June 3

When I last wrote I was feeling uncertain about how the holiday weekend would continue. It was fine. It was even good. I let the girls play in the basement a lot. That is where we store toys that aren’t upstairs so it is kind of like going to a toy store. Except in a toy store they don’t open toys and spread the contents ALL over the floor. Amy played a lot with neighborhood kids. On Sunday we watched a movie, had dinner outside, and I made homemade oreos. They don’t taste anything like oreos, but they are delicious. Monday we did hair-trims at Supercuts, Starbucks, the pool at my office, Aladdin’s for lunch, Rita’s, face-time with Mom-Mom, extra tv shows, and more time with friends. So it felt like a great weekend overall.

One of the items in the basement is a set of math problem jigsaw puzzles, where the answer has to actually fit the problem. I put it in the pile of things to donate because I thought Amy was beyond it and Sarah wasn’t ever that interested. Later, I discovered that Sarah had done several puzzles of her own initiative! Correctly! So I will be keeping the puzzles for a while longer.

Somehow the girls created a game where Amy verbally gives Sarah a simple math problem like “7+1” and then Sarah responds with the purposefully wrong answer. Then they laugh and laugh. Amy added making a “eeeh” sound to indicate a wrong answer. Sarah loves this even more. What I especially love about the game, beyond just their bonding together so joyfully, is that it has Sarah having so much fun with math. Math is the hardest subject for Sarah and even just counting objects correctly is a challenge. I imagine this could feel stressful to her sometimes so I love that there is a way for her to laugh and play. Plus, she still has to think about the answer a little because sometimes she almost answers correctly and then has to stop herself.

While Carl was away, Sarah slept next to me all night every night. “Slept” is perhaps a stretch. She always wakes up a few times in a night, but she was waking up all the time. With a snort and a start and a sitting up. Then she would go right back to sleep and I would stay awake listening for signs of sleep apnea. Now that Carl is back, Sarah’s sleep is back to normal. This isn’t great, because she still comes in to see us a handful of times, but it is much better overall. 

Yesterday Amy attended a party at a climbing wall. She had a great time. I realized later that the picture I love the most has her sticking her tongue out in concentration. 

This morning I was feeling sad and Sarah sat down in front of me, looking at me and singing a song from Daniel Tiger about when you feel sad and then you feel better. It was very sweet. It did help me feel better.