Waiting and Waving

Ash is sooooo ready to go. She has been waiting and waving bye bye all day long as I have run from room to room packing bags, uniforms, and equipment. She knows its Friday and that means she gets to get out of the house and go. Other than the occasional walk to the park and trip to the doctor's office she doesn't get to go anywhere except on Fridays. Fridays are the days we load it all up and head out to watch the Tarheels go to bat. She is so excited.

She really makes me laugh. This child communicates so well even though she doesn't speak. She can tell me exactly what she wants and how she wants to get it. She has been learning so much lately and our hearts are encouraged as she learns to sign more and more words. Her newest behavior this week is a lot encouraging and a little discouraging. She wants up. Problem is she doesn't know how to get up. When she is ready to sit up she grunts, reaches, curls, rolls, and does everything but push(which is exactly what it is going to take) to try and go from lying down to sitting up on her own. So when she has tried and is unsuccessful she has begun banging her head against the floor. Not good. I mean, its good that she wants to get up. The first thing it takes is having the desire to do it. The bad thing is that its a very unpleasant behavior and not that safe.

Yesterday I walked into the room and caught her scooting again. It was only the second time she had really done it. Since sharing it with you a few weeks ago we have tried everything to get her to go again and she refused. I was so excited to see her doing it again I began clapping for her. Now she thinks all she has to do is lean forward on her hands, bounce a few times and then sit up and start the applause for herself. She is so ornery! She is going to do things when she wants to do them and how she wants to do them and thats the way its going to be.

She is eating a few bites of baby food each day. Nothing huge and not enough to supplement any calories, but at least she's trying again. We are encouraged by that. She loves to drink water from a big girl cup and has started dipping two fingers into her cup and sucking the water off of them. Not a pleasant behavior, but a very funny one. Its like she has to test it out before she takes a drink. She had her daddy laughing pretty hard this afternoon.

There are days when I just don't know what we are going to do with this silly pickle, and then there are days when my heart is so touched just to see who she is and all that she does accomplish. She's going to get there (whatever "there" is supposed to be) its just gonna be on her terms. Its been a long, emotional week. Full of ups and downs and frightening labs, but all in all she made it through another one and we were blessed to be able to stay here in Texas. For that and many, many other things we are grateful.

Well, its time to load 'em up. Were off to Louisiana this weekend. Hope you enjoy your time with your families. I know I'm going to enjoy mine. Talk to you soon. Trish