January 31: 14 Years!

Fourteen years ago a tiny Sincere Musical Note Baby Mouse The Mouse also known as Sarah was born. Little did we know through what journey we were about to embark. We worked hard, especially Sarah, for each milestone. She crawled at 18 months and walked at 3 years. Now she is learning to swim. At age 4 1/2 she barely had any spoken language and I began running a Son-Rise Program, aka Sarah-Rise for her. Her language exploded and now we enjoy hearing her dulcet tones loudly reciting Goodnight Moon at 5:15am. For most of her youngest years we struggled mightily against a diagnosis of Failure To Thrive, working for each calorie ingested as we successfully strove to avoid a feeding tube. Now she fixes her own snacks and likes food. I used to wonder if she would ever have peer friends and I see the possibilities continuing to develop as she eagerly anticipates Google-Meets with her classmates. Sometimes they are so silly together that the teacher has trouble reining them in and I think that is wonderful. We have had and continue to have the most astoundingly amazingly wonderful people in our lives that we would never have met if it weren’t for Sarah. It’s been quite a ride. 

We have already been celebrating for the past couple of days with zooms and cake and musical notes. Amy came to breakfast this morning as a Musical Note Witch, wearing a black and white striped dress to which she added paper notes and her usual witch hat was adorned with notes. Sarah has delighted in the musical note wall decals, I Heart Music shirt with the letters formed out of notes, the musical note clock, and the Goodnight Moon game that she received from various family members. For the zoom with Carl’s family, he arranged it so everyone had a Goodnight Moon background. Sarah’s surprised delight when she connected to the zoom was so expansive it seemed she was one big smile. 

The kids helped make cupcakes and cake from one of our favorite recipes, but we learned that not all cacao powder is equal. Some is extra dark in color and flavor and so our baked goods are amazingly delicious dark chocolate. I ordered musical note toppers, which turned out to be basically inedible but they still look good. Sarah is delighted by her musical note plates, napkins, balloons, and happy birthday banner, along with her musical note hat that Grandma made to match her outfit. Now Sarah can truly be covered head to toe in musical notes. Sometimes Sarah strays from her musical notes shorts or pajama bottoms to wearing plaid shorts, but that is only when she is watching Mr. Greg Reads and wants to match his outfits. She also gets her own copy of the books so she can help him read.

A few days ago for Potions class we made a cake from one of Amy’s witch books. It was delicious and the kids decorated it entirely independently. They were generous with the blue food coloring and we all had blue tongues. It is exciting how much more independent they are getting in the kitchen when I can manage to loosen my desire for control. In the case of the cake decorating I was out of the house so that made it easy to let go.

Sarah came with me earlier in the week to pick up supplies at her school. Her teacher brought the other students down to wave through the glass door and Sarah’s teacher from a few years ago also came to wave. Sarah received a pack of cards that the students made, many of which are decorated with musical notes and cats. The principal called out a hello from his office. I felt teary with the kindness and celebration of Sarah.

We are surrounded by such love and I feel quite blessed.

Sending lots of love to all of you.