Sarah’s school speech therapist nearly fell over from delighted shock when Sarah began their session by asking, “How are you, Ms. P?” Sarah started asking this of people maybe a week or two ago and it is wonderful.
I have been appreciating the ease with which Sarah prompts people to say what she wants them to say. If she says, “I missed you Mommy Sincere!” and I say, “I missed you Sarah!” then she might correct me with “I missed you Baby Mouse the Mouse.” She will feed me the words she wants to hear. Perhaps we could learn from her. What if I could just as easily tell someone what I want to hear from them? With no defensiveness or concern that the person wouldn’t want to say whatever I want to hear?
Sarah and Amy have developed a new game. They sit on my bed and fling themselves backward while saying “Squeeeeeak” together. After many rounds of Squeak we usually transition to playing Sequence Cats. Sarah has improved tremendously. Many months ago, she used to need intensive guidance to find the cat to match her card. Amy and I would need to point to it directly. Now Sarah rarely needs any help at all and if she does then we can just point to the general area and she finds her matching cat. Amy is an incredibly patient and attentive team player with this.
We have also been playing Hello Kitty Bingo. When I overheard Sarah playing with her Goodnight Moon game and calling things out as if she was playing Bingo, I suggested to Amy that we could make a Goodnight Moon Bingo game. Amy was on the job immediately. Not only did she create a board, but she helped Sarah create a board. Amy prompted Sarah with what to draw and how to draw it, sometimes guiding her hand-over-hand. She coached Sarah in what items to color and Sarah did an amazing job staying in the lines. I was noticing how much time they spent with this activity yesterday and was thinking how far Sarah has come with her attention span when an activity is to her liking. It is really astounding.
Amy is learning to jump rope. On Friday she was struggling mightily, in part because of a rope that was too short and a “rope" that was plastic instead of a real rope. I found an old rope that was long enough. With a day of practice she went from saying that she was just no good to being quite good and loving it. Despite how often this pattern repeats itself when she attempts a new skill, each new time still feels insurmountably hard for her.
As we approach the one year anniversary of when everything shut down due to covid-19, I’m surprised by how emotional I feel when certain memories surface. Carl was playing songs that Amy’s class sang at her winter concert. Amy’s expression was unlike any I’ve seen from her. She said she didn’t know how to describe what she was feeling. There are so many sense memories attached to when we were with people all together in a semblance of normalcy. Hearing Josh Ritter songs now has me feeling teary because of the concert that was to be my birthday present but never happened. I have listened to his music throughout the year, but now it hits my heart. This is the first year in maybe ever that I feel uncertain as my birthday approaches. Almost not wanting it to come, but also wanting to make sure it feels special. I know we are on the cusp of the world opening up again more, but that still feels frustratingly far away. I’ve been trying to get my vaccine shots since, as an LMT, I am in the 1a category, but I have had no luck. As Carl said, the Rite Aid scheduling system seems to have been designed by Crowley from Good Omens as it repeatedly brings people to the edge of hope and then stymies their progress. I used to feel so patient about the whole thing and now I feel grumpy and frustrated. I don’t mind if I have to wait, but I want to be able to make an appointment even if it is several weeks away. You would think such a request would be possible, but you would be wrong. If I were Sarah I would sing-songily prompt the various scheduling systems, “Oh, here is your appointment."
May you relaxedly ask for what you want and may your jump ropes be real.
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