March 31

This week we got 32 hours. The number of hours continues to be an interesting thing for me to contemplate. I think some of why our program has been successful is my drive to get hours. That said, I want to make sure that I can track it and notice it gently and loosely, without getting tight about needing to achieve a certain number to feel successful. I want to track it in part because I have always wondered how many hours went into other success stories. I know each child and each journey is different and I also know that the number of hours is not nothing. I want to notice it and record it and remember it; I also want to notice that we are doing other things to support the growth of our children that I am not necessarily tracking (or not in the same way), such as preschool, play dates, gymnastics, and general lifestyle choices. Having Sonia here makes it so much easier to live Son-Rise for most of the day. Not always. I can still get tight, anxious, and judgmental, but that is ever decreasing and my active feeling of gratitude and love for my life situation is ever increasing.

Reflecting further upon my decision to have a good birthday regardless of what anyone else did brings me to the radical idea that I could do that with each day and each moment. Whoa! 

Last night I caught myself feeling annoyed that Sarah was underfoot and watching everything as I fixed dinner. Then I realized how awesome it is that she is so interested and wants to watch what I am doing, especially as it pertains to food. Yesterday was another day for a new food success: almond butter-zucchini-egg pancakes. They are surprisingly tasty and the right texture for a pancake. We all loved them and it is a great way to get in extra veggies. I didn't make up the list of ingredients so I can't take credit for that, but I did apparently guess correctly at the amount of each ingredient. If you want to try them, I blended 1 small raw zucchini with 2 eggs and 4 heaping tablespoons of raw almond butter. Then just cook as you would any other pancake. Another food success was meatballs on a stick. This was again the culmination of adult thinking: Carl's initial idea of putting something on a toothpick and calling it a lollipop, my made-up meatloaf recipe (mix 1 lb ground meat with pureed mix of 1 onion, 1 tomato, and 1 clove of garlic), and Sonia's suggestion to make tiny meatballs and put them on toothpicks. Sarah ate 4 last night and Amy loves them too. In fact, last night's dinner was a huge success: both girls ate some of each item that I served! Cooked peas, cooked zucchini, meatballs, and avocado egg salad (hard boiled egg mashed up with avocado). I love it when that happens.

As I mentioned last week, we had Granddad and Grammy visiting. It was so wonderful to have their company and extra help with the girls and around the house. They each did Sarah-Rise sessions and generally had wonderful playtime with both girls. 

I have slightly changed my plan for preschool next year in that now Sarah will attend 2 days a week. I'll go with her for one of the days and have Sonia or another SR-trained volunteer go with her for the other day. I realized that if I am trying to integrate her a bit with a typical classroom then it doesn't make sense to do so in a truncated way. If the other kids all attend 2 days a week and she just attends for 1, then she would get behind in projects and knowing some of the routine. 

Sarah drew a chameleon this week! One of her favorite books stars a chameleon and Sb drew one on the white board for Sarah to color. After it was thoroughly colored, little S erased it and then picked up a marker and drew the head and body. Sb then coached her to add a tail, legs, eyes, ears, and hair. Sarah did so. If you saw the picture and didn't know what you were seeing, you might have no idea what it was. What I find exciting, though, is the intentionality Sarah had in executing her picture. She knew where each item went and that she needed to draw 4 legs. Later in the week, Sarah demonstrated the same intentionality when she said "wite note" (write note) and drew lots of little black squiggly marks. We may have a ways to go to achieve clarity, but I think the desire and intention are the most important part. As with so much of the Son-Rise Program, the goal is to have Sarah want to learn things because she will then have the internal drive to make the neural connections required. And we will put in the hours (!) of play and practice to help her get where she wants to go. 

When I was little, one of my favorite books was Runaway Bunny by Margaret Wise Brown. One of the pages involves the mother bunny saying that if the young bunny turns into a sailboat to run away from her then she will turn into the wind and blow him where she wants him to go. My mom altered our text to say that the mother would blow him where he wanted to go. I love this. While I have specific goals for Sarah's development, it is really all with the bigger intention of helping to blow her where she wants to go. To that end I am so deeply grateful for my amazing team. AMAZING. The creativity and thoughtfulness astounds me every week.

One of our goals is for Sarah to participate more physically in play. I feel like this is really starting to come along. In tiny pieces, but it is coming. The same way that her language started in tiny pieces. What I find notable is that every time I really clarify a goal for the program, then we start working for it much more powerfully and effectively and Sarah starts responding almost immediately. 

In one of my play sessions we had a really interesting 1/2 hour chunk of reciting little pieces of books just from our memory. Sarah and I share a love of Mo Willems' Elephant and Piggie books and his Pigeon books. She was sitting on my lap and I had a mild headache so I was really following her flow more than I might otherwise have done without the headache. She kept bouncing around to different books, some of which we haven't read in ages. She stores so much in her memory! And luckily, I do too. At least where these books are concerned. 

I started thinking about some of her repetitions slightly differently, really seeing them as practice and really trusting that she knows what she is doing. I know, I keep sharing this insight and then I have the same insight again, just a bit more deeply each time. This time I was remembering when I was in first grade and for most of the year I wrote basically the same story every morning during our writing time. It was about a girl going outside. It was only a couple of sentences, but still, I must have liked my story and enjoyed writing about it. And I think I turned out to be a pretty good writer. So maybe Sarah's repetition is exactly what she needs to do to get her where she wants to go.

May the wind blow you where you want to go.

March 24

This week we got 32 hours and 45 minutes. 

On Tuesday Sarah visited the preschool connected to Amy's daycare. It is for 3-4 year olds and the rest of the students are typical kids. Sonia was Sarah's personal attendant. The morning went very well overall and helped point out some things to focus on in the Sarah-Rise room. For instance, Sarah doesn't sing or speak along with other people unless we are the ones to join her. We may have sort of encouraged this given that one of our most successful techniques for helping her language has been to say part of something that she knows and then pause for her to fill in the blank. I think another part of it is her confidence. When she isn't confident in her knowledge or ability then she tends to be very tentative and quiet about it. Her alphabet used to be so very quiet and now she sings/says it pretty strongly, but still with pauses. I think the first step towards helping her with all of this is to get her started with singing or counting and then we join her so she can understand that we can say it together. 

The morning after preschool, Carl had the following conversation with Sarah:

C: Did you like your teacher at school?
S: Like friend
C: You liked your friend at school?
S: Friend wear glasses
C: What was your friend's name?

S: (attempt at saying his name)

We are all set to continue with Sarah-Rise next year and I don't have to do any home schooling paperwork. The mandatory age for schooling in PA is 8 (unless you are in Philly and then it is 6). 

Gymnastics continues to go well, with Sarah listening and attempting to do most of the activities. On Thursday part of the class involved climbing up a steep mat. She was very tentative going forwards and was actually more confidently able when she went backwards. Her triceps are certainly very strong from her own playful strength training. The part of this exercise that I felt most pleased about was that I was able to notice my end-gaining and let go of it. I can easily get too focused on needing to go through all the motions and activities rather than attending to the process and staying present with Sarah. I let go of my need for her to actually climb the mat mountain and we just played as she went part-way up and then came down. We talked about mountains and bears and stayed in Sarah-Rise energy. And in an earlier activity Sarah did a bear walk and even grrr-ed!

In the Sarah-Rise room we continue to make physical activity and participation one of our top goals. The same way that I used to pause and wait for her to look at me or say something before I would do whatever fun thing she was liking, now I wait for her to move. One of her favorite book scenes is when Piggie waves her arms while saying "how did you break your trunk??" We had a great play session with Sarah sitting on my lap while we faced the mirror. When she said "how did you break your trunk?" I would wave my arms and say it very dramatically while she laughed  in delight. Then I started moving her arms with mine. Then I would touch her arms to cue her and as she moved her arms even a tiny bit then I would do my dramatics. Now she does the full arm movement and that is what cues me to do my own version. I again feel so grateful to Mo Willems for his brilliance in creating books that Sarah and I both love.

I am really understanding that to help Sarah go beyond her current limits I need to go beyond my current limits, in thought and action. I need to get off my own butt and move around and try new things. I have a much better time when I really focus on enjoying being together for the sake of being together and reaffirming that it is really ok if she doesn't change at all from where she is right now. It is ok and I love her for who she is right now. When I am present with that thought then I am more present with what is happening and I think Sarah can probably feel it too. 

One day after lunch Sarah came over to me when I was at my desk. She looked at me and said "have short nap." What is exciting about this is that it is her way of asking permission, which is a long-range goal but not something I've been focusing on at the moment. Sonia was in the room with us and had been the one helping Sarah with lunch, so it was even more clear that Sarah was purposefully asking me. With eye contact. She got that nap! 

Our collective culinary genius has produced frozen avocado popsicles. Last week I invented dibs. Normal dibs are blobs of ice cream coated in chocolate and these used to be a staple in our house. Now we don't have any such item and we had the problem of frozen avocado "ice cream" taking too long to defrost. So I started freezing little blobs on a plate and then calling them dibs. Total success. At preschool the other kids were given peanut butter lollipops (pb on a spoon) and it made a big impression on Sarah. Carl had the idea to stick a toothpick in the dibs to make them into lollipops. Sarah started calling them popsicles. Sonia brought over her star-shaped ice cube tray and we put the avocado pudding in the tray with popsicle sticks as handles. Total success again. Some of my GAPS cooking experiments have been complete flops and some of them have me astounded at my own creativity.

Sarah and Amy are having more interactions that feel quite typical and adorable. Some nights as they snuggle in bed they will start laughing and both saying "yuck," referring to a line from one of their favorite books. On Wednesday night when she got in bed next to Amy, Sarah said, "two peas in a pod." This is something I've said maybe twice but not too recently. At the dining table yesterday, Amy said "hi Ra-Ra! hi!" When we told Sarah that Amy had just said hi to her (her focus had been elsewhere), she looked up at Amy and said "hi." This is a first for this particular interaction. In general Sarah's greetings have improved tremendously, but the timing could still use some work. She said goodbye to Sb 15 seconds after Sb had said goodbye (Sb had actually already left the house before Sarah responded).

Grammy and Granddad are visiting and Sarah gave them a super warm and connected greeting. As she came down the stairs her face brightened with delight and then she kept repeating their names, sometimes while looking at them. Compared to when they last saw her, they are aware that she is talking much more and seems to understand the world more.

My personal success this week was having the best birthday ever. It's not that I did anything extraordinary. I just decided that I was really pleased with my 36-year-old self. If people called or emailed or did anything that was great, but I didn't need them to for me to have a good day. In the past I used to really be anxious about who would remember and would take it personally when people didn't. It was much better taking responsibility for having a good day regardless of what anyone did. That said, it was awesome that lots of people did remember and send their love.  And that Sonia did all of the daycare transport and errands so I didn't have to go outside on that cold, drizzly day. And Carl brought home dinner and cake. 

March 17

This past week we got 34 hours! I think I was more aware as I tracked the hours how incredible all of this is. Even just 2 hours in a day is really pretty amazing. 34 hours of one-on-one loving, focused, encouraging, attention is really something!

I have decided to continue full-time Sarah-Rise at least through the next school year. I'm waiting for more details about whether or not I need to officially home school her or whether we are still below the mandatory age, in which case I won't mind skipping any unnecessary paperwork. On Tuesday Sarah will visit the preschool connected with Amy's daycare, with Sonia by her side. If it goes well then that is an option for next year to include a tiny bit of schoolish structure but without taking too much time away from SR. The preschool can be just 2 days a week (they might even let us do 1) from 9-12 with 3 and 4 year olds. They love the idea that Sarah would come with a personal helper. I love the idea that I can select that helper. I think we will also continue with gymnastics or some other class, again to have a little bit of structured group activity.

Amy's birthday party went well and Sarah very excitedly greeted some friends that she recognized. Amy was excited but also held back on my lap for chunks of time. Amy recently had her first haircut so she looks even more like a two-year-old. Sarah wanted to open Amy's presents but handled it calmly when we told her not to and stopped her efforts. Sarah also wanted to eat everyone's share of birthday pie (squash, egg, coconut oil). For those of you who might not know, Amy's birthday is tomorrow, which is also my birthday. As you can imagine, she is the best birthday present I have ever and will ever receive.

Carl returned from a business trip that was over a week long. When he knelt in front of Sarah and said that he missed her, she gently put her hands on his face and said "miss you."

When Sc wrote the name of her cat on the white board, Sarah started pointing out the different letters. While we know she knows her letters, this seemed like a different kind of interest and understanding. When Sb drew a blank chameleon and asked Sarah what color it should be, Sarah started filling it in with different colors, confident and purposeful in her choices. When Carl drew a pair of pants and asked Sarah to add polka dots, he felt like she really understood and enjoyed the activity, staying within the lines of her own accord. During my last session with Sarah, we made a card for Amy. I wrote AMY and Sarah watched attentively. When I asked her to draw a picture she very intently started using different colors, making specific marks, and then choosing her next color. After I wrote Sarah's name at the bottom she then said "wite name" (write name) and proceeded to make very specific (if totally unclear) marks on the page. I love that her desire and purposefulness is there. Skill can come later, but the desire must come first.

I recently watched part of a webinar with Raun Kaufman, the original Son-Rise son, and it helped me feel renewed about our program. It was addressing the when of what we do. What we do is certainly important, but when we do it might be even more important. Most of what he said I already knew, but I had forgotten some of it and it was just helpful to clarify it all really specifically. Sonia and I also filled out the first two stages of the developmental model again (we are encouraged to do this frequently) and that was quite helpful in clarifying my purpose and goals in the playroom. It is really clear that the area of development that lags the most in the first two stages is her physical participation in games, such as tag, trading tickles, wrestling, copying physical movements). I proceeded to have two of my best sessions ever.

When I feel like I had one of my best sessions, that doesn't necessarily have anything to do with how Sarah responded or what she did. It is more about how I present myself and how energized and creative and flexible I feel. This week I started taking up a lot more physical space than I usually do and hamming it up even more than usual. We started one session with climbing back and forth over castle walls (these are balance beam pieces arranged in a circle). This started relatively exclusively so I was joining. Then as she started to watch me I changed how I moved a tiny bit, sometimes running or jumping. She smiled. I got down on my knees and pretended to have a hard time crawling over the wall, asking for help (which she gave) and sometimes breaking the castle wall and needed help to reassemble it. I said help in a melodramatic "HELP!" way, with an exaggeratedly panicked expression and sometimes grabbing her sweatshirt, where lapels would be if sweatshirts had lapels. She cracked up. When she started talking about foods that she wanted (but can't have) I again made a huge deal, grabbing her and saying "oh no! we don't have any! Help!! What are we gonna do??" she loved it. When she wanted to take a snack/book-reading break, I mostly acted out the book rather than reading it, and I used the whole room as my stage. She let me do this and watched and laughed for much of the time. With What Color Should I Be? she more often redirected me to read the book, but she still allowed a lot of my changes. Every time we change things this is a challenge to her flexibility and an invitation to be more flexible and spontaneous. What felt so great about my playtime was that I felt more flexible and spontaneous myself.

One of the books we read this week mentioned playing hide and seek. I invited Sarah to play the game (this is a first to even think of doing such a thing). I told her to close her eyes and count to five while I hid. I went into the door entry space of the room, thus hiding in plain sight but sort of around a corner from where she was. I kept telling her to come find me and then I realized I had to tell her how to indicate that she had found me. I told her to touch me to show me that she had found me. She did and I tickled her in celebration. Then it was her turn. I told her to hide while I counted. She hid in the castle, curled in child's pose in plain sight. I pretended to have trouble finding her, eventually discovering her with hugs and kisses and tickles. Then I hid under the curtain, again instructing her on how to find me and encouraging her repeatedly. She found me! This was super exciting that we could even start to play hide and seek. It was also illuminating about how sometimes I can think something is obvious but that in fact I need to break it down and tell Sarah the steps (eg, touch me to show me you found me).

When Sarah and I were playing with the marble run game, which can be semi-exclusive, she looked up and said a line from Duckling Gets A Cookie. I proceeded to recite most of it and I noticed her trying to imitate some of my facial expressions. This is another goal so it is super exciting to see her starting to do it. While she is spontaneously expressive on her own, she doesn't often copy facial expressions as part of play. Copying an expression indicates an awareness of the other person, of herself, and of the relationship going on in the moment.

On Wednesday Sarah sort of counted to 20. There were a few gaps once she got past 10 and the clarity of saying the numbers also needs some work. The best part was "nine-teen....lemon!" Speaking of counting, Amy has started counting to three. As I was fixing breakfast one morning I looked over to see Amy looking at her hand and pointing to her thumb saying "hum." Then she pointed to her fingers (all to herself, not for my benefit) and said "one, two, hee, two hee. cowt" (I think the last word was count). 

March 9

This past week we got 26 hours. Not bad for a week with Carl gone, Sarah sick for most of one of our usually big days, daycare experiment on Monday, dentist on Tuesday, and gymnastics on Thursday. 

I took Sarah to daycare and stayed to observe so I could be more informed as I make the decision about schooling for next year. It was quite helpful to have a consultation with M. later that day. M. helped me realize that I can use all of these experiences to help me decide what to have as a focus in the Sarah-Rise room. At daycare, Sarah mainly played by herself, but so did most of the kids there. She ismed (exclusive, repetitive actions/play) a bunch with a toy stroller and one of the toy cars that is big enough to occupy. Every few minutes, though, she would pause and calmly look around. She interacted with me a couple of times and once with one of the other adults. When they had a music "circle" (around an iphone playing a video of songs), Sarah did join the group of her own accord after a few minutes. There was a cluster of kids close to the screen and my own two sitting on the step a few feet away! I admit I was a bit disappointed that the daycare was using electronics. I think the kids actually would have responded with more physical participation if the adults had been leading the singing. I also realize that I view things differently now after doing Sarah-Rise for so long. In the past I might not have noticed a lack of physical participation. 

When I watched a short video recently about people with autism learning to communicate in various ways, I could see that the therapists, while well-meaning, didn't give the kids enough time to respond. In one case they asked a child to say a word and then paused for maybe one second before moving on. They also tried to re-engage the child when the child clearly wasn't ready. In the past I wouldn't have noticed the lack of a longer pause or even known to wait for readiness. Now I see it. 

Sarah handled the daycare snack time amazingly well, given her restrictions. She ate her yogurt and zucchini chips and water while everyone else had animal crackers, ritz, and juice. Sarah did try to take the other things but she only cried for a minute once when I told her she couldn't have something (I always explain why). I was glad I was there to run intervention because she has a speedy hand.

On Tuesday Sarah went to the dentist. In the waiting room there was a teenage boy and Sarah sat next to him. She looked at his face often and told me that she was sitting next to a person. I coached her that she could introduce herself. She didn't, but I felt like she was really connected even in her excitement (he was wearing jeans after all!). He also seemed to understand some of what she said. Sarah resisted when the hygienist brushed her teeth but she was mostly still while the dentist scraped her teeth for her first official cleaning. I was very impressed. She is now more calmly allowing me to assist with her brushing at night. I hadn't been because she screamed and because I wanted to foster her independence. The dentist impressed upon me how important it is for me to help. In the past Sarah hated it when I would try to floss her teeth. Now she likes it, reaches for the flossers, and finds the word "floss" funny (she says it more like "foss"). 

Gymnastics class was another informative experience. There was construction going on between the gymnastics room and the adjacent climbing wall so that was loud, dusty, and distracting. Sarah did pretty well following my instructions, which were the teacher's instructions. When the teacher was taking attendance I encouraged Sarah to say her name. She very quietly said "name." It was adorable seeing her tiny foot touch something blue, as per instruction and encouragement. She seemed anxious and stressed when the group was stretching and jumping, to the point where I considered just leaving early. Once she was allowed on the equipment she had a great time and was fine waiting her turn. She loves the balance beam and let go of my hand purposefully, using my support only  intermittently. I think this will be good practice for being in a slightly structured class and it will help her with balance and different ways of moving her body. When I enrolled her in a shorter version of this class a couple of years ago I remember feeling stressed and uncomfortable, as I so often did when we were around typical kids and I felt embarrassed, so glaringly aware of her differences. Now I am aware that she is not typical and I am so proud of her. I am much more comfortable in my own skin. I don't care as much what others think. Maybe because I am proud of what we are doing to help her. 

On Friday when I went in at the end of Sarah's time with Sc, Sarah looked up at me and calmly said "good-bye, mom." Best rejection ever! We have been working on greetings and farewells and for her to use one so sort-of appropriately and with eye contact is beautiful. And it is the best indicator of how much she loves her volunteers. 

March 3

This week we got 34 hours. It has been wonderful having Sonia back! It gives me time to do some things besides cooking, cleaning, groceries, Sarah-Rise, and kids. What I did with some of that time was start this Sarah-Rise blog.

I feel like this has been and continues to be such an amazing journey that I want to share our experience. I know there are lots of people with kids with special needs who could probably benefit from doing a Son-Rise program but it's not something most people have heard of. It's also not necessarily immediately apparent that it can be used to help kids/people with all sorts of developmental delays and challenges. True, it is geared towards people on the autism spectrum, but I signed up before I even had that diagnosis for Sarah. I think the main Son-Rise gift is that it teaches parents how to help their children without getting discouraged and frustrated. Part of why Son-Rise programs are successful is that requests are playfully made sometimes 1,000 or 10,000 or 100, 000 times. When you can be in the energy of wanting something but not needing it to be happy it is a totally different ball game. I'm not always there but I am a lot of the time and I think the concept is fantastic.

Sarah is no longer eating absolutely all of the time, but she still eats well. I'd say she's back to more normal levels of consumption. 

I feel like Sarah is getting more creative in her play and in her language. Lately she finds a page in I Broke My Trunk (by Mo Willems) hilarious. The page shows Piggie waving her arms and yelling "How did you break your trunk?!" Sarah laughs when she looks at the page and also when I do my rendition of it. Last night she was still laughing even when we weren't looking at the book and she was getting ready for bed. To help nudge her to wash her hands I said "How did you wash your hands?!" She then responded with her attempts to reference a broken glass ("boke gas") and a broken bunny mug ("boke bunny mug"), which are both items that broke a long time ago. I love that she quickly picked up on how we could expand the theme of things breaking. 

She loves reading Not a Box and when we had an empty cardboard box in the kitchen she quickly climbed into it. Lately she likes playing with her toy doctor bag and she pretends to take her own blood pressure, temperature, and blood. When we were playing with playdough recently she started taking out tiny pieces and spreading them on her bare belly and saying "co-nut oil" (coconut oil).

On Wednesday she came with me to drop Amy off at daycare. Completely spontaneously she went up to each B. and C. and looked at them very directly and said their name to them. Wow! Holy moly!!! They were both blown away.

She continues to increase how often she runs to greet people. It is wonderful to come in the house and have two exuberant children run to greet me. When Sonia arrived yesterday Sarah gave her zerberts on her cheeks! Completely spontaneous.

Volunteer Opportunity

It's that time again... Time to find a few more amazing volunteers in Pittsburgh, PA....

Are you looking for a fun volunteer opportunity where you get to play with an adorable and spunky 6 year old? Then Sarah-Rise is for you. Based on the amazing Son-Rise program, we are running a home therapy program for our special daughter and would love your help. Training is provided. We are looking for a commitment of two 2 hour sessions per week plus 30 minutes after one of the sessions for feedback and training. There is also a monthly group meeting. We are looking for loving, non-judgmental, energetic people who are open to learning new ways of interacting with children with special needs.

Son-Rise is an intensive one-on-one home-based therapy program where we work in a distraction-free room with Sarah, encouraging increased eye contact, language, and social connection through play and following her lead. It is an extremely loving and accepting therapy that has had amazing results with some kids. While we have no idea how far Sarah will go with this, the exciting part is how limitless our goals and desires for her can be. We can want everything for her but need nothing from her to continue loving her with all our hearts. We have been running our program for 1 1/2 years and it has already brought amazing growth. She went from being mostly non-verbal to saying 3-7 word sentences with increasing clarity. Her eye contact and attention span have improved dramatically. Her eating has improved in ways that I never dreamed possible.

Son-Rise is based on the work of Bears and Samahria Kaufman whose son, Raun, was severely and supposedly incurably autistic in 1974. They were told there was no hope but they decided they wanted Raun to know how much they loved him. Samahria began working with Raun in a small room, joining his repetitive behaviors, and celebrating each tiny flicker of his acknowledging that she was with him. They spent 3 years working 12 hours a day, 7 days a week with him. He recovered completely. This approach has been used to help many other children emerge completely from autism and other challenges. I have personally spoken to parents whose children were extremely challenged in varying ways and now are normal, typical kids. As I said, I don't know if this will be Sarah's story too but it doesn't hurt to try! To learn more you can go to

http://www.autismtreatmentcenter.org/

Reasons why it is awesome to be a volunteer in the playroom: For the time you are in the room you drop all baggage and judgements and joyously connect and play, stretching your creative self. You practice being energetically encouraging and happy no matter what. In fact, this is the way to be most effective. The Option process (the basis for the Son-Rise approach, explained in the training provided) helps you sift through any beliefs or baggage that might be getting in your way. So by helping Sarah grow and change, you also grow and change, possibly becoming happier in all of your life, but at least for the time you are playing with Sarah.

If you are interested please get in touch and I will provide more information and we can decide if this is the right fit for you. If you know anyone who might be interested, please feel free to share this with them and give them my contact information.


Thanks!
Jenny

412-421-0284
412-512-7036
jbriggs1@mac.com

Resources

Son-Rise Program
http://www.autismtreatmentcenter.org

GAPS diet
http://gapsdiet.com
our support while implementing it:
http://www.biodynamicwellness.com

Anat Baniel Therapy
http://www.anatbanielmethod.com
and the person we have worked with:
http://www.evergreenintegration.com

Recipes

While doing full GAPS as a transition towards the intro and while doing the intro, I have created some recipes and tweaked some recipes so they feel like my own. I'm not sure at what point one needs to give credit to the original inspiration and at what point it is really a new recipe. At any rate, my inspirations for my recipes and tweakings are from the Better Homes and Gardens cookbook (banana bread), Internal Bliss (a GAPS cookbook; squash custard/pie; key lime pie) and Adele Davis' granola recipe. Here are the recipes I've adapted/created. Gapsy Gaps is how Carl refers to things I make for the GAPS diet.

Gapsy Gaps Granola
mix together proportions to your liking until the total is 4-5 cups:
almond flour (or any nut or seed flour)
coconut flour (or any nut or seed flour)
chia seeds
coconut shreds
raw pumpkin seeds
raw sunflower seeds (shelled of course)
sesame seeds
coconut shreds
slivered almonds
(or any other seeds or nut slivers that you like)
cinnamon dusting optional

in a separate container, heat 1/4 cup coconut oil until it starts to liquify; add 1/4 honey and heat a bit more (30 seconds). stir. Pour over dry mixture and stir until spread throughout.

bake at 300 on an ungreased cookie sheet for 17-20 min, just when it starts to brown. Be careful not to burn it. Remove from cookie sheet immediately (or else you will be chiseling) into a bowl or storage container. I put it right in a metal cookie tin and leave the lid off, stirring occasionally to help it cool.

-----------------------------
Gapsy Gaps Banana Bread

Oven at 350

1 1/2 cups almond flour
1 3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp sea salt or himalayan rock salt
1 egg
1 cup mashed bananas (roughly 3)
1/4 cup honey
scant 1/4 cup coconut oil
optional 1/2 cup crushed nuts

Grease loaf pan and set aside
In medium mixing bowl combine flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon; set aside
In another bowl, combine egg, honey, oil, bananas; add to dry mixture
Fold in nuts if you want them (I haven't used them yet)
Put in loaf pan and bake 40-50 min

I think possibly the coconut oil could be reduced more but so far it is lovely and moist and nutty and I don't notice anything weird about it. I think I could pass it off as normal banana bread.

I have doubled this recipe and baked it in greased/floured (with almond flour) cake pans and then used a mix of almond butter and honey (heated slightly and stirred) as the icing. Delicious.

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Gapsy Gaps squash cookie/muffin (same recipe, just different way of baking)

bake1 butternut or acorn squash, uncut and poked with fork, at 350 for 60-90 min
or until tender scoop out squash flesh and put in food processor.
add 3 eggs and some chicken. I never measure I just throw in what chicken I
have until it looks like a good amount. Probably have used between 1/2 and 1
cup or more. Optional to add a small spoonful of coconut oil or lard but I
think that makes it take longer to solidify.
Blend until smooth
bake on greased cookie sheet in spoonfuls spread into cookie shape for 350
for maybe 14 min or until bottom browns slightly and they look firm or bake
in greased muffin pan for a longer time, again waiting till they look solid

Gapsy Gaps squash pie
bake 1 butternut or acorn squash, uncut at 350 for 60-90 min scoop out
squash flesh and put in food processor with 2 eggs and a sploosh (maybe 2
tbsp) of stock and some chicken (probably 1/4 cup - 1/2 cup) and small
spoonful of coconut oil or lard or ghee. blend until smooth. bake in greased
casserole dish at 350 for 30-40 min or until it looks solidified/firm-ish
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Gapsy Gaps avocado pudding
puree in blender or food processor:
avocados (however many you have or want to use)
optional additions: a little bit of lemon juice and/or a little bit of stock (bone broth) and/or a little bit of honey (to taste)
put in individual serving cups and freeze
take out of freezer 30-40 min before you want to eat it

The first time I made this I used avocado, honey, and lemon. Tasty. Now that Sarah is in the intro phase of GAPS we can't do honey and we are trying to get stock in however we can so I do a bit of lemon and a tiny bit of stock. I have also done plain avocado. Since she was always a big lover of ice cream, I think this fills her desire for a frozen delicacy. She has even started calling it frozen avocado ice cream. You could also make this and eat it without freezing it but then I recommend eating it all at once before it turns brown. The lemon and storing it in the freezer help keep it green.

You can also put small spoonfuls on a plate and then freeze them. We call these dibs. Or put the mixture into a popsicle mold to have avocado popsicles.
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Sarah's Vanilla Pudding

large dollop of raw cashew butter

1 small spoonful of coconut butter

coconut milk, enough to thin the mixture to desired consistency

tiny sploosh of vanilla extract

Stir. Serve.