April 11, 2009

There's so much that's gone on since I've last written. I write little notes so I don't forget, but I don't have the time to write down everything(wish I did).
She was holding this little drink umbrella that her sister had saved for her doll. I asked her, "Do you know what that is used for?" I wasn't expecting that she'd answer me, since she doesn't answer most of my questions anyway. She proceeded to lift that little umbrella right over her head! Now the remarkable part is that I don't remember when we've even used an umbrella or where she's seen it. This is an example of what I mean when I say that she shows us what she knows when we least expect it. She has been watching everything and taking it all in. I knew she was watching everything, but I didn't know she remembered everything.

The other day I left her with daddy for a short time. When I came home, she called out, "MOMMY!" I was so excited.

Probably the biggest developmental milestone is that she asked WHY? I was shocked that she asked me, not really sure she said 'why'. I answered her and she seemed satisfied with the answer. She has since asked why a couple of more times.

I have these little plastic star shaped reusable ice cubes that I have had in the bath tub with her. She dug them out the other day and when I mentioned star, she started singing twinkle twinkle. I sing her twinkle twinkle when she lets me hold her like a baby while feeding her a bottle. She hasn't wanted to be in this position for a while, but she did recently. I forgot to sing, so part way through her bottle, she said "up above" I caught on and starting singing. Since the ABC song is the same tune, she'll start singing, "Next time won't you sing with me" while I'm singing twinkle twinkle.

One of the other kids was asking me if I bought Peeps for Easter. I had showed S what marshmallow peeps were earlier at the store. I asked her if she remembered what peeps were and she didn't. She related the word to the closest familiar sounding word to her which was beep. She proceeded to tell us a story. She said car seat, drive drive, beep, had fun! That translates to: She got in her car seat to go to the park where she played with the steering wheel(she calls it a drive drive because that's what she does with it). She went beep beep on the steering wheel and she had fun! This was the first time she had told us a story.

She has communicated with us since we've been home by taking our hand and placing it on what she wants. It was a very effective method of communication, there was never any question what she wanted. If she wanted to go somewhere, she would have us pick her up. She would then lean in the direction she wanted us to go in. We felt like a horse! Anyway, the point of explaining this was to say that she tried to get her teacher to do something by grabbing her hand. The teacher didn't comply, so she immediately realized it wouldn't work and said the word instead.

At school, they are given a plastic egg and need to place it in the bowl with the same color. Since she has a 50/50 chance of getting it right(they only use 2 colors), I thought the first 2 times could have been lucky. Well, she did it a total of 5 times and got it right each time. Now if you set her down to do the activity at home, she won't cooperate at all. That's why it's so hard to know what she knows. I think in time, she will surpass her peers. Although I haven't been able to predict her timeline, I do think by the time she is done with NR therapy, she will be long caught up. The last day we went to school, her 11 year old sister was able to come with her. I knew this would be a good experience for both of them. She was much more bold and tried new things because she saw her sister doing it. In the beginning of class they sing a song. S did all of the hand motions with the song for the first time. She sang in a loud voice that we could all hear. The best part was when she sang the entire last sentence of the song, "I hope that you are too."

I've been reading on the neuro-network group about self regulation. That's an area we need to work on. She likes to have her way and do what she wants to do. She has a really hard time sitting in school. I'm having a hard time with this because I don't think that's an overly important area to be working on now when we have so much more important things to work on. I guess if this is the only thing I'm worried about, then I'm doing okay.