Sarah has been singing more songs more often better than I’ve ever heard her sing, including songs I didn’t even know that she knew. I have overheard her singing “You are my Sunshine” and “Personal Penguin.” When I ask her to sing them for me then she doesn’t so I haven’t been able to get a recording, but I am still floored when I hear her singing mostly on-key and on-tempo and with most of the words clear as a bell.
Sarah has been reading more as her choice of activity when she has free time at home. Her current favorite books are Doc McStuffins: Take Your Pet to the Vet and Goldilocks and the Three Dinosaurs.
Thursday was Take Your Kid To Work day. We didn’t feel like Sarah was yet ready to do that without extra help so she went to school and Amy went to Carl’s work. This week Sarah’s school has a special event that Carl will attend so each kid does get a special dad thing.
Thursday evening Grammy and Granddad were in charge while I went to work. They described some of their time with the girls and my jaw dropped to the floor. Sarah told them she wanted to do a gymnastics show and wanted them to watch! That doesn’t happen. Sometimes Amy wants to perform a show of some sort and maybe Sarah participates but for Sarah to initiate it is amazing. She also wanted music and started doing lots of dance moves, which sounded more elaborate than usual.
Sarah and I have been sad-meowing and mad-meowing often. It helps us through many transitions and it just feels good to sprinkle more times of playful connection throughout our day. Friday she had a dress-down day and was very upset about not being able to wear her favorite snail shorts. They are size 12 months and so are quite short. I was much more relaxed about her upset than usual, especially given that it was a school morning so our time was limited. When her upset passed I said she had been in the wrong litterbox, thus building on our usual description of mad feelings as being on the wrong ball or the wrong bicycle.
Speaking of bicycles, I’m having the girls bike to Amy’s school. They always want the bike with training wheels rather than the balance bike and so far I am letting them because I mainly want biking to be something they like. I had the realization that if they never learn to ride bikes without training wheels and if they never learn to swim and if they never learn to tie their shoes that is actually ok and they can still have full and happy lives. That takes some pressure off so I can think more clearly about how to help them learn all of those skills.
Sarah had an amazing SR session with G. He started their time together by describing a situation involving some characters and objects in the room. Sarah participated easily, contributed her own original ideas, and spontaneously grabbed an object to represent a character. She tried to go into her usual favorite scenarios but when G steered slightly away from them she allowed that. This was 20 minutes of new interactive play. Once again I am reminded of why I love G and all of our volunteers for bringing themselves and their love and new ideas to their time with Sarah. Having a team is so much more effective than if it was just me. I also love the shared delight in Sarah’s growth and the awareness of how something seemingly tiny is actually giant.
The girls had their second swim lesson on Friday afternoon. Amy got cold after ten minutes so I held her on my lap while I sat on the first step of the pool, helping her stay warm between turns. I did meow crying for Sarah and all sorts of encouraging, celebrating, and requesting for each tiny bit of water interaction Sarah did. Once again I was impressed with the teacher for his creativity and flexibility. I also appreciated that he asked me if it was ok to try certain things with Sarah. Sarah did more than last week so I see that as a huge success. Amy did much more too and had a great time once she got past being cold.
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