December 18

I believe that even though this week I only got a few hours in one-on-one we are still making notable progress, in part because the Son-Rise ideas are behind more of my interactions all the time. I've been trying to get in an hour or so a day even when Amy is also awake; this doesn't work as well but is better than nothing. A friend commented that Sarah was saying more sounds faster than she used to. I noticed the same thing this morning. It seems like the time between her thought and her speech is getting shorter and she is gaining confidence with attempting words.

The wonderful thing is that Sarah delights in saying words and learning them. I celebrate hugely every time she says something well or tries something new and she always has a big smile. I think this fuels her wanting to talk more and more. She has added to her repertoire of stories about people bumping their heads to now include Elmo bumping his eyes on the floor (stuffed animal elmo). Sometimes she is laughing so hard about it that she can barely get her story out.

Tonight when I was in the playroom with Sarah and Amy I was able to solicit a couple "A- mm-eee"s  This is huge because normally Sarah says "mm-ee" for Amy.

In general I want to steer away from tv and ipad use as much as possible but with the busyness of the holidays I've been letting Sarah watch much more than usual. Her new favorite movie is Mickey's Christmas Carol. The great thing is that even when she is watching a movie she is talking about what she is watching "duck vvvv" (duck movie), "zzzzzzzz" (scrooge).

One more fun thing is that as I praise Sarah's eye contact and say how much I like her eyes, she has begun coming eyeball to eyeball with me. Most days I am wearing my glasses so after she gives several kisses to my glasses (hilarious to keep my eyes open for) then she leans in and gets her eye as close to my eye as she can so we are only separated by my glasses. It is adorable.

November 20

Our Son-Rise (Sarah-Rise) room is mostly bare (with pink walls) and a bit of rug from our old house (rust/pink/brown) and a small white area rug. There is a big blue ball that Sarah bounces on with help, a small plastic table, an easle, and a potty. Her toys are up on the shelf in the closet. These include the Eric Carle animal cards, matching squares for a memory game that have pictures of candy on them, fish cards, blocks, stickers, crayons, paper, silk scarves (stars and rainbow), magnet sticks, shaker eggs and a tambourine, and a handful of books. Eventually we will have shelves more out in the open. The idea is to keep the toys out of reach so Sarah has to ask for them. This works a bit already.

I have now worked up to doing an hour and a half at a time when I have Amy care and during the week I just do my best to get in as much as I can if Amy naps when we are at home. Carl has been doing some almost every day too. As we head towards January I have a volunteer to watch Amy for an hour a week and a friend who will watch Amy in trade for us giving her a date night of childcare. My goal is to have a few volunteers to do time in the room with Sarah and also to watch Amy while I have time with Sarah. I alternate between thinking I am nuts and feeling quite hopeful. As with so many things, it is hard to know if Sarah learns something new because she was just ready or if something we did helped tip the balance towards speedier learning.

Her story of how I bumped my head has expanded to my asking "me?" and then she says "yuh-ooo." She also initiated us bopping our heads on the big blue ball. When she sits on that ball to bounce I stabilize her but then she tells me to "L-e-t goh." When we play with matching squares she attempts to say "lollipop" when that card comes up. When we play with the Eric Carle cards that often is tied to singing. She says "ss" for sing and then says "la la la!" with increasing glee. I repeat or build on what she did, either adding a tone or loudness or a new sound. Sometimes she cues me with which sound to do next. When she does her super excited moves then I can be super excited too and she often then responds with delighted imitation of me imitating her. In general she seems a bit more verbal with her single sounds and with her attempts to tell stories about who blew their nose, who bumped their head, or how she bumped her knee on the sidewalk while we were walking.

November 13

We have recently started doing the Son-Rise program with Sarah. As we are starting out we are aiming for at least an hour a day and sometimes more. It has mostly been me with additional time from Sonia and Carl. Even with this seemingly small bit of time each day we are already seeing progress. Sarah participated more in yesterday's music class than she ever has before. Then this morning she went up to her Sarah-rise room all on her own and started singing in the way that she and I have played, this time though she was imitating what I sang! So exciting.

Thanks to all of you for your support in our ventures. And an especially huge thanks to Sonia for her time in Pittsburgh helping us move and get settled and get our Sarah-Rise program up and running.