July 7

This update is for the past two weeks. Two weeks ago we got 30 hours of Sarah-Rise time and this past week we got roughly none. Some interactions certainly had that energy but we were vacationing in Cape Cod with college friends so we didn't do any official time.

Sarah's imaginative play is wonderful. Before our trip she started talking about squeezing under the gate (which is a reference to Peter Rabbit). Carl had the idea of raising one of our baby gates up a couple feet so the girls could squeeze under. They loved it. 

In one of Sarah's baby books there is a series of pictures showing the progression of my pregnant belly. I am standing in front of a door, always in the same clothes and position. On our trip Sarah started standing in front of all bathroom doors at rest stops and saying she was "pretending to be me" (pronouns still need some work).

One of our favorite books of late is Dinosaur vs. the Potty and both girls do wonderful roars. I'm not sure that Sarah yet appreciates the humor of how much she is like the dinosaur that doesn't want to use the potty until the last possible moment.

The drive to and from Cape Cod was long. Sarah is a relatively easy traveler, as she always has been. Amy is, as Carl said, high maintenance. Just before our trip Amy started having tantrums in earnest. Throw yourself on the floor, go boneless when picked up, scream for 30 minutes tantrums. These have continued with at least one or two per day, often when it is time to do a diaper change and/or get in the car. Those were not my favorite parts of the trip. The great parts of the drive happened when both girls would be looking at books in the back and feeding off each other with what phrases they would say (usually Amy was copying Sarah). 

This was our first trip since starting the GAPS diet. I am rather impressed with myself for even attempting it. Overall it went well (I brought my yogurt maker, juicer, and blender on the trip) and I am also glad to be home in my own kitchen, with my own grocery stores, and with Sonia as my helper again starting tomorrow. We did many full or partial day trips so I loaded the cooler with everything Sarah could eat that was easy to premake and transport. She ate a ton of pea crackers and lots of shakes. I think this may have been the first college-friend-reunion trip that I really didn't worry about the quantity she was eating at all. Sarah handled it very well being around many people eating things that she couldn't have. (A special thanks to my friends for accommodating my desire to eat some things, such as pizza, after my girls had gone to bed). 

Every year for the past 6 years we have been getting together with the same group of college friends and it is fun to watch our collective size increase as more babies are born. The newest was just 2 weeks old and Sarah was very interested in her. Sarah was also keen on being near the 10 month old. Overall she was gentle and quite conversational with the parents. M. said that Sarah had many conversations with her with lots of solid eye contact. I. said Sarah seemed overall to be happier than she used to be (snail shorts tantrums excepted).

I felt like Sarah had several times of observing what other kids were doing and wanting to do it too, even if her version was slightly more subdued, such as when a bunch of kids were jumping on a bed.

At a playground with sand as the ground cover, Sarah initiated going over and sitting next to a boy who we didn't know. She didn't interact with him, but she sat across from him and played with filling her shoes with sand. Nearby, the boy's older sister was operating a pretend cake shop. Sarah went over to her and had about 3 minutes of interactive play with very little excited jaw or hand movements. The older girl gave Sarah a sand cake and Sarah pretended to eat it. Then the older girl directed Sarah to put a bucket and shovel on a shelf. Sarah did so. I stood to one side observing amazedly. It is the sort of play that we aim at and achieve in the SR room, but it is novel to have such an interaction with a stranger and to have a mostly calm demeanor, as if the situation was fun but not overwhelming in the level of excitement.

We had several beach trips and Sarah and Carl had lovely times playing in the water, including some moments of trying to swim. Amy, who loves her sandbox and loves baths, often did everything possible to avoid touching the sand and water at the beach. Usually Amy would look like she was doing Mission Impossible moves to stay attached to us, except for one time when the lure of doing ring-around-the-rosey with another child at our reunion was stronger than her fears.

For July 4 we found a place to watch fireworks. Overall the experience was underwhelming and somewhat frustrating, but there were two key moments. One was Carl's mad-dash search with Sarah to find a potty. We have not yet had that experience of a desperate potty search. They made it! The other moment was hearing Amy say "boom-boom" about the fireworks. So adorable.

One day we went to Provincetown, MA and climbed the Pilgrim Monument. This is a very tall tower and Sarah climbed over half-way up by herself and all the way down. It is the most perfect Sarah tower I can imagine, combining stairs, spirals, ramps, railings, and stripes.

I read more of the Anat Baniel book Kids Beyond Limits. What I really loved was how much it aligned with Son-Rise and gives more reasoning behind why our methods work.  She recommends having loose goals, having true enthusiasm and belief in the abilities of our kids, working with where Sarah is now and expanding the edges in tiny ways without trying to force her into achievements she isn't ready for, waiting for her learning switch to be turned on. We do all of these things already and she clearly is learning and thriving.

Some of my favorite Sarah phrases of late:

It's pretty low (re: her milkshake)

my goodness (re: her milkshake, using my expression for when she drinks it all quickly)

went too far (said while giggling so much she can barely get the words out)

It's pretty peppery.