Progress

Ayana's language skills are slowly emerging. She still only says a very very small handful of words, and up until yesterday did not put any words together, not even signs. We were having dinner and she was having a cracker with cream cheese on it. Now her word for "cracker" is like, "Ca-ca", and for ages now she has been using the sign "please" as "more" with the audible word "more", sounds like "mo". So whenever she wants more of something I always put the words together for her, "More cracker?" , to which she usually giggles and gets excited because I understand what she wants. So last night Ellie and I were both saying, "More cracker?" to her. I gave her another cracker. While I was finishing cooking, I happened to glance up as Ayana was looking like she was concentrating very hard and she very carefully said, "Mo ca-ca." With the sign for please! We got SO EXCITED!! I mean this is HUGE!!! And then when Ellie was at piano I had to get a few groceries, and Ayana was in the cart as usual, I picked up her homo milk and was putting it in the cart when she said, "Ni-ni." Which means night-night, and I said, "YES! That's right! That is your milk for when you go night night!!" (she only gets milk in her bottle for bedtimes). When I was picking up a few jars of toddler baby food she saw them and made the sign for food! I could not believe what I was seeing! Suddenly she was noticing for the first time stuff around her and realizing there were words she could communicate to me to tell me what they were! She has always recognized "na-na's" in the store, but this was huge. Dropping her morning nap was important in two ways, one: she gets a better nights sleep, and two: it gives her a few more hours to learn! Anyway, it's very exciting.

Today is blissfully cool. I absolutely love it. I can't wait to start using my fireplace everyday again.

Yesterday I spent the afternoon reading "Edgar Sawtelle" and I still am loving this book. And when I was reading it our dog Sara was laying on the carpet in front of me snoozing away, and it just made me want to lay on the floor and hug her to pieces!

Have a wonderful day!