May 14

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 where she knows the answer is no and she is just asking to ask. When she recently requested the baby movie "bah-ee m-vv" I worked on getting her to say "bay-bee" by emphasizing the two parts and especially the "b" sounds. I used her belly as a drum for emphasis. She thought this was great fun. She then said something which sounded like "eat baby" and I asked if she was going to eat a baby. She cracked up, saying "no." I'm not sure if that was what she had said at all but I love that she was able to see the ridiculousness of it.

One evening after getting ready for bed, she got up, asking for a piece of ham (seemingly out of the blue since she hasn't had any in over a month). We didn't have any ham but she  adjusted easily to a cheese stick when no ham was available.

She is often using 4 words together and is saying many more complete words (with pauses) including new words. When I said "pasta" just now she said "pa-s-t-a." She hasn't ever said that word at all to my knowledge.

When we watch her movies together she actually seems very connected to me, turning to me often, looking at me, telling me what she is seeing. Over the weekend she watched some of Shrek for the first time and was enjoying it and laughing.

She used to talk of saying hi to everyone. now she talks of hugging everyone. She has also started describing clothing she wishes she has but does not have. She wants to have white pants with black seams. She also wants a black dot shirt, but I don't know what she has in mind. My little fashion designer!

Sarah is getting more physically adventurous. She keeps climbing in amy's crib by herself, she was surfing on the humidifier by herself, and she now understands tipping the stroller to get over bumps and pushes the stroller very accurately.

She is still gagging herself but when I can truly ignore it then it is short-lived in the moment and it seems to be diminishing overall. This has been something that she has done off and on through her life. Each time I have to relearn how to really ignore it.

Sarah likes to go in Sarah-Rise room to play and often goes in on her own. We just got a new rug and put up a third shelf so the room is feeling more welcoming overall. Sarah has started talking about wanting to play with the volunteers when they aren't here (it used to just be asking to play with G.). She frequently asks to play with Mom-Mom and other various family members (this isn't new, but just want to remember it in the future when such things might not be in my head).

This week when she started playing with blocks in one of her usual ways of picking one up from the box and putting it back in, I sat across from her and joined in saying "this one goes here!" over and over. She loved it and tried to say "here." That word still needs some work to be clear. I had that word be the theme with whatever we were doing.

It has now been a full week of going gluten-free, with the tiny exception of a few goldfish that she found in the car before I realized what was happening. It is easier than I thought. I'm not being extreme so I hope that allowing her fries isn't messing it all up. Not that she has fries that often anyway. She is ok with the gluten-free mac and cheese and having cheese balls or fritos instead of goldfish or bunny crackers. Finding a granola bar substitute was slightly more problematic but she seems ok just to not have granola bars that often. The savior of this project is the Liz Lovely chocolate cookies. They are giant cookies, very high in calories, and are free of just about everything except chocolate and sugar. They have been a substitute for donuts.