimes… Read more »

15 hours! And I fully expect us to have big weeks from here on for most of the summer. We have some new volunteers, some regular and some to fill in when they can. I am also now going to take Amy to daycare some mornings and get an extra couple of hours with Sarah…. Read more »

This week we got 9 hours and 40 minutes of official Sarah-Rise time. We are still gluten-free. For the past 3 days I have also given Sarah a chewable probiotic. I’m not sure if this is doing anything but I think it probably can’t hurt and might help her digestive system overall. We also have… Read more »

This past week we were away on vacation with friends from college. We rented a house in CA, 2 hours north of San Francisco and we had a fabulous time. The girls did well with all the travel, even if they didn’t like some parts of it. They even did well yesterday with our sprint… Read more »

This week we clocked 14 hours and 15 minutes! Of that time, I personally did 9 hours and 15 minutes in the room with her. Woohoo!!! We had a lot of fun with various toy pieces (eg matching squares, cakes, candles) and my asking “does it go here?” (emphasis on the “here”) and putting it… Read more »

This week we got 10 hours and 10 minutes of official time. We also had a new (returning from college) volunteer start on Saturday. YAY!! Gluten-free eating is still going well, though not with any notable behavioral differences. Sarah’s excited hands and jaw movements have lessened but we think they lessened before we went gluten-free…. Read more »

This week we got 9 hours and 20 minutes. Carl was away all week so it felt like a long week. On one occasion Sarah said a nearly perfect “watch” as opposed to the usual “wash” when she wants to watch something. Her asking to watch various movies has evolved into sometimes being a game… Read more »

This week we got 11 hours. I forgot to mention that a week ago Sarah had a more connected (than ever before) phone conversation with Mom-Mom. Today she started saying “Mom-Mom” in full instead of “Ma-ma.” This correction was all of her own accord. She wanted to play with Mom-Mom. (and wanted to ride on… Read more »

This week we got 7 1/2 hours. If anything I feel like Sarah’s language has improved even further. It is hard to remember when she couldn’t express herself so much. We still have a ways to go so that other people can understand her as well as Carl and I can. Sarah’s teacher commented that… Read more »

This week we got a little over 12 hours. Since I count Sun-Sat as the week, part of this count was from the Outreach. Monday I had a volunteer to watch Amy and I got a solid and wonderful 2 hours with Sarah. It was one of the best sessions ever. I felt more energized… Read more »