July 27

Grandma and Grandpa were visiting recently and they both noticed huge changes in Sarah's overall language and connection with people. Yay! 

Sarah has been asking for elephant pajamas for forever because she loved the ones that used to be hers and then were Amy's and now fit neither of them. To Sarah's delight, Grandma took her to the fabric store to pick out elephant fabric and sewed some pajamas for her. 

At one point Sarah asked Grandma to go to the potty with her, then Sarah leaned over and kissed Grandma on the head. So sweet! Sarah has loved having Grandpa here too and asks for him every time the door opens.

I am noticing that Sarah comments more on the books we read. Her comments seem a bit more original and observant than sometimes in the past. I also notice that she is stuttering more and I'm not sure why. Maybe she can't keep up with her increased ideas or maybe something else is going on internally. It is mostly that she will get stuck repeating a certain word. For example, "Want to go go go go go go go outside." I am attempting to stay neutral or hopeful about this rather than panicky or annoyed, though those feelings are certainly there sometimes.

Sarah has mastered the trampoline bar flip. She had figured it out a while ago but then hadn't done it for several weeks. Evidently, she and Amy were doing flips side by side yesterday while I was at my Alexander Technique class. 

Sonia and I have started doing joint sessions more often, mainly in an attempt to help Sarah with her "hit Sonia" comments and actions. In the first session, Sarah was very upset after an attempted hit. She wanted to leave and sat on my lap (as I blocked the door) crying for 20 minutes. Then her attention cleared and she snacked and talked to both of us easily. The next session had a little hitting talk but less so and with less upset (however, at the beginning when I told Sarah we were going in the SR room with Sonia she gave a sudden angry look at both of us, as if she was mad at Sonia and mad at me for suggesting such a situation). The third session involved no mention of hitting and no attempt at hitting. We played for 25 minutes with the same toy, with 3 person connection and with evolving ideas that came from Sarah's suggestions. Wow. Totally awesome. We were playing with foam shapes creating food, pretending we had variously shaped whistles, and throwing frisbees.

The newest dynamic that I am working with is Sarah putting every toy or game in her mouth. This means that I put it away and she either screams and cries for several minutes or just protests a little and then repeats with the next game. I realized while talking with Carl that I may have contributed to this seeming interesting because of my own frustration. In the SR room it is easier for me to be calm but firm. Outside the SR room when we are doing an art project and she is attempting to put paint or buttons in her mouth, I definitely get frustrated and yell at her a bit. I think for the time being I will just stop doing art projects until this phase passes. It definitely seems to be a dynamic of her testing me and testing boundaries....I just tried a return to my more relaxed and less firm consequences when Sarah was putting pieces from a matching game in her mouth. I tickled her and told her I knew she knew how to pretend. The moment of her trying to put the pieces in her mouth passed quickly. So maybe that is the way to go in the SR room too. 

The reading for my Alexander Technique class had a paragraph that is perfect for me. From Indirect Procedures by Pedro de Alcantara, "Most people associate their mental conception of power with a certain feeling of tension in the muscles of the body. If the feeling is absent, so will be the perception of power....To play loudly the average pianist....creates tensions within himself, then he fights against these very tensions, believing all the while that he is merely using the force needed to play loudly." This is sooooo good. I think this is probably what I do in most parenting moments where I get tense or angry, I create tension and then fight against it in order to feel powerful and in control and as if I know what I am doing. 

I wish you all easy movement and easy being.