March 19

Amazingly enough we got 6hrs and 15min this past week. This was a week that included all of us being sick in various ways at various times, culminating in Sarah being hospitalized on Thursday with pneumonia. Luckily Carl was able to meet us at the ER (at the exact moment we pulled into the parking lot!) and took Fri off from work (sarah came home Fri early evening). Amy wasn't allowed to spend the night at the hospital so I was home with her and Carl stayed with Sarah the whole time. My babysitter came twice to be with Amy while I visited Sarah and Carl. Now Sarah is doing much much better. We also had the added bonus of J. and R. (mom-mom and pop-pop) visiting and they each did Sarah-Rise time. They also really noticed a difference in how present and communicative she was compared to when they saw her in December.

In terms of our goal of Sarah being understood widely and not just by a few of us, I think we are making progress in that direction. Many times in the hospital she said things and the doctor or nurse responded in a way that indicated they had understood her. I'm sure it is common for kids to say they are done or all done, but still it is nice that they understood her.

We now have many more people to discuss when it comes to looking in ears. Dr. M. is the most common refrain now to come after Dr. K. Sarah also tried to say "hospital" and "temperature" or "thermometer."

This weekend we watched the movie Temple Grandin. If you haven't seen it then I highly recommend it. One thing Temple is skilled at is seeing things from the point of view of an animal. I am now having the intention of understanding more of Sarah's world from her perspective.